Colin Firth plays a magician in “Magic in the Moonlight.”
NaBloPoMo DAY 8:
I’ve officially completed an entire week of NaBloPoMo! And I still can’t say the blasted name without having it in front of me so I can read it. Is it NaPoBloMo or NaMoBloPo?? And why should I care?
Maybe I should make my goal for Week Two to try to memorize it, for crying out loud. Seriously. You try uttering that word three times fast and see if you do any better.
Of course, one way to memorize it would be to write an ENTIRE post of nothing but the word, “NaBloPoMo,” over and over for a total of one thousand times. Life’s too short to be stymied by such an off putting name.
Well, moving on, I might as well address the elephant in the room, which you’ve been too nice to mention:
It’s been eons since I shared any quotes with you and frankly I have no excuses. But that doesn’t mean I haven’t been adding to my collection of quotes, all the while. In fact, brace yourself, because I’ve been collecting some doozies.
From Writers & Poets:
“You– you alone will have the stars as no one else has them…In one of them I shall be living. in one of them I shall be laughing. And so it will be as if all the stars are laughing, when you look at the sky at night…You–only you–will have the stars that can laugh.” – Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, French aristocrat, writer, poet and pioneering aviator.
“What a slut time is. She screws everybody.” — From the YA novel, “The Fault in Our Stars,” by John Green
“We don’t read and write poetry because it’s cute. We read and write poetry because we are members of the human race. And the human race is filled with passion. And medicine, law, business, engineering, these are noble pursuits and necessary to sustain life. But poetry, beauty, romance, love, these are what we stay alive for.” — N.H. Kleinbaum, “Dead Poets Society”
“The uninvited guest was fear and it haunted the gathering.” — From the gripping true story of an American Ambassador living in Nazi Germany, “In the Garden of Beasts,” by Erik Larson
From TV & Film
“To all the Sneaky Pete’s of the world who thought that maybe settling for mediocrity was a good idea because it was safe. Don’t do it. Take a chance, take a risk. Find that passion, rekindle it, fall in love all over again. It’s really worth it. God bless you.” — Bryan Cranston, when accepting the 2014 Emmy for “Breaking Bad”
“To be born, to have committed no crime at all and to be sentenced to death.” — Colin Firth’s character in “Magic in the Moonlight” I so agree!
“She’s right, but it’s the principle. I won’t be a slave to anyone or anything you can order through a toll-free number.” Kevin Spacey as Francis Underwood in “House of Cards”
From the TV Land comedy series, “Hot in Cleveland”
Valerie Bertinelli as Melanie: “I’m sure preschool was different in your day.”
Betty White as Elka: “My preschool was a box. My teacher was a potato. Then winter came, and I had to eat my teacher.”
From the PBS “Masterpiece” series, “Downtown Abbey”
“If I were to search for logic, I should not look for it among the English upper-class.” — Maggie Smith, the Dowager Countess of Grantham to Branson, the former chauffeur
Jim Carter as Mr. Carson, the butler: “Screaming in the servant’s hall, a singer’s chatting to his Lordship, and the footman’s cooking the dinner. What a topsy-turvy world we’ve come to.”
Hugh Bonneville as the Earl of Grantham: “I don’t dislike him.”
The Dowager: “Ooh, what a recommendation.”
Earl of Grantham: “If you don’t respect the past, we’ll find it harder to build our future.”
Dowager: “You owe a debt to Mrs. Crawley. She would not let me go until I promised (to hire you). She would not relax her grip.”
Mrs. Crawley: “You make me sound very fervent.”
Dowager: Wars have been waged with less fervor.”
Dowager: “Switzerland has everything to offer except maybe conversation, and one can learn to live without that.”
And One More for Good Measure:
“I’ve been blessed by my parents’ love, by the love I had with Arnold, by the love of my children and my friends. I think that carries you through. We’re so consumed as a society with, ‘Do you have a boyfriend?’ or ‘Are you married?’ We miss the love that is staring you right in the face. I feel surrounded by love. I feel blessed now here in my life. Yeah, I feel blessed.” — Maria Shriver in an interview in AARP magazine.
(Note: I’m taking part in NaBloPoMo, better known as National Blog Posting Month. Thirty days, 30 posts. If you have suggestions for a post, please let me know. Or if you know how I can get out of doing this and still save face, I’m all ears!
Thank you to all of you who continue to stop by with words of encouragement. If it wasn’t for you, I’d explode from writing all these posts!)
Monica's Tangled Web 
“We don’t read and write poetry because it’s cute. We read and write poetry because we are members of the human race. And the human race is filled with passion***
I remember the first time I heard Robin W. say this! I got chills)) and said aloud, YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!”
xxxxx
Unfortunately, I didn’t hear him say this until after he died. Makes me so sad, the thought that he’s gone.
I can’t keep up with you, I confess, but I do admire the admire the spirit that has you doing a blog post a day. It’s one thing to simply keep those writing muscles flexed by writing each day, another thing completely to come up with cohesive, self-contained pieces — and sharing them. And here’s a favorite quote of mine, Emily Dickinson:
“I dwell in possibility . . .”
Deborah, it’s amazing I’ve gotten this far. One third through the month. But the trickiest part is yet to come. Thanksgiving Week, when I’ll busy elsewhere, with family and such, catching up with my daughter who I haven’t seen since September, etc. Doing daily posts then will be the biggest challenge yet! At least, biggest challenge this month. Will I make it? Time will tell!
Dear, dear Monica, I admire your willingness to take up this challenge. I can’t say it, either and I, certainly, can’t imagine doing it. Good God, at this point I’m luck to do a post a month–let alone 30. I’m going to try to keep up with commenting for you, however. That’s the fun part of blogging! Love the quotes, by the way!
Hugs from Ecuador,
Kathy
I know, Kathy, it’s crazy, but once you get into it, it’s much more doable than you first imagine it to be. Daunting was what went through my head at first. But now, piece of cake. Almost. Well, kind of. Certainly better than I expected. But back to you, I have MISSED you IMMENSELY in the blogosphere. Please return to your regular, reliable posting. It hasn’t been the same without you, my friend.
One week down, three weeks to go — you can do it, Monica! The hardest part is just starting, and hey, you’ve done a good job with that!!
Love the quotes, especially the one from Dead Poet’s Society. Man doesn’t live by bread alone — we need beauty and love (and some of us need WORDS, ha!)
So true, Debbie! Where would we be without our words? Glad you enjoyed my collection of quotes!
Those are incredible quotations!
Re your blogging journey, just remember each day, “I’m closer than I’ve ever been.”. And you will be.
So good to hear from you, Karen. Hope you’re doing well. Have you been following my daily posts this month? It’s bonkers, isn’t it, that I decided to do this? Thanks for the encouraging words!
Yes, I’ve read every single one and that’s why I urged you to think, “I’m closer than I’ve ever been.”…… You’re probably finding that through this daily blogging your subconscious is helping your come up with all sorts of new ideas for the blogs to come. You’ll hit the goal line before you know it.
Karen, you are actually right! I thought I’d run out of ideas, but I’m finding I can’t keep up with them. They’re way ahead of me. Suddenly everything is an idea for a post. In fact, today I went to the grocery store and came up with an idea which you’ll see later this week. Fascinating where the ideas come from!
Oh you know I love quotes, Monica. I love the Colin Firth one, did you see the film yet? I can’t wait. I finally sent him a note because I saw Railway Man, it was so revealing.
My favorites are of course from Downton Abbey especially Maggie Smith – I adore her. Don’t you think she has the best lines? Thanks to Robert, I can now look forward to season six of Downton.
In the Garden of Beasts is such a fantastic book, I have to get my hands on it. Maria Shriver’s one is simply illuminating, if only everyone looked at life that way.
So glad you’re posting everyday… I thought I might try saying Na-blo-po-mo
such a tongue twister.
MM, I’m so sorry I’ve been slacking. Thanks for the reminder that you posted re Colin Firth. I saw the notification when it arrived in my inbox, but I completely forgot! I’ve been engrossed in posting everyday that I seem to think of little else! My TV viewing has had to take a backseat to posting. And if you know anything about me, I LOVE TV!
great quotes!
Thanks, Lisa!
Suggestions for a post.
Walks I take my dogs. Or perhaps as you have Henry it should be walks my dogs take me.
My favourite photographs from my collection. Either ones you have taken yourself or perhaps old family ones.
My favourite web sites. Always a good one this as people are bound to find new ones they did not know about.
There we are three suggestions Monica, if I think of any more I will keep them to myself and possibly use them.
Love the quotations. I did send you an email which may be in your bit bucket saying that it’s been confirmed there will be a 6th series of Downton Abbey.
Maggie Smith plays the Dowager Countess of Grantham. Well Grantham really exists and is not that far north of here. Margret Thatcher our first and so far only British Prime Minister was born there, I am not sure wether that’s to their advantage or not!!
Robert, that post idea, re favorite photos sounds right up your alley. You have taking lots of cool pix. But I appreciate all the suggestions. I may be doing one soon!
And yes, I received your email re Downton Abbey. I knew though. They’ve already committed to 7 seasons, I believe. Thanks for the heads up though. As you can imagine, posting everyday leaves ver little time for other things.