Blogsmos: November 2015

Monday, November 30, 2015

Film Anniversary - November 30, 2015

Today is the 25th anniversary of Misery, the film adapted from the Stephen King novel, starring James Caan and Kathy Bates.

Today's Words of Wisdom - November 30, 2015

Today is the birthday of the following people:

Jacques Barzun (1907 – 2012):

“Teaching is not a lost art, but the regard for it is a lost tradition.”

and

“Convince yourself that you are working in clay, not marble, on paper not eternal bronze: Let that first sentence be as stupid as it wishes.”

and

“No subject of study is more important than reading…all other intellectual powers depend on it.”

and

“The book, like the bicycle, is a perfect form.”

and

“Whoever wants to know the heart and mind of America had better learn baseball, the rules and realities of the game and do it by watching first some high-school or small-town teams”

Philip Sidney (1554 – 1586):

“Biting my truant pen, beating myself for spite:

'Fool;" said my muse to me, 'look in thy heart, and write.' ”

and

“If you have so earth-creeping a mind that it cannot lift itself up to look to the sky of poetry...thus much curse I must send you, in the behalf of all poets, that while you live, you live in love, and never get favour for lacking skill of a sonnet; and, when you die, your memory die from the earth for want of an epitaph.”

Jonathan Swift (1667 – 1745):

“May you live every day of your life.”

and

“Fine words! I wonder where you stole them.”

and

“Proper words in proper places make the true definition of style.”

Mark Twain (1835 – 1910):

“The man who does not read has no advantage over the man who cannot read.”

and

“Good friends, good books, and a sleepy conscience: this is the ideal life.”

and

“I have never let my schooling interfere with my education.”

and

“Classic' - a book which people praise and don't read.”

and

“Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great.”

and

“Such is the human race. Often it does seem such a pity that Noah…didn’t miss the boat.”

and

“When I think of the number of disagreeable people that I know who have gone to a better world, I am sure hell won’t be so bad at all.”

and

“Man was made at the end of the week’s work, when God was tired.”

Winston Churchill (1874 – 1965):

“Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.”

and

“You have enemies? Good. That means you've stood up for something, sometime in your life.”

and

“Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak; courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen.”

and

“We make a living by what we get. We make a life by what we give.”

Shirley Chisholm (1924 – 2005):

“You don't make progress by standing on the sidelines, whimpering and complaining. You make progress by implementing ideas.”

Shuggie Otis (1953 - ):

"We had a rainy day

I'm in a sneak back situation

Here's a pencil pad

I'm gonna spread some information"

Sunday, November 29, 2015

Album Anniversary - November 29, 2015

Today is the 35th anniversary of Autoamerican, the fifth album from Blondie.

Video: "Rapture"

Film Anniversary - November 29, 2015

Today is the 75th anniversary of the W.C. Fields classic film, The Bank Dick.

Today's Words of Wisdom - November 29, 2015

Today is the birthday of the following people:

Madeleine L’Engle (1918 – 2007):

“A self is not something static, tied up in a pretty parcel and handed to the child, finished and complete. A self is always becoming.”

and

“A book, too, can be a star, a living fire to lighten the darkness, leading out into the expanding universe.”

and

“When we were children, we used to think that when we were grown-up we would no longer be vulnerable. But to grow up is to accept vulnerability... To be alive is to be vulnerable.”

Louisa May Alcott (1832 – 1888):

“I am not afraid of storms, for I am learning how to sail my ship.”

and

“Far away there in the sunshine are my highest aspirations. I may not reach them, but I can look up and see their beauty, believe in them, and try to follow where they lead.”

and

“I want to do something splendid…

Something heroic or wonderful that won’t be forgotten after I’m dead…

I think I shall write books.”

and

“There are many Beths in the world, shy and quiet, sitting in corners till needed, and living for others so cheerfully that no one sees the sacrifices till the little cricket on the hearth stops chirping, and the sweet, sunshiny presence vanishes, leaving silence and shadow behind.”

C.S. Lewis (1898 – 1963):

“Friendship is born at that moment when one person says to another: 'What! You too? I thought that no one but myself ...'”

and

“You can never get a cup of tea large enough or a book long enough to suit me.”

and

“To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything and your heart will be wrung and possibly broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact you must give it to no one, not even an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements. Lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket, safe, dark, motionless, airless, it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable. To love is to be vulnerable.”

and

“Friendship is unnecessary, like philosophy, like art.... It has no survival value; rather it is one of those things which give value to survival.”

Vin Scully (1927 - ):

"Hi, everybody, and a very pleasant good evening to you, wherever you may be. It’s time for Dodger baseball!”

Garry Shandling (1949 - ):

“My friends tell me I have an intimacy problem. But they don't really know me.”

Saturday, November 28, 2015

Album Anniversary - November 28, 2015

Today is the 35th anniversary of Sound Affects, the fifth album from The Jam.

Video: "That's Entertainment"

Today's Words of Wisdom - November 28, 2015

Today is the birthday of the following people:

Jon Stewart (1962 - ):

“If we amplify everything, we hear nothing.”

and

“As an adolescent, Vonnegut made my life bearable.”

and

“The reason I don’t worry about society is, nineteen people knocked down two buildings and killed thousands. Hundreds of people ran into those buildings to save them. I’ll take those odds every day.”

William Blake (1757 – 1827):

“If a thing loves, it is infinite.”

and

“The tree which moves some to tears of joy is in the eyes of others only a green thing that stands in the way. Some see nature all ridicule and deformity... and some scarce see nature at all. But to the eyes of the man of imagination, nature is imagination itself.”

Nancy Mitford (1904 – 1973):

“The trouble is that people seem to expect happiness in life. I can't imagine why; but they do. They are unhappy before they marry, and they imagine to themselves that the reason of their unhappiness will be removed when they are married. When it isn't they blame the other person, which is clearly absurd. I believe that is what generally starts the trouble.”

and

“To fall in love you have to be in the state of mind for it to take, like a disease.”

Alan Lightman (1948 - ):

“The tragedy of this world is that no one is happy, whether stuck in a time of pain or of joy. The tragedy of this world is that everyone is alone. For a life in the past cannot be shared with the present. Each person who gets stuck in time gets stuck alone.”

and

“Is it possible for a person to love without wanting love back? Is anything so pure? Or is love, by its nature, a reciprocity, like oceans and clouds, an evaporating of seawater and a replenishing by rain?”