The Prytz Family

April Fools

2010-04-01T08:18:00.000-07:00

This is a great April Fool's Day post:

http://makeitandloveit.blogspot.com/2010/04/easter-pots.html

Just a reminder:

2010-03-28T08:51:00.001-07:00

If you're lookin' for Bob and I, we've moved, here. Just move your bookmark and reader, over there.

Autumn 4

2009-10-03T20:09:00.000-07:00

Autumn 3

2009-10-03T20:08:00.000-07:00

Moved

2009-05-03T09:55:00.000-07:00

If you're lookin' for Bob and I, we've moved, here. Just move your bookmark and reader, over there.

George Washington

2009-04-30T08:07:00.000-07:00

It was on this day in 1789 that George Washington took office as the first president of the United States. Two weeks earlier, he had begun his journey from his home in Mount Vernon to New York City, where the inauguration would take place. He wrote in his journal on April 16th:

About 10 o'clock I bade adieu to Mount Vernon, to private life, and to domestic felicity, and with a mind oppressed with more anxious and painful sensations than I have words to express, set out for New York in company with Mr. Thompson, and Colonel Humphries, with the best dispositions to render service to my country in obedience to its call, but with less hope of answering its expectations.

It took him seven days to travel the 300-mile route to New York City, then the nation's capital. He passed through crowds of cheering well-wishers along the way, following a path that went through Alexandria, Baltimore, Philadelphia, Trenton, Princeton, and New Brunswick. When he reached Bridgetown, New Jersey, there was waiting for him a large barge built just for the occasion and manned by 13 pilots all dressed in white. A Spanish vessel anchored in the harbor fired 13 guns as a salute and displayed the flags of nations all over the world.

It took the House and the Senate a few more days to work out the details of the inauguration, including how to address the president. Vice President John Adams thought it should be, "His Highness, the President of the United States and Protector of their Liberties." Others thought "His Serene Highness" or "His Excellency" or "Mr. Washington" were better choices. The ad hoc Congressional Committee finally decided on "The President of the United States."

The Oath of Office took place at Federal Hall on the corner of Wall Street and Nassau Street, on a balcony outside so that many people could witness it. Washington wore a dark brown suit, white silk stockings, shoes with silver buckles, and a sword. New York Chancellor Robert Livingston administered the Oath: "I do solemnly swear that I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States, and will, to the best of my ability, preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States."

Washington appended the words "so help me God" to the Oath and then kissed the open Bible, which had been missing moments before the ceremony, and when found for the oath had been hastily opened to a random page, which turned out to be Genesis 49. In his inaugural address, Washington asked for the divine blessing of the "benign Parent of the Human Race" on the new government.

Moving

2009-04-30T07:28:00.000-07:00

Earlier this month this blog was "hijacked", until it was recovered , and switched to a blogspot.com address, I started a new blog, PrytzFamily and I transfered a month's worth of post - over there. This blog has been open for a year and half, my "look" had gotten stale. By being forced into a now spot, I started at the beginning, and I like PrytzFamily, better! I'm moving over there permanently. At the end of April this blog will stop publishing, so please bookmark my new address.

Poems about George Washington

2009-04-30T01:52:00.000-07:00

A Wish for February
Donovan Marshall

The Father of His Country
Was once a lad like me.
He played and wrestled on the green
And swung from leafy tree.
But when his country called him
He put aside his play.
I hope that I, like Washington,
May serve my land some day!

George Washington
Winifred C. Marshall

I wonder if George Washington
Was very fond of books,

And if he like to hunt and fish,
And wade in little brooks.

I wonder if his pocket bulged
Like mine with precious things,

With marbles, cookies, tops, and balls,
And nails, and glass, and strings.

I wonder if he whistled tunes
While mending broken toys -

My father says George Washington
Was much like other boys.

George Washington
Meish Goldish

George Washington,
You're number one!
George Washington,
You're number one to me!

Leader of the army,
An able genreal, George.
Strongly and bravely,
You led at Valley Forge!

Father of our country,
Our first President.
Proudly and wisely,
You led the government!

We celebrate your birthday,
Our capital has your name.
Your picture's on a dollar bill,
So all will know your fame!

You never told a lie, Goerge,
You were brave and smart.
First in honor, first in peace,
First in our heart!

How Washington Dressed
Gertrude M. Robinson

When Washington was president,
He wore the queerest clothes;
His shoes had silver buckles on -
Now, why, do you suppose?

His suit was made of velvet cloth
With buckles at the knee;
He wore lace ruffles on his coat
When he went out to tea.

His hair was tied with ribbons, too,
And braided like a girl's.
How could he be a president,
And wear his hair in curls?

A Nation's Hero
Winifred C. Marshall

The flags fly, the bands play;
Give him the honor due
To one who served his country well,
A leader brave and true.

First in defense and first in peace;
In our hearts, as of yore,
He holds first place, George Washington,
Our hero, evermore.

Letter Home

2009-04-29T01:25:00.000-07:00

Letter Home by Ellen Steinbaum,

from Container Gardening.

I love you forever

my father's letter tells her

for forty-nine pages,

from the troopship crossing the Atlantic

before they'd ever heard of Anzio.

He misses her, the letter says,

counting out days of boredom, seasickness,

and changing weather,

poker games played for matches

when cash and cigarettes ran out,

a Red Cross package—soap,

cards, a mystery book he traded away

for The Rubaiyyat a bunkmate didn't want.

He stood night watch and thought

of her. Don't forget the payment

for insurance, he says.

My mother waits at home with me,

waits for the letter he writes day by day

moving farther across the ravenous ocean.

She will get it in three months and

her fingers will smooth the Army stationery

to suede.

He will come home, stand

beside her in the photograph, leaning

on crutches, holding

me against the rough wool

of his jacket. He will sit

alone and listen to Aïda

and they will pick up their

interrupted lives. Years later,

she will show her grandchildren

a yellow envelope with

forty-nine wilted pages telling her

of shimmering sequins on the water,

the moonlight catching sudden phosphorescence,

the churned wake that stretched a silver trail.

Do you have a poem you love, and want to share? Inaugurated by the Academy in April 1996, National Poetry Month (NPM) brings together publishers, booksellers, literary organizations, libraries, schools, and poets around the country to celebrate poetry and its vital place in American culture. Thousands of businesses and non-profit organizations participate through.

images from google images

Everything We Do

2009-04-28T01:41:00.000-07:00

Everything We Do by Peter Meinke,
from Liquid Paper: New and Selected Poems.

Everything we do is for our first loves
whom we have lost irrevocably
who have married insurance salesmen
and moved to Topeka
and never think of us at all.

We fly planes & design buildings
and write poems
that all say Sally I love you
I'll never love anyone else
Why didn't you know I was going to be a poet?

The walks to school, the kisses in the snow
gather as we dream backwards, sweetness with age:
our legs are young again, our voices
strong and happy, we're not afraid.
We don't know enough to be afraid.

And now
we hold (hidden, hopeless) the hope
that some day
she may fly in our plane
enter our building
read our poem

And that night, deep in her dream,
Sally, far in darkness, in Topeka,
with the salesman lying beside her,
will cry out
our unfamiliar name.

Looking Back in My Eighty-first Year

2009-04-26T01:28:00.000-07:00

Looking Back in My Eighty-first Year, by Maxine Kumin,
from Still to Mow.

How did we get to be old ladies—
my grandmother's job-when we
were the long-leggèd girls?
—Hilma Wolitzer

Instead of marrying the day after graduation,
in spite of freezing on my father's arm as
here comes the bride struck up,
saying, I'm not sure I want to do this,

I should have taken that fellowship
to the University of Grenoble to examine
the original manuscript
of Stendahl's unfinished Lucien Leuwen,

I, who had never been west of the Mississippi,
should have crossed the ocean
in third class on the Cunard White Star,
the war just over, the Second World War

when Kilroy was here, that innocent graffito,
two eyes and a nose draped over
a fence line. How could I go?
Passion had locked us together.

Sixty years my lover,
he says he would have waited.
He says he would have sat
where the steamship docked

till the last of the pursers
decamped, and I rushed back
littering the runway with carbon paper...
Why didn't I go? It was fated.

Marriage dizzied us. Hand over hand,
flesh against flesh for the final haul,
we tugged our lifeline through limestone and sand,
lover and long-leggèd girl.

Do you have a poem you love, and want to share? Inaugurated by the Academy in April 1996, National Poetry Month (NPM) brings together publishers, booksellers, literary organizations, libraries, schools, and poets around the country to celebrate poetry and its vital place in American culture. Thousands of businesses and non-profit organizations participate through.

Image from Google Images, I love both these photos and couldn't decide.

After Our Daughter's Wedding

2009-04-25T03:28:00.000-07:00

After Our Daughter's Wedding by Ellen Bass
from Mules of Love

While the remnants of cake
and half-empty champagne glasses
lay on the lawn like sunbathers lingering
in the slanting light, we left the house guests
and drove to Antonelli's pond.
On a log by the bank I sat in my flowered dress and cried.
A lone fisherman drifted by, casting his ribbon of light.
"Do you feel like you've given her away?" you asked.
But no, it was that she made it
to here, that she didn't
drown in a well or die
of pneumonia or take the pills.
She wasn't crushed
under the mammoth wheels of a semi
on highway 17, wasn't found
lying in the alley
that night after rehearsal
when I got the time wrong.
It's animal. The egg
not eaten by a weasel. Turtles
crossing the beach, exposed
in the moonlight. And we
have so few to start with.
And that long gestation—
like carrying your soul out in front of you.
All those years of feeding
and watching. The vulnerable hollow
at the back of the neck. Never knowing
what could pick them off—a seagull
swooping down for a clam.
Our most basic imperative:
for them to survive.
And there's never been a moment
we could count on it.

Today is Carrie's and Ole's anniversary. After their wedding, Bob and I had such a let down, after all the months of hub-bub of wedding preparations. We were very lucky for several reasons, one was Carrie's choice of a husband; another was that Carrie did most of the "work" involved in the planning of "her day". I was her back-up and Bob wrote the checks.

National Poetry Month (NPM) brings together publishers, booksellers, literary organizations, libraries, schools, and poets around the country to celebrate poetry and its vital place in American culture. Thousands of businesses and non-profit organizations participate through.

Hardware

2009-04-24T01:56:00.000-07:00

Hardware by Ronald Wallace

from Time's Fancy.

My father always knew the secret

name of everything—

stove bolt and wing nut,

set screw and rasp, ratchet

wrench, band saw, and ball—

peen hammer. He was my

tour guide and translator

through that foreign country

with its short-tempered natives

in their crewcuts and tattoos,

who suffered my incompetence

with gruffness and disgust.

Pay attention, he would say,

and you'll learn a thing or two.

Now it's forty years later,

and I'm packing up his tools

(If you know the proper

names of things you're never

at a loss) tongue-tied, incompetent,

my hands and heart full

of doohickeys and widgets,

whatchamacallits, thingamabobs.

I'll Be Seeing You

2009-04-23T01:54:00.000-07:00

I'll Be Seeing You by Jo McDougall

World War II is slipping away, I can feel it.
Its officers are gray.
Their wives who danced at the USO
are gray, too.

Veterans forget their stories. Some lands they fought in
have new names, and Linda Venetti
who deserted the husband who raised cows
to run off with an officer
has come home to look after her mother
and work the McDonald's morning shift.

William Holden is dead,
and my mother, who knew all the words
to "When the Lights Go On Again All over the World."

The Door

2009-04-22T02:47:00.000-07:00

The Door, by Charles Simic

Step up to the door.

Softly, softly

As if approaching

A house of cards.

Bare feet allowed.

Dogs allowed.

The sun and the moon and the evening

Wind allowed.

In the shadow of this door

You'll play in the smallest theaters

With a bit of dark gravel

And a solitary white bread crumb.

The door that thinks

With your eyes

Thinks and thinks

Even while you're away.

If you can find a doorstep,

Carry your bride over it

And leave your shoes behind

Alone with the night falling.

If you can see a keyhole in this door,

Put your ear against it

And listen to the sounds of love

On the other side.

Don't try to open the door.

The child you were once

Will come out with eyes blindfolded

And lose itself in the crowd.

The door opens by itself

While you sleep.

All keys you ever lost,

All rusty keys

Lie behind it unused.

The door opens by itself.

image from my files

Book Review

2009-04-21T01:21:00.000-07:00

I usually do book reviews at Loves Book N Tea, but I wanted to tell more people about this fabulous book. When you read Outcast United, not only will your learn about the terrific kids that make up the Fugees, and their dedicated coach, you get a lesson in global politics. Here's a synopsis:

Set against the backdrop of an American town that without its consent had become a vast social experiment, Outcasts United follows a pivotal season in the life of the Fugees and their charismatic coach. Warren St. John documents the lives of a diverse group of young people as they miraculously coalesce into a band of brothers, while also drawing a fascinating portrait of a fading American town struggling to accommodate its new arrivals. At the center of the story is fiery Coach Luma, who relentlessly drives her players to success on the soccer field while holding together their lives—and the lives of their families—in the face of a series of daunting challenges.

This fast-paced chronicle of a single season is a complex and inspiring tale of a small town becoming a global community—and an account of the ingenious and complicated ways we create a home in a changing world.

Read it, you'll be glad you did.

The Loon by James Tate

2009-04-20T01:20:00.000-07:00

I hope when you read this, you pause and say hmmm!

"The Loon" by James Tate
from Return to the City of White Donkeys.

A loon woke me this morning. It was like waking up
in another world. I had no idea what was expected of me.
I waited for instructions. Someone called and asked me
if I wanted a free trip to Florida. I said, "Sure. Can
I go today?" A man in a uniform picked me up in a limousine,
and the next thing I know I'm being chased by an alligator
across a parking lot. A crowd gathers and cheers me on.
Of course, none of this really happened. I'm still sleeping.
I don't want to go to work. I want to know what the loon is
saying. It sounds like ecstasy tinged with unfathomable
terror. One thing is certain: at least they are not speaking
of tax shelters. The phone rings. It's my boss. She says,
"Where are you?" I say, "I don't know. I don't recognize
my surroundings. I think I've been kidnapped. If they make
demands of you, don't give in. That's my professional advice."
Just then, the loon let out a tremendous looping, soaring,
swirling, quadruple whoop. "My god, are you alright?" my
boss said. "In case we do not meet again, I want you to know
that I've always loved you, Agnes," I said. "What?" she said.
"What are you saying?" "Good-bye, my darling. Try to remember me
as your ever loyal servant," I said. "Did you say you loved
me?" she said. I said, "Yes," and hung up. I tried
to go back to sleep, but the idea of being kidnapped had me
quite worked up. I looked in the mirror for signs of torture.
Every time the loon cried, I screamed and contorted my face
in agony. They were going to cut off my head and place it on
a stake. I overheard them talking. They seemed like very
reasonable men, even, one might say, likeable.

Do you have a poem you love, and want to share? Inaugurated by the Academy in April 1996, National Poetry Month (NPM) brings together publishers, booksellers, literary organizations, libraries, schools, and poets around the country to celebrate poetry and its vital place in American culture. Thousands of businesses and non-profit organizations participate through.

"Poem on a Line by Anne Sexton, 'We are All Writing God's Poem'"

2009-04-19T01:08:00.000-07:00

"Poem on a Line by Anne Sexton, 'We are All Writing God's Poem'"
by Barbara Crooker, from Line Dance

Today, the sky's the soft blue of a work shirt washed
a thousand times. The journey of a thousand miles
begins with a single step. On the interstate listening
to NPR, I heard a Hubble scientist
say, "The universe is not only stranger than we
think, it's stranger than we can think." I think
I've driven into spring, as the woods revive
with a loud shout, redbud trees, their gaudy
scarves flung over bark's bare limbs. Barely doing
sixty, I pass a tractor trailer called Glory Bound,
and aren't we just? Just yesterday,
I read Li Po: "There is no end of things
in the heart," but it seems like things
are always ending—vacation or childhood,
relationships, stores going out of business,
like the one that sold jeans that really fit—
And where do we fit in? How can we get up
in the morning, knowing what we do? But we do,
put one foot after the other, open the window,
make coffee, watch the steam curl up
and disappear. At night, the scent of phlox curls
in the open window, while the sky turns red violet,
lavender, thistle, a box of spilled crayons.
The moon spills its milk on the black tabletop
for the thousandth time.

Middle-Aged Men, Leaning

2009-04-18T02:43:00.000-07:00

Middle-Aged Men, Leaning by Bruce Taylor

They lean on rakes.
It's late, it is evening
already inside their houses.

The children are gone.
Their wives are on the phone
talking softly to someone else.

This frost, this early Fall
upon their minds, a small
measure of patience and regard

as if the twilight world
in bright papery pieces
diminished so and thus.

~
They lean on hoes
in Spring the green earth
turned once more beneath them

their eyes full of flowers
their hands full too
of the planting still to do

the weeds and drought awaiting
their pocketful of seed
the water they must carry.

~
In an early winter dark they lean
on shovels, a graying heart
a last bad rap inside them,

looking upward toward the sky
the yard, the driveway, the car
the street, the world

itself for all they know
buried by the falling snow
even as they gasp to breathe

and re-breathe the visible breath,
like a burst cartoon balloon
of an old imperfect prayer.

~
In summer, after long mowing,
they lean toward a growing
silence in the plush grasses

in leaves of many greens
in trees of their own colors
where grackle and crow

each to its own shadow
in the dusky reach of branches
gather quietly to stay.

in the dusky reach of branches
gather quietly to stay.

The Man Next Door Is Teaching His Dog to Drive

2009-04-17T01:04:00.000-07:00

The Man Next Door Is Teaching His Dog to Drive
by Cathryn Essinger from My Dog Does Not Read Plato.

It all began when he came out one morning
and found the dog waiting for him behind the wheel.
He thought she looked pretty good sitting there,

so he started taking her into town with him
just so she could get a feel for the road.
They have made a few turns through the field,

him sitting beside her, his foot on the accelerator,
her muzzle on the wheel. Now they are practicing
going up and down the lane with him whispering

encouragement in her silky ear. She is a handsome
dog with long ears and a speckled muzzle and he
is a good teacher. Now my wife, Millie, he says,

she was always too timid on the road, but don't you
be afraid to let people know that you are there.
The dog seems to be thinking about this seriously.

Braking, however, is still a problem, but he is building
a mouthpiece which he hopes to attach to the steering
column, and when he upgrades to one of those new

Sports Utility Vehicles with the remote ignition device,
he will have solved the key and the lock problem.
Although he has not yet let her drive into town,

he thinks she will be ready sometime next month,
and when his eyes get bad and her hip dysplasia
gets worse, he thinks this will come in real handy.

Do you have a poem you love, and want to share?

Inaugurated by the Academy in April 1996, National Poetry Month (NPM) brings together publishers, booksellers, literary organizations, libraries, schools, and poets around the country to celebrate poetry and its vital place in American culture. Thousands of businesses and non-profit organizations participate through readings, festivals, book displays, workshops, and other events.

Unfortunate Coincidence

2009-04-16T02:38:00.000-07:00

Unfortunate Coincidence by Dorothy Parker
From Enough Rope

By the time you swear you're his,
Shivering and sighing,
And he vows his passion is
Infinite, undying,
Lady, make a note of this —
One of you is lying.

First printed in Life, (8 April 1926) p. 11

Winter Song

2009-04-15T01:46:00.000-07:00

Winter Song by Aaron Kramer,
from Wicked Times.

Under a willow
close by a brook
her lap for a pillow
her eyes for a book

she like a drummer
practiced her art
all spring and all summer—
the drum was my heart.

Hear how the willow sighs to the sun:
It is over and done with, over and done!
Hear the cold brook, that can hardly run:
It is over and done with, over and done!

Under what maple
close by what lake
will she lie next April?
Whose heart will she break?

Photo edited from vial3tt3r

Happy Birthday, Brett

2009-04-14T05:41:00.000-07:00

Eating Together

2009-04-14T01:01:00.000-07:00

Eating Together by Kim Addonizio
from What Is This Thing Called Love.

I know my friend is going,
though she still sits there
across from me in the restaurant,
and leans over the table to dip
her bread in the oil on my plate; I know
how thick her hair used to be,
and what it takes for her to discard
her man's cap partway through our meal,
to look straight at the young waiter
and smile when he asks
how we are liking it. She eats
as though starving—chicken, dolmata,
the buttery flakes of filo—
and what's killing her
eats, too. I watch her lift
a glistening black olive and peel
the meat from the pit, watch
her fine long fingers, and her face,
puffy from medication. She lowers
her eyes to the food, pretending
not to know what I know. She's going.
And we go on eating.

Do you have a poem you love, and want to share?

Inaugurated by the Academy in April 1996, National Poetry Month (NPM) brings together publishers, booksellers, literary organizations, libraries, schools, and poets around the country to celebrate poetry and its vital place in American culture. Thousands of businesses and non-profit organizations participate through readings, festivals, book displays, workshops, and other events.

Poem or Advice?

2009-04-13T02:34:00.000-07:00

A Word to Husbands

To keep your marriage brimming,
With love in the loving cup,
Whenever you’re wrong admit it;
Whenever you’re right shut up.

~Ogden Nash

Great Depression Story

2009-04-12T01:26:00.000-07:00

Great Depression Story by Claudia Emerson
from Figure Studies

Sometimes the season changed in the telling,
sometimes the state, but it was always during

the Depression, and he was alone in the boxcar,
the train stalled beneath a sky wider

than any he'd seen so far, the fields of grass
wider than the sky. He'd been curious

to see if things were as bad somewhere else
as they were at home. They were—and worse,

he said, places with no trees, no water.
He hadn't eaten all day, all week, his hunger

hard-fixed, doubled, gleaming as the rails. A lone
house broke the sharp horizon, the train dreaming

beneath him, so he climbed down, walked out,
the grass parting at his knees. The windows

were open, curtainless, and the screendoor,
unlatched, moved to open, too, when he knocked.

He could see in all the way through to the kitchen—
and he smelled before he saw the lidded

pot on the stove, the steam escaping. Her clothes
moved on the line for all reply, the sheets,

a slip, one dress, washed thin, worn to translucence;
through it he could see what he mistook for fields

of roses until a crow flew in with the wind—
sudden, fleeting seam. By the time he got back to the train,

he'd guessed already what he'd taken—pot
and all—a hen, an old one that had quit

laying, he was sure or she wouldn't have killed it.
The train began to move then, her house falling

away from him. The story ended with the meat
not quite done, but, believe him, he ate it

all, white and dark, back, breast, legs, and thighs,
strewing the still-warm bones behind him for miles.

The Well Bread Dog

2009-04-11T01:32:00.000-07:00

I love this poem, for the surprise at the end. What do you think?

The Well Bread Dog by John Hegley

One evening John came home from work
went into the kitchen to make himself a nice cup of tea
and on the kitchen table, in a plastic bag,
he discovered a large sliced loaf
with one of the crusts missing

Actually it was a very large sliced loaf,
about the size of a rabbit hutch,
and John, who lived very much alone,
knew that he hadn't put it there and wondered who had.

Just then there was a rap-a-tap-tap at the front door.
It was John's new next-door-neighbour.

"Excuse me barging in", she said,
"but you haven't seen my dog have you?".

"What does it look like?", inquired John concernedly.

"Like a large sliced loaf", replied the neighbour.

"With one of the crusts missing?", asked John.

"Yes", replied the neighbour, "she had a fight".

John smiled, went out into the kitchen,
and returned with the mysterious loaf.

"Is this her by any chance?" he asked.

And the neighbour said,
"No".

Do you have a poem you love, and want to share?

Inaugurated by the Academy in April 1996, National Poetry Month (NPM) brings together publishers, booksellers, literary organizations, libraries, schools, and poets around the country to celebrate poetry and its vital place in American culture. Thousands of businesses and non-profit organizations participate through.

The Fall

2009-04-10T02:19:00.000-07:00

The Fall by George Bilgere

Although there were no witnesses
In the hallway outside the women's room
Of the Hotel Coronado,
When my aunt stumbled
And fell to her knees on the ancient marble

It must have been like the swordsman
Falling in The Seven Samurai,
A whole dynasty collapsing,
Falling out of its bones

Into the mud. I was reading
The sports section in the lobby
When a boy, probably sixteen or so,
Ran in and called my name.

An old woman has fallen, he said,
Frightened that something
So enormous could happen, that fate
Should cast him as an emissary
Announcing dynastic collapse
Instead of just a high school kid,

And I stood up and ran to her
Although I'm fifty-six now, and breaking
Into a spontaneous run feels like
Trying out a language you'd lost
As a kid who'd swapped countries.

And there she sat, lean and elegant,
Like an athlete who'd collapsed
From sheer exhaustion, her legs
Drawn up to her chin as she fought
To lift the whole city again,

The crumbling Coronado,
Where Miles Davis used to jam,
And the Continental, where the Gershwins
Hung out at the Tack Room,
And the abandoned Fox Theater
Where she saw Olivier's Hamlet

And even the boarded up
Forest Park Boat house, where her father
Used to take her for ice cream
In the sweltering St. Louis summers.

An old woman has fallen.

Do you have a poem you love, and want to share? Inaugurated by the Academy in April 1996, National Poetry Month (NPM) brings together publishers, booksellers, literary organizations, libraries, schools, and poets around the country to celebrate poetry and its vital place in American culture. Thousands of businesses and non-profit organizations participate through.

Photo from Google Images

Happy Birthday Erin

2009-04-09T04:42:00.000-07:00

Piano

2009-04-09T02:23:00.000-07:00

Piano by Patrick Phillips,
from Boy

Touched by your goodness, I am like
that grand piano we found one night on Willoughby
that someone had smashed and somehow
heaved through an open window.

And you might think by this I mean I'm broken
or abandoned, or unloved. Truth is, I don't
know exactly what I am, any more
than the wreckage in the alley knows
it's a piano, filling with trash and yellow leaves.

Maybe I'm all that's left of what I was.
But touching me, I know, you are the good
breeze blowing across its rusted strings.

What would you call that feeling when the wood,
even with its cracked harp, starts to sing?

Do you have a poem you love, and want to share?

Inaugurated by the Academy in April 1996, National Poetry Month (NPM) brings together publishers, booksellers, literary organizations, libraries, schools, and poets around the country to celebrate poetry and its vital place in American culture. Thousands of businesses and non-profit organizations participate through readings, festivals, book displays, workshops, and other events.

Image from google images

Earl

2009-04-08T01:36:00.000-07:00

Earl by Louis Jenkins,

from North of the Cities

In Sitka, because they are fond of them,
People have named the seals. Every seal
is named Earl because they are killed one
after another by the orca, the killer
whale; seal bodies tossed left and right
into the air. "At least he didn't get
Earl," someone says. And sure enough,
after a time, that same friendly,
bewhiskered face bobs to the surface.
It's Earl again. Well, how else are you
to live except by denial, by some
palatable fiction, some little song to
sing while the inevitable, the black and
white blindsiding fact, comes hurtling
toward you out of the deep?

Do you have a poem you love, and want to share?

Inaugurated by the Academy in April 1996, National Poetry Month (NPM) brings together publishers, booksellers, literary organizations, libraries, schools, and poets around the country to celebrate poetry and its vital place in American culture. Thousands of businesses and non-profit organizations participate through readings, festivals, book displays, workshops, and other events.

Locomotion

2009-04-07T01:26:00.000-07:00

Locomotion by Philip Bryant,
from Sermon On A Perfect Spring Day

I heard the
locomotion behind
the album by Monk my father
was playing.
The finely tuned
machine humming like
a top, purring like a kitten.

The first time I
saw the Santa Fe "Super Chief"
at Union Station in Chicago,
gleaming as a silver bullet
carrying the blue uniformed
conductor who gave a low whistle
and "All Aboard" for places as far away as Kansas,
Laredo, Tucson, Las Vegas, Palm Springs.

At that point
I knew it all had
something to do with jazz music.
The slow hiss of
the engine, the steam
let out by the jowls of the locomotive,
and the massive, muscular wheels turning
slowly counterclockwise to the engine's beat

Come on Baby Do the Locomotion
Come on Baby Do the Locomotion With Me

heading out onto the open tracks,
that smoke-blown phrase repeated
over and over in my head through the years,
as miles of the real American landscape
began, slowly, to unfold.

Do you have a poem you love, and want to share?

Inaugurated by the Academy in April 1996, National Poetry Month (NPM) brings together publishers, booksellers, literary organizations, libraries, schools, and poets around the country to celebrate poetry and its vital place in American culture. Thousands of businesses and non-profit organizations participate through readings, festivals, book displays, workshops, and other events.

Image from Google images

Fair Warning

2009-04-06T01:18:00.000-07:00

Fair Warning by Alden Nowlan

I keep a lunatic chained
to a beam in the attic. He
is my twin brother whom
I'm trying to cheat
out of his inheritance.
It's all right for me
to tell you this because
you won't believe it.
Nobody believes anything
that's put in a poem.
I could confess to
murder and as long as
I did it in a verse
there's not a court
that would convict me.
So if you're ever
a guest overnight
in my house, don't
go looking for
the source of any
unusual sounds.

Do you have a poem you love, and want to share?

Inaugurated by the Academy in April 1996, National Poetry Month (NPM) brings together publishers, booksellers, literary organizations, libraries, schools, and poets around the country to celebrate poetry and its vital place in American culture. Thousands of businesses and non-profit organizations participate through readings, festivals, book displays, workshops, and other events.

Personals

2009-04-05T01:10:00.000-07:00

Personals by Robert Phillips
from Spinach Days

I'm honest, discreet, and no way a lech.
Staying home with a rented video is just fine.
I'm seeking a friend first, we'll see what happens next.

My definition of fun is not very far-fetched:
Enjoy fishing, four-wheeling, casinos, and wine.
I'm honest, discreet, and no way a lech.

Want face-to-face conversation, no phone sex,
Non-smoking, drug-free women—the old-fashioned kind.
I'm seeking a friend first, we'll see what happens next.

I like a lady to let her hair down, get a little wrecked.
I have brown hair, brown eyes, am built along trim lines.
I'm honest, discreet, and no way a lech.

I'm thirty-seven, white, have two teenagers by my ex.
Looking for a lady, any age or race, similarly inclined.
I'm seeking a friend first, we'll see what happens next.

No psychos! (My ex didn't play with a full deck.)
I live on the northwest side, near the refinery.
I'm honest, discreet, and no way a lech.
I'm seeking a friend first. We'll see what happens next.

This poem made my laugh, I'm betting he's a lecherous, dishonest, and indiscreet!

image from Google images

Song

2009-04-04T01:24:00.000-07:00

Song by Edwin Denby

I don't know any more what it used to be
Before I saw you at table sitting across from me
All I can remember is I saw you look at me
And I couldn't breathe and I hurt so bad I couldn't see.

I couldn't see but just your looking eyes
And my ears was buzzing with a thumping noise
And I was scared the way everything went rushing around
Like I was all alone, like I was going to drown.

There wasn't nothing left except the light of your face,
There might have been no people, there might have been no place,
Like as if a dream were to be stronger than thought
And could walk into the sun and be stronger than aught.

Then someone says something and then you spoke
And I couldn't hardly answer up, but it sounded like a croak
So I just sat still and nobody knew
That since that happened all of everything is you.

Do you have a poem you love, and want to share?

Inaugurated by the Academy in April 1996, National Poetry Month (NPM) brings together publishers, booksellers, literary organizations, libraries, schools, and poets around the country to celebrate poetry and its vital place in American culture. Thousands of businesses and non-profit organizations participate through.

There Will Come Soft Rains

2009-04-03T01:32:00.000-07:00

There Will Come Soft Rains by Sara Teasdale

from Collected Poems, Revised Edition.

There will come soft rains and the smell of the ground,
And swallows circling with their shimmering sound;

And frogs in the pools singing at night,
And wild plum-trees in tremulous white;

Robins will wear their feathery fire
Whistling their whims on a low fence-wire;

And not one will know of the war, not one
Will care at last when it is done.

Not one would mind, neither bird nor tree
If mankind perished utterly;

And Spring herself, when she woke at dawn,
Would scarcely know that we were gone.

Do you have a poem you love, and want to share?

Inaugurated by the Academy in April 1996, National Poetry Month (NPM) brings together publishers, booksellers, literary organizations, libraries, schools, and poets around the country to celebrate poetry and its vital place in American culture. Thousands of businesses and non-profit organizations participate through readings, festivals, book displays, workshops, and other events.

image from my files

Marriage

2009-04-02T01:57:00.000-07:00

To keep your marriage brimming,

With love in the loving cup,

Whenever you’re wrong admit it;

Whenever you’re right shut up.

~Ogden Nash

Do you have a poem you love, and want to share?

Inaugurated by the Academy in April 1996, National Poetry Month (NPM) brings together publishers, booksellers, literary organizations, libraries, schools, and poets around the country to celebrate poetry and its vital place in American culture. Thousands of businesses and non-profit organizations participate through readings, festivals, book displays, workshops, and other events.

The first day of National Poetry Month.

2009-04-01T01:34:00.000-07:00

I've decided to post a poem a day, for National Poetry Month. Cassie Marshall is among my list of favorite teenagers. She's a really neat kid, and the daughter of Alison, of RDH Mom, fame. I asked her permission to save a publish her poems for this month's poem-fest. These were previously published by Alison. Thank you, Cassie.

The Wind, by Cassie Marshall

The wind blows through as a sign of life.
The wind blows through my hair.
The wind blows through the field as it makes flowers sway from side to side.
I smile when the wind blows because I know
That when the wind is blowing
It is blowing through my soul.
And when it is in my soul,
I know that is where my soul will be
When I expire.

I Love To Sing, by Cassie Marshall

I love to sing,
It makes my heart ring.
Like the bells in a church,
Like a bird on a perch.
Any type of song,
I can sing all day long.I love to sing,
It makes my heart ring.

Me, by Cassie Marshall

Cassie
Kind,
Loving,
Fun,
Wishes to swim with dolphins,
Dreams of becoming a marine mammal biologist,
Wants to make a difference in the world.
Who wonders what it is like in space.
Who fears death.
Who is afraid of war.
Who likes to have a great time.
Who believes in heaven and hell.
Who loves pizza and ice cream.
Who loves karate.
Who loves her family.
Who loves to help people in need.

Do you have a poem you love, and want to share?

Inaugurated by the Academy in April 1996, National Poetry Month (NPM) brings together publishers, booksellers, literary organizations, libraries, schools, and poets around the country to celebrate poetry and its vital place in American culture. Thousands of businesses and non-profit organizations participate through readings, festivals, book displays, workshops, and other events.

Photo is from Google Images, The Singing Butler Jack Vettriano

Today is April Fools' Day

2009-04-01T01:13:00.000-07:00

Today is April Fools' Day, a holiday celebrating practical jokes of all kinds. Some people say that April Fools' Day began in France in 1582 when the Gregorian replaced the Julian calendar, making New Year's Day fall on January 1st instead of April 1st. At the time, news of such things traveled slowly, and it took many years for everyone to get up to speed. People who continued to celebrate New Year's on April 1st came to be known as April Fools.

Last year, this was the best April Fools' Hoax, in my opionion:

Snoop Dogg a Mormon? April Fools!

Folks are asking if there's any truth to the CNN report that

rapper Snoop Dogg has converted to Mormonism. The answer is no. If you check the date of the story, you'll see it's April 1 -- April Fools' Day. If you look closely at the URL of the alleged CNN article, you'll see it isn't really a valid CNN site at all. And if you look really, really closely at the fine print at the bottom of the phony Web page, it says: "You just got fooled! Snoop's not Mormon... yet!"

Top 10 April Fools' Hoaxes, number 5 is my favorite:

#1: The Swiss Spaghetti Harvest - In 1957 the respected BBC news show Panorama announced that thanks to a very mild winter and the virtual elimination of the dreaded spaghetti weevil, Swiss farmers were enjoying a bumper spaghetti crop. It accompanied this announcement with footage of Swiss peasants pulling strands of spaghetti down from trees. Huge numbers of viewers were taken in. Many called the BBC wanting to know how they could grow their own spaghetti tree. To this the BBC diplomatically replied that they should "place a sprig of spaghetti in a tin of tomato sauce and hope for the best."

#2: Sidd Finch - In its April 1985 edition, Sports Illustrated published a story
about a new rookie pitcher who planned to play for the Mets. His name was Sidd Finch, and he could reportedly throw a baseball at 168 mph with pinpoint accuracy. This was 65 mph faster than the previous record. Surprisingly, Sidd Finch had never even played the game before. Instead, he had mastered the "art of the pitch" in a Tibetan monastery under the guidance of the "great poet-saint Lama Milaraspa." Mets fans celebrated their teams' amazing luck at having found such a gifted player, and Sports Illustrated was flooded with requests for more information. But in reality this legendary player only existed in the imagination of the author of the article, George Plimpton.

#3: Instant Color TV - In 1962 there was only one tv channel in Sweden, and it
broadcast in black and white. The station's technical expert, Kjell Stensson, appeared on the news to announce that, thanks to a new technology, viewers could convert their existing sets to display color reception. All they had to do was pull a nylon stocking over their tv screen. Stensson proceeded to demonstrate the process. Thousands of people were taken in. Regular color broadcasts only commenced in Sweden on April 1, 1970.

#4: The Taco Liberty Bell - In 1996 the Taco Bell Corporation announced that it had
bought the Liberty Bell and was renaming it the Taco Liberty Bell. Hundreds of outraged citizens called the National Historic Park in Philadelphia where the bell was housed to express their anger. Their nerves were only calmed when Taco Bell revealed, a few hours later, that it was all a practical joke. The best line of the day came when White House press secretary Mike McCurry was asked about the sale. Thinking on his feet, he responded that the Lincoln Memorial had also been sold. It would now be known as the Ford Lincoln Mercury Memorial.

#5: San Serriffe - The news media have been responsible for some of the greatest April Fools' Day pranks in history. In 1977, the London newspaper The Guardian published a seven-page supplement commemorating the anniversary of the independence of San Serriffe, a completely imaginary small island nation located in the Indian
Ocean. The article described the geography of the nation — it consisted of two main islands, which together formed the shape of a semi-colon; the northern one was called "Upper Caisse" and the southern one, "Lower Caisse."

The island's natives were of "Flong" ethnicity, but there were also the descendents of Europeans settlers who had colonized the nation: "colons." The two groups had intermarried over the years; their offspring were "semi-colons."

The capital of the nation was Bodoni and the national bird, the "Kwote."

In the supplement, there were even advertisements from real companies. Texaco announced a contest whose winner would receive a two-week vacation to the island's Cocobanana Beach. Kodak placed an ad saying, "If you have a picture of San Serriffe, we'd like to see it."

The day it ran, The Guardian was flooded with calls for more information. Travel agents and airline companies complained to the editor because the news had been disruptive to their businesses — customers refused to believe that the islands were only imaginary.

The Guardian has reused the prank on a few other April Fools' Days — in 1978, 1980, and 1999 — and each time the island has changed location, moving from the Indian Ocean to the South China Sea to the North Atlantic.

#6: Nixon for President - In 1992 National Public Radio's Talk of the Nation program announced that Richard Nixon, in a surprise move, was running for President again. His new campaign slogan was, "I didn't do anything wrong, and I won't do it again." Accompanying this announcement were audio clips of Nixon delivering his candidacy speech. Listeners responded viscerally to the announcement, flooding the show with calls expressing shock and outrage. Only during the second half of the show did the host John Hockenberry reveal that the announcement was a practical joke. Nixon's voice was impersonated by comedian Rich Little.

#7: Alabama Changes the Value of Pi - The April 1998 issue of the New Mexicans for Science and Reason newsletter contained an article claiming that the Alabama state legislature had voted to change the value of the mathematical constant pi from 3.14159 to the 'Biblical value' of 3.0. Before long the article had made its way onto the internet, and then it rapidly made its way around the world, forwarded by people in their email. It only became apparent how far the article had spread when the Alabama legislature began receiving hundreds of calls from people protesting the legislation. The original article, which was intended as a parody of legislative attempts to circumscribe the teaching of evolution, was written by a physicist named Mark Boslough.

#8: The Left-Handed Whopper - In 1998 Burger King published a full page advertisement in USA Today announcing the introduction of a new item to their menu:
a "Left-Handed Whopper" specially designed for the 32 million left-handed Americans. According to the advertisement, the new whopper included the same ingredients as the original Whopper (lettuce, tomato, hamburger patty, etc.), but all the condiments were rotated 180 degrees for the benefit of their left-handed customers. The following day Burger King issued a follow-up release revealing that although the Left-Handed Whopper was a hoax, thousands of customers had gone into restaurants to request the new sandwich. Simultaneously, according to the press release, "many others requested their own 'right handed' version."

#9: Hotheaded Naked Ice Borers - In its April 1995 issue Discover Magazine announced that the highly respected wildlife biologist Dr. Aprile Pazzo had discovered a new

species in Antarctica: the hotheaded naked ice borer. These fascinating creatures had bony plates on their heads that, fed by numerous blood vessels, could become burning hot, allowing the animals to bore through ice at high speeds. They used this ability to hunt penguins, melting the ice beneath the penguins and causing them to sink downwards into the resulting slush where the hotheads consumed them. After much research, Dr. Pazzo theorized that the hotheads might have been responsible for the mysterious disappearance of noted Antarctic explorer Philippe Poisson in 1837. "To the ice borers, he would have looked like a penguin," the article quoted her as saying. Discover received more mail in response to this article than they had received for any other article in their history.

#10: Planetary Alignment Decreases Gravity - In 1976 the British astronomer Patrick Moore announced on BBC Radio 2 that at 9:47 AM a once-in-a-lifetime astronomical
event was going to occur that listeners could experience in their very own homes. The planet Pluto would pass behind Jupiter, temporarily causing a gravitational alignment that would counteract and lessen the Earth's own gravity. Moore told his listeners that if they jumped in the air at the exact moment that this planetary alignment occurred, they would experience a strange floating sensation. When 9:47 AM arrived, BBC2 began to receive hundreds of phone calls from listeners claiming to have felt the sensation. One woman even reported that she and her eleven friends had risen from their chairs and floated around the room.

Notice, there has been nothing new of this caliber for about 10 years!

Check out all 100 here.

Sticky Post

2009-04-01T00:01:00.000-07:00

This is a sticky post for April. For this month I planned on posting poems I like, in honor of National Poetry Month. All I can say is, it's a good thing I was prepared. Six weeks ago, I was selected to be on a jury this month. The trial is complex, and the judge expects it to last for the entire month of April.

I hope you'll return each day and enjoy the poems; I loved selecting them and trying to match them with a photo or artwork.

I'll probably do other post, too, because I just can't help myself.

If you find yourself unable to comment; please hit the HOME button at the top left of this blog.

NAUGHTY-SOUNDING WORDS

2009-03-31T01:01:00.000-07:00

I had no idea these words existed, let alone their meaning. I didn't think I was that sheltered! How about you, do you know them?

"A" IS FOR ASSUMPSIT - an action for the recovery of damages by reason of the breach or non-performance of a simple contract, either expressed or implied, and whether made orally or in writing.

”B" IS FOR BUMBO - a delicious punch made by combining rum, sugar, nutmeg, and water; a name borrowed from the Italian word that children use for drink.

"C" IS FOR COCKAIGNE - Good gawd you're thinking, this must have something to do with roosters. Well, it might be if you live in a barn yard, but more likely it has everything to do with a 13th century French expression for an imaginary place of ease (no I'm not talking about the loo). This "land of plenty" is the equivalent of Big Rock Candy Mountain, Shangri-la, or Nirvana...where everything is hunky-dory, sweet, and utterly loverly!

"D" IS FOR DOLLY VARDEN - It's a large char or trout (Salvelinus malma) to be exact, that more often than not can be found having a 'whale of a time' in the streams of western North America and Japan.

"F" IS FOR FUZZING - to shuffle a deck of cards with extreme care.

"G" IS FOR GLOP - an old English verb meaning to swallow greedily, to stare at in wonder or in alarm.

"H" IS FOR HUCKLE MY BUFF - a hot beer, egg, and brandy beverage.

"J" IS FOR JIPPO - a term meaning a lady's foundation garment (a stay), or a waistcoat.

"L" IS FOR LIGUSTRUM VULGARE - its the scientific name for a hardy bush called a "European Privet", (shame on you for thinking it's a euphemism for a continental can as the Americans might say, or a lovely little loo as the Brits might say).

"M" is for MUCKENDER - this winsome word has more in common with a bib or handkerchief (something which appears to be in rather short supply today at formal dinner parties).

"N" is for NUDE CONTRACT (NUDUM PACTUM) - is any verbal or written agreement that is non-binding and may be avoided, or an agreement that is not executed by one of the parties to it.

"P" IS FOR PIS ALLER - It is a 17th French noun meaning to "go worst" i.e. expedient, last resort; something done or accepted for lack of anything better; less desirable alternative.

"Q" IS FOR QUEER BUNG - it's an 18th century term meaning an empty purse.

"S" IS FOR STINKING HELLEBORE - a perennial frost-resistant flowering plant found in Europe grown for decorative and medicinal purposes, and, on the odd occasion, it is employed by witches for who knows what.

"T" IS FOR TITIVIL - Rather, this charming little word that rolls off the tip of the tongue is the name for the devil. More to the point, it is the mischiefmaker who steals words dropped during the recitation of a services so the name can be used later against the offender; a knave or a tattler.

"V" IS FOR VIEW HALLOO - a hunter's cry during a fox hunt to signal that the animal has been seen breaking cover.

"W" IS FOR WENIS - It is the name for the patch of the rough skin on the outside of the elbow.

The hijack

2009-03-30T19:21:00.000-07:00

This blog was hijacked, earlier today. I'm really not "fancy" enough to figure out what to do on my own; so I re-set the address to blogspot, and I have my blog back. This was per Carrie's instructions. I really don't know what happened, but in the mean time, I set up a different location: http://prytzfamily.blogspot.com/ same, but no "the". I've already transferred a months worth of posts; so for the time being I have 2 family blogs.

Triplets

2009-03-30T01:47:00.000-07:00

Bob and I strolled the Promenade Mall, this weekend. They had a Grand Opening for a new part of the mall. It was fun, and the only thing we purchased was lunch. I'm not a great mall shopper. After working in retail for over 15 years, mall shopping just isn't pleasurable. The new stores were tempting, and I may go back. As we were leaving we spotted these adorable triplets. I asked their Mom if I could take their photo, she said, "Sure, they get asked that a lot".

I have no more information, but I admire how organized this mother is. Imagine an outing with triplets!

If you find yourself unable to comment; please hit the HOME button at the top left of this blog.

Pay It Forward

2009-03-29T01:14:00.000-07:00

I have a mental list of people, I'd like to meet In Real Life. They're my blogging buddies, the great people who touch me, and let me know that I touch them. On my IRL list is Leedra. She's an awesome blogger and photographer. Recently she did a Pay It Forward, and I was one of the lucky recipients. Leedra sent me some things she knew I'd love. Two inspirational bookmarks, a package flower seeds, that are going in the ground right away, and one of her beautiful photo greeting cards.

Here are her URL's, in case you want to check her out:
Leedra’s Photos For Fun, Leedra’s Greeting Cards, Photography By Leedra.

Of course, I'm going to also Pay It Forward, and here's the rules:

I will send a gift to the first 3 people who leave a comment to this post on the blog requesting to join this PIF exchange. I do not know what that gift will be yet, and it won’t be sent this month, probably not next month, but it will be sent (within 6 months) and that’s a promise! What YOU have to do in return, then, is pay it forward by making the same promise on your blog.

Now remember you have to be in the first three that sign up to do this (you can comment without signing up!) and you have to pass it on. Be sure I have your e-mail or your blog address so I can get in touch with you."

I am very excited to participate in this. So if you would like to join in this Pay It Forward, please leave me a comment and tell me that you would like to join in the fun. The first 3 people will receive something from me within the next 6 months!!!

If you find yourself unable to comment; please hit the HOME button at the top left of this blog.

I'm so happy

2009-03-28T01:00:00.000-07:00

Lupines are one of my favorite wildflowers, and they're blooming in Murrieta, right now.

Please visit Today's Flowers, to see the other Flower People.

Feel Good Story

2009-03-27T01:57:00.000-07:00

Willie, a Quaker parrot in Denver, Colo., has been given a lifesaver award by the local Red Cross chapter.

This story is from the Associated Press:

A parrot whose cries of alarm alerted his owner when a little girl choked on her breakfast has been honored as a hero.

Willie, a Quaker parrot, has been given the local Red Cross chapter's Animal Lifesaver Award.
In November, Willie's owner, Megan Howard, was baby-sitting for a toddler. Howard left the room and the little girl, Hannah, started to choke on her breakfast.

Willie repeatedly yelled "Mama, baby" and flapped his wings, and Howard returned in time to find the girl already turning blue.

Howard saved Hannah by performing the Heimlich maneuver but said Willie "is the real hero."
"The part where she turned blue is always when my heart drops no matter how many times I've heard it," Hannah's mother, Samantha Kuusk, told KCNC-TV. "My heart drops in my stomach and I get all teary eyed."

Willie got his award during a "Breakfast of Champions" event Friday attended by Gov. Bill Ritter and Mayor John Hickenlooper.

The story might seem unbelievable, I recommend you read Alex & Me: How a Scientist and a Parrot Discovered a Hidden World of Animal Intelligence--And Formed a Deep Bond in the Process. It's an eye-opening tale about animal research and I loved it.

If you find yourself unable to comment; please hit the HOME button at the top left of this blog.

Calling all aspiring Childen's Authors

2009-03-26T15:00:00.000-07:00

Cheerios® is searching for the next great children's book author. It could be you!

Just enter your original children's book story by July 15, 2009. All the rules and information are here.

Good luck.

Do you Etsy?

2009-03-26T01:36:00.000-07:00

I don't have a theme today, just picked things I loved.

i heart u pop-up card

Live What You Love

Secret Agent Rabbits

Oval mini dish

If you find yourself unable to comment; please hit the HOME button at the top left of this blog.

Fun

2009-03-25T01:00:00.000-07:00

For your daily chuckle, please go here. You won't be sorry.

Reading

2009-03-24T08:31:00.000-07:00

Do men and women read differently? The Telegraph reported that a recent survey found women are more avid readers, and that "almost half of women are 'page turners' who finish a book soon after starting it compared to only 26% of men. . . . The survey of 2,000 adults also found those who take a long time to read books and only managed one or two a year were twice as likely to be male than female."

This rings true at our house. Bob reads about 50 books a year, I read between 120-150 books each year.

How about at your house?

If you find yourself unable to comment; please hit the HOME button at the top left of this blog.

More advice

2009-03-23T09:44:00.000-07:00

Recently, I've given several people advice about how to deal with insomnia. I had insomnia, once, and it was horrific. When you can't sleep, you get no rest; just laying there, really does your body no good.

I had insomnia, when I was around 40, many years ago, before information was widely available on the Internet. The Internet wasn't around, period. I took myself to the library and researched what I should do. I was pretty much a hippy-dippy, still bra-less in those days, and didn't want a prescription drug to help me sleep. Plus, my Mom was pretty much a prescription drug addict, many women her age were, and I didn't want to even get close to that.

My research led me to Calcium Lactate. This is not the calcium we use to build strong bones, so it's in addition to your regular supplements. I had a hard time finding Calcium Lactate; I finally found it at a "health food" store. I took 6 of the pills each night before I went to bed; and it worked. I slept like a baby, and had no side effects, in the morning.

That's my advice. If you're having trouble sleeping, try Calcium Lactate.

Another piece of advice is drink diet soda. A recent study showed women who drink 2 or more cans of soda a day have a higher incidence of kidney failure than the general population. The finding did not apply to men, just women. The study did not apply to women who drank diet soda, just women who drank regular soda.

So, that's my second piece of advice, drink diet soda.

Advice

2009-03-22T01:20:00.000-07:00

Advice from a Tiger

Earn your stripes

Be adventurous

Live fiercely

It's OK to be a little wild!

Advice from a Gorilla

Get a grip

Be a prime mate

Avoid hairy situations

Evolve!

The only gorilla photo I captured was of this handsome back.

At the LA Zoo Bob and I purchased new ball caps with these advice tidbits, on them.

Can you guess which is mine?

If you find yourself unable to comment; please hit the HOME button at the top left of this blog.

World Poetry Day

2009-03-21T13:20:00.000-07:00

Today is World Poetry Day. Since I don't write poetry; I just enjoy it, here's a poem.

History of Desire by Tony Hoagland, from Sweet Ruin.

When you're seventeen, and drunk
on the husky, late-night flavor
of your first girlfriend's voice
along the wires of the telephone

what else to do but steal
your father's El Dorado from the drive,
and cruise out to the park on Driscoll Hill?
Then climb the county water tower

and aerosol her name in spraycan orange
a hundred feet above the town?
Because only the letters of that word,
DORIS, next door to yours,

in yard-high, iridescent script,
are amplified enough to tell the world
who's playing lead guitar
in the rock band of your blood.

You don't consider for a moment
the shock in store for you in 10 A.D.,
a decade after Doris, when,
out for a drive on your visit home,

you take the Smallville Road, look up
and see RON LOVES DORIS
still scorched upon the reservoir.
This is how history catches up—

by holding still until you
bump into yourself.
What makes you blush, and shove
the pedal of the Mustang

almost through the floor
as if you wanted to spray gravel
across the features of the past,
or accelerate into oblivion?

Are you so out of love that you
can't move fast enough away?
But if desire is acceleration,
experience is circular as any

Indianapolis. We keep coming back
to what we are—each time older,
more freaked out, or less afraid.
And you are older now.

You should stop today.
In the name of Doris, stop.

If you find yourself unable to comment; please hit the HOME button at the top left of this blog.

The Great Debate

2009-03-20T01:35:00.000-07:00

This is from SeattlePI.com:

It's 'Potter' vs. 'Twilight' at great literary debate

Be prepared for lightning bolts and bared fangs as teens square off to defend their literary faves March 21 in "The Great Debate: Harry Potter vs. Twilight." Co-sponsored by Seattle Public Library and TEAM READ, the free event is intended to settle (or not) the burning issue of which mega-selling fantasy series reigns supreme. As teen services librarian Jennifer Bisson put it, "Fans of the series should come watch some of Seattle's best and bright youth in a 'cage match' debate over which series is truly the best!" The event will take place from 4 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. in the central library's Microsoft Auditorium. Information: goto.seattlepi.com/r1992.

I'd love to be a fly on the wall; I think it's facinating to see and hear teens passionate about reading. If you're near Seattle, tomorrow, check it out.

If you find yourself unable to comment; please hit the HOME button at the top left of this blog.

Do You Etsy?

2009-03-19T01:06:00.000-07:00

How about some leaves for Spring. Mostly jewelry, but I love the gourds and cap, too.

Leaf Gourds

Flowers and Leaves Cap

Carved Leaves Necklace

Twig & Petal Studs

African Violet Leaf Necklace

If you find yourself unable to comment; please hit the HOME button at the top left of this blog.

Zoo, again

2009-03-18T01:06:00.000-07:00

More photos from our visit to the Los Angeles Zoo.

An Okapi.

Merkat and a statue.

Giraffe and Koala

Above and below: Gerenuk!

If you find yourself unable to comment; please hit the HOME button at the top left of this blog.

100 Funny Words

2009-03-17T01:47:00.000-07:00

Last month I gave you Dr. Goodword's list of the "The 100 Most Beautiful Words in English", this month, it's his list of the 100 Funniest Words in the English Language.

Abibliophobia - The fear of running out of reading material.
Absquatulate - To leave or abscond with something.
Allegator - Some who alleges.
Anencephalous - Lacking a brain.
Argle-bargle - A loud row or quarrel.
Batrachomyomachy - Making a mountain out of a molehill.
Billingsgate - Loud, raucous profanity.
Bloviate - To speak pompously or brag.
Blunderbuss - A gun with a flared muzzle or disorganized activity.
Borborygm - A rumbling of the stomach.
Boustrophedon - A back and forth pattern.
Bowyang - A strap that holds the pants legs in place.
Brouhaha - An uproar.
Bumbershoot - An umbrella.
Callipygian - Having an attractive rear end or nice buns.
Canoodle - To hug and kiss.
Cantankerous - Testy, grumpy.
Catercornered - Diagonal(ly).
Cockalorum - A small, haughty man.
Cockamamie - Absurd, outlandish.
Codswallop - Nonsense, balderdash.
Collop - A slice of meat or fold of flab.
Collywobbles - Butterflies in the stomach.
Comeuppance - Just reward, just deserts.
Crapulence - Discomfort from eating or drinking too much.
Crudivore - An eater of raw food.
Discombobulate - To confuse.
Donnybrook - An melee, a riot.
Doozy - Something really great.
Dudgeon - A bad mood, a huff.
Ecdysiast - An exotic dancer, a stripper.
Eructation - A burp, belch.
Fard - Face-paint, makeup.
Fartlek - An athletic training regime.
Fatuous - Unconsciously foolish.
Filibuste -r Refusal to give up the floor in a debate to prevent a vote.
Firkin - A quarter barrel or small cask.
Flibbertigibbet - Nonsense, balderdash.
Flummox - To exasperate.
Folderol - Nonsense.
Formication - The sense of ants crawling on your skin.
Fuddy-duddy An old-fashioned, mild-mannered person.
Furbelow - A fringe or ruffle.
Furphy - A portable water-container.
Gaberlunzie - A wandering beggar.
Gardyloo! - A warning shouted before throwing water from above.
Gastromancy - Telling fortune from the rumblings of the stomach.
Gazump - To buy something already promised to someone else.
Gobbledygook - Nonsense, balderdash.
Gobemouche - A highly gullible person.
Godwottery - Nonsense, balderdash.
Gongoozle - To stare at, kibitz.
Gonzo - Far-out journalism.
Goombah - An older friend who protects you.
Hemidemisemiquaver - A musical timing of 1/64.
Hobbledehoy - An awkward or ill-mannered young boy.
Hocus-pocus - Deceitful sleight of hand.
Hoosegow - A jail or prison.
Hootenanny - A country or folk music get-together.
Jackanapes - A rapscallion, hooligan.
Kerfuffle - Nonsense, balderdash.
Klutz - An awkward, stupid person.
La-di-da An interjection indicating that something is pretentious.
Lagopodous - Like a rabbit's foot.
Lickety-split - As fast as possible.
Lickspittle - A servile person, a toady.
Logorrhea - Loquaciousness, talkativeness.
Lollygag - To move slowly, fall behind.
Malarkey - Nonsense, balderdash.
Maverick - A loner, someone outside the box.
Mollycoddle - To treat too leniently.
Mugwump - An independent politician who does not follow any party.
Mumpsimus - An outdated and unreasonable position on an issue.
Namby-pamby - Weak, with no backbone.
Nincompoop - A foolish person.
Oocephalus - An egghead.
Ornery - Mean, nasty, grumpy.
Pandiculation - A full body stretch.
Panjandrum - Someone who thinks himself high and mighty.
Pettifogger - A person who tries to befuddle others with his speech.
Pratfall - A fall on one's rear.
Quean - A disreputable woman.
Rambunctious - Aggressive, hard to control.
Ranivorous - Frog-eating
Rigmarole - Nonsense, unnecessary complexity.
Shenanigan - A prank, mischief.
Sialoquent - Spitting while speaking.
Skedaddle - To hurry somewhere.
Skullduggery - No good, underhanded dealing.
Slangwhanger - A loud abusive speaker or obnoxious writer.
Smellfungus - A perpetual pessimist.
Snickersnee - A long knife.
Snollygoster - A person who can't be trusted.
Snool - A servile person.
Tatterdemalion - A child in rags.
Troglodyte - Someone or something that lives in a cave.
Turdiform - Having the form of a lark.
Unremacadamized -Having not been repaved with macadam.
Vomitory - An exit or outlet.
Wabbit - Exhausted, tired, worn out.
Widdershins - In a contrary or counterclockwise direction.
Yahoo - A rube, a country bumpkin.
@ - The "at" sign.

If you find yourself unable to comment; please hit the HOME button at the top left of this blog.

The phrase I love to hate

2009-03-16T01:47:00.000-07:00

I have a SIL who gets on my nerves on a regular basis. I actually like her; but she has a couple quirks that, to me, are like nails on a chalkboard. One is she continues to smoke, against medical advice. The main quirk that bothers me is her penchant for saying "suffice it to say". Really, what the hell does that mean?

She throws the objectionable phrase into her personal narration on a regular basis. Each and every time, I just cringe. SIL uses the phrase as a filler, to make her sentences longer, or instead of pausing to gather her thoughts. Urgh!

This the the definition from Dictionary.com,

"suffice it to say

It is enough to say this and no more, as in Suffice it to say that the judge was furious when the invitation was withdrawn."

Do you have any words or phrases that drive you buggy?

Carrie's post, earlier this month triggered this rampage. Sorry.

If you find yourself unable to comment; please hit the HOME button at the top left of this blog.

Fun Monday

2009-03-15T12:20:00.000-07:00

Three time host, Mariposa, gave us our task for today: Kids Say the Darnedest Things! Yes, they can be your children...your nephew...niece....siblings...just any experience which makes you say...indeed, Kids Say the Darnedest Things! They need not be a lot...but no limit to how many you can share...more means more fun!

We have three grandchildren, and they are all wonderful and unique. Bob and I are fortunate, we were able to spent time, weekly, with each of our grandchildren from the time they were born until they went to school. We are truly blessed, in this.

These are two of my memories of Erin, my almost 16 year old granddaughter.

When Erin was about 15 months old, she realized that her wonderful Granddad had a name in addition to Granddad. She loved the name Bob, and declared for the longest time that Bob was her name, too. She walked around saying "Me Bob". What's your name, "Me Bob"!

When Erin was about 2 1/2, and I took her to the Los Angels Zoo. She was and is, very independent and I was afraid of losing her. I had a strap to connect our wrists, a loop on each end. It was OK, for a while, then she got really irritated at having to stay right with me. I'd already explained that I didn't want to get lost, and wearing the wrist strap would keep me safe. So eventually, she told me, "Get lost, Grandma!"

This is not Erin!

This is!

If you find yourself unable to comment; please hit the HOME button at the top left of this blog.

Zoo

2009-03-15T11:15:00.001-07:00

Yesterday, we had a great time. We drove to the L.A. Zoo, and had a look around. We hadn't been there in a bagillion years. Here are a few of the 267 photos I took.

If you find yourself unable to comment; please hit the HOME button at the top left of this blog.

The librarian and other Bookstore questions

2009-03-14T01:38:00.000-07:00

Today, at the bookstore, I was asked for the umpteenth time, "Are you a retired librarian?" This time the customer was a librarian! I've had people asking me if I was a librarian, since I was a teenager. I've always been stymied by the question, and have always just said, "No".

Recently, I was telling one of the managers, who I've worked with for over 8 years, that in August I'll start getting a retirement check from a company I worked for many years ago. The company is no longer in business, so this is a pleasant surprise; and I have no idea how much the check will be. I told her it was from one of the automotive companies I worked for. She said, "Oh, when you were a grease monkey". I said, "Yes".

This week, when I took my break in the back room, our Cafe manager was telling an Assistant manager that she'd ridden a Harley for the first time, and she loved it. The Assistant manager told her, Janice used to ride. The Cafe manager turned to me and said, "Really"? I said," Yes".

There’s nothing like stereo-types; and breaking them.

If you find yourself unable to comment; please hit the HOME button at the top left of this blog.

Feel Good Story

2009-03-13T01:44:00.000-07:00

The Gift-Economy House of Kelowna

"Once in a while you are given an incredible opportunity to really make a difference in one family's life," said a group of volunteers in a small Canadian town of Kelowna. Just like a popular reality TV show, their idea was to demolish and then rebuild a new house -- yes, a whole new house! -- for an amazing family of nine in their community. There was only one caveat: it was 100% community funded! That's right. 45 contractors, hundreds of volunteers, and a whole lot of love. Watch the news clip about the demolition and the follow-up video of what happened on Dec 11, when the family actually moved in!

This second video is a bit long, but it shows the completed project. I brought tears to my eyes.

Recipe Box Swap

2009-03-12T01:46:00.000-07:00

This month is a No-Theme Month meaning that anything goes. Any recipe that you love will work. Be sure to visit Randi at I Have to Say, to see what others are cooking.

When I was growing up in Long Beach, one of my favorite cafés served a wonderful Vegetable soup. They've been in business for 55 years and have added other soups, all made right there, and all delicous, but their Vegetable soup is still my favorite. This is my attempt to make their soup. It's pretty close.

Hut Vegetable Soup

10 small White Rose Potatoes, cut into large slices
4 medium carrots cut into large slices
1 large onion, cut into large cubes

28 oz chicken broth, 2 cans
28 oz diced tomatoes in juice, 2 cans
2 cups green beans, fresh or frozen
2 cups green peas fresh or frozen
1 T. olive oil
1T. butter

Heat oil and butter in Dutch oven; sauté onion until limp, and just starting to brown. Add broth and tomatoes, un-drained. Add remaining ingredients and bring to a boil. Turn down heat, and simmer for 15-20 minutes until the potatoes and carrots are tender. Add salt and pepper to taste.

We love this soup, hope you do, too.

Girl Scouts Anniversary

2009-03-12T00:05:00.000-07:00

Today is the Girl Scouts Anniversary. I was a Girl Scout, almost until I was married. I left scouting at 17 and was married at 19. I'm very grateful for scouting for a number of reasons; probably the top reason is because of Scouting, I met Bob.

Feel Good Story

2009-03-11T01:51:00.000-07:00

This was in the L.A. Times, recently. The story told of a car sales woman, Sue Ellis, who, because of the downturn, couldn't afford to fly home to Australia, to see her 84-year old mother, who faced cancer surgery. 50 colleagues at Rusnak Volvo scraped together $969, and sent her home to see her Mom, who had been given a 20% survival chance. Even former employees of the dealership chipped in.

"I knew she would perk up and go into that operating theater really fighting if she could see me. She's a gutsy, gritty lady," Ellis said.

Her mother survived the February operation and is recovering in the hospital.

After the surgery, Ellis called the dealership to share the good news. She was back at work this week, thanking everyone on the car lot in person.

"If it weren't for my friends here, I don't know that Mum would have survived," she said.

I especially liked this story because I worked at, in or around car dealerships for over 15 years and each of them really is a "village".

Saturday Night Live Funny - The Rock as Obama

2009-03-10T01:25:00.000-07:00

Don't mess with the Prez…

Please put up with the "commercial". This is greatl
Posted in Blissful Buzz

I'm her biggest fan

2009-03-09T09:21:00.000-07:00

My favorite blog designer, Carrie, my wonderful daughter who tweaks my blog, at my will, is donating a blog make over. The host of this give away is Pink & Polka Dot, go see what she has to say, and enter to win. You won't be sorry.

How do you look?

2009-03-09T01:26:00.000-07:00

A couple of weeks ago, at two social gatherings, I asked different people, mostly women if I could take a close-up of them. They all said yes. I edited the photos and turned them into Black and White. I was very happy with them; so I had some printed and I matted them, and gave them to my subjects. Each subject was over 70, and most were over 80, the reaction of each woman was horror, the men were more neutral. Below is a sample of the before and after shots.

The main thing I learned from this is, people don't accept how they look. Most, look in the mirror and see themselves as 30 or 40 years younger. Bob and I have had a couple of discussions about these reactions, because we've both been pretty amazed. We both want to look good, and dress well, but accept all those wrinkles and gray hairs as badges, like merit badges; look how far we've come. So, have you looked in the mirror, lately. How do you look?

I want to add that each of these women is beautiful, in looks, spirit and behavior. I featured the center "model", at Murrieta365, the other day, and more that one commenter mentioned how beautiful she is.

Wrinkles Poem by Feenix
Category: Writing and Poetry

The wrinkles on her face
Delineated her past

Like a complicated network,
Some lines merged with others.
Some led nowhere.
Some connected with others,
Creating an intricate maze,
With no possible solutions

She'd never imagine
Erasing the exquisite lines.
Why would she?
Some stemmed from
The happiest moments of her life.

The deep laugh lines
Were as profound as
Her sense of humor.
Winding lines that reflected the joy
In her life and the foolishness that
Fueled her buoyancy.

Some wrinkles emanated from sadness.
They perpetually marked some of the melancholy
Into the volumes of her manuscript
Never to be forgotten.

The energy that stimulated her passion
Was flawlessly captured in the striking wrinkles
Creating a visible diary of her years.

She was at the helm of her vessel
Navigating through the sea of life
Through unpredictable waters
That at times were uncontrollable
But at other times drifted her to bliss

The weathered face was battered by the elements
But she wore her wrinkles
Triumphantly and proudly
Like medals decorating a uniform.
Honoring her valor in all her conquests and challenges.
Memorializing her remarkable life.

Fun Monday

2009-03-08T15:02:00.000-07:00

Sayre is our host and here's our challenge: What are you and your family doing to deal with the current economic situation on a personal level? Obama's got a plan for the nation, but how do you/will you deal with your own economic stress?

Bob and I have been retired for over 10 years. Our retirement income is pretty set and manageable. We're not very frugal, but we're not extravagant, either. We've been thru other recessions; but the biggest challenge we went thru, was when Bob became a policeman. At the time, I was a SAHM, with one child and one "in the oven". Bob took a half cut in pay, because he saw working for the LAPD, not only as something he wanted to do; but as the best thing for our family. He was right, but a half cut in pay is stunning for the budget. By the time he graduated from the police academy, we were a family of four, with two dogs. My total budget for the week in 1970, was $25.00. That was it, for milk, bread, eggs, all the essentials, plus paper products (toilet paper, anyone?) and dog food. One of the ways I managed this frugality was to plan my menus, a month at a time, usually with no duplicates, so we didn't get bored. I would buy what I needed for that weeks' menu, during my once a week trip to the grocery store.

One of the things I still do is buying in bulk, but only if the items are good quality and will be used regularly - no purchases, just to have savings.

This time around, the biggest thing we've done is increase our charitable giving. We've started sending a check every month to our local animal shelter. Charitable giving is really down nation-wide, and by saving a little, here and there, (going back to our early LAPD days), in other areas, we can send them a regular monthly check. It's like paying a utility bill.

It doesn't snow in Murrieta

2009-03-07T01:18:00.000-08:00

It's only snowed once, in the 10+ years we've lived here; and it was only a slight dusting. I saw these photos, titled 16 Funny Snow Scenes, from Reader's Digest, and they just called to me to make a collage, or two.

How to choose a name

2009-03-06T01:08:00.000-08:00

Again, a tip from Jess, an online Name Picker, What A Lovely Name. The site offers a variety of catagories.

Traditons: African-American, American, Armenian, and that's just the A's.

Dispositons: Brave, Cute, Funny to name a few.

Celebrity Babies: Athletes, Hollywood, Musicians, etc.

Other Worlds: Narnia, Star Trek, Star Wars, and so on.

This would be fun, for those of us no longer having babies, to use to name pets, or as a time waster. Like we need anymore time wasters in our lives!

I found my name under the Dispositions - Happy. This is my name description:

Janice

This is a modern name. It is a variant of the name Jane, meaning "God is gracious".
Alternates: Janessa, Janiece, Janis, Jeanice, Jeneesa, Jenise
Tags: African-American, calm, gentle, happy

There were a variety of Janice logos available, in case I wanted to have some customized merchandise.

World Book Day

2009-03-05T01:37:00.000-08:00

Today is World Book Day! Here are some badges to click on, so you can see what might be going on that will interest you.

Recipe Box Swap

2009-03-05T01:02:00.000-08:00

This month is a No-Theme Month meaning that anything goes. Any recipe that you love will work. Be sure to visit Randi at I Have to Say, to see what others are cooking.

I recently posted this at Jan's Recipes. Chicken and Dumplings has always been a favorite of Bob's and mine. This is a healthy alternative to the traditional version. This is a recipe I learned by watching my Mom cook, and have never written down, before. It can be a one dish meal, or serve it with salad or vegetables. Hope you enjoy it.

Chicken and Dumplings

• One package of sliced chicken breast, about 1 1/3 pounds
• One large white onion, coarsely chopped
• One large carrot, peeled and coarsely chopped
• One large stalk celery, coarsely chopped
• Four cups of water
• Salt and pepper, to taste
• Low-Fat Bisquick, 1 1/3 cups
• Non-fat milk, 1/3 cup plus 2 teaspoons

Sauté the chicken pieces, in canola oil, in a Dutch oven, until outer pink is gone; add onion and continue sautéing until onion is translucent. Add carrot, celery and water bring to a boil; lower heat to a low boil and cover. Simmer for about 15 minutes, until carrots are done.

Remove chicken, keep warm in covered dish. Use a potato mashed to break-up any large pieces of vegetable in the broth. Bring broth back to a slow boil.

In a small bowl, mix Bisquick and milk, forming a soft ball. Drop mixture into simmering broth, you should have eight dumplings. Cook, uncovered for 10 minutes; cover Dutch oven and cook for 10 more minutes.

Place reserved chicken in your serving dish, place dumplings on top of chicken, and spoon gravy, (gravy is made automatically, while the dumplings are cooking), from Dutch oven over all.

Prejudice is alive and well.

2009-03-04T01:48:00.000-08:00

Read Angela's post, and tell me what you think.

This was my comment: You're right, most prejudices are passed down, generation to generation. Ignorant to ignorant. Parenting is hard work and many aren't prepared.

When we raised our daughters, I emphasized, avoiding prejudice and presenting diversity. It wasn't easy, we lived in a very nice white-bread neighborhood. On of the things I did as a SAHM, was to enroll my girls in pre-school, not just any pre-school, but the Child Study Center, at Long Beach City College. There were two campuses and two Child Study Centers. I chose the furthest away from our white-bread neighborhood, in order to give our children the broadest exposure to people who were different from us. I'd say my experiment worked. Our daughters' friends are a wonderful mix.

I'm not going to post about what a wonderful parent I was/am, because I know I failed in many ways. But, I will tell you, any time you ask, what wonderful daughters we have.

Photographic Dictionary

2009-03-03T01:56:00.000-08:00

disarray

a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z

This is from Photojojo:

Has inspiration walked out on you? Is your gray matter a bit toogray these days? Maybe you need a kick in the creative behindus.

The Photographic Dictionary pairs photos with definitions of words, but this isn’t your bog standard A-is-for-Apple dictionary.

Abstract ideas like ascent, vacuous and curiosity are our favorites, but even prosaic nouns like office and bridge make you think in a different way.

Whether you’ve got writer’s block or photographer’s ennui or the systemic aesthetic doldrums, the Photographic Dictionary is good for what ails you.

The Photographic Dictionary
via Craft

Above is the photo found under D - disarray, next is L - laundry.

M- motel, T - tits

There really aren't that many entries, but the ones there are, are facinating.

Fun Monday

2009-03-01T15:58:00.000-08:00

This is Jo's assignment, this week: "March 2nd is my Mom's birthday and was her mother's birthday as well. For this week's Fun Monday, tell me something fun about your mother and/or her mother. What fun, weird, laughable memories do you have of your Mom or your Grandma?"

This is my Mom. I've known her for 64 years and have many memories of her, of course. I can't remember too many that fit the fun, weird, laughable catagories; so I'll tell you some things about her.

Almost everyone who meets Mom, loves her.
She goes to church at least once a week.
She's 86 and still drives.
She is always positive. She has several ailments that cause her pain, but she never complains.
She is forever young. She has lived in a senior community for over 30 years, and doesn't socialize much, there, because the other residents are so old. (Many are my age or younger.) She will always tell you how young she is and/or how young everyone thinks she looks.
She thinks the above photo I took 2 years ago, makes her look old.
She has very strong genes, as witnessed in this bleary photo of me, Carrie, Mom, Bob and Sharon, taken by Oden last Thanksgiving.

What is wrong with these people?

2009-03-01T01:12:00.000-08:00

ImageChef.com Poetry Blender

In last week's newspaper were brief mentions of two really scummy people.

The first is a La Quinta doctor, George Steven Kooshian, 58. He pleaded guilty to two counts of health care fraud and two counts of making false statements related to health care matters. What exacting did he do wrong, you may ask? He gave watered down medicine to HIV and AIDS patients. His co-defendant, Virgil Opinion, 29, has also pleaded guilty. They're looking at up to 50 years in federal prison, when sentenced in May. I hope it's really close to 50 years.

The second is an electrician, 35 year old David Mitchell Clark, who hid cameras in two homes. A woman found a hidden camera in her bathroom. A video recording device found in her attic led investigators to a second home where a couple had also employed Clark to do electrical work. Though he denied any wrong-doing in the first case, he told investigators he hid the camera in the couple's home because "the wife was 'hot'." If convicted of all the crimes involved, residential burglary and disorderly conduct, Clark could have faced about six years in state prison. Instead he pleaded guilty to one count of first -degree residential burglary, and only drew 9 months and 3 years probation. He is now labeled a sex offender. Couldn't have happened to a nicer guy.

This sounds all wrong

2009-02-28T01:19:00.000-08:00

While reading about Alfie Patton, the 13 year old in Britain, who just became a father, I was stunned not by the story, but by the following statistics:

Britain had 27 births per 1,000 women aged 15-19 between 2000 and 2005, according to a report published by Population Action International. Comparable figures are 10 per 1,000 for Spain, for France, and 5 in 1,000 for The Netherlands.

Britain's teen pregnancy rate, however, is still far below that of the United States, which registers 42 births per 1,000 women aged 15-19 and are more line with English-speaking countries such as Australia and New Zealand, which respectively have 17 and 27 births per 1,000 women between 15 and 19, according to the report.

Apparently, these English speaking countries have a lot to learn about teen pregnancies.

Here is part of a report from the CDC:

International comparisons show that the United States could do much better in improving teen pregnancy and birth rates. U.S. teen pregnancy and teen birth rates are the second highest among 46 countries in the developed world. These data show that U.S. teens’ sexual behavior is similar to teens of other developed countries in terms of when they start to have sex and how often they are having it. Yet, U.S. teens are less likely to use contraception or to consistently use more effective methods of contraception when compared to the teens of several other developed countries. Recent data show that 77% of the decline in teen pregnancy rates among U.S. teens aged 15–17 years is because teens have increased their use of contraception and 23% of the decline is because teens are having less sex. Among older U.S. teens, 18– to 19– years-old, these data show that all the reduction in pregnancy risk was related to increased contraceptive use. Organizations such as Advocates for Youth and the National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy have identified effective programs to promote healthy decision-making among teenagers; such as, reducing numbers of partners, delaying initiation of sex, and increasing contraception and condom use. Although this is encouraging, much work remains to identify additional innovative interventions that address the social, cultural, and environmental influences on teen pregnancy. There is also a need to find better ways of disseminating evidence-based approaches to teen pregnancy prevention, so that effective interventions are more widely used.

In 2006, the overall birth rate for 15– to 19– year-old females was 41.9, but—

the rate was 83 among Hispanics (twice the overall rate),
63.7 among non-Hispanic blacks (however, blacks have a slightly higher teen pregnancy rate than Hispanics),
54.7 among American Indian or Alaska Natives, and
26.6 among non-Hispanic whites.

It seems there's much more work to be done, here.

I know I've felt like this

2009-02-27T01:15:00.000-08:00

Bridal Shower by George Bilgere

Perhaps, in a distant café,
four or five people are talking
with the four or five people
who are chatting on their cell phones this morning
in my favorite café.

And perhaps someone there,
someone like me, is watching them as they frown,
or smile, or shrug
at their invisible friends or lovers,
jabbing the air for emphasis.

And, like me, he misses the old days,
when talking to yourself
meant you were crazy,
back when being crazy was a big deal,
not just an acronym
or something you could take a pill for.

I liked it
when people who were talking to themselves
might actually have been talking to God
or an angel.
You respected people like that.

You didn't want to kill them,
as I want to kill the woman at the next table
with the little blue light on her ear
who has been telling the emptiness in front of her
about her daughter's bridal shower
in astonishing detail
for the past thirty minutes.

O person like me,
phoneless in your distant café,
I wish we could meet to discuss this,
and perhaps you would help me
murder this woman on her cell phone,

after which we could have a cup of coffee,
maybe a bagel, and talk to each other,
face to face.

When I read this poem, a loud HA, escaped from deep within.

Customers on their cell phone or Bluetooth are among the rudest customers I deal with in the bookstore. They ask for assistance, or advise, then ignore the bookseller, who is trying to do her job and help them. Frequently, I'll just turn to the next customer and let them figure out they need to end their call or put it on hold, if they want assistance.

Security

2009-02-26T01:57:00.000-08:00

This prompt is from The Daily Good: What is the real meaning of security to you?

This is a hard question. Security means different things to different people. I love this quote that was included with their post:

"Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature, nor do the children of men as a whole experience it. Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. Life is either a daring adventure, or nothing." --Helen Keller

I think Helen Keller's quote is wonderful.

I do try to avoid obvious danger, but have "jumped in with both feet", many times. I've decided Life's just better that way.

How about you, what does Security mean in your life?

"What She Was Wearing"

2009-02-25T01:09:00.000-08:00

"What She Was Wearing" by Denver Butson from Illegible Address.

this is my suicide dress
she told him
I only wear it on days
when I'm afraid
I might kill myself
if I don't wear it

you've been wearing it
every day since we met
he said

and these are my arson gloves

so you don't set fire to something?
he asked
exactly

and this is my terrorism lipstick
my assault and battery eyeliner
my armed robbery boots

I'd like to undress you he said
but would that make me an accomplice?

and today she said I'm wearing
my infidelity underwear
so don't get any ideas

and she put on her nervous breakdown hat
and walked out the door

This poem made me laugh, I hope you laugh too.

Ya got to be flexible

2009-02-24T11:30:00.000-08:00

Anyone in a relationship knows flexibility is key to lasting. Bob and I will be married 45 years in May, and we're nothing if not flexible. This year I was so looking forward to a cross-country road trip in May. We haven't been on one for a while, because Bob was in pain from his back. He got his back fixed in September, so I started planning. This is what it looked like:

We were going to hit the Gulf Coast in May, before hurricane season, because we never have, visit San Antonio and New Orleans, swing up to Raleigh, leave the car, fly to NYC for Book Expo America, go back to Raleigh to visit with Carrie, Ole, Erin and Brett, and come home on Rt. 40. It was going to be about 3 1/2 to 4 weeks.

Then, Bob said he wanted really to ride his bicycle along the West Coast in 2010, and across America in 2011. Since those two trips involve a significant financial investment, I put the road trip on hold and planned to start really saving. Bob was upset about not going on the road trip, but since I'm the CFO of this partnership, I held firm and told him you just can't do everything.

Recently, Bob had eye surgery, right now, he still isn't seeing very well, and told me to just proceed with the road trip, because the way things were going he didn't want to plan too far in advance. So I went back to the road trip drawing board making a few refinements.

Last night, I casually mentioned that Bermuda was celebrating its' 400th anniversary, and cruise prices weren't too bad. Bob said, Why don't we go there after NYC? So along the lines of you just can't do everything, the road trip is back on hold; we're flying to NYC in May, cruising to Bermuda, flying to Raleigh, and flying home in June.

It'll be fun, and next time I want to go on a road trip, it's mostly planned.

Confessions of a Toothfairy

2009-02-24T00:14:00.000-08:00

I saw this at NiceCream. Be sure you watch this until the end. It's really funny.

Shoes

2009-02-23T01:39:00.000-08:00

I know I'm getting older. My philosophy is "Getting Old Is Good", it's so much better than the alternative. At this stage of my life, I'm all about comfort. While reading the newspapers this week, I was struck by the New Shoes for Spring the designers are showing. Most of the shoes, below (clipped from the NYTimes), cost more than $1000. That in itself is amazing to me; but what was even more amazing was how ugly most of them were; not all but most. I'd also bet they were designed my some one who's not going to have to ever wear them; and they certainly don't look very comfortable.

Now that I've bitched, here's a funny video that ties in.

Just For Laughs-New Shoes - More free videos are here

Fun Monday

2009-02-22T12:30:00.000-08:00

Ari_1965 is demanding to know What does your kitchen counter look like right now? (And no fair cleaning just for the picture!) Do you have any favorite or unusual items on your counter?

I have a long kitchen counter, from right to left

here is a great plant called Mother-In-Laws' tongue.

I hope my son-in-law never thinks of me that way!

In this corner is my teapot and my pitcher.

Next, are the small kitchen TV, a couple of baskets of snacks,

and our bread box. I opened it, so you could see inside.

Area between the breadbox and the sink, boring.

On the other side of the sink, are the appliances we use regularlly.

The electric kettle heats my tea water and quesadilla press and/or

panini press are used almost daily for lunch, when we're home.

This is my catch-all corner, next to the stove. My non-canisters are

in the back; three jars of cooking utensils, tea canister, bucket of pot-holders,

salt & pepper shakers and my cereal dispenser.

Ten Things You Never Knew

2009-02-22T08:24:00.000-08:00

Ten Things You Never Knew about George Washington, born on this day in 1732:

His dentures carved from a hippopotamus tusk. They were drilled with a hole to fit over Washington's one remaining tooth, and they rubbed against his natural tooth in such a way that.

Washington was in constant pain, and so he used an alcoholic solution infused with opium.

By the time he reached 30, he had survived malaria, smallpox, pleurisy, dysentery. He was fired at on two separate occasions — and in one of them, his horse was shot out from under him and four bullets punctured his coat. He also fell off a raft into an icy river and nearly drowned.

During the last night of his life, a doctor friend came over to perform an emergency tracheotomy on Washington. Arriving too late, the doctor tried to resurrect Washington by thawing him in cold water, then wrapping him in blankets and rubbing him in order to activate blood vessels, then opening his trachea to inflate his lungs with air, and then transfusing blood from a lamb into him.

He enjoyed playing cards, hunting foxes and ducks, fishing, cockfighting, horse racing, boat racing, and dancing. He bred hound dogs and gave them names like "Sweet Lips" and "Tarter."

His favorite foods included mashed potatoes with coconut, string beans with mushrooms, cream of peanut soup, salt cod, and pineapples.

He snored very loudly.

He did not wear a powdered wig, as was fashionable at the time. Instead, he powdered his own red-brown hair.

Washington had a speech impediment and was not good at spelling. He would often mix up i's and e's when speaking and in writing.

There are 33 counties, seven mountains, nine colleges, and 121 post offices named after Washington.

He delivered the shortest inaugural address ever. It was only 133 words long and took 90 seconds to deliver.

I got help

2009-02-21T16:44:00.000-08:00

Today, I was really busy. I had to plan my posts for next week for Murrieta365, sort and gather everything to take to the tax guy next week, ( I wanted to do it early in case I couldn't find everything), I got my Fun Monday post ready for, well Monday, ate lunch, did a book review, and ran some errands.

When I returned from running errands, (isn't there always something to do?), I visited this blog to see what was going on, and it was blank! I had a header and right column, but no content. I had not idea what to do. First, I tried both Chrome and IE, same result; then I called Carrie, she didn't answer so I left a garbled message. Since she's my daughter, she understood.

Carrie got back to me while I was reading, I heard the little IM ping, and ran to the office. She fixed it, straight away! Yeah, for bi-lingual daughters; she can speak American-English and Geek!

After she straightened everything out, she changed her photo. Don't you love it, →→→?

Quiz

2009-02-21T01:42:00.000-08:00

The fabulous Jess of How About Orange, had this Sproost quiz recently, to find your decorating style.

I turned out 100% Arts and Crafts

Try it here!

Three Wishes.

2009-02-20T01:15:00.000-08:00

I read this absolutely amazing story, at Daily Good. A 4th grader, Tanner Smith, as part of a class assignment, makes three wishes. Two years later, he repeats one of those wishes, during a 6th grade assignment. What is this wish that's so important to a grade schooler, "To make kids with cancer laugh". When it appeared a 2nd time, his parents paid attention, and they did something about it.

Tanner at 3 with his Dad, Craig. Tanner delivering Tanner's Totes.

The work done by Tanner Smith and his parents, Craig and Cathy, has resulted in goodies for more than 1,000 patients. Tanner playing basketball for Clemson.

What are your three wishes?

Do you Etsy?

2009-02-19T01:17:00.000-08:00

I've done so many etsy post for women, so today I thought I'd do one for the guys.

At our house, we'd pretty casual. More often than not, you'll find us in blue jeans, and what goes best with jeans? T's. Here are some men's t's from etsy. Bob already wears some of these.

Old Fashioned Bicycle

You can see, we like bicycles.

HaloScan

2009-02-18T14:03:00.000-08:00

When Carrie was here for Thanksgiving, I had her help me install HaloScan on this blog. She had to help me because, to borrow a saying from Mrs. G., "everything I know about computers, I learned from the Amish".

Well, I gave it a good 3 month try and while it had some good points, there were things I wasn't happy with. So, today Carrie removed it for me. I lost all the comments that were associated with HaloScan, but that's not the end of the world.

Here's what she had to say, once she was finished:

Carrie says:

I removed HaloScan, what a pain - they don't have any instructions on their website - like a cult! You're free now, but your comments are 0 again. Sorry.

Yes, I'm free!

Three Words

2009-02-18T01:19:00.000-08:00

I don't watch much television, so I'd never heard of My Week in Three Words, until my cousin Wayne sent a video link about it. It got me thinking how would I summarize my week, in just three words.

I think this week they would be RAIN GO AWAY!

What would your three words be?

I took this from my dry kitchen.

Guess

2009-02-17T01:20:00.000-08:00

Can you guess what the images in each of these sets have in common?

Well, I won't keep you in suspense. I typed my name in Google Images and got plenty of images, including Bob and I getting married. The rest of the Jan Prytz's were male. Above are a couple of the handsome dudes.

These ladies are all named Jan Davis, my maiden name. Interesting that they are all blond; and this time no males turned up.

Try it, you're tagged if you want to "play".

Fun Monday

2009-02-15T13:35:00.000-08:00

Gattina says she's our leader, by default, this week. I think she's a great leader and she came up with a novel Fun Monday.

Please show us what you wear on your feet inside your home ! Do you wear slippers, flip flops, shoes or nothing? just take a picture and show us your feet !

These are my slippers that I wear each morning, until I get dressed for the day's activities. If I'm staying in the house the whole day, this is what I wear. I also wear them last thing at night, after I put my pj's on. They wait for me beside my bed, so I can slip them on each morning.

?

2009-02-15T08:01:00.000-08:00

I received this Valentine card from two different friends, via email, last week. It was the only one I received. Hmm.

Happy Valentines Day

2009-02-14T00:59:00.000-08:00

These are some marriage zingers I received in a long ago email. I hope they don't spoil your Valentines Day with your honey.

"The secret of a happy marriage? It remains a secret."
-- Comedian Henny Youngman

"Marriage is a wonderful invention; but then again, so is a bicycle repair kit."
-- Comic Billy Connelly

"A woman asked her husband to go to the video store and get Scent of a Woman. Her husband came back with A Fish Called Wanda."
-- Anonymous

"Love may be blind but marriage is a real eye-opener!"
-- Anonymous

"My wife and I were happy for twenty years. Then we met."
-- Comedian Rodney Dangerfield

I created the image at WebiconMe, at Paste Magazine.

Funny

2009-02-13T16:50:00.000-08:00

Do you know Denise of An English Girl Rambles? She's a great photographer and very funny. Check out her great post, today.

Be Well, Do Good

2009-02-13T11:30:00.000-08:00

I read about this at Daily Good, and I think it's well worth posting. I've not been a fan of Hilary Duff, I think it's an age thing, but I'm re-thinking.

(CBS) On Friday afternoon, fifth grader John Gonzalez takes home more than homework.

When John and his little sister meet up with their mom outside Normandy Elementary School for the quick walk home, they both carry an extra backpack - what's inside will help sustain them through the weekend.

“You guys have a menu, see - there is mashed potatoes, cheese ravioli..." their mother, Anita Velasquez, told CBS News correspondent Sandra Hughes.

The food, store coupons and menu are all provided free to the struggling family as part of the Blessings in a Backpack program. For Mom, it’s just that - a blessing.

“You want your kids to eat healthy every day; some days you have to scrap up what you can,” she said.

In the heart of South Central Los Angeles, the school is often the only place poor kids ever eat a good meal. At this school every student qualifies for free lunch and breakfast.

School psychologist Cynthia Brockman-Coleman says now that the kids are eating well over the weekends, Mondays are completely different.

"Being hungry and anxious about food and worried about food that is something they don't have to worry about that," Brockman-Coleman said.

Test scores have gone up 33 points, and attendance has increased too. But more importantly... “We see parents getting more involved in the school,” says teacher Spencer Schumacher.

The backpacks started going home when teachers saw that so many kids came to school hungry on Monday. But unlike school meals paid for by the government, the bill for the backpacks goes to just one person - the former Disney star Hilary Duff.

“Putting her stamp of approval to education really motivated the kids,” Schumacher says.

At Normandy Elementary there is no embarrassment about who gets the backpacks because everyone does, all 1,000 students. And a fifth-grade class assembles them, too.

Here's a link to help you start your own program, or get involved. One of the things I learned was $80 feeds a child in the program for an entire school year.

Friday Fun

2009-02-13T04:28:00.000-08:00

I saw this at Ingrid's Nice Cream; had me falling on the floor.

100 Beautiful Words

2009-02-13T01:21:00.000-08:00

Dr. Goodword (Dr. Robert Beard) of AlphaDictionary.com, offers a list of the "The 100 Most Beautiful Words in English"; except he couldn't keep it to 100, it went to 110! I admit, I don't use most of these words, routinely if ever. How about you? Do you have a Beautiful Word you love?

The List
1. adroit - Dexterous, agile.
2. adumbrate - To very gently suggest.
3. aestivate - To summer, to spend the summer.
4. ailurophile - A cat-lover.
5. beatific - Befitting an angel or saint.
6. beleaguer - To exhaust with attacks.
7. blandiloquent - Beautiful and flattering.
8. caliginous - Dark and misty.
9. champagne - An effervescent wine.
10. chatoyant - Like a cat's eye.
11. chiaroscuro - The arrangement of dark and light elements in a picture.
12. cockle - A heart-shaped bivalve or a garden flower.
13. colporteur - A book peddlar.
14. conflate - To blend together, to combine different things.
15. cynosure - A focal point of admiration.
16. desuetude - Disuse.
17. diaphanous - Filmy.
18. diffuse - Spread out, not focused or concentrated.
19. dulcet - Sweet, sugary.
20. ebullient - Bubbling with enthusiasm.
21. effervescent - Bubbly.
22. efflorescence - Flowering, the opening of buds or a bloom.
23. elixir - A good potion.
24. emollient - A softener.
25. encomium - A spoken or written work in praise of someone.
26. ephemeral - Short-lived.
27. epicure - A person who enjoys fine living, especially food and drink.
28. epiphany - A sudden revelation.
29. erstwhile - At one time, for a time.
30. eschew - To reject or avoid.
31. esculent - Edible.
32. esoteric - Understood only by a small group of specialists.
33. ethereal - Gaseous, invisible but detectable.
34. etiolate - White from no contact with light.
35. evanescent - Vanishing quickly, lasting a very short time.
36. exuberant - Enthusiastic, excited.
37. felicitous - Pleasing.
38. fescue - A variety of grass favored for pastures.
39. foudroyant - Dazzling.
40. fragile - Very, very delicate.
41. fugacioius - Running, escaping.
42. gambol - To skip or leap about joyfully.
43. glamour - Beauty.
44. gossamer - The finest piece of thread, a spider's silk.
45. halcyon - Happy, sunny, care-free.
46. hymeneal - Having to do with a wedding.
47. imbricate - To overlap to form a regular pattern.
48. imbroglio - An altercation or complicated situation.
49. imbue - To infuse, instill.
50. incipient - Beginning, in an early stage.
51. ingenue - A naïve young woman.
52. inglenook - The place beside the fireplace.
53. inspissate - To thicken.
54. inure - To jade.
55. jejune - Dull; childish.
56. lagniappe - A gift given to a customer for their patronage.
57. lagoon - A small gulf or inlet in the sea.
58. languor - Listlessness, inactivity.
59. lassitude - Weariness, listlessness.
60. laughter - The response to something funny.
61. lilt - To move musically or lively, to have a lively sound.
62. lithe - Slender and flexible.
63. loquacious - Talkative.
64. luxuriant - Thick, lavish.
65. mellifluous - Sweet-sounding.
66. missive - A message or letter.
67. moiety - One of two equal parts, a half.
68. mondegreen - A misanalyzed phrase.
69. nebulous - Foggy.
70. niveous - Snowy, snow-like.
71. obsequious - Fawning, subservience.
72. odalisque - A concubine in a harem.
73. oeuvre - A work.
74. offing - That part of the sea between the horizon and the offshore.
75. onomatopoeia - The creation of words by imitating sound.
76. paean - A formal expression of praise.
77. palimpsest - A manuscript written over one or more earlier ones.
78. panacea - A complete solution for all problems.
79. panoply - A complete set.
80. pastiche - A mixture of art work (art or music) from various sources.
81. peccadillo - A peculiarity.
82. pelagic - Related to the sea or ocean.
83. penumbra - A half-shadow, the edge of a shadow.
84. peregrination - Wandering, travels.
85. petrichor - The smell of earth after a rain.
86. plethora - A great excess, overabundance.
87. porcelain - A fine white clay pottery.
88. potamophilous - Loving rivers.
89. propinquity - An inclination or preference.
90. Pyrrhic - Victorious despite heavy losses.
91. quintessential - The ultimate, the essence of the essence.
92. redolent - Sweet-smelling.
93. rhapsody - A beautiful musical piece.
94. riparian - Having to do with the bank of a river or other body of water.
95. ripple - A small, circular wave emanating from a central point.
96. scintillate - To sparkle with brilliant light.
97. sempiternal - Forever and ever.
98. seraglio - Housing for a harem.
99. serendipity - Finding something while looking for something else.
100. surreptitious - Sneaky.
BONUS WORDS
101. sussurous - Producing a hushing sound, like flowing water.
102. symbiosis - Interdependence of two different species.
103. syzygy - The direct opposition of two heavenly bodies.
104. talisman - A symbolic object believed to have magical powers.
105. terpsichorean - Related to dance.
106. tintinnabulation - Ringing.
107. umbrageous - Shady.
108. vestige - A small fragment.
109. whisper - Speaking without vibrating the vocal folds.
110. zyzzyva - A kind of beetle.

One of my favorite beautiful words is one you can spell frontwards or backwards and get the same result. BOB. What's on your list?