And the Cantilevered Inference Shall Hold the Day
by Michael Blumenthal

Things are not as they seem: the innuendo of everything makes
itself felt and trembles towards meanings we never intuited
or dreamed. Take, for example, how the warbler, perched on a

mere branch, can kidnap the day from its tediums and send us
heavenwards, or how, held up by nothing we really see, our
spirits soar and then, in a mysterious series of twists and turns,

come to a safe landing in a field, encircled by greenery. Nothing
I can say to you here can possibly convince you that a man
as unreliable as I have been can smuggle in truths between tercets

and quatrains on scraps of paper, but the world as we know
is full of surprises, and the likelihood that here, in the shape
of this very bird, redemption awaits us should not be dismissed

so easily. Each year, days swivel and diminish along their inscrutable
axes, then lengthen again until we are bathed in light we were not
prepared for. Last night, lying in bed with nothing to hold onto

but myself, I gazed at the emptiness beside me and saw there, in the
shape of absence, something so sweet and deliberate I called it darling.
No one who encrusticates (I made that up!) his silliness in a bowl,

waiting for sanctity, can ever know how lovely playfulness can be,
and, that said, let me wish you a Merry One (or Chanukah if you
prefer), and may whatever holds you up stay forever beneath you,

and may the robin find many a worm, and our cruelties abate,
and may you be well and happy and full of mischief as I am,
and may all your nothings, too, hold something up and sing.

© Michael Blumenthal, via

Roosevelt quotes

Yesterday at the Museum of Natural History, I saw these great quotes by Theodore Roosevelt in the lobby.

Youth:
I want to see you game boys; I want to see you brave and manly and I also want to see you gentle and tender. Be practical as well as generous in your ideals; keep your eyes on the stars and keep your feet on the ground. Courage, hard work, self-mastery, and intelligent effort are all essential to a successful life. Character in the long run is the decisive factor in the life of an individual and of nations alike.

Nature:
There is a delight in the hardy life of the open. There are no words that can tell the hidden spirit of the wilderness, that can reveal its mystery, its melancholy, and its charm. The nation behaves well if it treats the natural resources as assets which it must turn over to the next generation increased and not impaired in value. Conservation means development as much as much as it does protection.

Manhood:
A man's usefulness depends upon his living up to his ideals insofar as he can. It is hard to fail but it is worse never to have tried to succeed. All daring and courage, all iron endurance of misfortune, make for a finer, nobler type of manhood. Only those are fit to live who do not fear to die, and none are fit to die who have shrunk from the joy of life and the duty of life.

The state:
Ours is a government of liberty by, through, and under the law. A great democracy must be progressive or it will soon cease to be great or a democracy. Aggressive fighting for the right is the noblest sport the world affords. In popular government results worth having can only be achieved by men who combine worth ideals with practical good sense. If I must choose between righteousness and peace, I choose righteousness.

--Theodore Roosevelt.

Time

Time is a sort of river of passing events, and strong is its current; no sooner is a thing brought to sight than it is swept by and another takes its place, and this too will be swept away.

--Marcus Aurelius Antoninus

*

"Part of the beauty of the Western myth is that it offers no guarantee—you might get a happy ending or you might get a rattlesnake in your blanket. Either way you are out of the office."

--Leif Enger, in an interview about So Brave, Young, and Handsome

Anti-winking

[There are at least four warnings in the Bible against winkers]
"[The Bible's anti-winking bias] does seem wise and ahead of its time, the wink being perhaps the world's creepiest gesture, with the winker coercing the winkee into being a part of his little cabal."
The Year of Living Biblically, A.J. Jacobs, p. 205

I COULDN'T AGREE MORE! I've been waiting forever for someone to put into words the way I feel about winks.

The Book Thief

There was also a rumor that later in the day, she walked fully clothed into the Amper River and said something very strange.

Something about a kiss.

Something about a Saumensch.

How many times did she have to say goodbye?

I really really loved this book.

Wisdom

"Wisdom...entails not just intellectual apprehension of the true but also a willed practice of the good in conduct as well. Indeed, our capacity to seek the moral good, not our intellectual brainpower, is the defining human attribute that we all share in both possession and degree; it forms the basis of human equality."

--Appendix to The Oxford Guide to Library Research, Thomas Mann (p.275)

Verbal fatigue

Excerpt from American Libraries Direct

Oxford Researchers List Top 10 Most Annoying Phrases
The great hierarchy of verbal fatigue includes:

1 - At the end of the day
2 - Fairly unique
3 - I personally
4 - At this moment in time
5 - With all due respect
6 - Absolutely
7 - It's a nightmare
8 - Shouldn't of
9 - 24/7
10 - It's not rocket science

The list appears in a new book, Damp Squid: The English Language Laid Bare, by Jeremy Butterfield.

Adding mine:
"Job security"
"It never ceases to amaze me"
"For those of you who don't know me"
"Hindsight's 20/20"
"In this economy..."

5 most influential books

A tag from Cheryl. What are the 5 most influential books you've read?

1. Peace Like a River by Leif Enger
2. The Great Divorce by C.S. Lewis
3. Bradbury Speaks and many other works by Ray Bradbury, esp. nonfiction afterwards to his short story books
4. English Words from Latin and Greek Elements by Donald Ayers
5. Life of Pi by Yann Martel

What are yours?

Memory

The Rembrandt light of memory, finicky and magical and faithful at the same time, as the cheaper tint of nostalgia never is.

--The Whistling Season, Ivon Doig, p. 152