walking through a mix of fall leaves
i see
golds, and browns, and yellows, and oranges, and reds
and…
—
‘on the other hand, you have different fingers.’
-steven wright
Nov7
Author Archives: beth
Nov6
getaway car.
you never know when you’ll need one
good to have it marked.
—
‘but the good news, the crime rate is down. isn’t that amazing?
less banks are being robbed. well, sure.
A, there’s less banks. B, the banks don’t have any money left.
And C, nobody’s got gas money for the getaway car.
so, right there, crime is down!’
-jay leno
Nov5
dignity for all.
yesterday was a voting day in some of the states
wonderful to see such big turnouts
what we chose shows what we value
not just for ourselves
but also for the good of others.
—
‘democracy is not just the right to vote; it is the right to live in dignity.’
-Naomi Klein, Canadian author, social activist, and filmmaker
—
image credit: ACLU of Michigan
Nov4
neighbor.
love the library’s front window
‘love your neighbor’
‘you’re all neighbors.’
—
‘being a good neighbor is an art which makes life richer.’
-gladys taber, american author
Nov3
‘the future is unwritten.’ joe strummer, the clash
now that it’s november
I went on my annual quest
to buy a planning calendar
for the coming year
lo and behold
after going to three stores
not one of them
had a single 2026 calendar
each store seemed puzzled
that none had arrived yet
is this a bad sign
for the coming year?
for the future?
what’s up with 2026?
am i not supposed
to be planning anything
after December 31, 2025?
—
‘tomorrow is only found in the calendar of fools.’
-og mandino, american author and inspirational speaker
—
art credit: the michigan daily
Nov2
dream clocks.
‘calendars and clocks exist to measure time, but that signifies little because we all know that an hour can seem an eternity or pass in a flash, according to how we spend it.’
-michael ende
(on daylight savings day)
—
art credit: Dream Clocks, by Phil Greenwood, etching and aqua tint, Welsh artist, born 1943
Nov1
black medicine water.
coffee on the morning after halloween
—
A list of words for coffee in ten different languages…
10. Welsh = coffi
9. French = café
8. Manx = caffee
7. Romanian = cafea
6. Dutch = koffie
5. German = kaffee
4. Swedish = kaffe
3. Malagasy = kafe
2. Icelandic = kaffi
1. Ojibwe = makade-mashkikiwaaboo (literally “black medicine water”)
(plus others found later and added in below)
Tamil: Kaapi
Hungarian- kávé
Indonesian: Kopi
Spanish: Cafe
Korean: kuppi
Swedish slang for coffee: Java or Kip.
Snutkaffe (cop-coffe): standard black coffee with absolutely no sugar or milk.
Preferably from a gas station.
Onondaga word for coffee: either khófi or ohnegaijíh (black alcohol)
trump: covfefe
The phrase in Welsh according to the BBC for “I like coffee” is “dw’in hoffi coffi”
which does rhyme.
—
I pretty much will drink any coffee. turkish prison coffee, gas station coffee, day old, microwaved, reheated, etc. I especially love the Ojibwe translation (black medicine water), which I find to be quite accurate. anyone have any others?
—
‘coffee is a language in itself.’
-jackie chan
—
source credits: random and all over the place
Oct31
on halloween.
‘when black cats prowl and pumpkins gleam
may luck be yours on halloween.’
-author unknown
—
image credit: pinterest
Oct30
unreliable narrator.
i love telling stories about things that have happened and each time I tell them (just ask my family and friends), they may be just the slightest bit different, but they are as I remember them. perhaps i’m an unreliable narrator, as memoirists are known to be, and i’m okay with that-
‘I won’t tell you the story the way it happened, I’ll tell it to you the way I remember it.’
-Pam Houston
the actual definition of an unreliable narrator as written into literature or film, is the following:
an unreliable narrator is a character who cannot be trusted, one whose credibility is compromised.They can be found in a wide range from children to mature characters.
—
‘I think that at the end of the day I’m drawn to a certain level of ambiguous storytelling that requires hard thought and work in the same way that the New York Times crossword puzzle does: Sometimes you just want to put it down or throw it out the window, but there’s a real rewarding sense if you feel like you’ve cracked it.
-damon lindelof
Oct29
every single one.
we must do everything to keep them safe. every single one of them.
near and far
basic needs
food, medicine, shelter.
I didn't have my glasses on.... 