Irish Mossing

A staple of Scituate's economy for many years - there is a mossing museum in Scituate, MA now.

But WHO KNEW how fit and trim these mossers were???

Check out their reunion news here.

Carmen has never seemed so musical

Danny's Boys

Ode to Beaker's Joy

Public Art, Eyesore to Eye Candy

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/24/arts/design/24smit.html?em

NYTimes' great article about public art. Also explains "the bean" - Anish Kapoor's sculpture in Chicago. I had no idea there were more "balloon dogs" around. Road trip!

(did you notice the first pix - "puppy" by Koons at Bilbao???? - all my favorite stuff!)

The Abstinence Teacher

By Tom Perrotta

Great initial character development, I was excited to turn the pages. Ended too early, I think. a lot of plot seemed not completely fleshed out. I liked the writing style, perhaps I will read more of his novels.

Stolen Innocence: My Story of Growing Up in a Polygamous Sect, Becoming a Teenage Bride, and Breaking Free of Warren Jeffs

A disturbing look at a cult. I try to be respectful of religions that differ from my own, but this is a horrifying account of a young girl married off into an abusive relationship, and a controlling cult.

A Great Site. Find a Sign.

My Yard Our Message.

A neat site with signs you con order for your lawn!

Skool Daze

Take the whole kit

Take the whole kit

with the caboodle

Experience life

don't deplore it

Shake hands with time

don't kill it

Open a lookout

Dance on a brink

Run with your wildfire

You are closer to glory

leaping an abyss

than upholstering a rut

~ James Broughton ~

One more week!

One more week to go before it's back to the "daily grind!". Today I learned some new computer tricks which may prove helpful. One of these days I will be computer savvy, I will!

Rachel Maddow to Replace Dan Abrams on MSNBC

Hooray! Smart move MSNBC - finally!

story here

ROMEO AND JULIET

If you will die for me,
I will die for you

and our graves will
be like two lovers washing their clothes together
in a laundromat.

If you will bring the soap,
I will bring the bleach

Richard Brautigan

In honor of returning to Skool

This year's theme is reading and writing. Almost time to return to school!

THE WAY WINGS SHOULD

What will

our children do in the morning?

Will they wake with their hearts wanting to play,

the way wings

should?

Will they have dreamed the needed flights and gathered

the strength from the planets that all men and women need to balance

the wonderful charms of

the earth

so that her power and beauty does not make us forget our own?

I know all about the ways of the heart - how it wants to be alive.

Love so needs to love

that it will endure almost anything, even abuse,

just to flicker for a moment. But the sky's mouth is kind,

its song will never hurt you, for I

sing those words.

What will our children do in the morning

if they do not see us

fly?

~ Rumi ~

An Unreasonable Man (2005)

"What did you learn in school today Ralph, how to believe or how to think?" - Ralph Nader's father at the dinner table.

No wonder he ended up who he is today.

Whether you believe in his causes and methods or not, it is hard to not have respect for his sheer tenacity. We all need the Naders of the world to keep us safe, and open and free debate happening.

This Land Is Their Land: Reports from a Divided Nation - Ehrenreich

An amusing tale that is all too true - good chapters on the rise of the "princess" culture for young girls (I am very scared about that myself) and more updates on the Walmart generation of consumers and workers. An accurate and disturbing view of America today.

MUSIC, MY LOVE An autobiography with Deborah Wise

MUSIC, MY LOVE An autobiography with Deborah Wise

Great and entertaining, about the flute and Rampal's travels around the world while playing it. Told in an acessable tale that's as much about the food he ate as the pieces he played.

Believe in Me (DVD)

A great feel- good movie about a man who coaches girl's basket ball in Oklahoma in the 1960's. He arrives expecting to be the boy's coach, and then is demoted to girl's high school coach. They teach each other how to win, how to succeed, how to be proud even though they are "just girls". Subscribes to some predictable tugs of emotion, but overall an entertaining film!

Everything is waiting for you.

EVERYTHING IS WAITING FOR YOU

(After Derek Mahon)

Your great mistake is to act the drama
as if you were alone. As if life
were a progressive and cunning crime
with no witness to the tiny hidden
transgressions. To feel abandoned is to deny
the intimacy of your surroundings. Surely,
even you, at times, have felt the grand array;
the swelling presence, and the chorus, crowding
out your solo voice. You must note
the way the soap dish enables you,
or the window latch grants you freedom.
Alertness is the hidden discipline of familiarity.
The stairs are your mentor of things
to come, the doors have always been there
to frighten you and invite you,
and the tiny speaker in the phone
is your dream-ladder to divinity.

Put down the weight of your aloneness and ease into
the conversation. The kettle is singing
even as it pours you a drink, the cooking pots
have left their arrogant aloofness and
seen the good in you at last. All the birds
and creatures of the world are unutterably
themselves. Everything is waiting for you.

~ David Whyte ~