Wednesday, July 31, 2013

The Secret

The most direct path to achievement whether you're an entrepreneur, a company executive, or a pro soccer player is to be a great performer and a great team member. This is also the secret to a meaningful career and self-fulfillment.

~ Maynard Webb ~

Tuesday, July 30, 2013

Nice Hat...


Everyone likes flattery; and when you come to Royalty you should lay it on with a trowel.

~ Benjamin Disraeli ~

Photo courtesy New York Social Diary.

Monday, July 29, 2013

Everyone Should Have a Bookshelf!




Behind every writer stands a very large bookshelf.

~ Justin Cronin ~

Sunday, July 28, 2013

Sunday's Kat Kwote


The cat sits on the ledge inside the window and watches me returning
through the dusk. Predictable as the hands of a clock,
the eyes of the cat are on my return.

~ Ciaran O'Driscoll ~

Photo by Chris Carter.

Saturday, July 27, 2013

It's the Least You Can Do



If you have any young friends who aspire to become writers, the second greatest favor you can do them is to present them with copies of The Elements of Style. The first greatest, of course, is to shoot them now, while they’re happy.

~ Dorothy Parker ~

Friday, July 26, 2013

Poetry Friday

And what is "the wild mind," anyway? Can we find a way to bring it into our poetry? Might poetry itself be a kind of "wild mind" on the page? And I love the way we glimpse a wild creature sometimes—with a fleeting sense of its presence that immediately vanishes into its own world. The effect is like poetry itself, sometimes.

~ Michael Hettich ~

Thursday, July 25, 2013

Good Thing He Was Never Asked!

If the Almighty were to rebuild the world and asked me for advice, I would have English Channels round every country. And the atmosphere would be such that anything which attempted to fly would be set on fire.

~ Winston Churchill ~

Wednesday, July 24, 2013

Ha, Ha!


Camping is nature's way of promoting the motel business.

~ Dave Barry ~

Photo courtesy Library of Congress.

Tuesday, July 23, 2013

Chess


...what chess teaches you is that you must sit there calmly and think about whether it's really a good idea and whether there are other, better ideas.

~ Stanley Kubrick ~

Monday, July 22, 2013

You Can't Beat a Good Knock-Knock Joke!

Knock knock!
Who's there?
Little old lady?
Little old lady who?
I didn't know you could yodel!

Sunday, July 21, 2013

Sundays Kat Kwote




If it be true that all remarkable human beings resemble animals, then Walt Whitman was like a cat--a great old grey Angora Tom, alert in response, serenely blinking under his combed waves of hair, with eyes inscrutably dreaming.

~ Edmund Gosse ~







1854 Whitman photo courtesy Library of Congress. Cat photo by Valerian Gaudeau.

Saturday, July 20, 2013

Not Obvious Enough!

I think to a great degree, we humans still divide ourselves into two species, even though we are monotypic. There are males and females. We see them as different and not equal. Things get better when women get more equality. That is a bit obvious but I think it leads to better results up the road. If it’s a man’s world as they say, then men, your world is a poorly run carnage fest.

~ Henry Rollins ~

Friday, July 19, 2013

Thursday, July 18, 2013

Remembering Marc Simont

Armed with his small "Scribble-In" brand sketchbooks purchased at a five-and-ten-cent store near the Academy, Simont drew in subways, bars, and other public places around town where, as he says, it was possible to work unnoticed, like a "bug in a fold in the curtain." Sketching in this way became a lifelong habit.

~ Leonard Marcus ~

Wednesday, July 17, 2013

When Playing Cards...


One should always play fairly when one has the winning cards.

~ Oscar Wilde ~

Photo by Sam Teigen.

Tuesday, July 16, 2013

The Patty Group


Mother Nature clearly intended for us to get our food from the "patty" group, which includes hamburgers, fish sticks, and McNuggets--foods that have had all of their organs safely removed.

~ Dave Barry ~

Photo by Christopher Chen.

Monday, July 15, 2013

A Lighthouse


Inside my empty bottle I was constructing a lighthouse while all the others were making ships.

~ Charles Simic ~

Sunday, July 14, 2013

Sunday's Kat Kwote





Performing cats, however, are seldom to be seen in circuses or vaudeville. They are most difficult to train, not because they are stupid but because they are too intelligent to be interested in such nonsense. A cat is never vulgar and this sort of thing undoubtedly strikes a cat as vulgar.

~ Carl Van Vechten ~







Poster courtesy Library of Congress.

Saturday, July 13, 2013

Truly Regrettable


The only thing I regret is that I will never have time to read all the books I want to read.

~ Francoise Sagan ~

Photo courtesy Library of Congress.

Friday, July 12, 2013

Poetry Friday


To him, all good things--trout as well as eternal salvation--come by grace, and grace comes by art, and art does not come easy.

~ Norman Maclean from A River Runs Through It ~

Renoir's "Rainbow Trout," courtesy The Athenaeum.

Thursday, July 11, 2013

Is This a Good Thing?

Human nature is like water. It takes the shape of its container.

~ Wallace Stevens ~

Wednesday, July 10, 2013

Ah, the Seashore...


Every time I have some moment on a seashore, or in the mountains, or sometimes in a quiet forest, I think this is why the environment has to be preserved.

~ Bill Bradley ~

Photo by Jody Roberts.

Tuesday, July 9, 2013

You Are a Fountain?


Look within. Within is the fountain of good, and it will ever bubble up, if thou wilt ever dig.

~ Marcus Aurelius ~

Bethesda Fountain, Central Park, courtesy NYPL Digital Library.

Monday, July 8, 2013

Fishing




It is to be observed that 'angling' is the name given to fishing by people who can't fish.

~ Stephen Leacock ~





Illustration courtesy NYPL Digital Library.

Sunday, July 7, 2013

Sunday's Kat Kwote

IV

The cat walks across the board game.
The whims of fate
cast furry shadows.


~ Tabatha Yeatts from "Thirteen Ways of Looking at Emma" ~

Photo by Eleftheria G .

Friday, July 5, 2013

Poetry Friday

Sometimes I write quickly, sometimes I spend several weeks on a single poem. I would really love for readers not to be able to guess which of the poems took so much work!

~ Wislawa Szymborska ~

Thursday, July 4, 2013

Happy 4th of July!


Patriotism is not a short and frenzied outburst of emotion but the tranquil and steady dedication of a lifetime.

~ Adlai Stevenson ~

"Independence Day" by John Califano (1900), courtesy The Athenaeum.

Wednesday, July 3, 2013

A Balanced Diet






Food is an important part of a balanced diet.

~ Fran Lebowitz ~

Tuesday, July 2, 2013

What Is It?





It ain't the heat, it's the humility.

~ Yogi Berra ~






Baseball Digest, September 1956 issue cover courtesy Wikipedia.

Monday, July 1, 2013

What To Do This Summer?


Summer is a great time to visit art museums, which offer the refreshing rinse of swimming pools--only instead of cool water, you immerse yourself in art.

~ Jerry Saltz ~

Photo by Robert Banh.