Not long ago I was poking around the bookshelves of a local secondhand store when an old book caught my eye. Intrigued, I pulled the book with the forest-green, gold-imprinted cover entitled Great Singers on the Art of Singing off the shelf. Published by the Theodore Presser Company in 1921, it was a compendium of that era’s famous operatic stars sharing personal reflections and advice on how to develop into a great singer. As I browsed the chapters, I knew I’d hit a mother lode of first-person operatic history in James Francis Cooke, editor of said volume. I couldn’t get [...] Read more »
The latest burglary report
Folks, I simply can’t resist sharing this unbelievable burglary account with you. Hailing from the state of Florida, where I once lived, these burglars are among the most, uh, er, extraordinarily unorthodox of their entire profession. Here’s the headline and link: Dumb, dumber and dumbest: Burglars snort ashes of a man and two dogs after they mistook them for cocaine Read more »
Just a few quotes
Great minds discuss ideas, average minds discuss events, small minds discuss people~~Eleanor Roosevelt The wishbone will never replace the backbone~~Will Henry (Click on title for more.) Read more »
Weather Reports for Today
Folks, if this is how they give weather reports in Atlanta, I’ve half a mind to move there. Now. Or if I can’t move down there, this weather report could be the final push I need to finally get a TV in the house—if I knew I could watch this weather broadcaster live every day, I would likely cave and buy a television this very day. Please enjoy this highly entertaining, fantastic weather broadcast for Atlanta, GA, from January 14, 2011. Read more »
For those of you who love Silly Putty…
Click the title to view the comic. Read more »
Happy New Year 2011
I have only one resolution this year, and it’s entirely impossible. But here it is: after reading Dave Barry’s annual “Year in Review” for 2010, I have decided that when I grow up, I want to be Dave Barry. (Now we won’t let small details like irreconcilable differences in Dave’s and my respective genders, ages, experiences, writing abilities, senses of humor, and the like discourage me in any way, shape, or form from running after my dreams here. Shush now!) For all of us who have not (yet) achieved our dream of becoming Dave Barry when we grow up, here [...] Read more »
First Quotes for December
Three Wise Women would have asked for directions, delivered the baby, sewn a blanket, brought practical gifts, made a casserole, and cleaned up after everybody~~Unknown Failure is only the opportunity to begin again more intelligently~~Henry Ford My life is good because I am not passive about it~~Gwyneth Paltrow Paradoxically, we fail to disclose ourselves to other people because we want so much to be loved. Because we feel that way we present ourselves as someone we think can be loved and accepted, and we conceal whatever would mar that image~~Sidney Jourard in “Transparent Self” There is no human problem which [...] Read more »
Eye halve
The beautiful thing about computer programs is that as much as they help us out with such things as spell-checkers and the like, machines simply don’t possess human brains. And this can be a problem, as the following poem thoroughly attests. There still are any number of things in this world that only humans can do (or do well, at least). In a world where human beings seem increasingly replaceable by the latest and greatest technology, it brings joy to my heart to see that machines and their programs can’t quite cut the mustard yet when it comes to replacing [...] Read more »
11 Rules
Many of you may have read these 11 rules somewhere in your email forwards as the “Bill Gates’ commencement speech to high-school graduates.” In actuality, it’s a summary of points from Charles Sykes’ book “Dumbing Down our Kids.” And every time I read these rules, I am impressed all over again. What might you add to this list of 11 rules? Rule 1: Life is not fair – get used to it! Rule 2: The world doesn’t care about your self-esteem. The world will expect you to accomplish something before you feel good about yourself. Rule 3: You will not [...] Read more »
Drive-by quotables
Poetry is language enjoying itself~~Billy Collins The flower that blooms in adversity is the most rare and beautiful of all~~Mulan No man has a good enough memory to make a successful liar~~Abraham Lincoln Caffeine is proof that God loves us and wants us to pay attention~~Anonymous You can’t tell which way the train went by looking at the tracks~~Anonymous Failure in life is inevitable. It is impossible to live without failing at something, unless you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all—in which case, you fail by default~~J. K. Rowling Always be a little [...] Read more »
On Alternate Realities and Living in Freedom
Yesterday I read an article that raises some interesting questions about the lying that the average adult practices on a many-times-daily basis. The difficult and searching issues the article brings up about truth and how much of it we reveal, or choose not to reveal, and what the effects can be on our lives are sobering, to say the least. Oh, it’s not that people are usually setting out to “lie” (ie, make up a story or tell something blatantly untrue), but rather that many times in the adult world people find it easier to simply not tell the truth [...] Read more »
Randomly interesting quotes
If you have a quote or two of your own that’s a recent favorite, feel free to post it in the comments below~~bon appetit! What is a committee? A group of the unwilling, picked from the unfit, to do the unnecessary~~Richard Harkness Never invest your money in anything that eats or needs painting~~Billy Rose You can’t leave footprints in the sands of time if you’re sitting on your butt. And who wants to leave buttprints in the sands of time?~~Unknown As long as you can blame everything on some unseen deity, you don’t ever have to be responsible for your [...] Read more »
On Creativity, Part Two
Many people say they wish they were more creative, and the simple truth is that they can be. Anyone can be. In fact, researchers and authors such as Po Bronson now believe that creativity is a necessary part of a normally-functioning brain, not a special genetic endowment or “gift of the Muse” for only a few uniquely-gifted individuals. On the other hand, the ways in which we are educated into or out of our creativity, along with our experiences in being affirmed or criticized in it, has a great deal to do with whether or not we are even currently [...] Read more »
Free Concert Tickets!
If you are from the Washington, D.C. area, this is a great opportunity not to be missed! (I happen to be a sucker for free and complimentary tickets of all kinds to just about anything, and I’ll cheerfully cop to that right up front.) The Cathedral Choral Society is giving away free tickets to first-time concert attendees for their Sunday, October 17 concert featuring French choral and organ music at the Washington National Cathedral. To get in on the free goodness, click here. Read more »
On Creativity, Part One
I have been musing about the topic of creativity off and on during the last few months. Creativity can be such a difficult thing to define, can’t it? Perhaps this is partially because creativity isn’t only about a specific set of behaviors that we do, or things we say: it’s about who we are. And it is often difficult to define the essence of something that can seem so intangible in ourselves. After all, what set of qualities is it that makes a person creative? Are these qualities innate, developed, or some of both? I was thinking about the history [...] Read more »