Have you traveled recently?

Leach Botanical Garden

 clipped from www.worldisround.com

Growing up in Portland, I had always heard my father speak of John ( his cousin) but it didn't really mean very much to me.But about twenty years ago my mother sent me letters that had been addressed to my dad from John R.Leach post dated Feb.9,1965. It was a Christmas letter that John would send out to friends and family. It really sparked my interest and as I looked more closely in to his life the more I came to realize at how much I missed out on this side of my family. He is a role model,and loving husband that took his wife to the edge of the earth and back again. He is missed.
— james leach, March 26, 2011

To see my photos of Leach Botanical Garden Click Here.

Lenten Dissent

Lenten Dissent

by Cherie Lashway

There once was a logger, named Paddy O'Connell,
Who at lunch during Lent, found himself at McDonalds,

And had just settled down to his Big Mac and fries,
When along came his priest, much to both their surprise.



The priest said to Paddy, "Just what are you eating?
In this season of Lent, I sure hope you're not cheating."

Paddy said to the Father, "I'll tell you no lies.
I'm enjoying a Big Mac, along with some fries."

The priest said to Paddy, "I see no repentance.
Because of this sin, you will have to do penance.

"By Friday or sooner, I say that you should,
For our fireplace, deliver a cord of chopped wood."

Now our timberman, Paddy, an overworked man,
Did think to himself, "I don't think that I can."

But early on Friday, our priest, he heard shoveling,
And looked out the window at Paddy not groveling.

And saw with confusion, dismay and disgust,
That the wood bin was now almost filled with saw dust.

He called down below, barely hiding his ire:
"Hey Paddy, your penance was wood for the fire!"

To which Paddy said, rising up from his work,
While wiping his brow and concealing a smirk:

"I've brought you a cord, like you said that I should,
But if burger be meat, well then sawdust be wood!"

"Lenten Dissent" by Cherie Lashway.

From the Writer's Almanac.

Vermeer Collection

I've been playing with the GoogleArtProject.  To see the Vermeers that I found Click Here.  I've seen the ones in the Rijksmuseum and the one in the Frick Collection.

Google Art Project

Click Here to go to Google Art Project.

Punctuation

 clipped from writersalmanac.publicradio.org

 On Punctuation

 by Elizabeth Austen

not for me the dogma of the period
preaching order and a sure conclusion
and no not for me the prissy
formality or tight-lipped fence
of the colon and as for the semi-
colon call it what it is
a period slumming
with the commas

a poser at the bar
feigning liberation with one hand
tightening the leash with the other
oh give me the headlong run-on
fragment dangling its feet
over the edge give me the sly
comma with its come-hither
wave teasing all the characters
on either side give me ellipses
not just a gang of periods
a trail of possibilities
or give me the sweet interrupting dash
the running leaping joining dash all the voices
gleeing out over one another
oh if I must
punctuate
give me the YIPPEE
of the exclamation point
give me give me the curling
cupping curve mounting the period
with voluptuous uncertainty 

"On Punctuation" by Elizabeth Austen, from The Girl Who Goes Alone. © Floating Bridge Press, 2010.

New iPhone App?

Although this didn't work, a new iPhone app will certainly be appearing soon.

From the Feb. 28 "New Yorker"

CORRECTION OF THE WEEK

From the Austin Chronicle

The July 11 "Mr. Smarty Pants" column said that a person can microwave popcorn with three or more cell phones ringing simultaneously and pointing at the unpopped kernels. This factoid was disproved my Snopes.com, and Mr. Smarty Pants apologizes any inconvenience this factoid might have caused.