February 2009
WORDPLAY
Official JOAN REEVES WEBSITE Newsletter
"I can't write 5 words but that I change 7." Dorothy Parker, Writers at Work, 1958.
Volume 8 No. 01
The History of Love and Romance
"Grumbling is the death of love." (Marlene Dietrich, 1962)
Some curmudgeonly types gripe that Valentine's Day is a holiday created to benefit the greeting card companies and the florists, but anyone who is lucky enough to love and be loved in return knows this isn't true.
Marriage has evolved, one hopes, from the days when a man captured or kidnapped the woman of his affection. Even though the word wedding originated from bride-price with wed from the Middle English wedden which meant to pledge, engage, or wager, we've come a long way since those days. Well, most of us have, but I won't get into a social commentary on what some women sell themselves for in our culture.
In my humble opinion, there are many reasons couples marry, but the best reason was, and still is, that they want to be companions in every sense of the word.
To me, some of the most beautiful lines of poetry are from Rabbi Ben Ezra by Robert Browning: "Grow old along with me. The best is yet to be."
Happy Valentine's Day!
WHAT'S NEW ON THE WEBSITE?
GREETINGS: Note for February with a general overview of the monthly update.
THE PLEASURE OF READING features an Interview with best-selling author Annette Blair.
THE JOY OF WRITING feature article: WHY BOOK PUBLISHING CHANGES.
WORDPLAY: Ah, yes, this newsletter that you are reading has one of those web floaters to make you smile. That will put you in a good mood for Valentine's.
THE ARCHIVES: An article usually appears on its originating page for two months. After that it's moved to The Archives. All the 2006 articles have been removed.
WORK IN PROGRESS: 2 of 12 for 2009: AN UNSCIENTIFIC WAY TO MAKE A DECISION, a process for the indecisive.
PREVIOUSLY PUBLISHED: All articles have been archived. The cover SAY YES, my most recent large print book is shown. The book is an example of my following my own advice.
WRITTEN WISDOM: February's theme is Love. Look for quotations from Ninon De Lenclos, Marlene Dietrich, Nikki Giovanni, Lorraine Hansberry, Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, Mary Roberts Rinehart, Mother Teresa, and Anzia Yezierska, .
By the way, if any of you out there have websites or blogs and would like to exchange links, just let me know. Send me an email at joan @ joanreeves.com with REAL LIVE PERSON - LINK EXCHANGE in the subject box.
Epitaph on Mel Blanc's tombstone: "That's all, folks."
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LET ME ENTERTAIN YOU
20 LINES TO MAKE YOU SMILE
1. My husband and I divorced over religious differences. He thought he was God and I didn't.
2 I don't suffer from insanity; I enjoy every minute of it.
3. Some people are alive only because it's illegal to kill them.
4. I used to have a handle on life, but it broke.
5. Don't take life too seriously; No one gets out alive.
6. Earth is the insane asylum for the universe.
7. I'm not a complete idiot - some parts are missing.
8. Out of my mind. Back in five minutes.
9. NyQuil, the stuffy, sneezy, why-the-heck-is-the-room-spinning medicine.
10. The gene pool could use a little chlorine.
11. Consciousness: That annoying time between naps.
12. Ever stop to think, and forget to start again?
13. Being "over the hill" is much better than being under it!
14. Wrinkled was not one of the things I wanted to be when I grew up.
15. Ham and eggs. A day's work for a chicken; a lifetime commitment for a pig.
16. A hangover is the wrath of grapes.
17. A journey of a thousand miles begins with a cash advance.
18. They call it PMS because Mad Cow Disease was already taken.
19. He who dies with the most toys is nonetheless dead.
20. A picture is worth a thousand words, but it uses up three thousand times the memory.
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"That's all there is, there isn't any more." Ethel Barrymore, curtain call in 1904.
