Some Friday Fun

I'm still working on the history book and my deadline keeps getting closer and closer. Things keep interfering with my plan, like getting the flu a couple of weeks ago. Then my writing partner got sick last week and was still feeling poorly early this week. More delays. UGH! But you know what? The world will not end if the book is a few days late. Of course, my editor might not feel that way, so I hope she does not read this.

Anyway, I thought I would share some levity from the funny papers. Enjoy....

Last week's Blondie strip was amusing. Blondie and Dagwood are in bed and he has his iPad open. He says, "I'm posting that it's time for me to turn in."

Blondie says, "I think you're getting addicted to posting too many trivial things on your Facebook page."

In the next frame Dagwood says, "Honey, please. I can quit posting any time I want to."

To which she responds, "I don't know, it seems like you're getting carried away."

Dagwood's last Facebook post, "Get this - Blondie thinks I post way too much trivial stuff on my Facebook page."

Picture Courtesy of Suzy Covey Comic Book Collection

A good one from Dilbert. Dogbert is sharing news with Dilbert. "I got a job as a news manufacturer for an online media company. I quote people out of contect, add misleading headlines, and tie it all up with a snarky bow."

Dilbert says, "I thought the news occurred naturally."

Dogbert comes up with a snarky headline, "'Engineer thinks news is magic.'"

Picture Courtesy of the Competent Parent Blog

 Lessons From Literature:
Here's another one from A Lesson Before Dying by Ernest J. Gaines. "A hero is someone who does something for other people. He does something that other men don't and can't do. He is different from other men. He is above other men."

I'm pretty sure Mr. Gaines meant the designation for someone other that a sports figure.What do you think?

Book Review - A Lesson Before Dying by Ernest J. Gaines

A Lesson Before Dying 
Ernest J. Gaines
Paperback: 256 pages
Publisher: Vintage; 1 edition (September 28, 1997)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0375702709
ISBN-13: 978-0375702709

A Lesson Before Dying, is set in a small Cajun community in the late 1940s.  Jefferson, a young black man, is present at a liquor store shoot out that leaves three men dead, including the white store owner. Because the two robbers are dead, Jefferson alone must pay for the crime. He is convicted of murder and sentenced to death. Grant Wiggins, the teacher at the plantation school, is not-so-gently persuaded by his aunt to visit Jefferson and help him find some pride. Miss Emma, Jefferson's godmother heard a white man refer to Jefferson as a hog, and she wants him to "be a man."

Grant has little faith in the white justice system, and little faith in a God who allows some people to be trapped in years of prejudice and bigotry, and he has no idea how to impart any wisdom on a man who is about to die. As he tries to fulfill the promise to Miss Emma to help Jefferson "walk like a man," Grant wrestles with his own demons.

Some reviewers have compared this book to To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee's classic, and that is a fair comparison. Both stories have a number of lessons for the reader, especially readers far removed from the years when a black man had to stand for hours just to speak to a white man in authority.  

The cast of characters in this story are very realistic and well-drawn, and Gaines did not hold back in portraying what life was like for people in the deep south in the 40s. The story is powerful and for the most part very well-written. I did, however, find the use of vernacular overdone. There were places I had to read sentences over and over to decipher the fractured English. Granted, that is the way uneducated people speak, but I have been told by writing instructors not to use vernacular to the point of confusing a reader.

Still, this is a book well worth the read.

Stop Killing the Earth

Here in East Texas protestors are still trying to halt the expansion of the TransCanada Keystone XL Pipeline. They block construction sites, chaining themselves to equipment and/or trees, but it is not a fight they will probably win.

Too bad.

We need to take seriously the dangers of this pipeline, as well as other environmental issues caused by drilling for oil.

According to an article on Bloomberg.com, the TransCanada’s Keystone XL tar sands pipeline will not have the advanced spill protection technology the company has continuously claimed it will. Inside Climate News reported this week about the tar sands pipeline’s threat to a major fresh water source for millions of Americans, and other local resources: “… [The Keystone XL pipeline] is being proposed across the Ogallala/High Plains aquifer, one of the nation's most important sources of drinking and irrigation water. Yet none of the major features that protect Austin's much smaller aquifer are included in the plan. In fact, they haven't even been discussed,” the article reads.

I hope you take a moment to read the full article.


Today I received a notice about a disaster in the Arctic from Dan Ritzman, Sierra Club Arctic Campaign Director.

"On New Year's Day, a Shell Oil rig, carrying over 150,000 gallons of petroleum products, broke free from its tugboat and ran aground near Kodiak Island, Alaska.

"Last year, Shell came close to drilling for oil in the Chukchi and Beaufort Seas - also known as the Polar Bear Seas because they are home to 20% of the world's polar bear population. But Shell showed it was completely unprepared for the reality of the stormy waters of the Arctic Ocean. Shell’s ships caught fire, the spill clean-up equipment was destroyed during testing, and at the last minute, Shell admitted it wouldn't be able to comply with its clean air permits.

"The Polar Bear Seas are far too important and fragile to leave in the hands of Big Oil. They are home to walrus, endangered ice seals, hundreds of species of migratory birds, and bowhead and beluga whales. Shell’s incompetence could lead to an irreversible disaster."

More about this disaster and the implications for furthur drilling can be read on Seattlepi.com.

What do you think of our dependence on oil and the environmental impact?

As a new feature to my blog, I will share an interesting quote from a book I'm reading. I got the idea as I was reading this morning during breakfast and came across this line. 

Lessons From Literature:
"I went in to see Miss Emma. I didn't want to, but out of respect for her I thought I should." From A Lesson Before Dying by  Ernest J. Gaines.

I though that was interesting in this age of only doing what feels good.  Do yo make yourself do things you'd rather not because it is a good thing to do for another person?