Of books and covers

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by the Night Writer

I went on to Amazon a little while ago to check something or other and under the “Related to Items You’ve Viewed” heading was a book I’ve never read: After You Believe: Why Christian Character Matters. Ok, the title sounds right up my alley (and perhaps very close in topic to the book I’m working on), but what really caught my eye was the photo on the cover:

Grand Central After You Believe

Very evocative…and very familiar. Virtually the same photo of Grand Central Station was used on the cover of one of the editions of my all-time favorite book, Winter’s Tale by Mark Helprin. The photos are almost, but not quite, identical.

Grand Central Winter Tale

What’s really amazingly coincidental is that I happen to be re-reading Winter’s Tale right now as part of an on-line book club (only two “meetings” so far, here and here, and I’m the only commenter besides the host so far but I’m hoping that will change). I’ve probably read this book all the way through four times and regularly pick it up and read random pages just for the heck of it. Even so, I’m noticing new nuances and descriptions in Helprin’s enrapturing prose this time through that I hadn’t noticed before. It’s very exciting.

In considering the two titles here I see another conceptual connection: descriptions of a mystical reality in the midst of the real world illusions that surround us. I have been moved, challenged, convicted, inspired and ultimately lifted by Winter’s Tale. I’m thinking the same might happen if I pick up After You Believe as well.

An offer they couldn’t refuse

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by the Night Writer

Does anyone else remember seeing Luca Brasi at the wedding last May?

I am honored and grateful that you have invited me to your home on the wedding day of your daughter. And may their first child be a masculine child.

So be it. The grandparents-to-be, parents-to-be and Auntie Ninja squeezed into the ultrasound room yesterday for the first glimpse at the next generation: Benjamin West Worley.

Boy. Oh boy. And quite a looker, too. He gets that from his grandpa.

Here come the Men in Orange…

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by the Night Writer

The official plein air artist of The Night Writer blog, Sharell at Zumbro Falls Impressionist, came across a curious operation while seeking inspiration for a painting (the painting and full story here):

One November Saturday I came down the Bruce Vento Nature Sanctuary path to find 4 mini-vans parked in a circle and about 20 ardent people dressed in fluorescent orange vests, safety glasses, hard hats and rubber gloves. They were moving through this grassy area in the painting and stroking the grasses with their gloved hands. My curiosity was piqued and I found the only friendly person in the group to ask what they were doing. “Collecting seed,” was her curt answer. Then I asked about the gear and she retorted, “For safety purposes [idiot].” With that I backed away and left for a quiet corner of the sanctuary.

Okay, there isn’t a clear indication that this was our tax dollars at work as Sharell didn’t say whether there were state emblems on the sides of the mini-vans, but the protective gear and prickly attitude have the tell-tale ear-marks of a Minnesota Department of Something-or-other. Orange vests? In case of heavy traffic. Safety glasses? Sure, laugh if you want; it’s all funny until someone gets a seed in the eye, buddy. Hard hats? Nature sanctuaries are notorious for having all kinds of birds flying overhead.

And let’s not forget, they were harvesting wild seed. Seed Collection Officer down! Seed Collection Officer down!

Sorry To Disillusion You….

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by Tiger Lilly

From WikiAnswers:

Q: Which occurs more, cow attack or shark attacks?

A: Cow attacks. But this doesn’t mean that cows are more dangerous than sharks, there are just more of them.
Being attacked by a shark is much more dangerous than being attacked by a cow. However, the probability of the average man in the street actually being attacked by a shark is much lower than the probability of his being attacked by a shark. [sic]

First of all, why is there even a probability of being attacked by a shark ‘on the street’? Do you ever hear someone say, “Man, what a day I’ve had! I was walking home, minding my own business, when out of the blue this shark tackled me!” No. No, you don’t.

This has told me that the public still has yet to grasp the dangers posed by ninja cows. Cows are definitely more dangerous than sharks. The answerer had no idea that cows were more dangerous than sharks. That proves that they are. They’re ninjas!

Lock your doors. Board up your windows. Camp out on the roof with a Barret .50 M82A1 (and some A1 sauce, while you’re at it). Quarantine anyone who may have come in contact with a ninja cow (in case of mad cow disease).

Maybe get yourself one (or ten) of these:

Birthday Machetes 081

This is a national emergency!!!

difference 535

Are you ready? I know I am.

Ciao for now, my brother- and sisters- in-arms!

Five years?

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by the Night Writer

Can it really be five years since I cracked the code and put up my first blog post? Yes, indeed, it can be and has.

It feels as if the time has gone by so quickly. As I look back over the archives I’m surprised to see comments from “new” friends that first appeared three, even four, years ago. It’s amazing what has taken place over some 1,589 posts and 4,250 comments (about 85% of which went to my daughters’ posts). Meanwhile my daughters have grown up, posting here and bringing their own verve and attitude and even another contributor! Thanks to blogging, one daughter found herself a husband and we hosted the first (that I know of) live-blog wedding this last May!

I can’t claim anything so dramatic, but I have made a number of dear friends over the years here, some of whom I have yet to meet in person! It would be hard for my family and I to think of what our lives would be like right now if it wasn’t for this wonderful community. I don’t want to get too mushy here, though, because that can start to sound like a foreshadowing for an announcement of quitting. No such plans (or luck, depending on your perspective). While I have cut back a little of late due to other commitments and to putting time into helping Tiger Lilly with her books and writing one of my own, I do miss it on days when I don’t write here. There are no plans, then, to pull the plug here, though there is always a possibility for this blog to change form or focus.

I never set out to be anything in particular with this blog. From the beginning I just wanted to write about things that interested me. The thought of being strictly a political blogger, or a “religious” one, or a “daddy”-blogger would put me off the whole thing entirely, I think. I like to get up in the morning not knowing what I’ll write about that day (if anything), or, for that matter, who I might meet. It’s kind of like not knowing what I’m going to see when I visit my friends’ blogs each day…the variety, with just the right amount of familiarity, keeps it fresh.

Most of all, thank you for reading. People often refer to the “solitary” blogger, but that concept doesn’t work for me. I couldn’t, or wouldn’t, do this if it was just going out into the ether to bounce of Jupiter but not touch anyone else. The feedback and the relationships have been the best parts of all of this. They’ve meant a lot to me, and I hope that on occasion something here has meant something to each of you.

Ever since I reformatted this blog last spring I’ve been trying to tweak some things here. It will likely always be a work in progress, but one of the things I’ve accomplished over the weekend was to create a new page in the header entitled “Nights to Remember”. This has given me the opportunity to go back through the hundreds of posts and select the ones that I thought have been my best, or that generated the most interesting comments, or perhaps gave me a foothold to push off into something deeper. The page is still a work in progress, but there’s a double-handful of posts from 2008-09 there if you’re feeling nostalgic.

So, it’s been a slice…and I expect to take a few more whacks at the apple. Thanks for being along for the ride.

You moose-st remember this

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by the Night Writer

In case Tiger Lilly’s previous post wasn’t enough to lighten up your Thursday, you might want to consider the Strib’s laughable expose from earlier this week, What’s Killing Minnesota’s Moose? Then go over to Powerline’s devastating rebuttal, which perhaps ought to have been entitled “What’s Killing the Star Tribune’s Credibility?”

Personally, I give moose a lot of credit. Nobody, however, gives them more credit than Monty Python:
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