Sorry, But I Gotta Fly!

If you came for a Sunday Kat Kwote, you're out of luck. It struck me, the other day that now is the time to end KK's Kwotes. I don't know if it has value worth my spending time each day putting a post together. If there is a great hue and cry, I may reconsider, but for now, this is it--the 3,066th quote (in reality, less, because I ended up repeating a few, and, some were videos...)

I believe that if one always looked at the skies, one would end up with wings.

~ Gustave Flaubert ~

The Lowest Part

It interests me how we find ways to feel superior to another person, another group of people. It happens everywhere, and all the time. Whatever we call it. It think it's the lowest part of who we are, this need to find someone else to put down.

~ Elizabeth Strout from My Name Is Lucy Barton ~

Poetry Friday

...I didn't think I could understand poetry; I didn't think that it had any relevance to my life, the feelings that I endured on a day-to-day basis, until I was introduced to the right poem.

~ Natasha Trethewey ~
Photo by Jeff Etheridge, courtesy The Poetry Foundation.

Influenza

Influenza pandemics must be taken seriously, precisely because of their capacity to spread rapidly to every country in the world.

~ Margaret Chan ~
Graphic courtesy openclipart.

Often Is the Key!

...a new brain scan study explains that reading to a child early and often activates the part of the brain that allows them to understand the meaning of language.

~ Justin Worland ~

Good Memories

...learning to enjoy today has two benefits: it gives me happiness right now, and it becomes a good memory later.

~ George Foreman ~

Photo by Ed Schipul.

Acting

You can't just tell actors, especially young ones, to "act happy" and expect them to do it. They must in some essential way be happy.

~ Roger Ebert ~

Sunday's Kat Kwote

From The Baby's Bouquet, illustrated by Walter Crane.

Goldfish?

A survey of Canadian media consumption by Microsoft concluded that the average attention span had fallen to eight seconds, down from 12 in the year 2000. We now have a shorter attention span than goldfish, the study found.

~ Timothy Egan ~
Image courtesy openclipart.

Poetry Friday

Poems have to be based in autobiography; how else should they come about? But if they are to be of any use, they must end by being about everybody.

~ Richard Wilbur ~

Snow!

A snow day literally and figuratively falls from the sky, unbidden, and seems like a thing of wonder.

~ Susan Orlean ~








Woodcut print by Hiroshige, courtesy Library of Congress.

The Spirit of Slavery

The spirit of slavery so strongly existed that letters could not reach her; they were all destroyed. My parents had never learned the rescuing scheme of the underground railroad which had borne so many thousands to the standard of freedom and victories. They knew no other resource than to depend upon their own chance in running away and secreting themselves. If caught they were in a worse condition than before.

~ Mattie J. Johnson as told to L. S. Thompson ~

A Whole Race of Politicians?

And he gave it for his opinion, that whoever could make two ears of corn, or two blades of grass, to grow upon a spot of ground where only one grew before, would deserve better of mankind, and do more essential service to his country, than the whole race of politicians put together.

~ Jonathan Swift ~

Remembering Dr. Martin Luther King

I refuse to accept despair as the final response to the ambiguities of history. I refuse to accept the idea that the "isness" of man's present nature makes him morally incapable of reaching up for the eternal "oughtness" that forever confronts him. I refuse to accept the idea that man is mere flotsom and jetsom in the river of life, unable to influence the unfolding events which surround him. I refuse to accept the view that mankind is so tragically bound to the starless midnight of racism and war that the bright daybreak of peace and brotherhood can never become a reality.

~ Martin Luther King, Jr. ~

Sunday's Kat Kwote

For cats that have good constitutions
    Have eight more lives than a man;
Which proves we are better than humans
    To my mind, if anything can.

~ C. P. Cranch ~

Every Reader

It came to me recently that I always write for a reader who "needs" the book at whatever time in their life it arrives. And readers will always—and should—bring their own story to the story they are reading, and so it becomes, essentially, a different book for every reader.

~ Elizabeth Strout ~

Poetry Friday

I got a beautiful new bike and am looking forward to riding it more. I also want to do more woolgathering—idle rumination, daydreaming—which is absolutely essential for poetry, and which I can do on the bicycle.

~ Kay Ryan ~

Good Books

All good books have one thing in common--they are truer than if they had really happened.

~ Ernest Hemingway ~








Photo by Susan Wrynn. John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, Boston.

No Longer Helpless

For most of the history of our species we were helpless to understand how nature works. We took every storm, drought, illness and comet personally. We created myths and spirits in an attempt to explain the patterns of nature.

~ Ann Druyan ~

Remembering Bowie

Mrs. Hughes

[Note: I forgot to post Sunday's Kat Kwote! I'll save it for next week. --KK]

Unbelieveable...

Perhaps more telling is the total cost of firearm injury--$235 billion a year.

~ Ted Miller ~

Poetry Friday

The best thing you can do with poetry is just enjoy reading it together with the children. That has to be the starting point--not all that nonsense about quizzing them about adjectives and metaphors. So first thing: set up situations in which it feels good to read aloud together, read in groups, read silently.

~ Michael Rosen ~


Photo courtesy Walker Books.

I Love Reading!

We shouldn't teach great books; we should teach a love of reading.

~ B. F. Skinner ~

The Garden

The garden suggests there might be a place where we can meet nature halfway.

~ Michael Pollan ~

Skiing

Skiing combines outdoor fun with knocking down trees with your face.

~ Dave Barry ~
Graphic courtesy openclipart.

Too Long!

Superstition is to religion what astrology is to astronomy the mad daughter of a wise mother. These daughters have too long dominated the earth.

~ Voltaire ~

Sunday's Kat Kwote

Bi-Products

Poetry Friday

Poetry provides the one permissible way of saying one thing and meaning another.

~ Robert Frost ~




I'm losing it! I didn't post anything on Tuesday and Wednesday and didn't even notice it until last night! I'd like to say that I resolve to be a little more attentive in the coming year, but, I'm afraid things are only going to get worse...

Perhaps 2016 will be the end of KK's Kwotes?

At the Closing of the Year

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

~ Wendy and Lisa ~

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's Kat Kwote

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

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 ~

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" ~

Letters to Santa

P.S. Please do not forget the poor.

~ Mary McGann ~

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 ~

Mason Jar

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

~ Weezer ~

Sunday's Kat Kwote

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

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.

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.

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 ~

Creativity

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

~ Maya Angelou ~

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 ~

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's Kat Kwote

~ The Monkey's Frolic by Anonymous ~
Published in 1843.

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 ~

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.

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 ~

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.

Always Have, Always Will

Knitters use knitting to value-add to the world.

~ Stephanie Pearl-McPhee ~

Need a Sweater?

Does anyone not know who this character is?

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.

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 ~

Poetry Friday

Humility

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

~ Mary Oliver ~

Celebrities Love Their Cheese Logs

Nothing says holidays, like a cheese log.

~ Ellen DeGeneres ~

So Don't Do It

Crying is really bad for your vocal cords.

~ Adele ~

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 ~

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'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 ~

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.

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.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Postcard courtesy NY Public Library Digital Collections.

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 ~

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 ~