Musing ~ about rhymes

Oscar Mayer bologna song lyrics, from the 1970s:

My Bologna has a first name,

It's O-S-C-A-R.

My bologna has a second name,

It's M-A-Y-E-R.

Oh I love to eat it everyday,

And if you ask me why I'll say,

Cause' Oscar Mayer has a way

with B-O-L-O-G-N-A!!!!

Why don't these words rhyme —> tough, though, cough, through, rough, thoughts?

Yet for some reason these words do rhyme —> pony, boney, Coney [Island], bologna.

I also read somewhere that there is no word in the English language that rhymes with "month."  Can you think of a word to prove that's wrong?

Books and more books ~ as usual

Two books of short stories

Grandaddy's Short Stories ~ by Everette Summers, 2007, short stories, 47 pages, 1/10 (This book is an editor's nightmare.  For example:  The author used the words "jester" instead of "gesture," and "wondering around" instead of "wandering."  And he "sat" something down before he "set" down himself.)

The author:  "My childhood years were spent in the beautiful mountains of southwest Virginia.  It was there that I wished to transpose my every experience into story form, so that others could share and enjoy in the same experiences much the same as I did.  My love of nature and my desire to make people laugh seem to go hand in hand.  Therefore a lot of my personal experiences are real and somewhat comical.  Now that my children have grown, I have begun passing these stories along to the next generation of eager listeners, thus creating new characters and never-ending adventures that I hope will be carried on long after I have left this life.  I wish my children and grandchildren to be able to pick up one of my books, read a story and feel as if I am still a part of their lives."

Grandaddy's Short Stories: Book II ~ by Everette Summers, 2007, short stories, 90 pages, 4/10.  (I'm glad I went ahead and read this book in spite of the words he misused, because he mentioned my hometown of Chattanooga in some of these stories.)

The author:  "I enjoy writing short stories as they help me to deal with the day-to-day stresses I encounter.  At work, I will often tell my co-workers about events in my life and they will just shake their heads, laugh and then tell me I should write a book.  So upon the advice of many, here is my second book with several more already in the making stage."

I read from this book occasionally:

My Favorites: A Collection of Short Stories ~ by Ben Bova, 2020, science fiction, 247 pages

Exploring the boundaries of the genre, Bova not only writes of spaceships, aliens, and time travel in most of his titles, but also speculates on the beginnings of science fiction in "Scheherazade and the Storytellers," as well as the morality of man in "The Angel’s Gift."  Stories such as "The Café Coup" and "We’ll Always Have Paris" dip into speculative historical fiction, asking questions about what would happen if someone could change history for the better.

 
Sunday Salon is hosted by Deb at Readerbuzz.

Caturday collaboration

This black cat reading looks to me like Clawdia with a book, yet I first posted the picture back in 2010, before I met Clawdia.  Okay, I know it's a drawing, not a photo, but bear with me here.  .......  Whoops!  Wait!  Back up!

Umm, I meant to say my former furry friend Kiki posted the drawing above on a Caturday in 2010.  Before she died in 2012, Kiki wrote about the books she read, books she found on my lower bookcase shelves because that was as high as she could reach.  Of course, she could read!  She was a smart cat, and she always ended her posts this way:  "Kiki, signing off."

Clawdia, on the other hand, is more scientific.  Her interests lean toward why the white and red spots she chases (and sometimes catches) cannot be felt beneath her paws.  Why?  Why?

I have just learned that June is National Pet Microchipping Month.  Let's celebrate our pets and keep them safe by microchipping them.

Library Loot ~ two more books

Around the World in 80 Books ~ by David Damrosch, 2021, world history in literature, 432 pages

Inspired by Jules Verne’s hero Phileas Fogg, David Damrosch, chair of Harvard University’s department of comparative literature and founder of Harvard’s Institute for World Literature, set out to counter a pandemic’s restrictions on travel by exploring eighty exceptional books from around the globe.  Following a literary itinerary from London to Venice, Tehran and points beyond, and via authors from Woolf and Dante to Nobel Prize-winners Orhan Pamuk, Wole Soyinka, Mo Yan, and Olga Tokarczuk, he explores how these works have shaped our idea of the world and the ways in which the world bleeds into literature.
 

To chart the expansive landscape of world literature today, Damrosch explores how writers live in two very different worlds:  the world of their personal experience and the world of books that have enabled great writers to give shape and meaning to their lives.  In his literary cartography, Damrosch includes compelling contemporary works as well as perennial classics, hard-bitten crime fiction as well as haunting works of fantasy, and the formative tales that introduce us as children to the world we’re entering.  Taken together, these eighty titles offer us fresh perspective on enduring problems, from the social consequences of epidemics to the rising inequality that Thomas More designed Utopia to combat, as well as the patriarchal structures within and against which many of these books’ heroines have to struggle — from the work of Murasaki Shikibu a millennium ago to Margaret Atwood today.

The Report Card ~ by Andrew Clements, 2004, children's fiction, 173 pages, 10/10

I first read this book in 2010 when I rated it 9 of 10.  I ran across the title recently and decided to re-read the book.  A fifth-grade genius turns the spotlight on grades — good and bad — in this novel from the author of Frindle.  Nora Rose Rowley is a genius, but don't tell anyone.  She's managed to make it to the fifth grade without anyone figuring out that she's not just an ordinary kid, and she wants to keep it that way.  But then Nora gets fed up with the importance everyone attaches to test scores and grades, and she purposely brings home a terrible report card just to prove a point.  Suddenly the attention she's successfully avoided all her life is focused on her, and her secret is out.  And that's when things start to get really complicated.

Library Loot is a weekly event co-hosted by Claire from The Captive Reader and Sharlene from Real Life Reading that encourages bloggers to share the books they’ve checked out from the library.  Sharlene has the Mr. Linky this week (June 8-14).

Beginning ~ with the delta virus surging

Chapter 1 ~ Rapture Ready

Dr. George Saunders was sitting in the den of their apartment on 400 Riverside Drive watching the local news.  All the talk was about Andrew Cuomo's recent resignation as governor of New York and the fall of Afghanistan to the Taliban.  Although George wasn't sure what he thought about Cuomo's resignation, he was sure about his concern for the hospital.  The delta virus was surging, and hospital space was again becoming  a premium.

A Second Chance ~ by Rick Herrick, 2022, fiction (New York), 93 pages

In this story, Jesus comes to New York City and chooses a gay man to be his messenger.  The two proceed to establish a movement to redefine the Christian faith.  The characters are warm and zany, and their escapades will make you laugh and challenge you to think.  The book offers a quick read and considerable food for thought.

As you can see, this novel is very current, with COVID surging.  It's set in New York City, and that's where Jesus shows up for the "second coming."  I've already found my favorite lines, even though I just downloaded this short book onto my Kindle this afternoon:

"Christianity or Islam is not the important thing.  What matters most is loving your neighbor."

Gilion at Rose City Reader hosts

Book Beginnings on Fridays.

Playing with words

Yes, I must admit that I blogged about this word a couple of weeks ago.  But that was a quiz, and this illustration is humorously redefining a word.  I have never called myself a bookkeeper.  Usually when I'm being silly, I say, "I'm a bookie!"  That puzzles folks who (I'm sure) cannot imagine me as either a bookie or a bookkeeper.  How dull it is to say simply that "I love to read," when I can also be funny.  Wait!  Did you just roll your eyes?

A frog and another shooting

Someone on NextDoor posted this picture, asking, "Does anyone know what kind of frog this little guy is?  He showed up today on our table on our patio."  Someone told her it's a gray tree frog who will eat bugs.  Another neighbor said a big toad follows her around when she's gardening and had jumped up in her lap the day before.  She has even given that toad a name:  Toad-o.  I love it!  The original poster thinks this frog is "a cutie," saying she’ll have to come up with a name for him.

While I was putting this blog post together, I read in the news about people dead after a mass shooting in Chattanooga, TN.  One article said "downtown," but a photo of a building at the scene looks to me like one on McCallie near the Ridge.  This news jumped out at me because Chattanooga is my hometown, and I know that area.  The Chattanooga Times Free Press said:  "3 dead, 17 victims total after shooting on McCallie Avenue in Chattanooga.  Two killed in gunfire, one killed by car while fleeing."  (So I was right about the location.)  In all, 14 people were shot and three more were struck by a vehicle.  I am so sick of reading about mass shootings and gun deaths in the news.

That wasn't the second of the two things I wanted to share on

this TWOsday, but it's what's on my mind now, unfortunately.