::: THE "TO DO" LIST ::: Yesterday was it. I couldn't procrastinate any longer than I already have, so it was time to get things done. My list consisted of getting my annual Flu vaccination. Wait time: 2 hrs. A near miss, but done. Hahaha, doctor: "Didn't I order a bunch of tests I wanted you to have?" I grinned, "Yup, you sure did and I'm going to the hospital right now." She smiled wanly, "Good." I don't like going for tests on the theory that a) I'm not sick, b) it's a waste of time, money and resources that could be used on people who are really, really sick. If I'm still breathing, walking, talking and laughing, then I'm alive and well. Thank you very much. She was concerned about the concussion I had thanks to my little accident last January. I rattled my brain really good but figured that if I didn't have an aphasia, then how bad could it be? I only told her about it in July. Oh the look she gave me. Could have melted the permafrost above the D.E.W. line. So, leaving her to her charts, it was off to the hospital to make my doctor happy for a change and get a B/P reading, then off to Haematology for blood tests - another 2 hr wait, (I knew I had blood, and it wasn't green), and then over to Cardiology for an ECG all of which the doctor had asked for back in July. That was fast. I hugged a lot of patients and wheeled one woman in her wheelchair down the hallway and generally had a good time making people smile. Waiting rooms and hospitals are dreadful places that nobody wants to be in and some a whole lot less than others. ::: Before I left the hospital I dropped in at the hospital volunteer managed gift shop picked up a few items and as the Senior on staff at the moment and I were looking at things I noticed they had a good stock of chocolate goodies, so I asked her if she liked chocolate. "I love chocolate," she said. So I said to her, "Well tell me, look at them all and tell me which would be your favourite." She couldn't make up her mind, my time was limited, so I picked out a lovely box of mixed dark Belgian chocolates, prettily packaged and together we looked at the contents, "How about these? Do you think?" She liked them, so I added the box to the rest of the few items and after I'd finished paying for everything, I handed the box of chocolates to her and said, "Here, these are for you. Not enough people appreciate what you Volunteers do for others this is my thanks, so "Merry Christmas" and let me give you a hug." I gave her a hug. The look on her face was worth the price of admission. ::: This is nothing new for me, and was actually the reason I went into the boutique to begin with. Anytime I have the opportunity of doing something that is both spontaneous and will make somebody, somewhere feel just a little bit better for that day at least. No charge for either the smiles, the hugs or the little gifts. Everybody wins. ::: Much more 'interesting' was the cab driver who robbed me of twenty dollars because he didn't have change and all I had was a twenty dollar bill. The cab driver didn't have his portable Interac machine with him, which he was supposed to and was how I was going to pay him. He thought somebody at the first Clinic would have change. I told him I doubted it, but I was stuck as had I left the Clinic I would have lost my spot in line, so he said he'd go get change and bring me back what he owed me. Ever hear the expression, "a fool and his money are soon parted?" Uh huh. I don't carry more cash on me than I absolutely need to do whatever it is that I need to do. That twenty was just enough to get me from the Clinic to the hospital and back home again. ::: So there I was in the middle of nowhere when I met a young lady coming out of the building I was in so I asked her if she could please give me a lift to the hospital which she was pleased to do for me after I explained to her what had happened. "No trouble at all," she said. We introduced ourselves to each other. I learned her name was "Meagan" and that she had just graduated from college with a degree in Physiotherapy and that she was in Montreal looking for work even though she was from Northern Ontario and had just driven in for the day. I said, "Oh good, let's just keep driving all the way back to Ontario as I was hoping to move there and that she could point me in the right direction." She laughed and then told me how much she loved Montreal and that this was where she had taken her college courses here and would love to live here. "No jobs in Ontario?" I asked her. The answer was negatory. She said the biggest problem was that to work in Montreal she needed French to pass the Board tests. I agreed that it was a major, major problem here for all professionals coming into the Province. I said that was a pity, here she was wanting to get into Montreal and that I wanted to get out of it. We exchanged email addresses and she drove off. Talk about twists of fate. I had what she needed and she had what I wanted. Life is can be both wonderful and strange all at the same time. ::: Not finished with my To Do List I had to then go to the Shopping Center from Hell. That particular Mall is so badly designed that once you get into it you may end up being like the man in the M.T.A. who never returned. I avoid Malls like the plague but sometimes you simply don't have any real choice. This was one of those times. I'd been on the run since 8:30 AM and it was now late afternoon and I was getting very tired, but I pressed on. My quest was my year end hunt for calendars. You'd think it a simple matter, right? Wrong. I went to the Hallmark store and immediately felt like the Three Bears in the fairy tale. I always need four things: a wall calendar big enough that I can actually see the days with space to write notes, a large size Agenda for my desk, a small one for my fridge, and a new address book which has to be new every year since people have this bad habit of dropping off the planet one way or the other: in a car or in a box. At least that's the way it is when you reach a certain age. My list is growing ever shorter. All done. ::: I had one more thing to do. Did it, only to find out when I got home that it was the wrong size. Damn. Translation: I'll have to return it. Arggghh! ::: As I was about to leave the shopping center I passed the jewelery store, and because I know the owners, I dropped in to say hello and wish them holiday greetings. My friend says, "How about a nice..." I smiled broadly, "Good luck on that one, but nice try." I only wear three pieces of jewelery and then only when I have to go out. Standard issue I've been wearing for decades. As I was about to exit I bumped into a very old girlfriend of mine I hadn't seen in a year. I almost didn't recognize her she had changed so much. She introduced me to her daughter, hugs all around, we chatted and caught up with the latest news in our lives and with promises to meet each other as soon as the dust settled for her, a quick hug and I was gone. It felt like midnight and had grown very cold outside. Another cab, some good chatter and home sweet home. ::: The problem with going anywhere today is sensory overload. There is just too much of everything everywhere in massive quantities. It's amazing what I don't need. If I never saw another store in my life it would suit me just fine. Getting me to leave home is harder than trying to stuff feathers back into a pillow. Terminal exhaustion sets in and my brain turns to mushy wet noodles and my ears ring. But oh, I do meet lovely people no matter where I go. I just don't want them all in my house all at the same time in one room. :::

::: Artist: Jeanette Trepannier, Title: "The Curious Ones" ::: This native Quebec artist is a treasure. ::: Quebec produces some of the very best artists in all of Canada. They are admired, appreciated and collected by knowledgeable collectors of Fine Art and are well represented all over North America and Europe in private collections, museums, corporate offices which makes me me feel very happy and gives me a sense of satisfaction knowing that we may not be big, but we are visible - if you know where to look. ::: Having said that, if you ask me, there are too many "curious ones" on the 'Net. It has become quite invasive and is growing ever more so. :::

::: Thank you, Syd. :::

::: CANADA GETTING SET TO REJECT KYOTO PROTOCOL ::: I see trouble in Paradise coming up. :::

::: THE NEXT ONE :::I lost my tan in Italy and I got fat on pasta and the starch of loneliness. I must fast for forty days. Sabina wrote me from the temple in Germany. She said that the old books say you should fast once each year for the number of days corresponding to your age. She was on the eighth day of an intended twenty-eight-day fast. Also I neglected to twist my feet so the heart went crazy. I must phone Patricia who was so good to me. The line is busy. ::: Leonard Cohen ::: From: "My Life in Art" :::

::: Isn't this Oscar the Grouch? ::: Every family has at least one. :::

::: So I hear. :::

::: INCOME INEQUALITY ::: Hung out to dry. ::: 99% of nothing is still nothing. :::

::: Guilty as sin. I'm either a Narcissist or a Masochist, or a bit of both. to even 'think' of writing a Blog - anywhere. In the first case I'd be guilty of thinking I'm somehow "important", a legend in my own mind. In the second, that publicly exposing myself is anything but an exercize in self-indulgence. More likely I'm just a common garden variety of Neurotic. Crazy but not too crazy? Just crazy enough to live in a crazy world. Won't argue about that. :::

::: Only because, as with every Greek tragedy, I need a break ... a breath of fresh air ... it's all getting way too serious. And yes, my cat NADJA is a total darling and has begun to take over my bed at night. Last night she was lying four sheets to the wind, flat on her back, watching me, as I was lay there with her, reading a book. I have even heard Nadja talking, after two years of silence. Yes, talking. Cat talk. She wasn't talking to me, but I heard her calling. Once in awhile she'll come up to me and ask me something. Another thing she likes to do when we are in bed together is these little "Nadja kisses"...she will grab a finger give me a tiny bite, very tiny. She bites. Gently. She's much too small to have big teeth. I suppose she could chow down on my hand if she wanted to. I have concluded that this activity is her idea of a "Nadja kiss". I have also taught her one little trick. Okay it wouldn't impress you, but it does me. Particularly that I haven't spent five minutes teaching any dog, let alone any cats any tricks at all. I admire people who do. But Nadja had a "secret" talent for learning apparently when I had thought she wasn't the brightest thing on four legs. She's quite the girl. We are going through this delayed bonding routine. It's getting tight. First thing you know it's going to be "under the blankies". I've actually caught her sleeping on my bed, and even my pillow when I wasn't even in there. You might think that's no big deal, but it is. For her. When 22 lb Laddie was alive, 6 lb Nadja felt rather overwhelmed by the size of her housemate. Those two played together but not that often. Laddie wanted to, Nadja didn't. She liked to charge him, preferably when he was fast asleep. Hence her nickname: Sneaky Pie Jones. She has never been able to jump up on anything as high as, let's say, a kitchen counter. She couldn't jump up on a table unless there was a chair, or something much lower where she can make her way up by herself. I bought her a fancy cat tree/house...waste of money...she can't use it. I have never owned such a small cat. I have never seen such a tiny cat. Most of her is hair. Under it all, there's not much. Nor was Nadja the runt of her litter. I saw her litter mates. They were all the same size, boys and girls. Through a lot of Online research, I learn that Nadja is a Miniature White Flamepoint Himmylayan Persian. As far as I am concerned, Nadja is PERFECT. In every way. PERFECT. She's cute, she's pretty, she's sweet, she's affectionate, she's quiet, she's well behaved, not at all fussy, she has the most wonderful blue, blue eyes, her hair is like soft silk, grooming her takes all of ten minutes, compared to the 4 hour long sessions I had grooming Laddie, what the heck - she is PERFECT. And I am growing very fond of the girl. Good thing, because she is taking to me as well. In six more months I'll have myself a Velcro Cat. :::

CHARMING, CHARMING, CHARMING. ::: I have yet to get out of my head the visuals concerning the unilingual visiting Polish man stuck in Vancouver's Passenger Airport Terminal for a long, lonely eight hours or so waiting for his mother to pick him up when Airport Security, alerted by the man's obvious frustration which he took out on some chair nearby him by throwing it, whereupon our charming police were called to the scene where they then tasered the man to death! One of him, and five of them. That story is what I called overkill. Terrifying. ::: OK, with that film stuck in my head, not a singular incident by the way, last night I was treated to the somewhat same cast of characters, the Good Cops and the Occupy My City folks. So what do U.C. Davis do? Tasers? Could have done, but thank God ... never mind .... one "smart" policeman gets out a canister of PEPPER SPRAY, slowly and deliberately walks along a long line of seated, non-armed, peaceful demonstrators and sprays them not once, not twice, at least three times before the filming finally came to a halt. Shades of Kent State. All that in the presence of his fellow officers standing passively by watching this whole bit of idiocy to a understandably stunned crowd. ::: Oh boy! It matters not which side ofthe debacle one wants to take. Something does indeed stink in Rotterdam when the only choice the people we trust to "serve and protect" us are the very ones we need to most fear. It isn't mere coincidence when something happens again and again again with the pathetically weak defense by the Police that they felt "threatened". ::: I never want to be anywhere near a large crowd but to say that somebody who volunteers to put themselves in the line of danger on a daily basis, and knows it long before s/he becomes part of the very scene they are positively going to eventually encounter in one very high risk career such as police work, fire fighting, soldiering - any of them - "threat" is in some part the reason these people chose these high adrenaline producing jobs to begin with. It isn't that they are chose walking little old grannies across the street somewhere in the desert. ::: People do not choose to put their very lives in imminent danger for the sole reason because they are "good guys". Most of those choices are about the legal adrenaline highs most people associate with crack cocaine. ::: There isn't enough money on the planet to get me to willingly join a police force anywhere in the world. If I did, I would have to know that one day I would have to kill somebody in cold blood, or get killed in cold blood - by the very nature of my career choice. ::: The high risk, high personal danger requires a very unique individual with a way above average amount of character, emotional stability, psychological stability, uncommon intelligence, uncommon good judgement and the kind of training one might expect of Navy Seals not your every day policeman, fireman or emergency room surgeon. ::: It would seem they are not getting the proper training. I could be wrong. I could be. But I what I do keep seeing is enough to scare the living daylights out of me. :::

INTERESTING HISTORY DOT COM ::: THE MAYFLOWER BEER RUN ::: At least according to one Pilgrim, the reason the Mayflower stopped on the shores of Massachusetts rather than Virginia as they had originally planned was because they were running out of beer. Beer was considered an important part of the daily diet in those days especially on long ocean journeys because it was less likely than water to be contaminated./When a storm blew the Pilgrims off course on their way to Virginia, one Pilgrim entered into his journal "We could not take further time for further search or consideration, our victuals being much spent, especially our beere.". As soon as the Pilgrims set foot on land, they immediately got to work on a new batch of brew.::: Interesting History Facts ::: INTERESTING BOOKS ABOUT THE MAYFLOWER ::: The Mayflower and Her Passengers ::: . . . If You Sailed on the Mayflower in 1620 ::: Yes well, beer is useful if you should ever need to slow a mutiny on board, get 'em pissed to their gills, or distract from the fact that scurvy was not an amusing disease and while lime was critical, beer might have helped pass the time in sick bay half out of your mind. ::: I despise beer, no matter how it is spelled, so I wouldn't properly be a good judge of such matters. But I do know about that doggone SHARE toolbar. :P :::

"INTERESTING HISTORY DOT COM" ::: HOT OFF THE PRESSES via the SHARE toolbar, haven't even had my cuppa yet and just received. Voici ::: Just what every CANADIAN needs to know.: AMERICAN HISTORY! Very useful, specially in FRENCH QUEBEC. Mais oui! ::: Okay, I'm laughing...or crying... both! ::: Four years of High School and American History - it wasn't an "option" - and 70 years of sharing a Border with the USA - from Coast-to-Coast, Sookie & The Situation, Leno and Letterman, American politics 24/7/365 thanks to CNN, FOX Everything, Ron Paul and Sarah Palin, Occupy Everything, Entertainment Tonight, Today, Tomorrow, Forever, the Birthers and the Tea Party (was that in Boston?), Obama all the time, Howard Stern, the News according to Stewart and Colbert, OZ,(what a perfect name for a doctor on Pop TV!) Saint Oprah (ad nauseum for 40 years - was it 40? Felt like it), Ellen (ooh! I could be a switcher hitter with de Generes, her baby blues are enough to turn my head -- for a whole minute) Phil, that 'Good Ole Boy' out of Texas with his homilies, Judy, Judy, Judy the non-Judge, REALITY TV, as if the fiction isn't bad enough, Dancing, Dancing, Dancing with the Starlets - time to retire that Show's Sensitivity Training, not to be outdone by Bieber Fever as if it weren't bad enough that we gave them Celine Everything All The Time Everywhere, The Brit Invasion: Cowell, Piers (Piers? Who the hell names their kid "Piers"? Brits! Haven't they heard of Billy-Joe and Billy-Jean?) Sharon Bleep, just because they "sound" more "intelligent" not that they are, just that nothing beats a Brit accent for sheer "class", eh what?) ::: I thought the "Mayflower" was all about a Madam somewhere in HOLLYWOOD doing up Charlie Sheen and Friends, now I learn via the SHARE toolbar that it was about BEER. American beer!(Have you ever tasted American beer? Water!) But then Columbus was looking for Quebec and found America instead. OOPS! ::: Where do I stop and where I do I start, because I haven't even begun...but if you are a CANADIAN you know where I am going with this. You can stop laughing now. ::: I've got to go deal with real con-trov-ersy, called MONSANTO and PETA and the SEA SHEPHERD...things around here are getting exciting. ::: Oh dear, and you thought it was Alice in Wonderland all this time. No, it wasn't. It was Frankenstein and Frankenfood. The real world we live in. ::: Mutant Everything. I can see it's going to be a tough day ahead. :::

::: "HAY IS FOR HORSES, NOT FOR ME." my very late mother used to tell us if we should ever make the mistake of saying "Hey, Mom..." we were in the dog house for that one. God forbid we ever made the mistake of calling her "Ma". Of course we didn't "get it" when we were young. She commanded respect from us. She got it too. We always knew when we were in the dog house with her, she would precede her sentence with, "WE are not amused." The Royal Imperative. Or she'd say, "I'm not your kid sister, mind your manners." Then when I grew up and became a mother, I understood what she hated about it. It was rude then and it is still rude now. I wouldn't dream of doing it. I'm not a horse either. And definitely not somebody's "Ma". Times change? Hmmm. :::

::: Just about sums it all up for me. The faster I go, the behinder I get. ::: Things that I could say in 10 minutes in a phone call can take 40 minutes writing the blimey thing out. Lordy, I'm getting tired of typing. ::: Edit: 23 Nov. I got a bit of "flack" over this one. My 'opinions' are my own, they don't reflect any one person, or on any one subject. :::

OH NO! ::: I now have to FEED this thing too? Didn't I say that you should never, ever buy anything that you have to feed, water or walk? But "feed" my Blog? Kill me now! ::: Hell, I don't even have the time to read the blimey Manual, let alone feed it! Bummer! ::: This thing is high maintenance and I'm low maintenance. ::: The only way they'll let me out of "The Home" is if I'm wearing my collar and a leash. That's so the caregivers at "The Home" can find me if I get lost. Which isn't hard, believe me. I stray a lot. The mind wanders. ::: I get hives just thinking about 'reading' instructions for anything, if it's longer than three paragraphs. ::: Now you know for certain why I couldn't leave StumbleUpon and why my Categorian blog looks better than does my COLD PRESS web blog. Too many "how to do this" and "how to do thats" Hives I tell you. ::: I gave up trying to programme that new telephone I bought a month ago. Too many pages to the User Manual with all its miniscule piccys - little squigllies all in Mandarin characters. ::: Feeds? Did you say FEEDS? and FOLLOWERS? Get me out of here. I'll be paranoid in a month. ::: I just heard via email - you know, REAL email, the one that isn't Outlook Express - from ONE STONED CROW who apparently isn't stoned at all. Bet he isn't a Crow either! Doesn't look like one to me. I saw him. He didn't have a Crow sitting on his shoulders. But he was wearing sun glasses, and jeans and a T-shirt. So would you, if you were in Nambia. Lots of sun there. Nothing but sun. It rains about three weeks a year. Guten tag, OSC. Danke shoen, for the note. (see? not even this keyboard of mine has accents.) ::: Where's my Geeky Guru when I need him? Oh. I don't have one? Shows, eh? Uh huh. ::: Sigh. I really should go to bed once in awhile. Maybe it would help? ::: Bette Davis would say: "This place is a dump!" I'd have to agree. I should have called it "My Messy Messy Bedroom" instead of Cold Press. I couldn't. My place isn't either a dump or a mess. Quite the opposite. ::: Arf!

::: SOMETIMES I GET LUCKY. VERY LUCKY. ::: Tonight was one those times when I ran into a Blog, "LIFE ON TWO WHEELS...the scoot commute", written by M. David Masse, a native Montrealer who rides his Vespa scooter from home on the West Island to his downtown office and back again home in the evenings. From just looking at his blog, and all of the riding he has done, and all the photos he has taken of all the familiar places that are home to me colours me with a bit of the nice kind of envy one feels when one wishes they could do likewise and admires the one who does. ::: I was a bit curious, so I looked up his Profile which took me quite by surprise when I got to his own web site TRAIN OF THOUGHT, only to discover that M. Masse is a practicing lawyer. But that wasn't what caught my eye, but rather the following quotation he wrote, which I quote in full, for it is significant to me and says much about the man: ::: Welcome.../Bienvenue.../This site serves to publish a number of papers and presentations that I have written./Ce site réunit les différents textes et présentations que j'ai écrit./ I am a lawyer, you will see that in the choice of topics. The law is my profession, but information theory is a fascination. These pages correlate these two strong forces of my professional life./Je suis un avocat, vous le verrez dans le choix de sujets. La loi est ma profession, mais la théorie de l'information est un sujet qui me passionne. Ces pages font correspondre ces deux tendances lourdes de ma vie professionnelle./Here follows the kicker that touched me: :::: "Every search for meaning must follow its own path. I am fortunate to have enjoyed a number of good opportunities to explore this topic. I look forward to many more to come./Chaque exploration doit suivre son propre cours. Je me compte chanceux d'avoir eu un nombre de bonnes occasions de réfléchir sur ce sujet. J'attends avec anticipation celles qui se présenteront à l'avenir./ For every person willing to share information, there seems to be one who won't. Sharing information is perhaps one of those traits that seems to divide us into camps: those that do, and those that don't. I do./ Pour chaque personne disposée à partager l'information, il semble en exister une autre qui est réticente. Le partage de l'information est peut-être un de ces traits qui semble nous séparer en deux camps: ceux qui partagent et ceux qui ne le font pas. Je préfère partager."/This is my contribution./Voici ma contribution./David G. Masse ::: "Every search for meaning follows its own path." On his Vespa scooter M. Masse clears his own path and shares it with anyone who cares to follow, while they seek their own path and find a meaning to it all. ::: Some days, I get lucky. Very, very lucky. :::

::: THE SUBJECT OF 'HUGS'. ::: Within half an hour of meeting you, before we part company, I'll ask you if you want a hug? Not a cyber-hug, a real one. ::: Living in a skin-starved society of 'touch-me-nots' coming by a good hug is an epiphany.::: A hug can tell a whole lot of about a person's state of being in the world, their state of mind is revealed by the mere gesture of a friendly hug. ::: People will react in different ways to being offered a hug. It matters not their gender, age, social status, culture almost no one I have ever met has outright refused a hug. ::: A hug is not like a kiss, it isn't an invitation to something more than what it is. ::: What a hug is is saying, "I acknowledge you. I accept you as you are in this moment, at this time, in this place. Now." ::: Some people I've hugged tense up instinctively. They need hugs more than anybody else. I can feel the tension in their bodies all drain out of them as they relax and melt. A hug can be a powerful thing. ::: You would think that men would be less accepting of a hug than are women. Not necessarily. They may be a tiny bit more "suspicious" about it, but are generally quite accepting as they are surprised that anybody would want to give them a hug. The trick lies in not communicating the wrong message to them. It's not a grope. It has to be more quickly released. ::: Women tend to be more accustomed to both receiving and giving hugs, probably because society more readily accepts and is accustomed to the fact that women are more "touch" prone. The most common reaction I've received from women of all ages is the lighting up of their faces and a their whole interior world is revealed in their melting. ::: I have met relatively few women who are so taken aback by the offer that when they do accept the genuineness of my offer, they'll stiffen, hesitate, and then go for it. I wonder at all that tension in their bodies. I don't need to ask, and I don't. ::: Children of all ages are the best of all when it comes to hugs. They have no such scruples as do adults with all their baggage.:: The elderly are the easiest probably because by the time they reach old age they welcome a hug with open arms and while they are more fragile than others, they are also more grateful that anybody would give them what they need most. Being touched, as they so rarely are. ::: I'm a natural born hugger and have been doing it my whole adult life. I used to wear this little pin on my jacket which simply stated: "Hug Therapist". There isn't a day that goes by, if I am out and about, that I don't give away a free hug to anybody who will accept one and give me one back. ::: So, if you ever meet me in person, know that I will offer to give you a hug. I need one too. So don't be surprised. Give me a hug. :-) :::

::: A PURPLE COW ::::

::: ::: Jest4Fun::::Parodies about purple cows::: A Purple Cow/ By Mr. Gelett Burgess/ I never saw a Purple Cow, I never hope to see one; But I can tell you, anyhow, I'd rather see than be one./ Here is the poem parodied in the style of...::: Edgar Allen Poe/ Parody by Susan and David Hollander::: One lonely, gloomy, windswept eve/ A mournful sound did I perceive./ I cast my eyes beyond the pane/ And to my horror down the lane/ Came a sight; I froze inside/ A spectral cow with purple hide.::: Emily Dickinson/ Parody by Susan and David Hollander::: On far off hills. And distant rills,. Sounds a distant moo.. A purple spot. I think I caught,. Yes! I see it, too!. In Bovine majesty she stands,/ Her purple tail she swings,/ The amethyst cow,/ To my heart somehow,/ Perfect joy she brings./ And yet the thought of being/ Of that race of royal hue,/ Though glowing like the violet sweet,/ It really would not do.::: John Keats/ Parody by Carolyn Wells*::: A cow of purple is a joy forever./ Its loveliness increases. I have never/ Seen this phenomenon. Yet ever keep/ A Brave lookout; lest I should be asleep/ When she comes by. For, though I would not be one,/ I've oft imagined't'would be a joy to see one.::: William Wordsworth/ Parody by Carolyn Wells*::: She dwelt among the untrodden ways/ Beside the springs of Dee;/ A Cow whom there were few to praise/ And very few to see./ A violet by a mossy stone/ Greeting the smiling East/ Is not so purple, I must own,/ As that erratic beast./ She lived unknown, that Cow, and so/ I never chanced to see;/ But if I had to be one, oh,/ The difference to me!::: Rudyard Kipling/ Parody by Carolyn Wells*::: In the old ten-acre pasture,/ Lookin' eastward toward a tree,/ There's a Purple Cow a-settin'/ And I know she thinks of me./ For the wind is in the gum-tree,/ And the hay is in the mow,/ And the cow-bells are a-calling/ "Come and see a Purple Cow!"/ But I am not going now,/ Not at present, anyhow,/ For I am not fond of purple, and/ I can't abide a cow;/ No, I shall not go today,/ Where the Purple Cattle play./ But I think I'd rather see one/ Than to be one, anyhow.::: Got to thinking of PURPLEGEM in Categorian who has a particular affection for the colour "purple". The famous "Purple Cow" immediately came to mind, but I didn't have the gumption to use any of the parodies to Review her, but they'll do nicely here. I chose something else for her, instead. :::

::: COULDN'T RESIST DEPARTMENT ::: From a friend in B.C.:::

::: Thank you, danke, One Stoned Crow. She knows I'm a "lost sole". She just wanted to remind me. :-] :::