I see you
in all the colors
of autumn brilliance
warm smiles
in buttery yellows
happy laughter
in tangerine corals
deep heated passion
in crimson scarlets
and I let you
wrap me
in glory and happiness
holding me
in the gentle breeze
of love
•
©MidwestFantasy/Beth Amanda
November 2018
Ph-Wallpaperstock
https://pixabay.com/en/cans-vegetables-stock-winter-eat-921143/
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AUTUMN GOOD FEELING
***
For a good feeling
Have a pantry stocked with food
Ready for winter
***
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https://pixabay.com/en/pumpkin-autumn-autumn-decoration-3759587/
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AUTUMN IN THE NORTHERN HEMISPHERE
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A time of harvest
Preparation for winter
Full of energy
***
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When Bill Clinton was Governor of Arkansas, Hillary Rodham Clinton found herself seated by President George Bush (senior). She had long been interested in the health of children, and so she told President Bush how poorly the United States protected the health of its children under one year of age. President Bush responded, “Our health care system is the envy of the world.” Mrs. Clinton replied, “Not if you want to keep your child alive to the year of his first birthday.” After investigating the matter, President Bush told Bill Clinton, “Tell Hillary she was right.”
One reason the Native Americans could not mount a more effective resistance to whites who illegally took over their lands was that the whites brought highly contagious and deadly diseases such as smallpox that devastated the Native Americans, who had not developed an immunity to them. In 1763, the British acquired blankets from a hospital that treated patients who had smallpox. The British then gave the blankets to Native Americans, deliberately trying to infect them with smallpox so that many of them would die, thus decreasing their ability to resist the whites.
An accident can end the career of an athlete very quickly. Maureen Connolly, an American tennis player, won singles championships at Wimbledon in 1952, 1953, and 1954. In addition, she became the first woman ever to win the Grand Slam, by winning the major championships in four different countries: Australia, England, France, and the United States in 1953. But while she was riding a horse at home during a break from tennis, a truck sideswiped her horse and severely injured her right leg. Just like that, her tennis career was over.
After jockey Julie Krone was bucked from a horse and broke her ankle, she was still determined to race although her foot was in a cast. After all, she had won more races than the other jockeys at Monmouth Park in New York with two weeks left in the season, and another rider needed only 10 victories to catch up to her. Therefore, Ms. Krone tore off her cast and had her doctor put on another cast that would fit in a riding boot, and she continued to race and won the riding title at Monmouth.
Underneath their colored stockings, professional baseball players wear white sanitary hose. Why? In and before 1905, players wore only the socks bearing the colors of their team. However, in 1905, Napoleon Lajoie’s foot was cut by a player sliding into second base. The dye from his colored socks seeped into the wound and he came down with a bad case of blood poisoning. He survived and continued to play baseball, but as a precautionary measure players began to wear white sanitary hose.
The Great Fire of London destroyed 87 churches and over 13,000 homes in its four days and four nights of burning. The night it started, Sept. 1, 1666, Samuel Pepys’ maid woke him up, but after looking out the window, he went back to bed. In 17th century London, fires were common. The fire spread because the Lord Mayor did not want to create a fire break by pulling down houses. Some good resulted from the fire — it stopped the plague by killing the rats whose fleas were spreading it.
Young dancer Alicia Alonso had two operations on her eyes to repair detached retinas, forcing her to lie still for months until the physicians allowed her to get up from bed. As she lay in bed, she practiced dancing using only her fingers, moving them as she visualized the movements of the dancers in such ballets as Giselle. When she finally got out of bed, she was unable to stand by herself, but she got herself in shape again and became a world-famous ballerina.
In 1951, renowned conductor Herbert von Karajan prepared to make a recording of Bach’s B minor Mass. He rehearsed the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde chorus and the Vienna Symphony 70 times to prepare for the recording, then he came down with a case of blood poisoning two days before the first recording session. Nevertheless, he conducted from a stretcher, raising one arm into the air, and the recording was outstanding.
John Huston directed The Misfits, the final film of both Clark Gable and Marilyn Monroe. During filming, Ms. Monroe became very ill, and Mr. Huston made her go to a hospital to recuperate. Later, a reporter asked why he had done that — was it out of consideration for the movie picture or out of consideration for Ms. Monroe? Mr. Huston replied, “The picture? The hell with the picture! The girl’s whole career was at stake!”
Country music singer Willie Nelson has a lot of respect for Dr. Red Duke, but since mortals are in fact mortal, even the best doctors will have some patients die. Dr. Duke took care of Willie’s mother before she died, and he took care of Willie’s father-in-law before he died, so Mr. Nelson joked, “If you don’t quit losing them, I’m going to quit sending them to you.” Dr. Duke smiled and said, “Willie, you’re just going to have to get them to me earlier.”
John von Neumann worked on the Manhattan Project at Los Alamos, New Mexico, and helped develop the atomic bomb. Later, he worked for the Atomic Energy Commission. When he was dying of cancer, he had to take heavy dosages of medicine. The government made sure that the people taking care of him all had security clearances just in case he accidentally let secrets slip while under the medication.
In 1991, Pittsburgh Penguin hockey player Mario Lemieux scored a goal and made three assists as Pittsburgh defeated the Minnesota North Stars and won the Stanley Cup. As recognition for his efforts throughout the playoffs, Mr. Lemieux was voted Most Valuable Player. However, before the game, he suffered from so much back pain that he was unable to tie his own skate laces.
Maria Tallchief believes that her long years of intense physical activity as a ballerina resulted in her suffering from arthritis after she retired. Her pharmacist once asked her, “You’re now paying for all those years — it was worth it, wasn’t it?” Ms. Tallchief replied, “It certainly was.”
***
Copyright by Bruce D. Bruce; All Rights Reserved
***
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The Baron was one of the most powerful lords in Westphalia, for his castle had not only a gate, but even windows, and his great hall was hung with tapestry. He used to hunt with his mastiffs and spaniels instead of greyhounds; his groom served him for huntsman; and the parson of the parish officiated as his grand almoner. He was called “My Lord” by all his people, and he never told a story but everyone laughed at it.
My Lady Baroness, who weighed three hundred and fifty pounds, consequently was a person of no small consideration; and then she did the honors of the house with a dignity that commanded universal respect. Her daughter was about seventeen years of age, fresh-colored, comely, plump, and desirable. The Baron’s son seemed to be a youth in every respect worthy of the father he sprung from. Pangloss, the preceptor, was the oracle of the family, and little Candide listened to his instructions with all the simplicity natural to his age and disposition.
Master Pangloss taught the metaphysico-theologo-cosmolonigology. He could prove to admiration that there is no effect without a cause; and, that in this best of all possible worlds, the Baron’s castle was the most magnificent of all castles, and My Lady the best of all possible baronesses.
“It is demonstrable,” said he, “that things cannot be otherwise than as they are; for as all things have been created for some end, they must necessarily be created for the best end. Observe, for instance, the nose is formed for spectacles, therefore we wear spectacles. The legs are visibly designed for stockings, accordingly we wear stockings. Stones were made to be hewn and to construct castles, therefore My Lord has a magnificent castle; for the greatest baron in the province ought to be the best lodged. Swine were intended to be eaten, therefore we eat pork all the year round: and they, who assert that everything is right, do not express themselves correctly; they should say that everything is best.”
Candide listened attentively and believed implicitly, for he thought Miss Cunegund excessively handsome, though he never had the courage to tell her so. He concluded that next to the happiness of being Baron of Thunder-ten-tronckh, the next was that of being Miss Cunegund, the next that of seeing her every day, and the last that of hearing the doctrine of Master Pangloss, the greatest philosopher of the whole province, and consequently of the whole world.
One day when Miss Cunegund went to take a walk in a little neighboring wood which was called a park, she saw, through the bushes, the sage Doctor Pangloss giving a lecture in experimental philosophy to her mother’s chambermaid, a little brown wench, very pretty, and very tractable. As Miss Cunegund had a great disposition for the sciences, she observed with the utmost attention the experiments which were repeated before her eyes; she perfectly well understood the force of the doctor’s reasoning upon causes and effects. She retired greatly flurried, quite pensive and filled with the desire of knowledge, imagining that she might be a sufficing reason for young Candide, and he for her.
On her way back she happened to meet the young man; she blushed, he blushed also; she wished him a good morning in a flattering tone, he returned the salute, without knowing what he said. The next day, as they were rising from dinner, Cunegund and Candide slipped behind the screen. The miss dropped her handkerchief, the young man picked it up. She innocently took hold of his hand, and he as innocently kissed hers with a warmth, a sensibility, a grace — all very particular; their lips met; their eyes sparkled; their knees trembled; their hands strayed. The Baron chanced to come by; he beheld the cause and effect, and, without hesitation, saluted Candide with some notable kicks on the breech and drove him out of doors. The lovely Miss Cunegund fainted away, and, as soon as she came to herself, the Baroness boxed her ears. Thus a general consternation was spread over this most magnificent and most agreeable of all possible castles.
Do you remember, O Delphic Apollo,
The sunset hour by the river, when Mickey M’Grew
Cried, “There’s a ghost,” and I, “It’s Delphic Apollo”;
And the son of the banker derided us, saying, “It’s light
By the flags at the water’s edge, you half-witted fools.”
And from thence, as the wearisome years rolled on, long after
Poor Mickey fell down in the water tower to his death
Down, down, through bellowing darkness, I carried
The vision which perished with him like a rocket which falls
And quenches its light in earth, and hid it for fear
Of the son of the banker, calling on Plutus to save me?
Avenged were you for the shame of a fearful heart
Who left me alone till I saw you again in an hour
When I seemed to be turned to a tree with trunk and branches
Growing indurate, turning to stone, yet burgeoning
In laurel leaves, in hosts of lambent laurel,
Quivering, fluttering, shrinking, fighting the numbness
Creeping into their veins from the dying trunk and branches!
’Tis vain, O youth, to fly the call of Apollo.
Fling yourselves in the fire, die with a song of spring,
If die you must in the spring. For none shall look
On the face of Apollo and live, and choose you must
’Twixt death in the flame and death after years of sorrow,
Rooted fast in the earth, feeling the grisly hand,
Not so much in the trunk as in the terrible numbness
Creeping up to the laurel leaves that never cease
To flourish until you fall. O leaves of me
Too sere for coronal wreaths, and fit alone
For urns of memory, treasured, perhaps, as themes
For hearts heroic, fearless singers and livers—
Delphic Apollo.
***
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