Robert A. Heinlein qoute worth noting
In the book "Friday", Dr. Baldwin asks 'Friday' (yes, that is her name) to research "What are the marks of a sick culture?"
Friday came up with a list of things:
*when the people of a country stop identifying themselves with the country and start identifying with a group. A racial group. Or a religion. Or a language. Anything, as long as it isn't the whole population.
*Particularism.
*(people) loose faith in both the police and the courts.
*High taxation
*inflation
*the ratio of the productive to those on the public payroll.
*Violence.
*Terrorism
*Riots
After listening to Friday present her list, Dr. Baldwin makes
his point:
I think you have missed
the most alarming symptom of all. ... Sick cultures show a complex of symptoms as you have named... But a
dying culture invariably exhibits
personal rudeness. Bad manners. Lack of consideration for others in minor matters. A loss of politeness, of gentle manners, is more significant than a riot. This symptom is especially serious in that an individual displaying it never thinks of it as a sign of ill health but as proof of his/her strength.
--Heinlein, Robert A.,
Friday, Del Rey Books, New York, 1983, p. 296(?) (emphasis added)
Therefore valued patron, be
NICE to one another, "Practice random acts of kindness and senseless acts of beauty". Keep reading for pleasure and for self-improvement. Smile more often and speak kindly to people who try your patience. And pass it on! Society is depending on YOU!
Have a nice day!
Amazing article by Lois Lowry on NPR
You Must Read This
by Lois Lowry
Finding a Familiar Loneliness in 'The Yearling'
"Lois Lowry is now 71, the winner of two Newbery awards and the author of 35 books — The Giver is the best-known; The Willoughbys is the latest. She has acquired a great desk and a devoted dog, but she is still looking for the place where wisdom and eloquence are bestowed."
If the following link is not 'clickable', copy and paste it into the URL address bar for your internet server:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=89255124
Once there, you can click on "listen now" to hear her tell the story.
Happy reading!
Re-read your favorite book @ the library
An interesting quote on re-reading books:
"The sure mark of an unliterary man is that he considers ‘I’ve read it already’ to be a conclusive argument against reading a work. We have all known [people] who remembered a novel so dimly that they had to stand for half an hour in the library skimming through it before they were certain they had once read it. But the moment they became certain, they rejected it immediately. It was for them dead, like a burnt-out match, an old railway ticket, or yesterday’s newspaper; they had already used it. Those who read great works, on the other hand, will read the same work ten, twenty or thirty times during the course of their life."
--C.S.Lewis, An Experiment in Criticism
Free online book
If you like Michael Crichton or Isaac Asimov's space tales, you might be interested in a free book you can read online from the publisher:
http://www.baen.com/library/067172052X/067172052X.htm
Fallen Angels by Larry Niven, Jerry Pournelle and Michael Flynn:
One minute the two space Hab astronauts were scoop-diving the atmosphere, the next they'd been shot down over the North Dakota Glacier and were the object of a massive manhunt by the United States government.
Try it, it's free!!!
