Gretchen Rubin: The Happiness Project

I've previously mentioned The Happiness Project here but I've learned this weekend that Gretchen Rubin - formerly of Kansas City and the author of four books will be speaking at the Plaza Branch Library here in Kansas City on Wednesday, January 20th at 6:30.  I'm putting this on my Calendar right now!




Power Money Fame Sex: A User's Guide

Forty Ways to Look at Winston Churchill: A Brief Account of a Long Life


Forty Ways to Look at JFK

A Missourian by birth...

 Tree Swenson, Executive Director of the Academy of American Poets, announced  today that Naomi Shihab Nye and Marie Ponsot have been elected to the Board of Chancellors, the Academy's advisory board of distinguished poets. Nye is a Missourian by birth having been born in born in St. Louis in 1952. She makes her home in Texas now but has been described as a a citizen of the world.  Her poetry often crosses borders and fosters understanding.  I know little of Marie Ponsot but Nye is truly a wonderful ambassador for poetry everywhere.

In My E-mail This Morning

• A rejection letter for 3 poems.   :(
• Word of the day - dysgraphia. Bad news nearly always follows when dys- begins a word, and so it does here: dysgraphia is an inability to write coherently, either as a learning disorder or a result of brain damage or disease. The Greek roots mean "difficult writing."
• $30 Amazon.com birthday gift certificate.   :) Yeah!
• Urgent Attention, I am here on off-shore banks inspection exercise. Based on the report on your abandoned transaction file, only $2M have been approved to your family from the will.  [Oh Darn, I was hopeful it would be at least $5M]

Quote for the week

Books, like friends, should be few and well chosen. Like friends, too, we should return to them again and again for, like true friends, they will never fail us - never cease to instruct - never cloy.  ~ Charles Caleb Colton