Proper Education

“An educated man is not, necessarily, one who has an abundance of general or specialized knowledge. An educated man is one who has so developed the faculties of his mind that he may acquire anything he wants, or its equivalent, without violating the rights of others.”

― Napoleon Hill, Think and Grow Rich 

DUCK!

Monsieur et Madame

June is comin' in hot, folks, and I'm not talking about the weather, though my most excellent tan (circa 1986, minus the body stickers) might suggest otherwise! It's just that I've got a lot of things coming up, or rather coming to an end this month that if I'm not exactly excited about, I'm at least excited to get through, or maybe just excited for what's next? All I know is that what follows is going to be different from what was, and that is the most wonderful feeling. This year is flying (galloping?), and for the first time in many, many years I feel like I'm ... Well, if not keeping up, I'm at least not drowning, and THAT is a huge level up! 

Life is Short, Be Cool to Each Other

"Gays are not interested in making other people gay. But homophobes are interested in making other people homophobic."

-Stephen Fry 

The Power of Goodbye

Girl With Balloon - Original Stencil by, Banksy

A significant amount of my life has been shaped by death, and divorce ... Which is particularly strange when you consider, I'm neither dead, nor divorced. Dead inside? Maybe. Dead to 1 or 2 people? Sure, even more than that, probably (if I'm completely honest)! Divorced? Perhaps from reality now and then, depending on who you ask ... But as of this posting I'm still currently untethered, and topside, and yet, if I had to describe what has, without a doubt, influenced my life the absolute most, it can always be distilled down to death and divorce. I remember knowing, as a young child, that my existence differed greatly from the other children around me. I experienced, and witnessed things that, even now with two feet firmly planted in middle age, my friends are just now beginning to experience themselves, and still more things most of them never will. Is it just a Scorpio thing ... Death, transformation, rebirth, a curious compatibility with the dark underbelly, or even unexplainable aspects of life? Was I born a little too late into a family of malcontents? A little of both probably, but who really knows?

'Round Here

Counting Crows:
One for sorrow,
Two for joy,
Three for a girl,
Four for a boy,
Five for silver,
Six for gold,
Seven for a secret, never to be told,
Eight for a wish,
Nine for a kiss,
Ten for a time of joyous bliss.

Admittance

Well, well, well ... Here we are with the first two weeks of Q2 nearly under our belts ... Come on in, and fess up! How has your first quarter gone? How will you tackle the next? Still failing to launch, or is it smooth sailing for you? Me? Well, it's complicated...

Atomic

"If we are all going to be destroyed by an atomic bomb, let that bomb when it comes find us doing sensible and human things — praying, working, teaching, reading, listening to music, bathing the children, playing tennis, chatting to our friends over a pint and a game of darts 

— not huddled together like frightened sheep and thinking about bombs. They may break our bodies (a microbe can do that) but they need not dominate our minds."            - C.S. Lewis

You May be Entitled to Compensation

**Have you, or a loved one been injured by this color choice? Did you attempt to seek treatment, only to find that the hospital had been completely abandoned?** 

Y'know, just when I thought "quiet quitting" was some junk-term breathlessly conjured by desperate journalists with nothing left to write about, Pantone's Fall / Winter 2026-2027 Color Trend Report landed, just over a month ago with a muffled thud, and oh my god.

You Betta Werk!

Why yes, yes I have been listening to Our Sacred Lady of Glamour, Rupaul lately, and I thought it fitting to lift a line from a song for this post about another trailblazer I wanted to briefly share today.

On this day 115 years ago (March 25, 1911), Frances Perkins bore witness to one of the most horrific events in labor history of America; the devastating fire of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory in New York City. She watched as 47 people, mostly young women and girls (workers of said factory) leapt to their death from windows on the 8th, and 9th floors as the building was consumed by flames. Why were they throwing themselves out of windows, you ask? Because the doors were chained shut, and locked to prevent "theft," of course! The final tally of workers killed that day reached 147 souls, making this gruesome inferno the spark that lead to the birth of The New Deal, first by way of the creation of the citizen's Committee on Safety. In her staggering 54 year career, including a stint as the first woman appointed to a presidential cabinet where she found herself at the helm of the Department of Labor, she played a major role in ushering in the changes, and building laws that gave us weekends, over-time pay, minimum wage, Social Security, the abolition of child labor, just to name a few ... Basically, every worker-protection we take for granted today, traces its roots back to the moment when a woman's tea-time was interrupted by a mass-death event, and she decided that things don't actually have to be this way, and got to work doing something about it.

Thank you Frances! 

Quiet Riot

 Whickens: 
When the Earth tentatively begins to wake from the death of Winter.

In just the last week alone, I've had power outages, snow days, power outages + snow days on the same day, wind storms, torrential rain, a chirping smoke alarm, and no green beer on March 17th (the horror!), but tonight the frogs are singing...

The new season is here, folks. I remember looking out the window early this morning thinking, "Spring Equinox, yeah right!" But the frogs are telling their stories tonight, relief from this long, tumultuous Winter is on the way, at long last!

xoxo 

Holding Out for a Hero

Where have all the good men gone and where are all the gods?
Where's the streetwise Hercules to fight the risin' odds?
Isn't there a white knight upon a fiery steed?
Late at night, I toss and I turn and I dream of what I need

I need a hero
I'm holding out for a hero 'til the end of the night
He's gotta be strong and he's gotta be fast 
And he's gotta be fresh from the fight
I need a hero
I'm holding out for a hero 'til the morning light
He's gotta be sure and it's gotta be soon
And he's gotta be larger than life, larger than life 

Somewhere after midnight in my wildest fantasy
Somewhere just beyond my reach, there's someone reaching back for me
Racing on the thunder and rising with the heat
It's gonna take a Superman to sweep me off my feet

I need a hero 
I'm holding out for a hero 'til the end of the night
He's gotta be strong and he's gotta be fast 
And he's gotta be fresh from the fight
I need a hero
I'm holding out for a hero 'til the morning light
He's gotta be sure and it's gotta be soon
And he's gotta be larger than life
I need a hero
I'm holding out for a hero 'til the end of the night 

Up where the mountains meet the heavens above
Out where the lightning splits the sea
I could swear there is someone somewhere watching me
Through the wind and the chill and the rain
And the storm and the flood
I can feel his approach like a fire in my blood

I need a hero...

Written by, Jim Steinman, Dean Pitchford
Performed by, Bonnie Tyler  

Where My Quitters At?

From the front to back, well, is you feelin' that? Put one hand up, can you repeat that? Tryna tank my year, see I don't need that ...

I'm confident that my readers are NOT uncultured swine, but for the casual stragglers who somehow found themselves stumbling through what's left of the internet and landing in this very strange corner of it, feel free to click the link for educational purposes...We'll wait!

Now that we're all caught up, Happy National Quitters Day!!!

Ready ... Set ...

  Word of the year: Go!

xoxo