PUZZLES & QUIZZES

puzzle (n.) c. 1600, “state of being puzzled,” from puzzle (v.); meaning “perplexing question” is from 1650s; that of “a toy contrived to test one’s ingenuity” is from 1814. Online Etymological Dictionary LA TRIVIATA #31     1. Who or what is the only title character in a Walt Disney movie who does not speak?   2. 

BITS & PIECES OF A MISPLACED LIFE-#12

l. Avoid fried meats which angry up the blood. 2. If your stomach disputes you, lie down and pacify it with cool thoughts. 3. Keep your juices flowing by jangling around gently as you move. 4. Go very gently on the vices, such as carrying on in society – the social ramble ain’t restful. 5.

BITS & PIECES OF A MISPLACED LIFE#11A

Remember that sometimes not getting what you want is a wonderful stroke of luck.  The Dalai  Lama   Epigraph to A Wonderful Stroke of Luck by Ann Beattie (NY: Viking, 2019) ** WHY I AM NOT A WORLD FAMOUS POET   When it comes to writing poetry, I am out of my element: Helium. **

BITS & PIECES OF A MISPLACED LIFE #10

On READING jjhON READING   I like to read on the beach. Once I took a “Neuromancer” paperback to Bora Bora and it was so humid there that every time I turned a page it came unglued and fell away from the book. I was slowly leafleting the island with William Gibson, although I like

A FUNNY THING HAPPENED TO ME ON THE WAY TO THIS BLOG

I was twenty-eight when I got married. My mother had a sign: last girl before freeway. Joan Rivers How wrong Emily Dickinson was. Hope is not ‘a thing with feathers.’ The thing with feathers has turned out to be my nephew. I must take him to a specialist in Zurich. Woody Allen ** My boyfriend

BITS & PIECES OF A MISPLACED LIFE -#8

THE READING & WRITING ISSUE SHOULD YOU BECOME A PUBLISHER?   On December 21, 1950 in a letter to Burroughs Mitchell of Scribner’s , Norman Mailer declared that the title to James Jones’ great war novel –From Here to Eternity –was  an “awful title.” If you agree or disagree with Mailer’s assessment give yourself 150

PHILLIPS’ MISCELLANY #7

‘ On language, words, word play etc. THE APPLE-SAUCE CHRONICLES LANGUAGE  “It can hardly be a coincidence that no language on earth has ever produced the expression “as pretty as an airport”.      Douglas Adams Language, according to the anthropologist Robin Dunbar, evolved because gossip is a more efficient version of the “social grooming” essential

BITS & PIECES OF A MISPLACED LIFE #6

MOVIES         Like most film-makers I have spent more time on movies I have not made than on ones that I have.       John Boorman     **   I told Dale: “When I go, just skin me and put me on top of Trigger.” And Dale said, “Now don’t get any ideas about me.”

BITS & PIECES OF A MISPLACED LIFE #5

SOMETHING FUN TO DO ON A RAINY DAY IN YOUR OWN HOME SHOOT YOURSELF OUT OF A CANNON FROM YOUR LIVING ROOM INTOYOUR KITCHEN FOR A MIDNIGHT SNACK. IF IT TAKES ALL DAY FOR YOUTO ACCOMPLISH THIS FEAT, THEN YOU ARE DEFINITELY NOT USING ENOUGH GUNPOWDER. **** TIME MAGAZINE IS NOT ALWAYS RIGHT On September

BITS & PIECES OF A MISPLACED LIFE #4

** EPITAPHS     Beneath this stone our Bobby lies.   He neither crys or hollers. He lived just one and twenty days    And cost us forty dollars.           Burlington Cemetery, Vermont   **     Under this Marble, or under this Sill,   Or under this Turf, or ev’n what they will,