Tag Archives: Joy Jar

The 02/19/13 Joy Jar

18 Feb

Westlake Mall is one of those gathering spots. Every city has one. Westlake Mall is where ‘Occupy Seattle’ camped out and where last Christmas’ fake tree, which didn’t work, was parked. It is also a place where people demonstrate and protest and just generally spout off, if they wish. It is not quite ‘Speaker’s Corner’ in Hyde Park, but it will do. Today’s deposit into the ‘Joy Jar’ is FREE SPEECH.

It is a paradox that every dictator has climbed to power on the ladder of free speech. Immediately on attaining power each dictator has suppressed all free speech except his own.
Herbert Hoover

To suppress free speech is a double wrong. It violates the rights of the hearer as well as those of the speaker.
Frederick Douglass

Free speech is not to be regulated like diseased cattle and impure butter. The audience that hissed yesterday may applaud today, even for the same performance.
William O. Douglas

The Framers of the Constitution knew that free speech is the friend of change and revolution. But they also knew that it is always the deadliest enemy of tyranny.
Hugo Black

Ignorant free speech often works against the speaker. That is one of several reasons why it must be given rein instead of suppressed.
Anna Quindlen

Free speech is the whole thing, the whole ball game. Free speech is life itself.
Salman Rushdie

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The 02/18/13 Joy Jar

17 Feb

President’s Day in 2013 falls on February 18, 2013. In the United States there are three branches of government described in the Constitution, the judicial, legislative, and executive. The president leads the executive branch. Moi is glad that the U.S. has a president and not a king or queen. Although, when many presidents stay in office awhile they forget that they are a president with powers defined by the Constitution. Today’s deposit into the ‘Joy Jar’ is the office of president.

“I never did give them hell. I just told the truth, and they thought it was hell.”

Harry S. Truman

PRESIDENT, n. The leading figure in a small group of men of whom — and of whom only — it is positively known that immense numbers of their countrymen did not want any of them for President.

Ambrose Bierce, The Devil’s Dictionary

I don’t know why we complain so much about their broken campaign promises. It’s those they keep that hurt.

Adlai Stevenson II

If he knows nothing else, a President should at least understand the secret of success in the business world. For, after all, what is the Presidency but a glorified business – or, at least, a fine racket?

W.C. Fields

A President needs political understanding to run the government, but he may be elected without it.

Harry Truman

Being president is like being a jackass in a hailstorm. There’s nothing to do but to stand there and take it.

Lyndon Johnson

In America anyone can be President, that’s one of the risks you take.

Adlai Stevenson II

Blessed are the young for they shall inherit the national debt.

Herbert Hoover

Why do people go to zoos?

H.L. Mencken’s reply to a question asking why, if he had a such a cynical view of Congress and the President, he visited Washington, D.C.

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The 02/17/13 Joy Jar

16 Feb

Sometimes a simple dinner is all one really wants. A nice salad, a glass of wine, and of course, bread and butter. Today’s deposit into the ‘Joy Jar’ is bread and butter which means bread that is buttered.

If you have extraordinary bread and extraordinary butter, it’s hard to beat bread and butter.
Jacques Pepin

“Good bread is the most fundamentally satisfying of all foods; and good bread with fresh butter, the greatest of feasts.”
James Beard

“The need of the immaterial is the most deeply rooted of all needs. One must have bread; but before bread, one must have the ideal.”
Victor Hugo, The Memoirs of Victor Hugo

 “Bread and butter, devoid of charm in the drawing room, is ambrosia eating under a tree.”
Elizabeth Russell (Mary Annette Russell, Countess von Arnim) (1866-1941) English novelist

Honest bread is very well, it’s butter that makes the temptation.                         Douglas William Jerrold

I wont quarrel with my bread and butter.                                                               Jonathan Swift

“I like bread, and I like butter – but I like bread with butter best.”
Sarah Weiner

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The 02/16/13 Joy Jar

15 Feb

Moi is basically a ‘bus chick’ and rides the bus everywhere. Moi also does a fair amount of walking to get around as well. Today, was one of those glorious late winter days when the sun came out and warmed everything. Running endless errands and walking to and fro was effortless. Ideas flowed as well. Today’s deposit into the ‘Joy Jar’ is walking for the pure joy of walking.

As people are walking all the time, in the same spot, a path appears.
John Locke

It is no use walking anywhere to preach unless our walking is our preaching.
Francis of Assisi

Walking is the best possible exercise. Habituate yourself to walk very fast.
Thomas Jefferson

If you are a writer you locate yourself behind a wall of silence and no matter what you are doing, driving a car or walking or doing housework you can still be writing, because you have that space.
Joyce Carol Oates

We all want progress, but if you’re on the wrong road, progress means doing an about-turn and walking back to the right road; in that case, the man who turns back soonest is the most progressive.
C. S. Lewis

All truly great thoughts are conceived by walking.
Friedrich Nietzsche

Walking is man’s best medicine.
Hippocrates

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The 02/15/13 Joy Jar

14 Feb

Moi loves to read. She reads all kinds of materials, books, articles, labels, and signs for example. As a blogger, she spend lots of time at the computer. Moi would be lost without her glasses. Today’s deposit into the ‘Joy Jar’ is the eyeglass.

“I always think about what it means to wear eyeglasses. When you get used to glasses you don’t know how far you could really see. I think about all the people before eyeglasses were invented. It must have been weird because everyone was seeing in different ways according to how bad their eyes were. Now, eyeglasses standardize everyone’s vision to 20-20. That’s an example of everyone becoming more alike. Everyone could be seeing at different levels if it weren’t for glasses.”
Andy Warhol

“Don’t call the world dirty because you forgot to clean your glasses”                    Aaron Hill

“Words, like glasses, obscure everything which they do not make clear.”                Joseph Joubert

“In grade school, I was a complete geek. You know, there’s always the kid who’s too short, the kid who wears glasses, the kid who’s not athletic. Well, I was all three.”                                                                                                                                                                       Julianne Moore

“Experience is the glasses of the mind.”                                                             Arab Proverb

“If the eye does not want to see, neither light nor glasses will help”                      German Proverb

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The 02/14/13 Joy Jar

13 Feb

Many are focused on Valentine Day. Will they get flowers, jewelery, and/or candy. Will there be a romantic evening or day. The greeting card companies, jewelers, and chocolatiers promote the holiday, as they should. It is good to show affection for those one loves. Shouldn’t that same, love, affection, and respect be shown every day? There is nothing wrong with an extra special day, but shouldn’t there be a baseline? Today’s deposit in the ‘Joy Jar’ is 1 Corinthians 13:4-7, the truest expression of love.

1 Corinthians 13:4-7

New International Version (NIV)

4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

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The 02/13/13 Joy Jar

12 Feb

Moi was thinking about all the ways one can eat cheese. One can put cheese on tacos, make a sandwich with cheese and top a salad. Cheese can be melted on just about anything and used for fondue. A slice of cheese and an apple slice is wonderful. Everyone’s favorite mac and cheese recipe will definitely please crowds. The varieties of cheese are endless. Today’s deposit into the ‘Joy Jar’ is cheese.

Age is not important unless you’re a cheese.
Helen Hayes

The clever cat eats cheese and breathes down rat holes with baited breath.
W. C. Fields

What happens to the hole when the cheese is gone?
Bertolt Brecht

“Give me a good sharp knife and a good sharp cheese and I’m a happy man.”
George R.R. Martin

“Well, many’s the long night I’ve dreamed of cheese–toasted, mostly…”
Robert Louis Stevenson III

Cheese is milk’s leap towards immortality.
Clifton Fadiman

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The 02/12/13 Joy Jar

11 Feb

Even if local news is often summarized as ‘if it bleeds, it leads,’ moi still watches local news and national news as well. PBS is a great source of intelligent opinion. Additionally, moi reads current event articles from across the political spectrum. The news might sometimes make one want to stick their head in the sand, but knowing is better than not knowing. Today’s deposit into the ‘Joy Jar’ is the news.

 

 

“A nation of sheep will beget a government of wolves.”
Edward R. Murrow

 

 

“You totally need to watch the news.”
“Can’t.”
“Why?”
“It’s too depressing.”
“Right, because hanging with dead people isn’t.”
Darynda Jones, Third Grave Dead Ahead

 

 

“A good newspaper, I suppose, is a nation talking to itself.”
Arthur Miller

 

 

“The more wonderful the means of communication, the more trivial, tawdry, or depressing its contents seemed to be.”
Arthur C. Clarke, 2001: A Space Odyssey

 

 

“All the papers that matter live off their advertisements, and the advertisers exercise an indirect censorship over news.”
George Orwell, Why I Write

 

 

“Popular culture is a place where pity is called compassion, flattery is called love, propaganda is called knowledge, tension is called peace, gossip is called news, and auto-tune is called singing.”
Criss Jami

 

 

“News is only the first rough draft of history.”
Alan Barth

 

 

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The 02/11/13 Joy Jar

10 Feb

Watching the GRAMMY AWARD SHOW, Carrie Underwood just accepted an award in a classy dress with a reputed $31 million dollar necklace around her neck. There are more sparkles and sequins at the show than the late Liberace could have ever imagined. The nominees at the show are living a fantasy. Fantasy is sometimes good, but it is a place that one can’t live in all the time. Reality has to be a part of existence. Tomorrow, Carrie Underwood will be without the necklace, the jeweler will probably reclaim it after the last after party. Still, a fantasy can be useful. Today’s deposit into the ‘Joy Jar’ is just enough fantasy to spice up reality.

 

“Fantasy is a necessary ingredient in living, it’s a way of looking at life through the wrong end of a telescope.”
Dr. Seuss

 

“Fantasy is hardly an escape from reality. It’s a way of understanding it.”
Lloyd Alexander

 

“Imagination is everything. It is the preview of life’s coming attractions.”
Albert Einstein

 

“Fantasy, if it’s really convincing, can’t become dated, for the simple reason that it represents a flight into a dimension that lies beyond the reach of time.”
Walt Disney Company

 

“Everybody must have a fantasy.”
Andy Warhol, The Philosophy of Andy Warhol

 

“Classic fairy tales do not deny the existence of heartache and sorrow, but they do deny universal defeat.”
Greenhaven Press

 

“Lovers and madmen have such seething brains
Such shaping fantasies, that apprehend
More than cool reason ever comprehends.”
William Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night’s Dream

 

“The moment you doubt whether you can fly, you cease for ever to be able to do it.”
J.M. Barrie, Peter Pan

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The 02/10/13 Joy Jar

9 Feb

Moi went to a great concert with headliners Puccini and Shostakovich sponsored by Orchestra Seattle Seattle Chamber Singers. Other pieces on the program were by Weber and Bach. It was a challenging program madfe even more challenging by the fact that the conductor, Johan Louwersheimer was trying out for the permanent conductor position. One immediately notices a less skilled conductor because there is no flow to the music and something just seems off. One slowly appreciates a skilled conductor because everything just worked, almost effortlessly. Mr. Louwersheimer was very skilled. Today’s deposit into the ‘Joy Jar’ is the harmony of sound guided by a skilled conductor.

 

The principal task of a conductor is not to put himself in evidence but to disappear behind his functions as much as possible. We are pilots, not servants.
Franz Liszt

 

Is it not the business of the conductor to convey to the public in its dramatic form the central idea of a composition; and how can he convey that idea successfully if he does not enter heart and soul into the life of the music and the tale it unfolds?
John Philip Sousa

 

I think it’s a very important collaboration between the conductor and the orchestra – especially when the conductor is one more member of the orchestra in the way that you are leading, but also respecting, feeling and building the same way for all the players to understand the music.
Gustavo Dudamel

Conductors’ careers are made for the most part with ‘Romantic’ music. ‘Classic’ music eliminates the conductor; we do not remember him in it.
Igor Stravinsky

A conductor should guide rather than command.
Riccardo Muti

Being a conductor is kind of a hybrid profession because most fundamentally, it is being someone who is a coach, a trainer, an editor, a director.
Michael Tilson Thomas

Only when every one of us and every nation learns the secret of love for all mankind will the world become a great orchestra, following the beat of the Greatest Conductor of all.
Artur Rodzinski

 

 

 

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