Television

Television is a medium because anything well done is rare.

~ Fred Allen ~


Graphic courtesy Open Clip Art Library.

Ef You, Mr. Darcy!

"She is tolerable I suppose."

~ Mr. Darcy ~

Happy Birthday, Pride and Prejudice!

There are few people whom I really love, and still fewer of whom I think well. The more I see of the world, the more am I dissatisfied with it; and every day confirms my belief of the inconsistency of all human characters, and of the little dependence that can be placed on the appearance of merit or sense.

~ Jane Austen ~
[Note: Pride and Prejudice has been long-lived and is well-loved around the world. Today is the 200th anniversary of its publication. In 200 years there have been many attempts at creating the perfect cover. Make sure you check out The Atlantic Wire article "200 Years of 'Pride and Prejudice' Book Design," from which I borrowed the cover above. There are book covers from ten countries at The Bennet Sisters blog, which are also of interest.]

Sunday's Kat Kwote

© Diane Mayr, all rights reserved. This is also posted today at Random Noodling.

Here's What the Testing Brouhaha is Really About

When teachers, aides, school counselors, and others spend hours in early spring drilling students on test-taking techniques, that is time that children are not reading, are not learning about math and science and history, and are not experiencing or creating art or music.

~ Sherman Dorn ~

Poetry Friday

I say I don't like the dance image which always occurs when you try to figure out where the poet is doing things, and it's like a dance, maybe, of the Indian fakir on hot coals, but it ain't very much like a dance that I'd like to dance of choice.

~ Jack Spicer ~
Fakir photo courtesy Library of Congress.

Creative Thinking

There is nothing you can see that is not a flower; there is nothing you can think that is not the moon.

~ Matsuo Basho ~

Comic Books

At a young age, I was interested in comic books, which was really how I learned to read.

~ Nicholas Cage ~

Pets

Pets are humanizing. They remind us we have an obligation and responsibility to preserve and nurture and care for all life.

~ James Cromwell ~

Happy Inauguration Day!

Courtesy NPR.

Sunday's Kat Kwote

And while milk is not poisonous to cats, it is also not ideal for fully grown and mature cats. The reason for this is that the majority of these cats are lactose-intolerant. This tells us that their digestive systems are not able to properly process the sugars that are found in cow’s milk, goat’s milk, etc.

~ Little Cat Paws website ~

A Back-Handed Compliment If Ever There Was One

But there is another glory belonging to this age, and almost to this age alone of our poetry--the glory of Female Genius. We have heard and seen it seriously argued whether or not women are equal to men; as if there could be a moment's doubt in any mind unbesotted by sex, that they are infinitely superior; not in understanding, thank Heaven, nor in intellect, but in all other "impulses of soul and sense" that dignify and adorn human beings, and make them worthy of living on this delightful earth. Men for the most part are such worthless wretches, that we wonder how women condescend to allow the world to be carried on; and we attribute that phenomenon solely to the hallowed yearnings of maternal affection, which breathes as strongly in maid as in matron, and may be beautifully seen in the child fondling its doll in its blissful bosom.

~ John Wilson from "An Hour's Talk about Poetry," in Recreations of Christopher North, Volume I (MDCCCLXVIII) ~

Poetry Friday

You come by your style by learning what to leave out. At first you tend to overwrite—embellishment instead of insight. You either continue to write puerile bilge, or you change. In the process of simplifying oneself, one often discovers the thing called voice.

~ Billy Collins ~



Photo by wwwes.

Cheesy

Cheesiness seems to belong to whatever strikes us as cheesy. The cheese fountain would be cheesy, we think, whether it burbled at the biggest Super Bowl party in Las Vegas or in the woods where a tree falls that no one hears.

~ Eric LeMay ~





Photo by Wajiii.

It's True

People who cannot distinguish between good and bad language, or who regard the distinction as unimportant, are unlikely to think carefully about anything else.

~ B.R. Myers ~

Multitasking

She read while doing other things, multitasking back when it was called rudeness.

~ Jeanne Darst from Fiction Ruined My Family ~

Common Sense Dancing!

Common sense and a sense of humor are the same thing, moving at different speeds. A sense of humor is just common sense, dancing.

~ William James ~

Sunday's Kat Kwote

the cat joins
the party...
drinking away the year


~ Kobayashi Issa, translated by David G. Lanoue ~

Photo by Eerko.

Or Better Yet...

We are living in the future! Enjoy it. Or better yet, help build it by pursuing a career in a science, technology, engineering or math-related field. The President has held the first-ever White House science fairs and Astronomy Night on the South Lawn because he knows these domains are critical to our country's future, and to ensuring the United States continues leading the world in doing big things.

~ Paul Shawcross ~

Poetry Friday

Putting poems in your memory bank is better than dollars.

~ Maxine Kumin ~

Lesson Learned

I've learned the hard lesson that you can't pin your heart on anything until it's a completely done deal.

~ William Kempe ~

Stars are Stars

Things are as they are. Looking out into it the universe at night, we make no comparisons between right and wrong stars, nor between well and badly arranged constellations.

~ Alan Watts ~
Photo courtesy Sarah G...

Snow!

Snow provokes responses that reach right back to childhood.

~ Andy Goldsworthy ~
Photo courtesy Library of Congress.

Can You?

If you can see the magic in a fairytale, you can face the future.

~ Danielle Steel ~

Sunday's Kat Kwote

It's tough to find out who's responsible for the action as the cat doesn't speak.

~ A prison spokesman, reported by the BBC ~

Taking Insanity to a Whole New Height

House Republicans have unsuccessfully voted 33 times in the last two years to eliminate health care reform and wasted at least 88 hours and $50 million, while failing to pass a single piece of job creation legislation in the last session of Congress.

~ Adam Peck ~

Poetry Friday

To the artists and writers, let's nigh drink a health,
The people whose hopes, and whose joys are our wealth,
Whose tools are upon canvas and paper and pen,
Whose harvest is the future, the progress of men.

~ Peggy Seeger from "Come Fill Up Your Glasses" ~

Jewelry

Jewelry takes people's minds off your wrinkles.

~ Sonja Henie ~
Photo courtesy Historic Royal Palaces.

In Books

The instruction we find in books is like fire. We fetch it from our neighbours, kindle it at home, communicate it to others, and it becomes the property of all.

~ Voltaire ~

Happy 2013!

The dark night is ending and dawn has begun;
Rise, hope of the ages, arise like the sun,
All speech flow to music, all hearts beat as one!

~ John Greenleaf Whittier ~

Photo by PTorrodellas.