Posts Tagged ‘Calendar’

This Land is Your Land! This Land is My Land!

Monday, June 28th, 2010

Independence Day, a.k.a. the Fourth of July, is the ultimate holiday event celebrated throughout America. This day is marked by those who honor the history, government and traditions of the United States. There are many different patriotic displays where citizens of all ages pay homage to our nation.

People wear red, white and blue hats, shirts and other clothing, decorate their homes, public places and everything else with streamers, balloons, ribbons and other ornaments. They proudly fly the American flag. All this enthusiasm is to commemorate our historic evolution and encourage our progress for the future.

In the mornings, people of all ages gather along Main Street, USA across our country to view local parades, cheer on the marchers and salute the American flag.

During the afternoons many attend carnivals, fairs and baseball games. Some go on picnics, have backyard barbeques and grill their favorite foods. Others gather at a pool, lake or oceanfront to splish ën splash trying to keep cool in the hot afternoon sun while they await the traditional finale of the day.

When evening arrives, the parks, fairgrounds, town squares and waterside facilities fill with families who gather to watch the sky light up with colorful fireworks.

They attend concerts and listen to patriotic songs like† ìthe Star Spangled Bannerî, ìGod Bless Americaî, †"America the Beautiful", "My Country, 'Tis of Thee", "This Land Is Your Land", "Stars and Stripes Forever", and, regionally, "Yankee Doodle" in northeastern states and "Dixie" in southern states.

Some military bases give a one-gun-salute for each state in the United States, called a ìsalute to the union,î on Independence Day at noon.

If you've never been to our nation's capital, I strongly recommend you take a trip to Washington D.C..† Regardless of your political affiliation, I guarantee the experience will impress you. Indeed this land is your land and this land is my land. This home of the free and the brave (with all its faults) deserves a celebration.

How will you celebrate July 4th this year?

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Posted in Gratitude, inspiration | 2 Comments »

MY CRAPPY CALENDAR

Monday, January 11th, 2010

I am having an issue with my new 2010 calendar.† In the bookstore, I passed over the calendars of butterflies, scenes of Ireland, cats and meditation gardens.† In a hurry, I grabbed the one decorated with art by Georgia OíKeefe† and now I am living to regret it.† The January photo is a close-up of an orange poppy. (Poppy 1927) As art it is okay and I have no strong feelings about it one way or the other.

Now, most people know the assertion that Georgia painted genitalia.† Duh!† Of course she did ñ flower genitalia.† Wondering what flower genitalia looks like?† Just cut open an apple and have a look.† It seems in the world of biology the design of external female genitalia is similar regardless of species, animal or vegetable.

My life is filling up so I had to flip to the February page and painting.† What a graphic shocker! Every time I glance at the giant painting on my desk, I nearly fall over. (Series 1 White and Blue Flower Shapes 1919.)† I am no prude, but give me a break!††† If this is flower genitalia, no wonder Oíkeefe caught the attention of the art world and became famous.

Concerned, I flipped through all twelve months.† Except for May (Bleeding Heart 1932) which is a bit dicey, thankfully, there are no other shockers, just pretty flowers.† As far as February goes, I need a plan Ö.probably a brown paper bag.

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Posted in Life Event, Quinn Reed, Writer, Artist, Yoga Instructor | No Comments »

A new calendar ... brings another 365 dilemmas

Sunday, January 3rd, 2010

This year I received an interesting gift for a writer: Book Lover's Calendar for 2010. It pleased me and challenged me, just as it did last year when I received the 2009 version. A colleague told me calendars like this make her nervous.

I pondered this at length, and decided the calendar seemed to be a treasure trove waiting for me to dig in. It didn't make me nervous, it exhilarated me! Great books, recommended by the calendar which met the ì365 Days of Good Authors, Good Books, & Good Readingî criteria as touted on the calendar's cover.

Each day presents one book by Title with Author, Publisher, and Date. There is a short synopsis that strives to spotlight each tome in such a way, it makes you want to run out and buy it, devour it in one gulp.† Burp.

I suppose each author pumps the air with a triumphant fist when notified her or his book has been chosen for the next year's ìBook Lover's Calendar.î Out of the hundreds of thousands of books published each year, for one day of the year all eyes [albeit only calendar users] would turn to her or his book. Gravy, advertising at its finest.

What I did not expect was my reaction to the calendar by, say mid-March. Let's take the Ides as an example. I laughed to see ìCaesar: Life of a Colossus by Adrian Goldsworthyî taking up the 3/15/09 page. Equally amusing was the pairing of April Fools' Day and the dark comedy with frightening undertones by Michael Crichton, ìNext.î

But, as the year progressed, I felt more and more like a slacker. Too lazy to keep up with the calendar of great reading suggestions, I fell hopelessly behind early in January and never gained a foothold.

This year I'm doing much better. How do I manage to read a book a day?

I don't.† Moreover, I give my self permission to choose from a tiny sprinkling of the diverse advertisements numbingly numbering 365. Nervous? Nah. No way. I am taking this daily billboard of books less to heart. It is much easier this way, and I have not the indigestion of gobbling† a book a day.† Burp.

Today's suggestion ìHow To Be Aloneî was penned by my old ìThe Correctionsî buddy Jonathan Franzen. Maybe I'll get around to it before the 2011 edition of the Book Lover's Calendar challenges me all over again.

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Posted in Book, Fun, Maryjo "Mj" Morgan, Writer | No Comments »