"the politician's words were liquid indignation"...

------------

"...all the while cameras mounted on the high walls surrounding the property
peered into the interior of the car,
their lenses opening and contracting like sea anemones."

from The Case of the Deadly Butter Chicken by Tarquin Hall
especially enjoyable in audio book.  This wonderful slow-moving series of detective stories (by that I mean, no car chases or explosions) is set in modern-day India with lots of social and cultural footnotes woven into the stories.  I also learned about Delhi traffic, gambling on cricket, and what a kitty party is

Convincing People

image from wikihow

"You may very well be able to domesticate a gibbon by repeatedly whacking it over the head with a hammer, but people respond less kindly to concussion."

You don't beat people up with a philosophy...you introduce them to it gradually...I'm sorry to say you're mired in the shattered cranium school of mentoring.
Take it a little easier in the future and I'm certain you'll have more success"

From Disco for the Departed by Colin Cotterill

"The sensible move would be to ...construct his homicide case the old-fashioned way;
with forensics, paper trails, and dodgy, self-serving witnesses."

From Bad Monkey by Karl Hiaasen

examples of Alliteration

"Swords shocked upon swords and shields"

"that blue blade that the king's son bears--but this blunt thing--"

from Opportunity Edward Rowland Sill

"a half-buried sting-ray streaking sea-ward in a gray plume of marl."

from Bad Monkey by Carl Hiaasen

A Literary Fascination with Teeth

"The alligator paused with her blunt nose only inches from the camera's lens.  Even with her mouth shut, the lethal downward teeth were on full display, a crooked picket fence along her upper jaw."
From Chomp by Carl Hiaasen

What's with the fascination with teeth lately?

"the rocky line of his bottom teeth"
from The Book Thief by Marcus Zusak

"he smiled showing a line of teeth that looked as if they'd been borrowed from different people's mouths."
from Disco for the Departed by Colin Cotterill

Extracts from "Killed at the Whim of a Hat" Colin Cotterill

photo from allpointseast.com travel specialists

"a puddle of pink was leaking out through the gap at the bottom of the night.  The sun was rising...and our sky was rushing through the dark tones in an effort to find something suitable to wear for the new day."

"It took so long to get there, I could feel myself aging"
(our protagonist convinces her grand-dad that she doesn't need to sit side-saddle on the back of the motorcycle)

" I was grateful that the expense and lost weekends of my MA course hadn't been totally in vain,  If nothing else, my analysis of George W's [Bush] oratory style had taught me that a sincere countenance and a confident stance was sufficient to distract your audience from the fact that you were talking rubbish."

From Killed at the Whim of a Hat by Colin Cotterill
A delightful detective story set in modern-day Thailand, with George Bushisms sprinkled through

American Politics is Like a Video Game...how?

"The Xbox and the PS4
are like Republicans and Democrats.
Both are rubbish,
but you gotta pick one of them
if you wanna play the game."

From Michael, (a pretty well-informed middle-schooler)
image from this hilarious YouTube video by New York Times

Wishful Writing

"When writing about Texas, his pen dripped milk and honey."

from That's Not in My American History Book by Thomas Ayers

True Disciples of Jesus Follow Him to the Ends of the Earth

"True disciples of Jesus,' he said, 'don't spend their evenings sitting on over-stuffed sofas watching Ed Sullivan in TV.    Neither do they spend their weekends at the bowling alley drinking beer with their friends or out playing golf.  No sir, true disciples give everything they have to the poor, and then they follow Jesus to the ends of the earth."

.......
"It was a subject that made a lot of people uncomfortable, and since being comfortable was the American Dream, anything negative was to be left at the doorway."

from The Girl Who Married an Eagle by Tamar Meyers

"so this was the ancient language Moses had spoken.  It sounded heavy with Old Testament cobwebs."

from The Dybbuk  by Sid Fleischman
image from wikipedia showing text from Joshua 1:1

Make No Mistake, In Las Vegas, Panda Express is Mexican Food

Our David laughs when he says this--the vegetables are harvested by Mexicans, food cooked by Mexicans, eaten by Mexicans..Panda Express is Mexican Food.

"On Mondays, he liked to go up into China Town, just after dawn, when all the deliveries were being made.  Crates of produce, carrots, lettuce, broccoli, cauliflower, melons and a dozen varieties of cabbage; tended by Latinos in the central valley and consumed by Chinese in Chinatown, having passed through Anglo hands just long enough to extract the nourishing money."

From A Dirty Job by Christopher Moore


"The growing presence of illegal immigrants in home building, mostly working for small labour contractors, might help explain why government statistics have recorded only a small decline in construction employment, despite the collapse in residential investment.
'Technically they don't fire them' said Myrna Martinez, coordinator for the Fresno office of the American Friends Service Committee, a nonprofit organization working on social assistance projects for immigrant workers, 'They just tell them that there is no more work."

Picture and Quote from this New York Times Article.

"if you have legal work papers, there are many jobs for you in the United States.  You can be a farm worker where you get to test pesticides directly in the field."
quote from a sarcastic but accurate article at  ralphmag.org

"The truth is, they know we work harder than they do"

"God gives money to the wealthy because without it they would starve to death
from Crossing the Wire, by Will Hobbs"

I was incredulous to see this article here"..[Mexican town] offers visitors a chance to experience what Mexican immigrants go through when they illegally cross the US border....give curious tourists a relatively genuine experience"

Extracts from Anansi Boys

"He could see the sunrise beginning, a huge blood orange of a morning sun surrounded by gray clouds tinged with scarlet.  It was the kind of sky that makes even the most prosaic person discover a deeply buried urge to start painting in oils."

..........

"Each person who ever was, or is, or will be, has a song.  It isn't a song that anybody else wrote.  It has its own melody, it has its own words...
Most of us fear that we cannot do it justice with our own voices, or that our words are too foolish, or too honest, or too odd.  So people live their songs instead."

.........................

"It wasn't that people liked Grahame Coats, or that they trusted him.  Even the people he represented thought he was a weasel.  But they believed he was their weasel, and in that they were wrong.  Graham Coats was his own weasel."

From Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman
picture from natgeo

Maze VS Labyrinth

In ordinary writing we use the terms interchangeably.  But there is actually a difference.

This is a labyrinth.  Visitors enter by a single entrance and follow the winding pathway until they arrive at a single exit point.  Some people enjoy "losing themselves" in the pleasant walk through a labyrinth.

This is a maze.  It may have several entrance or exit points and has dead ends. Mazes usually have lookout towers, so visitors can see the next steps in a maze. It is a real test of memory and problem solving.

images from wikipedia

On a mathematical note:  our own Brian J Skinner PhD and expert in all things math reminds me:

"you can make an easily-solvable "labyrinth" out of any maze just by keeping one hand against the wall at all 

times and following wherever it takes you.  Eventually it will take you out the exit."

Extract from "Geronimo's Story of His Life"

picture from indianspictures.blogspot.com

"I was no chief and never had been, but because I had been more deeply wronged than others, this honour was conferred upon me, and I resolved to prove worthy of the trust....
Soon I led a charge against them [Mexican infantry and cavalry]...In all the battle I thought of my murdered mother, wife, and babies--of my father's grave and my vow of vengeance and I fought with fury,  Many fell by my hand..."

Extracts from Geronimo's Story of His Life

"I have suffered much from such unjust orders as those of General Crook.  Such acts have caused much distress to my people.  I think that General Crook's death was sent by the Almighty as a punishment for the many evil deeds he committed."

S.M. Barrett who took down and edited Geronimo's Story of His Life (1906)  comments:

"This criticism is simply Geronimo's private opinion of General Crook.  We deem it a personal matter and leave it without comment..."
.....
"Geronimo accuses General Miles of bad faith.  Of course, General Miles made the treaty with the Apaches, but we know very well that he is not responsible for the way the government subsequently treated the prisoners of war."

Historical Note:  Geronimo surrendered more than once to General George Crook, but always escaped again.  It was Crook who tried to institute reforms on Apache reservations and was criticized by the US War Department for being too lenient with the Apache.  He was replaced by General Nelson Miles who then deployed 5,000 US soldiers, thousands of civilian militia and hundreds of Apache and Navajo scouts to hunt Geronimo's small band of 24 men.  Geronimo and his band surrendered in September 1886.

YourMom wants to know if a commanding officer is ultimately responsible for the consequences of his military decisions.

Chief Black Hawk and Geronimo had something in Common

image from wikipedia
"I am now an obscure member of a nation that formerly honored and respected my opinions,  The pathway to glory is rough, and many gloomy hours obscure it.  May the Great Spirit shed light on yours, and that you may never experience the humility that the power of  the American government has reduced me to, is the wish of him, who, in his native forests, was once as proud and bold as yourself. "
From the Dedication to "The Autobiography of Chief Black Hawk, by Chief Blackjhawk

Modern writing does not include attestations of veracity or certify accuracy of translation--
but the book "Autobiography of Chief Black Hawk" does.
Published only 1833, just 3 years after the Book of Mormon, it contains a certification of authenticity of authorship by the district clerk and a separate certification of accuracy of translation by the "US Interpreter for Sacs and Foxes."
It also contains a separate dedication by the author, "When my last resources were exhausted, my warriors worn down with long and toilsome marches, we yielded, and I became your prisoner."

image from okgazette.com see their great article here

The book Geronimo's Story of His Life, was published in 1906, three years before Geronimo's death.  It was written down by S. M. Barrett as dictated by Geronimo and begins with no less than 10 endorsements from  Army Officers and the US War Department, who permitted the publication, and includes a preface by S.M. Barrett who explains he had to transcribe the story as best he might as Geronimo would permit no stenographer while he told his story.

I had always wondered at the Testimony of the Three Witnesses and the Testimony of the Eight Witnesses at the beginning of the Book of Mormon.  Reading these autobiographies published with the help of translators, helped me understand that it was typical for the times to have witnesses of authenticity and translation accuracy, especially in endorsing the source and accuracy of translation.

extract from "The Autobiography of Chief Black Hawk"

Published in 1833, it is the first autobiography of a Native American published in the US.
Chief Black Hawk saw american expansionism and fought to prevent his people from being driven off their lands.  In this quote he talks about the political entanglement that all tribes felt during The War of 1812 as Britain and the US sought allies among the Native American tribes.

"I had not made up my mind whether to join the British or remain neutral. I had not discovered one good trait in the character of the americans that had come to the country.  They made fair promises but never fulfilled them, whilst the British made but few, but we could always rely upon their word."

Chief Black Hawk, 1833

Is There a Ministry of Syntax?

A: "Didn't she tell you they have a department that handles syntax?  Probably an entire ministry."

B: "The Ministry of Getting Words Right?"

A: "Or it could be a branch of the Ministry of Making Things Up and Bamboozling People"



......none of these are worth investing adjectives on."

.....

That's what I admire about you politicians; figures at your fingertips, debates won at the drop of a made-up number."

From Love Songs from a Shallow Grave by Collin Cotterill

"The politician's nightmare:  a requirement to give a straight answer."
From Imperium by Robert Harris

for the artist in you:
the cartoon is from worldpolicy.org, a tribute to Hocusai 's "Great Wave"

image from wikipedia

"your sister can do the job, but it takes a man's inborn carelessness to make a perfect baguette...Baking is art.

From Sacre Bleu by Christopher Moore

photo from dailymail.co.uk from an article called (oddly enough) "Sacre bleu! Traditional French Baguette is Now Available from Vending Machines" dated 8 August 2011
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2024081/Sacre-bleu-Traditional-French-baguette-machines.html

Asterix the Gaul was Right about the Roman Legions

image from Asterix.com

"By lost I do not mean to imply that the Ninth [legion] is somehow wandering around...trying to solve a navigation problem; what I mean is that they have been wiped out, defeated, decimated, destroyed and murdered to a man.  The Ninth has ceased to be...the Ninth has not been misplaced, the Ninth is no longer.

from Sacre Bleu by Christopher Moore

(It also made me laugh that this written to mirror the style of the "dead parrot sketch" by Monty Python

" 'E's not pinin'! 'E's passed on! This parrot is no more! He has ceased to be! 'E's expired and gone to meet 'is maker! 'E's a stiff! Bereft of life, 'e rests in peace! If you hadn't nailed 'im to the perch 'e'd be pushing up the daisies! 'Is metabolic processes are now 'istory! 'E's off the twig! 'E's kicked the bucket, 'e's shuffled off 'is mortal coil, run down the curtain and joined the bleedin' choir invisible!! THIS IS AN EX-PARROT!!")

The Ninth Legion was (probably) founded by Julius Caesar in Gaul about 50 BC (Remember Asterix?) and fought the in Gallic Wars.  They also fought in North Africa, Spain and Germany.  The last known deployment of the 9th Legion was in Britain where legions tried to keep the peace, and likely helped build Hadrian's Wall

image from theguardian.com

We know the 9th Legion suffered a defeat at the hands of Boudica, and mostly likely the legion fought and died in Britain.    image from pbs.org

  

 Cartoon of Boadicea from Asterixonline.com

The Eagle of the Ninth by Rosemary Sutcliff (1954) was a plausible version of what happened to the 9th Roman legion.  Scholars have disputed that the legion was destroyed, suggesting that legionaries were settled, transferred, or that the legion was disbanded.  Some evidence suggests that some units, or at least legionaries, served in places like the Netherlands or Germany, but there is no evidence that the 9th was taken out of Britain.  Maybe Rosemary Sutcliff was right after all.

http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-12752497

Thoughts on Old Women from "Cricket on the Hearth"

cartoon from dailymail.co.uk

"She remarked that she would not allude to the past...and that she would not say a great many other things...which she did say at great length...

"The majestic old soul had adorned herself with a cap calculated to inspire the thoughtless with sentiments of awe"

from Cricket on the Hearth by Charles Dickens

"...politics is a country idiot capable of concentrating on only one thing at a time."

from Imperium by Robert Harris

"Desert Fox", a 4-day bombing campaign of Iraq in 1998, occurred at the same time as the Clinton Impeachment hearings.

Margaret Thatcher was Prime Minister for 11 years but her most popular ratings were during the Falklands War.

"...More ups and downs than the ridges on a dragon's back and as many twisting turns as a dragon's tail.  A road like that is best experienced by driving fearlessly."
image from wikimedia commons

"A mountain range, spiny as an iguana's back..."  from Crossing the Wire, by Will Hobbs