Language is a poor enough means of communication as it is. So we should use all the words we have. 

Caitlín R. Kiernan

Happy birthday, Caitlín R. Kiernan! Before her first novel was published in 1998, the Irish novelist fronted a "goth-folk-blues band" called Death's Little Sister. The band name was inspired by Neil Gaiman and his Sandman series.

Guilty.  I have often been teased because i use words that dance not only in front of my eyes, but expresses sentiments.  High-faluting language, i was teased.  Hardly.  But some words are not really in common use, but they are not high faluting.  Just rarely used.

A Goodreads quote from Agatha Christie

It has been some time ago since i last put in a Goodreads quote.  I've read every Agatha Christie book that has been published.  Here's a quote from her that resonates with me.  

The missing eleven days was a subject of a Doctor Who episode starring David Tennant, my favorite Doc Who.  I still like that episode.  If you get a chance, see it.

Very few of us are what we seem. 

Agatha Christie

December 3, 1926: On this day, Agatha Christie said goodnight to her daughter, left home, and disappeared for eleven days. When she was eventually found at a hotel, she could offer no explanation. The mystery has yet to be solved.

a Robert Frost quote

A poem begins as a lump in the throat, a sense of wrong, a homesickness, a lovesickness. 

Robert Frost

August 1, 1915: Robert Frost's The Road Not Taken was first published in the Atlantic Monthly 100 years ago today. While the poem works as a metaphor for the weight we put on turning points in our lives, Frost later insisted the verses were simply inspired by a literal walk in the woods.

i love a lot of Robert Frost's poems, 

Mending Wall, 
The Road Not Taken, 
Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening

 - to name three favorites.

A Goodreads quote on Books, one of my favorite things!

Do you remember the movie, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

I remember that Elizabeth Taylor starred in that movie with Richard Burton, and i think she was nominated for an Oscar there (i have to google to know for sure) but if she was, indeed, she didnt win because i remember she got the Oscar for Butterfield 8, where she played a lady of the night.

Virginia Woolf is of course, an author.  And i liked this particular verse ...

Books are the mirrors of the soul. 

Virginia Woolf

May 4, 1928: On this day, Virginia Woolf declared she found her fame "vulgar and a nuisance."

A Goodreads quote on Reading

Reading is one of my favorite things. Better than TV and better than the movies.  To me, at least. -  Always Better.  Imagination tops any effects.

The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you'll go. 

Dr. Seuss

Theodor Geisel (born March 2, 1904), a.k.a. Dr. Seuss, acquired his pseudonym as a student at Dartmouth. He was caught drinking with friends and, as punishment, was forced to drop out of his extracurricular activities. That didn't stop him from continuing to write for the campus humor magazine using his mother's maiden name, Seuss.

Part of one of my favorite poems, Jabberwocky -  one of very few i have memorized

i have my own concept of a Jabberwocky and all those lovely works

what about you?

Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe. 

Lewis Carroll

Do you use "chortle" or "galumph" in your speech? They are part of the English language thanks to Lewis Carroll (born January 27, 1871)—both words appeared in his nonsense poem, Jabberwocky.

A Goodreads quote - seems perfect for this Season

It is our purpose in life - to give meaning to our existence.  I once read a poem in an olde M&B book ... it goes 

what is this life if full of care, we have no time to sit nor stare....
so sitting and staring is part of our lives, to think, and meditate...

What do we live for, if it is not to make life less difficult for each other? 

George Eliot

George Eliot (died December 22, 1880) was the pen name of Mary Ann Evans, author of classics like Middlemarch. For twenty years she lived with her lover, the philosopher George Henry Lewes, and her pen name was a tribute to him. Eliot was code for the phrase: "To L - I owe it."

A GoodReads quote -

The power of the mind is truly amazing.  So keep thinking positive. Have good thoughts and may good prevail .... Keep the light in your spirit aglow

The mind is its own place, and in itself can make a heaven of hell, a hell of heaven.. 

John Milton

When John Milton (born December 9, 1608) wrote Paradise Lost, he was blind and nearly impoverished. The epic poem took six years to write and he sold the publications rights for just £5—not a large amount even in 1667.

A GoodReads quote - the Inner you

Your soul - keep it yours.... do not give up a part of it for the Darkness - for any price.

That luminous part of you that exists beyond personality–your soul, if you will–is as bright and shining as any that has ever been....Clear away everything that keeps you separate from this secret luminous place. Believe it exists, come to know it better, nurture it, share its fruits tirelessly. 

George Saunders

Happy 56th birthday, George Saunders! The big-hearted American writer's short stories concentrate on the beautiful, the weird, and the profound. He is the recipient of a MacArthur "Genius" grant.

A Goodreads quote on Seeing.....

Vison.  To see what is not there.  To see with the mind, or the heart, or the spirit, or all of them.
To be now what is the future.

Vision is the art of seeing things invisible. 

Jonathan Swift

Satirist Jonathan Swift (born November 30, 1667), author of Gulliver's Travels, was a founding member of the Scriblerus Club, along with fellow wit Alexander Pope. This literary society's sole aim was to ridicule scholarly pretension.

A Goodreads quote on Life and Love and Living

Life is indeed simple.  We stand up for what we believe, and show support for those we love.  Do you do the same?  Or does something prevent you...

. . . when it comes down to it, that’s what life is all about: showing up for the people you love, again and again, until you can’t show up anymore. 

Rebecca Walker

Happy 45th birthday, Rebecca Walker! The influential journalist introduced the concept of Third Wave Feminism in an article for Ms. magazine when she was just 22 years old. Walker's mother is Alice Walker, author of The Color Purple.

A GoodReads quote on TRUTH

This quote is about justice to me.  Truth shall break free and woe to you who hide behind those in current power thinking your evil deeds will never come to light.  Some blindly follow people in power, thinking that some things are small evil.  But dear readers, there is NO such thing as a little evil.  Evil is Evil.  There is nothing ever small about it.

This is not to say that Jefferson was evil.  He had slaves, all inherited if memory serves - he manumitted some of them, at different times in his life.  He is of course, best known for writing the Declaration of Independence.  It is a most inspiring piece of work.

Quite as inspiring as Lincoln's Gettysburg address.

Truth crushed to earth shall rise again. 

William Cullen Bryant

Influential poet and newspaper editor William Cullen Bryant (born November 3, 1794) had his first poem in print at age 13—it was an attack of Thomas Jefferson's political philosophy. Later, he delivered the introduction for Abraham Lincoln at the famed Cooper Union Speech, which secured Lincoln's nomination for presidency.

A Goodreads from the Wiz of Oz author for Oct 9

hemmed in? frustrated beyond all reasonableness?

take heart.  wait for the heart, just like the lion.

Never give up...No one knows what's going to happen next. 

L. Frank Baum

October 9, 1899: L. Frank Baum finished writing his beloved classic, The Wonderful World of Oz. It was originally titled The Emerald City.

Goodreads quote: indeed, it would. it could

Never be afraid to raise your voice for honesty and truth and compassion against injustice and lying and greed. If people all over the world...would do this, it would change the earth. 

William Faulkner

When William Faulkner (born September 25, 1927) won the Nobel Prize, he donated part of the award money to establish a fund encouraging young writers, which became the PEN/Faulkner award, and the rest to a scholarship for black teachers as a Mississipi university.

Goodreads quote - everything ends.... the good, the bad, the ugly...

Ah. i remember the movie The Scarlet Pimpernel ... in one of those matinee shows
It had Stewart Granger playing the lead role,,,,, 
ah, those were the late afternoons then
When one enjoyed afternoons by the telly ..... 
and movies made sense, not violence

The weariest nights, the longest days, sooner or later must perforce come to an end. 

Emmuska Orczy

Hungarian born author Emmuska Orczy (born September 23, 1865) is best known for her Scarlet Pimpernel series about a British aristocrat who dashes in to rescue his fellow noblemen during the French Revolution.

A Goodreads quote from one of my fave authors - Tolkien

This verse is attributed to Aragorn of Arathorn, Strider as he was called as a Ranger, and King Elessar ... there at the end......  

Not all those who wander are lost. 

J.R.R. Tolkien

Happy birthday, Bilbo Baggins! The Fellowship of the Ring opens with a celebration of the hobbit's special day. September 22 is also Frodo's birthday and the America Tolkien society proclaimed it Hobbit Day.

Click here for the complete Aragorn quote

or if you are lazy to click, below is the quote ...

“All that is gold does not glitter,
Not all those who wander are lost;
The old that is strong does not wither,
Deep roots are not reached by the frost.

From the ashes a fire shall be woken,
A light from the shadows shall spring;
Renewed shall be blade that was broken,
The crownless again shall be king.”

― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring

the take is - and to use another quote - do not judge a book by its cover ...

take the time to know ....

Goodreads quote - want to know someone intimately? look at his library

this says much.  to know someone intimately, 
you must know how he thinks
to know how he thinks, you must know his mind
to know his mind, 
      ... read on below

For to know a man's library is, in some measure, to know his mind. 

Geraldine Brooks

Happy 59th birthday, Geraldine Brooks! The Australian-born novelist is best known for March, which imagines the wartime service of the March sisters' father in Little Women.

A Goodreads quote - a question, and an answer?

Have you always known what you want to do?  Steered toward it unerringly?
Has your journey been wild and precious?

My journey has indeed been wild, and strange, and well, hard and fun.
I have met strangers who became friends, and learnt about life in various milieu

I have enjoyed bus rides, talked with my designated drivers, and found friends in my constant companions on the same rides.  

One, who participates in the Boston Marathon, and paints, was like Nick Nolte in Pat Conroy's Prince of Tides.  And I had the idiocy to watch the movic with him.  

I was also with a group waiting for a connecting bus to another county in Brea  Mall - where the wind chill factor was ..., in a word, Brrr. An Irishman, an Indian, a Kenyan, and a Filipino.  We shared our cultures and became friends.  Too bad that distance cant always survive friendships ...

so wild and precious.  Wild. Precious.  I hope you have yours.

Tell me, what is it you plan to do
with your one wild and precious life? 

Mary Oliver

Happy 79th birthday, Mary Oliver! The Pulitzer Prize-winning poet's daily walks in the woods and wetlands of Provincetown are a central inspiration for her work.

A Goodreads quote

It seems serendipitous that the quote comes from James Hilton because this year gives back to teachers, and to my mind Mr. Chips (along with Robin Williams in .....Dead Poets Society) is one of the good examples of a teacher.  

In Philippine Science High School, our class - batch 75 - was priviliged to know many wonderful teachers - and in no particular order .........
Agnes Vea (English), Helen Ladera (English, History), Evaline Gerochi (my first homeroom advisor), Nita Alfonso (Filipino), Ms Alfonso (bio), Vicenta Reyes (bio), Rosita Sta. Maria (bio), Cesar Brillantes, Mr. Arboleda (i cant remember his first name)........

People make mistakes in life through believing too much, but they have a damned dull time if they believe too little. 

James Hilton

Novelist James Hilton (born September 9, 1900) wrote Goodbye, Mr. Chips for The Atlantic magazine, where it first appeared as an article before being published as a book. It was inspired by Hilton's father, who worked as a school headmaster.

Being a child

Two quotes for  today because i was out of the nets for 3 days.

I belive that one should be a child forever,  This is not to say to behave as a child, but to retain the wonder of a child.... and that this should be forever.  

I think you should be a child for as long as you can. I have been successful for 74 years being able to do that. 

Bob Newhart

Happy 85th birthday, Bob Newhart! The famously deadpan comedian wrote a characteristically titled autobiography: I Shouldn't Even Be Doing This.