We are just statistics, born to consume resources. Horace

I just stumbled onto the Stats portion of my blog. SO COOL!

Here is the viewership hits of my blog
United States 943
Canada 74
United Kingdom 41
Netherlands 41
Germany 26
Indonesia 21
France 18
Spain 16
South Korea 15
United Arab Emirates 11
Argentina 2

Referring Sites Hits -
www.google.com 137
www.facebook.com 71
www.google.co.uk 31
dreamvoyagers.blogspot.com 26
www.google.ca 12
www.wendymarcus.blogspot.com 11
wendymarcus.blogspot.com 10
www.google.com.au 10
allieboniface.blogspot.com 9

My Top Three Viewed Posts
1 - Quotes on Mary Pickford
2 - Gone With the Wind on Facebook
3 - Quotes from Lana Turner

So what does this all mean?

Say you were standing with one foot in the oven and one foot in an ice bucket. According to the percentage people, you should be perfectly comfortable. ~Bobby Bragan, 1963

The average human has one breast and one testicle. ~Des McHale

Still - it's nice to know people from around the world have stumbled onto my blog. What are the odds of that?

"You are all a lost generation." - Epigraph, The Sun Also Rises, Ernest Hemingway Banned Books Week

It's Banned Books Week: Celebrating the Freedom to Read
September 25−October 2, 2010
Banned Books Week (BBW) is an annual event celebrating the freedom to read and the importance of the First Amendment. Held during the last week of September, Banned Books Week highlights the benefits of free and open access to information while drawing attention to the harms of censorship by spotlighting actual or attempted bannings of books across the United States.

Every year during this week I choose a book off the 100 most challenged classic books

(for some reason I can't seem to post the link)

This year I've chosen #18 - The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway

From Wikipedia:
Published in 1926, the plot centers on a group of expatriate Americans and Britons in continental Europe during the 1920s. It follows the group from Paris to the running of the bulls in Pamplona. The book's title, selected by Hemingway (at the recommendation of his publisher) is taken from Ecclesiastes 1:5: "The sun also ariseth, and the sun goeth down, and hasteth to his place where he arose." It is often described as Hemingway's best novel.[1]
The novel made Hemingway famous, inspired young ladies across America to wear short hair and sweater sets like the heroine's—and to act like her too—and changed writing style in ways that could be seen by picking up any American magazine published within the next twenty years.[2]

Here are some great quotes from The Sun Also Rises, Ernest Hemingway

"You're not a moron. You're only a case of arrested development." 


"I was a little ashamed, and regretted that I was such a rotten Catholic, but realized there was nothing I could do about it, at least for a while, and maybe never, but that anyway it was a grand religion, and I only wished I felt religious and maybe I would the next time."

"Tell him that bulls have no balls."

"I don't say it's right. It is right though for me, God knows, I've never felt such a bitch.'" 


"You know it makes one feel rather good deciding not to be a bitch." 

"Isn't it pretty to think so?" 


"It is awfully easy to be hard-boil about everything in the daytime, but at night is another thing."

"She was built with the curves like the hull of a racing yacht, and you missed none of it with that wool jersey."

Gotta love Hemingway...

What book will you be reading this week?

We relish news of our heroes, forgetting that we are extraordinary to somebody too. Helen Hayes

I LOVE the above quote!!!

Helen Hayes was nicknamed the "First Lady of the American Theatre" and was one of twelve people who have won an Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar and a Tony Award. Hayes has also received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, America's highest civilian honor, from President Ronald Reagan and awarded the National Medal of Arts.

Here are some quotes from Helen Hayes....

If you rest, you rust.
Helen Hayes

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

Every human being on this earth is born with a tragedy, and it isn't original sin. He's born with the tragedy that he has to grow up... a lot of people don't have the courage to do it.
Helen Hayes

The hardest years in life are those between ten and seventy.
Helen Hayes

and one from her husband...
When Charles first saw our child Mary, he said all the proper things for a new father. He looked upon the poor little red thing and blurted, "She's more beautiful than the Brooklyn Bridge." –

Priceless!

Gone With The Wind on Facebook...WWSD? What would Scarlett do?

On Facebook there is a link going around which creates a Facebook thread between historical figures - you know if Facebook was around back then. It is some funny stuff and got me thinking about literary characters. So I decided to try my hand at it with Gone WIth The Wind. Now the one going around on Facebook actually looks like Facebook but I couldn't for the life of me figure out how to do it myself - at least within the half-hour I allotted myself to do so - I mean I SHOULD be writing - then there were all the copyrights attached to the photos - so here is the imaginary Facebook thread I came up with. I hope you enjoy it.


Scarlett O’Hara: The boys are playing beer pong AGAIN!

Rhett: I <3 you.

Melanie Hamilton Wilkes likes this.

Scarlett O’Hara: I heart Ashley.

Melanie Hamilton Wilkes: WTF?

Rhett Butler: Face it, he’s just not that into you.

Melanie Hamilton Wilkes likes this.

Scarlett O’ Hara: Fiddle-dee-dee, like that will stop me.

Melanie Hamilton Wilkes: I thought we were BFF’s????

Rhett Butler: I’m going to chill Belle Watling’s crib.

Scarlett O’Hara: She’s a Ho!

Mammy: Miss Scarlett!

Rhett Butler: Takes one to know one.

Scarlett O’Hara: As God is my witness, I’m going to de-friend you.

Rhett Butler: Frankly my dear, I don’t give a F__K.

Scarlett O’Hara is now friends with George Clooney.

Melanie Hamilton Wilkes likes this.

Ashley Wilkes: Can someone lend me a 20 for a beer run?

Never face facts; if you do you'll never get up in the morning. Marlo Thomas

Though she's done wonderful things in her life, I will always remember her fondly as That Girl.
Here are some great quotes...


Nothing is either all masculine or all feminine except having sex.
Marlo Thomas

One of the things about equality is not just that you be treated equally to a man, but that you treat yourself equally to the way you treat a man.
Marlo Thomas

We've been taught to believe that actions speak louder than words. But I think words speak pretty loud all of our lives; we carry these words in our head.
Marlo Thomas

Her famous father Danny Thomas told her....
"I raised you to be a thoroughbred. When thoroughbreds run they wear blinders to keep their eyes focused straight ahead with no distractions, no other horses. They hear the crowd but they don’t listen. They just run their own race. That’s what you have to do. Don’t listen to anyone comparing you to me or to anyone else. You just run your own race."

And run she has.

"I want pills called September 10. You take one and your mind feels like the 11th never happened." - Doug Coupland

This is a picture I took of one of the towers during my 8th grade trip to NYC back in 1977.

Please take a moment to say a prayer for those taken from us on September 11, 2001.

Why can’t we find the universal in our differences? - Rita Dove

Read an interesting interview with Rita Dove in the July/August issue of the Smithsonian. Rita Dove was the first African American to serve as the US Poet Laureate. The interview titled Speed Reading asked her opinions on the future of literature. Here are 2 items that reasonated with me...

She believes that "blogs, Facebook, or Twitter does not diminish the power of literature because literature is shaped by intimacy."

“Literature is going to be looking for different ways to distinguish itself from the mass media, and it’s going to feel freer to experiment.”

It stuck with me so much that I dug up a few more quotes from Ms. Dove

"I prefer to explore the most intimate moments, the smaller, crystallized details we all hinge our lives on." Rita Dove

"If only the sun-drenched celebrities are being noticed and worshiped, then our children are going to have a tough time seeing the value in the shadows, where the thinkers, probers and scientists are keeping society together." Rita Dove

"There are times in life when, instead of complaining, you do something about your complaints." Rita Dove

The thing about anything in life is you have to get ready for it. Study, learn. - Jacqueline Bisset

I remember Jacqueline Bisset from The Deep - the movie from 1977 with Nick Nolte (sigh, sigh - hey I was 14 and he was at the height of his hunkiness)

Anyway - here are some quotes from Ms. Bisset:

A mode of conduct, a standard of courage, discipline, fortitude and integrity can do a great deal to make a woman beautiful. - Jacqueline Bisset

I think I am an adult. - Jacqueline Bisset

I've probably understood men too well. I realise they are predatory by nature, and I have a certain acceptance of the male animal. -Jacqueline Bisset

Ideally, couples need three lives; one for him, one for her, and one for them together. - Jacqueline Bisset

And MY FAVORITE:

My view is quite simple. When your dog pees on the carpet, you do not give away your dog. You say, This dog is special. I have to teach him not to pee on the carpet. I feel exactly the same way about men. They need to be taught things. -Jacqueline Bisset

Got to love that one!