It's a New World...

If I am going to be a writer, earning a living in the era of digital text, I need to understand where the opportunities are. They won't disappear, they'll just be different, and need to be recognized. In the last days of Vaudeville Theatre, they sued Marconi because radio was killing Vaudeville, where you had to pay to go into a relatively small room to listen to music and voice. But it didn't kill music, the outcome was a thousand times more music, making a thousand times more money, reaching a thousand times more people. But in the short term, there was panic.

~ Cory Doctorow ~

Now You Know...

"Ladybird, ladybird, fly away home. Your house is on fire, your children will burn!"

Do you know how that curious couplet came into use? Its origin is probably this: In England and other European countries, the ladybird larvae,or young,feed principally on the aphides, or plant lice, which infest the hop vines; and when, in spite of the efforts of the ladybird, these aphides multiply excessively in the hop gardens, the usual remedy is to let a fire run through the latter, and thus burn up leaves, plant lice, ladybird larvae, and all. It was their acquaintance with this practice, which, many generations ago, suggested to the children of those countries the warning lines now so familiar on both sides of the ocean.

~ From The New Dominion Monthly May 1871 ~

Photo by aten.

Question: So Why Does He Keep Reading It?

Every time I read Pride and Prejudice, I want to dig her up and beat her over the skull with her own shin-bone.

~ Mark Twain ~






Answer to the question above: professional jealousy? --KK

Photo courtesy Rohan@Rohan

I Know What She Means

Life seems but a quick succession of busy nothings.

~ Jane Austen ~


Photo by Hil

Sunday's Kat Kwote

Among ashcans. He leaps and lightly
Walks upon sleep, his mind on the moon.
Nightly over the round world of men,
Over the roofs go his eyes and outcry.

~ Ted Hughes from "Esther's Tomcat" ~

Photo by Kristof Borkowski

Lovely!

There are some woods that are like stately sonnets and others of which the truth would best be told in tender lyrics.

~ Helen Hunt Jackson ~

Photo by akahodag

Poetry Friday

This time
        we tap with joy
                on mystery's door

~ Jakushitsu ~





Image courtesy the Library of Congress.

Cherry Blossoms!

though my rice sack
is empty...
cherry blossoms!

~ Issa translated by David G. Lanoue ~

Image courtesy the Library of Congress.

Can't They Be One and the Same?

The truth is more important than the facts.

~ Frank Lloyd Wright ~

Which Can't Happen If We Don't Start!

Solar power is clean, renewable and cost effective, but it also needs time to develop.

~ J. D. Hayworth ~

Image courtesty Open Clip Art Library

Coolidge Knew Who His Best Friends Were

Any man who does not like dogs and want them about does not deserve to be in the White House.

~ Calvin Coolidge ~

Sunday's Kat Kwote

Cats

Cats sleep
Anywhere,
Any table,
Any chair,
Top of piano,
Window-ledge,
In the middle,
On the edge,
Open drawer,
Empty shoe,
Anybody's
Lap will do,
Fitted in a
Cardboard box,
In the cupboard
With your frocks -
Anywhere!
They don't care!
Cats sleep
Anywhere.


~ Eleanor Farjeon ~

It's Nearly Here!

Every spring is the only spring, a perpetual astonishment.

~ Ellis Peters ~

Poetry Friday

That children love to scrutinize things at close range--anthills and animals, grasshoppers and gyroscopes--persuades us that, with a little encouragement, they may care to look closely at poems as well.

~ X.J. and Dorothy M. Kennedy from Knock at a Star ~

I'll Bet!

A painting in a museum hears more ridiculous opinions than anything else in the world.

~ Edmond de Goncourt ~

A Blessing--Definitely!

The printing press is either the greatest blessing or the greatest curse of modern times, one sometimes forgets which.

~ J. M. Barrie ~

The Very Empty Caterpillar

I'm so pleased that my caterpillar can help to promote healthy eating in the fight against childhood obesity, and I hope The Very Hungry Caterpillar will be a happy reminder for children to grow healthy and spread their strong wings, like the butterfly in my book.

~ Eric Carle ~

Fragile Indeed

Today’s events remind us of just how fragile life can be. Our hearts go out to our friends in Japan and across the region and we’re going to stand with them as they recover and rebuild from this tragedy.

~ Barack Obama ~

To contribute to relief efforts, click here.

Photo courtesy U.S. Navy

Sunday's Kat Kwote

one by one
even the cats come home...
cold nights

~ Issa, translated by David G. Lanoue ~

With prayers for the people, and cats, of Japan. --KK

Photo by nic0

We Will Not Give Up Our Souls!

The smug rich have overplayed their hand. They couldn't have just been content with the money they raided from the treasury. They couldn't be satiated by simply removing millions of jobs and shipping them overseas to exploit the poor elsewhere. No, they had to have more--something more than all the riches in the world. They had to have our soul. They had to strip us of our dignity. They had to shut us up and shut us down so that we could not even sit at a table with them and bargain about simple things like classroom size or bulletproof vests for everyone on the police force or letting a pilot just get a few extra hours sleep so he or she can do their job--their $19,000 a year job.

~ Michael Moore ~

Poetry Friday

And how exciting it is to find that a poetic language will liberate and not constrain.

~ Eavan Boland ~

It May Not Be Possible!

I have now one ambition: to retire before it becomes essential to tweet.

~ Barney Frank ~



Image courtesy twitter.com

What Is Art?

Art is the signature of civilizations.

~ Beverly Sills ~

Women's History Month

Like their personal lives, women's history is fragmented, interrupted; a shadow history of human beings whose existence has been shaped by the efforts and the demands of others.

~ Elizabeth Janeway ~

Lincoln on Labor

Labor is prior to, and independent of, capital. Capital is only the fruit of labor, and could never have existed if labor had not first existed. Labor is the superior of capital, and deserves much the higher consideration.

~ Abraham Lincoln ~

Sunday's Kat Kwote

How nice to be the gardener's cat,
She troubles not for mouse or rat,
But when it's coming down in streams,
She sits among the flowers and dreams.

~ Patrick Chalmers from "The Gardener's Cat" ~

Photo by kretyen

It Sure Is Troublesome

The trouble with the world is that the stupid are cocksure and the intelligent are full of doubt.

~ Bertrand Russell ~



Photo by Gnal

Poetry Friday

It is the responsibility of society to let the poet be a poet.

~ Grace Paley ~

Image courtesy Steve Rhodes

Really?

With a stout heart, a mouse can lift an elephant.

~ Tibetan proverb ~



Photo by revdode

Babar

For over seventy years, Babar has been the most famous elephant in the world—and the most controversial. He has been praised as a benevolent monarch, an ideal parent, and a model of family affection, loyalty, justice, good manners, and civilized living. He has also been damned as a sexist, an elitist, a colonialist, and a racist.

~ Alison Lurie ~

Image courtesy The Morgan Shop

Groucho

One morning I shot an elephant in my pajamas. How he got into my pajamas I'll never know.

~ Groucho Marx ~



Photo courtesy Squidoo