In Honor of the Armistice
Mamacita says: This day used to be known as Armistice Day, in honor of the armistice that was signed on the “eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month”. This year, 2014, marks the 97th anniversary of Armistice Day.
(This term also refers to the fact that back in ancient times, a worker who was hired at the eleventh hour of a twelve-hour workday was paid the same as those who had worked all twelve hours.)
After World War II, Armistice Day was changed to Veterans’ Day. Many people do not realize that this is an international holiday, observed by many other nations as well as by the United States.
Perhaps you have wondered why veterans often wear a poppy in their lapel on this day? Let me introduce you to Flanders Fields:
Schools do not teach students much about World War I, and I have never really understood why. Most social studies classes, unless it’s a specialized elective, study the Civil War (Frankly, my dear, I don’t give a damn) and then make a giant leap over everything else so they can briefly mention World War II (Hitler was bad) and then leap again and remind students that JFK was assassinated (“I am the man who accompanied Jacqueline Kennedy to Paris”) (“I am a jelly doughnut!”) all just in time for summer vacation. I learned most of what I know about World War I from reading L.M. Montgomery’s Rilla of Ingleside, and yes, it’s another Anne book; this one is mostly about Anne and Gilbert’s daughter Rilla. I cry every time I read it, even though I know what’s going to happen. You’ll cry, too.
i wonder how many of YOU realized that Anne of Green Gables is the first of a series? Run, don’t walk, to the library THIS MINUTE. Or click and go to Amazon. You need these books in your home.
Ahem.
Monday, November 11, 2013. On this day, let us honor the men and women 
who keep us safe, both past and present.
There is nothing wrong with America that cannot be cured by what is right with America. — Bill Clinton
The issues of the world must be met and met squarely. The forces of evil do not disdain preparation, they are always prepared and always preparing… The welfare of America, the cause of civilization will forever require the contribution, of some part of the life, of all our citizens, to the natural, the necessary, and the inevitable demand for the defense of the right and the truth. — Calvin Coolidge
This nation will remain the land of the free only so long as it is the home of the brave. — Elmer Davis
When our perils are past, shall our gratitude sleep? –George Canning
How important it is for us to recognize and celebrate our heroes and she-roes! —Maya Angelou
And I’ll end this post with this one, by FDR: “When you see a rattlesnake poised to strike, you do not wait until he has struck before you crush him.”
God bless America.
Yard Sale
It’s over. Whew.
Mamacita says: I had a yard sale today, and I have come to the following conclusions:
1. People who bring $20 bills to yard sales are jerks.
2. Many things I considered valuable mean nothing to other people.
3. Many things I considered valueless mean a lot to other people.
4. One person’s junk really is another person’s treasure.
5. I need to rephrase #4.
6. It was actually kind of hard to watch a stranger walk away with a toy 
my children had loved.
7. People need to teach their children how to behave at a yard sale, which is, of course, how to behave at someone else’s home. Then again, I have witnessed small children behaving just like this in stores, eg, running wild and considering unpaid-for items to be their own. Bad parenting.
8. Yard sales are more work than they’re worth, although I know some people’s trash actually IS treasure which is certainly more than could be said for most of mine.
9. I will always be shocked at the number of people who do not read for fun. It’s incomprehensible to me. “You shore do got a lot o’books thar. Got inny flickers?” To which I replied, “A few.” To which she replied, “I ain’t never HEARD of inny o’them thar flickers!” To which I thought to myself, “I dare say.” Sorry. No Honey Boo Boo or Big Momma’s House here.
10. Having a yard sale was fun, now that it’s over. It was hard work but I’m glad to get rid of all that stuff. I’m glad other people who needed what I no longer needed were able to buy it for a quarter.
Having a yard sale confirmed my belief that most people are good, courteous, and intelligent. I wish the universe had more time to give to them instead of having to give so much time to people who are not.
A quarter is a good price for something good and usable that one person no longer needs but which another person sorely needs. Or wants. My best wishes and good memories go with what you took from my home, dear people.
Except for you three who brought $20 bills to a yard sale and spent fifty cents. I hope the bird of paradise flies up all three of your noses.
Literature Quiz: Children & YA
Mamacita says: How well do you know children’s and young adult literature? Can you give me the author and title from whence the following quotations are taken? Some of them are quite obvious if you’re any kind of reader, while others might require the assistance of an actual child or young adult. Some are fiction; some are non-fiction. Some are quite old; some are quite recent. Some are from novels; some are from other genres. It’s an eclectic mix. Google is your second resort. Memory is your first.
1. Enjoy is not the word I’d use. I got by. I kept my head down and they left me alone, more or less. I suppose that’s always been my trouble. I’ve kept my head down when, occasionally, I should have put it up.
2 He wasn’t exaggerating; they’d been big on old-fashioned morals during World War I.
3. Because honestly, is it trashy to want something so bad you go for it even if it might kill you? My opinion? It’s judging that’s trashy.
4. To die will be an awfully big adventure.
5. Everything’s got a moral, if only you can find it.
6. And people laugh at me because I use big words. But if you have big ideas you have to use big words to express them, haven’t you?
7. Often, the less there is to justify a traditional custom, the harder it is to get rid of it.
8. In the jungle, life and food depend on keeping your temper.
9. No matter how dreary and gray our homes are, we people of flesh and blood would rather live there than in any other country, be it ever so beautiful.
10. There was things which he stretched, but mainly he told the truth.
11. There is no religion without love, and people may talk as much as they like about their religion, but if it does not teach them to be good and kind to man and beast it is all a sham. . . .
12. Violence does, in truth, recoil upon the violent, and the schemer falls into the pit which he digs for another.
13. Prejudices, it is well known, are most difficult to eradicate from the heart whose soil has never been loosened or fertilised by education; they grow there, firm as weeds among stones.
14. I never wanted to go away, and the hard part now is the leaving you all. I’m not afraid, but it seems as if I should be homesick for you even in heaven.
15. Instead of always harping on a man’s faults, tell him of his virtues. Try to pull him out of his rut of bad habits. Hold up to him his better self, his REAL self that can dare and do and win out!
16. It was a woman, red and white, hating and loving, that called him with the voice of his hopes.
17. One of the things people began to find out in the last century was that thoughts – just mere thoughts – are as powerful as electric batteries – as good for one as sunlight is, or as bad for one as poison.
18. If you want to know what a man’s like, take a good look at how he treats his inferiors, not his equals.
19. If enough people think of a thing and work hard enough at it, I guess it’s pretty nearly bound to happen, wind and weather permitting.
20. He needed to save his energy for the people who counted.
21. Laugh and fear not, creatures. Now that you are no longer dumb and witless, you need not always be grave. For jokes as well as justice come in with speech.
22. Don’t you know what breakfast cereal is made of? It’s made of all those little curly wooden shavings you find in pencil sharpeners!
23. She was a girl who could not wait. Life was so interesting she had to find out what happened next.
24. People can tell you to keep your mouth shut, but that doesn’t stop you from having your own opinion.
25. Until I feared I would lose it, I never loved to read. One does not love breathing.
26. Well, he certainly is very agreeable, and I give you leave to like him. You have liked many a stupider person.
27. Once you begin being naughty, it is easier to go on and on, and sooner or later something dreadful happens.
28. We’re all human, aren’t we? Every human life is worth the same, and worth saving.
29. It’s a good thing most people bleed on the inside or this would be a gory, blood-smeared earth.
30. Memory is the happiness of being alone.
Answer in the comments, please.
