Someone's Having a Birthday Today!

Trivia

In wilderness I sense the miracle of life, and behind it our scientific accomplishments fade to trivia.

~ Charles Lindbergh ~
Photo by Carol M. Highsmith, courtesy Library of Congress.

Robots

Robots are interesting because they exist as a real technology that you can really study--you can get a degree in robotics--and they also have all this pop-culture real estate that they take up in people's minds.

~ Daniel H. Wilson ~



Illustration courtesy openclipart.

Sunday's Kat Kwote

She moves in little gusts and breezes
sharp and sudden as a sneeze is.

~ Ian Serraillier from "Miss Tibbles" ~
Photo by ace_alejandra.

Ah, Spring Flowers

Flowers are the expression of the love life of plants.

~ Dain L. Tasker ~

Photo © Diane Mayr, all rights reserved.

Poetry Friday

We read a poem, we listen to a song, and our hearts rise out of our eyes as tears.

That is poetry.

~ Paul L. Thomas ~

Image courtesy openclipart.

Favorite Book

My favorite books are a constantly changing list, but one favorite has remained constant: the dictionary. Is the word I want to use spelled practice or practise? The dictionary knows. The dictionary also slows down my writing because it is such interesting reading that I am distracted.

~ Beverly Cleary ~
Photo by Caleb Roenigk.

The Importance of Not Knowing

A writer is someone who, embarking upon a task, does not know what to do...The not-knowing is crucial to art, it is what permits art to be made. Without the scanning process engendered by not-knowing, without the possibility of having the mind move in unanticipated directions, there would be no invention.

~ Donald Barthelme ~




Image courtesy openclipart.

Happy Earth Day!

What is the use of a house if you haven't got a tolerable planet to put it on?

~ Henry David Thoreau ~

Stress

Stress is our twenty-first century tobacco. As we understand more about stress biology and the impact it has on our lives, we are going to have to wage a campaign to reduce the amount of stress in our lives.

~ Stephen Bezruchka ~
Image courtesy openclipart.

Sunday's Kat Kwote

Happy Easter!

Yup!

Writing is thinking on paper.

~ William Zinsser ~

Poetry Friday

Spider

Spider, you and I are kin;
Our deepest selves we both disburse.
Your entrails into silk you spin,
            And I mine into verse.

~ Paul Scott Mowrer ~

Separating Eggs

This recipe is certainly silly. It says to separate the eggs, but it doesn't say how far to separate them.

~ Gracie Allen ~
Image courtesy openclipart.

Wildlife

All over the world the wildlife that I write about is in grave danger. It is being exterminated by what we call the progress of civilization.

~ Gerald Durrell ~
[Note: waaaaaay back when I was in high school, my favorite books were written by Gerald Durrell. Durrell spent his life amongst the wild creatures of the earth, and, some of them just so happened to be members of his family! I highly recommend My Family and Other Animals or any of his other books that you can find.]

Photo by Byron Patchett.

A.K.A. "Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is"

The people that are fans of animation are really the people that are keeping the art form of animation alive. If you like cartoons, support the cartoons.

~ Kari Wahlgren ~



Photo courtesy KariWahlgren.net.

Surviving

Every man is wise when attacked by a mad dog; fewer when pursued by a mad woman; only the wisest survive when attacked by a mad notion.

~ Robertson Davies ~

Sunday's Kat Kwote

It is a great many years since she died; but I can see her before me to-day as plainly as if it were only yesterday that I had really seen her alive.

~ Helen Hunt Jackson from Letters from a Cat ~

All the Writers are Nodding "Yes"

Though an angel should write, still 'tis devils must print.

~ Thomas Moore ~

Poetry Friday

If you have in any way touched the central heart of mankind's feelings, you'll survive.

~ Richard Eberhart ~
Photo courtesy Dartmouth.

Music

Music is only love looking for words.

~ Lawrence Durrell ~

Art?

Without tradition, art is a flock of sheep without a shepherd. Without innovation, it is a corpse.

~ Winston Churchill ~

Colors

Colors must fit together as pieces in a puzzle or cogs in a wheel.

~ Hans Hofmann ~




"Pompeii" © the Estate of Hans Hofmann (1959), courtesy the Tate.

On the Proper Use of the Secret Weapon

Be generous with the duct tape, you know; spare the duct tape, spoil the job.

~ Red Green ~

Sunday's Kat Kwote

Oh, you poor whisker-wiper, you silly piebald, you starveling mouse-hunter! what has come into your head?

~ from "The Fox and the Cat," in Childhood's Favorites and Fairy Stories ~
Considering the look on Smudgie's face, I would say murder has come into her head! Photo © Diane Mayr, all rights reserved.

Opening Day!

You always get a special kick on opening day, no matter how many you go through. You look forward to it like a birthday party when you're a kid. You think something wonderful is going to happen.

~ Joe DiMaggio ~
Yesterday was opening day in Boston. I hope the Red Sox see something wonderful happen this season!

Poetry Friday

Poetry, by its nature, is on a human scale: the medium is one person’s voice. That sense of respect for the individual, built into the nature of the art, has the potential to temper, as well as inspire, leadership.

~ Robert Pinsky ~

Water Before Love

Joshua: Here! Water lily!

Lilia: My name is Lilia.

Joshua: To me you are a lily, and I want water.

Lilia: Joshua. Joshua, I thought you'd never come down.

Joshua: Water before love, my girl.

Lilia: Does it take the whole Nile to quench your thirst?

Joshua: No, just your lips.

~ from Cecile B. DeMille's The Ten Commandments (1956) ~

Happy National Poetry Month!

Poetry is a pleasure. It is compact and fast. It can pack emotion into the space of one breath.

~ Robert Pinsky ~
I took this photo from too far away at a performance of "Poemjazz" in Boston, March 2013. Pinsky in in the middle.