Joy joy joy

Yesterday and this morning, feeling pretty awful on a personal basis and then, sullenly checking in with facebook, saw this and my world changed. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kbJcQYVtZMo

Crime, faith and e-books

Are you an e-book reader? You may want to check out three books by an old friend of the family.

I remember long, hot summer days during which the author, Jeff Glendenning, and I played hours of tennis and then went swimming in the neighborhood pool. He was the older brother of one of my closest friends and I had a crush that went unrequited. Haven’t heard from him much over the years but now he tells me he’s published not just one, but three books on Amazon, each featuring FBI criminal profiler Tatum Jackson.

I haven’t read them, but if you love the crime genre mixed in with big questions about God and faith — you might want to check them out: Bully Pulpit, Pivot Point and Chantilly. They’re each available for $2.99.

Joseph Monninger’s Finding Somewhere

A horse about to be put down. Two girls decide to take him on a road trip to freedom. Finding Somewhere — a new book by Joseph Monninger, my fiction-writing professor at Plymouth State University in New Hampshire.

I remember reading one of his books back in, gosh, I guess it was 1992, and a line from that book STILL resonates in my head. I haven’t read Finding Somewhere yet, but I borrowed it from the Selby Public Library and gave it to my mom to read as she is recovering from her surgery. She said it was a great read. It’s technically billed as “young adult” reading, but I hate those labels — I mean, c’mon, what about The Little Prince?!

Anyhoo — check out Finding Somewhere if you’re interested. Haven’t seen Monninger since my college days, but his prolific writing is a burr in my saddle! (A good one!)

Here’s a quote from an interview Monninger gave recently — as a writer, I found it interesting:

I write standing up. I have a small cabin with a desk inside just below chest height. I started writing standing up because my back would get stiff and painful if I sat too long. Eventually, though, it seemed more natural to be standing. I feel more alert that way. So, that’s what I do. I recommend it.

Would you rather go naked? Does anyone love a bare-faced woman?

Somewhere along the line, women bought into the idea hook, line and sinker that to be “professional,” “sexy,” and most of all “acceptable” — we had to put paint all over our faces. Not all women feel this way, of course, but with billions upon billions of dollars spent annually on makeup in the U.S. alone — it’s a fair bet a lot of them do. Read today’s Sense and the City column on the conundrum of the made and unmade face!

Tell me, what is it you plan to do?

Tell me, after you read The Summer Day, what you plan to do with your one, wild, precious life, on this winter January day?

The Summer Day by Mary Oliver

Who made the world?
Who made the swan, and the black bear?
Who made the grasshopper?
This grasshopper, I mean-
the one who has flung herself out of the grass,
the one who is eating sugar out of my hand,
who is moving her jaws back and forth instead of up and down-
who is gazing around with her enormous and complicated eyes.
Now she lifts her pale forearms and thoroughly washes her face.
Now she snaps her wings open, and floats away.
I don’t know exactly what a prayer is.
I do know how to pay attention, how to fall down
into the grass, how to kneel down in the grass,
how to be idle and blessed, how to stroll through the fields,
which is what I have been doing all day.
Tell me, what else should I have done?
Doesn’t everything die at last, and too soon?
Tell me, what is it you plan to do
with your one wild and precious life?

from New and Selected Poems, 1992
Beacon Press, Boston, MA

Copyright 1992 by Mary Oliver.
All rights reserved.

The Culture of Cheating

The Sarasota Herald-Tribune ran an op/ed of mine — on the topic of Herman Cain, cheating, and what difference it makes if a liar and a cheater holds office — in today’s newspaper — you can find it on the last page of the A section in print — or just click on the link below to read.

You’re lyin’ cheatin’ ways …. or as I like to call it, Cain’s Complaint (for all you Philip Roth lovers out there).

Holiday Etiquette 101 — RSVP ASAP

If you’re planning a party for the holiday — or if you’ve received invites to mistletoe merriment, you may want to read my annual rant about the fact that people just don’t RSVP anymore!

In the TICKET — found in news boxes throughout the city today for free or online at:

MC’s annual rant about people who don’t RSVP!

Breaking the silence on domestic violence … thanks to readers

Thanks — merci mille fois – grazie – danke, to every one who posted such supportive comments and shared their own stories in response to my recent op/ed piece in the Sarasota Herald-Tribune (to read it online just click here). I’ve heard from so many women — and several men, too — either on this blog, in direct emails, phone calls, comments in person, and in letters written to the editor of the newspaper. Thank you all for taking the time to contact me.

To read some of the comments readers have shared, click on this link here .

Lessons Learned from Ashton & Demi (or as I like to call them — Ashemi)

My Sense and the City column in today’s Sarasota Herald-Tribune TICKET section asks the question: What did Demi Moore see in Ashton Kutcher, anyway? You can read it by clicking here:

http://www.ticketsarasota.com/2011-10-20/section/nightlife/sense-and-the-city-lessons-learned-from-ashton-demi/

October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month

The Sarasota Herald-Tribune ran an opinion piece I wrote in today’s op/ed section. If you want to read it online, click here: Break the Cycle of Domestic Violence