Followers

Thursday, June 23, 2005

Smooth with a bit of an after-kick

Last night I experienced Starbucks new Coffee Liqueur. It was a real thumbs up experience. Surprisingly so because it's base coffee is the House Blend. Of all the Starbucks Coffee blends, it is perhaps one of my least favorite. Alas, they've found a way to improve it!

I had a shot of it over steamed milk with a shot of espresso. It is rich and smooth. Frankly I think I'd enjoy it over rocks. Well, we'll know about that tonight after I get home from work. I'm thinking a shot of it and Irish Cream - over rocks would be good too!

It is funny, because while I like coffee, there are not a lot of coffee flavored products that I do like. Coffee flavored candy is like gag-city. Some of the Starbucks Ice Cream flavors I like - but some I'm not fond of. In general, I do NOT buy coffee flavored desserts. I think this is a throw back to the fact that for years I could not stand coffee and sweets together. The marriage of cream and coffee was a Starbucks thing for me. I normally would only drink black coffee. I think the successful union of the two works only because most of Starbucks coffees that I like are city-roast (dark roast) and have a deep flavor that bleeds through dairy products to keep the rich flavor of the coffee alive.



Starbucks Coffee Liqueur

Express News to step up vigilance after poetry plagiarism

When Sandra Monica Rincon sent a poem to a newspaper who publishes poetry, it is perhaps not surprising that they felt it good enough to publish. After all, the poem was principally the work of Pulitzer Prize-winning American poet Marianne Moore. After realizing this, (subsequent to publication by the paper) Rincon was reached was by phone for comment, only she hung up.

In the biography submitted to the newspaper, Rincon described herself as a poet and actress. Well, I guess she thought she could play Marianne Moore.


Tuesday, June 21, 2005

Lowell, inside out - The Boston Globe - Boston.com - Books - A&E

My reading list just took on another massive expansion. This time in one book - 852 pages long.

The Letters of Robert Lowell I suspect is worthy of a read. The William H. Pritchard review in The Boston Globe certainly wet my thirst for such. Though I'm not likely to shell out the $40 retail price, I will be hoping it comes to a library near me soon.



Distractions

I took my eyes off
The monotony
Of asphalt ribbon.
For a moment,
Easter-green frosting
Amply spread about
The roadside landscape
Satisfied a hunger
In my belly
For something
Besides the mundane.

Monday, June 20, 2005

Fathers

A few thoughts on Father's day in the aftermath...

First I was fortunate enough to spent the day with my wife and three of my four children. We went to the ballgame- which was sunny and quite hot. The experience was overall an enjoyable one but the game was really secondary to the family time. I know they would have preferred being in the a/c but it was nice being with them. My oldest daughter is in the God-forsaken state of Arizona, but with the modern marvel of telecommunications (minus the multiple times her phone dropped the call) we talked last night. I think that only made me miss her more though.

I was surprised by the gift 0f a satellite-radio which will allow me to get the San Francisco Giants ball games... among other things. The real gift however, was my family.

I thought I'd take a moment to post a few quotes about fathers I have rounded up from various people. They present an interesting perspective.

"A king, realizing his incompetence, can either delegate or abdicate his duties. A father can do neither. If only sons could see the paradox, they would understand the dilemma." ~ Marlene Dietrich

"When I was a boy of 14, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be 21, I was astonished at how much the old man had learned in seven years." ~Mark Twain, in "Bringing Up Father," Reader's Digest, September 1937

"If the new American father feels bewildered and even defeated, let him take comfort from the fact that whatever he does in any fathering situation has a fifty percent chance of being right." ~ Bill Cosby


"I cannot think of any need in childhood as strong as the need for a father's protection." ~ Sigmund Freud

"It doesn't matter who my father was; it matters who I remember he was." ~ Anne Sexton


My father used to play with my brother and me in the yard. Mother would come out and say, "You're tearing up the grass." "We're not raising grass," Dad would reply. "We're raising boys." ~ Harmon Killebrew

"A father carries pictures where his money used to be." ~ Author Unknown

"Sherman made the terrible discovery that men make about their fathers sooner or later... that the man before him was not an aging father but a boy, a boy much like himself, a boy who grew up and had a child of his own and, as best he could, out of a sense of duty and, perhaps love, adopted a role called Being a Father so that his child would have something mythical and infinitely important: a Protector, who would keep a lid on all the chaotic and catastrophic possibilities of life. " ~Tom Wolfe, The Bonfire of the Vanities

and last but not least....

"Spread the diaper in the position of the diamond with you at bat. Then fold second base down to home and set the baby on the pitcher's mound. Put first base and third together, bring up home plate and pin the three together. Of course, in case of rain, you gotta call the game and start all over again." ~Jimmy Piersal, on how to diaper a baby, 1968

Courier News Online - Poetry fest won't be coming back to Duke Farms

It's big- and has been successful. However,The Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation's biannual poetry festival will not be back at Duke Farms next year. Duke Farms could not guarantee permanent facility improvements would be made in time for the next event in fall 2006 and so the largest poetry festival in North America will return to the pre-2004 site in Waterloo Village in Sussex Count, New Jersey.