The world breaks everyone, and afterward, some are strong at the broken places. Ernest Hemingway

June 30, 2015 sarren126@gmail.com Leave a comment

Worked all day yesterday–just getting organized and spruced up so that I can start listing this afternoon don’t forget to check out my store: https://www.etsy.com/shop/DragonLaire?ref=hdr_shop_menu Pictures today are more MT. DORA (main one ) on the ground at Lakeside Inn https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lakeside_Inn_(Mount_Dora,_Florida) and along the Dora Canal https://www.lakecountyfl.gov/boating/the_dora_canal.aspx You can’t get away from ads anywhere. Oh and see more of MY View of Florida with my pin Floridays https://www.pinterest.com/lindachase56829/floridays/ and completely off the subject but I’m working on a trip to England next year—what do you think of Lincoln Castle? www.lincolncastle.com or Gilford in the Heart of Surrey: www.visitguildford.com and a trip to New Port Richie next month: any particular favorites? http://nsbfla.com/video.cfm

The best way to find out if you can trust somebody is to trust them.

Ernest Hemingway

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SO WHAT ARE YOU DOING WITH OUT A NEW EPISODE EVERY SAT AT 9???? I TRY TO WATCH RERUNS–ESPECIALLY 107 AND 109 OFTEN ENOUGHT TO KEEP WITHDRAWAL SYMPTOMS AT BAY. No relief this year: Check this one out—Sam doing French for interview: http://www.outlandertvnews.com/2015/06/how-has-sam-heughan-been-progressing-with-french-lessons/

An intelligent man is sometimes forced to be drunk to spend time with his fools.

Ernest Hemingway

Feb 1993 RACING NEWS SpeedWeeks Action at Daytona Ready to Unfurl

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Well here goes my 2nd Author of the Week that relocated (at least for awhile) to Florida and was a noted addition to the state’s history and literature: Ernest Hemingway

Courage is grace under pressure.

Ernest Hemingway

ERNEST HEMINGWAY

After he published The Sun Also Rises (1926), he and his wife Pauline (2nd ) came to Key West (1928).

He came from Europe (Paris where he had lived for seven years) with a sojourn in Cuba and at the recommendation of another author: John Dos Passos.

There is nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and bleed.

Ernest Hemingway

KEY WEST & THE FLORIDA KEYS

Hemingway’s two sons (Patrick & Gregory) were raised in Key West

Hemingway was 29 years old and in his prime when he arrived in Key West. He would work on his novels in the mornings and spend his afternoons and into the evening—but usually home by midnight so he could start his day early again–with the characters and toughs of the place, doing amateur fighting and drinking booze that was readily available even during probation from the many rumrunners who plied the waters about the small island only 90 miles from Cuba.

Hemingway found the Gulf stream and it fabulous fishing in the Keys. He even wrote a letter about this to Esquire magazine in 1936.

After the 1935 Labor Day Hurricane Hemingway went by boat from Key West to the scene of the storm and was shocked and appalled by the fate of veterans working in a Depression program in the Keys. “…Out of 187 only 8 survived…” He went on to write stories that were carried about the nation and which brought investigation of the entire program.

Hemingway called Key West “St. Topez of the Poor”, He arrived at the beginning of a famous career and his life here was seen by the world in news reels and Life Magazine.

While Hemingway was in Spain in 1938 covering the Civil War Pauline added a swimming pool to their home–the first in the city. She in fact remained in the house (which was originally purchased for the couple by a member of her wealthy family) until her death in 1951. Hemingway didn’t return to the house but he kept it until 1961 when he finally sold it.

Books about Hemingway in Key West include:

Papa: Hemingway in Key West McLendon 1972

Hemingway’s Florida (Lost Generation Journal Vol 1, no. 2) Brasher 1973

With Hemmingway: A Year in Key West and Cuba Samuelson 1984

Ernest Hemingway in Key West Bellavance-Johnson 1987

Never go on trips with anyone you do not love.

Ernest Hemingway

THE BOOKS

While in Key West he wrote

A Farewell to Arms (1929)

Death In the Afternoon (1932)

Green Hills of Africa (1935)

To Have and Have Not (1937)*

For Whom The Bells Tolls (1940)

in his studio on top of the pool house.

*Only one was set in Key West, actually it is the only of his novels actually set in the US.

They wrote in the old days that it is sweet and fitting to die for one’s country. But in modern war, there is nothing sweet nor fitting in your dying. You will die like a dog for no good reason.

Ernest Hemingway

THE PLACES

HEMINGWAY HOUSE

http://www.hemingwayhome.com/

907 Whitehead St.

Most famous literary site in Key West. He owned the house from 1931-1961 (but he only lived there until 1940). Of interest is the very badly laid out brick wall around the property. Tradition is that when the City put his home on a list of tourist (He complained of this in a 1935 letter to Esquire) he first hired a local black man with a odd skin disease that looked like leprosy to meet visitors and later with the assistance of his handy man he built the wall, obviously without levels or any other normal brick laying equipment. Today there is a guided home and grounds tour which includes the famous Sloppy Joe urinal (which some sources state was brought home by Pauline and not Ernest) , the studio with its connecting cat walk from the house; and a hand-blown Venetian glass chandelier purchased with money from Pauline’s dowry.

CAPTAIN TONY’S SALOON

http://www.capttonyssaloon.com/

Greene St.

Where the original Sloppy Joe’s Bar (founded by Joe Russell –some say he got the knick name “Sloppy Joe” from the author) was located. Russell moved the bar to its present location in 1937 when the landlord here raised the rent. So the author spent considerable time at this location. In fact it’s where he met writer Martha Gellhorn, who was in Key West expressly to meet Hemingway. The meet up was so successful that an affair began resulting in his divorce from wife number two and his marrying Gellhorn and leaving Key West for Cuba. Least you feel too bad for Pauline, she had befriended his first wife Hadley, socialized and traveled with the couple and eventually became #2.

CASA ANTIGUA

http://www.fodors.com/world/north-america/usa/florida/the-florida-keys/things-to-do/shopping/reviews/pelican-poop-shoppe-575833/

314 Simonton St.

Now Apartments this was a hotel where Hemingway and Pauline stayed when they first came to Key West and where he fell in love with the island and its way of life and decided to stay. If you go into the Pelican Poop Gift Shop they will sell you an admission or buy something for a prescribed amount and get a free admission. The hotel is gone but there’s a great court yard built around a cistern that is totally charming and worth a visit.

SLOPPY JOE’S BAR

https://sloppyjoes.com/

201 Duval St.

Just about half a block from Captain Tony’s the place is a bit touristy now days but it has (according to locals) some good groups playing and it was frequented by Hemingway. In fact it is reported that after Hemingway on July 2, 1961, “quite deliberately” shot himself with his favorite shotgun, that there were still items there that Hemingway had left with Russell for safe keeping . By the way at his death Hemingway was with Mary Welsh wife number 4.

BLUE HEAVEN

www.blueheavenkw.com/

There used to be a boxing ring here that Hemingway use to spar at. A Cuban tradition–there were also cock fighting and there’s still a rooster cemetery as well. Oh and the water tower is from Little Torch Key and was part of the Overseas Hwy. which died in that 1935 hurricane. There was also a “house of ill repute” here and the tiny rooms are up stairs from the yard in which you eat your meal–breakfast here being Divine.

Islamorada sites:

Bass Pro Shop

http://www.basspro.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/CFPageC?storeId=10151&catalogId=10051&langId=-1&appID=94&tab=3&storeID=21

81576 Overseas Hwy

Has Hemingway’s Pilar’s sister boat (very much like) on display in its huge store and while you’re there step out back for lunch or dinner at their restaurant The Islamorada Fish Company

Hurricane Monument

http://www.whats-at-florida-keys.com/Hurricane-Monument.html

To those who died in the 1935 storm and many of those victim’s ashes are buried beneath it.

Every man’s life ends the same way. It is only the details of how he lived and how he died that distinguish one man from another.

Ernest Hemingway

“Love is all the dirty little tricks you taught me that you probably got out of some book.”
― Ernest Hemingway, To Have and Have Not

BEATLES COLLECTOR (Baseball type) Card

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Sources:

A Key West Companion Christopher Cox

Key West & The Florida Keys June Keith

The Book Lover’s Guide to Florida Kevin M. McCarthy Editor

The Houses of Key West Alex Caemmerer

Small KITTY CUCUMBER Ballet Dancer in Pink 1986

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“Madness is only a variety of mental nonconformity and we are all individualists here.” Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings

June 29, 2015 sarren126@gmail.com Leave a comment

Been busy again. Friday night was drinks with the girls and Sat was nails, toes and shopping. Sunday was Mt. Dora. http://ci.mount-dora.fl.us/ First was Pisces Rising (http://www.piscesrisingdining.com/) for a great lunch. Then we stopped at Gate House Gift Gallery (http://www.lakeside-inn.com/the-gatehouse) where we bought bunches of stuff including jewelry, and even chocolate wine, on for a two hours boat trip on Lake Dora and the Dora Canal (http://www.doracanaltour.com/) for a great time. Finally The Lakeside Inn (http://www.lakeside-inn.com/) where we had drinks and snacks and listened to a group by the fire place doing an impromptu music session. By the way the main picture and the one above this paragraph are both from the Inn one from the porch of the Gate House Gallery and the other from inside the bar.

“We cannot live without the Earth or apart from it, and something is shrivelled in a man’s heart when he turns away from it and concerns himself only with the affairs of men”
― Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, Cross Creek

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Watching Reruns in my spare time—Jamie (and Claire) miss ya . It’s DROUGHTLANDER TILL 2015: http://www.christiantoday.com/article/outlander.season.2.release.date.2016.latest.news.sam.heughan.talks.about.film.location.jamies.rape.scene/57206.htm

“Good” is what helps us or at least does not hinder. “Evil” is whatever harms us or interferes with us, according to our own selfish standards.”
― Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, Cross Creek

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OK this week I’m gonna look at Authors That Made Florida Home:

Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings:

Ms. Rawlings moved to Cross Creek in 1928, born in 1896, she grew up in Washington, D.C. She completed a A.B. Degree at the University of Wisconsin in 1918 and later married Charles Rawlings and moved to Rochester, N.Y. where she wrote a woman’s column in the local newspaper: “Songs of the Housewife.” She also tried writing harlequin novels.

“Who owns Cross Creek? The red-birds, I think, more than I, for they will have their nests even in the face of delinquent mortgages)..It seems to me that the earth may be borrowed, but not bought. It may be used, but not owned. It gives itself in response to love and tending, offers its seasonal flowering and fruiting. But we are tenants and not possessors, lovers, and not masters. Cross Creek belongs to the wind and the rain, to the sun and the seasons, to the cosmic secrecy of seed, and beyond all, to time…”
”
― Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, Cross Creek

CROSS CREEK

“When I came to Cross Creek, and knew the old grove and farmhouse at once as home, there was some terror, such as one feels in the first recognition of a human love, for the joining of persons to place, as of person to person, is a commitment to share sorrow, even as to shared Joy.” Rawlings.

It was unusual for a young single woman to live alone in what was at this time (and hasn’t change a bunch since) in a virtual wilderness. She wasn’t originally alone but came to Florida with her husband Charles to reside at rundown farm they purchased near a little stream called Cross Creek. Charles was suppose to do the chores to bring the place from its poor state but in a years time he had left (and divorced her as well) her to fare alone in the little improved plot of land. Its reported that even her dog hated it so much she had to give him to city dwelling friends.

She stayed on and rented a small house on the property to a series of black and white tenants who were suppose to help her out, but generally just left her in a worse state and established a habit of sleeping with a firearm but she did eventually mange to get a nice citrus grove in and a vegetable garden in the back yard. Her cook and maid for 13 years also wrote a book: Ms. Parker with Mary Keating wrote Idella: Marjorie Rawlings’ “Perfect Maid” 1992, a frank story about working for the author.

Cross Creek had only a few other settlers–not even a village but just a loose group of homes (5 whites and two blacks) along a dirt road that lead to Island Grove. She eventually became friends with them. And she began to keep track of the people and events that made up civilization in the near wilderness in which they resided.

While living here she wrote stories about the people around her; she also collected recipes all an account of a part of America little known to the rest of the world.

However it wasn’t all friendship and roses–one of her neighbors (Zelma Cason) sued her for invasion of privacy for mention of her in her Cross Creek book ( where Rawlings implied she like to curse) and there was a long period of law suits which Rawlings finally lost (but her only fine was a dollar plus court costs. However the court and attorney fees were $32,000.) There’s book by Patricia Nassif Acton that describes the trail Invasion of Privacy: The Cross Creek Trial of Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings 1988. Oh and Zelma and Rawlings did eventually became friends again.

She kept her home here for a retreat even after she moved her permanent residence to St. Augustine in the 1940s.

“He lay down beside the fawn. He put one arm across its neck. It did not seem to him that he could ever be lonely again.”
― Marjorie K“

THE BOOKS

Ms. Rawlings far from failed. Her book The Yearling (her most famous work about a young boy growing up in the nearby scrub) was excellent, published in 1938 it was very successful, made her popular and won her a Pulitzer in 1939.

She wrote several stories many of which appeared in When the Whippoorwill 1940 (one of her short stories won the O. Henry Memorial Prize in 1933)

She left Cross Creek when in 1941 she Married Norton Baskin and moved to St. Augustine and wrote her memoirs: Cross Creek. It is a timeless account of a Florida that is a classic.

She also wrote Cross Creek Cookery in 1942 where she complied recipes and food lore of the region as well as South Moon Under 1933: About a family growing up in the scrub country of Central Florida) Golden Apples 1935: About a young Englishman and two Cracker Floridians and Sojourner 1953: About a Midwestern farm life after the Civil War.

“Somewhere beyond the sink-hole, past the magnolia, under the live oaks, a boy and a yearling ran side by side, and were gone forever.”
― Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings

THE MOVIES

The Yearling http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0039111/ was made into a blockbuster movie in 1938 and starred Gregory Peck and Jane Wyman.

“Gal Young ‘Un” http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0079190/ was made into a short movie which won director, Victor Nunez, the Best First Feature Award at the Chicago International Film Festival.

Cross Creek http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0085380/ with Mary Steenburgen, Rip Torn, Peter Coyote In 1930’s Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings moves to Florida’s backwaters to write in peace got 4 academy award nominations and was filmed in he area.

“Sift each of us through the great sieve of circumstance and you have a residue, great or small as the case may be, that is the man or the woman.”
― Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, Cross Creek

THE PLACES

The Cross Creek State Park https://www.floridastateparks.org/park/Marjorie-Kinnan-Rawlings Here you can see a typical 19th c “Florida Cracker” house with its porches and breezeways to deal with the oppressive summer heat pre-a/c. and fireplaces for heat in the winter. This particular house contains Rawlings furniture including a table whose base is a cabbage palm. The home is open daily and there is a small admission in Hawthorne Florida. You can also wander the groves she had planted. Oh and the road, though still a small country lane, here is now paved by the way.

Antioch Cemetery http://www.marjoriekinnanrawlings.org/antioch.php After the problems with the law suits Rawlings became increasingly depressed and started drinking more and more heavily, she died in 1953 of a cerebral hemorrhage at her home in St. Augustine. She is now buried at this cemetery next to her second husband Norton Baskin. Antioch Cemetery on the outskirts of Island Grove, about seven miles east of her home in Cross Creek. She actually picked a different cemetery with the same name in Cross Creek, which she had picked out when she attended a funeral there for a friend. However the funeral director though her husband meant the Island Grove one. In fact this cemetery is closer her old home and contains more of her old friends.

Ocala National Forest http://www.fs.usda.gov/recarea/ocala/recarea/?recid=40186 Take The Yearling Trail: SR 19 to the east of Juniper Springs, drive north on SR 19 for 6.2 miles. The trailhead is well marked: Take a trek back in time to Pat’s Island on the Yearling Trail, a walk through the Big Scrub to an island of pine that the Long family once called home. This interpretive trail system leads you past a variety of historic structures, including an old cattle dip vat, a cistern, the remains of several homestead sites, and the Long family cemetery. In the center of it all is a giant sinkhole where the pre-1900 settlers collected drinking water.

Island Grove https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Island_Grove,_Florida this is the town that was Purley in Golden Apples.

Orange Lake http://myfwc.com/fishing/freshwater/sites-forecast/nc/orange-lake/ became Sawgrass Lake also in Golden Apples and real places like Lake Locloosa and the mythological named River Styx are also in her novels.

“Now he understood. This was death. Death was a silence that gave back no answer.”
― Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, The Yearling

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Norton Baskin wrote of her, “Marjorie was the shyest person I have ever known. This was always strange to me as she could stand up to anybody in any department of endeavor but time after time when she was asked to go some place or to do something she would accept -‘if I would go with her.'”

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Sources:

Best Backroads of Florida Douglas Waitley

Hidden Florida: The Adventurer’s Guide Candace Leslie, et al.

The Book Lover’s Guide To Florida Editor Kevin M. McCarthy

The Florida One-Day Trip Book Edwards Hayes

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It is a man’s own mind, not his enemy or foe, that lures him to evil ways. Buddha

June 26, 2015 sarren126@gmail.com Leave a comment

My Featured picture and the small one just here—are from Casa Feliz (http://casafeliz.squarespace.com/) Enter inside to discover interiors skillfully refurbished to their original splendor. The rich details of the house–the living room’s vaulted ceiling of massive hand-hewn beams; the heavily carved European antiques accenting each room; a Majolica-tiled interior courtyard and fountain; arched doorways and a circular staircase–combine for a setting at once comforting and breathtaking. Visited this lovely place in Winter Park Florida last Sunday–it was wonderful. Yesterday went to dinner and a movie with one of my meet up groups: Meet up Groups (http://www.meetup.com/cities/us/)are available through out the US–while I don’t suffer from not having things to do what with my store (https://www.etsy.com/shop/DragonLaire?ref=hdr_shop_menu) 15 Boards on Pinterest (https://www.pinterest.com/lindachase56829/my-world/) not to mention this Blog and a Meet Up Group I assist with by doing a meet up a month, its still fun to get a new perspective on things—oh and I am planning a trip to England which will include: http://www.bobholidays.com/tours/north-york-moors-day-trip

All good is hard. All evil is easy. Dying, losing, cheating, and mediocrity is easy. Stay away from easy.

Scott Alexander

JAPANESE Circular and Deep ASHTRAY Trimmed in Gold w/Characters Purchased in Japan Vintage

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ALL LAST SEASON’S EPISODES ARE AVAILABLE TODAY ON STARZ ON DEMAND TODAY—I THOUGHT YOU MUST DO IT THE BACK WAY, LIKE HORSES I can watch 7 again—-get my full view of (well almost) of Jamie. http://www.dianagabaldon.com/other-projects/outlander-tv-series/where-to-watch/

The battle line between good and evil runs through the heart of every man.

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

LOVERBOY "Wildside" LP Vinyl 33 1/3 albumn

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OK today we’ll look at men and evil—-in a responsibility of same way.

When I Googled Most evil man ever I got (to no surprise) Adolph Hitler. A man who was an average artist, who never succeeded until he started ranting against persons that pretty much were a lot like his non-blonde, short and un-Germanic looking self. So he almost ended Europe with self loathing-(His father was born out of wedlock and his grandmother had been a servant for a Jewish family–a real possibility for the Master of the Master race)–According to the History Channel: ” Writing in the Flemish-language magazine Knack, Mulders reported that the relatives’ most dominant haplogroup, known as E1b1b, is rare in Western Europeans but common among North Africans, and particularly the Berber tribes of Morocco, Algeria, Libya and Tunisia. It is also one of the major founding lineages of the Jewish population, present in 18 to 20 percent of Ashkenazi Jews and 8.6 to 30 percent of Sephardic Jews. In other words, Hitler’s family tree may have included Jewish and African ancestors.” http://www.history.com/news/study-suggests-adolf-hitler-had-jewish-and-african-ancestors Millions dead due to self loathing or perhaps loathing of his bastard father and less than sterling grandmother? Sad but no excuse…A little man who could only be important by being the evil most men fear.

Of course Joseph Stalin (whom many consider right up there with Hitler) in my book never got called to task for his part in killing many of his own country men from political enemies to unwanted citizens-as well as many others and crimes against mankind untold-which goes to show that not all those that are evil pays the price for their deeds.

And another of Hitler’s category: Radovan Karadžić accused of genocide and other war crimes across Bosnia during the 1990s. http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/sep/30/radovan-karadzic-verdict-international-justice

“…the personification of the devil as the symbol of all evil assumes the living shape of the Jew.”

- Adolf Hitler, Mein Kampf

After we go by older persons (Dracula) that don’t fit into my criteria for the more modern evil that can be judged better by the current day’s morals (also next picture is Joseph Mengele as I don’t want this all about Nazis) we come to our token Serial Killer Ted Bundy. Now Ted is best known for ending (and I do mean ending) his killing spree of women in Florida so we kind think of him as our own contribution of riding the world of a threat. As serial killer Bundy, like Jack the Ripper–who not only wasn’t ever caught but wasn’t even identified–who killed only woman. The Ripper had ever a finer distention as he only murdered prostitutes. According to Bio: “While a student at the University of Washington, Bundy fell in love with a wealthy, pretty young woman from California. She had everything that he wanted: money, class, and influence. He was devastated by their breakup. Many of his later victims resembled his college girlfriend—attractive students with long, dark hair. His killings also usually followed a gruesome pattern. He often raped his victims before beating them to death.” http://www.biography.com/people/ted-bundy-9231165#an-unexpected-killer Bundy had a degree in psychology, was reportedly charming to friends and those he worked with and dubbed the Deliberate Stranger in a biography as his victims were not among this group…I have no idea what threw this man to the dark side–but he is a our representative of the group of killers that seem to be forever appearing in the nightmares of our society–though they vary from abused victims themselves to Bundy’s case where the reason for his murderous rage is more difficult to phantom. John Wayne Gacey the evil clown who killed young men is also on the high priority on this evil listing and of course David Berkowitz, the Son of Sam to name just a few.

Murder is not about lust and it’s not about violence. It’s about possession.” Ted Bundie

Next (after another serial killer picture (Alexander Richter) we come to this man. Pol Pot “He presided over a totalitarian dictatorship, in which his government made urban dwellers move to the countryside to work in collective farms and on forced labour projects. The combined effects of executions, strenuous working conditions, malnutrition and poor medical care caused the deaths of approximately 25 percent of the Cambodian population. in all, an estimated 1 to 3 million people (out of a population of slightly over 8 million) died due to the policies of his four-year premiership. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pol_Pot . I didn’t include him under dictators with Hitler as Hitler was European while Pot was Asian/Eastern and their philosophy is different and while that doesn’ t exclude him from the evil category it does get him a listing all his own. Another candidate under this is Moa.

Since he is of no use anymore, there is no gain if he lives and no loss if he dies.

Pol Pot

I’m skipping Aleister Crowley, a bi-sexual witch—which comes under specific beliefs of what is evil and what’s not according to religion etc. Also I do not feel that Erwin Rommel belongs for while war is an evil and he was fighting for an evil commander, he does not meet the definition of the evil I am trying to define.

Ordinary morality is only for ordinary people.

Aleister Crowley

The Svengali like Charlie Mansion is not new—check out Rasputin (who by the way isn’t pictured) and his contribution to the Russian Revolution and the death of his followers the Czar and his family. A Svengali is a person who manipulates or exerts excessive control over another. Svengali is a fictional character in George du Maurier‘s 1895 novel Trilby. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Svengali. What better example is Mansion who took some teens and with drugs and sex and a weird manifesto of the blacks rebelling and Mansion then putting everything in its proper order (Helter Skelter) got them to kill the rich and famous of Beverly Hills and then insisted he shouldn’t be held responsible as he wasn’t there when it happened. Evil by manipulation is one of my tops baddies but I do not hold the persons who did it guiltless—We must be responsible for our own deeds—the German people gave up their conscious to Hitler, American youths in California to an ex-con who gave them freedom from conscious too–unfortunately for them all the rest of the world didn’t see it that way—Thank heaven for the rest of us.

From the world of darkness I did loose demons and devils in the power of scorpions to torment.

Charles Manson

Vintage SILVER-TONE Rhinestone LEAF Broach 2 1/4" Across

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Love, Work, Music

I believe that we are solely responsible for our choices, and we have to accept the consequences of every deed, word, and thought throughout our lifetime.

Elisabeth Kubler-Ross

Every person has free choice. Free to obey or disobey the Natural Laws. Your choice determines the consequences. Nobody ever did, or ever will, escape the consequences of his choices.

Alfred A. Montapert

Whether you call it Buddhism or another religion, self-discipline, that’s important. Self-discipline with awareness of consequences.

Dalai Lama

Lover Boy KEEP It UP Vinyl 33 1/3 lp CBS 1983 Recording

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EVER DANCED WITH THE DEVIL BY THE PALE MOONLIGHT–THE JOKER/BATMAN

June 24, 2015 sarren126@gmail.com Leave a comment

Grief I’m getting boring…listing stuff all day yesterday. Oh check out a different one of my pins: https://www.pinterest.com/lindachase56829/for-your-health/ I found another artist, but he doesn’t sell on line: Juan Carlos Cahue jccahue@msn.com if you’re looking for some one of a kind jewelry–oh and he does show at The Villages Fl. , The Spanish Spring Square, M/W https://www.thevillages.com/lifestyle/ssTownSquare.asp and Ocala Farmers Market on Sat. http://www.ocalafarmmarket.com/Home.html Today is just another work day–mailed out an item I sold But check this one out—cute, fun and inexpensive: http://www.ebay.com/itm/261942019546?ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1558.l2649.

“They tell me your son squealed like a girl when they nailed him to the cross.”

Commodus (Joaquin Phoenix)

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I like this one–it’s the first look on Jamie (Fraser’s) face after Claire corrects him to say that “I did like it Jamie.” after the first time. http://putlocker.is/watch-outlander-tvshow-season-1-episode-7-online-free-putlocker.html

All of you are beneath me! I am a god, you dull creature, and I shall not be bullied by… – Loki

PRECIOUS MOMENTS “You Are My Song” Vase 1980’s

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TODAY I thought we’d look at our media’s idea of evil and see how this tells us more of our concept.

I think first we might look at the old and new of it. Fairy tales have been around for years, long before anyone we know was alive. They are scary stories of witches and werewolves and evil queens (very close the female witch that ate little children which they trapped with flavored houses….we actually have made them kinder and gentler–scary considering that they’re still very bizarre and threatening–Above is the original Snow White Villain that I saw as a child.

Heeeeres Johnny – Jack Torrance (The Shining)

More recently we have seen Charlize Theron kill the king and attempt to do so to his daughter in Snow White and the Huntsman –in this one we have a strong male who doesn’t fall under her seductive spell and a heroine who ends up at the end with the choice of a prince or a huntsman (who is a god in another life)

No, Mr Bond. I expect you to die! – Auric Goldfinger (Goldfinger)

and Angelina Jolie who gives us a little different slant to the villainous queen in Malficent where the villainous woman is fae. All in all our evil queen which first gave us the evilness of women with a witchy undercurrent hasn’t changed much.

We still believe in her and her ability to manipulate men with her beauty and if that doesn’t work betrayal and death added by an underlying vein of dark magic. To me it is significant that the story has endured for so many year and keeps coming back a sure sign that we are impressed by evil women (read fear, envy and feel inferior to) and how they manipulate men at the expense of others including younger women. An evil personage but hardly the worse in popular fiction.

I have to go now, I’m having an old friend for dinner. – Hannibal Lecter (Silence of the Lambs)

THEN THERE’S THE BAD FATHER:

The once pure Jedi Knight who now a twisted, grotesque being who has gone to the Dark side—and suddenly you see that being an orphan can actually get much worse when you find out that your genes are from a creature like Darth Vader.

Are you sure you wouldn’t like to stay just a little while longer? Just for talk? – Norman Bates (Psycho)

While I agree with King that Nicholson’s performance was over acting at its worst—this scene from The Shinning is perfect for our Bad Father #2–the evil that erupts from an unstable or perhaps just basically evil man who happens to be husband and father is an evil that most of us would find the most disturbing and terrible.

I am your number one fan. There is nothing to worry about. You are going to be just fine. – Annie Wilkes (Misery)

And who could do worse for a father than Kenna Reeves in Devil’s Advocate when he discovers his father is actually the Devil and there’s an extra back slap in that Reeves is an attorney and his dad Al Pacino runs a very successful law firm.

So here we have statement on the evil father—a betrayal that is second only to one as far as what human relationships go and hence it is included as one of our top evils. Oh and we’re at it we’re not too fond of attorneys either–and they get put right up there with the lord of the evil angels in our fiction.

I’m going to make him an offer he can’t refuse – Vito Corleone (The Godfather)

and bad mothers:

Will we ever look at a wire hanger the same again after seeing this scene from Mommy Dearest where Faye Dunaway played another real life actress Joan Crawford from a book by one of her two adopted children.

“Do you want to know why I use a knife? Guns are too quick. You can’t savour all the… little emotions. In… you see, in their last moments, people show you who they really are.”

The Joker (Heath Ledger)

And then there’s the Mom on Throw Momma from the Train–I mean in one’s worst nightmare there isn’t a more evil, ugly, nagging and nightmarish creature and when her son sets up an agreement to murder her with another we’re almost in agreement—this is sort of reverse discrimination on mother love kinda show where the greatest evil goes from killing mom to mom herself.

None of you understand. I’m not locked up in here with you. You’re locked up in here with me. — Watchmen

Oh but wait there is a worse one–the child abusive, nagging and pretty much rotted away in her room, while her disturbed, PSYCHO son Norman Bates does drag in her honor.

So the ultimate betrayal–the mother and step mother—while the step mother is always a bit suspect the mother from whose womb we sprang, who nurtured us up close and personal is to most the least expected and the most evil of all those bad people out there and whether they are nasty and demanding or the ultimate abusive both physically, mentally and sexually they seem to be our main and utmost evil in our world today.

If you try to run, I’ve got six little friends and they can all run faster than you can. — From Dusk Til Dawn

and my most evil villain

In All the President’s Men Redford and Dustin Hoffman play two real life news men who out the corruption and paranoid behavior within our government in a time that I lived through in a non-celluloid world–This betrayal by our government is and was to me one of the greatest evils.

To the last, I will grapple with thee… from Hell’s heart, I stab at thee! For hate’s sake, I spit my last breath at thee! — Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan

VINTAGE FLORIDA Small (3 1/2 ") White w/Gold Trim with Flamingo Souvenir Item

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Mongol General: What is best in life? Conan: To crush your enemies, to see them driven before you, and to hear the lamentations of their women! — Conan

Reco Presents “Our Cherished Seas” WHALE SONG Numbered Plate…

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All concerns of men go wrong when they wish to cure evil with evil. SOPHOCLES, The Sons of Aleus

June 23, 2015 sarren126@gmail.com Leave a comment

So another day another work work work day Check out some of my efforts: My store on Etsy: https://www.etsy.com/shop/DragonLaire?ref=hdr_shop_menu How about my Pinetrest—there’s my novel quotes, background stories, research and more: https://www.pinterest.com/lindachase56829/my-novels/ and my OMG entries https://www.pinterest.com/lindachase56829/omg-is-this-for-real/ Oh before I forget went to a festival at a local winery lately and this artist whom I am impressed with was there www.dswildart.com and check out this great vintage shop http://vintageview.com/local-dealers/ in Clermont Florida. Oh and for customized, unique and musical wind chime contact mjlucas@robertwlucas.com

The soul that has conceived one wickedness can nurse no good thereafter.

SOPHOCLES, Philoctetes

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There are blue eyes and then there are Jamie Alexander Malcom McKenzie Fraser’s BLUE EYES. http://www.realtytoday.com/articles/16745/20150622/outlander-star-sam-heughan-teases-season-2-will-exciting-very.htm

Evil is unspectacular and always human And shares our bed and eats at our own table.

W.H. AUDEN, Herman Melville

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Today I think of as a carry on in defining evil, in dealing with how Religions have dealt with it now and in the past and how many of them actually becomes part of our definition of it.

The evil that is in the world almost always comes of ignorance, and good intentions may do as much harm as malevolence if they lack understanding.

ALBERT CAMUS, The Plague

As humans we have worshiped a large number of people, places and things and along the way have developed an interesting intolerance for those that don’t agree with our worship. It is only in a mere handful of years that we have practiced religious tolerance which has actually been mandated by laws in some areas. But not all the world has moved at the same pace and even today with the internet and mass media do all accept this enlightened mode. It should not surprise us then that while we see the evil of religious zealots that crash our planes and destroy our buildings they see our tolerance and lax attitudes toward religion as just as great an evil.

Evil is a point of view.

ANNE RICE, Interview with the Vampire

Take for instance the Celts in Denmark: Traitors and deserters were hang on trees, cowards and shirkers were drown in swamps…but other bodies were found in the swamps with a special meal in their stomachs, intricate knots in their garrotes and their nakedness none of which was seen in executed victims. And they were harder on woman–one 50-year-od woman was pined down with wooden crooks driven into her joints–and the appearance of the body seem to confirm that she was alive when the ceremony was carried out. (a similar victim–this one 12 – 15 years old was found in Germany). It is speculated that they were used because of something that set them apart, their family, or perhaps a physical deformity or disfigurement that made them expendable or outcast. One 6th century cave has the bodies of mutilated women and horses. We look back and excuse the participants due to the beliefs and barbarianism of the times and usually while we find the practice evil (some even just chock it up to paganism regrettable but expected) we forgive the participants.

Many evil things there are that your strong walls and bright swords do not stay.

J. R. R. TOLKIEN, The Fellowship of the Ring

And the Jewish tribes were a stiff necked lot, not suffering any pagan to practice their religion. Take Jezebel for instance. She was a queen (probably more like clan (tribe) chief’s wife) married to Ahab and killed by true believers. I went to church school and remember being told about towns that were either destroyed by God (Sodom and Gomorrah) or conquered by the Hebrews and none left to live. No one seemed appalled, this was the result of idolatry—it gave me chills then and still today we just read it as something expected of the time (I don’t killing entire villages men women and children bothers me a lot) with the participants as part of the world order back then. Do this today and you’re not going to escape censor and armed intervention from the rest of the world.

Evil is done without effort, naturally, it is the working of fate; good is always the product of an art.

CHARLES BAUDELAIRE

The Romans were the last Great Ancient Empire–They are decried now for killing–the Christians in arenas—but we don’t pay as much attention to the fact that they also destroyed Celtic Druids on an island off the coast of Wales. In fact the Romans were while barbaric with their entertainments (evil) in the arena and the dinning hall orgies (if not evil at least decadent and probably a lot less than some Rock Stars) had a history of live and let live with new gods and goddesses. They in fact pretty much converted the previous world power’s (Greeks) immortals into their own, only the names have been changed to create the godhead. When they started conquering they converted the local gods and goddesses into their own. For instance Brigit was worshiped under multiple name through out the Celtic world—when the Romans conquered she became the same as their goddess Minerva–interestingly when the world became Christian and the Church Roman Catholic Brigit became a saint. The Roman’s persecution of religion was in most instances due to political issues as in the instance of the resistive Druids the real motivating power among the Celts. While in the case of the Christian the persecution seems to be more on a local level and involved their keeping apart from the pagans and misconception of their rites and beliefs—something seen in medieval times in a Christian Jewish context. Also when Christianity did come in the Romans began prosecuting pagans instead. We conceive the Romans to be more Evil but is that because we have more of their history or because the persecution is now more personal to the basic identity of Christianity?

No one becomes depraved all at once.

JUVENAL, Satires

With the coming of Christianity came the ousting of Jews from entire countries while Knights of European Origin went to their homeland to free it from the Muslims who held it now. The knights who actually destroyed Jewish communities on the way, were given awards by the church, but alas they were eventually defeated and time moved on. Both sides to this day point out evil acts–but we tend to be less forgiving to these participants than we had previously been.

Apathy is the glove in which evil slips its hand.

ANONYMOUS

Then came the split–the Church became Catholic and Protestant and then Protestant split into various churches which continue to this day to spawn sects and reformed memberships. The Church executed many (and many Christians on both side cry evil over these acts). But the Catholics were not alone according to Gerald Warner in today’s Telegraph: Just dealing with the Tudors Catholic Mary I (nick named Bloody) had 284 Protestant heretics burned. While the Protestant Children in the family: Edward VI’s troops killed more than 5,500 Cornish Catholics (after the Prayer Book Rebellion) and Elizabeth I while avoiding a lot of major executions (exception St Margaret Clitheroe was pressed to death at York and Mary Queen of Scots beheaded–though in defense of the Mary Thing it wasn’t because she was Catholic but because she was a focus of the Catholics to regain the throne from Elizabeth) “but the butchery in Ireland (under Elizabeth) was appalling. There, Edmund Spenser, author of The Faerie Queene, supported a policy of extermination by artificial famine on a scale that was not exceeded until Stalin in the 1930s.”

All things truly wicked start from an innocence. Annomous

And so as you can see by this brief and simplistic account of our religious past that our beliefs and methods have evolved through to a move civilized place..but I think that looking at it is important to understand our changing attitudes toward good and evil and how not so long ago the normal and the good was so much different.

Nature, in her indifference, makes no distinction between good and evil.

ANATOLE FRANCE, The Revolt of the Angels

1982 LIMITED Edition Norman ROCKWELL Christmas Plate

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The small man thinks that small acts of goodness are of no benefit, and does not do them; and that small deeds of evil do no harm, and does not refrain from them. Hence, his wickedness becomes so great that it cannot be concealed, and his guilt so great that it cannot be pardoned.

CONFUCIUS, The Wisdom of Confucius

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RESOURCES:

The New Book of Goddesses & Heroines: Patricia Monaghan

The World of the Druids: Miranda J. Green

.”In brightest day, in blackest night, no evil shall escape my sight ” Green Lantern

June 22, 2015 sarren126@gmail.com Leave a comment

What a weekend. Friday was fun with an old (in years we’ve known and years we’ve lived) to see the Mummies Exhibit http://www.osc.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1345:pr-mummies-of-the-world-to-debut-june-13-at-orlando-science-center&catid=79:press-and-media&Itemid=149 at the Science Museum http://www.osc.org/ on Princeton near Florida Hospital (the main one). Before that we had lunch at White Wolf http://www.whitewolfcafe.com/ one of my favorite places to eat. Then met another friend for drinks at Tibby’s http://tibbys.com/ on Aloma and another showed up unexpectedly. Sat. started out to be a quiet little day—but after a massage there was lunch at Too Jays http://www.toojays.com/locations-hours/ the meal was lovely, unfortunately I didn’t know that a short period of pain a couple weeks ago meant I had a broken tooth–the sandwich pulled a piece of it out and now I have hole in the far back tooth. Sat evening went to a scents party at a home of a friend’s along with some other friends and had a lovely evening. Sunday went to Casa Feliz http://casafeliz.squarespace.com/ (the picture of fountain and the one above this paragraph are both from the lovely building. We had a tour and listened to the lovely music which they feature from 12-3 on Sundays.

The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.

Edmund Burke

1967/OCTOBER VOL 1, #8 The Seed Chicago HIPPIE News letter

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Evil comes in all shapes and sizes—some wear British uniforms and hurt heroes and heroines even on STARZ OUTLANDER: https://www.starz.com/originals/outlander/featured

Inside each of us, there is the seed of both good and evil. It’s a constant struggle as to which one will win. And one cannot exist without the other.

Eric Burdon

HUMMING BIRD (Dispenser?) 3 1/2″ Tall Ceramic

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This week after all that has happened in Charleston I thought I would look at EVIL:

The Catholic Church Defines: Evil, in a large sense, may be described as the sum of the opposition, which experience shows to exist in the universe, to the desires and needs of individuals; whence arises, among human beings at least, the sufferings in which life abounds. Thus evil, from the point of view of human welfare, is what ought not to exist. Nevertheless, there is no department of human life in which its presence is not felt; and the discrepancy between what is and what ought to be has always called for explanation in the account which mankind has sought to give of itself and its surroundings. http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/05649a.htm

So correct me if I’m wrong (I have never been devoutly religious—I have no issues with any ones religion as long as it meets this criteria: Its members do not try to convert me, it does on harm to the believer nor those touched by those that believe–preferably like the Salvation Army it contributes to other’s well being—and it does not put restrictions on my activities, and way of life other than obeying the existing law…I think the do onto others philosophy of the Christ is the best over all yard stick.) but basically they’re saying that evil is the Sum of the opposition i.e. Satan? I don’t have issue with that—if one believes in ultimate good, then the universe dictates the balancing opposite evil seems to meet that goal.

I object to violence because when it appears to do good, the good is only temporary; the evil it does is permanent.

Mahatma Gandhi

Full Definition of EVIL

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/evil

a : morally reprehensible : sinful, wicked <an evil impulse>

b : arising from actual or imputed bad character or conduct <a person of evil reputation>

a archaic : inferior

b : causing discomfort or repulsion : offensive <an evil odor>

c : disagreeable <woke late and in an evil temper>

a : causing harm : pernicious <the evil institution of slavery> b : marked by misfortune : unlucky

Again correct me but isn’t this a whole lot less negative than the Church version….inferior is such a bland tone to use for a murderer or an angel turned bad who corrupts the Biblical paradise and turns man out into a world that makes him have to struggle to live and allows him to suffer death if he doesn’t succeed in this struggle. Disagreeable is more like a sulky child that a being of ultimate temptation, indulgences and self entitlement at the sacrifice and often this sacrifice is permanent, of others both known to the sinner and strangers as well.

It is a man’s own mind, not his enemy or foe, that lures him to evil ways.

Buddha

The Buddhist understanding is that good and evil are innate, inseparable aspects of life.,,,Evil actions are those which are based on a narrow selfishness, the delusion that our lives are fundamentally disconnected from those of others and that we can benefit at their expense. Evil views life as a means to be expended, not an end in itself. Good is that which generates connection between ourselves and others, healing and restoring the bonds among human societies. http://www.sgi.org/buddhism/buddhist-concepts/good-and-evil.html

I like this, it seems very workable—and it places things in the gray grounds that most lives inhabit and it gives the behavior a yard stick of its impact on others and our motivations in our actions. This is very close to my own beliefs and understanding.

The line between good and evil is permeable and almost anyone can be induced to cross it when pressured by situational forces.

Philip Zimbardo

The Islamic definitions of good and evil are based on the purposes of creation and the meaning of human life. As mentioned above, the ultimate goal of human life is to become perfected spiritually through belief in God (iman), the knowledge of God (marifatullah), the love of God (muhabbatullah), and the worship of God (ibada). Accordingly, whatever brings a person closer to God and will benefit him in the Next World is good, and whatever takes a person away from God, and thus incurs His anger is evil. http://www.fountainmagazine.com/Issue/detail/Good-and-Evil-in-Islam

Evil then is anything that keeps you from entering

heaven. Not that far off from Christianity.

Hypocrisy is the mother of all evil and racial prejudice is still her favourite child.

Don King

While Jewish teachings tell us that Evil, then, arises from within the human being, from the evil inclination or yetzer hara. The term derives from two passages in Genesis: “Every imagination (yetzer) of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually” [4] and “The imagination of man’s heart is evil from his youth”. [5] http://www.oztorah.com/2011/01/evil-in-man-the-jewish-point-of-view/

I like the idea that we as individual human beings we are responsible for ourselves and our actions—I’m tired of blaming every thing and every body and being for our failure to choose to reek evil on the world.

Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from religious conviction.

Blaise Pascal

Then there are moral, political, and legal philosophers who have become increasingly interested in the concept of evil, To avoid confusion, it is important to note that there are at least two concepts of evil a broad concept and a narrow concept. The broad concept picks out any bad state of affairs, wrongful action, or character flaw. The suffering of a toothache is evil in the broad sense as is a white lie. Evil in the broad sense has been divided into two categories: natural evil and moral evil. Natural evils are bad states of affairs which do not result from the intentions or negligence of moral agents. Hurricanes and toothaches are examples of natural evils. By contrast, moral evils do result from the intentions or negligence of moral agents. Murder and lying are examples of moral evils. http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/concept-evil/

Clear as mud? I don’t thinks of tooth aches and tornados as evil–bad things can to happen to you or anyone else but….to me evil has to have a consciousness or at least a mind that makes a decision to hurt, hamper or harm a person, place or other feeling being. But then it gets more confusing, what about a man or woman who goes out for a dinner and birthday celebration and has a glass of wine–or two pushed on him or her by well meaning friends. Not a drinker and buoyed by the events they miss the signs of alcohol impairment and strikes a pedestrian or another car and causes injury or even death. Is he evil or just a victim, like those others caught up in the event and of course legally he/she is responsible for the horrible events but I see no evil in them,

So now that we know what evil is all about we’ll look at the concept of Religions and how they have over the years seemed more evil in their dealing than what one would have expected from those professing holiness and avoidance to evil.

The evil that is in the world almost always comes of ignorance, and good intentions may do as much harm as malevolence if they lack understanding.

Albert Camus

1973 HOLLY HOBBIE CUP “To the house of a Friend”

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Violence isn’t always evil. What’s evil is the infatuation with violence.

Jim Morrison

1976 NORMAN ROCKWELL Limited edition medium size plate

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“She’s a real bag of cats this afternoon!”

June 18, 2015 sarren126@gmail.com Leave a comment

Good morning yesterday did some cat inventory work (checking on a vacationing friends three-some..Had lunch at Smokey Bones https://www.facebook.com/SBCasselberry AND now I’m addicted to Fried Macaroni–talk about a non-health food—but so good and I’m blaming it all on my BARTENDER ROXY…. also did some grocery duty (I don’t call it shopping–shopping is a new outfit, buying cat food is a duty). Watched a great movie Bessie with Queen Latifah http://queenlatifah.com/ there’s even a nude scene for you really rabid fans. The picture above is of Wales http://www.wales.com/not the US, Did I tell you that I’m planning on a return trip to the UK next year first stop London http://www.timeout.com/london will fill you in on more details later.

A cat in gloves catches no mice Ben Franklin

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Of course I’m working on a Scottish Connection http://www.fashionnstyle.com/articles/23568/20140805/outlander-star-sam-heughan-dishes-about-his-character-the-dashing-scottish-highlander-jamie-fraser-spoilers.htm

Even a couple of days in the Highlands? I so love it there, it is so beautiful, rugged and well a lot like Jamie Fraser (note for those of you who are not a regular to my column Jamie is on the left) http://outlander.wikia.com/wiki/Jamie_Fraser

All cats are gray in the dark English proverb

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Today is the last day for CAT–at least in this blog I anticipate they will be around for a long, long, long time.

But First I would like to send my sympathy and Outrage to the Families and the Friends of those injured and killed in Charleston….http://abcnews.go.com/US/charleston-shooting-leaves-dead-ame-church-gunman-remains/story?id=31845305 There is no excuse for prejudice whether it is against the color of your skin, the place you worship or the person you love…will we ever learn this—will we ever OVERCOME….I certainly hope so.

Now on to CAT–today a view of all things kitty:

OK HERE’S AN ITEM AVAILABLE ON ETSY a PICTURE INSPRIED BY CAT VOMIT—OH PLEASE I HAVE TWO VERY LONGHAIRED RAG DOLLS—-I LIVE TO CLEAN UP HAIR BALLS (ONE OF THOSE TERMS THAT CAT LOVERS USE FOR BARF. Don’t know if its been sold yet or not you can check at: https://www.etsy.com/

As nervous as a cat in a room full of rocking chairs Unknown

In March of 2014 London got it’s first Cat Café–Lady Diana’s and while the world’s first cat café opened in Taiwan in 1998 Lady Diana’s http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2014-03/01/cat-cafe is the first in the UK and no you don’t bring a cat, they already live here you’re just allowed to have lunch, tea whatever with these fuzzy friends to keep you company.

Busier than a three legged cat in a dry sand box unknown

And did you know that there are Kitten themed weddings? According to Huffington post these kitties ” came from Second Hand Souls, a company in Los Angeles that rescues, rehabilitates and trains animals for work in the entertainment industry.” In case you’re interested: https://happilywedding.com/cat-wedding

Cat got your tongue? Unknown origin

Grumpy Cat Bow Tie - with Adjustable Strap

And who hasn’t seen Grumpy Cat? http://www.grumpycats.com/ and who doesn’t love that face telling us how much he hates everything including you—he was even on a TV movie http://www.mylifetime.com/movies/grumpy-cats-worst-christmas-ever and Cat Superstars are just like Rock and other icons of the age with items from a hair bow (above) to Tees and beyond: https://www.etsy.com/market/grumpy_cat

Cat’s pajamas –

The term “cat’s pajamas” comes from E.B. Katz, an English tailor of the late 1700’s and early 1800’s, who made the finest silk pajamas for royalty and other wealth patrons https://user.xmission.com/~emailbox/phrases.htm

And while cats don’t do sweets we do and we seem inspired to include the in our treat selections. http://www.boredpanda.com/adorable-cat-sweets-laura-caroline-ingalls/?image_id=I-create-adorable-cat-sweets9__605.jpg expressing the cuteness of cats in sweets: http://www.vgrab.com/vgrab/index.php?route=product%2Fproduct&product_id=279 There is not end to your possibilities on this one.

Curiosity killed the cat 16th c proverb

Or how about naming you kids (or getting your children to name the grandkids) after a cat inspired name: for instance Catarina the name of Edgar Allen Poe‘s cat or Delilah Freddie Mercury’s (Queen) feline and there’s Meredith (Taylor Swit) also a bit further field is Snowball (Hemingway) finally All Ball, Lipstick and Smokey all cats that belonged to Koko the gorilla and no he didn’t hurt any of them–however All Ball got out and was killed by a car.

Dog my cats O’Henry

Cat books are always interesting

There are ones that are instructive to the owners

Fight like cats and dogs Unknown

Written by cats

Grinning like a cheshire cat Alice and Wonderland

and featuring cats as everything from detectives to explorers

See www.amazon.com for these and many more.

It’s raining cats and dogs 17th c London

Of course they appear in ads of all types–I love this one for kitty litter but they are also prominent in still and on TV ads for all kinds of non-kitty related projects and products as well.

Let sleeping cats lie French Proverb

Of the 100,000 cats entering shelters every year, approximately 37% are adopted, 41% are euthanized, and less than 5% of cats who came in as strays are returned to their owners. https://www.aspca.org/about-us/faq/pet-statistics

Like a cat on a hot tin roof Tennessee Williams

Wouldn’t you like a famous and great icon to grace your home—NO not you Glenda you’ve done our part—Some one to keep you company without the daily walk required by that other pet? Do your part for these former god and goddesses check here for some ideas https://www.petfinder.com/pet-adoption/cat-adoption/june-is-adopt-a-shelter-cat-month/?icid=juneisadoptasheltercatmonth_061515_1

Morals of an alley cat and scruples of a snake Unknown

Did I miss anything:

Oh yes they’re also found among super hero ranks,

Sitting in the catbird seat James Thurber

Hand Made PAINT on Velvet Mask from Fantasy Fest in Key West

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Woman at pet shop: You can fool everybody, but laudie dearie me, you can’t fool a cat. They seem to know who’s not right.

There’s more than one way to skin a cat This one actually about the fish not the animal

6 1/2″ Faux PEARL BRACELET

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To bell a cat –

From Aesop’s fable,

Source: https://user.xmission.com/~emailbox/phrases.htm

Tomcat 17th c book: The Life and Adventures of a Cat

WIZARD of OZ ‘I Haven’t Got A Brain” #7537 Plate 1991 Sec…

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If cats could talk, they wouldn’t. ~Nan Porter

June 17, 2015 sarren126@gmail.com Leave a comment

Just in case you wander where I get all my source material–that’s my bedroom— l am old fashion and still like to do books when I can though I have no problem with computer searches and Info I just have to double (and triple check the net more). Another work day: Check out my novel (just working things out): https://www.pinterest.com/pin/483151866251542599/ and still featuring stores from Clermont (https://www.facebook.com/pages/Clermont-Florida/109263879093610 ) like Encore Home Décor https://www.facebook.com/pages/Encore-Home-Decor/142063415917331. Watched old movies on Get TV yesterday….love all the oldies better than the TV show reruns: http://get.tv/schedule TV show return last night: Rizzoli & Isles http://www.tvguide.com/news/rizzoli-isles-season6-spoilers/ The series is OK but the novels are harder hitting and darker and I like them better: http://www.tessgerritsen.com/rizzoli-isles/

Women and cats will do as they please, and men and dogs should relax and get used to the idea.”
― Robert A. Heinlein

LOVE #1 MOM Original, Recycled, Musical Charming, Wind Chimes 22…

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Ok IF I’m home I’ll watch reruns…109—not 116 poor baby—-OUTLANDER HOW LONG ARE WE IN DROUGHTLANDER—CAN WE GET LIKE SOME PREVIEWS FROM SUMMER PRODUCTION? Will it still have the best sex on TV? http://www.racked.com/2015/4/3/8337381/outlander-returns-starz

“I meant,” said Ipslore bitterly, “what is there in this world that truly makes living worthwhile?”
Death thought about it.
CATS, he said eventually. CATS ARE NICE.”
― Terry Pratchett, Sourcery

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Today we continue with Cat–yes just that:

According to Animal Planet http://www.animalplanet.com/

most cats eat 7-20 small meals a day. I have found this true in some of the cats I’ve owned but not all. I had 3 cats (2 female litter mates who still grace my life and their half brother who died of a stomach tumor–I still miss him lots) the girls eat the small meals but the male consumed everything in sight at one setting, which made it very hard to keep the girls in food and the boy skinny.

“Meow” means “woof” in cat.”
― George Carlin

Now while I knew that a male cat was called a tom and young kittens (duh) I didn’t know that the female was a molly or a queen and the weirdest of all that a group is called a clowder (sounds like a stew full of fish which works for cat dietary I guess) unless their kittens and then a group is called a kindle. And while we’re on technical terms a cat’s hairball is a “bezoar”.

“Cats are intended to teach us that not everything in nature has a purpose.”
― Garrison Keillor

WebMD Pets reports that both Julius Caesar and Napoleon were afraid of cats. It’s called Ailurophobia or Gatophobia and it’s estimated that about 22% of the US population suffer from it: Other famous people include Alexander the Great, Hitler, Genghis Khan, Shakespeare, Isadora Duncan, Benito Mussolini (if Nazi don’t like them the can’t be all bad.) But I think the worse is a report in UK’s Daily Mail (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2612195/How-Hitler-terrified-pussycats-perfectly-Pointless-trivia.html) that Dwight Eisenhower had any found on his home’s grounds shot by his staff. But on the other hand Lincoln had four in the White House. Other Cat lovers included St Francis Assisi, Winston Churchill, Charles DIckens, Mark Twain and Florence Nightingale to name a few—Notice a much kinder crowd than the first…we cat people are the cream (groan) of the crop.

“Cats are connoisseurs of comfort.”
― James Herriot, James Herriot’s Cat Stories

I said in a previous blog that I thought cats should be x-rayed to see if they actually have bones, well the census is in and they do just more and or different–while we (people in general) have 17 vertebrae in their spine (thoracic and lumbar total that is) cats have 20 which allows them to have more power and flexibility—did you know that they can run up to 30 mph for a short (few yards) distance? Not to mention the amazing jumps (ask a frustrated dog who looses his prey at the fence). And their free-floating collarbones allow them to fit through spaces only as wide as their wisker span–unless like my tom (Bonzi) was –they’re fat. Oh and while we’re on the subject of bones about 10% of a cat’s is in its tail.

http://www.vetstreet.com/dr-marty-becker

“If animals could speak, the dog would be a blundering outspoken fellow; but the cat would have the rare grace of never saying a word too much.”
― Mark Twain

Interestingly Europeans brought cats to America (they were not native)…one site states the first came with the Pilgrims—which I found hard to believe due to their witch phobias (see previous blog)they even outlawed dolls. But the answer in ASK.com that they were brought by the Spanish settlers (with settlements in California, Texas and Florida this would seem plausible though I’m sure a few French and English might have dragged them along eventually, but probably not the Pilgrims.) Oh and cats (all 600,000 million of them) can now be found around the world and on 6 continents.

“What greater gift than the love of a cat.”
― Charles Dickens

As of 1987 cats overtook dogs as the number one pet in the US. While man domesticated dogs (probably taking and training wolf pups) long years before cats who came on the scene much later and whom appear to have made the choice to domesticate themselves into our households. Domestication of cats was believed to have begun in Egypt as early as the 20th or 19 century BC.

“A cat has absolute emotional honesty: human beings, for one reason or another, may hide their feelings, but a cat does not.”
― Ernest Hemingway

And then there’s catnip that crazy plant that’s part of the mint family and causes strange behavior in cats. They roll around, chase strange invisible prey and just act weird. It’s felt to be an olfactory thing as smelling seems to produce it while eating not so much . My girls don’t seem affected by the stuff which is the norm for 20-30% of the cat population.

Never try to outstubborn a cat.”
― Robert A. Heinlein, Time Enough for Love

Finally according CatVets.com: the best food for your cat is canned meat: When choosing canned foods avoid the fish-flavored foods and those containing gravies or sauces. Fish-flavored foods are high in magnesium and can alter the urine pH, and the gravy is carbohydrate-rich. Offer your cat meat-flavored canned foods to help maintain optimal health!

“The smallest feline is a masterpiece.”
― Leonardo da Vinci

The Vermont COUNTRY STORE 1986 Commemerative Plate

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“The way to get on with a cat is to treat it as an equal – or even better, as the superior it knows itself to be.”
― Elizabeth Peters, The Snake, the Crocodile and the Dog

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Thou art the Great Cat, the avenger of the Gods,

June 16, 2015 sarren126@gmail.com Leave a comment

ENCHANTED LIVING https://www.facebook.com/pages/Enchanted-Living-Decor/285704781487119 ANOTHER great store in Clermont, Fl. Yesterday was all out work day—added some great stuff to my EBAY selling:

OFFICIAL NASCAR…

US $9.00 and have you checked out my pinterest yet> https://www.pinterest.com/lindachase56829/omg-is-this-for-real/

“I love cats because I enjoy my home; and little by little, they become its visible soul.”- Jean Cocteau

If Were Puffed UP In Pride Precious Moments Cup

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And if course can’t skip my daily DISH on Jamie Fraser…unfortunately we have full frontal on Black Jack, but not Red Jamie!!!! One can only hope.

“Holding up my
purring cat to the moon
I sighed.”

– Jack Kerouac, American Haiku, 1959

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Since this week I’m doing CATS thought I’d look at them in Fiction:

When I think of Books with Cat in the title…Dr. Seuss is the first that comes to mind. It’s a rainy day and Dick and Sally can’t find anything to do . . . until the Cat in the Hat unexpectedly appears and turns their dreary afternoon into a fun-filled extravaganza! This beginner’s reading adventure is fun for one and all—even people like me who aren’t exactly readers anymore: “you find magic wherever you look. sit back and relax. all you need is a book”
― Dr. Seuss, The Cat in the Hat: and while it’s not really telling us much about cats or even our mind set about them it is a good start to getting the younger humans reading and that my dear is a good thing.

]

In the book and the movie the cat which Holly abandons in the rain in the book is never found and she is left to wonder whether she’s doomed to never know what belonged to her until after it is gone: an epiphany that is only met with compassion from our nameless narrator. The movie has a much kinder ending (not at all typical to Capote) where cat and lover both show up to comfort our heroine at the end. http://www.popmatters.com/post/154748-breakfast-at-tiffanys-page-v.-screen/ So a cat as object lesson no less….interestingly the cat’s independence is a part of this as when she leaves it she does not claim it–this probably wouldn’t work as well with a dog, who is a much more committed companion and to which ownership would appear to be much more concrete.

Holly Golightly: I’m like cat here, a no-name slob. We belong to nobody, and nobody belongs to us. We don’t even belong to each other.

And who could forget the Cheshire Cat in the Bizarre World of Alice in Wonderland—Disney did it well but Depp did it better—one sometimes wonders on that man’s sanity or at the very least his grip on reality given the bizarre beings he is capable of becoming with what appears complete abandonment–The cat here if you look carefully isn’t that far from the animal we all know—with is appearances and disappearances (who hasn’t looked up to see a cat, lost sight for a manner of seconds and found it gone permanently–then to have it return many feet from the original sighting and setting as it has been there for days or years in fact) The limberness of its body–I have often thought to have my cats x-rayed to be sure that they actually have solid bones given the contortion they are able to achieve without any normal restrictions that one finds in our own calcium hardened structure. And of course the eyes that stare through you etc, etc, etc.

“Oh, you can’t help that,’ said the cat. ‘We’re all mad here.”
― Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland

‘

Stephen King’s Pet Sematary shows King always one to delve into our deepest fears hit it dead on when a strange pet burial ground and a cat name Churchill form the jumping off into the error and results of bring the dead back to life. Since earliest history–see my entry yesterday– the cat has often been thought of as a familiar for witches or actually another form for them as well as their master Satan. What better first step to this descent to loss and madness than this long held evil creature of the shadow and the darkness being the jumping off point.

Cats were the gangsters of the animal world, living outside the law and often dying there. There were a great many of them who never grew old by the fire.”- Stephen King, Pet Semetary

Of course the Harry Potter Books/movies would have to have a cat (actually there’s Hermione’s familiar that is always after Ron’s Rat too) as wizards and witches (as previously noted) have a long history association and functional needs. However Mrs. Norris–the Caretaker Argus Filch’s cat is more of watch dog (opps sorry Mrs. Norris) than what one would think of as a witch’s familiar, but if Filch is a wizard then the cat would seem to be actually preforming as a asset of the man and in fact she (a huge Maine Coon) is often seen as an announcement of his impending arrival and that would seem to work very well indeed.

“He’s the most intelligent of his kind I’ve ever met.” —Sirius Black regarding Crookshanks (Hermione’s Cat)

Another writer known for dealing with the dark side, Poe tells the story of Pluto (The Black Cat) the narrator’s cat who he abuses and then attempts to kill he doesn’t succeed with the cat but does manage to kill his wife when she tries to intervene. Finally the cat has his revenge when to hide the crime the narrator seals his wife’s body within a wall, only to be discovered when the sounds of the cat, also entombed but obviously still alive betrays him. Again this shows us the opinion that cat are survivors—the nine lives theory–and that their mysterious ways and quiet comings and goings make them dangerous adversaries and in this case even the source of retribution.

“This latter was a remarkably large and beautiful animal, entirely black, and sagacious to an astonishing degree.”
― Edgar Allan Poe, The Black Cat

You Have Touched So Many Hearts 1995 PRECIOUS MOMENTS Cup

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Time spent with cats is never wasted.

Sigmund Freud

16″ Large BLACK Bead CHOKER Vintage

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As expected the gruesome cat killed the fisherman and his family.

June 15, 2015 sarren126@gmail.com Leave a comment

Had a great weekend

First least I forget check out this great site met the young gentleman behind it a couple weekends ago at the Sanford Hurricane Party: www.dizzlephunk.com Started our day at the Lakeridge Winery http://www.lakeridgewinery.com/ for one of their festivals, lots of good food and wine as well as live music and vendors selling everything from soap to nuts… We also took the winery tour and did a wine tasting which is offered all the time and not just at the events and checked out the wine and other items offered in the store. . Then on South on US 17 to Hwy 50 then west to Clermont http://www.city-data.com/city/Clermont-Florida.html (look for a sign on your right noting where to turn for downtown), a town that is just now showing recovery from the poor economy with lots of newer and revived older shops including Tres Chic Boutique with some great items www.treschicboutique.com. and then lunch (a late one as they don’t open till 3:30 pm) a place were the service is only beaten by the great food: 801 City Grille http://www.801citygrille.com/www.801citygrille.com/Home.html Then it was home and being lazy all day Sunday….did enjoy This TV’s movies: http://www.wesh.com/cw18/thistv they have bunches of movies to watch 24/7 and are on all the cable networks.

A man who carries a cat by the tail learns something he can learn in no other way.

Mark Twain

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Another weekend without Claire and Jamie and you can’t on Demand 107 anymore—guess It’s 109 from now on…..

A man is like a cat; chase him and he will run – sit still and ignore him and he’ll come purring at your feet.

Helen Rowland

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THOUGHT THIS WEEK I woul deal with one of my favorite thing—CATS

Today CATS IN LEGEND AND MYTHS

I AM A CAT PERSON—I like dogs, but I am basically too lazy for dogs…they require walking and grooming and bathing and so on and so forth or they’ll poop on the floor and smell bad (both the floor if you don’t walk them—oh and it take major effort to get them use to pooping on the walk and not the floor—and the dog if you don’t bathe them). Of course you know where you stand with both dogs (you are the best friend, master and center of the universe) and cats (you are staff, servant, and something to provide scratching in areas they can’t reach) and I have come to accept that and moved on with my servitude which I have accepted rather than trying to potty train a puppy.

I wish I could write as mysterious as a cat.

Edgar Allan Poe

The Egyptians had a cat-headed goddess: Bast or Pasht , who was served by cats, as was Isis the mother goddess and Ra, the sun god who in the form of a cat slayed the Serpent of death. So cats were sacred in Ancient Egypt and to kill one was a crime against the gods. And if one’s pet died there were even prescribed mourning forms including shaving off one’s eyebrows. Ouch.

The Goddess Diana liked cats so much she actually at one time took their form according to legend and because of this it was assumed that they were protected by her.

Freya (pictured above) was a Scandinavian goddess of love and fertility (kinda goes together with most goddesses and gods) actually had a rather large pair pulling her chariot.

Cats (in countries that had them) during these early times were believed to be mystical (sometime good and some bad). In many places they were believed to be able to see spirits, foretell the future (with specific actions) and even control the weather.

I believe cats to be spirits come to earth. A cat, I am sure, could walk on a cloud without coming through.

Jules Verne

Cats divinity seemed to pass away with the ages (possibly the church–only one at this time my dears– trying to free the world from it’s ancestor’s heathen follies? ) especially in Europe where they along with toads and owls, were associated with witchcraft, sorcery and gypsies (interesting enough the word Gypsy comes from the early Europeans calling them “Egyptians” one of the earliest sites for our note of cat worship.).

Witches were said to be able to assume the shape of cats 9 times (I wonder if this is where the cat’s nine lives legend comes from or if they could assume the shape that many times as it was already a belief?), while black cats were felt to be the Devil in the flesh (and fur?!) and were routinely hunted down and burned just like their human counterparts.

A fact you might not know is that James I (of England–see our Scottish week in previous blogs) had a real issue about witches and was a moving force in the 16th century Scottish (he was James VI in Scotland) witch persecution including John Fian’s Trail where Fian and his Coven were said to have tried to cause the death of James and his queen (Anne) by christening a cat, then tying it to a dismembered human corpse and throwing the lot into the sea while chanting something to cause a ship wreck. Alas the storm that arose only caused return to port of the king. Scotland by the way had a large breed of cat (Elfin) about the size of a dog which were suppose to all be witches in disguise.

The cat could very well be man’s best friend but would never stoop to admitting it.

Doug Larson

Ireland is a good example of the drift of legends on cats. Of course there’s the obvious as they keep mice and rats away from food and goods so many have them–but one of the notions that abound are that the cat dreams three times each night of killing their owners but never do because the family dog would not allow it.

In the oldest legends are of big cats that fought heroes like Fionn Mac Cumhaill but in later church stories they became companions for Saints and even supplied fish for one group of Monks. Their creation is even attributed to St. Martin to control mice (whom the devil created—interesting since in those other legends we talked about he was a black cat himself).

Other legends however included one found in other countries as well, that a cat was capable of stealing souls and they were not generally allowed to remain in a house where a wake was going on or to cross the path of a funeral procession. As for black cats the jury seems to be out in Erie with some feeling that they were bad luck while others feeling just the opposite.

If man could be crossed with the cat it would improve man, but deteriorate the cat.

Mark Twain