A Death and A Marriage

3 September 2021, 1715

L’

We hope all is well at your end.  One of our long-time friends died this morning from Covid.  She was feeling well on Wednesday 4 Aug, then felt sick on Friday/Saturday.  I think she checked into the hospital the following Saturday when she could not stand (very low oxygen level?).  Her daughter texted us yesterday saying that her mom's body was shutting down.  She is the first that we knew personally that died from Covid. 

All is well at our end.  A_ and J_ got married last Sunday in Palo Alto.  It was a small wedding.  We thank God that everything went well.

Take care.  We plan to see you before the year's end.

S_ and E_

"To Paint the Lily" Not

Mother’s Day, 2021

Sonnets are full of love, and this my tome
Has many sonnets: so here now shall be
Sonnets are full of love, and this my tome
Has many sonnets: so here now shall be
One sonnet more, a love sonnet, from me
To her whose heart is my heart’s quiet home,
To my first Love, my Mother, on whose knee
I learnt love-lore that is not troublesome;
Whose service is my special dignity,
And she my loadstar while I go and come
And so because you love me, and because
I love you, Mother, I have woven a wreath
Of rhymes wherewith to crown your honored name:
In you not fourscore years can dim the flame
Of love, whose blessed glow transcends the laws
Of time and change and mortal life and death.

- Christina Rossetti (1830-1894)

Johnny Pearson, piano and Orchesta  (1967)
- Friendly Persuasion
(Tiomkin)

Click or tap here to view this L'Envoi YouTube.

Northern Hemisphere - First Day of Spring, 2021

"The spring has come again to the hills and valleys of our home. The day awakes, a breeze moves strongly through the forest, as if its task were to carry away the lingering night; the birds begin to twitter, and here and there an early lark utters his note. Among the pine-trees, with their fresh green needles, a whispering and rustling is heard. The sun has risen above the mountaintop, and shines upon the valley; the fields and meadows are glittering with dew. From the cherry-trees comes a stream of fragrance, and the hawthorn hedges that blossomed in the night are rejoicing in the first sunbeams, which penetrate to the very heart of each floweret."

- Berthold Auerbach
Excerpt, "Landolin" (translated from German)
1878

On This Fateful Day

"Beware the ides of March."

  - Soothsayer, Julius Caesar, 1.2

The McGuffin of the 1942 Movie 'Casablanca'

A McGuffin is "an object, event, or character in a story that lacks intrinsic importance but serves to set and keep the plot in motion."

Here is question: What is the McGuffin in the movie?

Many have seen the 1942 movie, "Casablanca" one time or more. But how many viewers have actually seen the two 'letters of transiit' (i.e. the McGuffin.) These no question asked 'letters of transit' metioned many times in the movie, but never seen. The war resistance couple Victor Laszlo (Henreid) and Ilsa Lund (Bergman) acquired them from Rick Blaine (Bogart)to escape French-Morocco from the clutches of the Nazi.

What is this McGuffin looks like?   Here it is.

So long. We'll always have Paris.

♥ And Such A Love Was Never Seen ♥

My Love is neither young nor old,
Not fiery-hot nor frozen-cold,
But fresh and fair as springing briar
Blooming the fruit of love’s desire;
Not snowy white nor rosy red,
But fair enough for shepherd’s bed;
And such a love was never seen
On hill or dale or country-green.

- Robert Jones (1601)

Lunar New Year 2021

Year of the Ox

Daffodil’s Return

What matter if the sun be lost?
What matter though the sky be gray?
There's joy enough about the house,
For Daffodil comes home to-day.

Bliss Carman
1921

New Year's Day 2021

Another year has roll'd away,
With all its sorrows, joys and fears,
But still the light of hope's glad ray,
Yet beams within our heart, and cheers.

One year, one span of time has pass'd,
So swift to some, to others slow;
But it has gone, and we should cast
Along with it, remorse and woe.

T.F. Young