Glens Falls (NY) Online Book Discussion Group discussion
What are U doing today?
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What are U doing today? (Ongoing thread)
message 4551:
by
Joy H., Group Founder
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Feb 14, 2014 02:03PM
Great quote, Nina! Happy Valentine's Day!
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PS-The following page has a pic of Robert Frost when he was young:https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Robert_...
Good looking fellow!
I JUST FOUND THIS ONE (bold print mine):~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I ask them to take a poem
and hold it up to the light
like a color slide
or press an ear against its hive.
I say drop a mouse into a poem
and watch him probe his way out,
or walk inside the poem’s room
and feel the walls for a light switch.
I want them to waterski
across the surface of a poem
waving at the author’s name on the shore.
But all they want to do
is tie the poem to a chair with rope
and torture a confession out of it.
They begin beating it with a hose
to find out what it really means.
Introduction to Poetry by Billy Collins
FROM: http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/...
He is one of my favorites. Love that poem.
Today I am rejoicing! Our granddaughter was born at 12:07 AM today, 2/16/14. 9 lbs. 5 oz! (Due date had been 2/5/14!) Mother, Father, and Baby are all doing well. No Name Yet! Can you imagine? lol So I am calling her NONY! :)
Congratulations! She's a biggie so probably looks not newish..Keep the nickname NONY as a special rememberance of her actual birthday.
Joy, that's wonderful news! Congratulations to you and to the happy parents!
Thank you! They haven't named her yet! Can you believe it? Nina, I would like to keep calling here NONY (rhymes with pony) but I'm afraid her parents wouldn't appreciate my idea. :)
Thank you, Arnie. They are certainly keeping us in suspense about the name of their new baby! It seems to be all I can think about. Reminds me of a plot device to heighten one's interest. :)
After the baby naming check out this book. I just picked it up at the library after three very good recomendtions. "Yonahlossee, Riding Camp for Girls" by Anton DiSclafani. Yes, that would make a page turner wondering about a name.
RE: The Yonahlossee Riding Camp for Girls by Anton DiSclafaniThanks, Nina. The GR reviews are VERY mixed!
I will let you know what my reaction to this book is after reading it. I am starting tonight.
OK, Nina. I'm curious now. :)
Thank you, Carol.We have finally learned NONY's name!
I just received an email from the happy parents.
They have named their new daughter "Lily".
That was my mother's name. I am thrilled!
I've always said that if I had had a daughter, I would have named her after my mother. But I had 4 sons, no daughters. Now I have a granddaughter with that name. Life is full of surprises.
I love the name. It reminds me of the French National Athem; Lily Marlene; one of my favorite songs. She will be your new treasure to enjoy. I just received an email from one of my favorite granddaughters who decided the first five people who answered her mail would receive a present from her this year as she wants to spread the idea that we give love the year around. I happen to be one of the five lucky ones. She is my granddaughter with the same name as you, Joy is her name.
Nina, don't we love our granddaughters names! :) Enjoy your present.Thanks for reminding me of that song, "Lily Marlene". It's a lovely song. Here it is at youtube.com: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gBi5j7...
"Always end the name of your child with a vowel, so that when you yell the name will carry." :)
-Bill Cosby ("y" can sometimes be considered to be a vowel.)
Four of my children's names ended with a vowel if you count the "y.= Timothy and Lucy and Melinda and Dona. The other two must not have come when I called, "Douglas" and "Megan." We have lots of family members with the same names.Two Tim's' two Davids and two Michaels and lots of the same middle names.
Speaking of middle-names, my new granddaughter's middle name is "Skye". That was a new on on me! LOL Takes getting used to but I like it, especially after I've read up on all its derivations and associations. When I asked why they chose it, they said they just liked it. They cited many different reasons why they liked it.After researching the word, I wrote the following:
=======================================================
Isle of Skye is a large island in Scotland. ... "One possible derivation comes from skitis, an early Celtic word for winged, which may describe how the island's peninsulas radiate out from a mountainous centre. ... Various etymologies have been proposed, such as the 'winged isle' or 'the notched isle' but no definitive solution has been found to date ..."
FROM: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skye
---------------------------------
At any rate, I like the "winged" idea... very sublime and glorious.
A good symbol as Lily sets sail.
A good name to carry with her.
=============================================
The parents, who love sailing, didn't cite any of the above except for the Scottish island association.
PS-Of course, the name, "Sky Masterson", comes to mind... the character played by Marlon Brando in "Guys and Dolls". Ah yes, I like it! :)
My great grandson's half sister's name is Skylar. And I have been to the Isle of Skye. It is enchanting. There is a ballad, "Over the Sea to Skye," and the story is that Bonnie Prince Charlie escaped to the Isle disguised as his servant; thus the ballad. Check it out. Skye is in the Scottish Hebredes.
That's interesting, Nina. Here are a couple of youtube videos of the ballad:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U7wBlG...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n1CTxa...
Since Jim is often talking about his animals I thought this movie with goats might entertainhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=58-atN...
Earl, that is so funny and so incredible. Goats surely must have the best sense of balance in the world! Looks like they were enjoying themselves. I guess that goats DO have personalities! I wonder if the big guy ever got a chance to take a "ride on the ribbon". LOL
Earl, thanks for sharing this! Those goats are absolutely precious. The video brings back memories from the early days of Barb's and my married life, when we lived in the country next to a neighbor who raised goats (and we had half ownership of one of the milk goats). But they never had a nifty metal ribbon like this to play on. :-)
That is great. Marg shared this to my timeline on FB the other night. She said we should get it for my goats, but the ponies would probably want to play, too. Trouble!
The only spanking I remember receiving was when I disobeyed the order not to climb over the fence when we lived on a farm, to play with the Billy Goat. I think I was about four years of age.I do remember his big horns but he never butted me.
Watched a good netflix last night; fun characters and beautiful setting on the Riviera. "The Good Woman."
Was this the film, Nina?: A Good Woman (2004) http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0379306/?...
http://movies.netflix.com/WiMovie/700...
I watched it last June. I gave it 3 Netflix stars.
It's an film adaptation of a play by Oscar Wilde: Lady Windermere's Fan.
Some of the Netflix members felt that Helen Hunt was miscast. I remember feeling that way too.
In any case, it was good to see what Lady Windermere's Fan was all about because it's a celebrated play.
Nina, here's an Oscar Wilde film adaptation you may like:"An Ideal Husband". I gave it 4 Netflix stars. It's streamable!
FILM: 'An Ideal Husband" (1999):
http://movies.netflix.com/WiMovie/An_...
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0122541/
See my review at: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
THE PLAY: An Ideal Husband by Oscar Wilde
Joy H. wrote: "PS-Here's my review of the Windermere film:https://www.goodreads.com/review/show..."
Your review summed it up, nicely. Oscar Wilde does seem to do well with tongue in cheek, though, doesn' he? Now a question for anyone who has read or scene, "The Girl with the Pearl Earring," and the question might be a spoiler. I just watched it again after a long time in between and long ago I raad the book but neither my husband nor I could figure out the ending. Who is the girl living with?
Nina wrote: "The only spanking I remember receiving ..."Wow. I can't remember the number of times I got spanked. In all fairness, I was a fairly horrible little child, though. I remember making Mom cry - she almost never did - in frustration, anger, & fear from a very early age.
;-)
I'm playing with my new PC (Win7 64 bit) & am going through the horrible migration process. Since I do this on a regular basis at work, you'd think it would be a snap, but I have a lot of older software at home. For instance, I balance my check books with Quicken 2000 which I originally had on a Windows 95 PC. The install didn't want to work. I found it was so old that it had subdirectories for disks, each under the 1.44mb limit. Wow. Looks like I got it, though.My Family Tree Maker is old, too. I haven't tried it yet. I'll upgrade it if I have to, but the one that's really bugging me is my microscope. It's a kid's toy, a Digital Blue QX5, USB microscope. It's awesome, but the software has always sucked. I never got the video to work even on XP or 98SE, but the still pictures are excellent. It does 10x, 60x & 200x with either top or bottom lighting when it's working. I gave one to James for Xmas this year. He has it working with Linux & loves it.
RE: Girl With a Pearl Earring by Tracy ChevalierNina, I read the book but can't remember the ending.
Jim, have fun "playing" with your new PC. I dread the time that I'll need a new laptop. All that "migration". Our son does it for me but it's still a time-consuming job and I hate to bother him with it.
Jim wrote: "I'm playing with my new PC (Win7 64 bit) & am going through the horrible migration process. Since I do this on a regular basis at work, you'd think it would be a snap, but I have a lot of older sof..."I have a friend who had to return a Win8 laptop that his wife's 'magnification' software would no longer work on (she is legally blind and needs this software, whatever it is called.) Staples found a Win7 laptop lurking on a backroom shelf for them and he managed to get her stuff working with that. Did you consider Win8? Did you consider somehow sticking with XP thru a home-build or some other option so your valuable home software could be retained? Did you purposely opt for the 64 bit OS?
I do almost all computing on a home desktop pc, homebuilt. I no longer have a den to work on such a project or effect big repairs or upgrades, so am anxious to glean any info, hints about how to proceed with my inevitable future pc investment. I desperately want to retain my dated (and pricey) home software and am perfectly happy (or as happy as one can be with Windows) with XP. I just don't know how to get new hardware to keep running it.
It's not fun upgrading to a new PC, Joy. I do enough of that during the week for work.Nina, in April, Microsoft will be issuing the last security update for XP so it won't be safe to use on the Internet after that. Windows 8 isn't a version I'm likely to use at all, like the first edition of 98, ME, & Vista. None of them were worth upgrading to. It seems best to skip every other version. They get something decent working & then try to push everyone to a 'new & improved' version that's buggy. I haven't heard of too many bugs in Windows 8, but its interface is ridiculous for a desktop.
I was out raking gravel off the grass & saw daffodils popping up. Marg & I took a ride tonight, too. No coats. Loving it. Unfortunately, that's going to change later on tomorrow. Well, the break has been nice.
Daffodils? I can't even see the GROUND! It's covered with snow! LOL
Oh, to see a "crowd of daffodils" I wish. Joy, have you access to any "Killing Jesus," reviews. I am presently struggling through it. So, much violence and my husband doesn't always agree with Bill O'Reily. Thinks much is made up. What do our Goodreaders think?
RE: Killing Jesus: A History by Bill O'ReillyNina, I haven't read that book. Below are links to several reviews:
http://www.chicagonow.com/an-agnostic...
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2...
http://www.theguardian.com/books/2013...
There are also the GR member reviews at:
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1...
(Scroll down at the above link.)
Actually, I don't pay much attention to Bill O'Reilly. He preaches to the choir.
It's on my 'do-not-read' shelf since I read a review of it that says it doesn't do a good job. There's another book of his that someone recommended, though. I put the details in my 0 star review here:https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Jim, I like the James Kirk Wall quote which you posted in your review. It's a coincidence that we both had selected the same review by Wall as references. The review was at the "ChicagoNow" website at:http://www.chicagonow.com/an-agnostic...
I'll repeat the quote below:
"It’s hard to recommend a book that’s so biased in its portrayal of history. For anyone who decides to read _Killing Jesus_, my advice is to be aware of what are true accounts of history and what is selective and sugar coated hearsay."
-James Kirk Wall
Thanks. Those reviews helped. I am going at the read with skeptisim.I did wonder and as I said my husband sort of poo pooed what I was repeating.. James Kirk Wall's made good sense.
Bill O'Reilly is a loudmouth, liar---His book, "Killing Lincoln", not to be confuses ith his "Killing Kenndey" _(Man, this guy is really on a Killing Spree!!)was laughed at by serious historians---# He's not one! He reminds me of Ambose Bierce's definition of "Certain"---"mistaken at the the top of one's voice."
Arnie, don't hold back. LOL
More about what constitutes good writing. I asked a published novelist friend of mine and I am quoting her reply: "In novels they seek to entertain; there should be believable dialogue, interesting characters and a plot that keeps the reader guessing would be some of the things that some might call good writing. But for me, the book I want to keep reading is one that teaches me something about life. It is the one that shows the character changing or coming to terms about himself or other human beings. It is the book that makes me pause and think about something that is said or described. I think I read to understand myself and others. I guess good writing is subjective. It depands upon what you want out of it."
Glens Falls (NY) Online Book Discussion Group
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