Fish for Friday

[Click to enlarge]

Edited by Morris Dean

[Anonymous selections from recent correspondence]

"A Farewell to Maya Angelou." Maya Angelou, the memoirist, poet and author of I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, died Wednesday.

I'm reading this book written by Gary Webb called Dark Alliance. It's about the reporting he did on the CIA shipping guns and covering for drug runners. The funny thing about it is Webb didn't pick up on the dope running until the eighties. But by then the CIA had been in the business for almost 20 years. The exposé Webb reported on was the introduction of crack cocaine into black neighborhoods. My friend, who flew for the CIA, was dead by then, but the CIA used the same system for moving guns and dope. The government destroyed Webb's life and he ended up killing himself. But the pattern he reported is the same as my friend described, and I wrote about in a novel.
    Anyway, I never doubted what my friend told me, but it's nice to see parts of what he said in print, and not as fiction.

A writer's purpose:

You know, I didn't write my books for critics and scholars. I wrote them for students and artists. When I hear how much my work has meant to them – well, I can't tell you how happy that makes me. That means that this great stuff of myth, which I have been so privileged to work with, will be kept alive for a whole new generation. That's the function of the artists, you know, to reinterpret the old stories and make them come alive again, in poetry, painting, and now in movies. [– Joseph Campbell, The Hero's Journey: Joseph Campbell on His Life and Work]

Great Uncle Mo, I wanted to drop you a quick note and tell you how awesome it has been to watch your blog grow. You have done an awesome job of adding depth and features to the blog with your editors and columnist.

[Click to enlarge]

Just found this in a tip sheet sent out by someone here at work. Though I can't actually get my screen to change, thought you might be interested in the first statement.

White text on a black background. When reading a long document on-screen, it can be much easier on the eye and also make you less tired, if you switch the document to white text on a black background.
    This can be very easily achieved on a PC by pressing the left alt key, left shift key, and print screen key on your keyboard together. A word of warning, this function
switches the whole computer to white text on a black screen and not just the document you are reading. To switch back just hit the same key combination.
    To achieve the same thing on a MAC, the key combination is ctrl, alt, cmd and the number 8 key.

The Americans for Democratic Action (ADA) have endorsed Kerri Condley's candidacy for the United States Congress, saying:

Kerri Condley is exactly the kind of candidate that we enthusiastically embrace. Her progressive politics are motivated by her desire to tangibly improve the lives of her future constituents. She will make the kind of serious, thoughtful Congressional Representative that the institution so desperately needs. [– Southern California Americans for Democratic Action]

The primary election will be Tuesday, June 3.

Highly creative people tend to follow their true passions.
    Creative people tend to be intrinsically motivated – meaning that they're motivated to act from some internal desire, rather than a desire for external reward or recognition. Psychologists have shown that creative people are energized by challenging activities, a sign of intrinsic motivation, and the research suggests that simply thinking of intrinsic reasons to perform an activity may be enough to boost creativity.
    "Eminent creators choose and become passionately involved in challenging, risky problems that provide a powerful sense of power from the ability to use their talents," write M.A. Collins and T.M. Amabile in The Handbook of Creativity.

The dump was so full that it had to refuse more refuse.

Upon seeing the tear in the painting, I shed a tear.

This is a fun challenge: "90% Of People Can't Pronounce This Whole Poem. You Have To Try It." Excerpt:

If you can pronounce correctly every word in this poem, you will be speaking English better than 90% of the native English speakers in the world.
    After trying the verses, a Frenchman said he’d prefer six months of hard labor to reading six lines aloud.

Dearest creature in creation,
Study English pronunciation.
I will teach you in my verse
Sounds like corpse, corps, horse, and worse.
I will keep you, Suzy, busy,
Make your head with heat grow dizzy.
Tear in eye, your dress will tear.
So shall I! Oh hear my prayer.
Just compare heart, beard, and heard,
Dies and diet, lord and word,
Sword and sward, retain and Britain.
(Mind the latter, how it’s written.)
Now I surely will not plague you
With such words as plaque and ague.
But be careful how you speak:
Say break and steak, but bleak and streak;
Cloven, oven, how and low,
Script, receipt, show, poem, and toe....[quite a few more lines]

Last photo in the camera:

There is wisdom in this information that we Americans just may not be able to fathom: "World's Happiest Country? Would You Believe Paraguay?" Excerpt:

Gallup surveyed 1,000 adults in each of 138 countries to make up the index. They asked five questions: whether people felt rested, felt they were treated with respect, laughed or smiled a lot, whether they experienced enjoyment and whether they had learned or done something interesting the day before.
    Gallup then makes up a Positive Experience Index score for each country. Most of the happiest countries are in Latin America, the survey finds. The five top countries all are:

• Paraguay 87
• Panama 86
• Guatemala 83
• Nicaragua 83
• Ecuador 83

   At the bottom:

• Syria 36
• Chad 52
• Lithuania 53
• Bosnia 54
• Serbia 54

Limerick of the Week:

On Wednesday, Garbiñe Muguruza won a game;
she defeated Serena Williams for instant fame.
    But she hardly needed that win;
    her dimples would have got her in.
Does Serena's sister have Dimples of [her name]?

Background: Garbiñe Muguruza defeated Serena Williams in the second round of the French Open Tennis Championships: "A Lifelong Student of Williams Learns How to Defeat Her."
_______________
Copyright © 2014 by Morris Dean

Comment box is located below