Funny How Some Things Never Change...

The public puts its mold upon us, and we come out as nearly alike as peas...Mind, health, beauty and happiness are all sacrificed to the processes of mold...
~ Mary Gove Nichols, 1853 ~

Florida Bound

See you later, alligator. After a while, crocodile.

~ Bill Haley ~



Photo by turtlemom4bacon

The Happiness of Simple Living

Coarse rice for food, water to drink, and the bended arm for a pillow--happiness may be enjoyed even in these.

~ Confucius ~

In Praise of Duct Tape

Magnetism is one of the Six Fundamental Forces of the Universe, with the other five being Gravity, Duct Tape, Whining, Remote Control, and The Force That Pulls Dogs Toward The Groins Of Strangers.

~ Dave Barry ~


Photo by taurusaficionado

Sunday's Kat Kwote

Photo by Oolong

A meow massages the heart.

~ Stuart McMillan ~

Censorship

If this nation is to be wise as well as strong, if we are to achieve our destiny, then we need more new ideas for more wise men reading more good books in more public libraries. These libraries should be open to all—except the censor. We must know all the facts and hear all the alternatives and listen to all the criticisms. Let us welcome controversial books and controversial authors. For the Bill of Rights is the guardian of our security as well as our liberty.

~ John Fitzgerald Kennedy ~

Poetry Friday

The poet is in the end probably more afraid of the dogmatist who wants to extract the message from the poem and throw the poem away than he is of the sentimentalist who says, "Oh, just let me enjoy the poem."

~ Robert Penn Warren ~

You Scratch My Back, I'll Scratch Yours?

Man has lost the basic skill of the ape, the ability to scratch its back. Which gave it extraordinary independence, and the liberty to associate for reasons other than the need for mutual back-scratching.

~ Jean Baudrillard ~



Photo by Hella T J

A Thought on Earth Day

Image courtesy of Pip Wilson
Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former.

~ Albert Einstein ~

Happy Birthday John Muir!

When one tugs at a single thing in nature, he finds it attached to the rest of the world.

~ John Muir ~

These Ladies Have the Right Idea!

You will find truth more quickly through delight than gravity. Let out a little more string on your kite.

~ Alan Cohen ~


Look closely, those kites are really little men!

Sunday's Kat Kwote

Photo by Groovnick

A cat will be your friend, but never your slave.

~ Theophile Gautier ~

Bucket Advice

Don't throw away the old bucket until you know whether the new one holds water.

~ Swedish proverb ~

Poetry Friday

Art doesn't belong to collectors or museum docents or art historians, any more than stories belong to publishers or to those who teach literature in classrooms. Paintings and sculptures, stories, poems, and songs, although they are bought and sold, critiqued and discussed in elite setting by learned people, are valuable primarily because, if they are good and lasting, they represent the dream material of the culture and, like our personal dreams, have gifts for us if we are willing to receive them. If it does its work, creative art engages us in creative response.

~ Marilyn Chandler McEntyre ~

The Hazards of Kite Flying

Photo by Kevin H.
I fully appreciate the ability of trees to attract kites. They have special powers that way.

~ Charlie Dunton ~

Funny How That Works!

Photo by watz

Have you noticed since everyone has a camcorder these days no one talks about seeing UFOs like they used to.

~ Author unknown ~

Who You Callin' a Bad Egg?

Photo by woodleywonderworks
It may be hard for an egg to turn into a bird: it would be a jolly sight harder for it to learn to fly while remaining an egg. We are like eggs at present. And you cannot go on indefinitely being just an ordinary, decent egg. We must be hatched or go bad.

~ C.S. Lewis ~

When I sing, I don't want them to see that my face is black; I don't want them to see that my face is white--I want them to see my soul. And that is colorless.

~ Marian Anderson ~

Sunday's Kat Kwote

Photo by ~fb~

You'll wake up on Easter morning
And you'll know that he was there
When you find those chocolate bunnies
That he's hiding everywhere.

~ Steve Nelson & Jack Rollins ~

Guess What Age She's At

From birth to age eighteen, a girl needs good parents. From eighteen to thirty-five she needs good looks. From thirty-five to fifty-five, she needs a good personality. From fifty-five on, she needs good cash.

~ Sophie Tucker ~

I'm at the age where I need the good cash. Anyone know where I can find it? --KK

Poetry Friday

We write because we believe the human spirit cannot be tamed and should not be trained.

~ Nikki Giovanni ~

For All of Us!

Who in the world am I? Ah, that's the great puzzle.

~ Lewis Carroll ~

Philosophical Implications?

I knew that by assembling seven different people and forcing them to live together, the show would have great philosophical implications.

~ Sherwood Schwartz (creator of Gilligan's Island)

What Sweet Solace!

Flowers seem intended for the solace of ordinary humanity.

~ John Ruskin ~






Photo by John-Morgan

How Scary Is This?

When I consider this carefully, I find not a single property which with certainty separates the waking state from the dream. How can you be certain that your whole life is not a dream?

~ Rene Descartes ~

Sunday's Kat Kwote

Photo by Joe Dunckley
I care not for a man's religion whose dog and cat are not the better for it.

~ Abraham Lincoln ~

With a Big Pat of Unsalted Butter...

If thou tastest a crust of bread, thou tastest all the stars and all the heavens.

~ Robert Browning ~

Poetry Friday

Photo by Christian Watzke

And A Sense of Humor!

If parents pass enthusiasm along to their children, they will leave them an estate of incalculable value...

~ Thomas Alva Edison ~

Happy April Fools' Day!

April 1. This is the day upon which we are reminded of what we are on the other three hundred and sixty-four.

~ Mark Twain ~

Holidays Are Always Good!

Time for work,--yet take
Much holiday for art's and friendship's sake.

~ George James de Wilde ~

I Look Forward to the Day When This is No Longer True

Men are taught to apologize for their weaknesses, women for their strengths.

~ Lois Wyse ~

Sunday's Kat Kwote

It is easy to understand why the rabble dislike cats. A cat is beautiful; it suggests ideas of luxury, cleanliness, voluptuous pleasures...etc.

~ Charles Baudelaire ~

And One of Me Is More Than Enough!

There is a vitality, a life force, an energy, a quickening, that is translated through you into action, and because there is only one of you in all time, this expression is unique.

~ Martha Graham ~

Image by Coffeelatte

Poetry Friday

Form is a straitjacket in the way that a straitjacket was a straitjacket for Houdini.

~ Paul Muldoon ~

The Real Reason for Art?

Writing is a form of therapy; sometimes I wonder how all those, who do not write, compose, or paint can manage to escape the madness, the melancholia, the panic fear, which is inherent in a human condition.

~ Graham Greene ~

A Place Which Seemed to Encourage Thought

In idle moments, when there were no pressing matters to be dealt with, and when everybody seemed to be sleepy from the heat, she would sit under her acacia tree. It was a dusty place to sit, and the chickens would occasionally come and peck about her feet, but it was a place which seemed to encourage thought.

~ Alexander McCall Smith from The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency ~
Photo by angela7dreams.

The Weather Here Sure Is Cuckoo!

This is the weather the cuckoo likes
And so do I.

~ Thomas Hardy ~



Photo by markkilner

Artists

When I say artist I mean the man who is building things--creating molding the earth--whether it be the plains of the west--or the iron ore of Penn. It's all a big game of construction--some with a brush--some with a shovel--some choose a pen.

~ Jackson Pollock ~

Sunday's Kat Kwote

There are no ordinary cats.

~ Sidonie Gabrielle ~






Photo by ResArt

Art Is More Than Paint and Canvas

One should either be a work of art, or wear a work of art.

~ Oscar Wilde ~



Actress Ethel Barrymore, 1901

Poetry Friday

The more one reads poetry, the less tolerant one becomes of an sort of verbosity.

~ Joseph Brodsky ~

It's Almost Here!

Photo by Swamibu

In those vernal seasons of the year, when the air is calm and pleasant, it were an injury and sullenness against nature not to go out and see her riches, and partake in her rejoicing with heaven and earth.

~ John Milton ~

Sage Advice

Don't accustom yourself to use big words for little matters.

~ Samuel Johnson ~

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Photo by upnorthmemories

College Costs

"Beaver": I could use my own money, the twenty-five dollars I got in the bank.

Wally: I thought you were saving that to go to college.

"Beaver": Larry says he never heard of a college you could go to for twenty-five dollars.


Nowadays, you can't even find one that you can go to for $25,000! (The average cost of a private four-year college for the year 2008-09 is $25,143 per year!) --KK


Photo courtesy of pdwroswell

Sunday's Kat Kwote

Photo by Diane Duane
Beware of people who dislike cats.
~ Irish proverb ~

Don't You Love Julia?

Photo by FotoosVanRobin

The only time to eat diet food is while you're waiting for the steak to cook.

~ Julia Child ~

Poetry Friday

Whispering into my ear, the syllables rustle their plumes and settle beside each other; longer and shorter phrases parade back and forth encouraging and urging forward. Little glimpses, and sometimes huge fleeting panoramas, flicker just outside the main line of my attention.

Throughout this spell, no one else intrudes for long: every move I make, every adjustment, retreat, surge onward, is profoundly individual, all my own, not lonely, just alone, a consciousness that must be aware of its unique reception amid a great, breathless moment of becoming.

~ William Stafford ~

Confidence!

After all there is an element in the readjustment of our financial system more important than currency, more important than gold, and that is the confidence of the people. Confidence and courage are the essentials of success in carrying out our plan. You people must have faith; you must not be stampeded by rumors or guesses. Let us unite in banishing fear.

~ Franklin D. Roosevelt, March 12, 1933 ~

Now, How Do You Feel About That?

I think you have to judge everything based on your personal taste. And if that means being critical, so be it. I hate political correctness. I absolutely loathe it.

~ Simon Cowell ~


Simon Cowell

Inspiration

Two things inspire me to awe--the starry heavens above and the moral universe within.

~ Albert Einstein ~

Photo by dsb nola
With me it's birds that I find astonishingly beautiful and, with their migratory habits, are absolutely awe-inspiring! --KK

A Little More Self Control in Americans Would Be Welcomed!

Industry, thrift and self-control are not sought because they create wealth, but because they create character.

~ Calvin Coolidge ~

Sunday's Kat Kwote

Watch a cat when it enters a room for the first time. It searches and smells about, it is not quiet for a moment, it trusts nothing until it has examined and made acquaintance with everything.

~ Jean-Jacques Rousseau ~

Nice...

Photo by Martin Cathrae
If I keep a green bough in my heart, the singing bird will come.

~ Chinese proverb ~

Poetry Friday

If I can stop one heart from breaking,
I shall not live in vain;
If I can ease one life the aching,
Or cool one pain,
Or help one fainting robin
Unto his nest again,
I shall not live in vain.

~ Emily Dickinson ~

WOW!

Each one of our hundred billion neurons may have anywhere from 1 to 10,000 synaptic connections to other neurons. This means that the theoretical number of different patterns of connections possible in a single brain is approximately 40,000,000,000,000,000--forty quadrillion.

~ John J. Ratey ~


Image courtesy of killermonkeys