All Purls. No Swine.
Beautiful morning today, down here on the farm, although a fleeting recollection of the old saying, "Red sky in the morning, shepherd's warning," did run through my mind. (True to form, the rain starts tonight.) But my first thought took me back to my high-school days, and the first time I read The Odyssey end-to-end… Continue reading Rosy-Fingered Dawn
Hope smiles from the threshold of the year to come, whispering 'it will be happier'--Alfred, Lord Tennyson Crimenutely. In my search for a suitable quote of the day for New Year's Eve, I stumbled over a little-known work (at least, I didn't know about it, which makes it little-known in my book) by Alfred, Lord… Continue reading Two from Tennyson for New Year’s Eve
Well, peeps. I’ve spent quite a bit of time investigating and watching much of the latest “Harry and Meghan” outpourings on Netflix, so you don’t have to. (A Nigerian prince will be contacting you shortly and directing your gratitude-filled donations to me. Please follow through. Trust me; I deserve them.) As many of you know,… Continue reading “Infinite Wrath, and Infinite Despair”
If you surround yourself with people who support your upward aim, they will not tolerate your cynicism and destructiveness. They will instead encourage you when you do good for yourself and others and punish you carefully when you do not. This will help you bolster your resolve to do what you should do, in the… Continue reading The Greatest and First Rule: Make Friends With People Who Want the Best For You
This weekend brings on that most British of holidays–Bonfire Night–Guy Fawkes Night–the Fifth of November. The holiday that, when I was a kid, was exponentially bigger than Halloween, as for a few days before, children would push around a wheelbarrow laden with a straw-stuffed effigy of Guido Fawkes, usually dressed in their father’s cast-offs or… Continue reading A Guy Fawkes Thought Experiment
William the Conqeror WILLIAM THE FIRST was the first of our kings, Not counting Ethelreds, Egberts and things, And he had himself crowned and anointed and blest In Ten-Sixty-I-Needn’t Tell-You-The-Rest But being a Norman, King William the First By the Saxons he conquered was hated and cursed, And they planned and they plotted far into… Continue reading On the 956th Anniversary of the Battle of Hastings
Don't be 'a writer,' but instead be writing--William Faulkner All you have to do is write one true sentence. Write the truest sentence that you know and then go on from there--Ernest Hemingway And by the way, everything in life is writable about if you have the outgoing guts to do it, and the imagination… Continue reading Quotes of the Day: On Writing
Disclaimer: I can’t be sure that’s true, because I’ve never owned any. But certainly, if I were to try and come up with my own undeniable truth in that regard, two of the items high on my shortlist would be flat, comfortable shoes and non-binding, full-fashioned, all-cotton underpants. But I digress; so before I head… Continue reading “Diamonds Are A Girl’s Best Friend”
Today, September 22, 2022, is the first day of Autumn: Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness, Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun; Conspiring with him how to load and bless With fruit the vines that round the thatch-eves run; To bend with apples the moss'd cottage-trees, And fill all fruit with ripeness to the core; To swell the… Continue reading To Autumn, 2022
So there I was, yesterday, wandering around my favorite antiques store (real antiques, very little junk--although, on occasion, I'm fond of junk stores too), looking for a mirror to set above my restored oak chest of drawers. Discovered one. It's walnut, and in a completely different style, but it works! And I found myself in… Continue reading “How Pleasant to Know Mr. Lear!”