Tuesday, March 24, 2026

Two thoughts for TWOsday

I have a tiny booklet for grades 4-8 (dated 2001) that has "journal topics."  Page 199 says, "Write the title and back cover description for the autobiography you hope to write some day."

I have already blogged that if I ever write a memoir, I'll call it Bits of Bonnie.  Click HERE to read more about it.  As for what to say on the back cover, I'll have to give that some thought.  But I can give you "one bit" as an enticement:  I have always enjoyed words:  playing with words, learning new words, writing blog posts about words and ideas, writing poetry (my first national publication was a short poem about a baby playing with her feet up in the air).  Maybe I should pull out my thick "Bits of Bonnie" notebook (shown above) and read stories that I have collected over the years.

Come Pour the Wine ~ by Cynthia Freeman, 1980, Jewish fiction, 517 pages

Cynthia Freeman portrays an insightful and moving story of Janet Stevens, a teenager from Kansas who comes to New York in search of fame and fortune.  The pursuit of her dream leads her into marriage, motherhood, a heart-rending separation, and then divorce.  At the age of forty five, she meets a man who not only gives her a renewed sense of her Jewish heritage, but also offers her the chance for total fulfillment as a woman.

A reviewer on Amazon gave this book five stars and wrote:  "Girl with Jewish background marries a man she falls for like a ton of bricks.  They go through life with a silent problem hovering over their life until one day it's out in the open.  How she and Bill go forward with life is the whole story."

I found this book in our little Crown Center library and brought it home last night to read.
.

Sunday, March 22, 2026

AI Overview tells me about this phrase

"Divorce: The End of an Error" is a popular, witty phrase frequently
used on greeting cards, party banners, and custom cakes to celebrate,
with humor, a fresh start after a marriage ends. It frames the dissolution
of a marriage not merely as a loss, but as the conclusion of
a mistake, often marking a transition into a new chapter.

The suspense is killing me! (Take that with a grain of salt.)

Storm Prey
 (Book 20 of 36 in the series) ~ by John Sandford, 2010, suspense thriller, 416 pages
There's a storm brewing.  Very early (4:45 a.m.) on a bitterly cold Minnesota morning, three big men burst through the door of a hospital pharmacy, duct-tape the hands, feet, mouth, and eyes of two pharmacy workers, and clean the place out.  But then things swiftly go bad, one of the workers dies, and the robbers hustle out to their truck and find themselves for just one second face-to-face with a blond woman in the garage.  She is Weather Karkinnen, surgeon, wife of an investigator named Lucas Davenport.
Did she see enough?  Can she identify them?  Gnawing it over later, it seems to them there is only one thing they can do:  Find out who she is, and eliminate the only possible witness.
On Amazon, 69% of reviewers give five stars to this Lucas Davenport thriller from the #1 New York Times-bestselling author.  This is one of the "millions" of books stacked all over my apartment (see HERE) that have been donated to the Crown Center library, probably by a resident.

Week in Review

  • On Tuesday, I remembered old friends celebrating St. Patrick's Day together, HERE.
  • My word for Wednesday was quiddity, HERE.
  • Friday was the first day of spring, HERE.
  • Saturday's subject was eating black-eyed peas and hummus, HERE.
is hosted by Deb at Readerbuzz.

Saturday, March 21, 2026

Black-eyed peas

Do you like black-eyed peas?  I do, but I haven't eaten any lately.  I was just thinking about their nutrition value, so I looked it up.  The illustration below shows that they are full of vitamins, proteins, minerals, and fiber.  They are also good for heart health.  So people would eat them on New Year's Day for luck.

Eating black-eyed peas (with cornbread, in my family) on New Year's Day was supposed to make us rich or something.  I have now missed New Year's Day by several weeks at this point, but I should go look to see if I have a can of them in my kitchen cabinet because my mouth is watering.

But first, let me tell you why I was thinking about black-eyed peas in the first place.  I was casually scrolling on my phone and came across this:  "The black-eyed peas can sing us a tune, but the chick peas can only hummus one."  I know I have hummus in the fridge, if I don't find the other.

Friday, March 20, 2026

Spring and happiness go together, don't they?

March 20th is the first day of spring in my part of the world, the time of year when night and day are of equal length.  Today is also the International Day of Happiness.  How can you celebrate?  Maybe call a friend to chat, or even better, get together.  People all over the world will be celebrating this day.  It's a time to cultivate happiness and connection.

Looking for a happy illustration, I found these three characters.  They are doing some sort of happy dance, aren't they?  Can you name all three?  (Names below.)
Today's happy dance is brought to us
by Lucy, Snoopy, and Sally.  We miss
you, Charlie Brown, Linus, Woodstock,
and Schroeder with your piano.  (Oh, wait,
do I hear a happy tune in the background?)

Wednesday, March 18, 2026

Quiddity is today's word

quiddity (ˈkwɪdəti), quiddities (noun) =  (1) the essential quality of a person or thing; (2) a distinctive feature; a peculiarity.  Example:  My quirks and quiddities make me unique.  (I found the illustration HERE, to give credit to the artist.)

Tuesday, March 17, 2026

St. Patrick's Day

My friends Marilyn and Donna celebrating St. Patrick's Day in 2015 in the Circle@Crown Café.  Notice they are wearing green.  Neither of them is still with us, but today (reminded by this photo) I'll think of them and St. Patrick, patron saint of Ireland, who is said to have died on March 17 around 493 A.D.

Let me end this blog post with a bit of humor:  "A best friend is like a four-leaf clover:  hard to find and lucky to have."