The unicorn is Scotland's national animal

I just learned the unicorn is the official national animal of Scotland, symbolizing purity, innocence, masculinity, and power in Celtic* mythology.  Featured on the Scottish royal coat of arms since the 12th century, it represents strength and independence.

Celtic* mythology believed unicorns represent innocence and purity while also being associated with chivalry, pride, and boldness.  The first recorded use of a unicorn symbol was in the twelfth century when it was adopted by William I on the Scottish Royal Coat of Arms.  The unicorn is depicted chained (see below) to symbolize the Scottish monarchy's power to tame such a wild beast.

I am surprised I have never run across this information.  I am part Scottish and was called "a bonnie wee lassie" as a child.  I am descended from the Campbells of Argyll clan, whose tartan is shown HERE.

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* The word "Celtic" used in two sentences above mainly refer to "speakers of Celtic languages" rather than to one ethnic group.

Church and State? or Church and Hate?

Separation of Church and Hate: A Sane Person's Guide to Taking Back the Bible from Fundamentalists, Fascists, and Flock-Fleecing Frauds ~ by John Fugelsang, 2025, history of religion and politics, 304 pages

John Fugelsang delivers a deeply irreverent and biblically correct takedown of far-right Christian hatred — a book for believers, atheists, agnostics, and anyone who will ever have to deal with a Christian nationalist.  I think it's amazing that 85% of those commenting on Amazon gave this New York Times bestselling book a rating of 5/5.

For more than two centuries, the United States Constitution has given us the right to a society where church and state exist independently.  But Christianity has been hijacked by far-right groups and politicians who seek to impose their narrow views on government, often to justify oppressive and unequal policies.  The extremists who weaponize the Bible for earthly power aren’t actually on the side of Jesus, and historically they never have been.  How do we fight back against those acting — literally — in bad faith?

Comedian and broadcaster John Fugelsang offers some answers by taking us through common fundamentalist arguments on abor­tion, immigration, LGBTQ rights, and more — exposing their hypocrisy and inaccuracy through scripture, common sense, and humor. It offers practical tips on how to debate your loved one, coworker, or neighbor on the issues that divide us using that Bible they claim to follow.

But Fugelsang’s message is about more than just taking down hypocrites.  It’s about fighting for the love, mercy, and service that are supposed to make up the heart of Christianity.  Told with a blend of honesty, comedy, and political and religious knowledge, Separation of Church and Hate is the book we need.  It’s a rallying cry for compassion and clarity for anyone who is sick of people using religion as a way to hide their hate.

Week in Review

• On Monday, I mused about the accuracy of Punxsutawney Phil's Groundhog Day predictions, HERE.
• On TWOsday, my subject was a couple of surveys, HERE.
• Thursday's post was a request to WEAR RED on Friday, HERE.
• On Saturday, my "Caturday" post featured a couple of cute cats, HERE.

is hosted by Deb at Readerbuzz.

This cat has a "thank you" sign

Look what I found online:

a cat holding a thank you note.

Clawdia thanked me by rubbing her head against my chin.

I'm sharing this picture on Caturday

(the day after Friday) because I think it's cute.

(Okay, you're cute, too.)

You've got to have heart, as the tin man said

National Wear Red Day is on the first Friday of February (so on February 6th in 2026).  The day is to raise awareness that cardio-vascular disease is the #1 killer of women.  Wearing red encourages women to know their risks and prioritize heart health.  I had open-heart surgery on February 19, 2009, with four bypasses.  I blogged about it HERE, if you want to know details and what my blogging friends said.  So wear red tomorrow.

Thinking about two things today

1.  Three surveys to fill out for the social workers in the office:

1. Program Survey (Yes, I'd possibly enjoy a discussion of literature.)
2. Daily Life Survey  (Yes, I prepare my own meals.)
3. Quality of Life Survey (No, I don't get bored.)

2.  Café meals:

• I pay for five meals a week delivered, so I don't have to cook all the time.
• I eat in the Café with friends as a way to socialize.

Six more weeks of winter

Groundhog Day, celebrated every year on February 2, is an unusual holiday that stretches back hundreds of years to ancient times.  According to tradition, if it’s a bright and sunny day and the groundhog sees its shadow, there will be six more weeks of winter.  If it’s a cloudy day and the groundhog does not see his shadow, there will be an early spring.

Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow today, which means that we are in for six more weeks of winter.  Hmpf, as I look out my window and see white snow (and mushy gray snow) along both sides of the cleared street below, I take a deep breath and think, "Oh, well, lots more of this."  (But just how accurate will Phil's prediction be this year?  We shall see.)

This week's reading and activities

During January (which seems to have zipped by), I was able to attend two of the four classes on "Building Emotional Resiliency" that met weekly here at the Crown Center where I live.  I was also able to get copies of the handouts for the other two classes that I missed because of other commitments.  These classes covered things like managing burnout (when you realize you've been stretched too thin) and getting yourself moving again, even if you don't feel like it.

The subject this week was about building and nurturing relationships, with ideas for staying connnected and communicating your needs.  How do we connect with other people?  Shared interests, for one thing.  But we also need boundaries, like taking into account the time and energy involved.  I'm comfortable striking up casual conversations, but I know that is easier for some of us than for others.

Week in Review

• On Monday, I mused about a cat who sang for the birds, HERE.
• On TWOsday, my subject was the Circle@Crown Cafe, HERE.
• Wednesday's post was for language lovers, HERE.
• Friday's Book Beginnings , HERE, looked back billions of years, HERE.
• Saturday's book was a story that dealt with devastating loss, HERE.

is hosted by Deb at Readerbuzz.

A library book I just checked out

About Alice ~ by Calvin Trillin, 2006, memoir, 78 pages

In Calvin Trillin’s antic tales of family life, she was portrayed as the wife who had “a weird predilection for limiting our family to three meals a day” and the mother who thought that you had to go to your child’s school play, or “the county would come and take the child.”

Five years after her death, her husband offered this loving portrait of Alice Trillin off the page, an educator who was equally at home teaching at a university or a drug treatment center, a gifted writer, a beautiful and thoroughly engaged woman who, in the words of a friend, "managed to navigate the tricky waters between living a life you could be proud of and still delighting in the many things there are to take pleasure in."

It deals with devastating loss, but About Alice is also a love story that chronicls a romance that began at a Manhattan party when Calvin Trillin desperately tried to impress a young woman who "seemed to glow."

"You have never again been as funny as you were that night," Alice would say, twenty or thirty years later.

"You mean I peaked in December of 1963?"

"I’m afraid so."

But he never quit trying to impress her.  In his writing, she was sometimes his subject and always his muse.  The dedication of the first book he published after her death read, "I wrote this for Alice.  Actually, I wrote everything for Alice."

Beginning ~ billions of years ago

Beginning

In the beginning, nearly fourteen billion years ago, all the space and all the matter and all the energy of the known universe was contained in a volume kess than one-trillionth the size of the period that ends this sentence.

Astrophysics for People in a Hurry ~ by Neil deGrasse Tyson, 2017, nonfiction, 224 pages

What is the nature of space and time?  How do we fit within the universe?  How does the universe fit within us?  There’s no better guide through these mind-expanding questions than acclaimed astrophysicist and best-selling author Neil deGrasse Tyson.

But today, few of us have time to contemplate the cosmos.  So Tyson brings the universe down to Earth succinctly and clearly, with sparkling wit, in chapters you can read anytime and anywhere in your busy day.  While you wait for your morning coffee to brew, for the bus, the train, or a plane to arrive, this book will reveal just what you need to be fluent and ready for the next cosmic headlines:  from the Big Bang to black holes, from quarks to quantum mechanics, and from the search for planets to the search for life in the universe.

I have written about Tyson and his ideas before.  Click HERE, if you would like to know more about him and his books.

Gilion at Rose City Reader hosts

Book Beginnings on Fridays.

Something new from Collins Dictionary

Collins Dictionary is a free online dictionary, thesaurus, and reference source.  Here's what's new there:

• Motivation Mondays = Words that set a positive tone or relate to motivating events/topics for the rest of the week.
• Trending Tuesdays = Words that are currently trending or tied to what’s trending in news, culture, or topics people are talking about right now.
• Wordy Wednesdays = Interesting, unusual, or obscure words that few people know about.
• Throwback Thursdays = Archaic or old-fashioned words and memorable objects from the past.
• Foreign Language Fridays = Words that originated from different languages.
• Slang Saturdays = Slang words, both from the present day and the past.
• Submission Sundays = Words that are chosen by users and they can submit their ideas every Monday on our Instagram story.

HarperCollins UK (www.harpercollins.co.uk) emailed me this information on Sunday, January 25, 2026.  Did you notice that they chose to present the week as Monday through Sunday and not the usual Sunday through Saturday?  You can find their Word of the Day, HERE.

Two meals in the Café today

I decided to have breakfast ~ AND ~ lunch in  the Café today.  I had breakfast alone while I blogged on my computer and will have lunch with another resident.  For breakfast, I wanted "dessert" foods and had a muffin and yogurt.

For lunch, I plan to have soup.  Earlier, I asked, "What's the soup of the day?"  I really like their lentil soup, and that's my option for today.  Great!  So I've eaten the yogurt and the muffin so I could take my morning pills.  (Pills come with old age, ya know!)  I look forward to eating lentil soup in less than an hour.

Today's book is about birds ~ and a cat

The Cat Who Sang for the Birds (Book 20 of 29) ~ by Lilian Jackson Braun, 1998, cozy mystery, pages

This book features journalist Jim Qwilleran and his Siamese cats, Koko and Yum Yum, as they investigate a series of suspicious events in their small town of Pickax, including vandalism, a suspicious fire, and a missing artist.  The plot involves a local scandal, an anti-computer uprising, and a murder, with Koko's unique "birdcalling" hinting at clues.

As early spring comes to Moose County, Jim Qwilleran is looking forward to the peaceful beauty of nature’s rebirth.  What he gets instead is a chorus of noisy birds that constantly wakes him from a sound sleep — especially when Koko insists on joining in with his own feline version of birdcalling.  But soon Qwill is wondering whether Koko is trying to say more than just "tweet tweet," because a series of strange events — starting with an act of vandalism and culminating in a mysterious chain of death and disappearance — has Pickax in a similar uproar.  It seems that this spring, a cat’s fancy may turn to crime solving

I like reading books to learn how people think

Look for Me There: Grieving My Father, Finding Myself ~ by Luke Russert, 2023, memoir, 272 pages

This memoir by Luke Russert, son of the late news anchor Tim Russert, details his journey to process grief and find his own path after his father's sudden death.  The book chronicles his decision to leave his successful NBC News career and embark on a three-year, multi-continent travel adventure to confront his loss, family expectations, and search for purpose.  It ultimately leads him to self-discovery.  It has been described as a mix of travelogue, family history, and a poignant story of a man coming to terms with loss and forging his own identity.

• On Monday, I mused about a couple of words, HERE.
• On Thursday, my subject was a book set in Big Stone Gap, Virginia, HERE.
• Friday's Book Beginnings was about cats, HERE.
• On Saturday, I wrote about Certified Nursing Assistants, HERE, using an AI summary I found online.

is hosted by Deb at Readerbuzz.

Saturday Stuff

I was in the lobby a few minutes ago when a neighbor I know came home in all the snow we're having in the midwest.  She stopped to check her mailbox, and I made a comment about the weather.  That's when she said something to the effect of quitting her job.  So I asked what she does.  She replied, "CNA."  I came home and looked it up.  This is the AI Summary:

• A CNA is a Certified Nursing Assistant who provides basic patient care and daily living assistance under the supervision of registered nurses or licensed practical nurses.
• What CNAs do = They help with activities of daily living, monitor patients, and support healthcare teams in hospitals, nursing homes, and long‑term care facilities.
• Education and certification = CNAs complete state-approved training programs and pass written or oral and practical exams to earn certification.  Requirements and processes vary by state.
• Salary and role context = This is an entry‑level healthcare position that offers hands‑on patient care experience, with typical entry salaries around entry‑level ranges in the low to mid teens per hour, depending on location and facility.

Beginning ~ with a mountain lion (what???)

Beginning

"6 ways to tell if your cat thinks it's a mountain lion"

How to Tell If Your Cat Is Plotting to Kill You ~ by Matthew Inman, 2012, humor, 136 pages, 6/10

The Oatmeal's most popular cat jokes, including “How to Pet a Kitty” and “The Bobcats,” plus 15 new and cat-themed comics, are presented in this collection from Matthew Inman, creator of the popular website The Oatmeal.  If your cat is kneading you, that's not a sign of affection.  Your cat is actually checking your internal organs for weakness.  If your cat brings you a dead animal, it isn't a gift.  It's a warning. 

This book is full of comics, facts, and instructional guides about crazy cat behaviors.  It presents fan favorites, such as "Cat vs. Internet," "How to Pet a Kitty," "The Bobcats," plus 17 more cat-themed comic strips.  Cat lovers will enjoy it, though I was confused when some drawings seemed to have two or more of the same cat at different points in a trajactory.  That's part of the reason I rated it 6 of 10.

Gilion at Rose City Reader hosts

Book Beginnings on Fridays.

Thinking about my visits to Virginia

Big Stone Gap ~ by Adriana Trigiani, 2000, literary fiction, 272 pages

It's 1978, and Ave Maria Mulligan is the thirty-five-year-old self-proclaimed spinster of Big Stone Gap, a sleepy hamlet in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia.  She’s also the local pharmacist, the co-captain of the Rescue Squad, and the director of The Trail of the Lonesome Pine, the town’s long-running Outdoor Drama.  Ave Maria is content with her life — until, one fateful day, her past opens wide with the revelation of a long-buried secret that will alter the course of her life.  Before she knows it, Ave Maria is fielding marriage proposals, trying to claim her rightful inheritance, and planning the trip of a lifetime to Italy — one that will change her view of the world and her own place in it forever.

*Note:  I've been meaning to read this one for a decade or two.  Big Stone Gap, where the author was born, is a real place.  I've been in that area of southwest Virginia, and now I am ready to "travel" there in fiction.

Musing about a couple of words

Someone left this comment on one of my posts recently:

"That first line grab my attrition.  The summary of the book has me intrigue."

My first thought was that the person is not a native English speaker (no past tense for either verb).  My second thought was that "attrition" and "intrigue" are interesting word choices that would NOT be used by someone who knows very little English.  Later, I also wondered if AI (artificial intelligence) had something to do with the comment.  Here are those two words defined:

attrition / əˈtriSHən / noun = Attrition is the gradual reduction or wearing away of something, commonly referring to workforce reduction (by employees leaving or being fired), loss of participants in research, or weakening of an enemy through constant pressure in warfare (war of attrition).  It happens due to various factors like retirement, poor management, lack of advancement (in business), or simply friction and erosion (in nature).

  

intrigue / verb / inˈtriɡ = As a verb, intrigue means to arouse someone's curiosity or interest in something, to captivate someone's attention or make them want to know more.

*Note:  I'm sure the person who commented meant "attention" for the first word I listed above, as in this second definition, so the first line had grabbed his or her attention.

Another week flew by

Sophie's Choice ~ by William Styron, 1976, literary fiction, 576 pages

An online comment says that "despite the title, the Polish refugee Sophie is not the principal character.  This honor is given to the narrator, a 22-year-old writer from the South, nicknamed Stingo but clearly the author himself, come up to try his luck in the big city."

Three stories are told here:  (1) a young Southerner wants to become a writer; (2) a turbulent love-hate affair between a brilliant Jew and a beautiful Polish woman; and (3) an awful wound in that woman's past — one that impels both Sophie and Nathan toward destruction.

I've never read this book, partly because of the length (576 pages).  If you've read it, tell me whether you think it's worth the time for this heavy book that has been donated to our small Crown Center library.

• On Monday, I mused about finding lost things, HERE.
• TWOsday's subject was monkeys on the loose in St. Louis, HERE.
• On Wednesday, my subject was library loot, HERE.
• Friday's Book Beginnings was from a book about a half orphan, HERE.
• On Saturday, I wrote about visiting the Mauhaus Cat Cafe, HERE.

is hosted by Deb at Readerbuzz.

Mauhaus Cat Cafe

My neighbor Larry took me to Mauhaus Cat Cafe on Thursday, and this black cat seemed to be the one who was most willing to approach us to be petted.

Here's Larry taking a close-up photo of the same cat.  I simply zoomed in on any who didn't want to be close to me, but he is still using a flip phone without that feature.  This cat made a big leap onto a high walkway near the ceiling.  Do you think maybe it was showing off, hoping to go home with us?  It got our attention.

Beginning ~ with a half orphan

Beginning

Sometimes I wonder:  What does it mean to be a half orphan?

The First True Lie ~ by Marina Mander, translated by Stephen Twilley, 2013, fiction (Italy), 144 pages

This a novel about a young boy named Luca who, after his mother dies, hides her body in their apartment to avoid being sent to an orphanage, pretending she is still alive while navigating his grief and loneliness with his cat, Blue, and his love for words.  This book is a heartbreaking coming-of-age story told from Luca's unique, often foul-mouthed, perspective as he struggles with the trauma and isolation of his situation.

Gilion at Rose City Reader hosts

Book Beginnings on Fridays.

My latest library loot ~ have you read this book?

The Bridge of San Luis Rey ~ by Thornton Wilder, 1927, historical fiction (Peru), 133 pages

In eighteenth-century Peru, the collapse of a fabled bridge sets in motion a profound exploration of fate, love, and the interconnectedness of human lives.  The story centers around Brother Juniper, a devout Franciscan monk who witnesses the accident and becomes obsessed with understanding the workings of divine providence.  Motivated by his belief that the bridge's collapse was not a random event, he embarks on a quest to investigate the lives of the five victims who perished in the tragedy.  Through meticulous research and interviews, Brother Juniper uncovers the fascinating and often intertwined backstories of the victims:  

1. the Marquesa de Montemayor;
2. her companion Pepita, a young orphan;
3. Esteban, a scribe involved in a complicated love story;
4. Uncle Pio, the devoted valet of actress Camila Perichole;
5. and Jaime, her son.

The Bridge of San Luis Rey was Thornton Wilder's second novel, published when he was just thirty, and it won him the Pulitzer Prize in 1928.  He poses profound questions about the nature of existence, the role of chance, and whether an elusive hand of destiny shapes our lives.

Wilder sets the action in Lima, Peru, in 1714, where a Franciscan monk witnesses the collapse of a bridge that has stood for over a century, killing the five people on it.  The priest becomes determined to develop a scientific method for calculating what personality characteristics the five might have shared that would make God ready to call them to him.  In the novel, Brother Juniper spends years compiling data about each victim in order to draw his conclusions.

Almost since its first publication, The Bridge of San Luis Rey has been recognized as a literary masterpiece.  Its unique mixture of the spiritual with the humane has given readers throughout the decades a point of reference when considering the apparent horrors that can occur in a world that is explained increasingly through cold scientific eyes.  In his memorial tribute to the victims of the terrorist attacks in the United States on September 11, 2001, British prime minister Tony Blair quoted from the book, and since then it has become even more popular, as the world has struggled to reconcile faith with catastrophe.

Monkeys on the loose in St. Louis

1.  Monkeys?

Well, actually, monkeys are loose in NORTH St. Louis.  I didn't read about it until Monday morning, but apparently Animal Control announced it on Friday afternoon.  Then I learned that exotic animals are prohibited in the city of St. Louis.  I never knew that, either, but then why should I?  I've never considered getting a pet monkey.  You can read about it HERE, where the news specifies exactly where those monkeys are:

"Missouri’s Department of Health confirmed that the primates are in or around O’Fallon Park."  (See the park in the photo above.)

Owning exotic animals in St. Louis is banned by city ordinance.  For the record, I'm not technically in the city of St. Louis.  I live in a suburb, so those monkeys are nowhere near me.  Miles away, unless they somehow hitched a ride; but it's about a 20 minutes drive to get to my part of town from there.

2.  Residents

What is my second of today's TWOsday subjects?  Hmmm.  Oh, yeah, meeting people (not monkeys).  Yesterday, I met a new man who had just moved here (he silently counted on his fingers) "nine days ago."  He lives in the other building, but it's connected to my building by a link that allows us to look left and right, to the front parking lot and the back patio where we have trees and planters and lots of places to sit (when it's warm enough) while we talk or enjoy the air and the birds who come to our feeder.  In this photo, all the windows on the left, leading to the main entrance, are part of the link between our buildings.  The windows line both sides of the link, with these looking out over the parking lot.