Cartoon/Poem Duo of the day

Fire and Ice

Some say the world will end in fire;
Some say in ice.
From what I've tasted of desire
I hold with those who favor fire.
But if it had to perish twice,
I think I know enough of hate
To know that for destruction ice
Is also great
And would suffice.

—Robert Frost

Cartoon of the day

Blog of the day (week, month, year)

There is a New Yorker cartoon blog. Go immediately to

http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/cartoonlounge/?xrail

and click on everything.

Poem of the day

Alba

Climbing in the mist I came to a terrace wall
and saw above it a small field of broad beans in flower
their white fragrance was flowing through the first light
of morning there a little way up the mountain
where I had made my way through the olive groves
and under the blossoming boughs of the almonds
above the old hut of the charcoal burner
where suddenly the scent of the bean flowers found me
and as I took the next step I heard
the creak of the harness and the mule’s shod hooves
striking stones in the furrow and then the low voice
of the man talking softly praising the mule
as he walked behind through the cloud in his white shirt
along the row and between his own words
he was singing under his breath a few phrases
at a time of the same song singing it
to his mule it seemed as I listened
watching their breaths and not understanding a word

—W.S. Merwin

Video of the day

Is this for real? I think it must be...

Idea for a game show

A room (or several bookcases, or whatever) is filled with "junk" items—the sort you find in a secondhand/antique store.

Just one of the items is worth a lot. Contestants try and distinguish it. They keep what they find (garbage or gem).

Kind of "Antiques Roadshow" meets "The Price Is Right"

Seahorse of the day

Pygmy seahorse, Tulamben, Bali, around 32 meters deep near the wreck ship, U.S.S. Liberty

Video of the day

Video of the day

This is old, but I just saw it for the first time:

Poem of the day

A Man may make a Remark—
In itself—a quiet thing
That may furnish the Fuse unto a Spark
In dormant nature—lain—

Let us deport—with skill—
Let us discourse—with care—
Powder exists in Charcoal—
Before it exists in Fire.

—Emily Dickinson

Seahorse of the day

Giant Pacific seahorse (Hippocampus ingens) - this species of seahorse lives in tropical and subtropical waters along the Pacific Ocean. Displayed at the National Aquarium in Baltimore.

Flashback of the day

I've always loved this one:

Abbreviation-into-word of the day

biffle: best friend for life (from the initialism bffl)

Seahorses

I'm thinking they're going to be my new obsession.

Quote of the day

The most radical revolutionary will become a conservative the day after the revolution.
--Hannah Arendt

New puzzle obsession

I can't stop playing Shinro. It combines sudoku and minesweeper. Why do the Japanese seem to come up with such good puzzle ideas?

Seahorse of the day

Short-snouted seahorses have set up residence in the recovering River Thames.

The fish—pictured above in the London Zoo aquarium—were found in recent surveys that assessed the health of the once heavily polluted river.

Craft tip of the day

If you get some yarn that is in a hank (a twisted length, as opposed to a rolled skein), do not try to work with it until you roll it into a skein.

I found this out the hard way, and spent half an hour untangling the unholy mess I made.

Graphic of the day

Each dot represents 100 people


Immigration to the US, 1820-2007 v2 from Ian Stevenson on Vimeo.

Craft of the day

I just got some new yarn, a linen\rayon blend, ribbon texture. I can't wait to start working with it.

Blogging by iPhone

This is my first post composed on the iPhone. Time consuming, but handy.

Where did I come from?

from Science magazine

Cartoon of the day

http://politicalhumor.about.com/od/politicalcartoons/ig/Political-Cartoons/Bush-Shoe-Flashbacks.htm

Clear Thinking for the day

Saletan on de-funding Planned Parenthood:

If you define pro-life as preventing abortions, Planned Parenthood is the most effective pro-life organization in the history of the world. No, it doesn't give teenagers the idea of having sex. That idea comes to them quite naturally, thank you very much. What Planned Parenthood does, more comprehensively than anyone else, is to distribute the means and knowledge to control your risk of getting pregnant when you don't want to be pregnant. And those two things, combined with pressure to exercise that control assiduously, are the surest way to prevent abortions. If you wait till women are already unhappily pregnant, you're too late.

Andrew Lavoie Is Peter Pan

Nick Lavoie, Superstar

No electricity? Take a nap

Talk about your power naps. Bob and I slept more than ever while our electricity was off—there was nothing else to do!

Cooking with Noah I

Cooking with Noah II

Poem of the day

Sheep's Head Gully

After years on the trail I could barely
Distinguish friend from enemy: they lay
Together like pebbles, immune to the seasons,
While I tramped about collecting odd remnants, ingesting
Their knowledge of knowledge. God-fearing bandits agreed
To disdain this porous earth that yields up nothing but itself
To bewildered intruders. Whispers drift
Across the sapping wastes, the clefts and lizard-like
Ridges; creepers flicker in the passing breeze; heaps
Of chalky bones reveal how some died
In their footsteps, land-hungry, scheming, at long last
Resigned. There proved no turning back, and hope
Came to seem the jaws of a lurid, furious monster
Glowering from the shadows. I notice that my right hand
Is cradling my left, and how the sky arcs
Overhead. In the distance crows wheel
Above each other in ever-shifting formations;
A glaucous haze envelops the scrub
Beyond, and seems to beckon like a vast sieve in which
I must shed my coat, my trappings, the scarf about my throat.

—Mark Ford, Harper’s, Feb. 2003

Cartoon of the day

politicalhumor.about.com/od/politicalcartoons/ig/Political-Cartoons/You-ve-Been-Bad.htm

Poem of the day

Acting Like a Tree

When I got to the party and saw everybody

walking around in Christmas costumes,

I remembered I was supposed to be wearing one, too.

Bending slightly, I held out my hands 

and waved them a little, wiggling my fingers.

I narrowed my eyes and pursed my lips, making

a tree face, and started slowly hopping on one foot,

then the other, the way I imagine trees do

in the forest when they're not being watched.

Maybe people would take me for a hemlock,

or a tamarack. A little girl disguised as an elf

looked at me skeptically. Oh, come on!

her expression said. You call that acting like a tree?

Behind her I could see a guy in a reindeer suit

sitting down at the piano. As he hit the opening

chords of "Joy to the World" I closed my eyes

and tried again. This time I could feel the wind

struggling to lift my boughs, which were heavy 

with snow. I was clinging to a mountain crag

and could see over the tops of other trees a few late-

afternoon clouds and the thin red ribbon of a river.

I smelled more snow in the air. A gust or two whispered 

around my neck and face, but by now

all I could hear was the meditative creaking 

of this neighbor or that—and a moment later, farther off,

the faint but eager call of a wolf.

—Jonathan Aaron, New Yorker, Dec. 15, 2008

Best alternative arrangement of a Christmas carol I've heard so far

Bruce Cockburn's It Came Upon a Midnight Clear

Christmas song royalties?

When a singer records a well-known Christmas song, does he/she have to pay anybody? Does it depend on the song?

More about Doubt

The plot of Doubt involves a boy who may or may not be abused by a priest. In one scene, a sister (nun) meets with the boy's mother. The mother makes a point, but does not come out and say what she means -- rather, she talks around it until her point is clear. The moment the point became clear -- the split second -- the whole audience gasped.

It was one of those group-emotion moments that can't be faked, and that make a movie- or play-watching experience all the more enjoyable.

We are all worth listening to... or are we?

Last year, I saw the play "Doubt." (It is being released for the big screen any minute, with Meryl Streep, Philip Seymour Hoffman, and Amy Adams.)

My main reaction to the play was intellectual pleasure -- it makes you think without making you feel like cringing or moving to a desert island or committing sepeku (sp?)

And it was very funny. I'm hoping to convince my loved ones (Bob) to see it when it comes near

Starting is the hardest part

I nap, therefore I am -- I am, therefore I blog

Can I do a video blog with this thing?

I'd rather read other people's writing than write for other people to read