LOVE ISN’T SILLY, LOVE ISN’T SILLY AT ALL–PAUL MCCARTNEY

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OK here you go for the last Blog of the WEEK:  and I will try to get more adventures this weekend so my pre-posts aren’t so boring.  Just did a review of BEST BOOKS in Longwood  http://thebestusedbooks.com/   who have lots and lots and lots of books for your to read and enjoy.  I’m going to a Meet up today–doing some listing pictures at a client’s place tomorrow–https://www.etsy.com/shop/DragonLaire?ref=hdr_shop_menu.  Oh and check out this Facebook site of a friend of mine and if anybody needs this kind of assistance pass it on—and don’t forget to like it while you’re there:  https://www.facebook.com/pages/Pinder-Rehabilitation-Services-LLC  Ok on to the meat of the matter.

 

 

 

 

All you need is love, love.
Love is all you need.
All You Need is Love – The Beatles

 

 

 

 

 

 

LA FETE du Reteur Triomphal A84 Georhe Zaferes Porcelaine Plate from France

OUTLANDER AT COM CON ON SAT:

http://www.outlandertvnews.com/2015/07/outlander-tv-news-at-san-diego-comic-con/

 

 

 

 

 

My favorite Claire and Jamie conversation (I want one)

I had one last try.
“Does it bother you that I’m not a virgin?” He hesitated a moment before answering.
“Well, no,” he said slowly, “so long as it doesna bother you that I am.” He grinned at my drop-jawed expression, and backed toward the door.
“Reckon one of us should know what they’re doing,” he said. The door closed softly behind him; clearly the courtship was over.

Chapter 13: A Marriage is Announced – Page 255

7" Vintage CANADA Sweater Guard SOUVENIR

$10.00 USD

 

 

 

 

 

OK so today let’s just look at things inspired by LOVE

 

 

 

 

I hope you don’t mind,
I hope you don’t mind,
that I put into words,
how wonderful life is,
now you’re in the world.

– Elton John, “Your Song

 

 

 

 

 

LOVE SONGS:   We all have our favorites, ones that remind us of happier or sadder times…Our Song that your dearest and you both dance to shutting out the world and its problems, just dwelling in a music filled vacuum for those few minutes.

According to Bill Board:

“Endless Love” Diana Ross & Lionel Richie

Hot 100 Peak: No. 1 for nine weeks (1981)

Producer Jon Peters and director Franco Zeffirelli asked Lionel Richie to compose an instrumental along the lines of the theme from “Love Story” for their movie starring Brooke Shields. When Zeffirelli changed his mind and asked Richie if he would add lyrics, the Motown star agreed to write some. Then Zeffirelli made one more request – to add a female singer, someone like Diana Ross.

http://www.billboard.com/articles/list/1538839/top-50-love-songs-of-all-time?list_page=4

 

 

 

 

 

For you and I have a guardian angel
on high with nothing to do
but to give you and to give to me
love forever true
love forever true
True Love – Cole Porter

 

 

 

 

 

VALENTINES DAY  Though steeped in old legends and traditions (see my previous blogs) the holiday is now a day of cards, candy, dinners out and all manner of stuff for the happy couples or prospective couples—however for those of us on our own it’s a day of grumpy denial and congratulating ourselves on not having all that candy to over eat on.

 

 

CNN gives us these monetary figures for the big day:

$18.6 billion — The total spending that will be reached by Valentine’s Day.

$1.6 billion — The amount people will spend on candy.

$1.9 billion — The amount people will spend on flowers.

$4.4 billion — The amount people will spend on diamonds, gold and silver.

http://www.cnn.com/2013/02/13/living/valentines-day-statistics-btn/

10% of all engagements (220,000) take place on Valentine’s Day each year.  Brides Magazine

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

DATING:  Most of us have done it,  many several times—some many more.  We pay dating services to introduce us to members of the opposite sex or go to groups that arrange single events so we can meet and go on one and hopefully more.  We dress up for some–down for others .  We go by car, walk on the beach, drink champagne or maybe water from a mountain spring—there are no end to the possibilities.

 

 

STUDIES done by Pew Research Services found

1Online dating has lost much of its stigma. A majority of Americans now say online dating is a good way to meet people, when that hasn’t always been the case.

 

2One-in-five adults ages 25-34 years old have used online dating, but it’s also popular with older singles, too.

 

3One-third of people who have used online dating have never actually gone on a date with someone they met on these sites.

 

4One-in-five online daters have asked someone else to help them with their profile.

 

55% of Americans who are in a marriage or committed relationship say they met their significant other online.

http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2015/04/20/5-facts-about-online-dating/

 

 

 

 

 

 

And in the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make.
– The Beatles

 

 

 

 

ENGAGEMENTS:  It often involves a question but sometimes is just a conclusion which a couple comes to jointly.  It may involve a ring—or not.  Can be done standing, setting, laying down or with one of the parties on their knees but in our often too practical and not always romantic age who knows.

 

BRIDE Magazine gives us more facts about that ring  and things:

61% of guys consult with their girlfriend before buying the ring.

 

The most popular month for engagement? December

 

27% of brides call their best friend first after the proposal.

 

 

Cost of the average engagement ring: $5,229.

 

 

Approximately 2,000 couples get engaged every year at Disney World.

 

 

29% of men would wear an engagement ring.

 

 

 

The average length of engagements: 14.7 months.

 

 

 

37% of brides were completely surprised by the proposal

 

 

 

 

46% of couples announce their engagement via Facebook.

 

 

 

 

When it came to picking an engagement ring, 56% of brides say their biggest priority was shape (followed by 26% that said cut, 13% that said size, and 5% that said color).

 

 

http://www.brides.com/wedding-engagement/engagement-rings/2012/11/brides-cool-facts-about-getting-engaged#slide=19

 

 

 

 

 

 

The first time ever I saw your face
I thought the sun rose in your eyes
First Time Ever I Saw Your Face – Roberta Flack

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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MARRIAGE:  Black, white, young (within legal limits) male and female or same sex every body is doing it.  Depending on your beliefs it  may be a sacred ceremony or just a lot of glamour and gloss to impress your friends and make your parents happy.  Whether a rabbi, a justice of the peace or Elvis impersonator in Vegas presides its (usually) a legally binding ceremony that some take seriously  and others not so much.

 

 

 

E-Harmony gives us weird wedding traditions you probably want to skip

 

Foot whipping – also known as ‘bastinado’ or ‘falaka’  Before a  Korean groom can join his bride for his wedding night, it is traditional that he receives a beating on his barefeet with cane or a fish from his groomsmen and is said to be a test of the groom’s strength and character.

 

Hindu brides traditionally wear their wedding ring on their left foot.

 

 Danish wedding at the reception if the bride leaves the table, every female member of the bridal party will rush to kiss the groom. The  male members of the party kiss the bride when the groom leaves too.

 

 

 

During slavery, African-American couples were not permitted to get married and the jumping of the broom was a custom used by slaves in place of a wedding ceremony. Many modern African-Americans jump the broom as a tribute to generations that have passed.

 

 

Indonesian honeymooners are confined to their homes for three days following the wedding, even if this means not going to the toilet. This honeymoon house arrest is believed to produce a happy marriage full of healthy babies.

 

 

Traditionally, every family in Belgium has a handkerchief that is handed down and embroidered by brides from generation to generation.

http://www.eharmony.co.uk/dating-advice/online-dating-unplugged/weird-and-wonderful-wedding-traditions-from-around-the-world#.VZ6afkJRHIU

 

 

 

I could save time in a bottle
The first thing that I’d like to do
Is save every day
Till Eternity passes away
Just to spend them with you
Time in a Bottle – Jim Croce

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

AFFAIRS when love isn’t really true, or there’s problems or sexual attraction that isn’t denied and one or both spouses may stray and this can result in divorce, counseling or in some weirder cases open marriage.

Fact #1: Most men are still in love with their wives when they cheat.

Fact #2: Men usually cheat with women they know.

Fact #3: Men cheat to save their marriages.

Fact #4: Men hate themselves after affairs.

Fact #5: Cheaters often get friskier with their wives when affairs begin

Fact #6: Women cheat just as much as men, and their affairs are more dangerous.

Fact #7: A wife often knows her husband’s cheating.

Fact #8: A couple will never work it out when the husband is in the midst of an affair.

Fact #9: Affairs can often fix a marriage.

Fact #10: Even after rebuilding the marriage, a husband may still miss the affair.

Fact #11: A cheater knows he’s hurting the woman he loves, tearing his family apart and sacrificing his honor.

Fact #12: The wife’s not to blame if her husband cheats on her.

http://www.womansday.com/relationships/dating-marriage/advice/a6716/infidelity-in-marriage/

 

 

 

 

Little things I should have said and done
I just never took the time
You were always on my mind
– Willie Nelson

 

 

 

 

 

PEPSI-COLA EASTER Greetings Franklin Mint Plate by Bill Bell 1995

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fleetwood Mac – Songbird

Characters

“To you/I’ll give the world/To you/I’ll never be cold/’Cause I feel that when I’m with you/It’s alright/I know it’s right/And the songbirds keep singing/Like they know the score/And I love you, I love you, I love you/Like never before”

1973 HOLLY HOBBIE CUP "To the house of a Friend"

“… and if all else remained, and he were annihilated, the universe would turn to a mighty stranger.” Wuthering Heights/Kathy of Heathcliff

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This pic is from Chicago while the darker one from the main view is somewhere in England or Wales  (http://www.visitbritain.com/en/EN/) I don’t remember which.  Yesterday was work again—some new good listings:  https://www.etsy.com/shop/DragonLaire?ref=hdr_shop_menu    and of course working around house.  What’s your favorite TV show–I like Rizzoli and Isles but prefer the darker better written books:  http://www.tessgerritsen.com/rizzoli-isles/    No plans for today again—I know I’m boring—but I have to keep my blog going don’t I    https://www.pinterest.com/lindachase56829/the-dragons-lair-from-adventure-chase/    Tomorrow I do have plans–be still my heart..better not say that it might take me serious.

 

 

 

“I have for the first time found what I can truly love – I have found you. You are my sympathy – my better self – my good angel; I am bound to you with a strong attachment. I think you good, gifted, lovely: a fervent, a solemn passion is conceived in my heart; it leans to you, draws you to my center and spring of life, wraps my existence about you – and, kindling in pure, powerful flame, fuses you and me in one.”

Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre

 

 

 

 

Vintage SOUVENIR of Old STURBRIDGE Village. Mass

 
Still missing my favorite FICTIONAL CHARACTERS AND NO END IN SIGHT:    (watch out for spoilers)http://www.realtytoday.com/articles/19204/20150708/outlander-season-2-spoilers-cast-update-who-will-play-brianna.htm
“I canna look at ye asleep without wanting to wake ye, Sassenach.” His hand cupped my breast, gently now. “I suppose I find myself lonely without ye.”
Diana Gabaldon, A Breath of Snow and Ashes
TODAY WE’LL LOOK AT LOVERS IN POPULAR FICTION CURRENT AND PAST MOVIES, PLAYS AND BOOKS.
“The way her body existed only where he touched her. The rest of her was smoke.”Arundhati Roy’s The God of Small Things

 

THE TRAGIC AFFAIR:  WUTHERING HEIGHTS

This story of Heathcliff, a gypsy orphan brought to the family and eventually falling in love with the sheltered daughter of the manor in a star-crossed love that moves Cathy to tears and Heathcliff to near madness (the movies don’t do the digging up coffin part but the book shows Heathcliff at his worst extremes.

 

There were multiple movies (the best in my opinion with Laurence Olivia and the second with Timothy Dalton–the Welsh do dark well) was also a mini-series in 1978 which I know I watched but which I can’t say was good or bad and another in 2009….. and a TV movie in 1998.    You can get all the movies, series and a bunch of books–including some written around the book characters by other authors on www.Amazon.com (as well as most of the others we mention in this blog)
We’ve already discussed Romeo and Juliet (and West Side Story based on same)  as other stories  of love that doesn’t die even if the characters do, as well as Antony and Cleopatra. Others that might be included in this tragic category is the movie Titanic where a woman manages to live through the disaster, loose her lover but gain a life worth living (and so we have a morality play for our age) There’s also various movies of this type from modern to one of my favorite that is an ancient legend but the love angle wasn’t added until the 13th c Lancelot and Guinevere elicit love and betrayal which has been in so many movies plays and books that it would take a life time to look at them all.
We can either see this two ways the first that we don’t believe in love much anymore and this reinforces the disaster that it becomes eventually in our minds.  Or and I like this one better, that many of us believe in undying love and this is a way to view without having to sacrifice our own.
By the way this was written by Emily Bronte who was one of 4 children of a preacher whose  home stood on the edge of the moors and she was one of 3 of his children to never marry and to die young from TB.
“Frankly my dear I don’t give a damn”  Rhett Butler to Scarlett O’Hara Butler–Gone with the Wind
               
Gothic Novel—The Governess made Good story–or gone bad whichever the case may be.
For this one I picked Jane Eyre, the governess that falls for a widower who turns out to have a secret lurking in the attic.  (I recommend:  The Wide Sargasso Sea for the other side of the story.) This to me is the most famous origin of this type of story  which has been around America for years (and was combined with Vampires in the late 60s for a preview of things to come on Dark Shadows).  This one almost is a tragic but is pulled from the jaws of defeat in the last chapter (sorry spoiler but if you’ve never seen or heard this one I figure you probably won’t start now.)
The list of movies from this one goes to show that we really like child care workers:
From 1910 – 1926  there were 8 silent pictures 5 bearing the same name and the others The Castle of  Thornfield–Italian 1915, Woman and Wife–1918 and Orphan of Lowood–German 1926
The best cast was the 1943 one with Orson Wells and Joan Fontaine in the main roles but supported by Agnes Moorehead, Margaret O’Brien and Elizabeth Taylor.
Other societies seem to like the poor domestic who loved almost lost and then won out in the end story too.  2 Indian/Hindi versions 1952 Sangdil and then Shanti Nilayam in 1972.  They did it in Hong Kong in 1956 as Orphan Girl and in 1963 in Mexico El Secreto (The Secret) and again in 1978 as El Ardiente Secreto (Ardent Secret).
The least appealing of all the stars in the ones I’ve seen is George C. Scott in the 1970 version which was released in theaters in Europe but went directly to TV in the US.
Other examples of the genre are Jane Austin’s Pride and Prejudice & Sense and Sensibilities also English origins,  Rebecca by another English woman (Daphne du Maurier) while not a governess still deals with a woman stranded in a marriage full of dark secret and fear.  All of these have had multiple productions too and remain a recurring theme especially in our modern times I think we need this reassurance of love and triumph of the lesser in an age when we increasingly become over-powered with technology and social isolation.
Oh by the way I picked Charlotte Bronte’s novel as she was  only one of the preacher’s children that married and moved away unfortunately the only one who escaped the family curse of TB died due to her marriage–in child birth.
THE UNCONVENTIONAL LOVE
These are more modern and deal with people and ideas that reflect our more current love issues
BRIDGET JONES’ DIARY–At the start of the New Year, 32-year-old Bridget decides it’s time to take control of her life — and start keeping a diary. Now, the most provocative, erotic and hysterical book on her bedside table is the one she’s writing. With a taste for adventure, and an opinion on every subject – from exercise to men to food to sex and everything in between – she’s turning the page on a whole new life.
LOVE IN THE TIME OF CHOLERA–When Florentino Ariza sees Fermina Daza through a villa window, it is love at first sight. Though a man of modest means, Florentino’s skill as a poet awakens a similar passion within in Firmina.  But Fermina’s father disapproves of the affair and vows to keep the lovers apart. Fermina eventually marries an aristocratic doctor, and they move to Paris. Florentino, however, still loves Fermina and patiently waits for a chance to be with her again.
Benny and Joon   A mentally ill young woman finds her love in an eccentric man who models himself after Buster Keaton
Are just a few of what passes for love with many of us now.
Benjamin: Mrs. Robinson, I can’t do this anymore.

Mrs. Robinson: You what?

Benjamin: This is all terribly wrong.

Mrs. Robinson: Do you find me undesirable?

Benjamin: Oh no, Mrs. Robinson. I think, I think you’re the most attractive of all my parents’ friends. I mean that.

THE GRADUATE

 

 

 

 

CANON AE-1 35mm SLR Manual Focus Camera w/Two Lenses, Auto Rewind and 3 Filters

Meet Joe Black (1998)William Parrish: Love is passion, obsession, someone you can’t live without. I say, fall head over heels. Find someone you can love like crazy and who will love you the same way back. How do you find him? Well, you forget your head, and you listen to your heart. And I’m not hearing any heart. Cause the truth is, honey, there’s no sense living your life without this. To make the journey and not fall deeply in love, well, you haven’t lived a life at all. But you have to try, cause if you haven’t tried, you haven’t lived.

 

“When love is not madness it is not love.” ― Pedro Calderón de la Barca

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Worked all day but then grocery shopping http://www.publix.com/?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=2015_digital_corp&utm_term=publix&gclid=CjwKEAjw8e2sBRCYte6U3suRjFESJAB4gn_gjuxxkqh3Oe5GdR5lXibq-y-dR5Cz98smlPnt3IRuUhoCx-vw_wcB  and on to meet friends at Tibby’s (see this and main picture)  http://www.yelp.com/biz/tibbys-new-orleans-kitchen-winter-park .   Keeping busy doing reviews for Trip Advisor:  http://www.tripadvisor.com/   and working on my store as well as selling items on EBAY  http://www.ebay.com/itm/261951887003?ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1555.l2649  and working on my novel  https://www.pinterest.com/lindachase56829/my-novels/  Check today’s out there’s even a man with a sun aligned 30′ member.

 

 

 

“It is not a lack of love, but a lack of friendship that makes unhappy marriages.” ―Friedrich Nietzsche

 

 

 

Picture Information

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$14.99

http://www.ebay.com/itm/261951861177?ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1555.l2649

 

More teases—will we make it to 2016 w/out strangling some releaser?  http://www.business-standard.com/article/pti-stories/first-pictures-of-outlander-season-2-releases-115070600081_1.html

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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So today after giving you some of he more worse case scenarios  today I’m looking at ROMANTIC LOVE to see WHAT IT REALLY IS.“Love never dies a natural death. It dies because we don’t know how to replenish its source. It dies of blindness and errors and betrayals. It dies of illness and wounds; it dies of weariness, of witherings, of tarnishings.”  ―Anaïs Nin

 

 

Dictionary.com‘s  first definition is:   “a profoundly tender, passionate affection for another person”

While the Urbandictionary.com says it’s “nature’s way of tricking people into reproducing.”

While Webster says  ” a feeling of strong or constant affection for a person.”

So our tag words here are tender, affection, strong, constant and reproducing.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“Love is a fire. But whether it is going to warm your hearth or burn down your house, you can never tell.” ―Joan Crawford

 

 

 

 

As I discussed yesterday Romantic love may have existed but the concept is as the earth goes relatively new.Zeus was a god of the ancient Greeks who is describe as amorous with many lovers but in  truth by modern standards his conquest are at best innocent seduction and at worst all out rape and are even more disturbing  if you consider the bestiality (i.e. Europa and the bull or Antiope which he “made love to ” in the form of a satyr—half human and half goat.)  I personally think the addition of the LOVE word was made to clean the whole thing up by more modern minds. 

 

“The heart has its reasons which reason knows not.” ―Blaise Pascal

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

By the 13th century we see a more understandable love: 
Love is strange madnessThat leads the idle man by wilderness,That thirsts of willfulness and drinks sorrownessAnd with frequent sorrows mingles happiness.

It was the French of this period–who else–that added Lancelot and romance to the more practical telling of King Arthur’s legend by the British (to be fair they also added the Christian Holy Grail as well in the late 12th century).

Chretien says in Lancelot:

Knights and ladies would return next morning to the tournament:  the knights to fight for honours; the ladies to seek husbands.

Lines 572-30

But it existed before this as an 11th century treatises on it by Andalusian poet Ibn Hazm (a Moor) in his Dove’s Neck he examines the whole affair including secrecy, loyalty, betrayal, tell-tale signs and dreams to name just a few (also including “the supremacy of chastity“).  This seems to have influenced the French and their troubadours by the 12th century and would move on to all of Europe thereafter.

Love is the cinder

That feeds the flame in the

Soot and burns under

Wood and straw.  Listen!

He knows not which way to turn

Whom that fire begins to burn

Marcabru, Provencal poet 1130 – 1550

 

Doesn’t show much different that now days does it?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“For the two of us, home isn’t a place. It is a person. And we are finally home.”  ―Stephanie Perkins

 

 

 

It is interesting that according to the accounts the rest of Europe were slow to accept this–except the Celts who “adored excess” One of it’s detractors was the Roman Church which by the 11th century was gaining control and moving all Christian sects into it’s all encompassing fold with its unbending rules.   Yet interesting enough we get more definition of love from a priest, Andreas Capellanus who in his “On the Art and Practice of Honourable Love” states this little gem:  “I cannot overstate the absolute truth that love is incapable if growing between lovers who get married.”So there you have it love is beautiful till you marry the loved one.  May be true of some people I know today but it is not usually pushed by our clergy.

 

 

 

by more enlightened Elizabethan times we get this

Shakespeare in A Midsummer Night’s Dream:  Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind.

 

 

 

 

 

 

“Anyone who loves in the expectation of being loved in return is wasting their time.”  ―Paulo Coelho

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Romance novels became popular in the 18th and 19 century and haven’ t died out yet.  These generally see love as an adventure or even a tragic affair but most have happy endings with the couple being brought together successfully in the end.

During this time loves definitions were as thus:

 

Stendhal in his fantastic 1822 treatise on love:  Love is like a fever which comes and goes quite independently of the will. … there are no age limits for love.

 

 

 

Even in our much more pragmatic, know everything and put it on Facebook to prove  it world there remains a soft spot for first, true, undying and on and on and on, LOVE.

 

 

Ambrose Bierce,N The Devil’s Dictionary:  Love, n. A temporary insanity curable by marriage.

 

 

 

Katharine Hepburn Me : Stories of My Life:  Love has nothing to do with what you are expecting to get — only with what you are expecting to give — which is everything.

 

 

Paulo Coelho The Zahir: A Novel of Obsession:  Love is an untamed force. When we try to control it, it destroys us. When we try to imprison it, it enslaves us. When we try to understand it, it leaves us feeling lost and confused.

 

 

 

E. M. Forster  A Room with a View:  You can transmute love, ignore it, muddle it, but you can never pull it out of you. I know by experience that the poets are right: love is eternal.

 

 

 

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And my definition is that you live with someone and fight with someone and yet you still enjoy cuddling up watching an old movie and doing nothing all day but enjoying the silence after the in-laws leave.  You yell at them for doing something stupid–but when they become ill you’d give your soul to ease their pain and spare their suffering. You get grumpy and bicker and yet have a smile in return to a funny joke and you know that your souls always mesh even if the rest of you don’t all the time.  And you always remember that the last words they ever spoke to you were “don’t cry.   And you miss them even when they’ve been gone 11 years tomorrow.

 


 

 

 

 

 

33 1/3 VINYL LP Frank Zappa's Apostrophe

Apostrophe (‘) (1974)

Watch out where the huskies go,
and don’t you eat that yellow snow

 

 

 

 

 

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Today there is a brighter star in heaven that helps to illuminate each of our hearts and to help fill the emptiness we now feel with the loss of our friend. Today, the sunrise and the sunset in Key West is just a little more beautiful because we know Mike is helping to guide, giving us strength, and showing each of us to live life to its fullest and to love each other without restraint, without restrictions, without prejudice. – Charlie Walsh

 

 

 

“Letting go doesn’t mean that you don’t care about someone anymore. It’s just realizing that the only person you really have control over is yourself.” ―Deborah Reber

"I loved Frank," I said quietly, not looking at Bree. "I loved him a lot. But by that time, Jamie was my heart and the breath of my body. I couldn't leave him. I couldn't," I said, raising my head suddenly to Bree in appeal.

Claire in Dragonfly in Amber, Chapter 5

 

Sources: 

 

 

 

Arthur the King by Graeme Fife

Mythology by Arthur Cotterell

The Discovery of King Arthur by Geoffrey Ashe

 

 

 

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“I am not a villain! All I wanted… was love.” Plasmius, Danny Phantom

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IT’S MONDAY AND I’M BACK–NOW THAT’S A DOUBLE WHAMMY .   (pictures from Casa Feliz again:  https://www.facebook.com/casa.feliz.museum Rather slow weekend—met a friend for shopping, started at Versona  https://www.shopversona.com/ great clothes—I was there for a new ring–also bought a bracelet and necklace–all at fantastic prices.  Then when my other friend showed up we adjourned to the Boutique–Winter Park’s fashionable Goodwill with more new than used clothes to pick from (including some really good name brands)  http://www.mystore411.com/store/view/23473839/Goodwill-Store-&-Donations-Winter-Park .  Sat. wasn’t so good everybody canceled out and I was set on watching old movies all day http://moviestvnetwork.com/schedule/   when a friend called to see if I’d like to have lunch and join them for a quiet, but friendly 4th.  http://www.pbs.org/a-capitol-fourth/history/history-independence-day/               THANKS ALICIA & Bill for a great lunch of ribs straight from the BBQ , Mac and Cheese and I brought the corn on cob.  and lots of fun talk and friendship.  Sunday was watching TV and doing research on an upcoming trip:  http://www.tripadvisor.com/Attractions-g186525-Activities-Edinburgh_Scotland.html for 2016 which I will feature daily with pictures and commentary on my blog.  Today it’s back to work:  Check out my novel on Pinterest:  https://www.pinterest.com/lindachase56829/my-novels/    or maybe my history lessons  https://www.pinterest.com/lindachase56829/the-history-of-things-that-may-not-matter/.

 

 

 

 

 

Love is suspicious, love is needy, love is fearful, love is greedy, there is no great love without great jealousy.    — Bender, Futurama

 

 

 

 

 

 

PURRFECT TREASURE Kitten Classics 2nd ed. Hamilton Collection 1985 made in England

Oh, what an evil power love has in people’s lives!

Medea, Medea
This week I thought I’d look at Love–all kinds of love and given my contrary temperament I’m doing today I’m doing BAD LOVE
 FIRST THERE’S THE WHAT LOVE MAKES US DO.…This film with gangs and fire escapes is a modern answer to the Capulets and Montagues and balconies of Shakespeare’s vision of Italy….a prime example of good love resulting in a great story but bad results for the participants.  Love in Renaissance time was a relatively new concept.  People were married to other people (always the opposite sex in this particular time frame) as it was convenient or advantageous and often profitable.  Not that this didn’t sometimes result in affection between two people, (more often it lead to mistresses for the husband and wives discontent or fat and old before their time–an example of really bad love is ) but that was not a prime reason or even goal of the enterprise of marriage.  I often wander is the tragic tale was in fact a warning of what love makes one do in a society that still did not fully embrace it.  By the way if you don’t know how it ends read Romeo and Juliet:  http://shakespeare.mit.edu/romeo_juliet/full.html
or if that is as outrageous as true love in Ye Old England then rent the movie:  on net flix :  http://dvd.netflix.com/Search?v1=Romeo+++Juliet    or too primitive for you then the newer musical:  http://dvd.netflix.com/Movie/West-Side-Story/1111583
“She’s a woman who’s had her heart broken. And that can make you do unspeakable things.”

Regina Mills, Once Upon a Time
THEN THERE WHAT HAPPENS TO THOSE WHO BETRAYS THEIR LOVER:   A truer tale.  Just a few years before Shakespeare pinned the star crossed lovers who will never die (if the years past are any indication) there was this lady.  She was in her late teens (I guess they looked older back then) when she was first noticed by a man who found love in all the wrong place.  Henry VIII was known for falling in love but only if it suited his particular goals and nobody more interesting came along.   Her name was Katherine Howard and she was a cousin of his 2nd wife who’s last anniversary present was getting a French executioner as they were suppose to be better than the English ones–truth not joking.  Katherine was a bit loose in the chastity department before the marriage and after she doesn’t seem to have changed her ways.  Being married to a fat older man who some estimate may have had potency problems and even if that wasn’t an issue, the large chronic ulcerative sore that seeped and smelled bad on one of his legs probably didn’t add to his appeal in the bed chamber.  Personally I think Henry (not alas Katherine) got what he deserved–thoroughly besotted with the sweet young thing he was heart broken when her wanton ways were discovered by some of her family’s enemies (interestingly enough her cousin was by all indication innocent of the same charge when he (ready to move on to another) rid himself of her on grounds of adultery which included her own brother who was also executed) but he none-the-less allowed Katherine to be executed and her body dumped in the same Tower tomb (where they both rest today) as her previous mentioned cousin Anne Boleyn .
 CONFUSING LOVE WITH LUST –IN THIS CASE FOR POWER NOT THE OTHER PERSON—-BUT BOTH USUALLY TURN OUT BAD   Going back even farther we have Cleopatra and two Romans (not  necessarily at the same time—and another bad ending….why is it always the woman that gets the asp?  Cleo wanted to rule Egypt.  Rome ruled everybody and let you sub the job if you could convince them that you could handle it while not making their overall management plan unworkable, but she had a brother who seemed to think that the hereditary right of the male still was the rule.   First she made a play for Cesar Julius that is and she got the position and rid of the brother.  She also bore him a son but this relationship seemed more of a convenience than a love match.  When the ruler died she hooked up—some think in a much more passionate relationship than that she had with the older ruler.  Marc Anthony and she became lovers and went on to produce twins.  Eventually they came to blows with Rome and in a sea battle they were defeated, there are different accounts that I’ve read but basically Cleo on learning of Anthony’s defeat put an asp (snake) to her breast–whether to bemoan his loss or the loss of her kingdom one must just speculate–oh and by the way she was not Egyptian but Greek, her family placed in power previously by Alexander the Great..
If they keep hurting you, love them and stay or love yourself and leave.
 Sonya Parker
 LOVE DOESN’T ALWAY JUST HURT SOMETIMES IT KILLS   More current, less noble and downright deadly Bonnie and Clyde were a duo of an ex-con and an ex-waitress who ended up robbing and killing their way across Depression era hick towns and scaring everyone except the poor and disenfranchised who hid them from lawmen since what had banks ever done for them anyway.  The story made famous by Beatty and Dunaway has become a romance that tends to overlook the fact that robbing banks and shooting at lawmen is in fact against the law and despite the overcome dysfunctional sexual picture and true love that was featured in the movie, love in this case led to a series of crimes that ended (whether justly or not) in an ambush and volley of bullets that made the asp look insignificant.
1984 The Hand That Rocks the Future 1984 Enesco PRECIOUS MOMENT Made in Japan Small Plat

 1984 The Hand That Rocks the Future 1984 Enesco PRECIOUS MOMENT Made i… DragonLaire

$10.00 USD

 

and Love is a psychopath.”

Jekyll

When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro Hunter S. Thompson

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Tomorrow is a Holiday and though I have one business meeting in the AM I’m all for fun and games and mandatory shopping as well as alcohol and spending money—something I’m good at.  Have a great July 3 to celebrate July 4th  http://www.history.com/topics/holidays/july-4th   And check out that site to remind you what’s it all about  (and it’s not Alfie  http://www.tcm.com/this-month/article/99309%7C0/Alfie.html)  Yesterday is work, today is more and maybe Groceries—have you tried Aldi (https://www.aldi.us/)—don’t be discouraged by the lack of a lot of brand names (though they sell Arizona Green Tea https://www.drinkarizona.com/ 99Cent cans–at least here–for 49 cents } cause their brands are good and in fact some seem the same as the original—cookies for instance.  Plus they have some interesting German imports from time to time that are good and a fun addition to a boring menu.  Oh and check this out for your holiday spirit:  http://washington.org/article/10-ways-celebrate-independence-day-washington-dc  or in Michigan:  http://www.mlive.com/entertainment/index.ssf/2015/06/12_things_to_do_in_michigan_ba.html  Or just try www.google.com    put in your town, or area and 4th of July events and find the Fire works and fun in your area.

 

 

 

 

 

So much has been said and sung of beautiful young girls, why doesn’t somebody wake up to the beauty of old women?  Harriet Beecher Stowe.

 

 

 

Seth Cherished September Bear by ENSCO 1993

Enjoy while you can cause Outlander will be in Paris next year—which means that even though DroughtLander is over we will be in Kiltwithdrawl….OH MY   http://www.vinereport.com/article/outlander.season.2.extreme.costume.makeovers.and.more.doctor.who.crossovers/437.htm

 

 

 

 

TODAY WE’RE LOOKING AT SITES THAT ARE RELATED TO AUTHORS THAT HAVE MADE A MARKED OR AT LEAST LIVED A BIT IN FLORIDA:
He was my late husband’s favorite.  He was played by Johnny Depp in that  movie Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2idm7y —based on his book.  He was also known to hang out in Miami with Don Johnson (when Johnson Played on Miami Vice http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0086759/) and his reported favorite place to write was The Bat Towerhttp://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2012/11/the-bat-tower-the-30-foot-monument-to-biological-pest-control-and-cross-species-design/265465/  (MM 17 Gulfside  http://www.keyshistory.org/MileMarkerChart.html) This bizarre wooden structure (cypress)sets isolated from the main road just a few blocks off Hwy 1 (the road is right after the Sugarloaf Lodge–which if you look carefully has a smaller version of the tower setting before its main building.  http://www.sugarloaflodge.net/Home.html ) It was built years ago when a man name Perky had it built here for bats.  The reason the  bats were wanted was that they were opening a resort on Sugarloaf (which at the time was Chase Key )and the place had a mosquito problem to put it mildly.  So he built It to house mosquito munching bats.  Now whom you talk to determines the details.  1.  He actually put bats in it.  2.  He baited it to bring in the local bats (in the first instance they all ran away,  in the second he built it but they didn’t come)  but it’s the 3rd that’s my favorite—we did actually have bats (where from doesn’t matter) but the problem was THE MOSQUITOES ATE THEM.

HARRIET BEECHER STOWE      http://www.biography.com/people/harriet-beecher-stowe-9496479  An anti-slavery advocate from the north and the author that pinned Uncle Tom’s Cabin  http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/uncletom/ which some credit as one of the contributing  causes of the Civil War.  Seems the family spent some winter time in Florida and she was even inspired by a Mandarin (city www.mandarinmuseum.net/visit/walter-jones-historical-park) where she and her family spent those winters in some of her writing.   Welaka’s Beecher Point draws its name from her family http://www.geocities.ws/krdvry/hikeplans/welaka/planwelaka.html

 

 

 

 

JOHN MCDONALD     jdmhomepage.org/
Another of my hubby’s favorites and Jimmy Buffett’s as well:  “Incommunicado”  Travis McGee’s still in Cedar Key
That’s what John McDonald said ”  Travis McGee is the fictional character that appeared in 21 novels (http://home.earthlink.net/~rufener/books.html)  all having a color in their title (a knight in slightly tarnished armor, a thinking man’s Robin Hood) that lives in Bahia Mar Resort (http://www.bahiamaryachtingcenter.com/home/)on a boat at Slip F18 (which does not exist) but though they all started here they covered a lot of area including Cedar Keyhttp://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=8&ved=0CEQQFjAH&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.visitflorida.com%2Fen-us%2Fcities%2Fcedar-key.html&ei=EGKVVfGNMcHbgwStyrOQAg&usg=AFQjCNEf_UNLJ-Fiq1o4d3BvxLaeTiO_oQ&sig2=IIginnj3EYHqT-X_1hfo_g  As in many Florida Places it was built in a boom time and then was hit by a busted economy—once a thriving port it later became an artist colony and has become more popular but because of its location on the West coast with more pines and oaks  than palms and marshes covering some of the beach areas, it remains more of an unspoiled destination than the over attended sites so common in the Sunshine State.     Oh by the way Macdonald (1916-1986) lived in Bahia Mar in the Ft. Lauderdale area.  http://www.sunny.org/
“If the cards are stacked against you, reshuffle the deck.”
John D. MacDonald

MARY ROBERTS RINEHART      http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/85587.Mary_Roberts_Rineharts       

She became a best selling author of novels and plays http://www.fictiondb.com/author/mary-roberts-rinehart~6267.htm when in 1903 her family fell on hard times due to bad investment.  Ms. Rinehart  (1876-1958), who was called  America’s Agatha Christie, lived in a home (built on a Calusa Indian Shell mound ) on Cabbage Key (which the family bought for $2,500 in 1928) http://www.cabbagekey.com/home/   To this day it can only be reached by boat (there are tours and ferries to get you there) There is hiking on this mangrove island with a lot of natural and exotic vegetation to see including 300-year-old Cuban Laurels.  There is a restaurant and bar and her old home is now  the Historic Cabbage Key Inn  http://www.cabbagekey.com/accommodations/

 

 

 

 

“…a man may shout the eternal virtues and be unheard forever, but if he babble nonsense in a wilderness it will travel around the world.”
Mary Roberts Rinehart, The Red Lamp

 

 

 

JACK January Cherished Bear Ensco numbered Collectibles 1993

“Lov had his wife to feed and provide for, in addition to himself, and he was careful not to allow any of the Lesters to come too close to the sack of turnips.” Erskin Caldwell Tobacco Road
Sources:
Florida Curiosities by Grimnes and Becnel
Florida Island Hopping:  The West Coast by Chelle Koster Walton
Hidden Florida:  The Adventurers Guide by Candan Leslie et al.
Key West & the Florida Keys by June Keith
The Book Lover’s Guide to Florida  Editor Kevin M. McCarthy, Editor

 

Love makes your soul crawl out from its hiding place. Zora Neale Hurston

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Still the Dora Canal (both pictures)http://www.mountdorafireworks.com/ (check that out for celebrations on the water at the town Mt. Dora) for the Holiday (4th).   Lots of stuff for the long holiday weekend—a good chance to do something new.  This lady does lovely pieces (and no I am not getting a cent from telling you about her–honest) Captured Magic by Jeanne—one of a kind fantasy creations–delicate, beauty hand sculptured from polymer clay —jmhanley@gmail.com,   Just thought you might like her items.  Worked all day yesterday…highlight of my day was cooking dinner and getting yelled at by a friend for not answering my phone. 

 

 

 

SOME CALL IT PARADISE KEY WEST FLORIDA BY OZZIE OSBORNE OVER-SIZED PAPERBACK   $6.00

 

 

 

 

 

OK I cheated and did two Outlander today—-but I hated to omit a picture of James Alexander Malcom McKenzie Fraser so you have two:  http://www.ibtimes.com/outlander-season-2-sam-heughan-teases-his-french-claire-sermonne-join-cast-1987404 check out the latest news–Claire won an award and Jamie speaking French.

 

 

 

TODAY WE’RE CELEBRATING ANOTHER FLORIDA AUTHOR:  ZORA NEALE HURSTON:

 

 

 

ZORA NEALE HURSTON

Born in a Alabama she moved to this small town in Central Florida with her parents at a very young age.  Her father was a minister and a master carpenter who came to Florida to live in the all black settlement of Eatonville (http://townofeatonville.com/) Herr mother died when she was 9 and when her father remarried she was sent to Jacksonville to live with a brother.  In her teens she tried to escape her poverty by working as a wardrobe girl for a theatrical company and ended up in Baltimore where she returned to school and continued on to get an associate degree at Howard University  and then later attended Barnard College,

She spent some additional time in Sanford writing Jonah’s Gourd Vine, but most of her following years were spend in New York, the Carolinas, Jamaica, Haiti and Honduras writing and collecting more folk tales.

Then after an incident  in New York she moved to Miami and worked as a maid.  During the 50’s she lived on Eau Gallie Island, Cocoa and Merritt Island. 

She was a great lady and a talented author but she died in 1960 in a welfare home and was buried in an unmarked grave in Ft. Pierce, Fl. in the Garden of the Heavenly Rest.    But In 1973 her grave was adorned with a headstone placed there by Alice Walker which reads, “Zora Neale Hurston – A Genius of the South – 1901*-1960 – Novelist – Folklorist – Anthropologist.” *(Based on early misinformation. Her true birth year was 1891).    http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=2571
The cemetery is at the dead-end of N. 17th st and Ave. S. In Ft. Pierce.

Books about Hurston include:                                                                             Zora Neale Hurston by Robert E. Hemeway                                                  Zora Neale Hurston:  A Storyteller’s Life by Janelle Yates for young readers

 

 

 

EATONVILLE

“I was born in a Negro town….a pure Negro town…It was not the First in America but it was the first to be incorporated, the first attempt at organized self-government…in America.”  Zora Neale Hurston   The town appeared in many of her books and in such short stories as “The Gilded Six Bits” and “Sweat”. 

She returned to her home town in 1927 and 28 through a grant where she collected folklore here and in other parts of Florida.

In 1932 she spent a summer here and completed her Mules and Men during that time.

 

 

 

 

 

Works

Journey’s End” 1922, poetry

“Passion” 1922, poetry

Color Struck Opportunity: A Journal of Negro Life, 1925, play

Sweat” 1926, short story

  • “How It Feels to Be Colored Me” (1928), essay
  • “Hoodoo in America” (1931) in The Journal of American Folklore
  • The Gilded Six-Bits” (1933), short story
  • Jonah’s Gourd Vine (1934), novel
  • Mules and Men (1935), non-fiction
  • Their Eyes Were Watching God (1937), novel
  • Tell My Horse (1938), non-fiction
  • Moses, Man of the Mountain (1939), novel
  • Dust Tracks on a Road (1942), autobiography
  • Seraph on the Suwanee (1948), novel
  • “What White Publishers Won’t Print” (Negro Digest, 1950)
  • I Love Myself When I Am Laughing…and Then Again When I Am Looking Mean and Impressive: A Zora Neale Hurston Reader (Alice Walker, ed.) (1979)
  • The Sanctified Church (1981)
  • Spunk: Selected Stories (1985)
  • Mule Bone: A Comedy of Negro Life (play, with Langston Hughes; edited with introductions by George Houston Bass and Henry Louis Gates, Jr.) (1991)
  • The Complete Stories (introduction by Henry Louis Gates, Jr. and Sieglinde Lemke) (1995)
  • Novels & Stories: Jonah’s Gourd Vine, Their Eyes Were Watching God, Moses, Man of the Mountain, Seraph on the Suwanee, Selected Stories (Cheryl A. Wall, ed.) (Library of America, 1995) ISBN 978-0-940450-83-7
  • Folklore, Memoirs, & Other Writings: Mules and Men, Tell My Horse, Dust Tracks on a Road, Selected Articles (Cheryl A. Wall, ed.) (Library of America, 1995) ISBN 978-0-940450-84-4
  • Barracoon (1999)
  • Every Tongue Got to Confess: Negro Folk-tales from the Gulf States (2001)
  • Zora Neale Hurston: A Life in Letters, collected and edited by Carla Kaplan (2003)
  • Collected Plays (2008)  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zora_Neale_Hurston

3 decades after her death in 1960 her books would come back into print, with some individual books selling 20,000 copies a month.

 

 

 

MOVIES

 

PLACES

EATONVILLE:

Joe Clark’s Store                                                                                                                                 Corner of Kennedy Blvd. and West Streets        (gone now)                                                         was a central scene in her fiction

Macedonia Baptist Church                                                                                         at her time on the east side of Eaton between West and East Streets  Her father’s church.

The Zora Neale Hurston National Museum of Fine Arts http://www.zoranealehurstonmuseum.com/index.html                          227 E. Kennedy Blvd.                                                                                             Exhibits works of African-American visual artists

Zora Festival      http://joobili.com/zora_neale_hurston_festival_of_the_arts_eatonville_16030/             Festival held by Preserve Eatonville since 1990

 

ST. AUGUSTINE: 

Florida Memorial College                                                                              Remains of this college on West King Street at Holmes Blvd.                  A black school where Zora taught and where our Monday’s author Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings lectured.  When Ms. Hurston was there in 1942 it was Florida Normal and Industrial Institute.

House   http://www.drbronsontours.com/bronsonzora.html               79 West King Street                                                                                             Where the author lived while teaching at the College in 1942.

 

 

DAYTONA BEACH

HOWARD BOAT WORKS                                                                                       633 Ballough Road                                                                                             The only homes she ever owned were two house boats Wanago and then Sun Tan.  She lived on them here in the 1940’s  She stated that the other boat owners were nice to her and never mentioned race.  The works are no longer here but you can go past the site to get some idea of where she lived.

 

 

WINTER PARK        

                                                                                    

   Rollins College                                                                                                          Through efforts of the President Hamilton Hold  and other staff members she preformed a series of presentations at the college based on The Great Day a show she had produced in New York.  She later did the show in Eatonville and other Florida communities.

 

OVIEDO

Some of her book JONAH’S GOURD VINE takes place in the town.

 

PATRICK AIR FORCE BASE                                                    

Library                                                                                                                                1950s she worked as a Librarian

 

CROSS CREEK                                                                                                                Zora visited Rawling at her home here.

 

 

THE MOTELS LITTLE ROBBERS VINYL LP 33 1/3 LP  $8.90

http://www.ebay.com/itm/261915558250?ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1555.l2649

 

 

 

 

 

 

A minister said of her:  “The Miami Paper said she died poor.  But she died rich.  She did something.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

JOE CAMEL TYVEK WIND BREAKER JACKET 1990’S ORIGINAL $25.99

 

 

Sources:

Beyond The Theme Parks:  Exploring Central Florida by Benjamin D. Brotemarkle

Florida Curiosities  by Grimes and Becnel

Scenic Driving Florida by Jan Godown

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

The  Insider’s Guide to Greater Orlando Orlando Sentinel

 

 

 

11″ x 22″ x 28″ Hooters Racing Alan Kulwiki Poster Signed by 2 of the girls $30.00

http://www.ebay.com/itm/261915599460?ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1555.l2649