Unrequited love...it's been fodder for novelists and songwriters ever since our ancestors sat around the fire, entertaining themselves with stories and music. So it's only appropriate to highlight some of the best of this genre on this most special day... I Will Possess Your Heart – Death Cab for Cutie Creepy, stalkerish, but oh, the beautiful clarity of the lyrics: "How I wish you could see the potential, the potential of you and me. It's like a book elegantly bound but, in a language that you can't read. Just yet." Great Expectations by Charles Dickens Friends and particularly fellow author Wilkie Collins pressured Dickens into rewriting the end of this novel so that Pip and Estella could be united, but the original seems more suited to the tone and arc of the story. What a tale of scorned love. Pip spends the entire novel infatuated with a cold-hearted beauty who never returns his affection. Meanwhile, loyal Biddy loves him truly, until she finally gives up and settles for Joe Gargery instead. I Want You to Want Me - Cheap Trick The title says it all. This guy will shine his shoes and put on a new shirt if you’ll only pay him some attention and say those three little words. Notre-Dame de Paris (The Hunchback of Notre-Dame) by Victor Hugo Poor Quasimodo, the deformed bell-ringer, loves the gypsy girl, Esmeralda, who seems to be the only Parisian who has ever shown him any kindness. But, alas, she doesn't "love" him "that way." When she is hanged as a thief, Quasimodo kills the priest who betrayed her and then lies with her corpse until he dies of starvation. All that and gargoyles, too! You Don't Know Me - Ray Charles A classic from a musical legend, about loving someone who sees you as just a friend. Cyrano de Bergerac by Edmund Rostand The noble Cyrano is a brave soldier, as well as a poet, a gentleman oh so talented in many way, one of those Renaissance men. He is head-over-heels in love with Roxane (not that one). She also happens to be his cousin. That's always a problem (LOL). He is also weighted down by that enormous nose. Being a brilliant writer, he selflessly agrees to write love letters on behalf of handsome but totally inarticulate Christian, who can't put three subtle words together to woo his crush, the same Roxane (not that one). Christian is slain and Roxane gets herself to a nunnery. It is only years later, as Cyrano bites the big one himself (not his nose), that she comes to realize it was he who wooed her so eloquently. Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte Boy meets girl is given a trailer-trash twist here because Cathy and Heathcliffe are brought up as siblings (okay, adopted siblings, but still). Their passion is as tempestuous as the stormy Yorkshire moor setting, and there are definitely more than a few indications that Heathcliff is more of a disturbed sociopath than your typical romantic hero. I mean, here is a man with a taste for murdering small animals and kidnapping potential partners. F* You by Cee-lo Green Admit it, we’ve all wanted to say the things that Cee-lo sings. A succint kiss-off to someone you never had a chance with. One for the ages. For those sensitive souls, I have posted the "clean" version. And I was too lazy to log in to YouTube to get the hardcore one.
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Why is one so often conjoined with the other? "Books will soon be obsolete in the schools.... Our school system will be completely changed in 10 years." -- Thomas Edison, 1913
I couldn't have written it better myself: hyping classroom technology and who really benefits. In doing some research, I recently came upon a wonderful website which has a fabulous dictionary of "Diner Lingo," you know, the rich, descriptive and often hilarious language used in those greasy spoons and burger joints by gum-snapping waitresses and short-order cooks. (Okay, that's a stereotype -- but admit it, you did form an immediate picture!) The ingenuity of speakers of the English language never ceases to amaze me, ever enriching our living, breathing vernacular! For example, in American Diner Slang, Adam 'n' Eve are two poached eggs. Some other phrases worth a hoot and a half include: Bark, Bow-wow, or Bun pup: hot dog Eve with a lid on: apple pie Burn one, take it through the garden and pin a rose on it: hamburger with lettuce, tomato and onion Cluck and grunt: eggs and bacon Dough well done with cow to cover: buttered toast Drag one through Wisconsin: put cheese on it Eternal twins: ham and eggs Family reunion: chicken and egg sandwich Foreign entanglements: spaghetti Gentleman will take a chance: an order of hash Hot Blonde in the sand: coffee with cream and sugar Jayne Mansfield: a tall stack of pancakes Mike and Ike: salt and pepper shakers Nervous pudding: bowl of Jell-O On the hoof: cooked rare Put a hat on it: add ice cream Sinkers and suds: doughnuts and coffee
Skid grease: butter Steaming Idaho: baked potato A thousand on a plate, and whistle berries: baked beans Two dots and a dash: Two fried eggs with a strip of bacon Zeppelins in a fog: sausages with mash potatoes Well, there's plenty more where that came from at Diner Lingo! Sorry if I made you hungry! On this date in 1969, George Harrison’s tonsils are removed at London’s University College Hospital. The tonsils are destroyed so that they can not be sold. (????)
Well, we all have embarrassing moments in our lives... if you are an aging superstar, it may be the fact that you find yourself headlining the half-time show at the SuperBowl... a gig that was once filled by Up With People... if you are a B-list celebrity/actress (celebractress?), it's probably a suspiciously leaked "sex tape"... and then, there are librarians....you've heard of food porn, well, book porn is right up there... To see it in its full glory, download it (Windows Media File)... for a quickie view, without the effects, you can use the viewer.
Just had to share...for librarians, fans of libraries, and fans of Ryan Gosling. I'd like to see some with George Clooney, too! So check out: Librarian hey girl!
If Backwards Day made me think of opening lines, perhaps I need psychoanalysis, because Groundhog Day made me think of closing lines... the greatest of all, IMHO...
1. So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past. –F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby (1925) 2. He loved Big Brother. –George Orwell, 1984(1949) 3. ‘It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done; it is a far, far better rest that I go to than I have ever known.’ –Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities (1859) 4. I lingered round them, under that benign sky; watched the moths fluttering among the heath, and hare-bells; listened to the soft wind breathing through the grass; and wondered how any one could ever imagine unquiet slumbers for the sleepers in that quiet earth.–Emily Brontë, Wuthering Heights (1847) 5. Lastly, she pictured to herself how this same little sister of hers would, in the after-time, be herself a grown woman; and how she would keep, through all her riper years, the simple and loving heart of her childhood; and how she would gather about her other little children, and make their eyes bright and eager with many a strange tale, perhaps even with the dream of Wonderland of long ago; and how she would feel with all their simple sorrows, and find a pleasure in all their simple joys, remembering her own child-life, and the happy summer days. –Lewis Carroll, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (1865) 6. And so, as Tiny Tim observed, God bless Us, Every One! –Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol (1843) 7. “All that is very well,” answered Candide, “but let us cultivate our garden.” –Voltaire, Candide (1759) 8. But wherever they go, and whatever happens to them on the way, in that enchanted place on the top of the Forest, a little boy and his Bear will always be playing. –A. A. Milne, The House at Pooh Corner (1928) 9. From here on in I rag nobody. –Mark Harris, Bang the Drum Slowly (1956) 10. “Tomorrow, I’ll think of some way to get him back. After all, tomorrow is another day.” –Margaret Mitchell, Gone with the Wind (1936) |
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