So Very Sad

Man is born passionate of body, but with an innate though secret tendency to the love of Good in his main-spring of Mind. But God help us all! It is at present a sad jar of atoms.

~ Lord Byron ~

Sunday's Kat Kwote

With tail erect and pompous march,
    The proudest puss that ever trod,
Through many a grove, 'neath many an arch,
    Impenetrable as a god.

~ Lytton Strachey ~

Photo by Iscan.

Secret Sorrows

Every man has his secret sorrows which the world knows not; and often times we call a man cold when he is only sad.

~ Henry Wadsworth Longfellow ~

Poetry Friday

If you're not alive and kicking,
shame on you!

~ Langston Hughes, "Shame on You" ~

Little Snail

little snail
inch by inch, climb
Mount Fuji!

~ Issa, translated by David G. Lanoue ~







Image courtesy Library of Congress.

Pop-Up Books

As the Depression years deepened, American book publishers sought ways to rekindle book buying. In the 1930s, Blue Ribbon Publishing of New York hit upon a combination that proved successful. They animated Walt Disney characters and traditional fairy tales with pop-ups. Blue Ribbon was the first publisher to use the term "pop-up" to describe their movable illustrations.

~ Ann Montanaro from A Concise History of Pop-up and Movable Books ~

This Is So True!

All those people whose faces decorate the shopping bags of Barnes and Noble, with a few exceptions, would never get published today.

~ Mark Crispin Miller ~

The Allowing Is the Hard Part

Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes. Art is knowing which ones to keep.

~ Scott Adams ~
Dilbert by Scott Adams courtesy Dilbert.com.

Sunday's Kat Kwote

remember that
there is a
cat
somewhere
adjusting to the
space of itself
with a delightful
grace







~ Charles Bukowski from "In Other Words" ~

Absolutely Necessary

It is necessary that laws should be passed to prohibit the use of corporate funds directly or indirectly for political purposes; it is still more necessary that such laws should be thoroughly enforced.

~ Theodore Roosevelt ~

Poetry Friday

Poetry in its most simplistic definition is the artistic use of words that we shrink down into a brief form.

~ Fabu ~

Thanksgiving Day

May we recall the courage of those who settled a wilderness, the vision of those who founded the Nation, the steadfastness of those who in every succeeding generation have fought to keep pure the ideal of equality of opportunity and hold clear the goal of mutual help in time of prosperity as in time of adversity.

~ Franklin D. Roosevelt from the 1933 Thanksgiving Day Proclamation ~

Image courtesy Library of Congress.

Bring On the Pie

Men may come and men may go...but Pie goes on for ever.

~ George Augustus Sala from America Revisited ~

Photo by Stef Noble.

Who Knew He Had a Sense of Humor?

If you're hanging around with nothing to do and the zoo is closed, come over to the Senate. You'll get the same kind of feeling and you won't have to pay.

~ Robert J. Dole ~

The Moon

If you strive for the moon, maybe you'll get over the fence.

~ James Wood ~

Sunday's Kat Kwote

His purrs lightly
Embroider the air.

~ May Sarton from "Luxury" ~

Envelope Pushing

Conan O'Brien may be about to push the envelope on late night television.

~ Original source unknown ~

About one minute into the video below you'll find a striking example of what is wrong with the media today. --KK

Poetry Friday

Writing for me is a way of understanding what is happening to me, of thinking hard things out. I have never written a book that wasn't born out of a question I needed to answer for myself. Perhaps it is the need to remake order out of chaos over and over again. For art is order, but it is made out of the chaos of life.

~ May Sarton ~

Definitely Not At This Time of Year

I don't believe in low-fat cooking.

~ Nigella Lawson ~



Photo by derempath.

Not a Gobble?

A group of Turkeys is called a rafter rather than a flock or a gobble as most people incorrectly refer to them.

~ from Think Differently About Sheep website ~

Photo by brentdanley.

Best Ever Film Quote

He Gave It His Best

Some people have been kind enough to call me a fine artist. I've always called myself an illustrator. I'm not sure what the difference is. All I know is that whatever type of work I do, I try to give it my very best. Art has been my life.

~ Norman Rockwell ~

Norman Rockwell's studio photo by Carol M. Highsmith courtesy Library of Congress.

Sunday's Kat Kwote

Thinks when we stroke him he's doing us a favour
Maybe he's right, at that.

~ Joan Aiken from "Cat" ~

Photo courtesy Library of Congress.

Political Parties

All political parties die at last of swallowing their own lies.

~ John Arbuthnot ~



Photo by rexhammock.

Poetry Friday

Everything is complicated; if that were not so, life and poetry and everything else would be a bore.

~ Wallace Stevens ~

Conversation

The true spirit of conversation consists in building on another man's observation, not overturning it.

~ Edward George Bulwer-Lytton ~

Father Time

Meditation

Fishing provides that connection with the whole living world. It gives you the opportunity of being totally immersed, turning back into yourself in a good way. A form of meditation, some form of communion with levels of yourself that are deeper than the ordinary self.

~ Ted Hughes ~

An Admirable Woman

Instead of comparing our lot with that of those who are more fortunate than we are, we should compare it with the lot of the great majority of our fellow men. It then appears that we are among the privileged.

~ Helen Keller ~






Photo courtesy Library of Congress.

Sunday's Kat Kwote

This is the Cat, that killed the rat,
That ate the malt,
That lay in the house that Jack built.

~ Mother Goose rhyme ~

Life Is a Party

Someone said that life is a party. You join in after it's started and leave before it's finished.

~ Elsa Maxwell ~

Poetry Friday

If art doesn't make us better, then what on earth is it for?

~ Alice Walker ~

It Can't?

As much as I'd like to meet the tooth fairy on an evening walk, I don't really believe it can happen.

~ Chris Van Allsburg ~

A Definition of Life

Life is about rhythm. We vibrate, our hearts are pumping blood, we are a rhythm machine, that's what we are.

~ Mickey Hart ~

Happy Halloween!

One need not be a chamber to be haunted;
One need not be a house;
The brain has corridors surpassing
Material place.

~ Emily Dickinson ~

Photo by plochingen.

Sunday's Kat Kwote

Image courtesy riptheskull.

A Sign of the Times

The ones who have nothing have the enormous power of nothing to lose and everything to gain.

~ Sign at L.A. Occupy Wall Street ~

Poetry Friday

I am a jack-o'-lantern
With terrible teeth
And the children know
I am fooling.

~ Carl Sandburg from "Theme in Yellow" ~






Photo by wwarby.

Media Pervasiveness

...our nation's children spend more time with media and digital activities than they do with their families or in school, which profoundly impacts their social, emotional, and physical development.

From Common Sense Media's mission statement.

Photo by Maufdi.

There Are Some Who Would Disagree...

Advertising reflects the mores of society, but it does not influence them.

~ David Ogilvy ~

Monsters

There are very few monsters who warrant the fear we have of them.

~ Andre Gide ~

Photo by AlexiUeltzen.

Who Knew?

Murder is commoner among cooks than among members of any other profession.

~ W. H. Auden ~

Sunday's Kat Kwote

And why do we go on caring, sometimes at great expense or with heartburn involved, for creatures who are sometimes superaffectionate, but at times seem only to want us for our ability to dispense treats, and who would rather claw us than purr while we hold them?

~ Stephen Burt ~

Photo by rwhgould.

We're Right Back to Where We Started...

I hope we shall crush in its birth the aristocracy of our monied corporations which dare already to challenge our government to a trial of strength and bid defiance to the laws of our country.

~ Thomas Jefferson ~

Poetry Friday

I've always believed that poetry is the grace of little things. That the right details make a poem.

~ Paul B. Janeczko ~

This is taken from the new poetry ebook for teens titled p*tag edited by Sylvia Vardell and Janet Wong, click here to order a copy.

An Eloquent Bad Man

If my lips teach the public that men are made mad by bad treatment, and if the police are taught that they may exasperate to madness men they persecute and ill treat, my life will not be entirely thrown away.

~ Ned Kelly ~

Image courtesy State Library of Victoria.

Peanuts

I hate television. I hate it as much as peanuts. But I can't stop eating peanuts.

~ Orson Welles ~

Photo by EuroMagic

A Big Difference

Satire is a lesson, parody is a game.

~ Vladimir Nabokov ~





Photo courtesy Ygrek.

My Kind of Guy

Good friends, good books and a sleepy conscience: this is the ideal life.

~ Mark Twain ~




Photo by litlnemo.

Sunday's Kat Kwote

the stray cat
makes Buddha's lap
her pillow

~ Kobayashi Issa, translated by David Lanoue ~

Photo by sadaton.

Well, Duh...

It is not the job of the protesters to draft legislation. That’s the job of the nation’s leaders, and if they had been doing it all along there might not be a need for these marches and rallies. Because they have not, the public airing of grievances is a legitimate and important end in itself.

~ New York Times editorial ~

Poetry Friday

There simply isn't one right way to write a poem. Doesn't exist....Ultimately, you write your own poetry. Your poem is your idea in your voice.

~ Sara Holbrook ~

Reading

The end of reading is not more books but more life.

~ Holbrook Jackson ~

Dancing

All the ills of mankind, all the tragic misfortunes that fill the history books, all the political blunders, all the failures of the great leaders have arisen merely from a lack of skill at dancing.

~ Moliere ~

National Coming Out Day!

Coming out to gays is a way of affirming sanity and self-worth.

~ George Weinberg ~



Photo by Urban Sea Star.

Something To Think About Today

The Columbian Exchange has shaped everything about the modern world. It brought us the plants we tend in our gardens and the pests that eat them. And as it accelerates in the 21st century, it may take both away again.

~ Ian Morris ~



Image courtesy Library of Congress.

Sunday's Kat Kwote

When everyone else is just ready to go out,
The cat is just ready to come in.
He's not where he's been.

~ Rosalie Moore from "Catalog" ~






Photo by stagewhisper.

A Sign of the Times

Occupy Wall Street photo by waywuwei.

Poetry Friday

I think an aptitude for physics and astronomy is probably a plus for a poet. As is an aptitude for anything that involves the real, physical world--stars in the sky, insects on the ground, how bridges and buildings stay up. Without curiosity and passion about physical things, poetry is dead as a doornail.

~ Julie Larios ~

Open Those Pearly Gates...

No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don’t want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life’s change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new.

~ Steve Jobs ~

The More Things Change the More They Stay the Same

Causes of Civil War are also, that the Wealth of the Nation is in too few mens hands, and that no certain means are provided to keep all men from a necessity either to beg, or steal, or be Souldiers.

~ William Petty ~

Photo by David Shankbone taken at Occupy Wall Street demonstration.

Gettysburg Address

Fourscore and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation or any nation so conceived and so dedicated can long endure. We are met on a great battlefield of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field as a final resting-place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this. But in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate, we cannot consecrate, we cannot hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead who struggled here have consecrated it far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living rather to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us--that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion--that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain, that this nation under God shall have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from the earth.

~ Abraham Lincoln ~

Image courtesy Library of Congress.

War

It is well that war is so terrible, or we should grow too fond of it.

~ Robert E. Lee ~



Image courtesy Library of Congress.