What is the 1 Funny Decision That Makes It Difficult to Plan Your Day?

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From Denny: Author E. B. White is best known for his children's books he wrote for his nieces and nephews. One of the most famous is Charlotte's Web.

Do you know much about him other than the books? He was born in New York state in 1899. He went into the Army and after the Army he attended Cornell University. He wrote for the college newspaper, the Cornell Daily Sun.

What was his real name? It was Elwyn Brooks White and his nickname was Andy at his college newspaper where people just starting calling him that and the name stuck over the years.

After graduation, White went to work as a reporter in 1927 for The New Yorker Magazine and became quite famous. He also wrote a column for the prestigious Harper's Magazine from 1938 to 1943.

White decided to strike out on an unusual tangent for a newsman of his time period and start writing down tales for his nieces and nephews who kept begging him to tell them stories. He thought it great fun and indulged them. Children and parents today benefit from his pastime of story telling. By 1945 White started publishing these stories as small books. Now the "rest is history" as the saying goes and his stories are considered classic children's literature.

By 1957, he and his wife Katherine picked up and moved to Maine where he continued his writing. He died in 1985 at the ripe old age of 86.

Did you know White was terribly shy about giving a speech, reading aloud or reciting a poem aloud as a child in school? He was embarrassed to speak in public (a phobia most people share). He used to write his speeches for class and then beg someone else to read them aloud for him. Now that's shy! Good thing the man could write. He also shared with us a wonderful sense of humor as indicated by today's quote from him.

Quote

"I arise in the morning torn between a desire to improve the world and a desire to enjoy the world. This makes it hard to plan the day." - E. B. White (1899 - 1985)


Oh, and in case you are interested for your children or grandchildren, nieces and nephews, I found several titles of his books, including some for adults on writing style, and placed them in the Beautiful Illustrated Quotations Store. There are so many versions available. I always wonder what an author from another time period - before our current technology - would think of their books recycled in various forms like this... Who knows what tomorrow will bring for the writers of today's blogs? That will prove interesting to see how the future markets our writing of today!

What Does a Weed Have to Do With Questioning What You Think You Know?

Kudzu weeds smothering 100 foot trees and taking over a drainage ditch by railroad tracks in downtown Atlanta on Piedmont Road - Image via Wikipedia

From Denny: Emerson lived in the early 19th century. He was a great writer from whom today we pull a lot of equally great quotes. Emerson was also a minister, not a finger-pointer of faults and tongue-wagging fear-mongerer, but a man who sought to teach people to think clearly and critically. That's why his words are still so valuable 180 years later! Some concepts are eternal, and, as they say on the web, evergreen. :)

Emerson was one deep thinker and constantly pulled metaphors for our lives from his surroundings of Nature. How many times when you go to mow your beautiful perfect lawn have you discovered an ugly weed sticking up and out of character for "the green neighborhood"?

Emerson talks about weeds in this quote as having worth. What? What weeds have worth? Well, I can think of one example. Back in the 1930's kudzu was brought from China to America to feed cattle during the Great Depression. You see, kudzu can grow during the summer up to one or more feet a day, yes, a DAY! It is one fast-growing healthy ancient vine.

That was great back in the 1930's but eventually those family farms were abandoned or sold and no longer farmed. Yes, you guessed it, the kudzu kept growing and growing and growing! When I lived in Atlanta you would see it on abandoned city lots downtown, growing over street lights and creeping and running along high electrical lines and back down again on the telephone poles and over to a large tree to smother that too. Unbelievable. So, now what?

Turns out America became aware of a new herbicide back in the 1980's, 50 years later after the kudzu invasion, called Roundup. Well, I got news for you, it works for the short term but the kudzu wins anyway! OK, again, "So, now what?"

By the 1990's it was learned that the Japanese prize kudzu for its roots. What do they do with it? They harvest the roots and make their version of a food thickener like our own cornstarch. Pretty cool, huh?! :)

So, here you thought kudzu was useless as just some weed when it has beneficial food value! Bet you will never look at a weed the same again! :) Even Emerson soon realized the conventional thought about weeds is not always accurate - and to make sure you question everything you think you know.

Quote

"What is a weed? A plant whose virtues have not been discovered." - Ralph Waldo Emerson

Thanks for visiting this Monday! Have a great work week!


America quotes, gardening, life, minister, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Society and Culture, weeds, 19th century, Great Depression, World Literature, Arts, China, Literature, Atlanta

Blogging with Ads and a Blog Store

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From Denny: Whew! I've been blogging for nine months now (on the oldest blog The Social Poets where I started all this craziness) and am just getting into learning about ads. There are so many options and it takes a while to absorb it all. Mostly, I've waited to develop my content on each blog and then see what people find interesting.

You can develop your own aStore with Amazon Associates though it sure takes some time to develop the look you want to best complement your blog in color and design. Of course, I just wear it out trying different combinations so it takes me longer. :) After seven months I finally got around to developing this blog's own store. I found the most amazing QUOTES BOOKS to place in the official Beautiful Illustrated Quotations Store! Just the titles made me laugh!

Amazon is a trusted company for both the customer and the blogger. I prefer an ad company with a good reputation since it's my reputation on the line as well.

Anyway, there are ads for MP3 Music, Free Music, Sale Books, Video, Cell phones, Beauty and Shopping and the Beautiful Illustrated Quotations Store as choices. Take a look and browse through it all for ideas. If you are like me you just enjoy window shopping! :)

What's fun about some of these ads is they add visual interest to what could be a static blog so I thought I'd try it out and see what appeals to everyone. At least they are tasteful unlike what some companies offer. The ads are placed at the top, sprinkled in the sidebar and above and below the posts area.

Oh, yes, for new bloggers, you definitely want to get Google ads. Why? Forget about making money from them as it's a joke unless you get a million hits. The only sites and blogs that get hits like that are porno and I'm not interested in writing garbage. You only make $1 for every 1,000 hits so it could take you a year or more to make $100.

When you go to join up with Google just make sure you have at least 60 to 90 posts of content. They might turn you down for less. What they are looking for is enough content to analyze to know what ads to place with you. If you post daily it won't take long to develop a theme or trend that Google will find attractive. Once you have been at blogging for a good six months and are not overwhelmed, upgrade for free to Google Analytics. Analytics goes deeper into analyzing how you are doing and what posts are the most popular. They let you know if your traffic is from search engines or direct because people already know about you.

The real reason you want Google ads is because they keep track of your numbers for you to let you know if folks are actually reading your blog. That was the real reason I activated Google ads. I wanted to see if anyone was interested in what I was offering since I was a newbie to blogging. Previously, I always kept private journals and then finally decided to go public. It was a pleasant surprise to learn the level of interest out there in web land! :) Thanks for your support, everyone!

Funny Birthday Quotes

From Denny: I can't believe I didn't put these up here already! :) They were included over at The Social Poets for Libations Friday! 31 July 2009 where there is an amusing discussion of how we celebrate birthdays at our house and an original poem about conquering abuse as well as a coffee recipe to enjoy. If you are interested, go here.

Funny Birthday Quotes

Time may be a great healer, but it's a lousy beautician. ~ Anonymous

The old believe everything; the middle-aged suspect everything: the young know everything.” - Oscar Wilde

Inside every older person is a younger person wondering what happened. ~ Jennifer Yane

Wisdom doesn't necessarily come with age. Sometimes age just shows up all by itself. ~ Tom Wilson

A diplomat is a man who always remembers a woman's birthday but never remembers her age. - Robert Frost

I never forget my wife's birthday. It's usually the day after she reminds me about it. – Anonymous

Age is a number and mine is unlisted. - Anonymous

Last week the candle factory burned down. Everyone just stood around and sang, 'Happy Birthday.' - Steven Wright

People ask me what I'd most appreciate getting for my eighty-seventh birthday. I tell them, a paternity suit. - George Burns

For Libations Friday! 31 July 2009 over at The Social Poets, go here.

Thanks for visiting and have a great weekend!


Coffee, recipe, poetry, funny quotes, birthday quotes, The Social Poets

Falling in love again: A poem about opening yourself up to love

Falling in love again: A poem about opening yourself up to love

by alekhouse @ HubPages

From Denny:

Since yesterday was my birthday I thought I'd mellow out on the early AM posting today... :)

Here's the comment I left on her page - What a beautiful piece, loved it! And such good encouragement to others to dare, one more time, in spite of feeling burned out emotionally, to love once again, discovering they can now rest in the loving. Thank you for the word treat! Blogging this on over to my poetry blog for everyone else to enjoy too! Thank you for writing it.

Writing, Arts, culture, Literature, Love, Relationships