A True Visionary

Waste is worse than loss. The time is coming when every person who lays claim to ability will keep the question of waste before him constantly. The scope of thrift is limitless.

~ Thomas A. Edison ~

What's Not to Like About Beans?

Photo by DawnsRecipes

Better beans and bacon in peace
than cakes and ale in fear.
~ Aesop ~

Sunday's Kat Kwote

Just as the would-be debutante will fret and fuss over every detail till all is perfect, so will the fastidious feline patiently toil until every whiskertip is in place.

~ Lynne Caiafa ~

Books

Some books leave us free and some books make us free.

~ Ralph Waldo Emerson ~

Debate Tonight!

Politics calls for robust debate and criticism, but this should never descend to personal and demeaning slurs.

~ Kim Beazley ~

What Does He Call the Time Between?

You only live twice. Once when you are born and once when you look death in the face.

~ Ian Fleming ~

Time

Time! Joyless emblem of the greed of millions, robber of the best which earth can give.

~ Amy Lowell ~

Oh, New Hampshire

She has a touch of gold. New Hampshire gold—
You may have heard of it. I had a farm
Offered me not long since up Berlin way
With a mine on it that was worked for gold;
But not gold in commercial quantities,
Just enough gold to make the engagement rings
And marriage rings of those who owned the farm.
What gold more innocent could one have asked for?

~ Robert Frost from the poem "New Hampshire" ~

Happy Birthday!

Birthdays are nature's way of telling us to eat more cake.

~ Anonymous ~

Sunday's Kat Kwote

I am not a cat man, but a dog man, and all felines can tell this at a glance--a sharp, vindictive glance.

~ James Thurber ~

2008 Election Season

There are two sides to every issue, and a politician usually takes both.

~ Anonymous ~

Poetry Friday

Perhaps no person can be a poet, or can even enjoy poetry, without a certain unsoundness of mind.

~ Thomas Macaulay ~

Funny How That Works...

We climb to heaven most often on the ruins of our cherished plans, finding our failures were successes.

~ Amos Bronson Alcott ~

Photographs

It is one thing to photograph people. It is another to make others care about them by revealing the core of their humanness.

~ Paul Strand ~

Obviously Venus Improved With a Little Color!

Adding sound to movies would be like putting lipstick on the Venus de Milo.

~ Mary Pickford ~

Ignorance

Ignorance is the night of the mind, a night without moon or star.

~ Confucius ~

Sunday's Kat Kwote

Women are just like cats--they always land on their feet.
~ Iranian proverb ~

A Nation of Inventors

We are called the nation of inventors. And we are. We could still claim that title and wear its loftiest honors if we had stopped with the first thing we invented, which was human liberty.

~ Mark Twain ~

Poetry Friday--Oh, So True

There's no money in poetry, but then there's no poetry in money, either.

~ Robert Graves ~

Never Be Without a Home

Reading makes immigrants of us all. It takes us away from home, but more important, it finds homes for us everywhere.

~ Jean Rhys ~

Book Titles

Lost Illusion is the undisclosed title of every novel.

~ Andre Maurois ~

Talk about International Cooperation!

In Northern Lapland, four towns share a mobile library bus, which also carries children's books. What makes this bus special is that the service is shared by communities in three countries: Finland, Sweden, and Norway.

~ Margriet Ruurs from My Librarian is a Camel: How Books are Brought to Children Around the World ~

Here's a Norwegian mobile library bus that is shared by several communities:

In Norwegian, a mobile library bus is called a Bibliotekbussen.

I Suppose...

You know honestly I think there's a Dracula, a Wolf Man, and a Frankenstein's Monster in all of us. They are sides of our own character so that's why I think we can relate to them in terms of a "I know how that feels" kind of thing.

~ Richard Roxburgh ~

Sunday's Kat Kwote

In the eyes of the mouse the cat is a lion.

~ Albanian proverb ~

Exactly!

The Web's only as good as our ability to ask questions of it. The ability to access information means nothing if you don't have an educated framework of knowledge to fit it into.

~ Susan Jacoby ~

Poetry Friday

Poetry is finer and more philosophical than history; for poetry expresses the universal, and history only the particular.

~ Aristotle ~

My Sentiments, Exactly!

When the power of love overcomes the love of power the world will know peace.

~ Jimi Hendrix ~

Do McCain and Obama Dance?

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 ~

Let's Not Forget

Our liberty cannot be guarded but by the freedom of the press.

~ Thomas Jefferson ~

Remember the Laborers

A hundred times every day I remind myself that my inner and outer life depend on the labors of other men, living and dead, and that I must exert myself in order to give in the same measure as I have received and am still receiving.

~ Albert Einstein ~

Sunday's Kat Kwote

It's not the fleas of the dog that make the cat meow.

~ Chinese proverb ~


It's that the dog steals the cat's food!

Why?

Simply put, people don't always vote for the candidate or the policy that serves their own best interests. That concept should be no more surprising in politics than in other parts of people's lives. If individuals always did what was best for them, they would consistently choose broccoli over cake; they would enter into relationships with the good guy (or gal) instead of the charming jerk who never calls; they would stick to purchasing necessities and use credit cards as a last resort -- only when there's not enough money at the end of the month to pay for groceries or utility bills.

~ Heather Gehlert ~

What Does It Mean?

Words will not pollute the soup.

~ Brazilian proverb ~

How Sad is This?

This quote is from "Populism in the Age of Celebrity," an article that appeared in The Atlantic in June 1990. That was 18 years ago. Sadly, I don't think much has changed!

Raised on Sesame Street and now MTV--a celebration of commercials between rock videos that are themselves merely commercials for celebrities--we demand production values, not social values, in our politics.

~ Kirk Scharfenberg ~

Good Advice--Are You Listening Candidates?

Make sure you have finished speaking before your audience has finished listening.

~ Dorothy Sarnoff ~

Troubles

Troubles are like babies--they only grow by nursing.

~ Douglas Jerrold ~

Ya Gotta Love This Title

Sunday's Kat Kwote

By associating with the cat one only risks becoming richer.

~ Sidonie Gabrielle ~

Self Sufficiency

I believe in neither God nor the devil and I am not afraid.

~ Marilla M. Ricker ~

Poetry Friday

Poetry moves heaven and earth.
~ Japanese proverb ~

Fuzzy Math?

95% of this game is half mental.

~ Yogi Berra ~


Did you know there's a Yogi Berra Museum?

I'll Bet He Could See into the Future...

to today, 8/20/08, when BMX makes its debut as an Olympic event.

Get a bicycle. You will not regret it. If you live.

~ Mark Twain ~

Blessed Relief

There is no feeling, except the extremes of fear and grief, that does not find relief in music.

~ T.S. Eliot ~

And the People at the Food Network are Eternally Grateful

Man falls upon everything that comes in his way; not the smallest fruit or excrescence of the earth, scarce a berry or a mushroom can escape him.
~ Joseph Addison ~

Sunday's Kat Kwote

Flatterers, like cats, lick and then scratch.
~ German proverb ~

Have Courage!

Man cannot discover new oceans unless he has the courage to lose sight of the shore.

~ Andre Gide ~

Poetry Friday

Some good, some so-so, and lots plain bad: that's how a book of poems is made, my friend.

~ Marcus Valerius Martialis ~

Who Told Him We Could Be Owned?

Women are like elephants. I like to look at 'em, but I wouldn't want to own one.

~ W. C. Fields ~

Greetings from Maine!

Using a camera appeases the anxiety, which the work-driven feel about not working when they are on vacation and supposed to be having fun. They have something to do that is like a friendly imitation of work: they can take pictures.

~ Susan Sontag ~

Amen, Sister!

Perhaps travel cannot prevent bigotry, but by demonstrating that all peoples cry, laugh, eat, worry, and die, it can introduce the idea that if we try and understand each other, we may even become friends.

~ Maya Angelou ~

Monday

Mondays are the potholes in the road of life.

~ Tom Wilson ~

Sunday's Kat Kwote

photo by finna dat

Lettin' the cat outta the bag is a whole
lot easier 'n puttin' it back in.

~ Will Rogers ~

Planning

If you are planning for a year, sow rice; if you are planning for a decade, plant trees; if you are planning for a lifetime, educate people.

~ Chinese proverb ~

Poetry Friday

Perhaps no person can be a poet, or can even enjoy poetry, without a certain unsoundness of mind.

~ Thomas Babington Macaulay ~

Absolutely!

There may be fairies at the bottom of the garden. There is no evidence for it, but you can't prove that there aren't any, so shouldn't we be agnostic with respect to fairies?

~Richard Dawkins~

It's Tomato Season!

photo by Zeetz Jones
A world without tomatoes is like a string quartet without violins.

~ Laurie Colwin ~

And This Fish is Going Where?

No good fish goes anywhere without a porpoise.

~ Lewis Carroll ~

Ouch!

Having your book turned into a movie is like seeing your oxen turned into bouillon cubes.

~John LeCarre~

Sunday's Kat Kwote

The problem with cats is that they get the exact same look on their face whether they see a moth or an axe-murderer.

~ Paula Poundstone ~

Dave Barry for President!

Q: Dave, how will the discovery of water on Mars affect your foreign policy decisions?

Submitted by Henry from NYC

A: I will have troops there on Day One.

Answered 08/01/08 09:27:52 by Dave Barry



You, too, can ask Dave the important questions about being our Commander-in-Chief. Click here.

Poetry Friday

A poet is someone who is astonished by everything.

~ Anonymous ~

Easy for Him to Say!

I was obliged to be industrious. Whoever is equally industrious will succeed equally well.

~ Johann Sebastian Bach ~

The Appeal of the Unattainable

There are always pretty girls on every city street, but a man can't step out of the subway and watch the clouds playing with the top of Mount Ascutney. It's the unattainable that appeals, Next best to seeing the ocean or the hills or the woods is enjoying a painting of them.

~ Maxfield Parrish ~

Memoir Writing

People write memoirs because they lack the imagination to make things up.

~ Tom Robbins ~

A Great Example of Foreshadowing!

"NOW, my dears," said old Mrs. Rabbit one morning, "you may go into the fields or down the lane, but don't go into Mr. McGregor's garden: your Father had an accident there; he was put in a pie by Mrs. McGregor."

~ Beatrix Potter from The Tale of Peter Rabbit ~

Sunday's Kat Kwote

Both ardent lovers and austere scholars, when once they come to the years of discretion, love cats, so strong and gentle, the pride of the household, who like them, are sensitive to the cold, and sedentary.

~ Charles Baudelaire ~

Good Idea!

Keep your face to the sunshine and you will never see the shadow.

~ Helen Keller ~

Poetry Friday--A Path to Freedom

All of the arts, poetry, music, ritual, the visible arts, the theater, must singly and together create the most comprehensive art of all, a humanized society, and its masterpiece, free man.

~ Bernard Berenson ~

Butterflies

Butterflies...not quite birds, as they were not quite flowers, mysterious and fascinating as are all indeterminate creatures.

~ Elizabeth Goudge ~

Animated Films

The man responsible for the original "King Kong," Willis O'Brien, started experimenting with stop-action animated films for Thomas Edison in 1916 and 1917. A whole generation of special effects people grew up on these films.

~ Leonard Maltin ~

Picnics

We hope that, when the insects take over the world, they will remember with gratitude how we took them along on all our picnics.

~ Bill Vaughn ~

Dragonfly

Deep in the sun-searched growths the dragonfly
Hangs like a blue thread loosened from the sky.

~ Dante Gabriel Rossetti ~

Sunday's Kat Kwote

Cats can be cooperative when something feels good, which, to a cat, is the way everything is supposed to feel as much of the time as possible.

~ Roger Caras ~

Rainbows

Sometimes it's important to work for that pot of gold. But other times it's essential to take time off and to make sure that your most important decision in the day simply consists of choosing which color to slide down on the rainbow.
.
~ Douglas Pagels ~

Good Advice

If a dog will not come to you after having looked you in the face, you should go home and examine your conscience.

~ Woodrow T. Wilson ~