Wednesday's Wisdom: A tip for keeping our former president's identities straight!

This Wednesdays Wisdom: A tip for keeping our former president's identities straight! While today February 22nd,  is the anniversary of George Washington's Birthday (b 1732); Abraham Lincoln was the one with the beard!

Wednesdays Wisdom: It's good to be with helmet and hose.

Folks are doing a number of things in response to the result of the 2016 presidential election, and most of those actions seem to be demonstrating or signing petitions.

Others are attending retreats to gain perspective, as well as to cleanse and renew their spirits. One such retreat was held on November 12th at Corpus Cristi Church in Manhattan. The retreat had been planed long before the political angst occurred in NYC (and throughout the world), but perhaps that was providential.

In any event, the retreat I am referring to was sponsored by the NYC Chapter of The Thomas Merton Society. The theme of the retreat was In Everything Mercy: Thomas Merton and Pope Francis on the Merciful Heart of God. 

Christopher Pramuk led the event, and all the while, attendees had the pleasure of Thomas Merton smiling upon us, albeit from the vantage point of being in a painting by James Nally, which can be seen atop this blog entry.

Wednesday's Wisdom: 2017's March Arrival! Will it be as a fierce lion? OR Will it be as a docile lamb? (What about a pig?)

The beginning of the month of March, which is today, seems to beg the discussion of rather the month will come in like a lion and go out like a lamb or vice-versa. And hence, my premise for this week's Wednesdays Wisdom.

I recently read that "the origin of the March Lion & Lamb can be traced... to ancient times and (to) those who watched the stars... March begins as the Constellation Leo is crossing toward the meridian. Leo is the Lion. As Leo marches away, the Constellation Aries begins to rise toward the end of the month. Aries is the ram: What many lambs will become someday!"  

At the advice of my visiting figurine (pictured above in a photograph showing him spending time in my indoor garden, during last year's Saint Patrick's festivities), I suggest we give the lion, as well as the lamb, a break, and, proclaim that the month of March comes in with a pig! This would make sense since the first of March is the day set aside as National Pig Day .

On another note, this particular March first coincides with Ash Wednesday. And, today, rather the month comes in like a lion, or a lamb, or one decides to honor a pig, for many Ash Wednesday, is a reminder that we are all dust, and to dust we will return.

WW*: How Birds Lost Their Teeth (*Wednesdays Wisdom)

It's March 1st and I want to remind readers of this blog that rather the month comes in quietly like a lamb, or comes raging in like a lion, today is also #NationalPigDay. I've discussed the origins of this holiday in prior entries here on Blogger.

On another note, something else is also occurring on this day, and that is the fact that today is #WorldBookDay and info about this event is trending on Twitter. It is a nice change between the usual ranting and raving (in tweets) re topics related to politics as well as celebrities.

Appreciate cows everyday!

Yesterday was officially Cow Appreciation Day! But in my humble opinion, I think they need to be appreciated every day which I'm offering as Wednesdays Wisdom. Love these animals and have created an image (the black and white photographic collage pictured above) featuring one of them. It has been included in NYC art exhibitions + is now available via Fine Art America.

Interesting Historical Facts re Carousels (Tuesday's Truths WK 111)

CORMORANTS ARE FEATURED IN VOL 3

In my Wednesdays' Wisdom segment here on Blogger for 1/9/2019 (which was two weeks ago), I discussed some facts re the bird type known as Cormorants.

One of the members of this variety is featured in the photo atop this entry where he/she is swimming in the Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Reservoir within Central Park.

Part of that post I includes interesting facts about these avian beauties and I mentioned that these birds are included in volume three of my Words In Our Beak book series.*

MY BOOK SERIES

One of the matters the story re Cormorants within that volume is an aside to facts re this avian creature. It explains this bird type type is part of a carousel in the Chelsea section of NYC.

The animals a person rides upon in that particular merry-go-round are made up of animals rendered in the likeness of creatures who frequent the Hudson Valley, which includes cormorants.

The following photographs show what the cormorant (the black bird to the right in the first one and at the far left in the second one) within that carousel looks like...

THIS CAROUSEL IS REFERENCED IN VOL 3

THIS CAROUSEL IS REFERENCED IN VOL 3

... and am using today's segment of my Tuesday's Truths series as an opportunity to tell you a little bit more about it as well as other carousels and to give you a few fun facts re merry-go-rounds (the common name for this fun ride).

Wednesdays Wisdom: Ducks also set the best example for how we should get along. (A follow-up to my 11-9-16 blog entry.)

My father died twenty-one years on this day of November 30th in 1995, which was the Monday after Thanksgiving. In any event, from the moment I first knew him, as evidenced in the image above featuring one of our earliest encounters, I loved him dearly. And I'm told that he was very excited about my coming into the world, which is demonstrated, to a certain extent in the following picture.

The image features him with my mother and was taken a little under a month before I was born. In it he's comparing his belly to hers! My dad had a great sense of humor as well as a quick wit, and he often put a spin on the lyrics of songs, which is a fact, I've written about in prior entries here on Blogger, including one that I published six years ago on November 29th 2010.

In the aforementioned post, I wrote that, "Most people when recalling my father's antics will remember him for having his own takes on "Top-40" music hits. For example, with the song, "I Never Promised You a Rose Garden," the lyrics go,"I beg your pardon, I never promised you a rose garden . . ." but my father's take on it was,"I beg your pardon, I never farted in your rose garden . . .

"As for the once-upon-a-time hit song,"Bad Moon Rising," the lyric-line is,"There'a a bad moon on the rise". My father's version? "There's a bathroom on the right." And with Paul McCartney's, Band on the Run, where the lyric-line,"band on the run" repeats over and over again, my father's rendition was,"band with the runs."

"My father's sense of humor, and apparent relationship with songs, remained with him throughout his life. Even at the very bitter end, when he had hoped to be out of a hospital where he had been for treatment due to severe consequences of emphysema, he recorded a tape giving Louis Armstrong "a run for his money".

"In the tape, my father expresses what the doctors had hoped to do: have him out of the hospital the Monday after Thanksgiving. Sadly that was not to be, as he was still in the hospital the "Monday after Thanksgiving" and declining quickly: dying that week after Thanksgiving instead," which was on November 30, 1995.

Tuesday's Truths WK 1: The Construction of Young Starlings's Beaks Help Their Parents!

                              

Those of you who have followed this blog over the years have probably discovered that I have incorporated certain templates and after a bit of time stopped using them, switched to another format, but have often wound up reverting back to what I started with. My behavior re this "process" reminds me of how Oscar Wilde once described his editing. Here's what he said: “I was working on the proof of one of my poems all the morning, and took out a comma. In the afternoon I put it back again.”

Today, Tuesday, July 19th 2016, I am returning to a posting feature I once provided in my blog during the years of 2011 and 2012. The feature I am speaking of is to designate a given day of the week for an entry topic. During the years of 2011 and 2012, I often designated Mondays as "Mondays Musings"; Wednesdays as "Wednesday's Wisdom", and Friday's as "Follow-Up Friday." I set aside Tuesday's for referring folks to my activity on tumblr and called those Blogger posts, "If it's Tuesday, it must be tumblr..." 

While it has been a long time since I desingnated a certain day of the week as a springboard for a blog topic, all of those day-of-the-week posts can still be found within my blog by going to the left hand column titled TLLG's Blog Archive. Meanwhile, as I just stated, today, Tuesday, July 19th 2016, I am returning to a posting feature, which will be designating a day of the week as a springboard for a post. 

Beginning with this Tuesday,  I will feature "Tuesday's Truths." These series of posts will provide an interesting fact about flora growing in my urban (NYC) rooftop garden and or an interesting fact re a member of the avian community who visits it. I was encouraged to return to this type of feature by Jenn G, a young woman who works in my hood (she drew the bird I've featured below).

Jenn believes that folks are interested in fun facts and has encouraged me to share some of what I know, hence my new Tuesday thing. I'll start this new series with a fact that I've just about the bird type known as European starlings. One can be seen (in the images posted below) alighting upon the container which is home to the kiwi vines which grow in my garden. 

Some of you may recall, I was once criticized (by a stranger) for writing about this bird type. Be that as it may, I am continue to be fascinated by the antics of European starlings; and I recently discovered something I hadn't known about them, after placing a saucer of blueberries atop the table in my garden.