For the Love of Cats

If man could be crossed with the cat it would improve the man, but it would deteriorate the cat." 

- Mark Twain

"I have studied many philosophers and many cats. The wisdom of cats is infinitely superior."
- Hippolyte Taine

"There are two means of refuge from the miseries of life: music and cats."
- Albert Schweitzer

"I love cats because I enjoy my home; and little by little, they become its visible soul."
- Jean Cocteau

"The smallest feline is a masterpiece."
- Leonardo da Vinci

"There are no ordinary cats."
- Colette

"Cats are a mysterious kind of folk. There is more passing in their minds than we are aware of."
- Sir Walter Scott

"It always gives me a shiver when I see a cat seeing what I can't see."
- Eleanor Farjeon

"Way down deep we are all motivated by the same urges, cats have the courage to live by them."
- Jim Davis

"Cat said, 'I am not a friend, and I am not a Servant. I am the Cat who walks by himself, and I wish to come into your Cave.'"
- Rudyard Kipling, from the "Just-So Stories"

"What greater gift than the love of a cat?"
- Charles Dickens

For the Love of Dogs...

"The better I get to know men, the more I find myself loving dogs."
-Gen. Charles De Gaulle


"The great pleasure of a dog is that you may make a fool of yourself with him and not only will he not scold you, but he will make a fool of himself too."
-Samuel Butler


"One reason a dog is such a lovable creature is his tail wags instead of his tongue."
-Unknown

"Dogs are our link to paradise. They don't know evil or jealousy or discontent. To sit with a dog on a hillside on a glorious afternoon is to be back in Eden, where doing nothing was not boring - it was peace."
-Milan Kundera


 
"I care not for a man's religion whose dog and cat are not the better for it."
-Abraham Lincoln


"He cannot be a gentleman that loveth not a dog."
-Proverb

Old Rum

"Dogs. They are better than human beings because they know but they do not tell."
-Emily Dickinson

"Your dog is your only philosopher."

-Plato

"There are three faithful friends --an old wife, an old dog and ready money."
-Benjamin Franklin

"Dogs lives are too short...their only fault, really."
-Agnes Sligh Turnbull

 

... don't worry, For the Love of Cats is next!

Tapping Into our Inner Bacchus

This post requires few words.  We enjoyed a wonderful day of walking, drinking, picnicking, horse-shoeing and music listening...

Singer Songwriter Brooke Ramel

Blog Makeover

I have decided to give my makeshift blog a makeover. New colors, new spacing, new print size, new pictures, new comments features, new followers features...

If you have any suggestions of what would make my happy place a little happier (and easier to enjoy) please leave me a comment. I need all the help I can get!   Thanks-

Dr. Seuss

Today is a special day, the birthday of a most beloved author. Who hasn't experienced the joy of Dr. Seuss? His stories are wonderfully fun, and often teach us how to be better people. His words bounce of the page and let us use them as if they are our own! His drawings bring smiles to our faces every time we see them. For all this, we are in debt. The world is a more joyous place because he was in it.

What Dr. Seuss book is your favorite? I grew up on Hop on Pop, and Mr. Brown Can Moo, Can You? And I have a soft spot for many more...

 

Here are a few facts that I just learned about the man behind the books:

1. His birth name was Theodor Seuss Geisel.

2. He was not a doctor.

3. He was born in Springfield Massachusetts and live most of his adult live in La Jolla California 

4. We've all been saying his name wrong.

You’re wrong as the deuce

And you shouldn’t rejoice
If you’re calling him Seuss.
He pronounces it Soice
                     (-friend, Alexander Liang)


5. While at Dartmouth, Geisel was caught drinking gin with nine friends in his room, violating national Prohibition laws of the time and he was kicked off the college humor magazine.


6. He attended Lincoln College, Oxford, to earn a Doctor of Philosophy in English literature. At Oxford, he met his future wife, Helen Palmer; he married her in 1927, and returned to the United States without earning a degree.
 
7. In 1937, while Geisel was returning from an ocean voyage to Europe, the rhythm of the ship's engines inspired the poem that became his first book, And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street!.  It was rejected 27 times.


8. He drew over 400 political cartoons for a NY newspaper. He was pro FDR and America's involvement in WWII. The cartoon have been compiled into the book, Dr. Seuss Goes to War.


9. His first popular children's book If I Ran the Zoo


10. He wrote mostly in anapestic tetrameter:

    "And today the Great Yertle, that Marvelous he
      Is King of the Mud. That is all he can see."
                                     (from Yertle the Turtle)


But he also uses amphribrachic tetrameter and trochaic tetrameter.


11. In order to fight illiteracy in children, educators created a list of words important for first-graders to recognize and asked Geisel write a book using only those words, telling him to "bring back a book children can't put down." Nine months later, Geisel, using 236 of the words given to him, completed The Cat in the Hat.


12. The Cat in the Hat alone sells about half a million copies each year.


13. His wife committed suicide in 1967. He remarried 8 months later.



14. He also authored over a dozen books as Theo LeSieg and one as Rosetta Stone

 15. He published 44 children's books and they have sold over 222 million copies.

Happy Birthday, Dr. Seuss!!!

Finding Neverland

Many years back, I heard rants and raves about the movie Finding Neverland, but I didn't see it until just a day ago. And I loved it! It has been some time since I've seen a movie this touching and fun. Johnny Depp's depiction of JM Barrie, the author of Peter Pan, was charming and whimsical, and as far as I could tell he did it all with a convincing Scottish accent. And while Johnny Depp has always been one of my favorite actors, his performance has made JM Barrie one of my favorite writers (his performance and the brilliance of Peter Pan). 

The story follows the silly and sweet relationship Barrie forms with a widow and her four boys and how they inspire him to write a magical play about the boy who refuses to grow up. As payment for such inspiration, Barrie infects the family with his colorful imagination--which comes with its own controversy in high-society London around the turn of the century. The ending had me balling, but not for the obvious reasons, it was the beauty of his play that I found so poignant. Its the kind of thing that has you smiling as you cry, a sweet sadness that is also so happy.

Boots: Kick cruelty to the curb!

Just about everyone loves a good boot.  And these days, it seems like anything goes. Those slouchy 80s boots are wildly popular.  Flat-souled biker boots abound. Kicky ankle boots suitably sutstitute for pumps at fancy affiars. And well, classic cowboys boots never go out of style (or is that just my fettish?).

But for those of us who don't buy leather, boot shopping is a challenge that usually ends with disappointment. Well, perhaps that is no longer the case. I zipped around online and found that there are several new cruelty-free shops- and they've got loads of boots! And not just the unisex sensible hiking boot of the 1990s. These vegan beauties (or booties) run the gamut!

http://www.alternativeoutfitters.com/clothing/vegan/womens-boots.aspx

http://www.mooshoes.com/

http://www.vegetarian-shoes.co.uk/
http://www.toms.com/womens/wrap-boots?view=all
http://www.bboheme.com/

These are just a sampling of my favorites. The selection is really very extensive. Some are way less expensive than their leather counterparts, and others are far more expensive.From fancy-schmancy styles to everyday tramping around, there is a perfect vegan boot for every occasion. So- with all these fabulously fashionable options, can we please let this pretty girl keep her own skin?!

Writing... with creativity

You must stay drunk on writing so reality cannot destroy you.

~Ray Bradbury

painting by gerard ter borch

I have to admit something... 

A secret that I have carried around with me for years. 

Here goes:

I have always thought of myself as a writer.

There I said it. What's the big deal, you ask? Well, I don't really write.

So... thinking of myself as a writer is really -- what's the word? -- lame.

But, in an attempt to not be so lame, and to make myself actually be the person I think I am, I've decided to write a story.  It has been years since I have even tried to write creatively. It is a very different beast from that which I have written over the last 10 years: academic papers, legal research, a handful of news and magazine articles, and an overly sentimental essay remembering a deceased family member. 

Not. One. Story. 

Until now! 

(Do you like my dramatic use of spacing and punctuation?! I am getting so creative already!)

I spent some time last summer traveling alone through England and Scotland. And, like all good tourists, I brought along a journal. I was totally prepared to soil the first few pages of the book with some trivial observation or account of something I did that day and then leave the rest blank, and then finally neglect the whole thing on my shelf at home (where so many travel journals have gone to die). But I didn't. I actually wrote! And I came up with the beginnings of a story that I have since been sorting out in my head.

But now I have the chance to put pen to paper (or fingers to keys...not nearly as cool a phrase) and WRITE.  Not just think about writing. Not just talk about writing. But really write!

I've done 11 pages (11 whole pages!) and it makes me feel a little high. And when I'm not feeling horribly stuck, I'm having a ball. I think it makes me happy. Who'd a thought that something I was into in high school would still be cool?

So, I'll keep you posted. I'm hoping there will be 11 more pages to boast about soon. (and then 11 after that, and.... well, you get the idea.)

Daffodils

I wandered lonely as a cloud

That floats on high o'er vales and hills,

When all at once I saw a crowd,

A host of golden daffodils;

Beside the lake, beneath the trees,

Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

Continuous as the stars that shine

and twinkle on the Milky Way,

They stretched in never-ending line

along the margin of a bay:

Ten thousand saw I at a glance,

tossing their heads in sprightly dance.

The waves beside them danced; but they

Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:

A poet could not but be gay,

in such a jocund company:

I gazed - and gazed - but little thought

what wealth the show to me had brought:

For oft, when on my couch I lie

In vacant or in pensive mood
They flash upon that inward eye

Which is the bliss of solitude;

And then my heart with pleasure fills,

And dances with the daffodils.

-William Wordsworth

Sweet Crossstitch

In my new found love of needled crafts, I have stumbled upon crossstitch. Lovely, humble, folksy crossstitch! But they've come a long way since "Home Sweet Home" (although those possess a certain simple elegance of their own).  Nowadays you can buy all sorts of phrases stitched neatly on pillows and frames. I ran across "The Dude abides", "Looks like you've got  a case of the Mondays" and "I ♥ porn".

Those kitchy phrases are good for a laugh or two, but I am much more fond of crossstitched images-especially pretty, clear animal friends. Charming and sweet, like these:

http://www.etsy.com/shop/stitcherhood

http://www.etsy.com/shop/GeorgicaDesigns