Maybe I should be tweeting?

Smoking with the ghosts. Back soon.

L

Can't fight the moonlight

Gone to the moon ... back soon!

Little bits

“Robur gregi in lupo, robur lupo in grege.” (The strength of the wolf is in the pack, the strength of the pack is in the wolf.)

Seems right, doesn't it?

In the same batch of e-mail I also learned about preterition (synonyms paralepsis and apophasis): the rhetorical tactic of omitting a topic to emphasize it.

Also very appropriate.

Must read now. Be well!

It's not in the cards

This was an important question that produced an important answer: pay attention.

Traditional Celtic Cross

Significator = Queen of Swords

1. The immediate situation: 4 of Swords: Standing guard: solitude, exile, repose

2. Obstacles: 8 of Cups: Desertion, turning away

3. Aspirations: Strength: The power or courage to act

4. Foundations: 8 of Swords: Bad news: crisis, sickness, conflict

5. The past: 3 of Swords: A pierced heart: absence, delay, division

6. The future: 9 of Wands: Preparation for attack: will, strength in conflict

7. Attitude of the questioner: The Empress: The hidden and unknown: long days, doubt, difficulty

8. Environmental influences: Ace of Wands: The source: origins, creation, invention

9. Hopes and fears: The Sun: Contentment

10. The outcome: The Hermit: Treason, deception, prudence and roguery


Hmm.

The value of poetry in the modern world

According to Publishers Lunch, "Carol Ann Duffy was named the UK's poet laureate, the first woman to hold the position in 341 years. Along with a small stipend, the honor comes with a "butt of sack" -- 600 bottles of sherry to stoke the muse." Avast! A pirate's life for her!

The house I want to buy

Next in my ongoing rant against realtors who insist on working without editors... the home fit for a pirate!

"[This home] is one of the largest at 1,242 sq.ft. has a downtown view with a 27 ft. balcony with duel access."

Whom shall I invite to duel? Jack Sparrow? Zorro? Captain Farrell? Oh, the possibilities are endless. I'll certainly enjoy my 27 ft. balcony. NOT.

And seriously, what's up with the insistence on an initial capital on "Realtor"? Even the spelling checker in my web browser wants the capital! I don't believe "Doctors", "Lawyers", or "Teachers" enjoy that privilege. Perhaps realtors, as para-professionals, have a self-esteem problem and need to compensate by breaking the conventions of English grammar?

Still marking,
L

April 29

Happy birthday, Bruce!

Here's hoping that your day is super-fantastic and that the year ahead brings you everything you want.

love,
Leslie and Zak

A matter of faith

From The Princess Bride

Westley: Hear this now: I will always come for you.
Buttercup: But how can you be sure?
Westley: This is true love. You think this happens every day?

Is it still this week?

A song for the week that won't end...

"The Fly" - U2

It's no secret that a friend is someone who lets you help
It's no secret that a liar won't believe anyone else
They say a secret is something you tell one other person
So I'm telling you...

Overheard at a publishing conference

"Back-end fulfillment" : "Boundary-less delivery of product to buyers in any way they want it, now."

Apparently it's the new way to transact.

Hmmm.

The vault of lost lyrics, chapter 3

Because it's that time of year.

**

"Here's the World" (as recorded by The Payolas)

Here's the world
I can only help you go so far
Try to teach you wrong from right
How to take each day like a brand new day

Don't worry about me
Because who could ever ask for more?
Listen to these words that I write
There will be no tears in my eyes tonight

Don't let them fool you
Don't let them tell you that you'll never go far

Here's the world for you
Here's the world for you
Go tell them who you are
Here's the world for you
Here's the world for you
Go be a shining star

Take all my love
And carry it inside of you
Know that I will always be there
Know that I will always care

Don't let them fool you
Don't let them tell you that you'll never go far

(chorus)

And if I ever did wrong
Please forgive me now
Before I am gone
And if I ever did right
Tell me with a smile
That will light up this night, light up this night

(chorus)

Thought for Friday night

Sans zzz.

"Methought I heard a voice cry, 'Sleep no more!
Macbeth does murder sleep!' the innocent sleep,
Sleep that knits up the ravelled sleave of care,
The death of each day's life, sore labor's bath,
Balm of hurt minds, great nature's second course,
Chief nourisher in life's feast."

$%@*#$!!!

Song for Tuesday

(I was out for dinner and visiting until far too late last night!)

"If I Am a Stranger" - Ryan Adams and the Cardinals

Today is yesterday when you don't know
How to rebuild the walls that someone has knocked down.

Song for Monday

"You'll Always Be" - Oh Susanna

Now I don’t need no tailor to sew this suit together;
your yarn is a worn-out old tether.

Song for today

"Diamonds and Rust" - Joan Baez

But if you're offering me diamonds and rust,
I've already paid.

Hard at work: meta markup

While correcting an exercise in proper mark a new phenom is unveiled. Meta markup. Or as we designers like to refer to it... a dog's breakfast.

It does beg the question of how much can one learn from that many "corrections"

-- Posted a la iPhone

Leslie's Coming Home

Today. Woot. And there's a Rip n Grip. Double woot!


-- Posted a la iPhone

A LibraryThing review

Many of you know that I'm crazy about LibraryThing , a book-cataloguing website that appeals to the book nerd in me.

One of the most fabulous parts of LibraryThing is the Early Reviewers group, which gives away copies of books at or prior to publication in exchange for reviews. There is no requirement that the reviews be laudatory or even positive, and the range of participating publishers is impressive.

Here is my latest review for LibraryThing (also posted in LibraryThing, of course). If you're interested in seeing my profile or my other reviews, you can go here.


According to Their Deeds
Paul Robertson
Bethany House, 2008


According to Their Deeds is a thoughtfully written mystery that draws together Enlightenment and Christian themes. When one of his long-time clients is murdered, gentleman scholar and rare books dealer Charles Beale is pulled into the investigation. Along the way he pauses to consider what mercy, justice, honesty, and integrity mean in a thoroughly modern, bitterly political world.

There are some weaknesses in this telling. The pacing is maddeningly slow; for a suspense novel, the action is far too strung out to create any real tension. And much of the dialogue is preposterous. Mr Beale speaks as though he dropped out of a Jane Austen novel. His attitudes, too, may prove a little too traditional for many readers.

That said, there is some wonderful word play in the writing, and readers will find few literary mysteries quite so literary in their conceits. Readers may feel clever recognizing the many in-jokes and allusions, and numerous puns will have readers either laughing or groaning — or both.

This novel is an interesting hybrid: an inspirational thriller. It should appeal to a range of reading interests.

3/5 stars

Here's a sentence to parse...

... and it provides some helpful career-planning advice, too!

"A career in popping cherries requires few resources beyond audacity, charisma, and a penis." — Hanne Blank, Virgin: The Untouched History

Dissertation work... Really!

Keep you doped with religion and sex and TV
And you think you're so clever and classless and free
But you're still fucking peasants as far as I can see
A working-class hero is something to be...

— John Lennon