EACH TIME HISTORY REPEATS ITSELF, THE PRICE GOES UP

 

On this day in 1885, General George Gordon was killed on the palace steps in Khartoum, Sudan ...

which led to needless more deaths and further European expansion into Africa. 

On this date in 1945, Soviet troops liberated Auschwitz, Poland, revealing the depths of the horrors perpetrated there.

Here is a bit of Mozart to eulogize that tragedy:

The greatest loss, however is what dies inside a man while he yet lives.

the death of genuine feeling that makes it possible to feel the pain or glory of other men than yourself.

WHERE DID THAT THOUGHT COME FROM?

 

I think of my thoughts as tumbling lottery balls rattling around in my mind.

What brings one fact into focus from the blur of so many bits of data churning in my brain?

Just now, for some reason that the ghost of Freud refuses to tell me, Charles Napier came to mind.

In what way?

And I've never been married.

I mean, marriage is tough because you have to deal with feelings ... and lawyers.

And immediately following that thought, the early life of Frank Frazetta came to mind.

Why do you think that happened?

SNOW!

 The 1st fall of snow is not just an event ...

It is a magical event.

You go to bed in one kind of world and wake up in another quite different.

And if this is not magic, where is it to be found?

Two days ago was the third heaviest snowstorm in Lake Charles' history.

I remember the first time Snowfall almost killed me.

Outside our basement apartment window, the snow fell as softly as Mother's tears

You see, in Mother's mind, I was dying.

Detroit was snowed in, no cabs allowed on the streets, no neighbors across the hall.

We were too poor to afford a phone just new to Detroit.

My fever was so high, I burned with it.

She gave me the last of the aspirin, hugged me, and started to rock me in the bed.

"Look, baby ... the snowflakes are winter's butterflies."

https://www.audible.com/pd/Hibbs-the-Cub-with-No-Clue-Audiobook/B00PZJYFO8

And not wanting me to die in the quiet dark of the night, 

Mother reached into her own troubled childhood and began re-telling me the Lakota teaching tales her own grandmother told her at night.

About Estanatlehi, whose love was warm but whose touch was cold.

But she must be near, for I was shivering so.

https://www.amazon.com/Hibbs-Cub-Clue-Roland-Yeomans/dp/1519762151/

She came up with the name "Hibbs, the cub with no clue."

Mother pointed to the frosted window and swore she saw him clinging to the tree feet away.

She tweaked my runny nose and said that meant I was going to get better, for Hibbs watched over all sick children.

I must have believed her, for I got better. 

My favorite toy was a stuffed bear ... who I kept until the house fire

I thought of Hibbs when I saw the heavy snowfall this Tuesday.

For a little over $5, you can get the audio book of little Hibbs.

By the way, Mother later showed me the claw marks Hibbs left on that tree.

Believe what you will.

SOMETIMES THE M IS SILENT _ THOUGHTS ON JAN. 20TH

 

George Burns born on this day in 1896

"Beware following the masses -- sometimes the "M" is silent." 

- George Burns

On this date in 1327, Edward II was forced from power by his wife and her lover, Roger Mortimer.

He is known for the saying, "An unfaithful wife is a pain in the arse."

 

Understandable since he was executed by having a red-hot poker inserted into his anus.

On this date in 1841, China cedes the island of Hong Kong to the British with the signing of the Chuenpi Convention.

Why were the Opium Wars fought?

China did not want to buy opium from England.

Politics. Gotta love it -- unless you are Edward II or China.

On this date in 1937, Franklin D. Roosevelt is the 1st president 

inaugurated on this date per the new 2oth Amendment.

On this date in 1958, Elvis receives orders to report for duty in the Army.

Would Edgar Allan Poe have CONFIDENCE in our past Government? Thoughts on Jan. 19th

 

Born on this day in 1809

"I have great confidence in fools; 'Self Confidence' my friends call it."

 - Edgar Allan Poe

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09MYWXYLM

 In THE RIVAL, Poe is a major character, and you discover who was the inspiration for Annabel Lee ... and how Victor Standish dies.

Born on this day 2 years earlier than Poe.

"Never do a wrong thing to make a friend or to keep one." 

- Lee

It is well for Alice Wentworth that the General was not in THE RIVAL, for he loved to flirt.

On this date in 1993, Fleetwood Mac reunites for Presidential Inauguration. 

Speaking of inaugurations, Robert Frost

attended the inauguration of John F. Kennedy at the age of 87.

It has been suggested the bitter cold of the event led to the illness that resulted in Frost's death.

On this date in 1953, Lucille Ball gives birth on the screen ... and in real life.

Let's go to the "Way Back Machine" for the last thing of note on January 19th:

"I'LL DRINK TO THAT!" and other paved roads to Hell _ Thoughts of Jan. 16th

 

On this date in 1919, the 18th amendment, which established prohibition, was passed in the US Constitution.

Prohibition made the Mob acceptable by creating a huge demand for illegal alcohol, 

which provided gangsters with the opportunity to make enormous profits. 

This led to the rise of organized crime in the United States.

Prohibition ended in 1933 with the ratification of the 21st Amendment. 

However, the Mafia continued to grow and expand into other rackets,

 such as loan sharking, prostitution, and gambling.

 

In 27 B.C. on this date, the Roman Senate granted the title of Augustus to Gaius Julius Caesar Octavianus,

 marking the beginning of the Roman Empire

and the Pax Romana --

the fist of steel in a velvet glove.

On this date in 1547, Ivan the Terrible, became Tsar of Russia.

And he was a piece of work -- check the above video.

In 1991, the Persian Gulf War began on this date.

Many "Monday Morning Quarterbacks"

argue that the war was primarily motivated by securing oil interests

 and did not adequately address the underlying causes of conflict in the region. 

Stalin once said, "A single death is a tragedy; a million deaths is a statistic."

On that note,

On this date, Bill Cosby's only son, Ennis, was murdered in 1997 while fixing a flat on Interstate 47.

And to end with a bit of beauty ...

Kate Moss was born on this date in 1997.

But there is sadness to her fame, too.

DON'T ASK A REPUBLICAN, "WHY A DONKEY?" Thoughts on the 15th OF JANUARY

 

Why isn't the 15th of January called the "Ides of January" as in the "Ides of March?"

The ides (from the Latin word īdūs) was the fifteenth day of March, May, July, and October, and the thirteenth day of the other months. 

The ides originally corresponded to the full moon, storied for its own omens.

On this day in 1870, the donkey made its first appearance to symbolize the Democratic Party.

 

"It is the tragic nature of Man to praise dead saints and to kill live ones." 

- Father Darael

Born on this day 

Jimmy Wales and Larry Sanger founded Wikipedia on January 15, 2001. 

The Wikimedia Foundation, a nonprofit organization, has hosted Wikipedia since 2003

THE BEAT GOES ON - January 14th

"The world changes according to the way people see it, and if you can alter, even by a millimeter, the way people look at reality, then you can change the world." 

- Samuel McCord

Sonny & Cher released their single, The Beat Goes On, on this day in 1967.

There’s a consensus that the title means the fact that time keeps marching forward, no matter what fads come and go. 

The beat itself could be a heartbeat or a musical beat.

Imagine how "cool" Cher felt in her clothes. 

Imagine the looks she would get walking down the street looking like that now?

You never change things by fighting the existing reality. 

To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete, right?

What do you find strange about life today?

The first full moon of 2025 peaks Monday evening. 

Despite its timeless appearance, the moon has not always been in Earth's orbit.

How old is the moon? Not even science is sure. What's your guess?

LITERARY LOVE LETTERS

 

Reality is a complex affair, involving many different elements interacting across multiple scales in time and space. 

It is a constantly revolving, evolving jewel whose dim facets tease us with flashes of clarity.

On this day in 1845 Robert Browning wrote his first letter to Elizabeth Barrett, 

so inciting one of the most legendary of literary love stories. 

The letter belongs to the 'fan mail' category — the praise of a thirty-two-year-old up-and-comer for one just six years older and already internationally famous —

 but it was more than just poet-to-poet: 

"...I do, as I say, love these books with all my heart — and I love you too."

Dashiell Hammett died on this day in 1961, aged fifty-seven. 

Though never a Barrett-Browning sort of love, Hammett’s thirty-year relationship with Lillian Hellman became especially strained in his last years,

 as his health, finances and patience failed. 

Exasperated by Hammett’s taciturn, unromantic ways, and knowing that time was running out, Hellman marked their last shared Thanksgiving, also the thirtieth anniversary of their first meeting,

 by typing up a mock love letter in Hammett’s name and leaving it for him to sign:

On this thirtieth anniversary of the beginning of everything, I wish to state: 

The love that started on that day was greater than all love anywhere, anytime, and all poetry cannot include it. 

I did not then know what treasure I had, could not, and thus occasionally violated the grandeur of this bond. 

For which I regret. 

But I give deep thanks for the glorious day, and thus the name “Thanks-giving.” What but an unknown force could have given me, a sinner, this woman? Praise God.

Hammett enjoyed the joke — 

one which played to his refusal to make any kind of testimony, whether in love or politics.

 He signed his name, adding his own postscript in an uncertain hand: 

“If this seems incomplete it is probably because I couldn't think of anything else at the time.”

Hobbes and I wonder how Lillian put up with him for 30 Years! How about you?

NO ONE READS BLOGS ANYMORE? IWSG Post

 

https://www.insecurewriterssupportgroup.com/p/iwsg-sign-up.html

Of course you balk at my post title,

since you are reading my blog, right?

But reading is on the decline.  

One in four (27%) of us have not read a book in the last year.

If we as authors write posts primarily to other authors, 

we are in essence singing to the choir.

It is like kissing your sister, convenient but leads nowhere ... 

unless your sister was Angelina Jolie ...

but that is another disturbing story.  Brrr.

John Locke, snake oil salesman 

and book review buyer that he was

actually had a good idea:

We must write to intrigue and entice potential READERS of what we write.

HOOK 

Google Searchers with an intriguing title

 But you must follow the title with a post 

that amuses, entertains, and persuades the reader that your prose is worth gambling 99 cents on.

 On the internet, you can walk away with a click if someone fails to interest you. 

This happens all the time.

TAKE A STAND

Say your piece and stand by it.  

Wafflers are like warm tap water.  

Be hot.  Be cold.  

But write words of steel not water vapor.

You think most Indie Authors are Brand Whores?  

Say it.  Stand by it. 

Endure the storm and stand tall.  

That is what great spirits do.

ACT "AS IF"

In the documentary, "Conan Can't Stop," 

Conan explains how he gets through situations that are hard. 

He says he acts "as if."  

As if he belongs there. 

As if he knows what he's doing.  

As if everything is going to be a success -- 

no matter what he does, no matter what anyone says, no matter how hard it gets.

Write your blog, live the author life that way ...

Write As If people are reading 

and by golly you are going to entertain the socks off them.

Hey, it might even work!