§ ...for the love of literature

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THURSDAY THUNKS

1. Who is the craziest person in your family? I've been told that it's just a short drive from here to the looney bin...must be me then!!!

2. If you could make turtle shells any color you wanted, what color would turtles be? The shell would have to be hard surfaced, so I'd say it'd be made from turquoise...the stone & the color!!! Besides, brown and turquoise are complimentary to each other.

3. How fast do hotcakes sell? They'd only sell....after my warm from the oven cookies are sold out.

4. Can cannibals be arrested for being under the influence of alcohol if they have eaten someone who was drunk? Depends...if you're crossing the border and have black hair, and look suspicious...ya, probably.

5. If I had my legs amputated, would I have to change my height and weight on my driver's license? Yes....and do make sure you get a disabled sticker for your License Plates!! And a special equipped vehicle to drive. Otherwise, please, stay away from being behind the wheel!!

6. Where do people in Hell tell other people to go? They'd say to the newbies: "Go two doors down from here turn to your right, and then make a direct left ----it's my mother in law's room!! She'll singe the hair off your body quicker than you can say: "Where the hell am I"?

7. Do you make stupid little baby noises when talking to your pets? No....but I have been known to lie to 'em. After one pukes up grass I say "Poor thing"...when I really mean "You puke, you clean it up"!!

8. Is the light on in the room? The sun's light as I type this up early on Wednesday afternoon, yes.

9. Did the voice tell you that the light is on in the room? Oh my goodness, this is freaky now. #7 --one pet cat meowed and the other howled in here just as I finished typing the word 'light' in #8.

10. If you were to name an alcoholic drink, what would it be called? 19th Hole!!!

It's a golfer's delight at the clubhouse---and I'm not giving out my trade secret concoction. The sign I made up is "Specialty of the House Today --19th Hole. Drink it...you'll feel like you've scored a hole in one for the last 18 - above par---guaranteed no pits added."

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THURSDAY 13
Some of my favorite quotes, that I've oftentimes recited in everyday living, from literature... [oops...how did that one movie quote get in here? LOL]


1] 'The world has held great Heroes,
As history books have showed;
But never a name to go down to fame
Compared with that of Toad!'
- Kenneth Grahame, The Wind in the Willows, Ch. 10


2] 'It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way--'
- Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities, Book 1, Chapter 1


3] 'For never was a story of more woe
than this of Juliet and her Romeo.'
- William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet, 5.3



4] 'Evening of a hot day started the little wind to moving among the leaves. The shade climbed up the hills toward the top. On the sand banks the rabbits sat as quietly as little gray, sculptured stones.'
- John Steinbeck, Of Mice and Men, Ch. 1




5] "Listen," said she; "I yield to your protestations, I yield to your assurances. But I swear to you, before God who hears us, that if you betray me, and my enemies pardon me, I will kill myself, while accusing you of my death."
- Alexandre Dumas, The Three Musketeers, Ch. 18


6] *favorite movie quote -in bold font- from "The Three Musketeers":

Cardinal Richelieu: A word of caution, milady. A snap of my fingers, and you could be back on the block where I found you.
Milady: And with a flick of my wrist, I could change your religion. [she, holding a knife---yummy scene!]
Cardinal Richelieu: You're very persuasive.

7] ' "Tis some visitor," I muttered, "tapping at my chamber door Only this, and nothing more."
-Edgar Allan Poe, The Raven
(I tend to say this in whispered decibels as I peek out my security window on the front door after the doorbell rings, unexpectedly)

8] 'He had a heart that could have held the empire of the world; and, in the end, he had to content himself with a cellar'.
- Gaston Leroux, Phantom of the Opera [epilogue] (I loved this classical work so much, I named my son Erik!!!)


9] 'As God is my witness, as God is my witness they're not going to lick me. I'm going to live through this and when it's all over, I'll never be hungry again. No, nor any of my folk. If I have to lie, steal, cheat or kill. As God is my witness, I'll never be hungry again'. (I always had the feeling she was lacking sanity at times while reading this book over and over, but then, realizing the girl was only 16 when war broke out...and living through the turmoil and loss...she probably had the right to be greedy and a bit selfish, don't you think?)
- Margaret Mitchell, Gone With the Wind, Ch. 25

10] "I am strong against everything, except against the death of those I love. He who dies gains; he who sees others die loses."
- Alexandre Dumas, Man in the Iron Mask [photo, see #5]


11] 'The evil of the world is made possible by nothing but the sanction you give it'.
- Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged, Ch. 7




12] 'It was not necessary to wonder about the reasons. It was necessary only to hate, to hate blindly, to hate patiently, to hate without anger, only to hate and let nothing intervene, and not let oneself forget, ever.'
- Ayn Rand, The Fountainhead [photo #11]


13] 'No matter how dreary and gray our homes are, we people of flesh and blood would rather live there than in any other country, be it ever so beautiful. There is no place like home.'
- L. Frank Baum, The Wonderful Wizard of OZ











POSTED: Thursday, February 25th, 2010
12:20 A.M.

Thursday, May 14th, 2009
12:39 A.M.

"English for Dummies" [13 lessons] CLICK HERE

Out with the old...



...in with the new



From gold wire frames to lightweight plastic, multi-colored rainbow frames that have a much larger lens area. And, I can see clearly now. From a distance, and for reading!! Whoopee! I think I'm gonna like the progressive lenses too. Much, much better than the lined bifocals. My eyes adjust quickly...but, I still need to test them going down stairs. rofl

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If you were viewing my Wednesday blog yesterday you would have seen this photo, and hopefully you tried to guess what it was.


As I promised, here is the original photo. An insect antenna!!! It's a little creepy. In fact a whole lotta of creepy!!! I don't know what they are. They look like some kind o' ant, but still not even close. Whatever they are, they're gonna be gone if I have my say in this!!!!!! Nature, like this, is NOT pretty. Necessary I know, but still..... [it's a macro setting of the bird of paradise blossom, in our yard] with some out of this world looking creepy creatures.

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1] We’ll begin with a box, and the plural is boxes,
But the plural of ox should be oxen, not oxes.
Then one fowl is a goose, but two are called geese,

2] Yet the plural of mouse should never be meese,
You may find a lone mouse or a whole nest of mice,
But the plural of house is houses, not hice.

3] If the plural of man is always called men,
Why shouldn’t the plural of pan be called pen?
The cow in the plural may be cows or kine,
But a bow if repeated is never called bine,
And the plural of vow is vows, never vine.

4] If I speak of a foot and you show me your feet,
And I give you a boot would a pair be called beet?
If one is a tooth, and a whole set are teeth,
Why shouldn’t the plural of booth be called beeth?

5] If the singular’s this and the plural is these,
Should the plural of kiss ever be nicknamed keese?
Then one may be that and three would be those,

6] Yet hat in the plural would never be hose,
And the plural of cat is cats, not cose.

7] We speak of a brother, and also of brethren,
But though we say mother, we never say methren,
Then the masculine pronouns are he, his and him,
But imagine the feminine she, shis and shim,

8] So the English, I think, you all will agree,
Is the queerest language you ever did see.

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9] I take it you already know
Of tough and bough and cough and dough?
Others may stumble, but not you,
On hiccough, thorough, tough and through?
Well done! And now you wish, perhaps,
To learn of less familiar traps?

10] Beware of heard, a dreadful word
That looks like beard and and sounds like bird,
And dead: it’s said like bed, not bead —

11] For goodness sake don’t call it “deed”!
Watch out for meat and great and threat
(They rhyme with suite and straight and debt).

12] A moth is not a moth in mother,
Nor both in bother, broth in brother,
And here is not a match for there
Nor dear and fear for bear and pear;
And then there’s dose and rose and lose —

13] Just look them up — and goose and choose,
And cork and work and card and ward,
And font and front and word and sword,
And do and go and thwart and cart —
Come, come, I’ve hardly made a start!

A dreadful language? Man alive!
I’d mastered it when I was five!


courtesy of World Wide Words

Since my high school years, and, back then, my found fascination in English Literature, today is the Ides of March. And a symbolic term that I will never forget the rest of my days. Our teacher, Mrs. Sanderson, was such a wonderful woman to give us all interest in the subject. And she was especially fond of teaching us the works of William Shakespeare. And I have thanked her from that day on. I was lucky enough to be in the honors English Lit class. We had so much fun, learning!! I remember she took us all to a theatrical play in the city. A private showing of Julius Caesar ON the 15th of March one Spring day. What a thrill that was. I still get a feeling of excitement thinking about the memory of that field trip. From that point on I read more and more Shakespeare!! In Shakespeare's play, Act I Scene II, a soothsayer warns Caesar ... "Beware of the Ides of March". Ides being from the Latin meaning the middle. In this particular month, March, it is always the 15th. The Ides of March was a festive day dedicated to the god Mars. Also, it was time for a military parade. In modern times, the term is now best known as the date that Julius Caesar was assassinated, in 44 BC, the story of which was famously dramatized in one of my favorite reads--William Shakespeare's play Julius Caesar.


"Cowards die many times before their deaths; The valiant never taste of death but once. Of all the wonders that I yet have heard, it seems to me most strange that men should fear; seeing that death, a necessary end, will come when it will come".

Julius Caesar ACT II Scene II

My love for Shakespeare and his works and his life extended way beyond those days in Mrs. Sanderson's class. I've learned a great deal since then, but the Ides of March will always take me back to Colorado and my high school class room. To this day I can see her face as she headed our class with her exuberance and love for the art of teaching and captivating her kids so intensely. Of all the teachers I've had through my schooling, Mrs. Sanderson I remember most! She was the most influential teacher I had and explains my love for literature. This photo of her, I scanned from my high school year book circa 1966-67


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Granny on the Web tagged me. On Friday the 13th no less! So, okay...I list seven odd things about me. First off, I'm thinking why just seven? I AM QUIRKY. That's the whole being. Just face it, I don't need to list seven...just the photo of me is sufficient. You can certainly find them, right? No? Okay. Here goes. I've done this tag [only it was six back then] before, so I thought instead I'd list seven of my favorite QUIRKY SAYINGS that I've been known to blabber out---

1] "She's/He's the sludge at the bottom of the gene pool."
2] "This is about as useless as tits on a boar hog."
3] "He's about as bright as a blackout!"
4] "Congress couldn't organize an orgy in a brothel."
5] "Hey? Remember, Rome wasn't burnt in a day!"
6] "You're about as handy with that as an ashtray on a motorcycle."
7] "The wheel in your brain is still turning, but the hamster is dead!"