R.I.P. Jan Berenstain

"...we have each other," said Mama, bringing the cubs close. "That's another blessing."

~ Stan and Jan Berenstain ~

Yes, Pretty!

To my mind, a picture should be something pleasant, cheerful, and pretty, yes pretty! There are too many unpleasant things in life as it is without creating still more of them.

~ Pierre-Auguste Renoir ~

"Pinning the Hat," color lithograph, courtesy Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

Echoes

I would hurl words into this darkness and wait for an echo, and if an echo sounded, no matter how faintly, I would send other words to tell, to march, to fight, to create a sense of hunger for life that gnaws in us all.

~ Richard Wright ~

Sunday's Kat Kwote

The cat seldom interferes with other people's rights. His intelligence keeps him from doing many of the fool things that complicate life.

~ Carl Van Vechten ~






Photo by Carl Van Vechten courtesy Library of Congress.

Stupidity

I learned something from this healthcare debate--stupidity is a pre-existing condition.

~ Bill Maher ~

Poetry Friday

There is no single face in nature, because every eye that looks upon it, sees it from its own angle. So every man's spice-box seasons his own food.

~ Zora Neale Hurston ~

It's All Good!

Sunshine is delicious, rain is refreshing, wind braces us up, snow is exhilarating; there is really no such thing as bad weather, only different kinds of good weather.

~ John Ruskin ~

Photo published in The Boy With the U.S. Weather Men (Lothrop, Lee & Shepard Co., 1917).

Is It Art?

And the first rude sketch that the world had seen was joy to his mighty heart, till the Devil whispered behind the leaves "It's pretty, but is it Art?"

~ Rudyard Kipling ~


Photo courtesy Library of Congress.

The Story of Ona Judge in a Nutshell

She took a passage in a vessel to Portsmouth, N.H. and there married a man by the name of Staines, and had three children, who, with her husband, are all dead. After she was married, and had one child, while her husband was gone to sea, Gen. Washington sent on a man by the name of Bassett [Burwell Bassett, Jr., Washington's nephew], to prevail on her to go back. He saw her, and used all the persuasion he could, but she utterly refused to go with him.

~ Rev. Benjamin Chase. Letter to the editor,
The Liberator, January 1, 1847. ~

Good Advice, George!

Associate with men of good quality if you esteem your own reputation; for it is better to be alone than in bad company.

~ George Washington ~


Photo by Carol M. Highsmith, courtesy Library of Congress.

Sunday's Kat Kwote

She shall sit by my side,
And I'll give her some food;
And she'll love me because
I am gentle and good.

Jane Taylor from "I Like Little Pussy"

The American Idea

The real democratic American idea is, not that every man shall be on a level with every other man, but that every man shall have liberty to be what God made him, without hindrance.

~ Henry Ward Beecher ~

Poetry Friday

In this universe we are given two gifts: the ability to love, and the ability to ask questions.

~ Mary Oliver ~

Flowers

Deep in their roots, all flowers keep the light.

~ Theodore Roethke ~






Photo © Diane Mayr.

Reading--Always in Style!

As far as I can tell, reading will never go out of style, and neither will good old-fashioned storytelling.

~ LeVar Burton ~

Happy Valentine's Day!

The greatest happiness of life is the conviction that we are loved; loved for ourselves, or rather, loved in spite of ourselves.

~ Victor Hugo ~

Brain Power--Yes!

Do not call for black power or green power. Call for brain power.

~ Barbara Jordan ~


Photo courtesy Library of Congress.

Sunday's Kat Kwote

The body of the White Cat grew large, and was transformed into that of a girl; how, one could not say; one only knew it was so. Her figure was majestic, her manners charming, her whole appearance beautiful beyond words.

~ From My Book of Favorite Fairy Tales by Edric Vredenburg ~

And Dance

I have stretched ropes from steeple to steeple; garlands from window to window; golden chains from star to star, and I dance.

~ Arthur Rimbaud ~

Poetry Friday

We have to raise the consciousness; the only way poets can change the world is to raise the consciousness of the general populace.

~ Lawrence Ferlinghetti ~

Amateur's Heart

Once the amateur's naive approach and humble willingness to learn fades away, the creative spirit of good photography dies with it. Every professional should remain always in his heart an amateur.

~ Alfred Eisenstaedt ~

Happy Birthday, My Dear Mr. Dickens

Subdue your appetites, my dears, and you've conquered human nature.

~ Charles Dickens ~

Sorry, Charlie, it's a day late!

Isabella Stewart Gardner

I felt last night as though I were in a Hans Anderson Fairy Tale, ready to go on a flying carpet at any moment.

~ Isabella Stewart Gardner ~

1904 photo of the "Venetian Palace" courtesy Library of Congress.

Black History Month

Education is the key to unlock the golden door of freedom.

~ George Washington Carver ~



Photo courtesy Library of Congress.

Sunday's Kat Kwote

Dogs are dogs, but cats are people.

~ Chinese proverb ~

Change

Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past or present are certain to miss the future.

~ John Fitzgerald Kennedy ~

Poetry Friday

There's always room,
They say,
At the top.

~ Langston Hughes from "To Be Somebody" ~

Actually, We Get Politics

Every country gets the circus it deserves. Spain gets bullfights. Italy gets the Catholic Church. America gets Hollywood.

~ Erica Jong ~

What Books Have You Reread?

Lists of books we reread and books we can't finish tell more about us than about the relative worth of the books themselves.

~ Russell Banks ~