Splash du Jour: Friday

It was that kind of a crazy afternoon, terrifically cold, and no sun out or anything, and you felt like you were disappearing every time you crossed a road.
-- J.D. Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye, Chapter 1 –

Have a great Friday!

You Have No Excuse Now

Seldom will I flagrantly endorse a book.
Seldom will I compel you to RUN to the store and buy a book.
Seldom is one as god… I mean as good as this one is, though.
And, it has just been issued in paperback format, [not only in the U.S., but also here in the Great White North, I saw it just tonight, in all of its shiny paperback glory, at Chapters…] so…. now you have no excuse.
The God Delusion is way cheaper now! They’re practically giving the thing away! So you should get one. You really should.
For former words I have spoken about this book:
Clicketh → HERE, and → HERE, and → HERE.

Also, another excellent, essential book…. Sam Harris’s, Letter To A Christian Nation is also out in paperback now! My former comments → HERE.
And while we're on the topic, if you do not read this other Harris book, well, we're just not on the same page, you and I.... → HERE.

Everyone who is human should read these books. Both of them.
Thus saith the [heathen] prophet Cipriano!

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Splash du Jour: Thursday

** NEWS FLASH **
Cipriano finally gets better job.
Opens his own Starbucks!

Have a great Thursday!
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Splash du Jour: Wednesday

INTERVIEWER:
You've said that many people misread literature.
Can you explain what you mean?
LAURENCE:
Misreading comes in when people are unable to see what's going on in a novel because they focus on the wrong things. I'm thinking of people who want to have my books banned, particularly The Diviners.
A lot of those people not only admit to the fact that they have not read the book, they are proud they have never read it. Their eyes are blind to everything except the few sexual passages and some of the so-called swear words.
That's a sad and tragic way of reading a book. That kind of reader doesn't want to read.
To put it in its broadest sense, the motives are not of love but of hate.
-- Margaret Laurence --

Have a great Wednesday!

The Truantzoic Era©

I am two-thirds through a great book, called A Jest of God, written by Canadian literary icon, Margaret Laurence.
Early on, there is this 7-year old kid named James Doherty, and it has become evident to Principal Willard Siddley that young James has been cutting class.
Willard confronts Rachel Cameron, the protagonist of the novel [James’s Grade One schoolteacher] and advises her to contact James’s mother, “before we notify the truant officer.”
When I first read it, I just went merrily on, flipping the pages.
But something sort of brought me back.
Notify the truant officer?
It just seemed so weird to me.
A truant officer.
What is this, even?
I mean, I know what it is supposed to mean and all…. but like, is there really such an occupation in this world? Is there really such a thing?
What does this person do?
Hunt kids with a big huge butterfly net? Stake them out at the local pinball arcade? Handcuff them down at the fishing hole? Throw them all into the paddy wagon? And off to the hoosegow?
It all seems so…. so Norman Rockwell-ish to me.
A truant officer.

I’m sorry, but I refuse to believe that it exists!
The Truant Officer is one of those urban myths.
How can this be someone’s JOB?
Hunting kids that skip school.

I keep in mind that this novel was written in 1966.
Perhaps this was an AGE or ERA….. like we have The Mesozoic Era and The Paleozoic Era and whatnot, followed by The Truantzoic Era© ?
To be superseded by our current Check-Your-Guns-At-The-Door Era?
But really. One way or the other, aren’t these guys pretty much extinct now?
Wouldn't they need serious flak-jackets? And tazers?
Do truant officers, or even anything remotely like them, still exist in our current world?

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Splash du Jour: Tuesday

I have been astonished that men could
die martyrs for their religion - 

I have shudder'd at it. 

I shudder no more. 

I could be martyr'd for my religion 

Love is my religion

And I could die for that. 

I could die for you. 

-- John Keats –

Have a great Tuesday!

Splash du Jour: Monday

“A long and wicked life followed by five minutes of perfect grace gets you into Heaven. An equally long life of decent living and good works followed by one outburst of taking the name of the Lord in vain - then have a heart attack at that moment and be damned for eternity. Is that the system?”
-- Robert A. Heinlein –

Have a great Monday!

Anticipation...

A forbidden love. A secret letter. A child’s imagination. A false accusation. Torn apart by betrayal. Separated by war. Bound by love. Atonement.
Well, tonight, actually very very soon, I will finally be going to see this movie I have wanted to see for a long long time. My anticipation level for Atonement is high.
For one thing, it has Keira in it!
But secondly, I love the story.
I loved the book by Ian McEwan, and so I am really counting on director Joe Wright [Pride & Prejudice] to do the thing justice. Lately, I have been feeling that it is nearly impossible to cram the glories of great books into two measly hours of theater time. In this sense, I was overall a bit disappointed with The Golden Compass for I feel that the movie did not do justice to Philip Pullman’s book.
I am hoping for better things tonight, and I will begin by making sure I go into THE RIGHT THEATER the first time around!
Has anyone already seen Atonement?
Your opinion [review] is welcome here at Bookpuddle. Drop me a line and tell me what you thought of the movie. I will respond in the comments section.
View the trailer → HERE.

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Splash du Jour: Friday

Have a great Friday!

And remember:
Do not dissipate your competence by hebetudinous prodigality lest you subsequently lament an exiguous
 inadequacy.
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Splash du Jour: Thursday

I think us here to wonder, myself. To wonder. To ast. And that in wondering bout the big things and asting bout the big things, you learn about the little ones, almost by accident. But you never know nothing more about the big things than you start out with. The more I wonder, he say, the more I love.
And people start to love you back, I bet, I say.
They do, he say, surprise.
-- Alice Walker, The Color Purple –

Have a great Thursday!

Splash du Jour: Wednesday

I love this, found in the Introduction to the book I am currently reading → McTeague, by Frank Norris.
The author said this to reviewer Isaac F. Marcosson on March 14, 1899: “What pleased me most in your review of McTeague was the ‘distaining all pretensions to style.’ It is precisely what I try most to avoid. I detest ‘fine writing,’ ‘rhetoric,’ ‘elegant English,’ – tommyrot. Who cares for fine style! Tell your yarn and let your style go to the devil. We don’t want literature, we want life.”

Have a great Wednesday!

A Sincere Question

OK, let’s be serious here for about three minutes.
I AM THE WORLD’S WORST COOK!
Don’t even try to compete with me on this!
I CAN’T COOK STUFF!
And I’m OK with this.
As the 12-step folks at AA are fond of saying, “The first step to recovery is admitting you have a problem!”©

But I just got home from the supermarket.
And I had bought some baking potatoes.
And for the first time ever I sort of noticed the ones yonder that are pre-wrapped in tin-foil and cost way more than the normal spuds. Or, as we say here just ‘cross the bridge from Quebec, “pommes de terre!”
POTATOES!
How can a human being not know how to wrap a potato in tin foil?

No, really.
Again, let me remind you that if cooking were a speed, I would be going backwards faster than the Space Shuttle on re-entry into the atmosphere.
With tiles missing!
But even I know how to wrap a potato in tin-foil. And put it in the oven.
It’s pretty easy.
You can see in the above picture, how to do it, sort of like.
I’m sure that a lot of Jane Goodall’s best friends have even mastered the process!
Are there people out there, breathing the same air I breathe, that will actually pay extra for these pre-wrapped potatoes?

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Splash du Jour: Tuesday

"When you stopped believing in God," Will asked, "did you stop believing in good and evil?"
"No. But I stopped believing there was a power of good and a power of evil that were outside us. And I came to believe that good and evil are names for what people do, not for what they are. All we can say is that this is a good deed, because it helps someone, or that’s an evil one, because it hurts them. People are too complicated to have simple labels."
-- From The Amber Spyglass, by Philip Pullman –

Have a great Tuesday!

Splash du Jour: Monday

Have a great Monday!
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Poem From The Puddle©

Your Love For Me

If you the hills chant and me in them run
To find naught but tree and shadow
Conspiring, and an owl hooting ridicule,
What will touch my face, then?
If the moon alone lightens my retraced
Sorrowing footsteps, and leaves waft
Clues my beaten mind cannot discern,
What will whisper then, in my ear?
When I emerge to remember the old fears
That sent me stumbling into the dark
Snapping twigs and biting wind,
What will give me hope, in that moment?

What will tell me that everything
And the breeze was you, knowing sooner
To make your own way from the far side
And gain the clearing as I went in?
What will tell me this as I twist now,
Bending to pick the burrs from myself?
What will cause me to come into the open
Where you and your smile
Are brighter than the moon ever was?

© Ciprianowords Inc. 2008

Splash du Jour: Friday

Interviewer: What do you do about writer's block?
Phillip Pullman: I don't believe in it. All writing is difficult. The most you can hope for is a day when it goes reasonably easily. Plumbers don't get plumber's block, and doctors don't get doctor's block; why should writers be the only profession that gives a special name to the difficulty of working, and then expects sympathy for it?
-- Philip Pullman –

Have a great Friday!

Adventures In Theater 12

I have been holding back from blabbing about how much I have been enjoying the His Dark Materials Trilogy, by Philip Pullman.
I’m now on the third book, called The Amber Spyglass, and I am thoroughly enthralled with the series. I think it is fabulous, and I highly recommend it to ye all!
When I am done with this volume, perhaps I will write an essay on my assessment of the trilogy.
For now though, let me relate yet another chapter from a trilogy that I myself could be writing, entitled, Why Do Retarded Things Happen To Me Every Day?©

So, on New Years Day I went to see what I intended to be a matinee presentation of the new movie, The Golden Compass, which is Volume 1 of the Trilogy.
Just so happens that my girlfriend Nicole is even in the thing.

I get to the theater and the cashier hands me the ticket, after I clearly enunciated the particular movie I want to see!
I never looked at the ticket, just walked to the long corridor and handed it to the kid there and he said, “Theater 12, to your left.”
So I went into theater 12. To my left.
Above the entrance there was a scrolling LED display in red, SAYING The Golden Compass.

I sat there for about three decades, while literal herds of children flooded the theater. They were on every side of me…. and I began to wonder what I was in for. I did not think The Golden Compass was THAT much af a children’s film. Like, the average age of the people around me was about….. FIVE!
But I just sat there. And soon I began to worry about the TIME.
Like the movie was supposed to start at 4:00 p.m. and it was now 4:20. And all of the movie trailers were for KIDS! Then the feature presentation started.
And I’m looking up at the screen.
At Alvin & The Chipmunks!
I’m in the wrong theater.
So I run out!

My God. My first thought was that I missed it by one.
So… I go into the next theater entrance. It’s packed. I run to the very back row where there is one empty seat [yes, I was ALONE…. well hell, my girlfriend is STARRING in the movie, right?]….. and I sit down…. and I look at the screen and there is a guy and a girl in a bed. Making out, like. I realize instantly that this is NOT The Golden Compass.
So now I run out of a second theater.
And in the corridor, I look at my ticket for the first time since I purchased it.
It says on it, Alvin & The Frigging Chipmunks.

And I realize that the cashier gave me the wrong ticket!
That is why the theater gatekeeper-kid told me to go to Theater 12.
And the scrolling marquee?
That was an announcement of where the NEXT showing would be!
Not the current showing.
So…. I go back to the cashier [same one] and complain vehemently.
The manager of the Cineplex was standing right there, so I walked back to the long corridor with her and I showed her where it clearly states that The Golden Compass is playing in Theater 12.
She reimbursed me for my original ticket and gave me a complimentary pass for the next showing of Compass, which was at 7:05 p.m. in….. guess where?

That’s right.
Theater 12.
← I liked the movie and Nicole was looking good in it [for sure] but overall, the book is about 48 times better.
Read the book.
Read all three of them. They’re terrific.
And if you go to the movie? → Check your ticket before actually walking in to the land of chirping chipmunks.

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Splash du Jour: Thursday

Have a great Thursday!
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Splash du Jour: Wednesday

Wonder is a state of mind in which nothing is taken for granted. Each thing is a surprise, being is unbelievable. We are amazed at seeing anything at all; amazed not only at particular values and things but at the unexpectedness of being as such, at the fact that there is being at all.
-- Abraham Joshua Heschel (1907-1972) –

Have a great Wednesday!

Realistic Resolutions

Happy New Year!
I am just sitting here thinking about New Year’s Resolutions.
Realizing that I don’t really have any. Not the normal kind, anyway.
I’m not sure if I really believe in them. Oh, I’m sure that at times people make them, and then follow through with them, and that occasionally January 1st can be a great historical launchpad for an assortment of intentions. But overall, I think that if a person has to wait until the first day in January to begin to do something or to stop doing something else, well… the determination will probably fizzle out somewhere around Jan.10th or sooner.
I overheard a few of my nephews talking about this very thing over the holidays. See, they regularly go to the gym and workout a few times a week, all year long. Every year! But in the first few weeks of January they always notice an enormous surge in the amount of newcomers vying for time on the machines. These are the New Years Resolutioners. There seems to be an annual influx! My nephews know it is only a matter of time before the gym is back down to its manageable proportions! As for me, I am going to skip the part where I quit going to the gym by also skipping the part where I start going to it. Know what I mean?

I should eat more healthier. ← If anything, this should be my resolution. But no matter how great my intentions, my car will probably be in the Burger King Drive-Thru just as frequently in 2008, as it was in 2007.
I should really get a different job. ← But in all reality…
I should, I should, I should, I will, I will, I will….

Actually, all I want for 2008 is an ever-increasing desire to wonder.
What I most greatly want to [continue to] develop is an ever-increasing state of awareness. And I want my list of questions to grow, rather than diminish.
I want my level of understanding to increase in simplicity and in complexity, at the same time.
That may sound like a really silly New Year’s Resolution, but what I like most about it is that I can trust it.
I know that I will not only feel the same about it next Dec.31st, but will have done the thing, daily, between now and then.

I am perpetually awaiting
a rebirth of wonder.
-- Lawrence Ferlinghetti --

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