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Last Book Read

2012-01-25T06:40:00.000-08:00

The last book I read was "Memories, Dreams, Reflections" by Carl G. Jung. The first couple chapters, about his youth, were fascinating; the rest of the book was pure gobbledygook to me, much like Joyce's "Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man." See for yourself.

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Last Book Read

2012-01-03T08:43:00.000-08:00

The last book I read was The Jungle, by Upton Sinclair. I always thought this book was just an expose on the Chicago meat-packing industry, which led to the creation of the FDA & other safety measures; but I recently learned that that was a back story to a wonderful novel about a down-on-their-luck family. I was not disappointed. Recommend. Get a copy

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2011-12-10T08:41:00.000-08:00

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Last Book Read

2011-12-02T08:33:00.000-08:00

My last book read was "Letters From the Editor - The New Yorker's Harold Ross." This isn't as laugh-out-loud hilarious as James Thurber's bio on Ross, but it definitely has its moments. Recommend.

From the hardcover edition:
These exhilarating letters—selected and introduced by Thomas Kunkel, who wrote Genius in Disguise, the distinguished Ross biography—tell the dramatic story of the birth of The New Yorker and its precarious early days and years. Ross worries about everything from keeping track of office typewriters to the magazine's role in wartime to the exact questions to be asked for a "Talk of the Town" piece on the song "Happy Birthday." We find Ross, in Kunkel's words, "scolding Henry Luce, lecturing Orson Welles, baiting J. Edgar Hoover, inviting Noel Coward and Ginger Rogers to the circus, wheedling Ernest Hemingway— offering to sell Harpo Marx a used car and James Cagney a used tractor, and explaining to restaurateur-to-the-stars Dave Chasen, step by step, how to smoke a turkey." These letters from a supreme editor tell in his own words the story of the fierce, lively man who launched the world's most prestigious magazine. Own a copy

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Last Book Read

2011-11-29T06:45:00.000-08:00

My last read was "Encounters" by Juan Garcia Ponce. It's a book of four short stories. The first three left me unmoved but the last one, "The Seagull," was excellent. Recommend this brief, easy read.

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Last Book Read

2011-11-16T11:27:00.001-08:00

My last was "Seeking Peace - Chronicles of the Worst Buddhist in the World" by Mary Pipher. This was okay. It's one of those books that soothes you to your toes when reading it. But there's nothing new here. Judge for yourself

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Last Book Read

2011-11-11T10:25:00.000-08:00

My last book read was "Woman Writer" by Joyce Carol Oates. Have never sampled any of her fiction, but I am never disappointed by her essays; this last book is no exception.

Oates is a brilliant writer, so why not tag along with her as she lasers in on such topics as Frankenstein, Jane Eyre, artist George Bellows, Hemingway, & Gorbachev. The only negative thing for me is three essays devoted to Mike Tyson, which are at least two too many. Ugh.

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Last Book Read

2011-10-29T09:25:00.001-07:00

The last book I read was The Age of Voltaire by Will & Ariel Durant. This is volume nine of their eleven-volume epic on the story of civilization, to which they devoted a good deal of their lives.

This was a reread for me; in fact, I have read the whole set & reread a volume each year, so I have almost read the entire set twice.

It deals mostly with the French Philosophes & how they shaped the thought, political action & anti-religious feeling of the time (the 18th century). Recommend; but it's beefy & scholarly.

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Last Book Read

2011-10-18T10:33:00.000-07:00

My last book read was "living Philosophers," edited by Clifton Fadiman. The title is somewhat anachronistic, because most, if not all, of the writers have since crossed over the Jordan, as they say, so now they have all the answers to Life's heavy questions.

The writers range from Albert Einstein to Abba Eman, and they are not just putting forth for the reader some all-encompassing philosophy of life; no, it's more a case of their discussing a single topic, on such matters as family, Nature, work and the future. Recommend.

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Last Book Read

2011-10-06T12:10:00.000-07:00

The last book I read was Earth House Hold, by Gary Snyder. I recommend it.

The best reading to me was the first couple sections, in which he made quick notes or diary entries of his doings for the day as a fire lookout. It made me think he was just noting down quick references to himself about things he would flesh out further in the futre. The result was a fleeting Haiku-like character to his entries.

That siad about liking best the first parts, there are other nuggets to be discovered throughout this quick read.

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Last Book Read

2011-10-04T09:11:00.000-07:00

Last book read: C.S. Forester, by Sanford Sternlicht.

This is a biographical literary criticism on the works of C.S. Forester. He was author of such books as became films as "The Afican Queen" & "Sink the Bismark." He also wrote what he considered hack biographies when he was getting started as a writer, a few of these having to do with Napoleon & Josephine, for whom he held a fascination.

He is probably most famous for his books about his protagonist Horatio Hornblower. Having never read any of his works and basing my opinion on the far-fetched name of his maritime hero alone, I figured they were children's stories. This is not the case. They are for readers of any age and are largely concerned with naval action in the Napoleonic Wars.

It's a very interesting book if you can lay hand to one.

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Last Book Read

2011-09-06T11:41:00.000-07:00

My last read was "Fourteen: Growing Up Alone In A Crowd," by Stephen Zanichkowsky. It was a disturbing book to say the least, and maybe the best I have read this year.

He tells about his family of fourteen kids brought up by zealous Catholic parents, zealous but for always omitting the part about being kind to others and loving your neighbor (not to mention your kids).

You see, dear old Mom & Dad used a bed slat on their kids, and viciously. The author makes the beatings vivid for us, and we see how the dread of them was almost as bad as were the beatings themselves. All this corporal punishment (and this seems a euphemism) led to was a dysfunctional family, the kids of which largely hating their father, their mother too, though to less a degree, because they could sympathize with her, knowing she had spent 144[!] months of her life pregnant and was ultimately worn out by being a mother.

Also, the author delves into his own psyche; for instance, going into lurid detail about his desires for his sisters growing up, having many flavors to choose from among them.

It's all very interesting, and the author never comes across to me as a whiner, but rather as a boy, then a young man, just trying to understand why his parents never loved him. Great book. Get your own copy

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Last Book Read

2011-09-04T11:35:00.000-07:00

The last book I read was "The Filter Bubble: What the Internet Is Hiding from You," by Eli Pariser. Here's what Amazon.com had to say about it:

Eli Pariser is worried. He cares deeply about our common social sphere and sees it in jeopardy. He has got me worried, too. A must-read David Kirkpatrick, author of The Facebook Effect Anyone who cares about the future of [humanity] in a digital landscape should read this book - especially if it is not showing up in your recommended reads on Amazon Douglas Rushkoff, author of Life Inc If you feel that the Web is your wide open window on the world, you need to read this book to understand what you aren't seeing Jaron Lanier, author of You Are Not a Gadget Internet firms increasingly show us less of the wide world, locating us in the neighborhood of the familiar. The risk, as Eli Pariser shows, is that each of us may unwittingly come to inhabit a ghetto of one Clay Shirky, author Here Comes Everybody and Cognitive Surplus You spend half your life in Internet space, but trust me - you don't understand how it works. This book is a masterpiece of investigation and interpretation Bill McKibben, author of Earth and founder of 350.org A must-read book about one of the central issues in contemporary culture

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Last Book Read

2011-08-24T12:03:00.001-07:00

The last book I finished was "23 Things They Don't Tell You About Capitalism" by Ha-Joon Chang. Great read, and I just saw the very amusing author hawking it on Book TV. Here's what Publisher's Weekly said about it:

"Chang (Bad Samaritans) takes on the "free-market ideologues," the stentorian voices in economic thought and, in his analysis, the engineers of the recent financial catastrophe. Free market orthodoxy has inserted its tenterhooks into almost every economy in the world--over the past three decades, most countries have privatized state-owned industrial and financial firms, deregulated finance and industry, liberalized international trade and investments, and reduced income taxes and welfare payments. But these policies have unleashed bubbles and ever increasing income disparity. How can we dig ourselves out? By examining the many myths in the narrative of free-market liberalism, crucially that the name is itself a misnomer: there is nothing "free" about a market where wages are largely politically determined; that greater macroeconomic stability has not made the world economy more stable; and a more educated population itself won't make a country richer. An advocate of big, active government and capitalism as distinct from a free market, Chang presents an enlightening précis of modern economic thought--and all the places it's gone wrong, urging us to act in order to completely rebuild the world economy: "This will some readers uncomfortable... it is time to get uncomfortable."

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Last Book Read

2011-08-16T10:15:00.000-07:00

The last book I read was "Zen Philosophy, Zen Practice," by Thich Thien-An. It's one of those wonderful books that will soothe your troubled mind and neaten up all your frayed edges throughout the reading of it.

Here's what "a customer" said about it on Amazon.com:
"A little known gem in a sea of literature referring to zen buddhism. A book i find myself referring back to more often than any other i own. The first time i read it i gained more insight into the history of zen, where it was coming from, and the people it arrived through. Most importantly at the end of every chapter is a method of practicing zazen. This, along with the stress on practicing zen principles in daily life is why i would highly recommend this book to the beginning zen practitioner."

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Last Book Read

2011-08-12T07:23:00.000-07:00

The last book I read was "Entering the Stream," edited by Samuel Bercholz. It was a reread for me. If I had to say anything negative about it, it would just be that the chapter on the life of the Buddha was overly long, but then that chapter was excellent nonetheless.

Here's what Booklist has to say about it:

In the introduction, Bernardo Bertolucci notes he couldn't say all the important things about Buddhism that he wanted to in his film Little Buddha; however, this thoughtful selection of Buddhist writings perhaps does. A folk-style account of the man called Buddha Shakyamuni leads into selections from the major branches of Buddhist belief and practice; all share a similar understanding of the world, and each extends the means by which a practitioner works toward enlightenment and nirvana. The selections are generally brief, informal pieces, some by teachers who focus on making Buddhist ideas accessible to westerners. Some heady concepts here, some practical thinking. In all, a fine introduction to the power of Buddhist thought. (Virginia Dwyer)

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icloud

2011-08-02T06:35:00.000-07:00

Really I'm just sitting around wondering if the icloud is the next big thing. Dunno. But then I wouldn't be surprised . . . What say ya?

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Happy Father's Day a day late

2011-06-20T06:39:00.001-07:00

Yesterday was bittersweet, for it was the first Father's Day without my father, who passed away in October at 85. Miss you and love you, Dad.

My TV crushes in the 60's & 70's

Latest book read

2011-04-23T07:17:00.001-07:00

"Obsessive Genius - the Inner World of Marie Curie" by Barbara Goldsmith. Recommend.

From Publishers Weekly:
"So enduring is the reputation of Marie Curie that more than 100 years after she won her first Nobel Prize, for physics in 1903 (she won a second, for chemistry, in 1911), Curie (1867–1934) is still regarded by most as the pre-eminent woman scientist of the 20th century. Goldsmith's straightforward biography illuminates both the public Curie, a tireless scientist obsessed with work, and the private one, a woman who suffered bouts of severe depression, was distant from her children and scarred deeply by the accidental death of her scientist husband, Pierre, in 1906. Using long-sealed Curie family archives, Goldsmith offers a well-rounded view of her subject that makes good dramatic use of the considerable intrigue that surrounded Curie's scientific accomplishments and her private life. Goldsmith also reminds us, without belaboring the point, that Curie overcame obstacles, including pervasive sexism within the scientific community that almost cost her the Nobel. Goldsmith is also adept at demonstrating that for Curie the nexus of public accomplishments and private happiness was tenuous. Although Curie continued working after Pierre's death, Goldsmith says she never allowed his name to be spoken: "Never again would there be a sign of joy." Goldsmith, biographer of Gloria Vanderbilt and Victoria Woodhull, is weakest at explaining the theoretical basis for Curie's scientific breakthroughs, which set the stage for the exploration of the atom."

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Reading books

2011-03-05T06:35:00.000-08:00

My latest read is "How I Grew," by Mary McCarthy. It's not every day a genius is born; why not see what this one has to say about herself?

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Reading books

2011-02-25T07:21:00.000-08:00

My latest is "Carson McCullers," by Richard M. Cook. This is a scholarly but short work critiquing her few long works. Recommend (if you can find a copy).

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Reading Books

2011-02-21T06:25:00.000-08:00

This is my latest read, "The Creative Process," edited by good old Brewster Ghiselin. Thirty-eight brilliant people--writers, painters, composers, etc--tell how they create their art. They include Picasso, Van Gogh, Einstein, Thomas Wolfe & many more. Fascinating.

Living artists you need to meet ... before it's too late

Finished this book

2011-02-16T08:36:00.000-08:00

The latest book I read is Samual Butler's "The Way of All Flesh."

Here's what The Merriam-Webster Encyclopedia of Literature has to say about it:

Autobiographical novel by Samuel Butler, published posthumously in 1903 though written almost two decades earlier. Beginning with the life of John Pontifex, a carpenter, the novel traces four generations of the Pontifex family, each of which perpetuates the frustration and unhappiness of its predecessor largely as a result of parental repression. Only Ernest Pontifex, the great-grandson of John, is able to break the cycle. After being ordained a minister, serving a prison term because of a naive misunderstanding, and unwittingly entering into a bigamous marriage with the family's sluttish servant girl, Ernest providentially inherits enough money from a favorite aunt to change his life and become a writer.

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Reading Books

2011-02-11T07:29:00.001-08:00

The latest book I finished reading is "The Way of Zen," by East-West maestro Alan Watts. Recommend.

Here's what Amazon.com has to say about it:
After D.T. Suzuki, Alan Watts stands as the godfather of Zen in America. Often taken to task for inspiring the flimsy spontaneity of Beat Zen, Watts had an undeniably keen understanding of his subject. Nowhere is this more evident than in his 1957 classic The Way of Zen, which has been reissued. Watts takes the reader back to the philosophical foundations of Zen in the conceptual world of Hinduism, follows Buddhism's course through the development of the early Mahayana school, the birth of Zen from Buddhism's marriage with Chinese Taoism, and on to Zen's unique expression in Japanese art and life. As a Westerner, Watts anticipates the stumbling blocks encountered with such concepts as emptiness and no-mind, then illustrates with flawlessly apt examples. Many popular books have been written on Zen since Watts' time, but few have been able to muster the rare combination of erudition and clarity that have kept The Way of Zen in readers' hands decade after decade. --Brian Bruya

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Reading books

2011-02-08T09:06:00.001-08:00

My latest read was "The Tao of Peace," by Diane Dreher. An excellent read on following The True Path." Here's what Publisher's Weekly had to say about it:

Can Chinese seer Lao-Tzu's ancient classic, Tao Te Ching , help you cope with divorce, being fired, tension, a negative self-image, poor communication, environmental pollution, personal and political conflict? Most certainly, according to this busy self-help manual, complete with meditation, breathing and visualization exercises, activity lists and "self-assessments." Dreher, a California psychologist, urges us to use Taoist principles to harmonize with nature, flow with cycles of change, live in the present, seek simplicity and reach out to the world in loving service. Some readers may be put off by this primer's relentlessly upbeat tone, its division of humanity into "Tao people" and "non-Tao persons"; others will doubtless welcome it as a valiant attempt to apply Taoist wisdom to our high-pressure, modern world. Each chapter is prefaced by a verse from the Tao and ends with the author's aphoristic "Affirmations."
(Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.)

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The Art of Emily Bronte

2011-01-31T04:26:00.000-08:00

This, "The Art of Emily Bronte," is the latest book I've finished. It's mostly a psychological look at her & her work & quite interesting.

Get your own copy.

Reading Books

2010-12-13T06:38:00.000-08:00

This is the latest book I've finished, "The Rise of the Woman Novelist: From Aphra Behn to Jane Austen," by Jane Spencer.

Feminist studies of women's writing have tended to concentrate on writers of the 19th and 20th centuries. This book, which examines women novelists from Aphra Behn to Fanny Burney, is intended to redress the balance and to argue for the crucial importance of the 18th century to developing female identities in literature. The scope of the book is wide, with references ranging from Sarah Fielding, Ann Radcliffe and Mary Wollstonecraft to Jane Austen. (From amazon.com.) Get your copy.

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Reading Books - "The Moon in the Well"

2010-12-08T10:09:00.000-08:00

This is the latest book I've finished. "The Moon in the Well" boasts fascinating myth and lore from the ancients to you. After each chapter, the author, Erica Helm Meade, shares how real people she has known have benefited form the tales & how they can relate to your life.

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Reading books - "The Age of Louis XIV"

2010-12-07T07:43:00.001-08:00

This is the latest book I've finished, the usual reliably scholarly effort by Will Durant.

"A gigantic gallery of personages and periods in the 17th century, another cultural panorama from Will and Ariel Durant, part of that installment-opus they call The Story of Civilization. Like its predecessors, the chapters are cineramas of information, replete with research, richly rendered, solidly synthesized- probably the best middlebrow reconstruction we have. As the Durants see it, the 17th century was a checkerboard battleground between the forces of faith and the forces of reason; as the reader sees it, Newton's 3rd law sums up the struggle: To every action there is always opposed an equal reaction". Thus the century spened with the ascendant la gloire of Louis XIV, a court of social splendors and political absolutism, only to topple into the ash heap during the wars of the Spanish succession, whereby France lost all and the empires of Austria and England emerged. The era marked the advancement from superstition to scholarship. but even there the securring upsets held: Descartes began with doubt, ended with piety; Pascal clutched ??artesianism, then denounced it; steel-hearted Cromwell roused the harlot-hating ??uritans, but they were both dumped by the Restoration and lush-living Charles II; against mordant, misanthropic Swift, who kept his birthday as a day of mourning, ??aintly Spinoza pitted a pantheistic gospel of love; Hobbes sanctioned the supreme will of the state, Locke beat the drum for a liberal democracy; etc., etc. The ??urants mix chit chat (most of the philosophers never married; General Vendome appeared without nose, having sacrificed it to spirochetes) with huge hunks of treatises, letters, journals, poems. They are always erudite, almost always readable; some parts do sag, some parts are dull, but as Elizabeth Barrett consoled Robert Srowning vis a vis some sections of Sordello, these are, after all, "only spots on the sun". (Kirkus Reviews)

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Reading "The Bronte Myth"

2010-11-26T07:35:00.001-08:00

This is the latest book I have finished reading. I give it a strong recommendation for anyone who just has to read everything Bronte, & anyone else would do well reading it . . .

"Although a collaborative first book of poems sold only two copies, the Brontë sisters were in their own time subject to the kind of cult fascination that persists today, with thousands of pilgrims journeying every year to the Brontë home, in Yorkshire. Miller's ingenious book traces this fascination, beginning with Mrs. Gaskell's famous 1857 biography, which sought to excuse the "coarseness" of novels like "Jane Eyre" and "Wuthering Heights" by embellishing details of the authors' gothically miserable childhood. Miller provides a corrective—a biography of a biography—showing how successive generations, including Stracheyan, Freudian, feminist, and poststructural critics, remolded the Brontës to fit their own agendas. Like Mrs. Gaskell's, these treatments often focussed more on the authors' lives than on their work, in spite of Charlotte's plea: "I wished critics would judge me as an author, not as a woman."
Copyright © 2005 The New Yorker

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What I Liked Best About the Dallas Cowboys Finally Winning a Football Game

2010-11-15T13:26:00.003-08:00

It was the enthusiasm shown by new head coach Jason Garrett. He was whooping it up with the players, all smiles & just having a good old time on the sidelines. Such a refreshing change to the perpetual "Who am I and what the hell am I doing here?" look on the face of Wade Phillips.

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The Easiest & 1st Million Dollars I Ever Made

2010-11-07T16:39:00.000-08:00

Some foreign gentleman, evidently still in mourning, from Yeman, Chad or some damn place, is going to email me a cool million bucks with no strings attached to them.

Seems his father was Major Domo, alcalde or something over their whole country ("a head of state" is how his son in mourning put it). The father was bludgeoned to death, burned at the stake or otherwise dispatched from among the living and now, it seems, half his native country is just up in arms over the whole thing, as if this slimy politician hadn't just done the whole world, let alone his middling-sized country, a huge favor by dying, whether he was decapitated or got it in the neck in some other fashion.

Anyhow, all I had to do to get my hands on this cool million[US] that this guy's father had somehow gotten his hands on, in a completely honest way, I'm sure, was to send the son my Social Security number. That's all! Can you even believe it? I'm expecting the cash via trusty Paypal as I type this blog relating the story of my great luck to you. Life is SO SWEET! It couldn't get any sweeter than this. Then again. . . .

I was telling this certain young lady (see photo above) my story of good fortune, and it was as if she instantly wanted to be my girlfriend, my honey, my all; she's probably just a little gold-digger, but she's young enough to be my daughter and insists on calling me "Daddy," so it's quite all right with me.

You should never be too quick to delete the emails you get, the ones you just pass off as so much "spam"; you never know when some email will change your life just like it did mine. Hurry up, Paypal!

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"Football Stars . . ."

2010-11-03T04:51:00.000-07:00

Am auctioning this lot of 4 "Football Stars of . . ." books. My brother and I used to wait every year for these to come out, mostly for the cool pix inside & the colorful covers. I had looked for them for years and was unable to find them in my attic. After my father recently passed away, we were cleaning out the attic, and there they were, nested inside about a million back issues of National Geographic. I submit them for your pleasure and for your bids (with all due apologies to Mr. Rod Serling).

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Reading Books

2010-11-02T07:05:00.001-07:00

The latest book I have finished was on on the old gent to the left, Charles Francis Adams, son & grandson of presidents (John & John Quincey Adams).

His was a fascinating life, and he steered the US through several diplomatic crises during the American Civil War; such as, the Trent Affair, whether European countries would recognize the South's cause, the Emancipation Proclamation and others; and they are call covered thoroughly.

I first read this book in 1984, as part of some twelve or so other volumes from the American Statesmen series. I am rereading one per year to refreshen myself on them.

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Elections

2010-10-31T16:46:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow is the day so many of us put aside the fact that our politicians and would-be politicians are the scum of the country, and we hurry to the polls to vote for one or the other of them. Count me out; I have to be able to look at the guy in the mirror. Pardon me now as I go out for a quick puke at the mere thought of it all . . .

Just stay home like yours truly and do the planet a favor by saving some gas. Urp.

Claw and Antlers on the Cheap

2010-10-19T06:55:00.000-07:00

It's never too late to get in on the hustling Texas Rangers bandwagon. But it's way past high time you snagged a little "Claw & Antlers" swag to show where your heart really lies. (Plus it must certainly annoy New York Yankees fans.)

Get your Claws and Antlers now!

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What I'm Reading - Amarcord, by Marcella Hazan

2010-10-15T13:22:00.000-07:00

Just finished reading this book "Amarcord" by Italian chef Marcella Hazan. It's much more than a cookbook, though there are tasty morsels throughout.

It's more a fascinating autobiography by a woman who lived in such places as Bologna, Venice & New York. She and her husband, who found each other early on, experienced World War II and all that went with that. This book has a lot going for it besides a flavorful aroma.

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Beautiful gesture by my nephew

2010-10-14T09:09:00.000-07:00

Whenever my nephew or his brother and sister would do some small favor for their grandfather (my father), Dad would always insist on giving them a dollar or two for their effort, telling them he wanted to be sure they had a little "mad money."

Dad recently passed away. When he was on view for visitation by his many friends and family members, my nephew folded a dollar bill up and placed it over the handkerchief in Dad's pocket, just so his grandfather would eternally have a little "mad money" in Heaven.

Rest in peace, Dad. We all love you and miss you.

(Photo shows Dad with Mom in pleasenter times.)

Health care reform top concern should be costs

2010-09-28T02:10:00.000-07:00

Alzheimer's disease is going to get you. It's going to get and affect you and everyone you know, whether it's that cherished elderly relative of yours or just your pocketbook. It's going to wreck your future, somehow, due to the absurd costs of covering the expenses of it.

My elderly loved one has been in a full-time Alzheimer's care center for over a year. The cost is over $6,000 per month. There are less expensive places where we might place her; but when it comes to having a decent place for her that meets my family's standards well enough, all such places are "competitively" priced at about the same $6,000 per month.

Demand some kind of cost controls on these businesses! If you don't, Alzheimer's disease is going to completely wreck your life, even if only financially.

Grandpa's 1930's perpetual motion invention

Annoying words & phrases that must be avoided

2010-09-27T05:54:00.001-07:00

1. step up
This is where someone, usually some sports figure, will, during this game only, actually do what he's paid to do in the first place, and we're all supposed to feel he has slayed a dragon or something like that.

2. storied
In reference to some sports stadium; for instance, "Trainer Hiram Stinkwell sure has hosed out a lot of jockstraps in this storied colliseum."

3. disrespect
Just shoot me the next time someone turns this perfectly good noun into a cringe-inducing verb, as in: "Don't disrespect me."

4. house
in referring to some sports field

5. at the end of the day
Please leave this one at the office - just not at my office, if you please.

6. harm's way
Good lord, whatever this abstract-made-concrete word harm means, please give it wide berth, plenty of leeway, lots of elbow room. Just do not get in its path!

7. nother level
Often achieved in a "storied house" (see above); for instance, when some ballplayer is "Gonna take things to a whole nother level," instead of being his usual mediocre self.

8. swagger
This usually has to do with how some sports figure comports himself while locomoting somewhere on some sports field. It's not clear if said player has to take things to a whole nother level before he's allowed to locomote this way (see above.)

9. opportunity
Count how many times former Dallas Cowboys Darryl Moose Johnston says this, or one of its derivatives, in a game he's announcing. Sometimes he waxes lyrical with, for instance, something like this, and I paraphrase: "It was very opportunistic of that young man to take advantage of that opportunity because opportunities like that don't come around very often in this league." Seriously, if you count them, you might have more points than your favorite team by halftime.

10. get
As in: "Barabara Walters landing the exclusive interview with Ice Bucket was a great get!," after which we are supposed to get all jazzed up about hearing this person Q & A'd.

XXBeatles picture sleeves on Ebay

Book I'm reading - "My Grandfather, Picasso" by Marina Picasso

2010-09-25T09:05:00.000-07:00

About a hundred pages into this, and it hits me as one long whiiiiine. And now she's boo hoo-hooing at her analyst. (Wouldn't you know it?) Will probably finish this thing, but it's no wonder Picasso couldn't stand this self-pitying shrew.

But maybe you would still like a copy

Republicans unveil Pledge to the Rich & Big Business as Usual

2010-09-23T11:43:00.000-07:00

Here it is . . . if you can stomach the whole thing:

Click you!

I hope you can get through it sans puking. Good luck.

John Boner saying "Duh, there's a sucker born every minute & they'll all lap up this demagoguery."

Me 'umble 'ome

Chihuahua saves yorkie 's life -- dog, man's best friend ?

2010-09-22T06:49:00.000-07:00

My brother often brings over his yorkie, Pebbles, to play with my Chihuahua, Tiny, when he comes to visit. Recently I was in the garage and heard my brother and his wife calling up and down the street for their yorkie; I figured he had escaped the backyard and gone on the lam.

I would finish what I was doing and then join the search. First, I decided to look around more closely in the back yard to see if he was hidden back there someplace.

I checked the rear and left sides along the fence, which are heavily vegetated. No luck. He wasn't around. I decided to go look down the street, but noticed my Chihuahua sniffing at one corner of our storage shed. I went to investigate.

Sure enough, there was the yorkie Pebbles's snout sticking out from beneath the shed. I ran around the shed to find the hole she had passed through. I found no such hole or space through which he could have crawled.

I grabbed a shovel out of the shed and began to dig by the shed door, not where the dog's snout had been, because I didn't want to smack her with the shovel. I had made a hole large enough for her, but she wouldn't come over to me.

I had been sick for weeks and was still recovering, thus very weak, so I called my brother on the phone to get him to hurry back. He came and dug another hole, nearer where the dog was, and his wife was finally able to pull him through, though the dog was a bit edgy about coming back out.

Not sure whether it was hotter outside or beneath that shed, for the temperature was over 100 outside. When the dog came out, she was panting fiercely and headed straight for the water dish. My Chihuahua had saved his yorkie friend. Way to go, Tiny! Man's best friend is also dog's best friend, I suppose.

..Classic literature books lots

Republican Tea Party embraces witchcraft

2010-09-20T06:37:00.000-07:00

Marie Laveau corpse to be exhumed as grisly mascot?
Christine O'Donnell

Vintage Marx Toys

My nephew looks like soccer star Landon Donovan

2010-07-05T05:59:00.000-07:00

Don't you think so?
My nephew is on the left, the football dude on the right.

Adidas soccer ball

Why Men Are So Bad

2010-02-02T11:28:00.000-08:00

A long time ago in a certain place a man & a dog both died. One of the immortals happened to be passing, & he decided to bring them to life again. He first examined the man & found that his heart had vanished; but the dog's heart was still in its place. So he took out the dog's heart & gave it to the man. He then made a heart out of earth for the dog. Then he said a few spells, & they both came to life again. The dog raised its head & wagged its tail in gratitude. The man, however, not only did not thank his benefactor, he even cursed him.

This is a Chinese folktale from "Folktales of China," edited by Wolfram Eberhard.

Haiti

2010-01-14T06:51:00.000-08:00

Pat Robertson is just a brilliant guy, huh? Typical "Christian, " always judging others, particularly this or that group of people who don't live theie lives to please Pat. Can anyone be as far from Christ, or His teachings, than is Pat Robertson? I judge him only to save his sorry self.

Tiger Woods

2009-12-10T09:29:00.001-08:00

Color me not that interested. A part of me is glad to learn he isn't quite the blah personality I took him for. Still . . . naughty, naughty.

Beyonce

2009-09-24T05:55:00.000-07:00

I like Beyonce. Class tells. No matter how uncomfortable the situation, she comes out smelling like the rose she is.

With all my love, for always, Beyonce

Journalists Released !

2009-08-06T05:42:00.000-07:00

Just a quick note to say how glad I am that the two journalists were released from North Korea. I haven't felt this good since Elizabeth Smart was returned safely to her family after having been away so long. Thanks you Bill Clinton!

F.G. Sanford drops political bombshell - I didn't cheat !

2009-06-25T05:09:00.000-07:00

"I still love Elizabeth! And I'll be coming to join you honey. I'll be the one with the . . ."

My humble home

Woo Hoo!

2009-05-13T05:07:00.000-07:00

Just received my first check from Google for my Adsense ads. Yee Haw! They really work!
Thanks, Google!

Me 'umble 'ome

Louis Braille

2009-04-08T10:43:00.000-07:00

Question:

I know Louis Braille blinded himself with an awl (a woodworking tool), but how in the devil did he blind himself in both eyes with an awl?

Answer:

He didn't. The other eye went blind due to sympathetic ophthalmia (inflammation of both eyes following trauma to one eye. It can leave the patient completely blind).

You learn something new every day!

My latest watercolor pencil art

2009-03-09T06:00:00.001-07:00

After Pissaro

Try some watercolor pencils.

Paul Harvey

2009-03-02T06:05:00.000-08:00

Good ol' Paul Harvey has passed away after decades as a radio icon. I won't say so long to Paul Harvey; let me just say: "Good day."

Paul Harvey books

Chemical Ali

2009-03-02T05:34:00.000-08:00

BREAKING NEWSFLASH:

"Chemical Ali' gets 3rd death sentence for ordering gas attacks"

To be hung thrice on 04-01-09

"It'll be good for him; it'll teach him a lesson," those in the know were heard to say.

CNN HLN Headline News & Caylee Anthony

2009-02-24T06:09:00.000-08:00

How long will the afternoon and weekend talking heads continue to exploit the death of this child Caylee Anthony? Is it because the mother, Casey Anthony, is kind of pretty and tends to be theatrical at times? I'm sick and tired of it. There's only a fine line demarcating who is more despicable, the murderer of this child, or the ones who go on exploiting her murder. Please just go away already.

The Oscars Buzz

2009-02-22T11:56:00.000-08:00

The Oscars are tonight, and I know I'm supposed to be real excited about that. But as an afficianado of movies from the 30's to the 60's, whenever I see a clip of a current or recent movie, I have to wonder why film-makers of today even bother. So while you huddle around the tube to watch Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie (for you know not what you do), if I'm watching anything, it will have Humphrey Bogart or Joseph Cotton or somebody else like that in it - enjoy!

Watch a decent movie for once in your life !!

Healthcare Ripoff - Doctors Doing the Screwing

2009-02-19T10:57:00.000-08:00

I have an elderly neighbor I'm happy to take for his doctor appointments maybe once or twice a
month because he is unable to drive himself. Last week he was telling me about his recent medical
bills. One twenty-minute visit to his general practitioner cost nearly $600 dollars, which
included $30 for merely writing a prescription. Another twenty-minute visit to his dermatologist
was again nearly $600. In both cases, Medicare & Blue Cross (read: you and every other employed
person) paid them in full, with no out of pocket costs charged to my friend.

He went on to say that if he were me, he would be angry about this. That was because though he
had paid into Medicare, etc., all his working life, he was now receiving benefits that amounted
to not only dollars to the penny that he had paid in, but to thousands of dollars to the penny
that he had paid in. He said I would probably never see a penny towards my healthcare paid by
Medicare or Blue Cross because when I retire (I am in my forties but have myself paid in for over
thirty years), there would be no more money left in either of these funds, much like they say
there will be no more money available to us younger people as Social Security.

I'm sure that the doctors could all take the position that what they charge is within the limit
of what they are allowed to charge, which is probably so; but I think it's past high time those
limits were lowered a great deal, to less obscene totals. Doctors should be in their professions
to help people more than to live off the sweat of all working people so they can exist in the
raptured splendor of visiting potentates.

Write, fax or email your crooked, despicable Congressperson today!

Healthcare Costs

Brett Favre retires from the New York Jets

2009-02-12T05:15:00.000-08:00

Adios, good Brett, if it's for real this time. You had a great career, and a great return this past year; but please, stay retired for a change.

Brett Favre rookie cards

My Latest Watercolor

2009-01-13T09:41:00.000-08:00

Antibes, after Monet

2 Sexy European Royals You May Not Know

2009-01-02T05:42:00.000-08:00

Princess Charlotte of Monaco

Princess Madeleine of Sweden

My take on governor Rod Blagojevich & Roland Burris

2008-12-31T05:05:00.001-08:00

I know all I need to know about the judgment of Mr. Roland Burris when I see him standing there, insipid grin on his face, beside that sleazeball Rod Blagojevich. The two of them should be ridden out of state on the same rail.

Dallas Cowboys and the Playoffs

2008-12-30T09:33:00.000-08:00

Well, after the debacle against the Eagles, a local sportswriter said he now realizes why Tony Romo wasn't drafted . . . Anyhow as a Cowboy fan since 1970, here's all I have to say about the Dallas Cowboys right now:

all I have to say about the Dallas Cowboys right now

But then there's always next year . . .

First watercolor pencils art - Kew Gardens London

2008-12-17T06:59:00.001-08:00

Just putting this up in case anyone mnight like it. Did it with these crazy watercolor pencils, which are quite fun. Just a beginner ... so ... no nasty comments or laughing will be tolerated, and any perpetrator of such will be prosecuted to the full extent of the law.

Space Shuttle Endeavour piggy-backed over my head yesterday in Texas

2008-12-11T05:14:00.001-08:00

What a sight it was in the clear, late-Fall Texas sky. Called to mind when I saw the Concorde flying low outside London.

What's the NFL rule on this?

2008-12-08T07:06:00.000-08:00

OKay, a defensive lineman jumps offsides and the referee throws a penalty flag - sometimes the play is stopped, and sometimes the quarterback gets a "free play" and will usually throw the ball deep. Why the different calls? Have always wondered . . .

Christmas Sale

2008-11-28T10:16:00.000-08:00

Visit my sixth-annual Christmas sale of my 1950s pin-up magazines. Take 20% off your order and still get free First class or media shipping (to USA only). Just mention 4411 code in your contact email. The sale ends December 26. Drop in now.

Big 3 Automakers Before Congress

2008-11-21T05:35:00.000-08:00

Don't get me wrong. No one knows better than I that the heads of GM, Ford and Chrysler - as well as anyone at any management level in all three of those organizations, for that matter - should be tarred and feathered and imprisoned and put on bread and water till Doomsday, out of pure incompetence, sloth, ignorance and stupidity; yes, I know they should.

Still, for our Congressional scum, the dregs of our country, to stand up and malign, insult and condescend to the auto heads is the world stood on end. All these holier-than-carsalesmen Congresspersons are in the pockets of, and owned by, lobbyists and special-interest groups themselves, and they are the last people on earth who should be pointing a finger at anyone.

So, all you Congressional hypocrites out there, relax a little while trying to stomach the reflection of your own countenances in your bathroom mirror, because you are the only ones who make the management of the automakers look like decent folks.

Author's homepage

Top 7 Current Bikini Babes

2008-11-19T11:16:00.000-08:00

These are listed in order from my top (#1) to #7. I am available for any of these bikini babes . . . but please don't make email pests of yourselves if you're interested.

#1 Mariah Carey

#2 Kim Kardashian

#3 Beyonce Knowles

#4 Carmen Electra

#5 Lindsay Lohan

#6 Tyra Banks

#7 Christina Aguilera

Images by others & found in the public domain; if you would like one you own removed, or to be credited for it, just give me a shout.