Splash du Jour: Monday

Have a great Monday!

*****

Happy [Jealous] New Year

Dear Friends, I have been rather blog-vacant as of late.
But don't be jealous.
I've been a little bit of everything-vacant lately.
Just….. blah. 
La-di-da.
Not exactly depressed, but unfocused, I guess.
My dearest friend invited me over for Christmas and I went. On the long drive I re-acquainted myself with this old Shania Twain CD. Real devotees of Twainism [and I don't mean "Mark"] will know that the CD is a double CD set. Same songs, but done twice. One is more country, and the other, known as the RED one….. is more upbeat. I play that one! It's produced by her ex-husband Mutt Lange. The guy is a guru of record production. One song found itself on repeat mode, repeatedly.
It's called I'm Jealous, and [go figure], it's about jealousy.
The song itself made me think a lot about love. The lyrics are simple, but profound. She's just basically saying that she is jealous of anything that has closer access to her lover than she does. She doesn't want to share her lover with anything, even inanimate things, like the moon, wind, sun, or rain.
I thought about it a lot, and concluded that I think those feelings are intrinsic to what true love is.
Or should be.
With that, I give you the song, via YouTube. 
And I wish you a Happy New Year… with either new love or renewed love a central part of it.
Real love. Not the un-jealous kind.

Splash du Jour: Friday

 Have a great Friday!

*****

The Incredible Voice of David Phelps

Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas!

Sincerely

-- Cip --

Splash du Jour: Monday

Happy, happy Christmas, that can win us back to the delusions of our childish days; that can recall to the old man the pleasures of his youth; that can transport the sailor and the traveler, thousands of miles away, back to his own fire-side and his quiet home!
-- Charles Dickens --

Have a great Monday!
*****

Calgary Airport: A Saturday Snapshot

I love the Calgary, Alberta [Canada] airport.
For one thing, when I am connecting to a flight to Eastern Canada, I usually do not have to stray too far from the arrivals area, where there is a Starbucks, and the ol' faithful wind-up aeronautical display, for kids. There is a big wind-up mechanism, and then this whole three-planed display twists around, propellers propelling -- the kids go wild over it, and make just enough noise to awake you, so you do not miss your connector flight to Ottawa.

Thank you Alyce, for hosting this terrific blog-meme @ At Home With Books.
*****

Splash du Jour: Friday

What can I say?
I just wish this beautiful retreat was mine, mine, MINE!

Have a great [the world did not end] Friday!
*****

Splash du Jour: Thursday

She had always wondered at the bravery of it. The sparrows jumped before they knew how to fly, and they learned to fly only because they had jumped.
-- Lauren Oliver, Liesl & Po --

Have a great Thursday!
*****

Splash du Jour: Wednesday

Letterman's Top 10

Top 10 Least Popular Children's Books







10. The Little Intern That Could.
9. You've Got an Infected Limb, Charlie Brown.
8. Green Eggs and Anthrax.
7. Winnie the Pooh Gets Caught in a Bear Trap.
6. Curious George Watches the Pamela Lee Video.
5. Alice in Wonderbra.
4. The Grinch Who Stole To Support His Crack Habit.
3. Little Women of Cell Block B.
2. James and the Giant Bottle of Peach Schnapps.
1. The Hardy Boys Investigate Each Other.

Have a great Wednesday!
*****

Splash du Jour: Tuesday

The most beautiful experience we can have is the mysterious. It is the fundamental emotion which stands at the cradle of true art and science.
-- Albert Einstein --

Have a great Tuesday!
*****

Splash du Jour: Monday

But let's assume that God exists. As long as God doesn't intervene after He or She released the grand pendulum, then there's no problem, as I see it. No interventions or miracles, no problem. That leaves us, for all practical purposes, with a physical world. Does that make sense to you? Yes, it does, says David. So how are you feeling about all of this right now? asks Ronald. Confused, David says. That's not so bad, says Ronald. People are often confused right before they make a discovery.
-- Alan Lightman, Ghost --


Have a great Monday!
*****

Splash du Jour: Friday

It was morning by the clock but deepest nighttime in his body.
-- Jeffrey Eugenides, The Marriage Plot --
[I can totally relate to this Eugenides quote, and can only be glad that it's at least Friday!]

Have a great Friday!
*****

Splash du Jour: Thursday

This perhaps was what lay at the root of the hysteria surrounding what came to be known as the Gold Rush: Men desiring a feeling of fortune; the unlucky masses hoping to skin or borrow the luck of others, or the luck of a destination. A seductive notion, and one I thought to be wary of. To me, luck was something you either earned or invented through strength of character. You had to come by it honestly; you could not trick or bluff your way into it.
-- Patrick deWitt, The Sisters Brothers --

Have a great Thursday!
*****

Splash du Jour: Wednesday

 Have a great Wednesday!

*****

Splash du Jour: Tuesday

I don't remember deciding to become a writer. You decide to become a dentist or a postman. For me, writing is like being gay. You finally admit that this is who you are, you come out and hope that no one runs away.
-- Mark Haddon --

Have a great Tuesday!
*****

Splash du Jour: Monday

I feel that art has something to do with the achievement of stillness in the midst of chaos. A stillness which characterizes prayer, too, and the eye of the storm. I think that art has something to do with an arrest of attention in the midst of distraction.
-- Saul Bellow --

Have a great Monday!

*****

Wimpy, Wimpy, Whimper.

I don't like pain of any kind.
[Who does, right?]
But when I say I don't like pain, I mean I am actually quite wimpy about it. I hate discomfort of any kind, and tomorrow my discomfort level is going to be through the roof.
I have to get a lower wisdom tooth removed.
Quit laughing, all you who have gone through worse things… like childbirth and stuff. For me this is serious business. An X-ray taken earlier by my dentist revealed that the roots of this tooth are somewhere down near my left testicle! And all of that is going to get torn out tomorrow afternoon.
It calls upon powers even greater than normal dentistry -- it means I have to go to what's called a Maxillofacial Surgeon, and any type of medical designation that requires that many syllables to say it, scares me!
*****

Life of Pi: A Saturday Snapshot

As of tonight, when guests enter my apartment [which, admittedly, is a bit of a rarity] the first thing they will see is a Modigliani print facing them. Then they will kick off their shoes as I hand them a beer or two and turn around and be accosted by Richard Parker, the tiger in the movie, Life of Pi.
I went to see this movie two weekends ago, and then went AGAIN a few nights later, to see it again. [Another rarity: Me going to a movie in the theatre twice!]
Of course, I read the novel, years ago, as you did also.
And I even met the author, Yann Martel, as you may or may not have done, also.
The book was, and still is, a gem.
But I was not prepared for how much I would love the movie!
It is no exaggeration to say that it is probably the best movie I have ever seen -- for not only its wonderful production, but also its personal relevance and meaningfulness to me during a very formative and trying time in my own journey through "life".
I highly recommend both the book and the movie to you, whichever comes first! Or second!
A dear friend sent me a link to a place where I could order the official movie poster for Life of Pi, and then I had the poster laminated at COSTCO.
[Is there anything that COSTCO cannot do?]
So, just moments ago, I took down my Picasso print to make way for Richard Parker.  
A tiger I shall not soon forget!

Thank you Alyce, for hosting this terrific Saturday Snapshot meme @ At Home With Books.
*****

Splash du Jour: Friday

Have a great Friday!

*****

Splash du Jour: Thursday

It's possible, in a poem or short story, to write about commonplace things and objects using commonplace but precise language, and to endow those things—a chair, a window curtain, a fork, a stone, a woman's earring—with immense, even startling power.
-- Raymond Carver --

Have a great Thursday!
*****

Splash du Jour: Wednesday

She had been so fiercely alive. She had spoken honestly, and lived with an honesty that few could claim to match. She had made the most of every minute she was given. She bargained and rationed and managed the seconds. She burned up the days.
-- Ann Napolitano, A Good Hard Look --

Have a great Wednesday!
*****

Splash du Jour: Tuesday

Letterman's Top Ten

Top 10 Signs You're Not Cut Out 
To Be A Race Car Driver

 


10. You're only in it for the intensely vibrating seat.
9. You've always felt that passing other cars is rude.
8. Terms of your parole won't let you leave Delaware.
7. All this week, you've been stockpiling Twinkies.
6. Friends know you as "Mr. Motion Sickness."
5. You're existentially opposed to the starting line and finish line being the same line.
4. You know what "existentially" means.
3. You don't like to be rushed.
2. You can't even handle high-speed internet.
1. More than 10 minutes sitting? Crippling ass cramps.

Have a great Tuesday!
*****

Splash du Jour: Monday

Reading in our family was a private activity and there was nothing particularly commendable about it. It was a pesky sort of infirmity like hay fever, from which we might be expected to succumb; anyone who managed to stay clear of it would have been the one to be congratulated. But once the addiction was established, no one thought of interfering with it.
-- Alice Munro --

Have a great Monday!
*****

She Keeps On Ticking...

I think that Timex© should adopt Alice Munro as their spokesperson. 
Because when it comes to writing great short stories, she just "keeps on ticking". I can recall several false retirement announcements from Alice Munro. 
Back in 2006 I even wrote a blog about it. Back then her collection The View From Castle Rock was about to be released and I heard a radio interview with her. At one point she said that she will quit writing "in the interests of a manageable life" and with self-effacing rationale she explained that it is rare for outstanding work to be produced in an author's later years, "so one or two books fewer won't really be anybody's loss." But since then she has published Too Much Happiness [2009] and right now on bookshelves everywhere is a newer one, called Dear Life. 
Dear Alice -- you love writing far too much to ever quit. So let's not have any more of that "retirement" rigamarole! Your faithful and devoted readers will never tire of you.
As a side note, Dear Friends -- you know, there are 23 days left until Christmas! 
And if any of you feel compelled to get me Alice's new book, well -- I think that would be fantastic, and very Santa-like of you!
Cheers! 
*****

Until Further Notice...

Dear Friends:

For the next little while I'm going to be unable to do any blogging at all.

I do look forward to getting back in the swing of things when I'm feeling better.

I wish you all a terrific week ahead.

-- Cip --

Splash du Jour: Friday

Have a great Friday!

*****

Splash du Jour: Wednesday

Genius in the sperm whale?  Has the sperm whale ever written a book. spoken a speech? No, his great genius is declared in his doing nothing particular to prove it.  It is moreover declared in his pyramidical silence.
-- Herman Melville, Moby-Dick --
Have a great Wednesday!
*****

Splash du Jour: Tuesday

Boys like it when you talk to them as if they were grown men—at least he always did when he was a kid—because they pretend that’s what they are anyhow, grown-up men, and they do it for their entire lives.
-- Russell Banks, Lost Memory of Skin --

Have a great Tuesday!
*****

Splash du Jour: Monday

She was lonely without Blunt, but she was lonelier at the idea that the world went on as though she had not loved him.
-- Colm Toibin, The Empty Family --

Have a great Monday!
*****

Four Things

Ahhh, finishing a beer, and beginning a new book.
Even though the lovely weekend is pretty much over, there is still much to be thankful for. Good books, good drinks, peace and quiet. Many civilizations would have killed for these four things. [And did].
Happy reading to ye, one and all!
-- Cip --
*****

Severe Distraction Issues

People who know me know that I struggle with concentration. 
I'm extremely prone to distraction. This is why I'm a slow reader. 
I practically read any book I read twice, because of the amount of re-reading I do, as I go along.
My mother had the same affliction, and my father, albeit to a lesser degree. So, I blame their DNA. 
In me, my distraction levels can be rather ominous. 
I was just afforded another example of this, just an hour ago.
I was at the local vehicle registry place, where you get the little sticker to renew your license plate validation. So I fill out the information and the girl did the processing and asked how I'd like to pay. I then insert my trusty chip-embedded VISA card in the little terminal. Sounds pretty simple, right?
She turned to go over to the place where the stickers are, and in that interval of time I drifted off to Australia or somewhere. She returned and handed me the sticker as the VISA machine spat out a little piece of paper. She tore it off and said, "Oh. You didn't do it?"
Meanwhile I'm thinking in my head, "You know? Kangaroos have to be the most amazing creature ever…." and my mouth says, "Pardon me?"
The VISA thing… it didn't work. Apparently you have to DO certain things.
I say, "I'm sorry" and re-insert the card.
Again… seconds go by, and now I'm hang-gliding somewhere, entranced by how the tops of trees from this altitude sort of look like broccoli. The machine spits out yet another piece of paper, and this time it actually says on it, at the bottom and in real small font… "What the hell is WRONG with this guy?"
I swear! That's how bad I am.
Up till then, this was almost fun, but now the girl is looking at me with an angry face. There are a lot of other people in this line, you bozo!
So again, [third time, if you're counting] I re-insert the card, profuse with apologies, and now I force myself to stare intently at the machine, not looking to the right or left. No more dreams.
It worked. I leave with the new sticker, which I had intended to apply as soon as I was outside.  
But in the interim, I forgot.
Now I am home and the sticker is still on the passenger seat of my car, sitting there.
It sometimes amazes me that I somehow make it to work every morning, instead of just aimlessly driving off into the distance…
*****

Splash du Jour: Friday

A true war story is never moral. It does not instruct, nor encourage virtue, nor suggest models of proper human behavior, nor restrain men from doing the things men have always done. If a story seems moral, do not believe it. If at the end of a war story you feel uplifted, or if you feel that some small bit of rectitude has been salvaged from the larger waste, then you have been made the victim of a very old and terrible lie. There is no rectitude whatsoever. There is no virtue. As a first rule of thumb, therefore, you can tell a true war story by its absolute and uncompromising allegiance to obscenity and evil.
-- Tim O'Brien, The Things They Carried --

Have a great Friday!
*****

They Don't Make 'Em Like That Anymore

I like a very wide variety of music. 
From AC/DC to Dvorak. 
It all depends on my mood, and I have many moods. A wide variety of moods.
After a really trying [difficult] work day I stopped at a Starbucks and read my book for a while, and then got in my car for the ride home. I flipped the dial on my radio and landed on our local country FM station. Instantly the chorus of a song caught my attention and I appreciated the honesty and clarity of the voice. It was truly beautiful, and what the guy was singing about made me think of my own father, now passed away. So I turned the volume up and even started singing along, even though I had never heard the tune in my life before. I made a note of the refrain, which was "they don't make 'em like that anymore" -- so I could look it up on Youtube when I got home. I found it, just as I was retrieving my phone messages from the day. There was one from my sister, about some "news" -- so I quickly called her.
Turns out one of our family's dearest friends died just yesterday. Good ol' Pastor Ness -- a man I had worked with many times when I myself was in the Christian ministry, decades ago in another lifetime. 
His 88 years on earth were spent loving God as sincerely as I think anyone could ever humanly accomplish. At the time she was telling me about this, the song from Youtube was already playing quietly on my computer. The guy was singing, "There's something 'bout that generation. These days I think we need 'em… more than we ever did before. But they don't make 'em like that anymore."
I'll admit, country music [in general] can be guilty of a penchant for hearkening back to a sort of idealizing of the past, usually with a steel-guitar twangin' away at your pancreas. But, that aside, I can't help but think there is a lot of truth to the general gist of the song. And the guy's voice is just incredible. His name is Jason Blaine and he's CANADIAN!
Just like ME!
Whether or not you're a fan of country music at all, I place the song here for you to have a listen yourself. It's as "country" as a big ol' wheat field with a tractor in the distance. Maybe it will touch you in a similar way to how it has touched me, this cold Thursday night in November.

  

Splash du Jour: Thursday

If a composer could say what he had to say in words he would not bother trying to say it in music.
-- Gustav Mahler --

Have a great Thursday!
*****

Splash du Jour: Wednesday

-- Letterman's Top 10 --
Top 10 Signs You're A Lame Spy
 

10. You fear heights, loud noises, air travel, and enclosed spaces.
9. You insist on wearing a cape.
8. By day, you work at a hardware store; 
by night, you work another shift at the hardware store.
7. Everyone knows you can't swim.
6. Your only gadget: Cufflinks that shoot smaller cufflinks.
5. E-mail address is spyguy26@cia.gov.
4. 10 p.m., enter foreign country. 10:05 p.m., executed for espionage.
3. Insist on being paid in hugs.
2. Ex-girlfriends call you "003 1/2".
1. Only have a learner's permit to kill.

Have a great Wednesday!

*****

No Good Irish Writers? Say What?

Here is a pic of the last two books I read.
Coraline is terrific, I highly recommend it.
I just finished the John Banville one tonight and I loved it. The totally neat thing about The Infinities is that it is primarily narrated by the Greek god Hermes. And he's a real hoot. With this book Banville has taken the omniscient narrator thing to a unique level, with Hermes as mouthpiece. Here, several "gods" [like Zeus and Pan] descend and alter the lives of the Godley family, the patriarch of which is dying.
Adam Godley, a famous mathematical genius on a par with Einstein, has suffered a stroke [while defecating] one day.
Hey! It happens! It's nearly happened to me a time or two, in those same circumstances.
Anyhoo -- the family gathers at the ancestral manor to re-connect and await the imminent demise of Adam. But the gods have much to say about the proceedings. And do. 
Some of the stuff they do is pretty wild, actually. Just ask the pretty daughter-in law Helen, she'll tell ya!
Banville is a genius and I love this the best of the four books by him I have now devoured.

I was walking through the office at work with the book in hand today and told a certain person, "Hey, you should really read this book, it's terrific!" And he replied, "Nope. I won't read any Irish author because none of them are any good. Except maybe James Joyce."
And in one of those sadly recurring verbal moments when I suffer a brief aneurism [or maybe it was a stroke] I failed to come up with a good response for this racist statement.
But after thinking about it, I realized there are tons of great Irish authors I love.
Like Colm Toibin, William Trevor, Oscar Wilde, and if poetry counts, what about Yeats! 
And two Irish-Canadian writers come to mind -- Emma Donoghue and Brian Moore.
I think it's wrong to condemn any country in the world as having no good authors at work in it. 
Because there are great writers everywhere.
Maybe even especially in Ireland. Or like... CANADA!  
*****

Splash du Jour: Tuesday

Gotta hand it to this guy, he may not be exactly "romantic" but he's definitely creative!
I think I'm going to use his method of marriage proposal next time I get engaged!



Have a great Tuesday!
*****

Splash du Jour: Monday

Granny Godley was dying of a damaged heart and grimly turned over each new day like a playing card from a steadily diminishing deck, anticipating of each one that it would be the ace of spades, while what had come instead was this solemn-eyed coat card, this miniature queen of diamonds, swaddled and uncannily still and always looking at something far off to the side that only she it seemed could see, clutching in her white-knuckled fist the wilting flower of the future.
-- John Banville, The Infinities --
Have a great Monday!
*****

Where Were You on Nov.22nd, 1963?

Tonight I did my regular stint at Starbucks in the Chapters bookstore after work. Finished reading Coraline [loved it!] and started reading The Infinities by John Banville. And drank copious amounts of coffee.
I also did a good deed.
A couple next to me left the place, and about a half hour later I noticed the woman had forgotten her purse slung on the back of her chair. So I carried it up to the Starbucks people and they put it aside, pending her return for it. About another half hour later I saw them retrieving it, the woman all aflutter. Ahh, another anonymous good deed by Mr. Bookpuddle.  I'm a regular Haley Joel Osment -- "pay it forward" and all that jazz. Little do they know I took all her credit cards.
Just kidding.
Then I browsed books in the Neil Gaiman section [he seems to have a lot of real interesting ones in the Fantasy genre of the store] and soon found myself among a display of Stephen King's 2011 novel entitled 11/22/63.
I leafed through it and read a bit of the book club discussion ideas at the back.
The first one was a question. "Where were you the day JFK was shot?"
Hmmm… and so I wondered where I was at that time, in 11/22/63.
And it really took me down memory lane.
Because on that day, I was in an amniotic sac. Thankfully, it was my mother's.
And I was fixin' to get out of there.
12 days later I was born into the world.
When I think of 11/22/63 though, I always think that it was also a day when two literary greats did the reverse of what I was about to accomplish by being born.
They died.
C.S. Lewis, and Aldous Huxley.
So it was an infamous day in many respects beyond the catastrophe of the assassination. 
The political world lost a great man, and the literary world lost two masters of the craft.
*****

Splash du Jour: Friday

 Have a great Friday!

*****

I've Been a'Whaling...

Well, just a brief word here because I've had a very tiring day at work. But I thought I'd drop by to say I finally finished reading Moby-Dick.
Wow, it was quite the book, definitely not for the casual-type reader out there, you've got to be fairly committed.
It's not until the last 40 pages or so [of nearly 600] that they even meet up with Moby!
But when they do -- all hell breaks loose, as it were.
Melville's description of the multiple battles are really unforgettable and worth the wait, in my opinion. It's really a terrific journey.
I think, looking back, what I loved the most was how Melville endowed Moby-Dick [the whale himself] with a sort of cognizance lacking in all the other encounters. Other whales seem to be taken by surprise, but not Moby -- Captain Ahab, in his insane vengeance has been on a one-track course regarding this one whale. He's been dreaming of payback time for the beast -- as Moby had previously left town with Ahab's leg. But, in the end it's been Moby all the while -- waiting for Ahab to reappear.
I'm not providing a review here, since most of you have probably read this book at one point in your life -- perhaps you were even forced to do so, in college. 
I came at it late in the game, and of my own free will.
Now I am sort of "cleansing my palette" with some lighter fare.
A little YA thing by Neil Gaiman, called Coraline.
And it's excellent excellent. Spooky. Scary. Delightfully weird.
So far, no whales -- but a lot of talking mice and rats and cats.
Cheers!
*****

Splash du Jour: Thursday

Don't ever apologize to an author for buying something in paperback, or taking it out from a library (that's what they're there for. Use your library). Don't apologize to this author for buying books second hand, or getting them from bookcrossing or borrowing a friend's copy. What's important to me is that people read the books and enjoy them, and that, at some point in there, the book was bought by someone. And that people who like things, tell other people. The most important thing is that people read.
-- Neil Gaiman --

Have a great Thursday!
*****

Splash du Jour: Wednesday

PRESIDENT Obama.
Pointing somewhere, in and around, Utah maybe?
Thank you, America, for restoring my Canadian faith in, I don't know…
brains?
Have a great Wednesday!

*****

Early Valentines From Robert

Some of you may recall that I have somewhat chronicled a bit of the details surrounding my Overall Horticultural Ignorance, a while back.
I love plants, but I really don't know that much about them.
I once bought a plant from my local grocery store. 
It was like -- years ago.
I had no intention of buying a plant at the time. 
I was in the store with a fairly basic itinerary and agenda:
Find the hamburger section, and buy some.
But this silly plant caught my eye and so I took him home, naming him Robert Plant before we even got in the elevator together.
I placed him in a certain corner of my kitchen area, where he immediately began climbing the walls. He attaches little sucker things on to the wall [real neat] and just… climbs. 
But after a while I began sensing that he needed more pot.
[Robert Plant needs more pot, go figure! I should have known this from the get-go!]
So I went to Walmart and bought him some dirt and pot.
Since then he's been on a real high. A new lease on life. And I just took this new picture of his upper leaves. Whether there is any rational basis for what I am about to say, or not -- I don't care.
I'm going to interpret the distinct shape of these new leaves as an early Valentine message from my dear roommate, Robert.
*****

Splash du Jour: Tuesday

There is some relationship between the hunger for truth and the search for the right words. This struggle may be ultimately indefinable and even undecidable, but one damn well knows it when one sees it.
-- Christopher Hitchens --

Have a great Tuesday!
*****

Splash du Jour: Monday

Have a great Monday!

*****

On Writing: A Trifecta Writing Challenge

It's been a while since I took a shot at the ol' Trifecta Writing Challenge, but this weekend's prompt made me immediately think of the following response.
So here goes.
First, the prompt itself, and then my 33 words.

For this weekend's challenge, in honor of all of the writers throwing rationality (and perhaps sanity) to the wind and writing til their fingers bleed, we're asking for exactly 33 words about why we write.

When it comes down to it, there can be only one valid  reason to write. It is something that happens -- literally enters a fully prepared brain -- the moment that reading is not enough.

Be sure to visit Trifecta by clicking on the Trifectasaurus banner above.
Read the other entries. Play along. It's fun.
*****

A Nice Bookhaul: A Saturday Snapshot

I'm still wiping the drool off a few of these volumes I nabbed for a pittance, at my favourite annual used booksale. [Click to enlarge photo, you'll actually see some saliva...]
This stack should keep me busy in 2013.
"Wait a minute, though!" [This, in chorus, from several other stacks of books I have not read yet.]
Good point.
I keep buying. I keep reading, too, but I can't keep up, not even nearly, to what I WANT to read.
So look at this fine stack of lovelies. And there are several more that I picked up also, but I can't show them here because they are meant to be a gift for someone who will see them, if I show them. 
And that will ruin the surprise factor.
Suffice it to say that this, and a few more, cost me only $38.00.
What a steal. Have any of you read any of these? If so….. help me prioritize.
Tell me which should be moved to the top of the list, [or maybe avoided altogether] in my Bookpuddle intentions.
Thank you Alyce, for hosting this terrific Saturday Snapshot meme @ At Home With Books. 
*****

Splash du Jour: Friday

 Have a great Friday!

*****

Two Words in Ukrainian

This morning I awoke, as usual, so tired that it was an agony to get out of bed and go to work. But I did it, I got out of bed.
Had a shower, made a breakfast, packed my lunch, filled my coffee mug, and got in the elevator for the descent to my car. Yawning all the way!
When the doors opened at the parking garage level, I sort of let out a great gasp of tiredness. A sort of audible grand-moan of inner fatigue escaped me.
The door to the custodian's office was open and there sat Maria.
She is a sweet sweet lady who takes care of our place, and does a fantastic job of it. Maria heard me and laughed and said, in her broken English, "Ohhh, how you are today?"
Maria is from the Ukraine. Like, as in, recently from the Ukraine.
And I myself am 100% Ukrainian, but have never been there. I know just a wee smattering of the Ukrainian language [I have a more thorough grasp of all the best swear words] and as I passed her office, where she was taking a break, I said to her, "Hochesh spateh," which, being interpreted, roughly means, "I need sleep."
Please forgive me, all other actual Ukrainians out there who may know the better phonetically-correct English spelling of this phrase. It's a bit of a tongue-twister.
What was so remarkable though, was her response. I thought she was going to fall right off her chair. She was so surprised… someone speaking to her in Ukrainian!
Her hands went up to her face and her eyes got all big and bright -- in a word, she was tickled pink! 
And she kept laughing and repeating what I had said to her, as I wished her a good day [in English] and kept walking out to my car.
I recount this little vignette just to illustrate how you can so quickly shed such joy in an immigrant's life by saying just a few words to them in their native tongue. I made her feel happy, and I myself also felt a lot better. Without this little boost, I may have turned around and got back in the elevator, pressed 14, and went back to my bed.
*****

Splash du Jour: Thursday

Go to the meat-market of a Saturday night and see the crowds of live bipeds staring up at the long rows of dead quadrupeds. Does not that sight take a tooth out of the cannibal's jaw? Cannibals? who is not a cannibal? I tell you it will be more tolerable for the Fejee that salted down a missionary in his cellar against a coming famine; it will be more tolerable for that provident Fejee, I say, in the time of judgment, than for thee, civilized and enlightened gourmand, who nailest geese to the ground and feastest on their bloated livers in thy pate-de-foie-gras.
-- Herman Meliville, Moby-Dick --

I agree entirely, shame on you pate-de-foie gras eaters!
But hmmm… I wonder what Melville thinks of my hamburger addiction!

Have a great Thursday!
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Splash du Jour: Wednesday

There are such beings as vampires, some of us have evidence that they exist. Even had we not the proof of our own unhappy experience, the teachings and the records of the past give proof enough for sane peoples.
-- Bram Stoker, Dracula --

Have a great Wednesday and a monstrous HALLOWEEN!
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Splash du Jour: Tuesday!

Most Americans who read at all read junk... I think it is a fair generalization to say that European readers of fiction like novels to be challenging, to be demanding; nor do they follow trends or fashions in reading taste in the lemminglike manner of many readers in the United States.
-- John Irving --
Have a great Tuesday!
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