Unbelievable

There are surveys that say people will vote for almost anyone over an atheist. There is a 30 or 40 percent part of the population that will not vote for someone who doesn’t believe in God, so there’s definitely a religious test for the highest office.

~ Michael I. Meyerson ~

Poetry Friday

Everyone knows what 911 means. Everyone should know what 811 means--that’s the poetry section of the library. Visit as often as you can.

~ J. Patrick Lewis ~

R.I.P. Nora Ephron

I try to write parts for women that are as complicated and interesting as women actually are.

~ Nora Ephron ~

I Never Associated Dickens With Butterflies!

I only ask to be free. The butterflies are free.

~ Charles Dickens ~

Ansel Adams

Twelve significant photographs in any one year is a good crop.

~ Ansel Adams ~

Ansel Adams photo courtesy Library of Congress.

Only If You Live Alone, Bill

I had always thought that once you grew up you could do anything you wanted--stay up all night or eat ice-cream straight out of the container.

~ Bill Bryson ~



Photo by TomD.

Sunday's Kat Kwote

C was Papa's gray Cat,
  Who caught a squeaky Mouse;
She pulled him by his twirly tail
  All about the house.

~ Edward Lear ~

Title IX Signed into Law 40 Years Ago Today

While the impact of this amendment would be far-reaching, it is not a panacea. It is, however, an important first step in the effort to provide for the women of America something that is rightfully theirs—an equal chance to attend the schools of their choice, to develop the skills they want, and to apply those skills with the knowledge that they will have a fair chance to secure the jobs of their choice with equal pay for equal work.

~ Birch Bayh ~

Poetry Friday

Isn’t that the beauty of writing? Everyone else but us knows what we mean.

~ Pamela Ross ~

Title IX

When it comes down to it, the majority of the characteristics I like about myself--my competitive spirit, perseverance, decision-making and communication skills, ability to handle pressure, to solve problems, to overcome adversity and to work with others--were developed through a lifetime of athletic competition. I am who I am because Title IX gave me the opportunity to play.

~ Beverly Oden ~

Summer--It Does Exist!

People take pictures of the Summer, just in case someone thought they had missed it, and to prove that it really existed.

~ Ray Davies ~




Photo by Diane Mayr.

Music

Music is forever; music should grow and mature with you, following you right on up until you die.

~ Paul Simon ~

Image courtesy Open Clip Art Library.

Instant Vacation

Laughter is an instant vacation.

~ Milton Berle ~

Sunday's Kat Kwote

I never thought I should come to like cats. But I have. Perhaps it is because, as my Aunt Amanda used to say, we change every seven years, sort of start over again, as it were; and find we have new thoughts, different ideas, unexpected tastes, strange attractions, and shifting doubts.

~ Ida R. Fargo from "Somebody's Cat" in American Cookery, November 1921 ~




Photo courtesy Library of Congress.

Pray Justice Is the Winner

As long as justice and injustice have not terminated their ever renewing fight for ascendancy in the affairs of mankind, human beings must be willing, when need is, to do battle for the one against the other.

~ John Stuart Mill ~

Poetry Friday

How can a word taste, smell, feel? It just can. It just does. At least for me. And that’s where it all begins: in that sensory place where pleasure meets up with the desire to make something out of nothing: to make love.

~ Peter Markus ~

Flag Day!

Let it be borne on the flag under which we rally in every exigency, that we have one country, one constitution, one destiny.

~ Daniel Webster ~

Photo by bbaltimore.

Don't Forget a Cat...

If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need.

~ Marcus Tullius Cicero ~







Photo courtesy State Library of Victoria Collections.

The Head in the Sand Response

There is a tendency at every important but difficult crossroad to pretend that it's not really there.

~ Bill McKibben from The End of Nature ~

Wild Expressions!

Grant me some wild expressions, Heavens, or I shall burst.

~ George Farquhar ~

Sunday's Kat Kwote

June is designated as National Adopt a Shelter Cat month. June is the height of "kitten season" and animal shelters everywhere are receiving litters of abandoned kittens; single sick or injured kittens as well as adult cats.

Those adult cats arrive very pregnant or with their litter of kittens. They arrive by the thousands.

For those folks living in the country, you already know this and you know how hard it is to manage so many stray cats and their offspring.

Spaying and neutering your cat is one of the most important things a pet owner can do.

~ Tami Crawford ~

Photo by TNT Photo.

The Difference Is Huge

No, Mitt, corporations are not people. People have hearts, they have kids, they get jobs, they get sick, they love, they cry, they dance, they live and they die. Learn the difference.

~ Elizabeth Warren ~

Poetry Friday

I'm terrified of switching the computer on because there are so many poems.

~ Roger McGough ~

Photo by Chris Boland.

Reading

If one cannot enjoy reading a book over and over again, there is no use in reading it at all.

~ Oscar Wilde ~

The Dangers of Being an Orchestra Leader

"Pinocchio, come up here to me," cried Harlequin, "and throw yourself into the arms of your wooden brothers!"

At this affectionate invitation Pinocchio made a leap from the end of the pit into the reserved seats; another leap landed him on the head of the leader of the orchestra, and he then sprang upon the stage.

The embraces, the friendly pinches, and the demonstrations of warm brotherly affection that Pinocchio received from the excited crowd of actors and actresses of the puppet dramatic company are beyond description.

~ C. Collodi ~

Child Labor

Child labor and poverty are inevitably bound together and if you continue to use the labor of children as the treatment for the social disease of poverty, you will have both poverty and child labor to the end of time.

~ Grace Abbott ~

Photo taken in Manchester, NH, 1909, by Lewis Hine, courtesy Library of Congress.

Venus

Venus favors the bold.

~ Ovid ~

Photo by Carol M. Highsmith courtesy Library of Congress.

Sunday's Kat Kwote

~ J. G. Francis from A Book of Cheerful Cats and Other Animated Animals ~

[Note: click on the illustration to make it easier to read.]

Don't Even Think It!

Don't join the book burners. Don't think you're going to conceal faults by concealing evidence that they ever existed.

~ Dwight D. Eisenhower ~


Photo from National Archive courtesy U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum.

Poetry Friday

There is the sense that we are all, as writers, part of something which is more powerful than any of us.

~ Helen Dunmore ~

KK note: as readers, too!