WHAT WILL BE THE LAST THING YOU DO THIS NEW YEAR'S EVE?

What will be the last thing you do this New Year's Eve?

Or if it has passed, what was it?

What will be, or was, the last meal for you in 2017?

STRANGE NEW YEAR'S EVE BELIEFS

1.) IF YOU DON'T KISS SOMEONE AT MIDNIGHT, YOU WILL BE UNLUCKY IN LOVE ALL YEAR


2.) EMPTY CUPBOARDS MEAN THEY WILL STAY EMPTY ALL YEAR

I wonder if that goes for empty heads as well -- which would explain the politics of this last year!


3.) OPEN ALL THE DOORS JUST BEFORE MIDNIGHT

That is to let out the Old Year and let in the New Year will all its promise.

All the Democrats across America are not only flinging open all their doors tonight, but their windows, too!


4.) EAT 12 GRAPES AT MIDNIGHT

One for each month -- that is just in case you do not like cabbage and black-eyed peas!


5.) NO LOANS TONIGHT

A full wallet seems to give promise for a full bank account during the New Year!


6.) NO TEARS AT MIDNIGHT

Lest you have a year full of sadness.

HERE IS MY WISH 

FOR ALL OF YOU TO HAVE 

MORE SMILES THAN TEARS 

THIS NEW YEAR!

SUPERSTITIONS OF NEW YEAR'S EVE

 Although many of us do not admit to it, we do believe or follow some superstition at one time or another.

Knock on wood?  

I do, usually have to resort to knocking on my head, the universality of plastics you know.

Have you known people to stop a dog from howling to prevent death or 

to get married on a rainy day to insure a long and happy marriage?

 New Year’s Eve also has its fair share of strange myths and weird superstitions 

that are followed by many around the world. 

Here are a few:

1. No sweeping on New Year’s day.  

They say that it is an ominous act and can sweep away the good luck of the entire family.

Well, why not? Anything that keeps you from the nasty chore of cleaning is welcome, right?


 2. Wearing new clothes on New Year's Eve.

 They believe that it ensures a constant supply of new clothes for the whole year to jazz up the wardrobe.


 3. No empty pockets
 
There are people who insist that one should take care to avoid wearing a dress with empty pockets on New Year’s Eve 

since it may be a sign of very low or no income in the year to come.


4. Say no to chicken
 
If you cook any chicken dish on New Year’s day, you will have monetary troubles for the rest of the year.
 
So now you know who is responsible for all your financial troubles this year… 

Colonel Sanders!


5. Don’t do laundry
 
They say that if you do your laundry, you will certainly wash off your luck or will face a year of hard work. 

Even more ominous, doing laundry on this day is also associated with facing a family member’s death.
 
What can I say? These myths sound like work-relieving fun to me!


6. Don’t cry, honey!
 
The wise men (and women) say that one should not be miserable on this day and neither should one cry because that depression will follow you in the year to come.

So, wipe away those tears and be happy! After all, it is a new beginning.

  
7. Be Scrooge on New Year's Eve!

You should not give your cash, ornaments, precious items or other valuable things to anyone

 on the first day of the year because it may be a sign that wealth will be flowing out in the entire year. 

So, hang on to your cash until January 2nd!

  
8. Make noise and hang a lemon at New Year's Eve.

Have you ever wondered why there are fireworks on New Year’s Eve? 

It is to scare away the evil spirits and evil thoughts. 

Even hanging a lemon in the doorway helps in warding off bad spirits.

* The First Foot of New Year has a whole post coming soon here. 

Do you know of any New Year's Eve superstitions?

SO THIS IS TODAY

So this is today ...

   and I am both happy and sad, wondering how that can be.

This photograph of Chief Big Foot left dead and frozen in the snow 

will forever be etched in the minds of American Indians

 as a reminder of the inhumane treatment rendered to their ancestors by the federal government.

Estimates are some 300 men, women and children were killed at the Wounded Knee Massacre today in 1890.

It need not have happened.  

But hate looks the same as everyone else until there are no witnesses.

It is important to always remember what happened by the hands of evil men 

because evil men still exist today. 

Even now, there are evil people who spew out hatred against others 

who may not be their same race, color or religion today.

MY FRIEND AND COLLABORATOR, 

ROBERT ROSSMANN

has a new web page out:

 http://www.robertrossmann.com/

Now available on cdbaby.com

A CHRISTMAS CAROL by Charles Dickens, recorded live by Robert Rossmann. 

Soon to be out on audio by Robert as well: 

                         

He  just finished Chapter 5 
of his new production for me.

The grey clouds swirled angrily, silently, looking as if God had burned the sins of yesterday, casting them to the winds.  Meilori hugged my arm.  

 I looked down, watching her silently, effortlessly holding my universe together.    

Sometimes I can feel my heart straining under the weight of all the lives I’ve taken.   

Then, I look into her slanted eyes, jade quarter moons waiting to rise, and the world makes sense again.

I looked away from her as if she were the sun.  Yet, I still saw her, like the sun, even without looking.  Love is like that.

“Beloved,” she sighed.  “One day your compassion will be the death of us.”

I nodded.  “All my futile efforts to make the world better: a dream, a dream … that most like will end in nothing, leaving me where I laid down.”

I bent my head, kissing her soft lips lightly.  “But I wish you to know that you inspired it.”

Meilori turned wet eyes away from me, and Sammy said from behind us, “I reckon that in a sense, Lady Meilori, we are all each other’s consequences.”

“Just so,” she murmured.  “Just so.”

Meilori sighed, “We cross our bridges as we come to them and burn them behind us, 

with nothing to show for our efforts except a memory of the smell of smoke, and the heat at our backs.”

MAY YOUR NEW YEAR BE EVEN BETTER THAN YOU WISH IT TO BE!

HOW TO MAKE PEACE WITH THE SHARK OF REJECTION

YOU CHOSE TO SWIM IN 

SHARK-INFESTED WATERS

We all did when we became writers.

You don't step into the ring 

unless you can take a punch

But you will be knocked down 

more than you will win.

That's just the nature of the business.

The key is to find the strength and will 

to get back up.

In 1923, Babe Ruth held the record for ...

HOME RUNS in a season

HIGHEST BATTING RECORD

and

He STRUCK OUT more times 

than any other

Major League player 

that season.

He said:

"It's hard to beat a person who never gives up."

"Every strike brings me closer 

to the next home run."

"Never let the fear of striking out 

keep you from the game."

Ray Bradbury started out young as a writer --

at 12,

writing on the only paper available:

Butcher's Paper

since it was the Great Depression.

He kept on getting rejected. 

 He promised himself that he would quit if he could not sell a story by the 500th rejection.

You guessed it: 

he sold a story on his 500th attempt.

"You have to learn to take rejection, not as an indication of personal failing, but as a wrong address."

Ray Bradbury said:

"Man has always been half-monster, 

half-dreamer.

Once you understand that,

then you can write a full story."

Writing is not a sprint.

It is a marathon.

And you win a marathon by 

always moving forward.

And enjoying the race doesn't hurt either.

Listen to the wisdom

of Ray Bradbury

and

grow as a writer:

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MARLENE!

Today is Marlene Dietrich's 116th birthday!

Before GHOST OF A CHANCE ...


http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0097Z99YM

there was a ghost in the night.

{Image courtesy of Google}

It was that moment between waking and dream. I was sitting on my apartment terrace. The night spoke to me in its velvet silence.

Owl happily was not speaking my name. He perched on the cypress branch opposite me, studying me as I was admiring him.

Brother raccoon scurried in the bushes below, carrying some prize in his front right paw.

My cat, Gypsy, twitched her tail on the window sill, the mysteries of ages whispering in her half-closed, green eyes.

My own eyes were heavy. Too many miles driven. Too few hours slept.

I put the period to the last sentence of my blog post about Marlene Dietrich with the troops in the front lines during WWII:

**
One afternoon after VE Day, she was walking through a little French village. All around her was rubble, and she couldn't understand why 

-- all the buildings along the street were still standing with curtains blowing frilly and snapping clean-crisp in their windows.

Then, she looked through one of the windows to see that there was nothing behind it. 

The fronts of the buildings were still standing, but everything behind them had been destroyed. 

There wasn't a single living person past the false fronts of those caricature buildings.

Only one lone doll lay forlorn in the rubbled middle of nothing.

With her face cupped in trembling hands, she stood in front of that window, weeping silently, refusing to be comforted ...

"... for there is no comfort for the dead," she whispered.

***

Beside me a husky voice intoned, "Keine Komfort für die Toten."

I went cold and still, sliding my eyes as far to the right as they could go without moving my head. My mouth became salt.

Marlene Dietrich.

In a frilly black night wrap and not much else.

She was perched over the top of a wavering, insubstantial leather chair like a cougar ready to strike.

"You write so beautifully of me. Why?"

"Y-You were brave, selfless -- entertaining the troops on the front lines with a death sentence from Hitler on your head."

I cleared my fear-thick throat. "People have forgotten that."

She reached out and stroked my cheek with chill fingers of mist.

"It is not important for the world to remember me -- only that I did not forget myself when I was needed."

"And words like that are why I write of you."

Marlene fluffed my hair with ghost fingers. It tickled.

"Do you know what they call you in the ShadowLands, liebling?"

"N-No."

"Sänger von Träumen -- DreamSinger."

"I - I don't understand."

Her ice blue eyes hollowed. "One day you will."

In ghost whispers, she murmured, "Death and love."

"What?"

"I thought I knew them, liebchen. I was so sure. I died. Then, I saw life with new eyes."

She leaned forward, her eyes suddenly sparkling. "See you in your dreams, liebling."

And like a cloud robbing me of sunlight, Marlene was gone. I was alone. Well, not quite.

Gypsy was in my lap, yawning. It takes a lot to shake up the granddaughter of Bast.
***

HAVE YOU EVER WONDERED?

Have you ever watched an action movie and asked yourself:

"What would that REALLY do to a person?"

Sure you have.  

Me, too.

Take two Holiday favorites.

Here are the answers 

to that question for them:

Ouch, right!?

And here are the answers for a third:

Talk about Christmas miracles!

What movies do you wonder about?