Thursday, February 28, 2013

I Hope He's Right


It is good to realize that if love and peace can prevail on earth, and if we can teach our children to honor nature's gifts, the joys and beauties of the outdoors will be here forever.

~ Jimmy Carter ~

Photo by Shawn Hayes.

Wednesday, February 27, 2013

Yes, Go to the Library!

If you want to get laid, go to college. If you want an education, go to the library.

~ Frank Zappa ~

Monday, February 25, 2013





It's practically impossible to look at a penguin and feel angry.

~ Joe Moore ~

Sunday, February 24, 2013

Sunday's Kat Kwote

...In the pewter mornings, the cat,
a black fur sausage with yellow
Houdini eyes, jumps up on the bed and tries
to get onto my head.

~ Margaret Atwood from "February." ~

Photo by stychy.

Saturday, February 23, 2013

The Truth

The truth is rarely pure and never simple.

~ Oscar Wilde ~

Friday, February 22, 2013

Poetry Friday





Art is not a mirror held up to reality, but a hammer with which to shape it.

~ Bertolt Brecht ~






Photo by ho visto nina volare.

Thursday, February 21, 2013

Wednesday, February 20, 2013

Happy World Day of Social Justice

I want my fair share--and that's ALL of it.

~ Charles Koch ~

I guess Mr. Koch won't be honoring this special day. To learn about World Day of Social Justice, click here.

Tuesday, February 19, 2013

Names

And so with all things: names were vital and important.

~ Algernon H. Blackwood ~

Monday, February 18, 2013

Happy President's Day!





Property as compared with humanity, as compared with the red blood in the American people, must take second place, not first place.

~ Woodrow Wilson ~




Photo courtesy Library of Congress.

Sunday, February 17, 2013

Sunday's Kat Kwote


The organization of cats is musical; they are capable of giving many modulations to their voices and in the different passions which occupy them they use diverse tones.

~ F. A. Paradis de Moncrif ~


1805 engraving courtesy Library of Congress.

Saturday, February 16, 2013

Common Sense

And for me, to live in fear of you and your unnecessary fears, that’s not Freedom, nor is that Liberty. A gun doesn’t make a fearful person brave, it only makes you a fearful person with a gun…and I can’t think of a worse combination in this society for the rest of us. That’s why I support treating a gun the way we treat owning a car or buying a box of Sudafed, like it may just be a big enough deal to have a few rules, since they have the power to end an innocent life.

More than 12,000 a year, to be more precise.

~ Vince Yanez ~

Friday, February 15, 2013

Poetry Friday


Poets write, I do believe, because they have to--it's something nothing else quite satisfies. One has to do it--compulsively.

~ Robert Creeley ~

Thursday, February 14, 2013

Happy Valentine's Day to All!


Love is a human experience, not a political statement.

~ Anne Hathaway ~

Image courtesy Open Clip Art Library.

Monday, February 11, 2013

What is Art?


True Art is an organized piece of work that effectively communicates a genuine human experience.

~ Caleb Jacobo ~

13th century Chinese fan courtesy ibiblio.

Sunday, February 10, 2013

Sunday's Kat Kwote



Sorry, you'll probably have an earworm for the rest of the day. --KK

Saturday, February 9, 2013

Valentine's Day Is Coming


'I'll love you, dear, I'll love you
      Till China and Africa meet,
             And the river jumps over the mountain
                  And the salmon sing in the street,

~ W. H. Auden ~

Friday, February 8, 2013

Poetry Friday







I could never, even as a child, see any good reason why the language of verse should be distorted almost out of recognition in order to be poetical.

~ Edwin Arlington Robinson ~






Photo courtesy Maine Historical Society.

Thursday, February 7, 2013

Yes, We Do!


The audience likes to be taken on new journeys.

~ David Copperfield ~

Wednesday, February 6, 2013

Train Station


The energy in a train station is an odd combination of adrenaline and boredom; anticipation for the destination tempered by impatience at how long it's taking to get there.

~ Beth Novey ~

Photo courtesy Library of Congress.

Tuesday, February 5, 2013

Proverbial Wisdom


A bad word whispered will echo a hundred miles.

~ Chinese proverb ~

Courtesy New York Public Library Digital Gallery.

Monday, February 4, 2013

Not Quite Sure I Get This One!





I shall not die of a cold. I shall die of having lived.

~ Willa Cather ~





Photo courtesy the Willa Cather Archive.

Sunday, February 3, 2013

Sunday's Kat Kwote


It is not worth the while to go round the world to count the cats in Zanzibar.

~ Henry David Thoreau ~

Photo by katstan.

Saturday, February 2, 2013

Friday, February 1, 2013

Poetry Friday


Most of the time, poetry enjoys the visibility of other minor cultural subcultures like chess or quilting.

~ Anita Diamant ~

Cover of The Patchwork Quilt, a book of poetry, courtesy Baylor University Libraries Digital Collections.

Wednesday, January 30, 2013

Television





Television is a medium because anything well done is rare.

~ Fred Allen ~



Graphic courtesy Open Clip Art Library.

Tuesday, January 29, 2013

Monday, January 28, 2013

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, January 27, 2013

Sunday's Kat Kwote

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


Saturday, January 26, 2013

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 ~

Friday, January 25, 2013

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.

Thursday, January 24, 2013

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 ~

Wednesday, January 23, 2013

Comic Books

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

~ Nicholas Cage ~

Tuesday, January 22, 2013

Pets


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

~ James Cromwell ~

Sunday, January 20, 2013

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 ~

Saturday, January 19, 2013

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) ~

Friday, January 18, 2013

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.

Thursday, January 17, 2013

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.

Wednesday, January 16, 2013

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 ~

Tuesday, January 15, 2013

Multitasking



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

~ Jeanne Darst from Fiction Ruined My Family ~

Monday, January 14, 2013

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, January 13, 2013

Sunday's Kat Kwote

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



~ Kobayashi Issa, translated by David G. Lanoue ~
Photo by Eerko.


Saturday, January 12, 2013

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 ~

Friday, January 11, 2013

Poetry Friday

Putting poems in your memory bank is better than dollars.

~ Maxine Kumin ~

Thursday, January 10, 2013

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 ~

Wednesday, January 9, 2013

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...

Tuesday, January 8, 2013

Snow!


Snow provokes responses that reach right back to childhood.

~ Andy Goldsworthy ~

Photo courtesy Library of Congress.

Monday, January 7, 2013

Can You?


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

~ Danielle Steel ~

Sunday, January 6, 2013

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 ~

Saturday, January 5, 2013

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 ~

Friday, January 4, 2013

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" ~



Thursday, January 3, 2013

Jewelry


Jewelry takes people's minds off your wrinkles.

~ Sonja Henie ~

Photo courtesy Historic Royal Palaces.

Wednesday, January 2, 2013

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 ~

Tuesday, January 1, 2013

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.

Monday, December 31, 2012

The Highlight


The highlight of my childhood was making my brother laugh so hard that food came out of his nose.

~ Garrison Keillor ~

Graphic courtesy Library of Congress.

Sunday, December 30, 2012

Sunday's Kat Kwote

My sister grumbles about sharing dedication space in my book with my cat, Perdita. I like cats. People are fine, but, like Ivan Karamazov, I prefer them in the abstract. Most of them are very stupid.

~ Michael Robbins ~

Saturday, December 29, 2012

Wake Them Up!



Walking the stacks in a library, dragging your fingers across the spines--it's hard not to feel the presence of sleeping spirits.

~ Robin Sloan from
Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore ~

Friday, December 28, 2012

Poetry Friday


The web, then, or the pattern, a web at once sensuous and logical, an elegant and pregnant texture: that is style, that is the foundation of the art of literature.

~ Robert Louis Stevenson ~

John Singer Sargent painting of Stevenson courtesy ARC Museum.

Thursday, December 27, 2012

Wednesday, December 26, 2012

He Was Right





It feels great to have the iPad launched into the world--it's going to be a game changer.

~ Steve Jobs ~




Photo by Matt Buchanan.

Monday, December 24, 2012

Saturday, December 22, 2012

Dance Me

Dance me to your beauty with a burning violin
Dance me through the panic 'til I'm gathered safely in
Lift me like an olive branch and be my homeward dove
Dance me to the end of love
Dance me to the end of love

~ Leonard Cohen ~

Friday, December 21, 2012

Poetry Friday


Knowledge is good, method is good, but one thing beyond all others is necessary; and that is to have a head, not a pumpkin, on your shoulders and brains, not pudding, in your head.

~ A. E. Housman ~

Christmas pudding photo by Turkinator.

Thursday, December 20, 2012

Forget Yourself--More Good Advice

Develop an interest in life as you see it; the people, things, literature, music--the world is so rich, simply throbbing with rich treasures, beautiful souls and interesting people. Forget yourself.

~ Henry Miller ~

Wednesday, December 19, 2012

Good Advice for Non-Hoosiers, Too!





If I could offer but one helpful hint to young Hoosiers hoping to better their odds for success in life, I would simply note the importance of thoughtful reading.

~ Richard Lugar ~

Tuesday, December 18, 2012

Plastics




Mr. McGuire: I just want to say one word to you. Just one word.
Benjamin: Yes, sir.
Mr. McGuire: Are you listening?
Benjamin: Yes, I am.
Mr. McGuire: Plastics.

~ From The Graduate ~

Monday, December 17, 2012

Yes, You Can Teach an Old Dog...

You must invent your own games and teach us old ones how to play.

~ Nikki Giovanni ~

Sunday, December 16, 2012

Sunday's Kat Kwote

Now, Pussy, you must be real good,
       And learn to spell like me;
When I say, "Pussy, what is this?"
       You must say, That is C.

~ R. Worthington, "The Spelling Lesson" from Baby Chatterbox ~

Saturday, December 15, 2012

This Sickness...

Some look for scapegoats, others look for conspiracies, but this much is clear; violence breeds violence, repression brings retaliation, and only a cleaning of our whole society can remove this sickness from our soul.

~ Robert F. Kennedy ~

Thursday, December 13, 2012

Waiting...


I didn't know the full dimensions of forever, but I knew it was longer than waiting for Christmas to come.

~ Richard Brautigan ~

"Hello Santa" stereograph card courtesy Library of Congress.

Wednesday, December 12, 2012

The Very Latest Fashion

Watch 'em splishin' and a-splashin'
(Do de rubber duck!)
It's the very latest fashion!
(Do de rubber duck!)


~ Guy Smiley singing "Do de Rubber Duck" ~

Guy Smiley courtesy Sesame Street.


Tuesday, December 11, 2012

Beyond the Picture Book




I certainly think we're going to see more and more graphic novels and more illustrated novels.

~ Charlaine Harris ~