Trees in Winter - Up Above

Up Above 8x8 fine art photograph Sherri Conley

I think this image captures winter.

I took a photo very similar to Conley's, (although the season was summer),about ten years ago when I was camping with my husband's family in Kamas, Utah. I was wandering around with my camera trying to take an artsy shot when I looked up and realized I was surrounded by six cathedral-tall trees. I remember feeling light-headed, as if I were in a sacred space. It's been a very long time since I've looked at that photograph. I'll have to dig through my stacks tonight and find it.

You may be interested to know that the etymology of temple is templos, which translates to grove of trees.

Sherri Conley is a Richmond, Virginia photographer. You can view more of her work at sherriconley.etsy.com.

This Moment - November 30, 2010 1:37 P.M

Words are falling like snow in this room. alchemy, bone, fir, scarlet, limn, clavicle, grace, hallowed, piscatory, ebony, and thousands more clutter the floor, cling to tables, surround each computer in small clumps, and rest their warm bodies on our shoulders. The world is made of words. The scene outside my wall of windows is made of snow. The mountains are buttoned inside the coat of winter and the sky is a glacier blue. A young woman leans into the cold. Her wheat-colored coat is open, a scarlet scarf hides the thinness of her neck. Her breath comes in jagged exhales and freezes before her. If I were to leave the warmth of this room and join her, I am certain she would be grateful for my story of the deer I saw running down a neighborhood street looking for shelter from the storm. I am certain we share the same sadness, and a longing to find what we lost so very long ago. Yes, of this I am certain.

Willow Pine Lane - After the Storm of the Century That Wasn't

November 21, 2010.

Same day, different perspective.

November 28, 2010.

November 23 was supposed to usher in the storm of the century. Universities cancelled class. Public schools were ordered to lock down by three. The Utah/Idaho and Utah/Wyoming borders were closed. The news media were tying themselves in hyperbolic knots, so much so, that friends from out of state texted caution and safety messages.

My husband had a fundraiser that night, just as the storm was coming in, that he could not, would not miss, and I was certain we were headed straight into a disaster. I couldn't imagine that the event wouldn't be cancelled. We weren't and it wasn't. What it was, was the storm that wasn't.

The fundraiser we attended was sponsored by The Tree House Museumto benefit special needs childrend of Weber School District. Every year the event raises thousands, and this year, recesssion and killer storm aside, the fundraiser exceeded expectations.

I've included photos of our family lane to prove my point that the storm was nothing special as storms go. As the photos from taken on the 21st of November compared to the 28th of November attest, there really is not that much snow deposit for the mother of all storms. In fact, the commute today was much worse than that of November 23rd.

What I Made Today: Hammered Brass & Gemstone Bracelets - November 29, 2010.

Hammered brass & gemstone charm bracelets.

I've spent the last few weeks soldering and hammering brass into bracelets. I attach the gemstone charms after the metal looks exactly the way I want it. It's amazing what inexpensive therapy pounding on metal is. I've sublimated a lot of aggression taking a ball peen hammer to brass or sterling silver. You should try it! At most, it will run you about one to two dollars and hour, rather than the standard $125, and you may not work out your childhood issues, but you'll feel like the antagonist of the moment is of little consequence, and you'll have something beautiful to wear or a gift for that someone.

The Coffee Project - November 17-28

November 17,2010. Pajamas and red slippers outside Einsteins.

Einsteins.

November 18, 2010.

November 19, 2010.

November 21, 2010.

November 23, 2010. Rough day on the comfort zone.

November 24, 2010. Coffee at Barnes & Noble. Stitches out, drip done. Life is good again.

Evening coffee at Starbucks.

November 26, 2010.

November 27, 2010.

Brothers Jerry Layton and Daniel at Granny Annies.

November 28, 2010.

This Moment: November 17, 2010 1:37 P.M.

The insect buzz of heavy metal is coming from the earphones of a man seated next to me. His large sunglasses are held tightly to his brow by the red bandanna knotted to his head. It is a room with very little light and I wonder what light is it that he is shielding himself from. White noise fills the hollow spaces in this ordered room. Our faces are bathed in a type of incandescent blue from the illuminated light of our computer screens. It is a cinematic space age kind of silence we exist in while we write our emails, then break to tap out our texts. We tell the stories of our lives in installments of one-hundred twenty characters and send them tumbling through the ether. The insistent drum of fingers on keypads is a tumble of rhythm like fingers tapping out chords on a wooden table. We are insular musicians, sending failed compositions to those we hold in our hearts, our heads, our hands, rather than look up and around us or peer into the eyes of the man seated next to that we're sharing our intimate air. We are all like the man in dark sunglasses. Not one of us dare to look over our computer screen and lock eyes. In this room, we are all cowards insulated in a thick wrapping of loneliness, hoping that someone will make the first move, look up, and see us.

Remembrances of Winter's Past - Roberts Homestead

Roberts Homestead on Weaver's Lane.

Willow Pine Lane: Early Winter November 15, 2010

The season is trying to make up its mind as to whether it is fall or winter. We've had frost and snow, but the leaves still hold their color. The air is crisp, but not severe yet.

The Coffee Project: November 13 - 15, 2010

November 15, 2010.

November 14, 2010.

November 13, 2010.

Poem Therapy at 1:18 P.M. November 15, 2010 - Matthea Harvey

Wac-A-Mole Realism™
Matthea Harvey

At the carnival, Robo-Boy sees only things he recognizes. The Ferris Wheel is an overgrown version of his own bells and whistle eyes. His Flashers, his mother calls them. The Tilt-A-Whirl is the angle his head tilts when the Flirt Program goes into effect, usually in the vicinity of a Cindy or a Carrie, though once he found himself tilting at the school librarian which caused him to wheel in reverse into the Civil War section knocking over a cart of books that were waiting to be shelved under B. There’s a dangerously low stratosphere of pink cotton-candy clouds being carried around by the children. If Robo-Boy goes near them, the alarms will go off. It’s the kind of sticky that would cause joint-lock for sure. In a darker, safer corner Robo-Boy finds the Whack-A-Mole game. He pays a dollar and starts whacking the plastic moles on their heads each time they pop up from the much-dented log. He wins bear after bear. It’s only when he's lugging them home, the largest one skidding face-down along the sidewalk getting dirt on its white nose and light blue belly, that he remembers the program: Wac-A-Mole Realism™—the disc on the installer’s desk. Suddenly it all fits together: the way a deliciously strange thought will start wafting out of his unconscious—and then WHAM, it disappears.

I chose this poem today because of its pugilist title. I have a few moles I'd like to wac, but waccing begets waccing and so on and so on until the whole of existence becomes biblical or Shakespearean, in the sense that by the end everybody is dead or bloody. In reality you can only wac so many moles until you yourself get wacced.

In any case, my current mood led me to Matthea Harvey, a new voice, for me at least. Her prose poems read like micro fiction. If you are interested in reading more of her work, here's the link.

fyi: I always thought wac was spelled whack.

Poem Therapy at 11:12 P.M.: November 13, 2010 - Melissa Kwasny

Reading Novalis in Montana
Melissa Kwasny

The dirt road is frozen. I hear the geese first in my lungs.
Faint hieroglyphic against the gray sky.


Then, the brutal intervention of sound.
All that we experience is a message, he wrote.

I would like to know what it means
if first one bird swims the channel

across the classic V, the line flutters, and the formation dissolves.
In the end, the modernists must have meant,

it is the human world we are weary of,
our arms heavy with love, its ancient failings.

But that was before the world wars, in 1800,
when a young German poet could pick at the truth

and collect the fragments in an encyclopedia of knowledge.
There is a V, then an L, each letter

forming so slowly that the next appears before it is complete.
The true philosophical act is the slaying of one's self,

Novalis wrote, and died, like Keats, before he was thirty.
They have left me behind like one of their lost,

scratching at the gravel in the fields. Where are they
once the sky has enveloped them?

I stand in the narrow cut of a frozen road leading into mountains,
the morning newspaper gripped under my arm.

But to give up on things precludes everything.
I am not-I, Novalis wrote. I am you.

If, as the gnostics say, the world was a mistake
created by an evil demiurge, and I am trapped

in my body, abandoned by a god whom I long for as one of my own,
why not follow the tundra geese into their storm?

Why stay while my great sails flap the ice
as if my voice were needed to call them back

in the spring, as if I were the lost dwelling place for the flocks?

I like the title of this poem, and the pairing of a poet against a western state known for cowboys and its endless blue sky. I suppose each of us could pen similar titles. Of late, mine would be Reading Plato in Utah, or Deciphering Tolle in a Small, Small Town.

Like the poem's speaker, I too look to the geese and know that they beckon me to join them. Earthbound, I call to them to make of me their home. And if I can't have god of the gnostics, orany god, then the wild geese have permission to settle in my heart. Until they do, I will make do with them landing in the fields behind my home.

This Moment - November 13, 2010 8:06 A.M.

A small plane is buzzing the sky like a fly trapped in a window well, its drone an unceasing white noise until its small death silences it. The trees have yet to relent and release their frost-limned leaves. Their stubbornness against the inevitable is a dark mirror. My daughter's cat is protesting in the kitchen, its yowls making note of some unforgivable infraction. Morning silence again. The air is dense with the knowledge of the ending of light. The sun is in retreat. An oyster-colored cloud is visible through the tangle of branches. It slowly diffuses into a faded denim. A crow caw-caws a greeting and I feel hopefulness unfurl its long wing under my ribs. Perhaps the coming season of darkness will not be so heavy. A train is summoning its arrival and it too causes another fluttering, the small bird inside me stirring. My dog growls at the world outside the window. A small bird flits from fence to tree.

The Coffee Project: November 4 - 11, 2010

November 11, 2010.

November 10, 2010. Showing off their war wounds.

November 9, 2010. Post surgery. Coffee on the comfort zone.

November 7, 2010. Early bloom. Willow Pine Lane is lined with iris blooms in May. This iris bloomed early and was short-lived due to frost.

November 7, 2010.

November 5, 2010. Starbucks.

November 4, 2010. Cutting trees on Love Tree & Willow Pine Lane.

Nanoing A Novel in Thirty Days: Cannibalizing Bible Stories in Utter Desperation

I am struggling this nano, so I'm just writing whatever comes into my head. I don't know why I thought about this story, but it's enough to fill twenty minutes while everyone else is down to the serious business of writing.

Jonah

The story goes a man is out fishing and a strong wind picks up. Suddenly, his little row boat is overturned and quickly fills with water. A man treading water out in the ocean now that his rowboat has sunk is a desperate man. He is a man so at a loss that he will pray to a god he has never believed was up there, until now, and now he believes god lives up just beyond the clouds, and when he squints against the glare, he believes it is possible to see the long white beard of god. The man prays and suddenly from beneath him a large whale lurches forward and swallows him. The man thinks to himself, I know this story! My name must be Jonah, and indeed it is, but with no affiliation to the Bible, being that this is modern times and this modern Jonah is a sales rep for a pharmaceutical company that sells pills to calm people's nerves. He could really go for one of them right now, is exactly what he's thinking when the whale pushes out a river of brill riddled salt water and ocean detritus. Jonah realizes that he is not in the official belly of the whale, but situated right under its thumderous heart. He thinks about making an escape plan, pushing up and out of the whale, but the gentle pressing of the mammal lumbering through water lulls him into complacency. Jonah realizes living inside the belly of the whale is like life. You get a new situation foisted on you and have to adapt. He likes it inside the whale even though it's a little damp and smelly. The whale doesn't seem to mind.

High School Coach Philosophy: My New Mantra

"If I'm not yelling, I don't care"

I am going to spend the next few days, into the weekend, making two lists: I'm Yelling & I'm Not Yelling.

I am not a yeller, but I am a very direct speaker, especially when angry, and cannot suffer a mealy mouth or passive aggressive side talker. I understand that being direct can be unnerving, to some. Am I saying I'm right? No. Can I listen to other voices than my own? Of course.

But that process is circular, oblique, rhomboid, spins, contorts, and stretches to cover every angle and goes something like this: the hell is she talking about? she seriously said that? booolllshittttt!!! I am never speaking to her or anyone who knows her ever again and I mean it and the second I get home I am googling voodoo doll, why would she say that? is she right? Oh man! where's the nearest freaking Baskin Robbins?, you know, she's so pedestrian, her favorite flavor is probably vanilla, hmmm, you know, I wonder if I really do that, yes, it must be true, I really really really do that, ohmygod, how can I go on in this world under the burden of my immeaurable ineptitude? hey, wait a damn minute, I remember when SHE did this and this and then THAT! Next time I see her I am so bringing all of that up and we'll see how she likes 'dem apples, Okay, okay, so am I ten? I need a two hour soak in the tub, that will fix it and I'll read O Magazine and I'm certain Oprah will have the answer, and if she doesn't, I'll google Dr. Phil, or even better, do a tarot reading! You know what? I don't care, seriously I don't care at all, it's all so, like, nothing, I mean, in the end will it really matter, when I'm seriously rich and famous and the toast of the town and sitting on Oprah's couch humbly detailing how I ended world hunger, saved the world from nuclear holocaust, all while working a full-time job, writing three novels, cooking gourmet meals every night, loved by all except her, well, will I care about her and her little ol' whiny self? No. Stop with the hyperbole! You need a reality check. I bet it's all my fault. I need to get into therapy. Maybe get another degree. I definitely need to do more service, totally need to volunteer. Maybe I should start believing in religion, even. Okay, now that's too far, but you know, I'll make a list. Is it her fault? It is my fault? Yes. No. YESSSSSS!!! NOOOOOO!!! the hell is she talking about...

What I've decided is that I've been given an opportunity to sort out who I really am, what I really care about, what I will and will not abide.

The yelling is figurative. It's my task to decide what is worth caring deeply about, and what is not. I've made a mental list and it's surprising just how accurate my mantra is. The things I'm not willing to argue, discuss, or fight for, I do not care about. At all.

Although I will not be posting my "yelling" lists, I will post my discoveries I unearth along the way.

Poem Therapy November 8, 2010 at 8:42 - James Galvin

Art Class
James Galvin

Let us begin with a simple line,
Drawn as a child would draw it,
To indicate the horizon,

More real than the real horizon,
Which is less than line,
Which is visible abstraction, a ratio.

The line ravishes the page with implications
Of white earth, white sky!

The horizon moves as we move,
Making us feel central.
But the horizon is an empty shell—

Strange radius whose center is peripheral.
As the horizon draws us on, withdrawing,
The line draws us in,

Requiring further lines,
Engendering curves, verticals, diagonals,
Urging shades, shapes, figures…

What should we place, in all good faith,
On the horizon? A stone?
An empty chair? A submarine?

Take your time. Take it easy.
The horizon will not stop abstracting us.

What I find interesting is that the horizon is always there, shimmering in the distance. Always, we stand hopeful on the shoreline, certain that by keeping an eye on the horizon, that our ship will come in. We define ourselves, not so much by what is, but by what we think is out there, by the idea of who we are, who we can or should be, by all the possibilities just out of reach.

So many times the horizon is so much better than what is solid under our feet. So it is. I suppose it's all a matter of persepective, or mood, or situation, or you name it. Squint your eyes and watch how the horizon changes.

Remember, Remember the Fifth of November

“Remember, remember the fifth of November/Gunpowder, treason and plot/We see no reason/Why Gunpowder treason/Should ever be forgot.”

What is the big deal about Guy Fawkes?

By special request I am making mention of Guy Hawkes Day, although I've always found it curious that a man angry with his government and king, so angry, that he tries to blow them all up, with gunpowder, is remembered, and, has a day dedicated to him. Can you imagine Timothy McVeigh or the Unabomber Ted Kaczynski with a day dedicated to them?

Perhaps this is an apple and oranges comparison, and perhaps I don't really understand all the nuances of Bonny Day or Cracker Day, because I'm Amerhikan, and perhaps it's just a way to throw in another excuse to get out to the pubs and grouse or bloody feel like you are sticking it to the establishment, but I really just don't get what all the fuss is about. Guy Hawkes was a minor player in the plot, he just had the distinction of being the first of the conspirators to get caught. He was hanged, drawn and quartered, then beheaded as memorialized in Braveheart's death scene. Guy Hawkes is no William Wallace.

Bonfires and fireworks, I get. Guy Fawkes Day as inspiration for V for Vendetta reimagined as a kind of Batman uber hero, I do not. George Washington condemned soldiers that celebrated the day.

In any case, here's a list of events, big and small, you can remember or celebrate today. Bottoms up!

2010 Guy Fawkes Day Celebration As you all know, today is November 5th which means that it’s Guy Fawkes Night or as some people prefer to call it, Bonfire Night. Although in Britain it’s a day of celebration where many build bonfires and have firework displays, we also have to remember the history behind Guy Fawkes.According to an article over at indyposted.com by Dan Evon (sourced from Britannica.com), Guy Fawkes Day actually commemorates the failure of the Gunpowder plot back in 1605, when Roman Catholic conspirators attempted to blow up parliament in London. The Gunpowder Plot came about because the conspirators felt that King James I had not actually given Roman Catholics enough religious freedom. Even though Guy Fawkes only played a minor part in the Gunpowder plot, his name will always be remembered as he was the first to be captured. Many of you will already know the little rhyme about Guy Fawkes Day but for those of you who don’t, it goes: “Remember, remember the fifth of November/Gunpowder, treason and plot/We see no reason/Why Gunpowder treason/Should ever be forgot.”
2010 Fifteen foot tiger shark reported off the beach of Hawaii's Hilton beach resort, thus terrorizing and ruining selachophobic sister's first day of vacation.
2009 United States Tribal Nations Conference The White House Tribal Nations Conference at the Department of the Interior will have opening and closing remarks from the President, and discussions on everything from the jobs market to energy, housing and health care. His participation in the conference is said to be part of his outreach to the American people, and will be attended by the leaders of the 564 federally recognized tribes. These will have the opportunity to interact directly with the President and his Administration. The tribes have been invited to send one representative to the conference. This is the first annual White House Tribal Nations Conference.
2007 Writers Guild of American goes on strike
2006 Saddam Hussein sentenced to death by hanging by an Iraqi court
2000 O.J. Simpson , a man charged of killing his wife and daughter tried to sue his former lawyer for breach of contract. However, this could not be proven, so the charge was dismissed by the judge. Simpson had faced legal trouble for a number of years regarding the murders he had allegedly committed.
1997 2 hours after Davey Johnson resigns, he is named AL Manager of Year
1997 French court orders producer Jacques Charrier, ex-husband of Brigitte Bardot, to pay the former screen star $8,300 in damages
1996 1996 Egypt Alexandria Divers have discovered the ancient port of Alexandria from 2000 years ago which was swallowed by the sea and contains the ruins of Cleopatras Palace and Mark Anthony's home and temple when the Roman warrior was in Egypt. Divers have found thousands of artifacts dating back to 323BC to 30BC and many of the original columns are still standing and in remarkable condition.
1995 STS-73 (Columbia 18), lands
1995 Woo-Soon Ko wins LPGA Toray Japan Queens Cup Golf Tournament
1995 1st NBA game at General Motors Place, Vancouver Grizzlies beat Minnesota Timberwolves 100-98 in OT
1994 Space probe Ulyssus completes 1st passage behind the Sun
1994 Tony Rominger bicycles world record time (55,291 km)
1994 Yak-40 accident in north of Peru, 8 killed
1994 Horse Racing Breeders' Cup Champs: Barathea, Cherokee Run, Concern, Flanders, One Dreamer, Tikkanen, Timber Country
1993 1st NBA game in Alamodome, San Antonio Spurs beat Warriors 91-85
1992 "Show Off" opens at Criterion Theater New York City for 45 performances
1992 Bobby Fisher beats Boris Spassky to with Chess title in Belgrade
1991 Kiichi Miyazawa elected premier of Japan
1991 Richard J. Kerr, ends term as acting director of CIA
1989 "Threepenny Opera" opens at Lunt-Fontanne Theater New York City for 65 performances
1989 19th New York City Women's Marathon won by Ingrid Kristiansen in 2:25:30
1989 20th New York City Marathon won by Juma Ikangaa in 2:08:01
1989 Browns' Bernie Kosar sets club record of 16 cons pass completions
1989 Elaine Crosby wins LPGA Mazda Japan Golf Classic
1989 U.S. plays El Salvador, in 3rd round of 1990 world soccer cup
1988 1st NBA game at Bradley Center, Milwaukee Bucks lose to Los Angeles Clippers 111-9
1988 1st NBA game at Miami Arena, Miami Heat loss to Los Angeles Clippers, 111-91
1988 1st NBA game at Palace of Auburn Hills, Pistons beat Hornets 94-85
1988 Cornell confirms grad student source of worst computer sabotage
1988 France performs nuclear test
1988 Gulch wins Breeder's Cup
1988 Japan beats MLB all stars 2-1 in Tokyo (Game 1 of 7)
1988 Horse Racing Breeders' Cup Champs: Alysheba, Gt Communicator, Gulch, Is It True, Miesque, Open Mind, Personal Ensign at Churchill Downs
1987 "Into the Woods" opens at Martin Beck Theater New York City for 764 performances
1987 France performs nuclear test
1987 Iceberg twice size of Rhode Island sighted in Antarctic
1987 South Africa ANC-leader Govan Mbeki freed
1987 Stephen Sondheim/James Lapine's musical "Into the Stars," premieres
1987 Supreme Court nominee Douglas H. Ginsburg admitted using marijuana
1985 "News" opens at Helen Hayes Theater New York City for 4 performances
1983 New York Rangers and Quebec Nordiques both score in 1st 14 seconds of 3rd period
1983 Orbiter Discovery (OV-103) moves overland to Dryden
1982 Cleveland Cavaliers lose 24th consecutive game (NBA record)
1982 George Harrison releases "Gone Troppo" album
1981 Charles Fuller's "Soldier's Play," premieres in New York City
1981 Former Dolphin, Mercury Morris, is sentenced to 20 years for drug trafficing, conspiracy, and possession of cocaine
1979 Iran government of Bazargan resigns
1979 Iran's Ayatollah Khomeini declares U.S. The Great Satan
1978 Iranian Prime Minister Jaafar Sharif-Emami resigns to Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi
1978 Khomeini followers attack British embassy/El Al office in Iran
1978 Oakland Raider's John Madden becomes 13th coach to win 100 NFL games
1977 NCAA passing record set at 571 yards (Marc Wilson, Brigham Young)
1976 U.S.A. Unemployment The unemployment jobless rate continues to rise with October figures published today showing an increase from 7.8% to 7.9% in October Jobless Figures.
1976 Baltimore Jim Palmer wins AL Cy Young Award
1976 New AL franchises in Seattle and Toronto fill up their rosters
1976 Pirates trade Manny Sanguillen and $100,000 to A's for manager Chuck Tanner
1976 U.S.S.R. performs nuclear test
1975 British government sends troops to Belize
1975 Sao Tome and Principe adopts constitution
1974 Dmitri Sjotakovitch completes Michelangelo-liederen
1974 Ella Grasso (Ct) elected 1st woman U.S. Governor not related to previous gov
1974 Walter E. Washington, becomes 1st elected mayor of Washington D.C.
1973 U.S.A. Watergate In the midst of the need for peace in the Middle East, along with the pressing energy crisis, more was at stake in Congress. Another order of business on the agenda pertained to whether or not President Nixon should step down. He was allegedly a part of the Watergate Scandal.
1972 Jane Blalock wins LPGA Lady Errol Golf Classic
1971 Bolivia passes death penalty for political kidnapping
1971 NBA's Los Angeles Lakers starts a 33 game consecutive victory streak
1968 1st AL pitcher to win MVP, Denny McLain (wins unanimously)
1968 Nixon (R) beats Vice President Humphrey (D) and George C. Wallace for presidency
1967 ATS-3 launched by U.S. to take 1st pictures of full Earth disk
1967 Clifford Ann Creed wins LPGA Corpus Christi Civitan Golf Open
1967 New Orleans Saints 1st NFL victory, beat Philadelphia Eagles 31-24
1967 U.S. troops conquer Loc Ninh South Vietnam
1967 Yemen president Sallal flees
1966 Brigham Young QB Virgil Carter sets NCAA record of 599 yards gained
1966 U.S. performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
1964 U.S. launches Mariner 3 toward Mars; no data returned
1963 U.S. Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson visits Netherlands
1961 India's premier Nehru arrives in New York
1961 St. Louis Cardinals Bill Stacy, returns 2 interceptions for TDs vs Dallas
1959 AFL announced with 8 teams
1958 "Maria Golovin" opens at Martin Beck Theater New York City for 5 performances
1958 KGLD (now KSNG) TV channel 11 in Garden City, KS (NBC) 1st broadcast
1957 Felix Gaillard forms government in France
1957 Mrs Nellie McGrail wins $574,658 on a 2 cents soccer pool ticket
1956 Britain and France land forces in Egypt
1956 Dutch Communist Party office of Felix Meritis seized
1956 Israel liberates Sharm-el-Sheikh, reopening Gulf of Aqaba
1956 Pope Pius XII publishes encyclical Datis nuperrime
1955 Mont Canadien Jean Beliveau scores 2nd fastest hat trick (44 seconds)
1955 New Vienna Opera house opens (Austria)
1955 Date returned to in "Back to the Future" and "Back to the Future II"
1953 Nobel prize for physics awarded/appended on Frederik Zernicke
1953 Paul Searls saws a 32" log in 86.4 seconds
1953 Terence Rattigans' "Sleeping Prince," premieres in London
1951 U.S. performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
1950 Cleveland Browns' Tommy James intercepts 3 passes, club record
1950 Philippines president Quirino ends emergency crisis
1946 John F. Kennedy elected to House of Representatives
1944 Allied troops reach Zoutelande Walcheren
1944 Canadian and British troops liberate Dinteloord
1944 German troops blow-up Heusden North Brabant city hall, 134 die
1943 Vatican bombed
1942 Nazi raid on Greek Jews in Paris
1942 Pro-British Clandestine Radio Diego Suarez's final transmission
1941 Japanese marine staff officiers Suzuki/Maejima leave Pearl Harbor
1940 Dutch submarine departs Dundee
1940 President Franklin D. Roosevelt (D) wins unprecedented 3rd term beating Wendell Willkie (R)
1940 Walter Johnson, won 416 games for Washington Senators, loses Maryland congressional race
1938 Ottawa Roughriders score on 5-man, 4-lateral, 65-yard punt return
1938 Rugers beats Princeton 1st time in 60 years as Rutgers Stad dedicated
1937 World War II Adolf Hitler holds a secret meeting and states his plans for acquiring "living space" for the German people. Hitler informs his military leader of his intentions of going to war
1936 French writer Andre Gide criticizes Soviet regime
1935 Maryland Court of Appeals orders University of M to admit (black) Donald Murray
1935 Parker Brothers launches game of Monopoly
1933 Chicago Bears 30 game unbeaten streak ends to Patriots (10-0)
1933 Spanish Basques vote for autonomy
1932 U.S.A. Roosevelt As the two presidential candidates Hoover and Roosevelt wind up their tour of the country a Roosevelt landslide is being predicted The Nations 40,000,000 voters will decide on Tuesday who will be the nations next leader in these times of mass unemployment and hardship. The odds are 5 to 1 on Roosevelt winning
1932 Mussolini frees 16,000 criminals
1930 Sinclair Lewis, novelist, playwright, and social critic, won the Nobel Prize for Literature. He was the first American to win the prize and went to him “for his vigorous and graphic art of description and his ability to create, with wit and humour, new types of characters.” Lewis wrote 22 novels and three plays.
1930 All was quiet in the Fiesta Room at Los Angeles’ Ambassador Hotel this night as the Third Annual Academy Awards were about to be announced. The big winner of the evening, hosted by Conrad Nagel, was "All Quiet on the Western Front" (Outstanding Production - Universal, and Best Director - Lewis Milestone). "The Big House" also took two awards: Best Sound Recording - Douglas Shearer/Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studio Sound Department and Best Writing - Frances Marion. Only four more awards were presented at the fledgling film industry’s celebration. Best Actor honors went to George Arliss for his performance in "Disraeli" (a remake of the 1921 silent version, also starring Arliss) and Norma Shearer copped the prize for Best Actress for her role in "The Divorcee". Herman Rosse won an award for his Art Direction in "King of Jazz" and the Best Cinematography award went to Joseph T. Rucker and Willard Van Der Veer for "With Byrd at the South Pole". We can now break the silence. Applause! Applause!
1927 10th PGA Championship: Water Hagen at Cedar Crest CC Dallas
1927 Walter Hagen beats Joe Turnesa for 4th consecutive PGA title
1925 Mussolini disbands Italian socialist parties
1922 Demonstration for a Dutch University in Ghent
1920 U.S.A. liquor raid Two Oklahoma law enforcement personnel helped uncover the details of a liquor raid. In the process, one gallon of corn juice, one quart of gasoline, and one live prisoner were held. One citizen was taken into custody.
1919 Ir Steringa Idzerda begins hosting "soiree-musical" on Dutch radio
1917 General Pershing and U.S. troops see action on Western Front for 1st time
1917 Supreme Court decision (Buchanan vs. Warley) strikes down Lousiville Kentucky ordiance requiring blacks and whites to live in separate areas
1916 Emperor Wilhelm II and French Jozef I establishes kingdom of Poland
1916 Second Chamber accept initial impetus to general males/female suffrage
1914 Great Britain and France and Russia declares war on Turkey
1913 Ludwig III crowned king of Bavaria
1912 Arizona, Kansas and Wisconsin vote for female suffrage
1912 Bulgarian troops in Constantinople blockade drinking water
1912 Woodrow Wilson (D) defeats Theodore Roosevelt (Prog) and President Taft (R)
1911 Italy attacks Turkish North-Africa (Libya), takes Tipoli and Cyrenaica
1911 The first American transcontinental airplane flight was begun. Calbraith P. Rogers flew from Sheepshead Bay, NY to Pasadena, CA. It took Rogers 49 days to make the trip; 24 days were lost due to bad weather and mechanical difficulties. The rest were because he stopped at all the tourist places. Some of us have flown that route, haven’t we?
1898 Gerhart Hauptmanns "Fuhrmann Henschel," premieres in Berlin
1895 1st U.S. patent granted for auto, George B. Selden
1895 George Selden patents 1st gasoline-driven car
1895 King Edward VII says "We are all Socialists nowadays"
1895 U.S. state Utah accepts female suffrage
1894 Frederick Lugards expedition reaches Nikki
1894 Richard Strauss' "Till Eulenspiegels," premieres
1887 Ottawa College (ORFU) defeats Montreal Football Club (QRFU) 10-5 to win the Dominion championship
1883 Battle at El Obeid Sudan: Mahdi's army destroys Egyptian army
1883 Musical "Cordelia's Aspirations" premieres in New York City
1882 Bedrich Smetana's "Ma Vlast," premieres
1881 French government-Ferry resigns
1876 Henry Morton Stanley's expedition leaves Nyangwe
1872 Ulysses S. Grant re-elected U.S. president
1872 Women's suffrage: In defiance of the law, suffragist Susan B. Anthony votes for the first time, and is later fined $100
1862 American Civil War: Abraham Lincoln removes George B. McClellan as commander of the Union Army for the second and final time
1862 - Indian Wars: In Minnesota, more than 300 Santee Sioux are found guilty of rape and murder of white settlers and are sentenced to hang
1862 Ambrose Burnside replaces McClellen as head of Army of Potomac
1862 Battle at Barbee's Crossroads, Virginia: 51 casualties
1854 Crimean War: British and French defeat Russian force of 50,000
1846 Robert Schumann's 2nd Symphony in C, premieres
1838 Honduras declares independence of Central American Federation
1831 Nat Turner, American slave leader, is tried, convicted, and sentenced to death in Virginia
1811 El Salvador's 1st battle against Spain for independence
1789 Fleeing slaves under Bonni attack military post on Suriname
1789 French National Meeting declares all citizens equal under law
1781 John Hanson elected 1st "President of U.S. in Congress assembled"
1775 Washington condemns Guy Fawkes festivities
1757 Battle at Rossbach (7 year war/French and Indian War)
1733 The first issue of the "New York Weekly Journal" was published by printer/journalist John Peter Zenger.
1725 Spain and Austria sign secret treaty
1678 Brandenburgse troops occupy Greifswald in Sweden
1639 1st post office in the colonies is set up in Massachusetts
1630 Spain and England sign peace treaty
Events
1605 Eleven men, led by one Guy Fawkes, came together to find a way to return England to the Catholic faith. It seems that King James had been sending Jesuits into exile. The conspirators plotted to kill the King and all members of the Parliament by blowing up the Houses of Parliament on November 5. They had amassed 36 barrels of gunpowder and placed the barrels under the Houses of Parliament. The plot was discovered on November 4th, and the conspirators were arrested, tried and convicted. The following January, Guy Fawkes and seven other surviving members of the group were beheaded. Their heads were then displayed on the spikes of London Bridge. The following November 5th (1606), the same Parliament Guy Fawkes and his men had attempted to annihilate, established a national day of Thanksgiving. Guy Fawkes Day or Bonfire Night has been celebrated every year since with fireworks and the burning of Guy Fawkes’ effigy.
1556 Akbar (14) succeeds his father Humajun on as Sultan of Delhi
1556 Battle at Panipat: Mogollegers beat hindu leader Hemu
1530 St. Felix Flood ravages Dutch coast
1499 Publication of the Catholicon in Treguier (Brittany). This Breton-French-Latin dictionary was written in 1464 by Jehan Lagadeuc. It is the first Breton dictionary as well as the first French dictionary 1492 Christopher Columbus learns of maize (corn) from Indians of Cuba
1414 Council of Constance (16th ecumenical council) opens
1228 Wu MeKuan, a collection of 48 Zen koans, compiled in China

In Search of Who We've Been - Day of the Dead

Dan Layton at Archie's grave.

My father usually visits his father's grave every November 3, alone, but this birthday he wanted company. He's not as sure on his feet, and he nearly tripped walking to the tree near the grave. His expressions and the way he walks reminds me very much of my three-year-old nephew. I suppose the old saying is true: Once a man, twice a boy.

James Archie Layton 122th Nov. 3, 2010 birthday remembrance.

It was the 122th birthday remembrance of my father's father yesterday. My grandfather was a character. I remember him as an old man with a predilection for wine and singing bawdy songs.

Daniel Layton at Richard Layton's grave.

My father visiting his good friend and cousin's grave. Dick passed just recently after a year-long struggle with pneumonia and a plethora of ailments following back surgery. I always loved to see his new stack of books. My father called him an "egg-head" and "the professor" even though he taught high school. I wonder why he didn't teach at a university, where his intellect and bent were better suited. He spoke three languages, and wrote for Humanist journals.

William Clyde Layton.

William died in France, in transit to the front. He was on a troop train that was compromised by a German pulling a switch and sending another train head on into it. He was twenty-one when metal pierced his throat. He'd been married for one month. I've written his imagined life before and after his death, in a connected series of stories.

Levi Roberts.

Levi Roberts came west with the Mormon Pioneers and settled near KaysCreek, on Shoshone ground. He eventually built a cabin. From what I know of him, he was a bodyguard to Joseph Smith, the Mormon's first prophet. You should know Smith was shot dead in Carthage Jail, but I don't know if Levi was there or not, and even if he were, he would have been a target of the mob, and wouldn't have been allowed a gun. What I do know for certain, is that he settled next to the creek because of the abundance of reeds. Levi was a basket weaver and the lane is now called Weaver's Lane. His cabin was relocated to the This is The Place historic park.

Mary and Henry Roberts.

It's more than a little ironic that these two have to spend the rest of time next to each other, since in life they loathed each other, so much so, that after years of beatings and the rest that goes with living with a small man, Mary obtained a divorce, rare for that time. But, some ex spouses just don't get the hint. Henry persisted in his small ways, until Mary took a knife and ended him. My Uncle Snowden, who was five at the time, found him dead outside his cabin, next to the creek. And no, Mary was never accused, nor stood trial. The community knew the kind of man Henry was, so the official story was that a drifter jumped the train and killed Henry for the gold rumored to be buried on his land. The drifter escaped, not that anyone ever looked for him.

Nanoing A Novel in Thirty Days: November 3 - The Abracadabra Girl

I finally, finally have an idea! It started with the title of a Sandberg poem, The Abracadabra Boys, which I cannibalized, and no, the story I'm writing will bear no resemblance to the poem, although I'd really, really like allude to or use,They knoweth not how the kumquat cometh.

As I said before, I will be posting excerpts and entire sections of my nano daily writing, and I anticipate that there will be punctuation running amuck, dangling metaphors, tense and point of view confusion, and much, much worse. This process is messy, ugly, and gritty, (and some fun), and it will be okay, because they will be my messes, (which I will clean up. Later!).

If you're interested in learning nanowrimo, here's the site.

Here's goes.

The Abracadabra Girl
Danna

He is here, inside me. Can't you understand? He is small as a twist of twine. That is why you can't see him, but I feel him moving here under my left rib. He want's something, I can feel it, the young girl said.

No. No one is here. Antoinette, there is nothing inside you but your blood. I only want you to eat, the man said.

He sat across the dented wooden table from her, buttering one half of a hard roll. He slid it toward her.

Eat, he said.

No, we're not hungry, she said and stretched backward, presenting the sharp outline of her ribcage through her thin cotton dress.

Right here, she said, rubbing the bone. Look. Anyone can see. Even you.

The man pulled a thinly rolled cigarette from a worn leather case, struck a match on the table's underside and lit it, inhaling deeply then let the smoke out slowly as if he were whistling. He reached across the table and the girl took it from him.

Thank you, papa, she said.

Nanoing A Novel in Thirty Days: Subject & Prompts

I really haven't been able to settle on a subject for this year's nano marathon, so I decided to let chance decide. You too may be desperate to come up with an idea you can commit the month to, and then also the following months of revising and rewriting.

I've included directions to the process I call Random Words, but you can call it whatever you like. Hope it works for you.

Directions:
a. cut and paste a section from an online newspaper or magazine.
b. enlarge the words and cut them out.
c. ask a question.
d. pull 2-7 words and tape them under your question.
e. respond to the answer.
f. ask another question.

For the prompts I used the same process for all thirty days of November. I'm a little behind nanoing already, but I should have my idea figured out tomorrow.

Random Words




Prompts:

The Coffee Project: October 31 - November 1, 2010

November 1, 2010. Mom's 75th birthday celebration at the Mandarin restaurant.

October 31, 2010. Sans tooth.

NaNoing A Novel in Thirty Days: Year Five - NaNoWriMo 2010

If you've been reading this blog, you may remember that last year I posted a poem a day, thirty poems in all in my Thirty Poems in Thirty Days, for National Poetry Month 2010. I have a few Poem Therapy poems and random posts scattered in with my original poems as well.

Although I've been nanoing for the last five years, I've never posted anything I've written for the nanoing month of writing. That's about to change. (I know you're sitting on proverbial pins and needles waiting for the first post).

Nanoing is short for nanowrimo - National Novel Writing Month. The goal is to write 1,667 words for a grand total of 50 K words. So far, I've reached that goal only once. Regardless, nanowrimo has served as a kick start to stalled writing projects.

The first day of nanoing is here and I'm still unsure as to what I will write. The important thing is that I'll be writing. What you need to know is that I plan to post messy, unedited, wandering around the trees lost and blind, possibly incomprehensible, shitty rough draft posts. You are welcome to comment, but at some point, probably in December, I will revise them into some type of comprehension. What I'm saying is that I retain all rights to my writing. Just saying.

If you're interested in learning nanowrimo, here's the site.

It's not to late to get nanoing. Join me!