Re-Thinking My Inks

This Bookpuddle page will be temporarily not-relevant.
[It's been not-relevant for a while now, Cip].
Point taken.
Please be patient with me as I, [as Chris Farley said in Beverly Hills Ninja], "re-think my inks."

Thank you, dear Puddlers.
*******

Splash du Jour: Monday

Teddy knew a door had been shut that would not open again. He was old enough now to see that life is a bent path among branching possibilities -- after you move past a fork in the road you cannot get back.
-- John Updike, In The Beauty of the Lilies --

Have a great Monday!
******

As If I'm Serious...

I want someone to click on the shirt and order it for me.
I'm just kidding, but in all seriousness -- I would look so good in this thing!
You know it, and I do, too.
So, the right thing to do is just get out the ol' credit card and click... click... click!
Happiness [mine] is just a mere click away!
It's one of my fave stories of all time.
Do I need a better sales pitch than my own happiness, friends?
******

Splash du Jour: Friday

Traffic Lights

We hear that death and taxes are the constant.
The two things that are sure.
But I say traffic lights.

Red, orange and green are on duty.
Stop, wait, or go on through.
At any intersection, these are the options.

To disobey them is a freedom, yes.
But like life's own signals, to do so regularly,
is to learn they knew best.

-- © Ciprianowords, Inc. 2011 --

Have a great Friday!
******

Splash du Jour: Thursday

If enough money is involved and enough people believe that two plus two equals five the media will report the story with a straight face always adding a qualifying paragraph noting that mathematicians however say that two plus two still equals four.
-- Susan Jacoby --

Have a great Thursday!
******

Updike and Bacon

Recently I have made two very important discoveries.
John Updike, and tri-packaged bacon.
All evening I've been wrestling with the problem of which discovery to blog about first. Since I've only really just started this excellent Updike novel...
I'm going with the pork.
The other day in the supermarket I was astounded to find that someone [in this case, an outfit called Olymel Foods] has finally addressed themselves to the age-old problem of what to do with the unused portion of an opened package of bacon.
The answer? --> THERE IS NO UNUSED PORTION ANYMORE!
Open only one vacuum-sealed meal-size packet at a time! Why hasn't anyone else thought of this until now? I've been waiting years for this.

<-- See the second picture there?
It's the perfect thing for a non-Jewish non-Muslim pig-eating bachelor like myself.
You just tear off one of the three sections and fry up your four slabs of fine hog.
The rest stays fresh. Perfection.
And speaking of perfection -- 60 pages in this may be a bit of a premature summation on my part -- but I can't believe I have lived this long, always reading books, and only now have discovered this wonderful writer, John Updike.
Truly superb. Engaging. I am just so enthralled by this depiction of a minister in the midst of losing his faith. Updike's read my diary.
So that's a bit of what's going on around here --
Good books.
Good breakfasts.
Feeding my mind and clogging my arteries.
*******

Splash du Jour: Wednesday

Looking foolish does the spirit good. The need not to look foolish is one of youth's many burdens; as we get older we are exempted from more and more.
-- John Updike --


Have a great Wednesday!
******

Splash du Jour: Tuesday

Here is exactly how I feel this morning.
But I have to go to work!
Have a great Tuesday!
******

Splash du Jour: Monday

So you see, when war comes to one’s village, one’s doorstep, it isn’t tragic and impersonal any longer. It is just an excuse to vomit private hatred. That is why I am not a great patriot.
-- Daphne du Maurier, The Scapegoat --

Have a great Monday!
******

All By Themselves

This is the most adorable lip-sync video I've ever seen.
I love how intense the girl gets with the piano solo, while her friend continues to play the violin when there is no violin part. Ending with suicide by self-inflicted pen wounds and assisted strangulation.
Adorable.
******

Aliens on the Move

Some of you may recall my former raw footage of messages from outer space, seen from my balcony vantage point.
Well, seems that during the night, the Aliens have begun construction of something resembling a place to land. An arrival terminal, if you will. Obviously they would have access to their own materials, but, [and this is just like what they would do] trying to be subtle and sneaky about it, they've opted for common Earth wood. Planks and boards.
That one gate-like opening in the front does scare me, though.
What if this is not an Arrival Pad -- but a corral in which unsuspecting human beings will be herded and experimented upon.
All I know is that even though it's Halloween weekend, if I'm walking around out there I'm not going to be diverted by or even listen to anything with big buggy-eyes or an antenna sticking out if its head!
******

Splash du Jour: Friday

Have a great Friday!
*******

Splash du Jour: Thursday

I profess not to know how women's hearts are wooed and won. To me they have always been matters of riddle and admiration. Some seem to have but one vulnerable point, or door of access; while others have a thousand avenues, and may be captured in a thousand different ways. It is a great triumph of skill to gain the former, but a still greater proof of generalship to maintain possession of the latter, for man must battle for his fortress at every door and window. He who wins a thousand common hearts is therefore entitled to some renown; but he who keeps undisputed sway over the heart of a coquette is indeed a hero.
-- Washington Irving, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow --

Have a great Thursday!
******

When You Aren't Working

Tonight as I sat at Starbucks I couldn't help overhearing the conversation of two people that had obviously just met for the first time.
Maybe they met online or something.
Was I eavesdropping?
No, I was trying to zone them out and finish my Saramago book, but the woman portion of them was talking SO LOUD -- it was driving me crazy.
Anyhoo -- so much of the talk revolved around what they "do".
And by "do" I mean -- for a living.
I don't do much dating.
And by "much" I mean…….. any, really.
But if I did, I think this is one of the things I would be least interested in. What the other person did during the work-time hours of the day.
I would be more interested in what they loved to do when they are not working. After all, isn't that what dating is all about?
I would be more likely to ask the person, "What is it that you love to do when you aren't working?"
Isn't that what her and I are going to be doing most of the time, if any of this "works" out?
Not working?
******

Splash du Jour: Wednesday

Throughout his life, Albert Einstein would retain the intuition and the awe of a child. He never lost his sense of wonder at the magic of nature's phenomena-magnetic fields, gravity, inertia, acceleration, light beams-which grown-ups find so commonplace. He retained the ability to hold two thoughts in his mind simultaneously, to be puzzled when they conflicted, and to marvel when he could smell an underlying unity. "People like you and me never grow old," he wrote a friend later in life. "We never cease to stand like curious children before the great mystery into which we were born."
-- Walter Isaacson, Einstein --

Have a great Wednesday!
******

Splash du Jour: Tuesday

Have a great Tuesday!

******

Splash du Jour: Monday

Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma - which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of other's opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.
-- Steve Jobs --

Have a great Monday!
*******

Steve Jobs Biography

I am writing this from the actual bookstore, actually from the Starbucks section of the place, where I am enjoying a serious caffeine buzz from my third grande bold coffee!
I can't help but notice the signs all over the store announcing the release of the Steve Jobs biography. This particular store here will be opening an hour and a half earlier than usual [tomorrow] to handle the influx of rabidly slavering book buyers! I don't think I have heard of such hype since the last Harry Potter book, or maybe a new Stephenie Meyer release.
I, for one, am extremely interested in reading this Jobs book, but I don't think I want to pay full price for it. Nor wait in a queue to get it. I think I will wait until I find it at some sort of reduced-rate sale. I read Isaacson's book about Einstein and conclude that he is a fabulous biographer.
As an avid Mac-user and overall Apple devotee I am saddened by the untimely death of Steve Jobs. It is so sobering, as I am nearly as old as he was… it just does not seem right at all that someone so involved with life should have been taken from it.
I will definitely be reading this new book, the question is only a matter of when.
How about you, dear reader friend? Does the new Steve Jobs biography interest you at all? Will you be in a lineup somewhere tomorrow, nabbing it?
*******

Two Needed Shout-Outs

Hello, dear Blogfriends.
I've had a week of advancing the technology in my apartment. Thanks to my dear friend who visited me [without whom none of this would have been possible] I succeeded in taking a giant leap into the 21st Century, media and entertainment wise. It would be a long and possibly boring story, but suffice it to say I have the most incredible sight and sound system here now, along with effortless access to ENDLESS music and movies.
Other than the necessity of going to work, I'm never going to want to leave my place! Admittedly, I'll still sit at Starbucks for a bit after work, but beyond this -- I have the perfect penthouse environment here. Why would I want to be anywhere else?
Thank you, Trev.

Secondly -- I have also been reading some terrific books.
An Object of Beauty by Steve Martin. This novel was a surprisingly good read. I say "surprisingly" because Mr. Martin wears so many hats other than that of author, the tendency to have misgivings [as I did] about this particular one fitting his head is [I think] forgivable. But this book, a sort of romantic comedy about the inner intricacies of the art world, the foibles of its practitioners, from collectors to patrons, buyers and sellers, and the artists themselves -- it all works. I found it a thoroughly enjoyable, believable, humorous, well-drawn, never-boring journey.
After this, I devoured Jose Saramago's final novel. It's called Cain.
It sincerely saddens me to realize that no more work shall flow from his mind and fingers. This book is a classically Saramagian irreverent look at several events of the Old Testament, following the imagined adventures of Cain, son of Adam and Eve and legendary slayer of his brother Abel. Much as he did with the New Testament in The Gospel According to Jesus Christ, Saramago cuts a swath through accepted orthodox renditions of biblical legends. Some readers may find his ideas sacrilegious, [or blasphemous] while others [like myself] find them illuminating, in the sense that they make one realize the unreasonableness of a literal interpretation of most aspects of the Bible. For instance, Cain points out to God and Noah as the ark is under construction that such a monstrous wooden Titanic would not physically raise itself [would lack buoyancy] when gradually surrounded by cumulative rain water. God then realizes his blunder and employs 300 angels to set the completed ship on the ocean when the time is right.
Written in Saramago's inimical unconventional style, this book is a gem. I highly recommend it. Both of these books I have mentioned were sent to me as a gift from my wonderful reading partner.
Thank you, Lynne.

So, a night of thankfulness here at my new up-to-date apartment as I watch and listen to a surround-sound David Gilmour concert in high-definition…
*******

Splash du Jour: Friday

Have a great Friday!
*****

Splash du Jour: Thursday

The lord had made some very bad choices when it came to inaugurating the garden of eden, in this particular game of roulette everyone had lost, in this target practice for the blind no one had scored.
-- Jose Saramago, Cain --

Have a great Thursday!
******

Splash du Jour: Wednesday

The most amazing thing about this clip is not so much the second drop shot by Dolgopolov, but moreso the fact that I totally fully agree with what the announcer says at the end there!

Have a great Wednesday!
******

Splash du Jour: Tuesday

Sounds like good advice to me.
Have a great Tuesday!
******

Splash du Jour: Monday

"Where's Patrice these days?"
"Nowhere. He was a bit too interested, wouldn't you say?"
"I don't know him that well."
"Plus, I'm thirty-three, he's forty-five. And when I'm thirty-three, he'll be fifty-five, and when I'm thirty-three, he'll be sixty-three."
I laughed. "You don't plan on aging?"
"Why would I?"
-- Steve Martin, An Object of Beauty --

Have a great Monday!
******

Becoming Shelf-Actualized

I've spent a sizable chunk of my first day of holidays IN my books.
As in, moving them.
See, on Monday morning I have an appointment to get Cable-TV installed here.
[Wow Cipriano! Welcome to the world!]
Recently, Canada scrambled their free TV channels. The very channels I have relied on for news etc., my entire life. Hence, my [new] TV screen immediately became just a big snow storm and/or ant fight -- I'm not sure which it is. All I know is that I can only watch it for maybe an hour or two, it's totally boring stuff!
So I finally bit the bullet and called up the Cable people.
Monday's the day!
However -- I've always known that the cable connection thing is behind my bookcases. So today I started with the far one, hoping that the connection was in back of it.
No such luck.
Moved everything out of the second bookcase. What the hell? It's not there either.
Three's a charm?
BINGO!

Now, my friend and I [tomorrow] are going to saw holes through my beloved book racks so that cords can fit through, threading their way to the new Samsung, yonder. I will also have new "cable" internet as opposed to my DSL I've had for fifteen years now, plus a better phone plan.
So -- big changes in store at the Bookpuddle Headquarters.
No more ants fighting in the snow. I will actually have TV channels to choose from! How amazing! Incidentally, I probably won't even watch much of the shows available to me. I'm not much of a TV viewer. I prefer reading.
But today I had some hands on experience with how much of a pain in the *** the moving of books can be!
Cheers!
******

Splash du Jour: Friday

I seem to have a real comedian theme going here at Bookpuddle headquarters lately.
Let's see, I'm reading a novel by Steve Martin.
Drinking wine by Dan Ackroyd.
What's next? George Carlin potato chips?

Have a great Friday!
I'm on holidays after today! Wheeeee!
*******

Splash du Jour: Thursday

I know war as few other men now living know it, and nothing to me is more revolting. I have long advocated its complete abolition, as its very destructiveness on both friend and foe has rendered it useless as a method of settling international disputes.
-- Ernest Hemingway 1935-1961--
Have a great Thursday!
******

Forgive My Blah[g]

Dear faithful Puddlers out there:
Please forgive me for recently being fairly blah when it comes to blogging.
Recently, he says?
[Will you please hush while I am sincerely apologizing?]
I am not down and out, per se, but just down for a bit. I think I will come back to a place of more regular blogging, but I do realize that lately I have not even been doing book reviews and stuff like that.
Bookpuddle has become more of just a…. puddle -- with no book in it.
And yet I've been reading some real great stuff.
For my current absence from more meaningful bloggitry, I officially offer the following awesome excuses:
-- too much hamburger in the bloodstream.
-- too much tiredness after my workday.
-- lack of oxygen to the brain.
-- not enough hours in the day [or night].
-- my financial portfolio has taken a real beating due to the recession.
-- way too much hambu…. oh wait, I already said that one.
-- receding hairline. My forehead fast becoming a fivehead [see above photo].

I am not even sure how that last point really affects things, but I have a suspicion that it does. Please stay with me.
Do not adjust your set.
Do not delete me from your blogrolls. I know you've been considering this rash move!
Bookpuddle will return with astute reviews of books, the sheer caliber of which, will make Harold Bloom look like a complete doofus.
Trust me -- this is all I can say.
In the interim though, I…. I have a few more flowers to eat here.
Cheers!
-- Cip
*****

Splash du Jour: Wednesday

Have a great Wednesday!
******

Splash du Jour: Tuesday

I've yet to be on a campus where most women weren't worrying about some aspect of combining marriage, children, and a career. I've yet to find one where many men were worrying about the same thing.
-- Gloria Steinem --

Have a great Tuesday!
******

A Nutritious Breakfast...

Observe, if you will, how quickly my Ragdoll cat Jack muscles in on my bowl of ice cream the very second my back is turned!
For some reason I craved ice cream this morning and so this was my breakfast. And not just any type of ice cream, this is Breyer's Pralines and Cream flavour. Breyer's is the Mercedes Benz of the ice cream world, and this bowlful was the perfect start to the long weekend.
Cheers!
******

For The Love of Thirst

WARNING: The following blog is yet another instalment in the continuing series entitled TTDMYITATA©. [Things That Don't Matter Yet I Talk About Them Anyway.]

I'm finding it difficult to believe that real people drink as much booze as the characters tend to do in the recent novels I've been reading.
Don't get me wrong, I ain't no teetotaller. I like a beer [or two] as much [or usually more] than the next guy! But the amount of straight-up hard liquor being consumed in my current and previous novels -- it's downright violating the limits of my belief-suspension. Characters are just drinking at all possible moments of the day and night. Do people really do this?
Admittedly, some do -- but here is what makes it sort of unreal for me:
When the motive given for such drinking is….. thirst.
Thirst?
Really?
I can't locate a precise example right now in my book, and I've returned the other one to the Library already, but like, so often a scenario is presented such as, "Hey Mac. You thirsty? Let's have a drink."
Now if the two guys crack open a Sprite or pour some lemonade or even a glass of water -- see, I would get that! But to sit down and have a scotch on the rocks? Or pound back several snifters of brandy, etc.? Slug back some Jack Daniels? How in the world would that ever quench someone's "thirst"? The equivalent, lung-wise, would be to light up a big fat Havana cheroot because you "need some fresh air"!
Can you imagine the struggle advertisers would have if they had to sell alcohol based on THIRST needs?
SCENE: Husband and wife literally baking to death on a beach. He turns to her, "Mmmmm, honey, I'm parched. Pass me another tumbler of straight tequila!"
Yep, this is how we all want to spend a sweltering July afternoon -- sitting in sunshine drinking moonshine!
My conclusion is this: In novels, whenever someone drinks straight liquor for "thirst" reasons we are in the presence of an author that is not only using a wrong word, but doing a disservice to verisimilitude.
But one more point that is very important --> None of what I've said above applies to beer. Let's face it, beer is like 90% water. Drink three or four in a row and you will immediately be releasing the proof of this. Beer is thirst-quenching, and it's also very healthy for you, especially in ridiculously large quantities.
Secondly, nice drinks that are mixed with stuff also count as being thirst-quenching. Things like pina coladas, daiquiris, mojitos, a Collins or a Singapore Sling etc.
But give me a break. Straight undiluted liquor?
Eegads!
******

Splash du Jour: Friday

The only thing that makes life endurable in this world is human love, and yet, according to Christianity, that is the very thing that we are not to have in the other world. We are to be so taken up with Jesus and angels, that we shall care nothing about our brothers and sisters that have been damned. We shall be so carried away with the music of the harp that we shall not even hear the wail of father and mother. Such a religion is a disgrace to human nature.
-- Robert Ingersoll --

Hey, have a great Friday!
*******

Splash du Jour: Thursday

Wow! And I thought my cat was too negative all the time!

Have a great Thursday!
******

Splash du Jour: Wednesday

Unless you are educated in metaphor, you are not safe to be let loose in the world.
-- Robert Frost --

Have a great Wednesday!
*******

Splash du Jour: Tuesday

Have a great Tuesday!
******

Splash du Jour: Monday

Agnostics may yearn for God or paternal or spiritual sustenance or transcendence, but agnostics remain waiting. We are like Keats's youthful lover chasing the young woman on the Grecian urn in suspended Attic time, not catching or holding what seems never to stop eluding us.
-- Michael Krasny, Spiritual Envy --

Have a great Monday!
******

On Ultimate "Meaning"

<-- I'm reading a fascinating book about agnosticism.
The author hosts the most listened-to locally produced radio talk show in America, Forum with Michael Krasny.
He is incredibly intelligent, a Ph.D in twentieth-century literature, and the book is about his journey as an agnostic, toward a desired attitude of faith, or… believerism.
What I find particularly interesting is how Krasny repeatedly expresses his "envy" of people who have faith, those who live their life according to a sure confidence in God. His perspective is extremely interesting to me, especially since I myself was once the very type of person that he currently "envies".
As a former believer myself, I don't knock people that can be this way, I guess -- but I find that I am set up differently nowadays. I simply cannot envy anyone who continues to willingly believe in something that is ultimately unverifiable.
Today as I was reading, for a while I stopped as a thought really accosted me. I had to pause and give it its fair moment through my mind.
And it was this, basically --> I think that people in general want to attach too much meaning to existence, and this is what leads to so many deceptions about reality.
That was the thought, and I really mused on it. That whole "all things happen for a reason" idea and all that follows in its wake -- I totally do not buy that.
I dislike that cliche.
I literally believe [this is where my musings trailed off to, I'm afraid] that a huge asteroid the size of the moon could strike the earth at any time and literally wipe all life from the planet, and indeed, shove the earth right out of its orbit to go trailing off into some other galaxy where it no longer has any atmosphere on it and has a core temperature of Absolute Zero -- and yet, no force or influence would prevent such a thing from happening. So, as I contemplate such things -- an entire sort of PERSPECTIVE, or grouping of corollary musings sort of overshadows all of that and helps me to understand that while life [our individual life and also our corporate life as a species].... while all of it is incredibly significant -- the very transient nature of it [in reality] -- if nothing else the impermanence of it [both individually and corporately] actually HELPS me to make sense of what is, currently, our predicament. Much less an asteroid destroying all of us in an instant, but in my own life, I could find out tomorrow that I have a terminal illness that will have me dead before Halloween rolls around. I hope that such a thing does not happen, but if it does, if it did, does this mean my life was meaningless? Most would answer, "No, your life was very meaningful. You were a blogger," etc.
But I would answer.... "Well, it may have been meaningful, but it was certainly less meaningful than you or I or anyone else thought it was, if for no other reason than the fact that if I lived longer, it would have been potentially MORE meaningful."
So....... how MUCH meaning are we supposed to attach to a "life"? Is it judged by "time spent doing it" or "achievements" or "benefit to others"? I mean, what is the CRITERIA?
We love to attribute meaning everywhere when it [in reality] is really not "in" those places. A person could say their life had meaning because they raised one extremely successful child, etc. But what if it could have had more meaning if they had raised two such children? Secondarily, what of the person that raised none? <-- Is that life "meaningless" therefore? Of course not. Or rather, the meaning of their own life has to be located in other ways.
But that scenario in itself simply shows that there is no MEANING across the board..... the "meaning" is to be found in individual, very subjective criteria.
As I mused more and more upon it all I began to feel that this is very much another base-idea that has given rise to religion. Because what religion proposes [Christianity at least] is that it knocks every single person down to an essential level and alleges that whether you've raised one or two children or none at all, whether you've developed the cure for cancer or became the President of the U.S.A., whether you went door to door in a campaign to raise funds for homeless [and incidentally... doorless] people in your area, or whether your meaning in life was to ride your bicycle a real lot..... no matter what your own "meaning" is -- you are wrong about it, because your one true meaning is to find God, give your life to Jesus and stuff like that. In other words, this is why you are here and alive, to serve God from a faithful heart. Religion is able to sell this idea so successfully because people want an ultimate meaning. Adherence to a religious code can assuage or even displace that inner desire for meaning.
I maintain though, [and this book so far has helped me to solidify it, although I am not sure this is the author's intention] that there is far less meaning to our lives than we tend to think there is. Admittedly, the meaning for it is what we ourselves give to it. Hence, there are many meanings, but not A [any one] "meaning".
In my opinion, this is where religion can inadvertently do us a disservice, because it tries to tell us there is but one ultimate meaning.
Listen to the author speak about this book by clicking on the book cover, above.
*******

Unraveling The Mystery...

So I brew some coffee, go out onto the balcony, look down and see this.
Some sort of cryptic scrawling on the baseball circle [no diamonds here] across the street. From my 14th floor vantage point [technically it's the 13th]… but now that I mention "superstition" and all -- yeah, I'm thinking -- this looks a lot like crop circles.
What exactly is this? A message left by aliens during the night?
Or is the answer closer to home? More earthbound?
The efforts of ancient caveman artists finally surfacing after yesterday's torrential rain? Early Cro-Magnon depictions of spermatozoa trying to penetrate a prehistoric ovum?
As I thoughtfully sipped my coffee I decided upon favouring the latter idea.
The Flailing Flagella Theory©.
But seriously. Will we ever know?
******

Splash du Jour: Friday

INTERVIEWER: How do you take your coffee?
MARGARET ATWOOD: With cream or steamed milk, or sometimes I have an espresso. Of course, it depends what country you’re in. I’m old enough to remember when the waiters in Paris would come to your table and pour the coffee from a great height, and at the same time, they’d pour the hot milk, and the two streams would meet above your cup. It was an art form. You’d order it just to see them do it.

Have a great Friday!
******

Margaret Atwood... Coffee?

You cannot be serious!
I WANT SOME!
This morning I got an email notice from Chapters Books [a.k.a. !ndigo], announcing a new blend of coffee inspired by, and endorsed by one of my favourite authors ever -- Margaret Atwood.
Here's the lowdown:
In a partnership with Balzac’s Coffee Roasters, Canadian author and birdlife protector Margaret Atwood has created an artisanal roasted blend of Latin American Fair Trade and organic shade-grown coffee. Rich with flavour and aroma, this mild blend has a smooth and subtle caramel finish that will appeal to all of your senses. $1.00 of the proceeds from each bag will be donated to Pelee Island Bird Observatory, a non-profit organization devoted to the study and conservation of migratory birds.
I'm excited about this and can't wait to drink some.
Along with this coffee news, Her Royal Maggieness also has a new book coming out soon [in about two weeks]. It's a book of essays about the genre of science-fiction writing, called In Other Worlds.
Funny story --> Earlier this week I struck up a conversation with a total stranger just because I saw that he was reading Salman Rushdie [Midnight's Children]. Most of our conversation focused on "foreign" authors that we mutually admire. I focussed heavily on Jose Saramago.
As we parted ways he asked what I was currently reading, which was Linden MacIntyre's Cape Breton based book, The Bishop's Man. My friend immediately said that he loathes "Canadian authors" to which I vehemently countered with my opinion that Canada can boast some of the greatest authors living today!
He said, "Well, PLEASE don't tell me that you like……….. " [there was literally a pause, but I KNEW what he was going to say, so I said it for him…] "Margaret Atwood?"
I could tell by his sudden apoplexy that I had indeed hit the mark!
"Oh, I LOVE her," I said. "I've read practically everything she's ever written and I love all of it."
To which my new friend could not get out of my presence fast enough. It was as though I had just negated everything I had previously said about fine literature in our day!
Ah, well -- I don't care what anyone says, I love Margaret Atwood.
I've met her several times and she is always so friendly, witty, and almost inhumanly intelligent. I look forward to everything she writes, and now I can look forward to drinking her coffee!
******

Splash du Jour: Thursday

It's a shame that the only thing a man can do for eight hours a day is work. He can't eat for eight hours; he can't drink for eight hours; he can't make love for eight hours. The only thing a man can do for eight hours is work.
-- William Faulkner --

Have a great Thursday!
******

Splash du Jour: Tuesday

After silence, that which comes nearest to expressing the inexpressible is music.
-- Aldous Huxley --

Have a nice Tuesday!
******

Splash du Jour: Monday

I think of Mullins often. For priests like him and others I could name, the Gospels are rich with insights to be applied to the human condition. They even find logic in the superstition. They can trace a clear path through all the infantile promises of literal salvation and arrive at an objective truth that they carry in their pockets like a smooth, warm stone. What is it about them?
-- Linden MacIntyre, The Bishop's Man --

Have a great Monday!
******

I [Heart] Saturdays!

I just love Saturdays, where I can take a good book out onto the balcony, sit there with a minimal amount of clothes on [my hair carefully arranged in a style I like to think of as "Early Neanderthal"] and drink the best beverage on earth. Coffee.
Do not even argue with me, you tea-drinkers! COFFEE IS BETTER!
*******

Splash du Jour: Friday

….maybe individuals who enjoy higher levels of confidence and self-esteem are simply more likely to wind up unbelievers. A majority of today's unbelievers began their lives in some religious tradition then thought their way out of it. Maybe individuals already disposed toward greater confidence, self-reliance and fortitude are better able to follow their worldview odyssey clear to the shores of unbelief.
-- Tom Flynn, editor of Free Inquiry -- [my favourite magazine].

Have a great Friday!
******

Splash du Jour: Thursday

"If you were an atheist, Birbal," the Emperor challenged his first minister, "what would you say to the true believers of all the great religions of the world?"
Birbal was a devout Brahmin from Trivikrampur, but he answered unhesitatingly, "I would say to them that in my opinion they were all atheists as well; I merely believe in one god less than each of them."
"How so?" the Emperor asked.
"All true believers have good reasons for disbelieving in every god except their own," said Birbal. "And so it is they who, between them, give me all the reasons for believing in none."
-- Salman Rushdie, The Enchantress of Florence --

Have a great Thursday!
*******

Soaring Above Distinctions

As readers of Bookpuddle well know, I like to muse upon philosophical matters [if that's the right word for my glaze-eyed staring off into the distance] and these musings have a tendency to veer off into the realm of theology.
In a word, I can't help but question, and continually question, a lot of things I formerly believed in. The past decade of my life is one in which reason has trumped a former faith.
Most often, I am jogged into these musings through the events or dialogue I find embedded in fiction -- in novels. And something of that nature has again happened today, in my reading of Anne Bronte's [1848] The Tenant of Wildfell Hall.
In today's reading, Helen is trying to dissuade Gilbert, a love-struck admirer. He declares his undying love for her and asks for her hand but she continually repels him, basing her rejection on what is basically the body of the entire novel -- the failure of her marriage to another man.
Technically, she is not "single."
In her argument with the amorous Gilbert, she tries to appease him with the idea that "there is perfect love in Heaven!"
In other words, if they just wait until they die, they can meet again up there and things will be all fine and [presumably] dandy! The problems of earthly life will no longer be a hinderance.
As Gilbert considers this scenario he replies:
"So perfect , I suppose, that it soars above distinctions , and you will have no closer sympathy with me than with any one of the ten thousand angels and the innumerable multitude of happy spirits round us."

BINGO!
To me, his well-reasoned response is a perfect exposure of some of the silly ideas that are prevalent in a lot of religious thinking about the after-life.
The scene itself leads me to ponder so many philosophical [and/or theological] questions.
For instance, what is it that the tenants of heaven are supposed to DO for eternity?
I recently asked a very committed Christian person this very question and his answer was immediate -- "The Bible is very clear, we shall worship the Lord and say 'Holy - holy - holy' all the time."
I said to him, "Is this what you do 'all the time' right now, in your earthly existence? As much as you love God, don't you do other things than just worship Him day and night?"
"Yes," he replied -- "but I always remain in an attitude of worship as I go about my business."
Fair enough, but think about it -- what he is saying is just another way of excusing the distraction of "business".
I followed up by saying to him that even in church or in prayer -- even at your most worshipful and reverent moments -- for how LONG can you just focus upon this intense praise of Him?
My point was that even a solid hour of such a thing would be wearying almost to the point of human collapse, much less doing this for an eternity. If it was me even at the peak of my religious fervour, somewhere among that sixty minutes I guarantee you I would be distracted by visions of hamburgers or coffee or beautiful women, or any number of other things that are NOT JEHOVAH!
And so, to think of doing this very thing eternally, I instantly realize that there is nothing within me that would DESIRE such a prolonged homage.
When I pressed my saintly friend along these very lines, he followed up by agreeing with me, but explained that in that heavenly state we will be changed [sort of angelic or something, transfigured or whatnot] and that we will then have the desire and power to do this constant act of worshiping, a power that we lack in our earthly condition.
But then this is the point where it comes right back to what Gilbert is saying to Helen in Bronte's novel.
If we are altered like this when we get to heaven, what is the good of saying that it is YOU doing this thing? And how [and why] does this "altering" take place?
Wouldn't such worship be almost meaningless if we were divinely aided in the accomplishing of it?
Wouldn't "love" be degraded [as Gilbert argues] if it were merely dispersed all over the place in equal measure, soaring above distinctions?
Isn't real love, true love -- everything we have ever known of love -- far more the result of profoundly earthly predicaments, rather than heavenly?
[I think I know what Gilbert would say...]
*******

Splash du Jour: Wednesday

Run, rabbit, run.
Dig that hole. Forget the sun.
And when at last your work is done,
don't sit down, it's time to dig another one.
-- Pink Floyd, lyrics to Breathe --
[That verse exemplifies how I feel about going to work this morning….]

Have a great Wednesday!
*******

Splash du Jour: Tuesday

When you drink Vodka over ice, it can give you kidney failure.
When you drink Rum over ice, it can give you liver failure.
When you drink Whiskey over ice, it can give you heart problems.
When you drink Gin over ice, it can give you brain failure.
Apparently, ice is bad for you.


Have a great Tuesday!
*******

Splash du Jour: Monday

I believe it was Shakespeare, or possibly Howard Cosell, who first observed that marriage is very much like a birthday candle, in that "the flames of passion burn brightest when the wick of intimacy is first ignited by the disposable butane lighter of physical attraction, but sooner or later the heat of familiarity causes the wax of boredom to drip all over the vanilla frosting of novelty and the shredded coconut of romance." I could not have phrased it better myself.
-- Dave Barry --

Have a great Monday!
*******

A Recent, Beer-Induced Poem

The Next Slow One

It was hellish to wait watching you dance with others,
while lovely.
Agonizing to envision future cowardice on my part.
The time would come.

But a tree grew taller in the interim. Forests were born
and died, turning to coal.
Countries were toured, sunny beaches lain upon
before [miracle] --

the band, slowing as my heart raced in apposite time
obliged my resolve.
The first notes of that song an echo of your smile --
you gave me your hand.

-- © Ciprianowords, Inc. 2011 --