I've Noticed It Too!

I distrust those people who know so well what God wants them to do because I notice it always coincides with their own desires.

~ Susan B. Anthony ~

Poetry Friday

When clever people ask me where
I get a poem, I despair,
I'm apt to tell them in New York
I think I get it via stork

~ Robert Frost from "A-Wishing Well" ~

Persevere!

After climbing a great hill, one only finds that there are many more hills to climb.

~ Nelson Mandela ~

Yeah, Right...

It's easy to play any musical instrument: all you have to do is touch the right key at the right time and the instrument will play itself.

~ Johannes Sebastian Bach ~

Spelunker

Within caving circles, I’m told, spelunker now means an untrained and unknowledgeable amateur explorer; the more experienced prefer to term themselves cavers, which is also the usual British term. Scientists and cavers who explore with serious purpose continue to call themselves speleologists.

~ Michael Quinion ~

Photo by scot2342.

Hear, Hear!

I really don't mind paying more taxes. I'd rather pay for taxes than cut "Reading is Fundamental" or Head Start or some of these programs that are really helping kids. This is the greatest country in the world; is it really that much worse if you pay 6% more in taxes? Give me a break. Look at what you get for it: you get to be American.

~ Matt Damon ~

Sunday's Kat Kwote

"They're a miserable lot," said the old maid, fondling her cats defiantly; "but let 'em. It's Christmas. Ah!" she added, as one of the eight stood up in her lap and rubbed its cheek against hers, "they're innocent. It isn't poor little animals that does the harm. It's men and women that does it to each other."

~ Jacob A. Riis from "Merry Christmas in the Tenements" ~



Photo courtesy Library of Congress.

Hide Quick!

"Hide quick, er you're too late!-—
Them bells is stoppin' at the gate!-—
Git back o' them--'air chairs an' hide,
'Cause I hear Santy's voice outside!"
An' Bang! bang! bang! we heerd the door—-
Nen it flewed open, an' the floor
Blowed full o' snow—-

~ James Whitcomb Riley from A Defective Santa Claus ~

Poetry Friday

There is little that is as deeply satisfying than the apt poem. It’s like chocolate for the soul. Except less fattening. It resolves the nervous system, captures the elusive experience of being alive so we may always have it and never lose it.

~ Helena Bonham Carter ~

Image courtesy Chocolate Reviews.

Oh, Yeah!

Think what a better world it would be if we all, the whole world, had cookies and milk about three o'clock every afternoon and then lay down on our blankets for a nap.

~ Barbara Jordan ~

Photo by Curtis McCormick.

Making a Reader

Children are made readers on the laps of their parents.

~ Emilie Buchwald ~

Image courtesy Open Clip Art Library.

Music

Music is a moral law. It gives soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination, and charm and gaiety to life and to everything.

~ Plato ~

R.I.P. Russell Hoban (and Frances)

I do not like the way you slide,
I do not like your soft inside,
I do not like you lots of ways,
And I could do for many days
Without eggs.

~ Russell Hoban from Bread and Jam for Frances ~

Photo by avlxyz.

Sunday's Kat Kwote

Nothing's more playful than a young cat, nor more grave than an old one.

~ Thomas Fuller ~

Photo courtesy LollypopFarm.

Why We Need Librarians

It's not enough for children to know how to read--they must be proficient critical thinkers. There is an assumption that today's students know how to effectively and ethically use the technology that is becoming pervasive in our society. But, the reality is that all too often today's students lack the ability to analyze information found online.

~ Carl Harvey ~

Poetry Friday

I am sure that there is a giggly aquifer under poetry.

~ Kay Ryan from "Laugh While You Can: A Consideration of Poetry" ~

Waste

Every social injustice is not only cruel, but it is economic waste.

~ William Feather ~

Is This Sad or What?

Christmas to a child is the first terrible proof that to travel hopefully is better than to arrive.

~ Stephen Fry ~

World Peace

The structure of world peace cannot be the work of one man, or one party, or one nation...it must be a peace which rests on the cooperative effort of the whole world.

~ Eleanor Roosevelt ~





Photo courtesy Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library.

Funny How That Works...

The horse that you love draws more than four oxen.

~ Danish proverb ~

Reindeer

Never judge a reindeer close up if you got it from a rich man, you may find that some of the antlers are missing.

~ Finnish proverb ~

Sunday's Kat Kwote

And let me touch those curving claws of yellow ivory, and grasp
The tail that like a monstrous Asp coils round your heavy velvet paws!

~ Oscar Wilde ~





Photo by laihui.

In Order to Live

~ Yves Saint Laurent, read the rest courtesy Matt Olson at ROLU. ~

Poetry Friday

To me, the greatest pleasure of writing is not what it's about, but the inner music that words make.

~ Truman Capote ~

Ah....

There is no friend as loyal as a book.

~ Ernest Hemingway ~

Remembering Pearl Harbor

No matter how long it may take us to overcome this premeditated invasion, the American people in their righteous might will win through to absolute victory.

~ Franklin D. Roosevelt ~

Photo courtesy FDR Library.

Talk to the Animals

Lots of people talk to animals...Not very many listen, though...That's the problem.

~ Benjamin Hoff ~

So Very Sad

Man is born passionate of body, but with an innate though secret tendency to the love of Good in his main-spring of Mind. But God help us all! It is at present a sad jar of atoms.

~ Lord Byron ~

Sunday's Kat Kwote

With tail erect and pompous march,
    The proudest puss that ever trod,
Through many a grove, 'neath many an arch,
    Impenetrable as a god.

~ Lytton Strachey ~

Photo by Iscan.

Secret Sorrows

Every man has his secret sorrows which the world knows not; and often times we call a man cold when he is only sad.

~ Henry Wadsworth Longfellow ~

Poetry Friday

If you're not alive and kicking,
shame on you!

~ Langston Hughes, "Shame on You" ~

Little Snail

little snail
inch by inch, climb
Mount Fuji!

~ Issa, translated by David G. Lanoue ~







Image courtesy Library of Congress.