Hey guys and gals! I simply love the word facetiousand I try to use it as many times in a day much to the chagrin of my co-workers and family.

Have been enjoying the mirthful tete-te (is that right?) of the board's participants.

I'm reading John Irving's 'Widow for a year', re-reading Bradbury's essays and Martian Chronicles. Reading a book of essays on art in the early twentieth century around Paris. Read the cereal box sometimes and my favourite word today is elbow, just love the way it makes your mouth move and how it sounds, for such and ugly part of the body it just flows.

Elbow is good. Yup, that’s a good one. I like Schenectady though. I think Harlen Ellison said that word once.

Hey, Biplane! Haven't seen you on the board for awhile. You probably mean "tête-à-tête", though that really refers to a private conversation between two people; which is why I like to refer to this as a Bradburian mélange - a varied mixture inspired by Bradbury and our love of him and his work, but certainly not limited to that.

Jayne, I'm trying to make the connection between the commemoration of Paul Revere's ride and your rhyming ablutionary advice?

As for the "what are you reading" topic, I had to table "The Middle East" by Bernard Lewis - just wasn't right for now. I read a couple of Sarah Strohmeyer's "Bubbles" books (blush), then "Uncle Tom's Cabin" which is extrememly good and a perfect book for Lent. I am now reading Dickens' "Bleak House" and am enjoying it immensely.

Hey Biplane, hope you are well. Dandelion, they say that if you remember it, you weren't there. Is that just the sixties or does that count for the seventies as well. For me, it flows right up into the nineties.

Hey you all! I am fine down here, just waiting for hurricane season to start up June 1st. I am currently reading Conversations With Ray Bradbury and am enjoying it very much. This is a "must read" for any one wanting to know a bit more about the "inner workings" of Ray Bradbury.

In one of the interviews he mentions that he has been working on his autobiography "for the past five years." I think what resulted from that effort was "The Zen and Art of Writing" (do I have that title correct?).

But then I was thinking, wouldn't it just be great for Ray to write an autobiography ala The Bradbury Chronicles, but from his own self and inner most feelings, pure and not subdued, which sometimes happens when written through another, i.e., Sam Weller (but nothing against his fine work.) The next time I call Ray I will ask him about it, but I am sure I know what his answer might be--"I am too busy with other things right now to bother with what people already know about me."

A neat idea still.

Robot, I don't know about the seventies but it applies to a heck of a lot of people who claim to have helped with "The Quiet Man" and probably many other classic films.

quote:

Jayne, I'm trying to make the connection between the commemoration of Paul Revere's ride and your rhyming ablutionary advice?

If the connection is there it was certainly not intentional, I was just rhyming because I was brain dead and couldn't think of anything witty.

Oh what you all must think of me, the shame.

Tut, tut! You couldn't rhyme if brain dead, you know...unless you're a rapper!

Here is a rhyme, and one of my favorite poems

When I am dead, and over me bright April
Shakes out her rain drenched hair,
Tho you should lean above me broken hearted,
I shall not care.
For I shall have peace.
As leafey trees are peaceful
When rain bends down the bough.
And I shall be more silent and cold hearted
Than you are now.

~~ Sara Teasdale~~

Thats cool Jayne, I have a couple posted here somewhere. I just finished reading I Robot, I liked it very much, but I think if his writing is indicative of that style, his characters need more depth. That's my only complaint. Also still reading I Sing The Body Electric. I like the Irish tales okay, but they seem a little out of place next to the other stories. Every time I read one of Rays Irish stories, it takes me a while for some reason, however usually when I do finish, it is thought provoking. I just started reading Lucifer's Hammer, seems really good so far.

Here beneath this lump of clay
Lies Arabella young,
Who, on the twenty-third of May,
Began to hold her tongue.

B-Two, What's that from? Sounds like tombstone poetry, which I am fond of.

"If I were dead and buried, and I heard your voice, beneath the sod my heart of dust would still rejoice."

Apparently these lines of poetry were made up for the film "Roman Holiday." Many readers over the years have searched both Keats and Shelley for them, as the character, Princess Ann, played by Audrey Hepburn, recites them to Joe, played by Gregory Peck, followed by some lines by a real poem by Shelley which she insists is Keats, and they enjoy quite a debate over it.

Fine lines; I wish they were part of a real poem!

This is about as close as you’ll get for Shelley I think:

If I were a dead leaf thou mightest bear;
If I were a swift cloud to fly with thee;
A wave to pant beneath thy power, and share

I just realized that April is National Poetry Month.

**

Just discovered this:

“Evening Rain”
The porch light shines on rain
taking thin silken stitches
with strands of wet thread.
I run outside to the rain
to see what it is sewing.
--From “The Great Frog Race” by Kristine O’Connell

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