Books Are Better

Yes, books are better than TV...my DVR will prove it.  I only have 36 percent available capacity on my DVR right now because I don't have time to view what's on it.  I read everyday, if only for a few minutes (I prefer longer) if time allows, and sometimes I do fall asleep with a book in my hands.  One of the good things about books (real books) is that you don't have to have electricity to enjoy them.  Is it wrong to keep hoping for a hurricane season so that I have an excuse to settle in with my book library?  I don't think so - but I'm not asking anyone else for fear of their answer!  Some people stock their pantries - I'll stock my bookshelf, thank you very much!   

I Has a Me...

I laughed when I saw this picture.  I have a puppy on my lap right now that loves his toys so much he sleeps with them too, though none of them look like him!  When we leave the house, our two doggies usually go into their crate.  However, if we are gone for more than five hours, we put a gate on our master bathroom doorway and leave them inside with food and water.  Of course, their doggie-sense goes off when we begin placing their bed, bowls, and toys in the bathroom.  In fact, Blu, the toy lover will begin rescuing his toy animal friends as soon as I place them on the bathroom floor.  He grabs them and rushes them to the safety of the living room as quickly as he can.  It's a hoot to watch!  We truly have to be on top of our game around these little furry guys.  I hope that your pets bring you as much love and joy as ours do.  We wouldn't give them up for the world.

Instant Gratification

What happened to working toward what you want?  This "ask and you shall receive - immediately" mentality is ridiculous.  I have worked hard all my life to obtain the things that I have.  I have both patience and endurance.  I also have dreams.  Realistic ones, which I work toward every day.  I have expectations and desires for my family which won't be obtained by sitting on my behind waiting for someone else to make them happen.  Where do you stand on this issue?  Are you sitting back and hitching a quick ride to the finish line or do you have your legs firmly planted beneath you, your blood pumping, your lungs expanding as you inhale, all the while, mastering the drive yourself?  Though there were times I needed help, my parents taught me that I am fully capable of relying on myself and I am thankful for that knowledge.  I don't need instant gratification, just a focal point.    

English is a Crazy Language

Heteronyms and other challenges of the English language. 

Homographs are words of like spelling but with more than one meaning. A homograph that is also pronounced differently is a heteronym.
   
1) The bandage was wound around the wound.

2) The farm was used to produce  produce.

3) The dump was so full that it had to refuse more refuse.

4) We must polish the Polish furniture..

5) He could lead if he would get the lead out.

6) The soldier decided to desert his dessert in the desert..

7) Since there is no time like the present, he thought it was time to present the present.

8) A bass was painted on the head of the bass drum.

9) When shot at, the dove dove into the bushes.

10) I did not object to the object.

11) The insurance was invalid for the invalid.

12) There was a row among the oarsmen about how to row.

13) They were too close to the door to close it.

14) The buck does funny things when the does are present.

15) A seamstress and a sewer fell down into a sewer line.

16) To help with planting, the farmer taught his sow to sow.

17) The wind was too strong to wind the sail.

18) Upon seeing the tear in the painting I shed a tear..

19) I had to subject the subject to a series of tests.

20) How can I intimate this to my most intimate friend?


Let's face it - English is a crazy language. There is no egg in eggplant, nor ham in hamburger; neither apple nor pine in pineapple. English muffins weren't invented in England or French fries in France . Sweetmeats are candies while sweetbreads, which aren't sweet, are meat. We take English for granted. But if we explore its paradoxes, we find that quicksand can work slowly, boxing rings are square and a guinea pig is neither from Guinea nor is it a pig.

And why is it that writers write but fingers don't fing, grocers don't groce and hammers don't ham? If the plural of tooth is teeth, why isn't the plural of booth, beeth? One goose, 2 geese. So one moose, 2 meese? One index, 2 indices? Doesn't it seem crazy that you can make amends but not one amend? If you have a bunch of odds and ends and get rid of all but one of them, what do you call it?

If teachers taught, why didn't preachers praught? If a vegetarian eats vegetables, what does a humanitarian eat? Sometimes I think all the English speakers should be committed to an asylum for the verbally insane. In what language do people recite at a play and play at a recital? Ship by truck and send cargo by ship? Have noses that run and feet that smell?

How can a slim chance and a fat chance be the same, while a wise man and a wise guy are opposites? You have to marvel at the unique lunacy of a language in which your house can burn up as it burns down, in which you fill in a form by filling it out and in which, an alarm goes off by going on.
 
English was invented by people, not computers, and it reflects the creativity of the human race, which, of course, is not a race at all. That is why, when the stars are out, they are visible, but when the lights are out, they are invisible.
 
PS. - Why doesn't 'Buick' rhyme with 'quick'?


If you read this full post, congratulations!  I applaud you.  I didn't pick this profession, it picked me.  Somebody up there has a funny sense of humor.  However, I embrace my gift with all that I have.  May only hope is that you can see it on the pages of my books and appreciate all the work, frustration, missed meals, skipped sleep, and love it takes to bring a work of writing to fruition.  It's a blessing and a miracle all at the same time.  It begins with a simple idea and builds exponentially from there.  I simply don't know how to live without it.
 

The Keepsake by Tess Gerritsen - A Book Discussion

The Keepsake is Tess Gerritsen’s seventh Rizzoli and Isles novel.  Though the plot line was not quite as dark as the last novel, it was a thrilling read nonetheless. 

The story begins with the arrival of “Madam X,” a mummy that has been discovered in an unlabeled crate in the dusty, dingy basement storage of Boston’s Crispin Museum, and is about to undergo a CAT scan at the city’s Pilgrim Hospital.  Medical examiner Dr. Maura Isles presides with Dr. Robinson, the museum curator, and Crispin’s newly hired Egyptology expert, Josephine Pulcillo.  Dr. Robinson confirms that carbon testing on a swatch of the outer wrapping dates back to second century BC so you can imagine their surprise when the scan reveals modern dental work and a bullet in her leg.   

Therein steps Jane Rizzoli and her partner Barry Frost who uncover more preserved human remains in the museum's storage area, along with a personal message for Josephine Pulcillo.  The discovery leaves them with more questions than answers.  Why would someone go to such great lengths to preserve the victims?  What is Josephine Pulcillo hiding from them?  This question poses a rift between the two partners as Jane feels that Josephine is concealing something vital to the investigation while Barry falls under the spell of her earthly beauty and takes her at face value. Though friction remains between them, they both agree that they have an intellectual and unconventional serial killer who is on the loose on the streets of Boston.

Following my promise not to spoil these novels for those who might be reading them, I have to say that this novel was filled with ample twists and turns, creating another chilling, fast-paced thriller.  My only criticism of this novel would be that unlike the other Rizzoli and Isles novels, the author stuck closer to the plot instead of revealing further insights into Jane and Maura’s personal lives.  Their characters did not grow much for me during this read and I missed that element.  Otherwise, the characters were strong and engaging.  This was yet another good suspense story by Tess Gerritsen.  If you are a Rizzoli and Isles fan, be sure to add this book to your collection.

Thinking of You

No matter where you are today, I wish you blue skies and sunshine, peace and happiness.  You are appreciated and loved more than you know.

Kids Say the Darndest Things!

Avry's Prayer...

Dad: Since you fell on your bottom and it's hurting, should we pray tonight for some relief?

Avry: Yes, let's do that.

Dad: Dear Father, we come to you knowing that YOU are the ultimate Healer and ask you to help Avry with this pain.

Avry: Dear Lord, please help me. I broke my butt and it hurts.

Yes, let's get right to the point!

What Else Does He Know?!

Hmm...Dr. Seuss has been in my house!

A Different Perspective

Yes, there are many times I have to stop, step back and rethink a situation.  I've never tried standing on my head though.  I wonder if that really helps?!  I'll have to get back to you on that one.  In the meantime, have a great day!

I'm Taking This One to Grandma!

This made me laugh.  I can see my own stubborn boys sitting on this stool in the corner when they were young.  I'm also quite sure they would have taken their case to Grandma if they could have. 

We knew our youngest was going to challenge both our wits and patience.  When he was barely old enough to talk, the boys had an overnight trip to my parents house.  While there, my mother sat a the kitchen table with my youngest perched on her lap.  She showed him an apple and asked him what it was.  With his ornery little smirk, he looked right at her and told her it was on "orange."

And that was only the beginning!  He made life interesting, showing it in bits and pieces through his point of view.  I am thankful and grateful that he was challenging.  (The oldest was a challenge during his teenage years!)  It better prepared me for all that life throws at us. 

Plus, you know what they say about payback?!  Yes - his daughter is even more stubborn than he was.  I get the frustrated, at-the-end-of-his-wits phone calls now.  Imagine that!

A Remarkable Baby Story

What a great story...

When Carolyn Isbister put her 20oz baby on her chest for a cuddle, she thought that it would be the ONLY CHANCE she would ever have to hold her. Doctors had told the parents that baby Rachel only had only MINUTES TO LIVE because her heart was beating once every ten seconds and she was not breathing.

"I didn’t want her to die being cold," Carolyn says, "so I lifted her out of her blanket and put her against my skin to warm her up. Her feet were so cold. It was the only cuddle I was going to have with her, so I wanted to remember the moment.”

Then something remarkable happened: the warmth of her mother’s skin kick started Rachael’s heart into beating properly, which allowed her to take little breaths of her own.

"We couldn’t believe it – and neither could the doctors. She let out a tiny cry. The doctors came in and said there was still no hope – but I wasn’t letting go of her. We had her blessed by the hospital chaplain, and waited for her to slip away. But she still hung on."

And then amazingly the pink color began to return to her cheeks. She literally was turning from gray to pink before our eyes, and she began to warm up too.

The sad part is that when the baby was born, doctors took one look at her and said ‘no’. They didn’t even try to help her with her breathing as they said it would just prolong her dying.

"Everyone just gave up on her,” says Carolyn.

At 24 weeks a womb infection had led to her premature labor and birth. Says Carolyn (who also has two children Samuel, 10, and Kirsten, 8 ): “We were terrified we were going to lose her. I had suffered three miscarriages before, so we didn’t think there was much hope.”

When Rachael was born she was grey and lifeless. Ian Laing, a consultant neonatologist at the hospital, said: “All the signs were that the little one was not going to make it and we took the decision to let mum have a cuddle as it was all we could do.

Two hours later the wee thing was crying."

"This is indeed a miracle baby," adds the doctor, "and I have seen nothing like it in my 27 years of practice. I have not the slightest doubt that mother’s love saved her daughter.”

Rachael was moved onto a ventilator where she continued to make steady progress and was tube and syringe fed her mother’s pumped breast milk.

“The doctors said that she had proved she was a fighter and that she now deserved some intensive care as there was some hope," says Carolyn. "Rachael did it all on her own – without any medical intervention or drugs. She had clung on to life – and it was all because of that cuddle."

The cuddle had warmed up her body and regulated her heart and breathing enough for her to start fighting. At 5 weeks she was taken off the ventilator and began breastfeeding on her own. At four months Rachel went home with her parents, weighing 8lbs – the same as any other healthy newborn.

Because Rachel had suffered from a lack of oxygen doctors said there was a high risk of damage to her brain. But a scan showed no evidence of any problems and today Rachel is on par with her peers.

"She is doing so well," says Carolyn, smiling. "When we brought her home, the doctors told us that she was a remarkable little girl. And most of all, she just loves her cuddles. She will sleep for hours, just curled into my chest. It was that first cuddle which saved her life – and I’m just so glad I trusted my instinct and picked her up when I did. Otherwise she wouldn’t be here today.”

This story is a reminder to us to be thankful for everything we have and never be afraid to cuddle.

A Winter Wonderland

I love this picture.  It's serene simplicity at it's best.  Somehow it reminds me of my childhood home.  No, it didn't look like this one but it felt like it.  A comfortable family dwelling full of light and warmth, especially during those cold and snowy winters that blasted through the Midwest.  I can picture the family who lives here, gathered around the fireplace with a board game laid out upon the carpeted floor.  Laughing as they roll the dice and move their pieces through the maze while munching on buttered popcorn and sipping hot chocolate with melted mini marshmallows.  The thought makes me smile.  I hope that you have such memories stored away and that this picture will unlock the dusty drawer they are filed away in.  They are special memories because they belong to you and you alone.  Enjoy.   

I'm Dreamy Cutesy-Pie, Who Are You?

Just a little fun for Valentine's Day fun.  

Enjoy and have a wonderful day!

The Paris Wife by Paula McClain

The Paris Wife is the Book Club pick for March.

Synopsis:

Chicago, 1920: Hadley Richardson is a quiet twenty-eight-year-old who has all but given up on love and happiness—until she meets Ernest Hemingway. Following a whirlwind courtship and wedding, the pair set sail for Paris, where they become the golden couple in a lively and volatile group—the fabled “Lost Generation”—that includes Gertrude Stein, Ezra Pound, and F. Scott Fitzgerald.

Though deeply in love, the Hemingways are ill prepared for the hard-drinking, fast-living, and free-loving life of Jazz Age Paris. As Ernest struggles to find the voice that will earn him a place in history and pours himself into the novel that will become The Sun Also Rises, Hadley strives to hold on to her sense of self as her roles as wife, friend, and muse become more challenging. Eventually they find themselves facing the ultimate crisis of their marriage—a deception that will lead to the unraveling of everything they’ve fought so hard for.

A heartbreaking portrayal of love and torn loyalty, The Paris Wife is all the more poignant because we know that, in the end, Hemingway wrote that he would rather have died than fallen in love with anyone but Hadley.

This book was recommended to one of our book club members by another book club.  Please pick up a copy and join us here on Wednesday, March 12th for discussion.  See you then!

Like Dandelion Dust by Karen Kingsbury

In a quiet Florida town, life is idyllic for Jack and Molly Campbell and their 4-year-old son, Joey. But one day a phone call shatters their peace. A social worker reports that Joey's biological father, newly released from prison, wants his son back. Can Jack devise a plan to circumvent a judge's devastating decision?

 A Book Club Discussion:

Our newly formed book club met last night to discuss this book.  Our overall feelings were that it was an easy, uncomplicated read that was also one-dimensional character driven and plot predictable.

This was my first Karen Kingsbury reading experience and it took me a little time to get into the story.  I read the first few chapters and then left it sitting on the table for a week before I picked it up again.  It's a great premise, the custody battle between the perfect adoptive parents and not-so-perfect biological parents who have more or less tricked the system into returning their child after the father is released from prison after serving a five-year prison sentence for domestic violence. 

The one thing that stuck out in this novel more than anything else was the author's view of her faith and she used it all the way through to guide her readers.  However, we all agreed that it came off as pointedly preachy.  From our discussion last night and reading other reviews on this book, it turned a lot of people off.  As a Christian, I am all for a good Christian story but when the dust cover on a book says nothing about it being a Christian book and you've never heard of the author, it is quite a surprise when you dive in.  The story was not what any of us were expecting.

There were also a lot of punctuation errors and confusion with uses of the wrong character names throughout the book.  We wondered if the editor's had taken a vacation. 

They have made a movie based on this story which came in 2010.  After reading the novel, I don't feel a need to rush out and rent it.  For those of you that are Karen Kingsbury fans, I'm not trying to rain on your parade but I don't think that I'll be reading another of her stories, at least for a while.  I would however, like to hear your comments.  If you are an author fan or if you've read this book in particular, please let me know how you felt about it. 

Saying Good-Bye to Shirley Temple

Article By MARTHA MENDOZA
Associated Press, San Francisco (AP)

Shirley Temple, the dimpled, curly-haired child star who sang, danced, sobbed and grinned her way into the hearts of Depression-era moviegoers, has died, according to publicist Cheryl Kagan. She was 85.

Temple, known in private life as Shirley Temple Black, died Monday night at about 11 p.m. at her home near San Francisco. She was surrounded by family members and caregivers, Kagan said.
"We salute her for a life of remarkable achievements as an actor, as a diplomat, and most importantly as our beloved mother, grandmother, great-grandmother, and adored wife for fifty-five years of the late and much missed Charles Alden Black," a family statement said.

A talented and ultra-adorable entertainer, Shirley Temple was America's top box-office draw from 1935 to 1938, a record no other child star has come near. She beat out such grown-ups as Clark Gable, Bing Crosby, Robert Taylor, Gary Cooper and Joan Crawford.

In 1999, the American Film Institute ranking of the top 50 screen legends ranked Temple at No. 18 among the 25 actresses. She appeared in scores of movies and kept children singing "On the Good Ship Lollipop" for generations.

Temple was credited with helping save 20th Century Fox from bankruptcy with films such as "Curly Top" and "The Littlest Rebel." She even had a drink named after her, an appropriately sweet and innocent cocktail of ginger ale and grenadine, topped with a maraschino cherry.

Temple blossomed into a pretty young woman, but audiences lost interest, and she retired from films at 21. She raised a family and later became active in politics and held several diplomatic posts in Republican administrations, including ambassador to Czechoslovakia during the historic collapse of communism in 1989.

"I have one piece of advice for those of you who want to receive the lifetime achievement award. Start early," she quipped in 2006 as she was honored by the Screen Actors Guild.  But she also said that evening that her greatest roles were as wife, mother and grandmother. "There's nothing like real love. Nothing." Her husband of more than 50 years, Charles Black, had died just a few months earlier.  They lived for many years in the San Francisco suburb of Woodside.

Temple's expert singing and tap dancing in the 1934 feature "Stand Up and Cheer!" first gained her wide notice. The number she performed with future Oscar winner James Dunn, "Baby Take a Bow," became the title of one of her first starring features later that year.  Also in 1934, she starred in "Little Miss Marker," a comedy-drama based on a story by Damon Runyon that showcased her acting talent. In "Bright Eyes," Temple introduced "On the Good Ship Lollipop" and did battle with a charmingly bratty Jane Withers, launching Withers as a major child star, too.

She was "just absolutely marvelous, greatest in the world," director Allan Dwan told filmmaker-author Peter Bogdanovich in his book "Who the Devil Made It: Conversations With Legendary Film Directors." ''With Shirley, you'd just tell her once and she'd remember the rest of her life," said Dwan, who directed "Heidi" and "Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm." ''Whatever it was she was supposed to do - she'd do it. ... And if one of the actors got stuck, she'd tell him what his line was - she knew it better than he did."

Temple's mother, Gertrude, worked to keep her daughter from being spoiled by fame and was a constant presence during filming. Her daughter said years later that her mother had been furious when a director once sent her off on an errand and then got the child to cry for a scene by frightening her. "She never again left me alone on a set," she said.

Temple became a nationwide sensation. Mothers dressed their little girls like her, and a line of dolls was launched that are now highly sought-after collectables. Her immense popularity prompted President Franklin D. Roosevelt to say that "as long as our country has Shirley Temple, we will be all right."

"When the spirit of the people is lower than at any other time during this Depression, it is a splendid thing that for just 15 cents, an American can go to a movie and look at the smiling face of a baby and forget his troubles," Roosevelt said.

She followed up in the next few years with a string of hit films, most with sentimental themes and musical subplots. She often played an orphan, as in "Curly Top," where she introduced the hit "Animal Crackers in My Soup," and "Stowaway," in which she was befriended by Robert Young, later of "Father Knows Best" fame.

She teamed with the great black dancer Bill "Bojangles" Robinson in two 1935 films with Civil War themes, "The Little Colonel" and "The Littlest Rebel." Their tap dance up the steps in "The Little Colonel" (at a time when interracial teamings were unheard-of in Hollywood) became a landmark in the history of film dance.

Some of her pictures were remakes of silent films, such as "Captain January," in which she recreated the role originally played by the silent star Baby Peggy Montgomery in 1924. "Poor Little Rich Girl" and "Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm," done a generation earlier by Mary Pickford, were heavily rewritten for Temple, with show biz added to the plots to give her opportunities to sing.

In its review of "Rebecca," the show business publication Variety complained that a "more fitting title would be 'Rebecca of Radio City.'"

She won a special Academy Award in early 1935 for her "outstanding contribution to screen entertainment" in the previous year.

"She is a legacy of a different time in motion pictures. She caught the imagination of the entire country in a way that no one had before," actor Martin Landau said when the two were honored at the Academy Awards in 1998.

Temple's fans agreed. Her fans seemed interested in every last golden curl on her head: It was once guessed that she had more than 50. Her mother was said to have done her hair in pin curls for each movie, with every hairstyle having exactly 56 curls.

On her eighth birthday - she actually was turning 9, but the studio wanted her to be younger - Temple received more than 135,000 presents from around the world, according to "The Films of Shirley Temple," a 1978 book by Robert Windeler. The gifts included a baby kangaroo from Australia and a prize Jersey calf from schoolchildren in Oregon.

"She's indelible in the history of America because she appeared at a time of great social need, and people took her to their hearts," the late Roddy McDowall, a fellow child star and friend, once said.
Although by the early 1960s, she was retired from the entertainment industry, her interest in politics soon brought her back into the spotlight.

She made an unsuccessful bid as a Republican candidate for Congress in 1967. After Richard Nixon became president in 1969, he appointed her as a member of the U.S. delegation to the United Nations General Assembly. In the 1970s, she was U.S. ambassador to Ghana and later U.S. chief of protocol.
She then served as ambassador to Czechoslovakia during the administration of the first President Bush. A few months after she arrived in Prague in mid-1989, communist rule was overthrown in Czechoslovakia as the Iron Curtain collapsed across Eastern Europe.

"My main job (initially) was human rights, trying to keep people like future President Vaclav Havel out of jail," she said in a 1999 Associated Press interview. Within months, she was accompanying Havel, the former dissident playwright, when he came to Washington as his country's new president.
She considered her background in entertainment an asset to her political career.

"Politicians are actors too, don't you think?" she once said. "Usually if you like people and you're outgoing, not a shy little thing, you can do pretty well in politics."

Born in Santa Monica to an accountant and his wife, Temple was little more than 3 years old when she made her film debut in 1932 in the Baby Burlesks, a series of short films in which tiny performers parodied grown-up movies, sometimes with risque results.

Among the shorts were "War Babies," a parody of "What Price Glory," and "Polly Tix in Washington," with Shirley in the title role.

Her young life was free of the scandals that plagued so many other child stars - parental feuds, drug and alcohol addiction - but Temple at times hinted at a childhood she may have missed out on.
She stopped believing in Santa Claus at age 6, she once said, when "Mother took me to see him in a department store and he asked for my autograph."

After her years at the top, maintaining that level of stardom proved difficult for her and her producers. The proposal to have her play Dorothy in "The Wizard of Oz" didn't pan out. (20th Century Fox chief Darryl Zanuck refused to lend out his greatest asset.) And "The Little Princess" in 1939 and "The Blue Bird" in 1940 didn't draw big crowds, prompting Fox to let Temple go.
Among her later films were "The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer," with Cary Grant, and "That Hagen Girl," with Ronald Reagan. Several, including the wartime drama "Since You Went Away," were produced by David O. Selznick. One, "Fort Apache," was directed by John Ford, who had also directed her "Wee Willie Winkie" years earlier.

Her 1942 film, "Miss Annie Rooney," included her first on-screen kiss, bestowed by another maturing child star, Dickie Moore.

After her film career effectively ended, she concentrated on raising her family and turned to television to host and act in 16 specials called "Shirley Temple's Storybook" on ABC. In 1960, she joined NBC and aired "The Shirley Temple Show."

Her 1988 autobiography, "Child Star," became a best-seller.

Temple had married Army Air Corps private John Agar, the brother of a classmate at Westlake, her exclusive L.A. girls' school, in 1945. He took up acting and the pair appeared together in two films, "Fort Apache" and "Adventure in Baltimore." She and Agar had a daughter, Susan, in 1948, but she filed for divorce the following year.

She married Black in 1950, and they had two more children, Lori and Charles. That marriage lasted until his death in 2005 at age 86.

In 1972, she underwent successful surgery for breast cancer. She issued a statement urging other women to get checked by their doctors and vowed, "I have much more to accomplish before I am through."

During a 1996 interview, she said she loved both politics and show business.
"It's certainly two different career tracks," she said, "both completely different but both very rewarding, personally."

 Shirley Temple lived a full life.  May you rest in peace.

Bride Sings to Groom

Need a tearjerker to start your week?  This video won't won't disappoint.

Be sure to grab a Kleenex for clicking on the following link:

http://www.godtube.com/watch/?v=WYZZPPNX

Good Luck, America!

The opening ceremony was beautiful when it aired last night from Sochi, Russia.  I hope to see the American flag flying high and often over the next 16 days.  Wishing our athletes much health and success in their personal endeavors.  Good luck, America!  We are so proud of you!

I Have A Dream

It doesn't matter how big or how small your dreams are, you only have to wake up and realize them, then work towards them.  Time keeps ticking away.  Have courage.  Believe in your abilities.  You can do it!   

Curves In the Mirror

I didn't write this but absolutely love it.  No matter what size you may be, love your curves.

A while back, at the entrance of a gym, there was a picture of a very thin and beautiful woman. The caption was "This summer, do you want to be a mermaid or a whale?" 

A woman (of clothing size unknown) answered the following way:

Dear People, 

Whales are always surrounded by friends (dolphins, seals, curious humans), they are sexually active and raise their children with great tenderness.  They entertain like crazy with dolphins and eat lots of prawns. They swim all day and travel to fantastic places like Patagonia, the Barents Sea or the coral reefs of Polynesia.  They sing incredibly well and sometimes even are on cds. They are impressive and dearly loved animals, which everyone defend and admires.

Mermaids do not exist.

But if they existed, they would line up to see a psychologist because of a problem of split personality: woman or fish?  They would have no sex life and could not bear children.  Yes, they would be lovely, but lonely and sad.  And, who wants a girl that smells like fish by his side?

Without a doubt, I'd rather be a whale.  At a time when the media tells us that only thin is beautiful, I prefer to eat ice cream with my kids, to have dinner with my husband, to eat and drink and have fun with my friends.

We women, we gain weight because we accumulate so much wisdom and knowledge that there isn't enough space in our heads, and it spreads all over our bodies.  We are not fat, we are greatly cultivated.  Every time I see my curves in the mirror, I tell myself: "How amazing am I ?!"

It's Official...(Sort of)

This is for all of those who are in the path of the latest and current snow storm(s).  I've been talking to friends and family in Kansas who were pretty much shut in yesterday.  There were school and office closings all over town.  I'm happy that everyone stayed home and stayed safe.  The only bad thing about the picture above is that the dog looks to have digging in the "sand" - which would mean he lives on a beach somewhere!  My sincerest apologies.