Superstition

Fear is the main source of superstition, and one of the main sources of cruelty. To conquer fear is the beginning of wisdom, in the pursuit of truth as in the endeavor after a worthy manner of life.

~ Bertrand Russell ~

Weather the Storm

Just as the tumultuous chaos of a thunderstorm brings a nurturing rain that allows life to flourish, so too in human affairs time of advancement are preceded by time of disorder. Success comes to those who can weather the storm.

~from the I Ching ~

Photo by Chris Irmo

Sunday's Kat Kwote

Cats are very sexy I think, too, in the way they move.

~ Antonio Banderas ~






Photo courtesy Abigail Guimond

Well, Duh!

Rocky:

Bullwinkle, you weigh 400 imaginary pounds.

Bullwinkle:

Yeah, but it's all moose-le.

Poetry Friday

An Historic Moment

The man said,
after inventing poetry,
"WOW!"
and did a full somersault.

~ William J. Harris ~

Moose

Hunters will tell you that a moose is a wily and ferocious forest creature. In fact, a moose is a cow drawn by a three-year-old.

~ Bill Bryson ~

Photo by Aske Holst

A Bit of Truth to This...

Medical science has made such tremendous progress that there is hardly a healthy human left.

~ Aldous Huxley ~

Like a String of Beads...

Life is a train of moods like a string of beads; and as we pass through them they prove to be many colored lenses, which paint the world their own hue, and each shows us only what lies in its own focus.

~ Ralph Waldo Emerson ~

Photo by cobalt123

The 'Burbs

Slums may well be breeding grounds of crime, but middle-class suburbs are incubators of apathy and delirium.

~ Cyril Connolly ~

Sunday's Kat Kwote

© Diane Mayr and Abigail Guimond, all rights reserved

Ah, Summer

Ah, summer, what power you have to make us suffer and like it.

~ Russell Baker ~




This image is from the Library of Congress--I love some of the stuff I come across when I just browse the photo collection. Imagine "bugg" hunting as part of summer's delights!

Poetry Friday

Pen--paper--vite!
They demand supplies...
Ah ohhh the engine in my head...




~ Eleanor Ross Taylor from "Welcome Eumenides" ~

Don't Be One of the Little People!

The pine tree seems to listen, the fir tree to wait: and both without impatience-- they give no thought to the little people beneath them devoured by their impatience and their curiosity.

~ Friedrich Nietzsche ~

Except Maybe the Zucchini Duck

An onion can make people cry but there's never been a vegetable that can make people laugh.

~ Will Rogers ~
Photo by Alex Gee

Coming Attractions

Imagination is everything. It is the preview of life's coming attractions.

~ Albert Einstein ~

Poor Guy!

I have lived eighty years of life and know nothing for it, but to be resigned and tell myself that flies are born to be eaten by spiders and man to be devoured by sorrow.

~ Voltaire ~



Photo by Daniel Ivan

Sunday's Kat Kwote

Surprise

I lift the toilet seat
     as if it were the nest of a bird
and I see cat tracks
     all around the edge of the bowl.

~ Richard Brautigan ~





Photo by One From RM

Ideas

There is one thing stronger than all the armies in the world, and that is an idea whose time has come.

~ Victor Hugo ~

Poetry Friday

It is difficult for a woman to define her feelings in a language which is chiefly made by men to express theirs.

~ Thomas Hardy ~

He'd Never Be a Poet!

The Milky Way is nothing else but a mass of innumerable stars planted together in clusters.

~ Galileo Galilei ~



Photo by jurvetson

How About In the Snow?

Two lovers in the rain have no need of an umbrella.

~ Japanese proverb ~

Couponing

It does take a little time each week to clip the coupons and take them to the store. But just like earning money takes time, so does saving money.

~ Michelle Jones ~

Oh, my, how politically incorrect is that 1966 coupon? --KK

Image courtesy ZestDuz

Do You Think Anything Has Changed Since Twain's Time?

Many public-school children seem to know only two dates--1492 and 4th of July; and as a rule they don't know what happened on either occasion.

~ Mark Twain ~

Image courtesy riptheskull

Sunday's Kat Kwote

A black cat crossing your path signifies that the animal is going somewhere.

~ Groucho Marx ~




Image courtesy riptheskull

Picnic Season

I've liked lots of people 'til I went on a picnic jaunt with them.

~ Bess Truman ~

Poetry Friday

I think there’s a kind of desperate hope built into poetry now that one really wants, hopelessly, to save the world.

~ W.S. Merwin ~

Image courtesy NASA

Sweet Dreams!

I know I’m gay and I should be proud of it, but in my life there is neither the right place nor the right time to come clean with it, and until then, what I read is going to be even more of an issue than ever. Going to the library is like entering a warzone as an enemy spy. Many experiences have taught me that someone is going to see the cover. How do I explain checking out a Regency romance or a Christopher Rice? As much as I love my library and my librarian for giving me the opportunity to check out these books in any way I can, it’s just not enough. I still have parents to deal with, school friends to watch, and a life to live...Gay or straight, a guy should be allowed to read whatever the hell he wants.

~ John at Dreaming in Books ~

Is the Trick to be Slowly Quick or Quickly Slow?

Think about the photo before and after, never during. The secret is to take your time. You mustn't go too fast. The subject must forget about you. Then, however, you must be very quick.

~ Henri Cartier-Bresson ~

I Can't Dispute This!

Some scientists claim that hydrogen, because it is so plentiful, is the basic building block of the universe. I dispute that. I say that there is more stupidity than hydrogen, and that is the basic building block of the universe.

~ Frank Zappa ~

Spoken Like a True Party Animal

Hear no evil, speak no evil--and you'll never be invited to a party.

~ Oscar Wilde ~

Sunday's Kat Kwote

the sun likes horses
but hates cats
that is why it makes hay
and heats tin roofs

~ Roger McGouch from "A Cat, a Horse and the Sun" ~

Cats don't give a sh*t whether the sun likes them or not! --KK

Photo by vieux bandit

Especially American English

The English language is the sea which receives tributaries from every region under heaven.

~ Ralph Waldo Emerson ~

Photo by Travis S.

Poetry Friday

By poetry we mean the art of employing of words in such a manner as to produce an illusion on the imagination; the art of doing by means of words, what the painter does by means of colors.

~ Thomas Macaulay ~

Good Advice...

Know, first, who you are; and then adorn yourself accordingly.

~ Epictetus ~

Proverbial Nonsense!

All things have an end, only a sausage has two.

~ German proverb ~



Clipart courtesy Open Clip Art Library

Yesterday

Yesterday,
All my troubles seemed so far away,
Now it looks as though they're here to stay,
Oh, I believe in yesterday.

~ Paul McCartney ~

Ripples

It is from numberless diverse acts of courage and belief that human history is shaped. Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope.

~ Robert F. Kennedy ~

Be a RIPPLE!

Photo by sea turtle

Sunday's Kat Kwote

Neither great nor very wise,
Yet beloved in our eyes,
Lightly hold, and gently keep
A small, good kitten in her sleep.

~ Miriam Vedder ~

This Is One of Those Dark Times!

During the darkest times in the history of man, there were always those who found a way to turn straw into gold or to invent a disruptive technology that changed the way people thought and acted.

~ Lynda Resnick ~

Image courtesy Sumcensuvitt

Poetry Friday

Acknowledgement, and celebration, of mystery probably constitutes the most consistent theme of my poetry.

~ Denise Levertov ~
Photo by Verleihnix

And More Games to Come...

Playing at a World Cup is always great, but the experience of meeting England at the highest level is something which I don't think any of us will ever forget. There was an absolutely superb atmosphere inside the stadium. Both sets of fans were absolutely great.

~ Landon Donovan, Team USA soccer player ~

Art

Art is much less important than life, but what a poor life without it.

~ Robert Motherwell ~



Photo by kamikazecactus

Twilight--Nobody Would Ever Mistake It for Literary Fiction!

There’s nothing like an unsolved mystery to keep you up at night.

~ Bella Swan, main character in Stephanie Meyers' Twilight ~

But First, Don't You Have to Untangle All Those Wires?

There is a vibrant debate among scientists over whether technology’s influence on behavior and the brain is good or bad, and how significant it is.

"The bottom line is, the brain is wired to adapt," said Steven Yantis, a professor of brain sciences at Johns Hopkins University. "There’s no question that rewiring goes on all the time," he added. But he said it was too early to say whether the changes caused by technology were materially different from others in the past.

~ from the New York Times article, "Hooked on Gadgets, and Paying a Mental Price" by Matt Richtel ~

Photo by Edd Sowden

Sunday's Kat Kwote

You never see animals going through the absurd and often horrible fooleries of magic and religion. Dogs do not ritually urinate in the hope of persuading heaven to do the same and send down rain. Asses do not bray a liturgy to cloudless skies. Nor do cats attempt, by abstinence from cat's meat, to wheedle the feline spirits into benevolence. Only man behaves with such gratuitous folly. It is the price he has to pay for being intelligent but not, as yet, quite intelligent enough.

~ Aldous Huxley ~

Photo by ornoth

I Completely Forgot!

It's not often that I forget to post--it's probably only happened once or twice over the past 1,000 posts--but, I forgot a quote for yesterday. Here is Saturday's quote on Sunday:

Through memory we travel against time, through forgetfulness we follow its course.

~ Joseph Joubert ~

Mug available here.

Poetry Friday

I would be fire and fragrance, light and air,
    All gracious things that serve thee at they need;
Music, to lift they heart above all care;
    The wise and charming book that thou dost read.

~ Celia Thaxter from "Song" ~

Mind-Boggling Statistics

The Church Arson Prevention Act of 1996 was enacted in response to a disturbing rash of arson directed at houses of worship, with African American churches disproportionately victimized. According to Justice Department officials, DOJ opened 658 investigations of suspicious fires, bombings, and attempted bombings from January 1, 1995, to August 18, 1998. Of the 658 attacks directed against houses of worship, 220 were predominantly African-American institutions.

~ from The Leadership Conference website ~

The American Library Association Report of a 1909 Conference Held at the Mt. Washington Hotel

The "oldest inhabitant" believing it would rain on Thursday, which was the day first selected for the Mount Washington trip, there was a shifting of Wednesday's sessions to Thursday and Wednesday itself was made a day of recreation, library co-ordination and functions of Council being forgotten in an ascent of about 6000 feet by some 213 —16 miles of cog-railroad; in the enjoyment of some of the most wonderful panoramic mountain views, and in a dizzy descent in which many a dignified librarian was to be seen seated Turk fashion upon the wood piles in front of the funny, puffing little mountain engines, while others cast envious glances from points of vantage safer if less alluring. As Mount Washington could be "done" (in the Baedeker phrase) in a little more than half a day, those who ascended it in the morning had the afternoon for driving, strolls or other harmless occupations, while those who went up the mountain in the afternoon inverted that happy schedule, though there were some daring mountaineers who came down the mountain on foot.

~ Library Journal, v. 34, August 1909 ~

Image courtesy CardCow.com

Hotels of the Soul?

Writers really live in the mind and in hotels of the soul.

~ Edna O'Brien ~

I Hear Ya!

The way money goes so fast these days, they should paint racing stripes on it.

~ Mark Russell ~

Photo by omniNate

Sunday's Kat Kwote

The cat likes fish but she doesn't want to wet her paws.

~ Yiddish proverb ~

Image by skobo

We're Still Working On It

Ultimately, America's answer to the intolerant man is diversity, the very diversity which our heritage of religious freedom has inspired.

~ Robert Francis Kennedy ~

Poetry Friday

...Sometimes I dream
I have become words so perfect
I am allowed to nest for infinity
in God's butterfly-shaped ear.

~ Mekeel McBride from "Fountain Pen Ink, Bottled" ~





Photo by Shabbir Siraj

So True...

If you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it well enough.

~ Albert Einstein ~

I'm Sure There Are Those Who Disagree...

The appearance of stone statues on Easter Island is neither mysterious nor unexpected.

~ The Easter Island Foundation ~
Photo by andrewgill73

Strawberry Time!

Doubtless God could have made a better berry, but doubtless God never did.

~ William Butler ~

Photo by Matthias Richwin