- Dear Margo: When You Think You've Heard Everything ... You Haven't
- Liz Smith: The Apocalypse Arrives – Is It '2012' the Movie or Is It … Sarah Palin in 2012?
- Dear Margo: When Dad/Gramps Just Ain't Interested
- What's your viewpoint on a one-term presidency for Obama, no matter the reason?
- Political Cover Stars? Spare Me! by Mr. wOw
- Liz Smith: In a Concert Hall Far, Far Away
- Has your mother's style influenced your own? In what way?
- Liz Smith: Sharon Stone, Steve Tyrell, Sarah (You Know Who), Glamour, Lesley Gore – and More!
- Could Mammograms Fall Victim to Obamacare? by Liz Peek
- Queen Martha, by Cynthia McFadden
- Dear Margo: When Dad/Gramps Just Ain't Interested
- Did You Ever See a Book Cry? by Sheila Nevins
- Liz Smith: In a Concert Hall Far, Far Away
- Dear Margo: When You Think You've Heard Everything ... You Haven't
- Liz Smith: Sharon Stone, Steve Tyrell, Sarah (You Know Who), Glamour, Lesley Gore – and More!
- LIZ SMITH FLASH! The Kennedy Conspiracy and the Mafia
- Liz Smith: The Apocalypse Arrives – Is It '2012' the Movie or Is It … Sarah Palin in 2012?
- What's the Best Business Advice You've Ever Received? (Contest)
- What's your viewpoint on a one-term presidency for Obama, no matter the reason?
- Joan Ganz Cooney Has Never Shaken It Off
- What's your viewpoint on a one-term presidency for Obama, no matter the reason?
- Liz Smith: The Apocalypse Arrives – Is It '2012' the Movie or Is It … Sarah Palin in 2012?
- Political Cover Stars? Spare Me! by Mr. wOw
- Dear Margo: When You Think You've Heard Everything ... You Haven't
- Could Mammograms Fall Victim to Obamacare? by Liz Peek
- Dear Margo: When Dad/Gramps Just Ain't Interested
- Did You Ever See a Book Cry? by Sheila Nevins
- Has your mother's style influenced your own? In what way?
- Remember shopping pre-Internet? What era/memory in the evolution of shopping do you think of most fondly?
- LIZ SMITH FLASH! The Kennedy Conspiracy and the Mafia































My Comments (1761 so far…)
Did You Ever See a Book Cry? by Sheila Nevins
The question becomes: do you treasure flesh-and-blood books? Yes, we have gone to e-mail, but real letters that once were will forever hold their place in my heart. We are holding a bit of the person that wrote that letter - and so often the letter divulged secrets, intimacies, personal thoughts that one would certainly not trust to e-mail. There is a similar feel to holding a book, turning the pages, turning back, looking as we do at the author’s photo with disbelief at time - could this person have written such a good book? sort of thing - that does not transpose into the small version of an old-fashioned child’s Etch-a-Sketch. Plastic is plastic. As for travel, I never never read on a trip - as how could I make the most of every moment if I did. I want to meet people, see new or old places anew, gather the memories around me. I don’t need to carry a pice of plastic.
But if you do like it, the library will provide you with Kindle books so you don’t have to buy them. They are very accommodating and very up-to-date. I can get the latest in movies on DVD from them in 2 days if not instantly — everything is FREE. Somehow though, LR, you of all people would find a totally different feeling inside by reading a book in this new way. There is much more to good books held in the hand, turning pages, than just reading. It is an experience, a getting away often to another world - and emotion of the real book itself is a part of this.
DO look though — why not? We must be up on the latest things — and we must try to truly make a judgment. I already have. I will wait to hear your words. Joan
Did You Ever See a Book Cry? by Sheila Nevins
Albert Camus wrote: I envision Paradise to be a kind of library. His quotation captures our own dreams, for books - real honest-to-God books that have pages with paper textures to feel as you turn the page - - books that serve to entice and then invite the reader to come in — books, real books, are treasures.
As one who reads anything of nature, of travel, so many of the books I choose are the larger, coffee table books. Last night, after tempting me for a week, I opened Tui de Roy’s ( of Galapagos fame) stunning Albatross. Spread across one page or more were photos of these birds in their courtship dance on remote islands in the world, telling more in pictures of the monogomous relationship of these giants of the bird world that lasts for 60 or more years. The photos alone drew me to the place; the words spread out with white spaces around them, setting them off. I was transported to another world for several hours.
Could a Kindle of this book even be a consideration? Never. Will a piece of plastic that surrounds reading a Kindle book ever be considered a "treasure"? No way. Books as we know them often become friends, "keepers" on our book shelves - with just a look at their spine a reminder of what lay within. Memories, keepsakes, treasures — these are the special things within us. Books are part of them all. Joan
It's a Strange Love, by Mary Wells (Photos)
Tourist Tales in Venice, by Judith Martin
Click here: National Geographic Photographer Meets Deadly Leopard Seal | Gizmodo Australia - LR - this is the most amazing thing that came to me today.
this
Caption This!
Love, Loss and What I Ate: A Q&A With Legendary Book Editor Jason Epstein
Before I had finished reading the first page of this piece that is delight after delight, I found myself humming "It’s nice to have a man around the house" … and by the end, well, I found myself falling in love with Jason. I know that is "not done", but that smiling face - that face that seems to tell us that no matter what the trivial disasters that might strike in cooking OR in life, he would be able to make light of it. (And Jason, IF I am wrong, please don’t tell me as I like to dream!)
And, Jason, just like your little dog, Hamlet, I believe I would not like you to go out either. Ever!!!
By the way, I have ordered the book. But, Julia, is there a way I don’t yet know to "order the man"???? Lucky you! And an absolutely super "read"!!! Joan
Tourist Tales in Venice, by Judith Martin
What was your favorite book (or books) as a child?
What was your favorite book (or books) as a child?
Looking back now, in the toddler years, that - beside the fairy tales - it was The Little Engine That Could that had the most lasting influence on me. "I think I can, I think I can" as the engine chugged ahead seemed imprinted in me - and yes, I did find "I could" throughout my life.
Ferdinand the Bull was not only a lovely story but the orginial was so beautifully illustrate in black and white. The Spanish cork trees had actual corks hanging from them which we believed is how they came. Is it any wonder that my love of fine wine might have come in the beginning from seeking those corks??
Elsie Dinsmore was a treasure from my mother’s childhood, telling of a little girl living with her grandfather at Roselands, the family plantation. She was sweet, good, religious and moral - seemingly faultless. A girl to strive to be like to a little girl. Needless to say, I found early on that she was to have no equal. Elsie - as we say now - obviously lived on another planet!!!
Like others who have written, we couldn’t stop reading, almost devouring books. And, perhaps the quotation of Albert Camus remains the one that stays with me: "I envision Paradise to be a kind of library".
Tourist Tales in Venice, by Judith Martin
Caption This!
Tourist Tales in Venice, by Judith Martin
Talking about Galen Rowell and my photo - today my icebreaker is currently trapped by ice in Antarctica’s Weddell Sea and they are using my 1993 photo (one in red) with the story — so you get to see me at a distance. WE were not stuck then - though we had rammed the ice to be able to get off. While this story is exciting, it will cut their trip to nothing as the icebreaker has to pick up another group rather quickly. Below. Joan
Click here: Antarctica: Penguin cruise tourists trapped in sea ice | World news | The ObserverCaption This!
Tourist Tales in Venice, by Judith Martin
Well — now I will no longer have to worry as now I have the words for my tombstone, thanks to LR who manages to think of everything.
If you want ever to talk about business - which had to have been in your past — I have advanced degrees in Business Administration and let’s just say "I am knowledgable."
Tourist Tales in Venice, by Judith Martin
I have always said "When I start to slow down, just shoot me?" and I mean it. We need the stirrings of our brain, we need to think of others far beyond ourselves, and though I feel like a very spring chicken, I suppose I am not. I am not one to languish, not one to let the world pass me by, not one to not feel all the gentle breezes that have the scent of early spring somehow. And neither are you. It is so easy for me to know you. The question then becomes: do you want the longest life possible or the best life possible. Too separate choices and easy to choose I think. You don’t have to respond to me about any of this, LR, as this was just in answer to a question posed. Look or don’t look - like or not — this is a portion of what makes each of my days so glorious. Connections from afar, to afar, questioning, learning, keeps me alive - and hopefully able to carry on any or all conversations and add something to them.
As to Venice, well … what better place to have a conversation. Isn’t that right? Joan