Beginning ~ with peaches

Beginning

Peaches, Michael Rosario thought.  That's what we need.

His mother loved peaches.

If the world came to a standstill at midnight on January 1, 2000, at least she would have two things she cherished:  peaches and Michael.

First State of Being ~ by Erin Entrada Kelly, 2024, children's time travel, 272 pages

When twelve-year-old Michael Rosario meets a mysterious boy from the future, his life is changed forever.  It's August 1999.  For twelve-year-old Michael Rosario, life at Fox Run Apartments in Red Knot, Delaware, is as ordinary as ever — except for the looming Y2K crisis and his overwhelming crush on his sixteen-year-old babysitter, Gibby.  But when a disoriented teenage boy named Ridge appears out of nowhere, Michael discovers there is more to life than stockpiling supplies and pining over Gibby.

It turns out that Ridge is carefree, confident, and bold, things Michael wishes he could be.  Unlike Michael, however, Ridge isn’t where he belongs.  When Ridge reveals that he’s the world’s first time traveler, Michael and Gibby are stunned but curious.  As Ridge immerses himself in 1999 — fascinated by microwaves, basketballs, and malls — Michael discovers that his new friend has a book that outlines the events of the next twenty years, and his curiosity morphs into something else:  focused determination. Michael wants — no, needs — to get his hands on that book.  How else can he prepare for the future?  But how far is he willing to go to get it?

(For those of you too young to remember, "Y2K" stands for "Year 2000.")

Gilion at Rose City Reader hosts

Book Beginnings on Fridays.

I'm dying to know more about this (LOL)

In our Café on Tuesday, a couple of us were talking about a class being offered in the latest Oasis course catalog about the "Death Positive Movement."  I had never heard of such a thing, so I got on my laptop and read more about it HERE.

Later that same day, I happened across a woman's theory (HERE) that we never really die.  Death again?  Anyway, the woman says that, instead of dying, our consciousness goes into an alternate reality.  "If the quantum immortality theory is correct, you’re just going to wake up in a parallel universe with no memory of the fact that you just survived an apocalyptic event."  I have heard about parallel universes, but this is interesting, isn't it?

Now for the kicker, one more detail.  The friend I was with in the Café read one more detail.  It seems the location for the Death Positive Movement class will be the Crown Center, the senior facility where I live.  Hmmm, now I have to decide whether I am curious enough to actually pay money to learn more about this stuff.  Whaddya think I should do?

If you can't read the small print on the headstone, it says:  "Because nobody gets out of life alive!"

Idioms

Our English idioms and words don't always make sense, if you didn't grow up hearing them.  Does anyone really think buttons are cute?  Here are a few more idioms:

• "A piece of cake" means that something is easy.  For example, "That test was a piece of cake."
• "Under the weather" means to not feel well.  For example, "He's under the weather and can't go to work today."
• "It costs an arm and a leg" means that something is expensive.  For example, "That new toy costs an arm and a leg." 
• "Break a leg" means you are wishing someone good luck.  For example, "Break a leg, friend.  I'm sure you'll do great." 
• "To beat around the bush" means you're trying to avoid a difficult conversation.  For example, "Quit beating around the bush and just tell me."
• "Once in a blue moon" means something doesn't happen often.  For example, "I only call my family once in a blue moon." 
• To "spill the beans" means to accidentally tell a secret.  For example, "She accidentally spilled the beans about Jim's surprise party."
• To say "the ball is in your court" means it's your turn to make a move.

Can you explain any of these idioms (or share an example or two)?

Two books by Nunez

Sempre Susan: A Memoir of Susan Sontag ~ by Sigrid Nunez, 2014, memoir, 128 pages

Sigrid Nunez was an aspiring writer when she first met Susan Sontag, already a legendary figure known for her polemical essays, blinding intelligence, and edgy personal style.  Sontag introduced Nunez to her son, the writer David Rieff, and the two began dating.  Soon Nunez moved into the apartment that Rieff and Sontag shared.  As Sontag told Nunez, “Who says we have to live like everyone else?”

Sontag’s influence on Nunez, who went on to become a successful novelist, would be profound.  Described by Nunez as “a natural mentor” who saw educating others as both a moral obligation and a source of endless pleasure, Sontag inevitably infected those around her with her many cultural and intellectual passions.  In this poignant, intimate memoir, Nunez speaks of her gratitude for having had, as an early model, “someone who held such an exalted, unironic view of the writer’s vocation.”

Published more than six years after Sontag’s death, Sempre Susan is a startlingly truthful portrait of this outsized personality, who made being an intellectual a glamorous occupation.

What Are You Going Through ~ by Sigrid Nunez, 2021, literary fiction, 224 pages

A woman describes a series of encounters she has with various people in the ordinary course of her life:  an ex she runs into by chance at a public forum, an Airbnb owner unsure how to interact with her guests, a stranger who seeks help comforting his elderly mother, a friend of her youth now hospitalized with terminal cancer.  In each of these people the woman finds a common need:  the urge to talk about themselves and to have an audience to their experiences.  The narrator orchestrates this chorus of voices for the most part as a passive listener, until one of them makes an extraordinary request, drawing her into an intense and transformative experience of her own.

In this novel, Nunez brings wisdom, humor, and insight about human connection and the changing nature of relationships in our times.  It's a surprising story about empathy and the unusual ways one person can help another through hardship.

I missed it!

National Pinocchio Day is celebrated on February 23rd each year.  It marks the anniversary of the release of Disney's Pinocchio in 1940.  That's the year I was born, and I loved the story of Pinocchio!  I'll think about Pinocchio today, even if it is not officially his day.  Do you want some details?

Walt Disney's film was released in theaters on February 23, 1940 (thus the day to celebrate).  It's a story about a wooden puppet who comes to life.  In the story, Pinocchio accidentally kills a cricket, falls asleep on a stove, and is hanged by a cat and fox.  Pinocchio's willingness to provide for his father transforms him into a real boy.  The name Pinocchio comes from the Italian words pino (pine) and occhio (eye).

Let's go back a bit more into the past.  Pinocchio is a hero of the 1883 children's novel The Adventures of Pinocchio by Italian author Carlo Collodi.  Pinocchio, an animated puppet, is punished for each lie that he tells by undergoing further growth of his nose.

The muffin man

I spoke to the "muffin man" at the Circle@Crown Cafe Thursday as he was leaving to go home for the day.  He's the one who makes our orders back in the kitchen, so I sang in a childish voice, "You're a very good Muffin Man, Muffin Man, Muffin Man..."  I grinned, and he said, "I try."  Earlier, I had bought a blueberry muffin and was still savoring the taste.  I have no idea why I thought of the children's tune from decades ago in MY life, but I think he enjoyed my silly singing.  You can hear children singing that song, HERE.

Farmer Boy (Little House, 2) ~ by Laura Ingalls Wilder, 1933, illustrated by Garth Williams, 1953, children's classics, 375 pages

While Laura Ingalls grows up in a little house on the western prairie, Almanzo Wilder is living on a big farm in New York State.  Almanzo and his brother and sisters help with the summer planting and fall harvest.  In winter there is wood to be chopped and great slabs of ice to be cut from the river and stored.  Almanzo wishes for just one thing — his very own horse — but he must prove that he is ready for such a big responsibility.  Based on the childhood of Laura’s husband, Almanzo Wilder, this is the second book in the award-winning Little House series, which has captivated generations of readers with its depiction of life on the American frontier.

Here's what I have posted this week:

1. On Monday, I wrote about the ice storm bringing down trees, HERE.
2. On Tuesday, I saved a couple of quotes from a book, HERE.
3. Wednesday's subject was the phrase "shrinking violet," HERE.
4. On Thursday, I wrote about the whale that's been in the news, about JOY (my fav word), and about walking, HERE.
5. Friday's book beginning was from a book about a young black woman with very dark skin who was born and raised by a single mother in a white community, HERE.
6. On Saturday, I wrote about seeing the movie "Barry," which is about Barack Obama's college days.  I had noticed one of his college text books and got carried away with its title, HERE.

Sunday Salon is hosted by Deb at Readerbuzz.

I'm exploring words again

I joined other residents on Friday as we watched our weekly movie.  This week, it was a documentary entitles "Barry."  That's the name Barack Obama was called when he was in college, and I noticed that one of his books was entitled Epistemology.  I am 100% sure no one else picked up on that title, but I took a class in epistemology in college.  So I grinned and jotted down "epistemology" to remind myself to write about it here.  (Yes, I take notes even though I'm retired).  I searched this blog to see if I'd written about epistemology before and found this information (HERE).  That's a bust of Plato in the photo:

Epistemology

1. Knowledge and Reason ~ Plato and the Ancient Greeks

2.  Theories of Knowledge ~ Plato and Aristotle

3.  Faith and Reason ~ Augustine

Word of the Day #1

e·pis·te·mol·o·gy / əˌpistəˈmäləjē,eˌpistəˈmäləjē / noun, philosophy = the theory of knowledge, especially with regard to its methods, validity, and scope.  Epistemology is the investigation of what distinguishes justified belief from opinion.  Example:  "He grappled with metaphysics and epistemology in his writings."

Word of the Day #2

metaphysics = the study of the most general features of reality, including existence, objects and their properties, possibility and necessity, space and time, change, causation, and the relation between matter and mind.  It is one of the oldest branches of philosophy.  Example:  "They would regard the question of the initial conditions for the universe as belonging to the realm of metaphysics."

Can you tell that Philosophy was part of my double major for my first college degree?  Okay, I guess I really will have to re-read this tiny book that I reminded myself in January (HERE) that I wanted to re-read.

Cosmic Consciousness: A Study in the Evolution of the Human Mind ~ by Richard Maurice Bucke, 1900, consciousness, 121 pages

Bucke explores cosmic consciousness, which he defines as "a higher form of consciousness than that possessed by the ordinary [person]."

Beginning ~ with a curse

Beginning (from Part 1)

More acutely than ever before Emma Lou began to feel that her luscious black complextion was some what of a liability, and that her marked color variation from the other people in her environment was a decided curse.

The Blacker the Berry ~ by Wallace Thurman, 1929, psychological fiction, 221 pages

This novel by Harlem Renaissance author Wallace Thurman follows the life of Emma Lou Morgan, a young black woman with dark skin who was born and raised by a single mother in the predominantly white community of Boise, Idaho.  She often feels like an outsider, even among her family, as they are lighter skinned than she is. 

She believes that her dark skin will keep her from marrying and having an easy life.  Because she wants a better life for herself, she goes to college at the University of Southern California, hoping to find people who will accept her.  While she finds a larger black community at college, she continues to feel like an outsider and is often made to feel inferior and unwanted due to her darker skin. 

After college, her search for love and acceptance takes her to New York and the vibrant black community of Harlem, but she continues to face prejudice and rejection in a world she thought would be more accepting of her.  My edition has a 1996 introduction by Shirlee Taylor Haizlip, author of The Sweeter the Juice.

Gilion at Rose City Reader hosts

Book Beginnings on Fridays.

A whale of a tale

Colleen mentioned me on her Thirteen Thursday blog (#6 HERE).  She was reflecting on the whale spitting out the kayaker that I had posted on Sunday (HERE).  It's a whale of a tale, isn't it?

"Joy Is Like the Rain" being sung by children.  I love the happy little additions tinkling between the phrases.  If this video quits working, watch it on YouTube.  By the way, I first posted this in 2017, HERE, and just ran across it again.  Did you notice my favorite word?  Yeah, that first word:  JOY.

Walking, walking, walking — "Michelle English, a licensed clinical social worker at Healthy Life Recovery, tells Yahoo Life (HERE):  'Long walks, unlike short bursts, allow you to enter a meditative state where the repetitive motion and rhythm can help quiet the mind,' she explains."  I (Bonnie) walk thousands of steps daily, like these two, using my rollator.  Since we have been under a winter weather advisory, I walk in the halls here or in our big exercise center.  Often, when people encounter me, they say, "Getting in your steps?" or "I see you are still walking."  I usually respond in a sing-song voice, "Yep, walking, walking, walking!"

I'm no shrinking violet

I don't remember why I said "I'm no shrinking violet" to a friend, but she was not familiar with that phrase.  So I decided then and there to write about it here on my blog.  What's that phrase mean?  It's "a person who is very shy or modest and does not like to attract attention."  Here's an example:  "She's no shrinking violet when it comes to expressing her views."

Saving a couple of quotes

Both of these quotes, as you can see, are playing with words, but that's what I do.  Below is the book these quotes are from, which I wrote about HERE:

1. "Don't go anywhere," he teased.  "The only place I might go," I said, "is to sleep" (p. 91).
2. "I know I'm not telling you anything you don't know when I point out that, wherever you go, there you are" (p. 163).

A Clowder of Cats: A Joy Forest Mystery ~ by Blythe Ayne, 2022, cozy animal mystery, 208 pages

Dr. Joy Forest's Sri Lanka research is disrupted when a beautiful woman with violet eyes breaches the security of her home by paranormal means and insists Joy look for her missing cat.  Although Joy agrees to, she does so for the sake of the cat, rather than for the strange woman.

As Joy searches for the missing Booji, she finds several other cats, unearthing the mysteries of the people they belong to along the way.  It's an intriguing journey of mystical places and unusual creatures, with a dash of romance.

The story takes place in the Cascade foothills of Washington state, in the near-future world of 2032, a world of eccentric small-town people and peculiar small town events.  You'll discover that although the times are somewhat different, people are ever the same — lovable or loathsome, truthful or deceitful, generous or selfish, courageous or timid, loyal or treacherous, but always a mystery!

The ice storm is bringing down trees

This photo of the storm putting an icy frosting on top of snow was taken by Colleen Redman in Virginia, but I was amazed at how much it looks like the ice storm I remember on Signal Mountain outside Chattanooga, Tennessee.  That was decades ago, but it's almost like I already have this picture (above) in my mind from my own experience.  Check out Colleen's blog, HERE, to see her photos of the ice storm's major damage to the trees.

I'm an elderly "girl" who loves books

After the Galentine's Day party on Thursday, the friend who rammed a table up against me recently, slamming me up against the wall of windows (see HERE), gave me a gift wrapped in red tissue paper.  In it was this small canvas cosmetic bag that says, "Just a girl who loves books."  Is it an apology?  She didn't say, so I called her the next day to talk (for 10-15 minutes).  She has neuropathy and can't feel the tips of her fingers, so she was sitting there trying to figure out what to do and HOW to back up.  "I never, ever meant to hurt anybody," she said.  She'd bought the small bag long before, just because she immediately thought of me when she read what it says about loving books.

A fellow in a kayak was swallowed by a whale, but he must not have tasted good because it immediately spit him back out.  Wow!  Was this like the story of Jonah and the whale?  Read the news item HERE, which has a video taken by the kayaker's father in another kayak.  And HERE is a report from the victim.  (Added mid-morn:  It's ironic that I've just learned today is World Whale Day!)

I've been reading Colleen's blog almost from the beginning of my blogging days, which means since about 2007.  This week, in her Thirteen Thursdays, her comment #9 (of 13) says:

"9. I’m having a hard time following the news because there are so many acronyms and abbreviations, like USDA, USAID, DOD, DOJ, OMB, OIG, NIH, NOAA, etc etc."

Oh, yeah, I agree.  So I left this comment:  "I've been thinking the same thing.  So confusing, as I try to think what each one stands for.  Sometimes, I just give up and move to another story."

Report on Galentine's Day:

We had a good crowd with three tables shoved together for nine people, and there were three or four sitting at other tables in the Cafe.  Two more women came later, after some had left.  We even had one of my friends from the neighborhood and some new residents who have never done anything like that before, plus a few Crown Center staff were there.

Here's what I have posted this week:

1. On Monday, I was musing about thoughtlessness, HERE.
2. My subject on Tuesday was the Chinese New Year, HERE.
3. Wednesday's word was yoga, HERE.
4. On Thursday, I said "a penny for your thoughts," HERE.
5. Friday's book beginning was from a book about life choices, HERE.

Sunday Salon is hosted by Deb at Readerbuzz.

Beginning ~ with dead people

Beginning

My calendar is full of dead people.

The Book of Two Ways ~ by Jodi Picoult, 2020, literary fiction (Egypt), 419 pages, 8/10

Everything changes in a single moment for Dawn Edelstein.  She’s on a plane when the flight attendant makes an announcement:  Prepare for a crash landing.  She braces herself as thoughts flash through her mind.  The shocking thing is, the thoughts are not of her husband, but of a man she last saw fifteen years ago:  Wyatt Armstrong.

Dawn, miraculously, survives the crash, but so do all the doubts that have suddenly been raised.  She has led a good life.  Back in Boston, there is her husband, Brian, their beloved daughter, and her work as a death doula, in which she helps ease the transition between life and death for her clients.

But somewhere in Egypt is Wyatt Armstrong, who works as an archaeologist unearthing ancient burial sites, a career Dawn once studied for but was forced to abandon when life suddenly intervened.  And now, when it seems that fate is offering her second chances, she is not as sure of the choice she once made.

After the crash landing, the airline ensures that the survivors are seen by a doctor, then offers transportation to wherever they want to go.  The obvious destination is to fly home, but she could take another path:  return to the archaeological site she left years before, reconnect with Wyatt and their unresolved history, and maybe even complete her research on The Book of Two Ways — the first known map of the afterlife.

As the story unfolds, Dawn’s two possible futures unspool side by side, as do the secrets and doubts long buried with them.  Dawn must confront the questions she’s never truly asked:   What does a life well lived look like?  When we leave this earth, what do we leave behind?  Do we make choices ... or do our choices make us?  And who would you be if you hadn’t turned out to be the person you are right now?

The top photo is the author holding her book.  This photo of my friend Donna (left) and me (right) with Jodi Picoult was taken when she visited a library here in St. Louis in 2019.

Gilion at Rose City Reader hosts

Book Beginnings on Fridays.

Whatcha thinking about?

I've been thinking about lots of things:  pain, friendship (or betrayal), neighbors, walking, noise, avoiding certain people, food in the cafe, picking up on cues from other people, languages, immigrants I know (a couple across the hall, among others here) and wondering it these immigrants are in danger of being tossed out of the country, Chinese New Year (2025 is the Year of the Snake), and now pennies.  I just learned that April 1st is not just April Fools Day; it’s also National One Cent Day.  (Should I have waited until April to share that?)  I also learned that pennies may soon become a relic of the past.  Donald Trump wants the United States to quit making them.  Instead of asking "Whatcha thinking about?" maybe I should have said, "A penny for your thoughts."

My thoughts then drifted to another coin I've heard about, and I wondered if readers think my thoughts are worth "a plugged nickel."  I'm old, but maybe you've never heard of a plugged nickel and wonder how much a plugged nickel is worth.  It's worth absolutely nothing.  A plugged nickel is a nickel coin that has had its center disc, or "plug," removed, making it worth less than its face value.  The term is used to describe something that is worthless.

Early US coins were made by adding a small silver disc to the center of a blank metal coin before striking it.  This increased the coin's metal value to match its face value.  However, over time, the plug was sometimes removed, making the coin worthless.  People would check their change after a transaction to make sure they didn't receive a plugged nickel.  So the phrase "not worth a plugged nickel" is used to describe something that is worthless.

Now I wonder if nickels as well as pennies are about to become worthless.

Yoga is our word for Wednesday

Grover Yoga ~ by Debbie DeFord-Minerva, illustrated by Steph Lew, 2024, children's board book, 16 pages, 10/10

Learn fun yoga moves with lovable, flexible, furry old Grover and his Sesame Street friends.  Fans of Sesame Street will love learning kid-friendly yoga moves from Grover, including the mountain, tree, downward facing dog, and child's poses.  Yoga is a great activity for preschoolers.  It helps with their coordination and balance and improves their emotional well-being by relieving stress.  This board book with illustrations of Grover, Elmo, and other favorite characters is just right for pre-school children (ages 2 to 5).

Chinese New Year

2025 is the year of the Snake in the Chinese lunar calendar, ending MY year of the Dragon (since I was born in 1940).  Yesterday, we had a party, with Chinese residents singing for us.  They served Chinese delicacies, which were delicious.

When my Chinese neighbor arrived, she tapped me on the arm and offered me a package of sweet potato sticks.

Later, I texted her these Chinese words meaning "thank you."  They sound to me something like "schay-schay."