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Word
Worth Volume VIII, 2008, Issues are available by clicking on the name of
the month below.
Adobe Reader is needed to access them. A free copy is available
here: |
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Editorials |
Arts
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Columns |
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Working Out—Marien
Helz |
January |
A Test of Will—Charles
Miess |
Exercise is clearly a very good thing—something we tend to get
too little of. Still, when people talk about it, there is such
sanctimony involved. I Believe in Working Out!, they
pronounce, using the same tone that people used to use when
stating I Believe in God and Country! It’s the “Working
Out” term that makes this silly. By calling exercising for the
sake of exercising “Work” a certain noblesse appears
bestowed upon it.
Face it; this is not work. It’s play. People pay an enormous
amount of money for expensive toys to help them move “muscle
groups.” They pay a ... |
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Classic Readings
by
Word Worth |
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“It’s beautiful,
untouched, unpopulated forest; there’s no evidence of human
impact or presence up in these mountains.” He added that
several natives who considered themselves owners of the
surrounding forest accompanied them and were astonished at the
area’s isolation. “The men from the local villages came with us
and they made it clear that no one they knew had been anywhere
near this area—not even their ancestors.”
Although no new species of bird had been discovered in New
Guinea since 1939, the scientists discovered a new one... on
their first day. |
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Rediscovering
Hopkins—M
H Perry |
February |
Reclining Woman—Charles
Miess |
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Drew, who looked like a successful businessman and stood out
among the less mature students, was polite, but he was
particularly persistent in letting me and the class know that he
had things to do and places to go, and felt that nothing could
waste his time more than reading fiction and poetry. When I
began the section on Hopkins, he raised his hand, and I braced
for the onslaught of polite but tiresome questions on why we
bother with this. To my surprise, he loved Hopkins, especially
Sonnet 42. Hopkins is tough—that sonnet in particular, so I was
intrigued. |
Gerard Manley
Hopkins |
Okay, I’ll admit right from the start that I’m really dumb when
it comes to the arts. My brain is more attuned to precise and
concrete ideas—math and science and that sort of thing. When it
comes to abstract concepts, I struggle; when it comes to
abstract art, I pretend.
My first visit to an art show was on the lawn of the town hall in a
nearby village. I gave token attention to the abstract stuff
while surreptitiously working my way to the kind I could
understand. Once there, I was enchanted by pastoral scenes that
invited me to step in and ... |
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Biography as Critical Analysis—M
H Perry |
March |
A Matter of Respect—Charles
Miess |
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When one analyzes a
poem, the object is to decipher it: to discover the meaning that
the poet intended. To some extent, understanding the life of the
poet is helpful. Most biography based analysis, however, muddles
the intent rather than clarifying it. Lives are subtle and
cannot really be known without interpreting words and actions.
Interpretation is better left to the artwork itself. We don’t
know for certain what another person is thinking no matter how
close we are to them. |
Photography
by
A. W. Helz
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Years ago, the president of a large university was asked to
prepare a quotation on the subject of ethics for the foyer of a
new public building. He was stumped. How do you sum up the
whole of human activities and interaction with just a few
words? Oh he considered many of the exalted proclamations from
history, but somehow they didn’t quite fit. He finally came up
with this simple statement: Civilization is just the slow
process of learning to be kind. |
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Making
Lemonade—Marien
Helz |
April |
Literary Heroes—Part I—Graceann MacLeod |
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If life hands you a lemon, you
should make lemonade. In the northern states of the USA, snow is
the equivalent of a lemon, and it precipitates lemons in much of
the north from mid-November to mid-March. Often enough, those
boundaries are stretched to encompass mid-October to mid-April
or later. In the Buffalo, New York, area, nine inches of snow
once fell in May 7. While ... the snow goes away very quickly,
it still leaves a gloomy residue on the psyche. |
Snow
Sculpture
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I love to write. It gives me a chance to explore my
vocabulary, and the puzzle of how to make words flow together in
new and interesting ways has always fascinated me. ...
I’ve made pilgrimages involving all three of these people.
They are the folks I turn to when the “real world” becomes
overwhelming, and the inspiration I seek when my well of words
runs dry. Two of them may be somewhat unfamiliar to you,
and the third I’m sure you know very well. |
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Updating
Adages—Marien
Helz |
May |
Literary Heroes—Part II—Graceann MacLeod |
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Cultures gather wise sayings as a kind of advice shortcut: learn
this truth to avoid mistakes—or this error is one you’re likely
to make now. The problem is, a lot of our maxims are out-dated.
They deal with horses. How many families own a horse now? The
examples in our proverbs have become remote, so they no longer
function as the shortcut to wisdom that they were intended to
be. What’s needed is an update. We’ll start with “Either fish or
cut bait.” |
Photography
by
Stanley Alster
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Geneva Grace Stratton was born on August
17, 1863, in Wabash County, Indiana, to a Methodist minister.... New family funds, an influx
due to oil being discovered on their farmland, allowed Gene to
design and construct a 14-room home near the Limberlost Swamp.
This is where her creative inspiration began. She started
to photograph birds and animals in the natural settings.
This led to magazine work in two nature publications. |
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So You Want to
be a Poet—M
H Perry |
June |
Literary Heroes—Part III—Graceann MacLeod |
Even though
writing and publishing poetry pays very little, there are many
more people who want to be poets than there are opportunities for
poets to publish. Only versifiers tend to make money—those who pen
superficial “truisms” either in rhyme or in simple prose
statements devoid of rhyme or rhythm. These come and go like
all fads and tend to be remembered only as exemplars of bad
writing.
The reason people really want
to write ... |
The Conshohocken Women’s Club
by Jean Katter |
Visiting
Hannibal, Missouri, where Twain spent his formative years and
where he found inspiration for his most memorable characters, is
even today a journey back in time. It is not uncommon to find a
paddle-wheeler at the harbor, and most of the homes go back to
the famous writer’s heyday. The complex which is comprised of
his boyhood home and other important locations of his youth, is
a time-traveler’s paradise. Taking a boat journey is
mandatory – the River is a living,... |
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“First Lady”–Nation's Hostess—Marien
Helz |
July |
Passions...Cultivated—Graceann MacLeod |
The Oxford
English Dictionary defines the term as meaning, “The most
important lady in the land.” Such a concept is antithetic to the
principles of democracy in addition to being silly. The concept
suggests that Laura Bush is more important than Senator Hillary
Clinton and that Senator Clinton was more important when her
husband was President than she is now—the reverse of actuality.
In a world
of billions of people, there can never be one who is the most
important, the most beautiful, the most
intelligent.... |
Leslie Marks'
African
Animals |
...What causes
us to take up the things that give us the most joy in our lives.
For me, silent film – the watching of it, the study of the work
behind-the-scenes, the lives of its principal participants - has
been a passion for almost 30 years. It seems as if my love
of silent cinema has been with me forever, but that isn’t
strictly true. There is a single, definitive moment when
that candle was lit for me, and I have to assume that similar
stories abound among those who devote their lives to special
pursuits. |
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The Post and Chandra Levy—Anna
Seymour |
August |
D. G. Hogarth—Aurelia
Carter |
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The
Washington Post advertised its series on Chandra Levy by
stating that they would tell us who killed her. The first person
to post a response to their articles stated that we didn’t know
anything more than we did before. While we don’t know who killed
her—because in a society that states one is innocent until
proven guilty—we do know more than we did. We certainly know who
is the likely murderer from the subsequent attempted murders he
committed in Rock Creek Park. We still don't... |
Poetry by
Perry
Nicholas |
When Hogarth died in
1927, his wife Laura approached T. E. Lawrence to write a biography of him; Lawrence was consumed
with projects of his own, though, and as a result made the
somewhat unfounded excuse that he felt DGH simply wasn’t a
subject for biography—he had been, Lawrence said, too vital, too
much a personality that wouldn’t come across on paper. As
biography readers and writers are aware, of course, the genre of
biographical literature itself would not exist if vital... |
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“You're No...”—Anna
Seymour |
September |
My Life Without T.V.—Rita
Banerji |
To paraphrase Lloyd Bentsen in response to Dan Quayle, vice
presidential candidates twenty years ago: We’ve followed Senator
Hillary Clinton through fifty states; we’ve witnessed her grace
in defeat as well as in victory; we’ve watched her endure
through deep personal disappointment; we’ve seen her dedication
to those she represents; we’ve observed her indefatigable
spirit. Sarah, you’re no Hillary Clinton.
The idea that a woman is a woman, and any woman will do if there
has to be someone female is both misogynistic and... |
Photography
by
Leslie
Marks |
And no, I wasn’t a deprived
child; none of the inhabitants of the small Indian towns I
grew up in owned a T.V.
In the absence of canned
entertainment, children had to get imaginative with their
time between homework and school. We organized cultural
shows and fetes, invited the adults and charged them for
‘tickets.’ We investigated our fields and forests. We
raided fruit orchards. And we read – voraciously,
competitively – competing for the number of books we read,
how fast, and how big the words were. |
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Credit—Anna
Seymour |
October |
Grandmother’s Memories—Rita
Banerji |
The word
“credit,” though it has many varied definitions, now typically
is used to mean, “will someone lend you money?” “Credit” comes
from the Latin word credere which meant to trust or
believe. We may presume that the evolution of the term came from
the concept that one would be lent money if one could be trusted
to pay it back. It’s the pay back part that has been missing in
the equation to national detriment with international
ramifications.
While the recent orgy of lending ... |
Poetry by
Perry
Nicholas |
I hear from second-hand sources
that the picture was taken just before grandma was leaving for
college. At a time when a most women in India were unlettered,
my grandmother’s father, a barrister, had encouraged her to
continue her education, just as he had taught his own wife to
read and write. My great-grandmother, who used her writing
skills to get her kitchen into meticulous order, labeling every
cabinet and jar, still rued that her 20 year old daughter was
“too old” and “over-educated,” and would never get married. |
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The Death of the GOP—Anna
Seymour |
November |
Scented Italian Straw Basket—Jean
Katter |
A
two party system is crucial to the ideals of the United States
government. If the Republican party fails to reform itself after
being the captive of extremists groups, it will either destroy
itself or it will destroy the country.
The
Grand Old Party was once just that. It was founded on the most
noble of principles. Half a century ago it was guided by Dwight
David Eisenhower whose integrity and common sense was
impeccable. He was wise enough to avoid the Viet Nam war into
which his successor
... |
Photography
by
Leslie
Marks
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After wearing the pin once, it decided to fall apart as all good
vintage pieces do. A few of the rhinestones fell out, so what
was I to do? Bring it to some chic jeweler and say, "Um, these
aren't really amethysts, emeralds, or rubies, but could you
replace them with rhinestones?" Er, I don't think so.
Of course, I went to Google, and I typed in "rhinestone
replacement." That's what any red-blooded American woman does
these days; she searches the Internet. Like I always say, "Who
needs a man when you've got the Internet?" |
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The Mayor of Bimbo City—Anna
Seymour |
December |
Neighbors—Jean
Katter |
After losing the Vice Presidential race, Sarah Palin was quoted
as saying that she was praying that a door would open for her.
What?!!!
The country is engaged in two wars and is in an economic melt-down,
and she is praying that a door will open for her! What does the
governor of Alaska do? Clean the state toilets?
With her own son in Iraq, there are things that she should be
praying for instead of her own it’s all about me type of
advancement. This is Bimbo
City and she’s the mayor. |
Photography
by
Nick
and Britta
Monaco
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She won’t drive
on the highway, hates being home alone, and is afraid of animals
(cats, dogs, and so on). If it walks on all fours, she doesn’t
want to be near it. She is a sweetie, though—just a tad
neurotic.
Example: I took her son and my two kids to the beach one day in the
summer. About five minutes after leaving the house, she called
to ask me to remind her 15-year-old son how to swim when there’s
a riptide.
We were headed to the world’s most mild-mannered beach. If this
beach were a dog, it’d be a yellow Lab. If it were a ...
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