Here you will find photos, poetry, and possibly somelight-heartedfoolishness. For the Heavier Side of JzB see my other blog, Retirement Blues. (There be dragons!)
I claim copyright and reserve all rights for my original material of every type and genre.
Every day visits* From Moose, Goose, and Orb Weaver All seized by Haiku
"Why moose and goose?" you may ask. Back on 2/04/13 Pirate wrote a haiku with an elk in it, and I responded with one with a moose and then included him every day. A few days later in comments Mystic asked "Where's the goose?" So I started including her with this post on 2/07. A week later on the 14th, Mark Readfern asked for and received a spider. The rest is history.
*Well, most days, anyway. Grant me a bit of poetic license.
The Druids associated the willow with both water and the moon - enhancements for intuitive and psychic abilities, and therefore symbolic of inspired imagination than can lead to a clearer and deeper understanding of the world we live in.
The willow is also remarkably flexible and adaptable. It's example reminds us to "keep growing and reaching higher, no matter where we're planted."
Theme: What makes you think my SPRINGs are dirty? The theme answers all begin with things used in washing SPRINGS or possibly other things.
16 A. Like some watches : WATER RESISTANT. Able to withstand some degree of immersion or soaking, because WATER PROOF is too difficult or expensive to achieve. WATER - the source of all life, and most cleaning solutions.
35. Patchwork plaything : RAG DOLL. The cloth used for wiping up is often an old tee shirt or some other kind of RAG. Alernatively, DOLLS can be made from them.
47 A. Running a marathon may be on it : BUCKET LIST. Things to do before your time runs out and the bucket must be kicked.
It's A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World
Running a marathon - or anything else - is not on mine. A BUCKET can hold all the rest of the theme entries used in the unifier --
53. Project suggested by the starts of 16-, 22-, 35- and 47-Across : SPRING CLEANING. Annual ritual of brightening up the home after the dreary shut-down months of winter.
Hi gang, JazzBumpa here to remind you that the calendar says it's SPRING, no matter what is going on outside your window. Let's see if this puzzle is well seasoned, and whether we can clean it up.
Across
1. Visits : STOPS AT.
8. Legal test, familiarly : THE BAR. Qualifying examination for prospective lawyers.
14. Reporter's needs : SOURCES. People with information.
15. Punk rock surname : RAMONE. A pseudonym adopted by all the band members. I never paid much attention. Here is a rather innocuous example of their style.
California Sun
18. Cost-of-living fig. : CPI. Consumer Price Index. A relative measure of the prices paid by typical consumers for retail goods and other items, used to indicate the level of inflation. Denialists claim the the CPI grossly understates real inflation, but the independent Billion Prices Project actually tracks very well with it.
19. Feed in a bag : OATS. Horse feed and cereal grain for humans.
20. "Am __ the right track?" : I ON. Inquiry by one who is uncertain about how to proceed. If you're cleaning, straightening and simplifying, I'd say yes.
26. Gumbo veggie : OKRA. And crossword staple.
27. Nylons, fishnets, etc. : HOSIERY. Leg coverings.
29. Penny-__ : ANTE. Low stakes poker game, and by extension anything of little value.
30. "I'll have another" responder : BARKEEP. Not the bar we spoke of earlier. Libation provider in a tavern.
34. Neon, or fuel for a Neon : GAS. Clever clue. Neon is the GAS, i.e. vapor, in eponymous lamps, and GASoline is the fuel for the Neon, a now defunct Chrysler Corp. vehicle
36. Public image, briefly : REPutation.
39. Freaked out : GONE APE. Lost it
40. One-eighties : UEYS. U-turns - sharp turns into the opposite direction.
41. Freak out : SPOOK. Frighten or startle - I suppose I could be spooked by a freak, but not by this clecho.
44. Shows proof of : EVINCES. Provides evidence for.
46. Player with a record 14 100-RBI seasons : A-ROD. He sat out last season, suspended for violating the MLB drug use policy. Looks like he's back this year.
62. Jones with a diary : BRIDGET. Played in the movie by Renee Zellweger, who, post surgery, no longer resembles herself - thus no picture. I haz a sad.
Down
1. Cincinnati-to-Nashville dir. : SSW.
2. Shelley's "__ Skylark" : TO A. Hail to thee, blithe Spirit! Etc, Etc . . .
8. __ by fire : TRIAL. An ancient judicial practice to determine guilt or innocence by subjecting the accused to an arduous and dangerous task. In these more enlightened times, merely the ability to perform well under pressure.
9. Speed : HASTE. Be quick about it, now.
10. Ambulance VIPs : EMTS. Emergency Medical Technicians are trained to respond quickly to emergency situations regarding medical issues, traumatic injuries and accident scenes.
11. Fluffy scarf : BOA.
12. Golfer Sorenstam, who was among the first women to become honorary members of St Andrews golf club in February 2015 : ANNIKA. To the best of my knowledge, she is not related to Luke Skywalker.
23. The last Mrs. Chaplin : OONA. [May 14, 1925 - Sep 27, 1991] Charlie's fourth wife, and daughter of Nobel and Pulitzer prize winning playwright Eugene O'Neill. Her Granddaughter, named for her, is an actress with many film and TV credits, including the part of Talisa Maegyr Stark in HBO's Game of Thrones.
24. __ renewal : URBAN. Redevelopment in a city, often by removing slums.
25. How some wines are sorted : BY AGE.
26. Facing: Abbr. : OPPosite
28. Pommes frites sprinkling : SEL. French salt for French fries.
31. Nutritional stat : RDA. Recommended Dietary Allowance.
32. Coin for Putin : KOPEK. One one-hundredth of a Ruble.
33. École attendee : ELEVE. I suppose this is French for student, though I can't get Google translate to admit it.
35. Korean soldier : ROK. For Republic Of Korea.
36. Speaking from memory : RECITING.
37. Spud sprouts : EYES. These can be cut from the tuber and planted to grow plants that are clones of the parent. New varieties are grown from seeds. Why eyes? I'd know if I were wise.
39. Saturn, for one : GOD. Roman equivalent of the Greek Cronus. Complex mythology.
40. Like sketchbook paper : UNLINED. Blank.
41. Collected dust : SAT. Was idle.
42. Rainbow makers : PRISMS. They divide light according to wavelength, due to a refractive index difference from air and the angles a which the light enters and exits.
55. Photo __ : LAB. Place where photographic negatives are developed. Rather retro. These days, it's SHOP.
56. Throw too low, say : ERR. A mis-played baseball.
57. Merkel's "never" : NIE. German.
58. Captured : GOT. Obtained. Well, that puts it all away. Hope you got through it without chapped hands. Now I have to go do some tidying up. Cool regards! JzB
My lovely wife is leading the charge to simplify and get rid of old, unneeded stuff. Tucked away somewhere she found a program from an event we went to in November, 2005, that I had forgotten about. We were invited by our neighbors and didn't know what it was going to be until we got there. Turns out, it was a variety show put on by special needs people, with assistance from a couple of very prominent Detroit area professional musicians.
At this late date, my recollections of that evening are quite vague. But I was deeply moved at the time. Most of the performers were autistic, though there may have been some with other difficulties as well.
Stuck in the program was something I wrote when we got home. It's actually more of a song than a poem. One of the acts was called HEART TO HEART, and I might have been specifically reacting to that. I have the tune in my head, standard A-A-B-A song form, but no simple way to share it with you. Feel free to sing it your own way.
RIGHT HERE IN MY HEART Don't tell me what you think I can't do; Sing me a song, teach me something new. Show me the way to make a new start - I have it all right here in my heart. Don't tell me that my way is wrong If it's not your way of singing this song, We both have ways of playing our part, If we have it right in our heart. It's true, I'm different from you, Or maybe you're just different from me. But we're the same in our hearts - Together now, what could we be? If I'm racing now from pole to pole Flying to fast to find the goal; Let's bring it back to music and art - I have it all right here in my heart.
~~::~~
Accompanying haiku, freshly composed for Carpe Diem
"The prompt, should you choose to accept it, is to write something inspired by a breakfast, lunch, dinner, tea, coffee, snack eaten out, at the local diner, cafe, restaurant, fast food joint, even, if you wish, camp site." Well - not exactly. I'm choosing Pi day, which at least partially commemorates a snack. We bought the pie at Kroger and took it to my sister's house, so that's eating out, of a sort. The pie looked wonderful, but the bottom crust was soggy and the peaches were crunchy. Peaches shouldn't be crunchy BEFORE you bake them. Something is definitely not right here.
Lovely looking store-bought pie that disappointed on every other possible level
But Pi day is still worth celebrating, though this particular pie was not.
This clump of crocuses has been coming up every spring for years. The lone purple one is in a slightly different spot very year. I took this picture and wrote the haiga in mid-march 2010. The other two haiku are new today.
This part of our yard was under at least 8 inches of snow until this week. A few relatively warm days cleared it away. I just checked, and the crocus shoots are poking above the icy ground about an inch. I was worried they might get frozen out this year, but now I think they'll be OK.
I have a great fondness for amphibians. There is no reason for it that I
can identify. Something about their squat lumpiness and agile leaping
simply pleases me and soothes my soul. My yard is a haven for toads.
They live in the garden and under the bushes. I've seen tiny toadlings,
smaller than your fingernail, galumphing across my lawn.
Earlier in the Summer, I went walking in a wetlands area near my house
with a few of my grandchildren. As we crossed the street to get there,
we saw dozens of miniature toads bouncing on the pavement. Sadly, many
of them must have perished there. As we walked the gravel path around
the ponds, we had to watch our footsteps carefully to avoid stepping on
the many miniature toads moving along there.
There were hundreds of these little toads everywhere along the path, and
who can say how many thousands were hidden among the wild flowers. We
did our best not to harm them, but I doubt that many live to be adults.
"The goal of this CD-Special is to write/compose an
all new haiku in the same sense, tone and spirit as the one given ...
and because Santoka Taneda was a fore stander of the 'free-style' haiku
you don't need to count syllables or use kigo or one of the other
"classical rules" of haiku. Maybe that makes it easier, but I am not
sure of that."
"I love to challenge you to write/compose an all new haiku (or tanka) in
response on that haiga ... and if you think you can make a haiga
yourself within 24 hours than you may also submit a haiga."
We like to take a color tour in the upper part of Michigan's lower peninsula in the fall. This time it rained almost constantly, and the color we saw the most of was grey.
Theme: SECRET SUPPORT. The cheering word "RAH!," presumed to be shouted by the fans - e.g. SUPPORTers - of a sports team, is hidden in three theme entries. So maybe in this instance RAH is whispered, not shouted.
17 A. Seeking lodging : LOOKING FOR A HOME. I was thinking of overnight lodging, but this is more permanent. In this answer RAH is divided, or SECTIONED twice.
27 A. Pulling away : FURTHER AHEAD. Figuratively increasing the gap between the leader and the also-rans. If it were literal, it would be FARTHER AHEAD.
45 A. More at dinner : EXTRA HELPING. Refilling your plate, as if one plateful weren't enough. I do this all too often.
And the unifier -- 60 A. Stadium supporters, and a hint to their cry hidden in 17-, 27- and 45-Across : CHEERING SECTION. Not the architectural elements that buttress the arena's structure. Instead, this is an area of the grandstand reserved for the SUPPORTers of one of the teams in an athletic contest. And it also indicates that the cheering word RAH has been SECTIONed, or divided, across two or more words in the theme fill. The ever-meticulous Don G has made sure that the word RAH has been sectioned in every possible way. In a different sense, an athletic supporterer is any sports professional with a family.
"I
would like for this moment to be for that kid out there who feels like
she’s weird or she’s different or she doesn’t fit in anywhere. Yes you
do. I promise you do. Stay weird. Stay different, and then when it’s
your turn, and you are standing on this stage, please pass the same
message along." - Graham Moore
I can certainly relate. In grades 6 through 8, I was a social
outcast at my Catholic grade School. Being genetically shy did not help
matters at all. I've gotten over the shyness in the ensuing decades,
but not my oddity, and have learned to revel in my uniqueness.
"We all put ourselves out there--sometimes way out there--and sharing and exposing oneself can be difficult." - Marian
None of which has anything to do with the poem I'm about to present. Except, maybe that it's on the weird side. Mama Zen put herself out there with a little quatrain about a cricket and a gecko on 2/17, and I responded in comments with a 2 verse poem, of a sort. I'm presenting a slightly edited version of it here as my entry.
FOWL FATE
gecko gecko shining green in the spaces there between tree trunk pillars, leaf mulch rug hunting for a cricket bug
cautious now for safety’s sake eschew the lizard chewing snake but sadly there’s a fate that’s fowl swallowed by a great horned owl
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