Call display. You can preview who’s calling before you pick up. We seldom pick up here; about 90% of calls are distracting callers with agendas and not worth the time of day. If ever it is someone who is legit, they will leave a message on the machine.
I generally leave my cellphone off and only use it for preplanned contacts. All this has worked wonderfully well for decades and eliminated a lot of crap from my daily life, while retaining the handiness of landlines and cellphones.
All the new moons that have just been reported as discovered moving around Jupiter.
And:
The amazing Edmontonian Travis May news story–He is a local sportscaster with arthrogpryposis, a rare disease limiting arm and leg movement. He types computer messages with a stick between his teeth and calls Grant MacEwan U basketball, volleyball, and hockey games. Equally astounding, he drives his wheelchair 4 kms. back and forth, each way, between MacEwan and home in all kinds of weather on our city’s crumbling sidewalks. His incredible story in The Globe and Mail (our country’s top newspaper) today.
Anything remains possible for human beings and relative to our understanding of the universe. There are no limits if the curiosity, determination, will, and technology support are all there.
To dress up service droids as subservient women. An outdated female stereotype. To say nothing of the harm it might have for subsequent generations, especially on kids, who might come to dismiss and disrespect real women.
(from The Very Best of The Byrds, which includes all their other hits)
“Turn, Turn, Turn” as sung by the ’60s American group The Byrds. Adapted and previously sung by folk legend Pete Seeger which he adapted from Ecclesiastes. One of the most timeless lyrics of all time; still very relevant today.
Chorus:
To everything, turn, turn, turn
There is a season–turn, turn, turn
And a time to every purpose under heaven
A time to be born, a time to die
A time to plant, a time to reap
A time to kill, a time to heal
A time to laugh, a time to weep
A time to build up, a time to break down
A time to dance, a time to mourn
A time to cast away stones
A time to gather stones together
A time of love, a time of hate
A time of war, a time of peace
A time you may embrace
A time to refrain from embracing
A time to gain, a time to lose
A time to rend, a time to sew
A time for love, a time for hate
A time for peace, I swear it’s not too late
*For anyone who doesn’t think time and timing are two of the most important recurring aspects of life. That and good or bad timing.
On Sunday, again, I won’t be watching the AA for numerous reasons, not the least of which being that I haven’t seen any theatre movies this past year.
Instead, I will hunker down to watch a quality movie made before 2000 that I want to re-see or check out for the first time from my large collection of DVDs.
I haven’t picked ‘the one’ yet, though I do have a list I’ll share with you.
(one of the contenders this year for Sunday viewing)
–Saturday Night and Sunday Morning–a ’60s British flick that launched Albert Finney’s ( a favorite actor) career
-Chaplin’s City Lights, a veritable soundless romantic classic featuring Chaplin’s Tramp at his most endearing
-the first Sleuth with Olivier and Caine who give two Best Actor quality performances in one of the most intriguing whodunit explorations of reality and illusion from the silver screen
–North by Northwest–easily one of Hitchcock’s most interesting mainstream thrillers with Cary Grant at his wittiest and super music by one of the top film composers of all time Bernard Herrmann
–A Witness for the Prosecution–Billy Wilder’s humorous, suspenseful adaptation of Agatha Christie’s play with Charles Laughton, Tyrone Power, and Marlene Dietrich at their best
–The Best Years of Our Lives–William Wyler’s post-war emotional coming-home tale of three returning soldiers with a Best AA Supporting performance by an actual WWII veteran
–Wuthering Heights (Dalton pre-Bond version)–shot in color and on location
–A Farewell to Arms (Rock Hudson version)–a Hemingway hero romance with a nurse based on a true story
–From Here to Eternity–one of director Fred Zinnemann’s best about Americans’ relationships overseas in WWII featuring great performances by many stars including Sinatra, Borgnine, Lancaster, Kerr, and many others
–A Man for All Seasons–movie’s introduction to a great British actor–Paul Scofield, and a very thoughtful, conflicted martyr from history–Sir Thomas More.
—A Room with a View–another Merchant-Ivory drama-romance based on an E.M. Forster novel, shot Italy this time, with the usual likable British character actor performances, especially by the likes of Denholm Elliott
Decisions, decisions. So which one would you pick if you were in my situation?
(pictured on the front cover: my folk group Clover performing at the Winnipeg YMHA, January, 1970 when I was a student at U of W; lower photo: my teacher-trio Fudge performing one school noon-hour at the Scona Room of Strathcona Comp, Edmonton in the mid-’90s)
Monday, Upper Crust Café, the Haven Reading Series.
An album and record of my most published and most popular early hits. Covers the ’70s to 2000 period. Limited edition I’ll be signing. I’ll perform one of my ’80s song lyrics that evening.
Arctic winds return. Jack London stuff.
February has been a total write-off this year.
The February of Our Discontent.
Nordicity (after Glenn Gould’s “The Idea of North”)
High latitude
vast flatness of poles
wind a whitewash
breathing lungs
stone-cold
Cold enlarges consciousness
an inner seeing: hinterlands
We are stirred and sharpened
made concise, altered–
a mental nordicity
Arctic night
blizzard bone
drift of pelt and parka
Polar values
break the ice in rime
evoke an introversion
like isotherms
Permafrost/permavision
cold Judas chill
solitude and
idea-flakes
Blue-planed spirit
frozen subsoil
keen surface
cutting/nipping
uninhabited
vanishing point
Brush, blade, pointillism
breath and breathe
vision elemental
inland seas
frozen sonata
Ice-age cold snap
cold storage
icefields
pro-found snow-bound
Pack-ice growlers
undertow design
spirit gathers hoarfrost
terminal moraine
Chilblain shiver
raw polar night
boreal abstract
a treeline sensibility
gather and evoke
this nordic index
–RD
“The problems often occur and the dangers increase whenever you leave home.'”
The son of the GOP candidate who cheated to win his seat is brave and has done the right thing in his court testimony; it was not an easy choice, but the morally right one. His father was/did wrong and played foully to get the victory. The son is to be commended for his guts and moral responsibility for speaking out and telling the truth about what he knows much like Chris Keller in Arthur Miller’s still-relevant classic[play All My Sons.
