Thursday, December 31, 2015

At the Closing of the Year

If I cannot bring you comfort
Then at least I bring you hope

~ Wendy and Lisa ~

Monday, December 28, 2015

Music


I think music in itself is healing. It's an explosive expression of humanity. It's something we are all touched by. No matter what culture we're from, everyone loves music.

~ Billy Joel ~

Sunday, December 27, 2015

Sunday's Kat Kwote

For those days when you'd like to throw most of humanity down the drain...

Saturday, December 26, 2015

For Me, Too!




For me, the compelling question is the psychological state of his supporters. They are unable or unwilling to make a connection between the challenges faced by any president and the knowledge and behavior of Donald Trump. In a democracy, that is disastrous.

~ Howard Gardner ~

Friday, December 25, 2015

Poetry Friday


Remembering the stable where for once in our lives
Everything became a You and nothing was an It.

~ W. H. Auden from "Christmas Oratio" ~

Thursday, December 24, 2015

Wednesday, December 23, 2015

Time Machines


We all have our time machines. Some take us back, they're called memories. Some take us forward, they're called dreams.

~ Jeremy Irons ~

Monday, December 21, 2015

Mason Jar

Yesterday I went outside
With my momma's mason jar
Caught a lovely Butterfly

~ Weezer ~

Sunday, December 20, 2015

Sunday's Kat Kwote



[Note: Sainsbury's is a large supermarket chain in the U. K.]

Saturday, December 19, 2015

Morning


To him whose elastic and vigorous thought keeps pace with the sun, the day is a perpetual morning. It matters not what the clocks say or the attitudes and labors of men. Morning is when I am awake and there is a dawn in me.

~ Henry David Thoreau ~

Postcard courtesy The NY Public Library Digital Collections.

Friday, December 18, 2015

Poetry Friday




Artists are not cheerleaders, and we're not the heads of tourism boards. We expose and discuss what is problematic, what is contradictory, what is hurtful and what is silenced in the culture we're in.

~ Junot Diaz ~




Photo © Nina Subin, courtesy JunotDiaz.com.

Thursday, December 17, 2015

Birds!







Everyone likes birds. What wild creature is more accessible to our eyes and ears, as close to us and everyone in the world, as universal as a bird?

~ David Attenborough ~


Wednesday, December 16, 2015

Creativity





You can't use up creativity. The more you use, the more you have.

~ Maya Angelou ~

Tuesday, December 15, 2015

Two Sides of the Same Coin

Life is never all one thing. It bounces around. Certainly, my own life has. Look at Woody Allen's funny movies--all the humor comes out of sad stuff. Sometimes you have to laugh, no matter what life deals you.

~ Tim O'Brien ~

Monday, December 14, 2015

An Easy Trick to Learn!

Obviously, you would give your life for your children, or give them the last biscuit on the plate. But to me, the trick in life is to take that sense of generosity between kin, make it apply to the extended family and to your neighbour, your village and beyond.

~ Tom Stoppard ~

Sunday, December 13, 2015

Sunday's Kat Kwote


~ The Monkey's Frolic by Anonymous ~

Published in 1843.

Saturday, December 12, 2015

Simply Put

There are two doors. Behind Door Number One is a completely sealed room, with a regular, gasoline-fueled car. Behind Door Number Two is an identical, completely sealed room, with an electric car. Both engines are running full blast.

I want you to pick a door to open, and enter the room and shut the door behind you. You have to stay in the room you choose for one hour. You cannot turn off the engine. You do not get a gas mask.

I’m guessing you chose the Door Number Two, with the electric car, right? Door number one is a fatal choice--who would ever want to breathe those fumes?

~ Arnold Schwarzenegger ~

Friday, December 11, 2015

Poetry Friday





Just read poetry, love it to pieces,
and enjoy it to the fullest.

~ Lee Bennett Hopkins ~





Photo by Charles Egita, courtesy Harper Collins.

Thursday, December 10, 2015

Puzzles

You know, people call mystery novels or thrillers "puzzles." I never understood that, because when I buy a puzzle, I already know what it is. It's on the box. And even if I don't, if it's a 5,000-piece puzzle of the "Mona Lisa," it's not like I put the last piece in and go, "I had no idea it's the 'Mona Lisa'!"

~ Harlan Coben ~

Click to Mix and Solve

Wednesday, December 9, 2015

Art







Art is not a handicraft, it is the transmission of feeling the artist has experienced.

~ Leo Tolstoy ~









Painting by Ilya Repin (1901), courtesy Wikipedia.

Tuesday, December 8, 2015

Always Have, Always Will



Knitters use knitting to value-add to the world.

~ Stephanie Pearl-McPhee ~

Monday, December 7, 2015

Sunday, December 6, 2015

Sunday's Kat Kwote


But sometimes at dusk when we're driving home
And come on the cats by surprise,
I feel a shiver go down my back
Facing their burning eyes.

~ Elizabeth Coatsworth from "The Two Cats" ~

Photo by Rikki's Refuge.

Saturday, December 5, 2015

Interesting Observation



In a sense the world dies every time a writer dies, because, if he is any good, he has been a wet nurse to humanity during his entire existence and has held earth close around him, like the little obstetrical toad that goes about with a cluster of eggs attached to his legs.

~ E. B. White ~

Friday, December 4, 2015

Poetry Friday



Humility

Poems arrive ready to begin.
    Poets are only the transportation.

~ Mary Oliver ~

Thursday, December 3, 2015

Celebrities Love Their Cheese Logs

Nothing says holidays, like a cheese log.

~ Ellen DeGeneres ~

Wednesday, December 2, 2015

So Don't Do It






Crying is really bad for your vocal cords.

~ Adele ~

Tuesday, December 1, 2015

Be of Good Cheer






Let us be of good cheer, however, remembering that the misfortunes hardest to bear are those which never come.

~ James Russell Lowell ~

Monday, November 30, 2015

Damnably Sentimental





The world is neither wise nor just, but it makes up for all its folly and injustice by being damnably sentimental.

~ Thomas Huxley ~

Sunday, November 29, 2015

Sunday's Kat Kwote


Let your children love pussy, pussy loves your children; only kindly point out to them the essential difference between a plaything and a playmate.

~ W. Gordon Stables ~

Saturday, November 28, 2015

Timely Thought


As anti-refugee hysteria sweeps many of our political leaders, particularly Republicans, I wonder what they would have told a desperate refugee family fleeing the Middle East. You’ve heard of this family: a carpenter named Joseph, his wife, Mary, and their baby son, Jesus.

According to the Gospel of Matthew, after Jesus’ birth they fled to save Jesus from murderous King Herod (perhaps the 2,000-year-ago equivalent of Bashar al-Assad of Syria?). Fortunately Joseph, Mary and Jesus found de facto asylum in Egypt--thank goodness House Republicans weren’t in charge when Jesus was a refugee!

~ Nicholas Kristof ~

"The Flight into Egypt" by Giovanni Battista Crespi (1610-1620), courtesy The Athenaeum.

Friday, November 27, 2015

Poetry Friday


Poetry surrounds us everywhere, but putting it on paper is, alas, not so easy as looking at it.

~ Vincent Van Gogh~

"Starry Night over the Rhone" by Vincent van Gogh, courtesy Wikimedia.

Wednesday, November 25, 2015

America's First Refugees


Next to the fugitives whom Moses led out of Egypt, the little shipload of outcasts who landed at Plymouth are destined to influence the future of the world.

~ James Russell Lowell ~

Tuesday, November 24, 2015

From a Man Who Himself Became Mythic



The great enemy of the truth is very often not the lie, deliberate, contrived and dishonest, but the myth, persistent, persuasive and unrealistic.

~ John F. Kennedy ~

Monday, November 23, 2015

Dancing


The dance can reveal everything mysterious that is hidden in music, and it has the additional merit of being human and palpable. Dancing is poetry with arms and legs.

~ Charles Baudelaire ~

Photo courtesy Library of Congress.

Sunday, November 22, 2015

Sunday's Kat Kwote





Once upon a time there lived a king who was deeply in love with a princess, but she could not marry anyone, because she was under an enchantment. So the King set out to seek a fairy, and asked what he could do to win the Princess's love. The Fairy said to him:

"You know that the Princess has a great cat which she is very fond of. Whoever is clever enough to tread on that cat's tail is the man she is destined to marry."




~ Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont from "Prince Hyacinth and the Dear Little Princess" ~

Saturday, November 21, 2015

Intolerance = Uneducated




It's an universal law--intolerance is the first sign of an inadequate education. An ill-educated person behaves with arrogant impatience, whereas truly profound education breeds humility.

~ Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn ~



Photo courtesy NobelPrize.org.

Friday, November 20, 2015

Poetry Friday






Poetry should surprise by a fine excess and not by singularity, it should strike the reader as a wording of his own highest thoughts, and appear almost a remembrance.

~ John Keats ~

Thursday, November 19, 2015

Painting


One learns about painting by looking at and imitating other painters.

~ Frank Stella ~

"View of the Grand Gallery of the Louvre" by Robert Hubert, courtesy The Athenaeum.

Wednesday, November 18, 2015

A Classic


The story being told in Star Wars is a classic one. Every few hundred years, the story is retold because we have a tendency to do the same things over and over again. Power corrupts, and when you're in charge, you start doing things that you think are right, but they're actually not.

~ George Lucas ~

Tuesday, November 17, 2015

Happiness




Happiness is good health and a bad memory.

~ Ingrid Bergman ~

Monday, November 16, 2015

Go Vegetable Heavy!






Go vegetable heavy. Reverse the psychology of your plate by making meat the side dish and vegetables the main course.

~ Bobby Flay ~

Sunday, November 15, 2015

Sunday's Kat Kwote


There was, nevertheless, some sweetness diffused over that face, but it was the sweetness of a cat or a judge, an affected, treacherous sweetness.

~ Victor Hugo from The Hunchback of Notre Dame ~

Photo courtesy Library of Congress.

Saturday, November 14, 2015

In a World Gone Insane


If it is our freedom and joy they seek to destroy, give them not that victory. Against the forces of darkness and terror, love and compassion shall always prevail. ‪#‎JeSuisParis‬

~ George Takei ~

Photo by Joe deSousa.

Friday, November 13, 2015

Poetry Friday







We make out of the quarrel with others, rhetoric, but of the quarrel with ourselves, poetry.

~ William Butler Yeats ~






Photo courtesy Wikipedia.

Thursday, November 12, 2015

Speak Out






The moment we begin to fear the opinions of others and hesitate to tell the truth that is in us, and from motives of policy are silent when we should speak, the divine floods of light and life no longer flow into our souls.

~ Elizabeth Cady Stanton ~





Photo courtesy National Portrait Gallery.

Wednesday, November 11, 2015

Veterans Day Prayer

Build me a son, O Lord, who will be strong enough to know when he is weak, and brave enough to face himself when he is afraid, one who will be proud and unbending in honest defeat, and humble and gentle in victory.

~ Douglas MacArthur ~


Tuesday, November 10, 2015

In That Case, Mike, You Need a Cat




Sulley: Hey, Mike, this might sound crazy but I don't think that kid's dangerous.

Mike: Really? Well, in that case, let's keep it. I always wanted a pet that could kill me.

~ From Monsters, Inc. ~

Monday, November 9, 2015

Ukuleles!





There's something about the ukulele that just makes you smile. It makes you let your guard down. It brings out the child in all of us.

~ Jake Shimabukuro ~

Sunday, November 8, 2015

Sunday's Kat Kwote

No kwote today, just an informative little cat breed video!



Saturday, November 7, 2015

Just Open Your Eyes






We can only be said to be alive in those moments when our hearts are conscious of our treasures.

~ Thornton Wilder ~





Photo source: NY Public Library Digital Collections.

Friday, November 6, 2015

Poetry Friday




At somewhere around 10 syllables, the English poetic line is at its most relaxed and manageable.

~ James Fenton ~

Thursday, November 5, 2015

Especially If They Move


Of all of our inventions for mass communication, pictures still speak the most universally understood language.

~ Walt Disney ~

Business envelop courtesy Wikipedia.

Wednesday, November 4, 2015

Let Go!

We must let go of the life we have planned, so as to accept the one that is waiting for us.

~ Joseph Campbell ~

Tuesday, November 3, 2015

Scary Movies



And I love a scary movie. It makes your toes curl and it's not you going through it.

~ Anthony Hopkins ~

Monday, November 2, 2015

Role Model





It's not that I have compromised or anything, but it's always been important to me to take good care of myself and be a good example. I'm not much a role model in terms of hair care, though.

~ Patti Smith ~

Sunday, November 1, 2015

Sunday's Kat Kwote


~ From The Book of Nonsense (1870), written and illustrated by Edward Lear ~

Saturday, October 31, 2015

Happy Halloween!


I bought all of these big, cold, slimy, disgusting pumpkins and tried to carve them, and it was gross, so I had to find something else to do with them. Glitter was life-changing.

~ Jen Lancaster ~

Friday, October 30, 2015

Poetry Friday


Cognitive science now suggests that humans are actually hard-wired to respond to the sort of patterned speech that verse represents. Like the songs of birds or dances of bees--but on a higher level of complexity--poetry reflects the unique cognitive capacity of the human mind and body.

~ Dana Gioia ~

Photo source: Dana Gioia Official Site.

Thursday, October 29, 2015

Where the Nurture Is Stronger Than the Nature

Rich, smart parents tend to have rich, smart kids--not because it's genetic but because they can create a home environment and sensory stimulation that lower-income kids often don't get.

~ George Kaiser ~

Wednesday, October 28, 2015

Unusual Efforts Required


Because I am a woman, I must make unusual efforts to succeed. If I fail, no one will say, "She doesn't have what it takes." They will say, "Women don't have what it takes."

~ Clare Boothe Luce ~

Image courtesy The NY Public Library Digital Collections.

Tuesday, October 27, 2015

Where Does Inspiration Come From?

I was eating in a Chinese restaurant downtown. There was a dish called Mother and Child Reunion. It's chicken and eggs. And I said, "I gotta use that one."

~ Paul Simon ~





Monday, October 26, 2015

Art and Artists

I do not believe an artist's life throws much light upon his works. I do believe, however, that, more often than most people realize, his works may throw light upon his life.

~ W. H. Auden ~

Sunday, October 25, 2015

Sunday's Kat Kwote

Halloween is rapidly approaching!


[You'd be hard-pressed to find a worse Halloween rhyme than this one! --KK]

Photo courtesy riptheskull.