Quotations Weblog

Every year it happens. People say that the weather is unpredictable, but every year the same thing happens. The weather in Salt Lake fooled everyone but me. Each Spring, the weather turns warm and beautiful. The tulips and daffodils are fooled into coming from their underground dens. The ducks mate without shame on the lawns. The humans plant tender flowers and vegetables. Then, like clockwork, the Winter is back with a vengeance, crushing the tulip and daffodils, chilling the duck eggs and killing the flowers and vegetables.

I escaped it this year. I was busy with my new life and working my butt off somewhere else, so my flowers didn’t get planted and my herbs sat in the kitchen window. My darling plants were spared the vengeance of the jealous winter this year. Spring is back for real now, and yesterday I planted my lovely flowers.

Here are some quotations about Spring.

Introduction and quote compilation by Laura S. Moncur, Staff Writer.

“Winter is on my head, but eternal spring is in my heart.”

Victor Hugo

• Charles Kuralt’s Spring Audio Cassette by Charles Kuralt – The closest thing the United States had to a poet laureate was Charles Kuralt. Listen to him tell you some spring tales.
• All My Edens : A Gardener’s Memoir Hardcover by Pat Welsh – A collection of pictures, tips and narratives about gardening.
• Gardening for Dummies Paperback by Michael MacCaskey – Haven’t planted yet? Get started with this book. All you’ll need to know to start and maintain your garden.
• Square Foot Gardening : A New Way to Garden in Less Space With Less Work Paperback by Mel Bartholomew – Sometimes called “Postage Stamp” gardening, Mel explains the methods for cultivating a garden anywhere. Don’t let lack of land stop you from enjoying yourself.

• Yahoo’s Recreation:Home and Garden:Gardening – Tons of links to gardening sites.

On March 22, 1933, Franklin Delano Roosevelt signed the 21st amendment, making wine and beer with up to 3.2% alcohol legal. Prohibition was the common name for the 18th amendment, which outlawed the manufacture and distribution of alcohol. Prohibition brings to my mind the gangsters and flappers of the 1920′s, with the romance of the movies. I imagine myself knocking on the door of a speakeasy, saying the secret password, and being allowed into the tiny bar, which might not be there next week. Music and smoke fill the room and I come not only for the illegal liquor, but because it’s just so bad to do this sort of thing.

Anyone not familiar with the liquor laws in Utah is thinking strictly in terms of zoot suits and feathers right now. Let me introduce you to my favorite Salt Lake club. You come to the door and you have to prove that you are a member of the facility in order to attend. Your identification and membership card are carefully scrutinized before you are allowed inside the door. The smoke filled rooms are rare in Utah (due to the Utah Indoor Clean Air Act) and the music is loud. Only here (and at select restaurants, if you know the secret words) are you able to have a real drink. Beer is available in beer taverns and breweries, but a nice glass of wine is less accessible.

How I long for something different. Because of a combination of the liquor laws, and the Clean Air Act, I am unable to find a nice, clean, well lighted place for conversation, clean air, and a fruity drink with a splash of rum. There was a short story by Ernest Hemingway called “A Clean Well Lighted Place” which described a bar keep’s willingness to keep the bar open longer for a lonely old man. I wish that bar existed in Salt Lake, and quite frankly, I blame our laws for its absence.

Here are some quotes about the curses and blessings of alcohol.

Introduction and quote compilation by Laura S. Moncur, Staff Writer.

“Instead of giving money to found colleges to promote learning, why don’t they pass a constitutional amendment prohibiting anybody from learning anything? If it works as good as the Prohibition one did, why, in five years we would have the smartest race of people on earth.”

Will Rogers

• Prohibition : Thirteen Years That Changed America Hardcover by Edward Behr – The truth about the Prohibition era from the romance to the violence. Read the reviews of this celebrated book.
• Clean Well Lighted Place by Ernest Hemingway – Read the story that lives so vividly in my mind for yourself. Decide if you wish for a cafe like this in your home town.
• The Thinking Person’s Guide to Sobriety Paperback by Bert Pluymen – The best reviews for recovering from alcohol abuse are for this book. If you are searching for methods of attaining sobriety, check out the reviews of this book.

• Temperance and Prohibition – a site run by Professor K. Austin Kerr about the Prohibition Era. It includes testimony from those wishing to install and abolish prohibition and general descriptions of the era. Watch out for the Java music though, it can take a while to download and quickly gets on your nerves if you stay at the site for too long.

I started real estate school this week, so I have less time for this page than usual, but it brings to mind the activity of learning. For so many of my peers, this enjoyment is lost. Learning new concepts and ideas is difficult and scary. That is the thing I feared about being a “grown-up” more than anything in the world. I didn’t want my mind to rot.

Fortunately, I’ve been blessed by the insatiable thirst for knowledge. I will never be old and decrepit as long as I am able to find something new and interesting to learn about. I never want to be like the old ladies who never use their microwave oven because they are scared of it. No matter what sort of Future Shock that may come my way, I want to learn about it.

Here are some quotes to illustrate my emotions.

Introduction and quote compilation by Laura S. Moncur, Staff Writer.

“The love of learning, the sequestered nooks,/ And all the sweet serenity of books.”

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, “Morituri Salutamus,” 1875

• Future Shock Paperback by Alvin Toffler – This book, originally published in 1970, described the phenomenon of technological change and how it affects humans. Sounds boring? Just read the Reviews and Commentary section on this book and you’ll get an idea of how heated the discussion is.
• The Adult Student’s Guide to Survival & Success Paperback by Al Siebert, Bernadine Gilpin – Not sold on the joys of learning after you receive your diploma? Check out this book that helps you rid yourself of the fears of returning to school after the absence we call life.
• Back in School : A Guide for Adult Learners Paperback by Charles J. Shields – Yet another book to help you through this process of re-training yourself for study, learning and knowledge. The more you learn about learning, the less fear you will have.

• Yahoo Adult and Continuing Education – Inspired to go back to school? DO IT! Here are some institutions that provide education specifically for adults! Don’t wait one more day, or you’ll regret it.

I’m all a flutter. The news came to me Sunday from Mike that he had seen something about a new tomb on CNN. I was in a frenzy as he described the short news story which said that an undisturbed tomb had been found in Egypt. I immediately looked at CNN online and looked for the story, but it wasn’t on their home page. After about a half hour of searching, I found the story my husband talked about.

An undisturbed tomb of the pharaonic priest, Iufaa, was found in 1995. On February 27, 1998, the archaeologists opened the sarcophagus, revealing the wooden coffin lid. I’m excited and wishing for a passport at this point. I can envision the privileged few who were allowed into the tomb to see the opening of the sarcophagus. I can smell the dust in the air and the anticipation oozing from the pores of all involved. I am insanely jealous of the archaeologists who have finally come to this point.

Then, I think about the man, Iufaa, who died in 525 B.C. He was a contemporary of Pythagoras, Aesop, Theognis, Confucius and Heraclitus. He lived in an Egypt that was under Persian rule, and may have even hated the Persian pharaoh he worked for. What kind of world did this priest live in? This is the sort of learning that school never gave me. I was force-fed information that didn’t interest me and starved for the data that did. Step into the philosophy of Iufaa’s world.

Introduction and quote compilation by Laura S. Moncur, Staff Writer.

“Friends share all things.”

Pythagoras, from Diogenes Laertius, Lives of Eminent Philosophers

• The Discovery of the Tomb of Tutankhamen Paperback by Howard Carter – This book was written by the archaeologist that discovered King Tutankhamen’s tomb. Considered by some to be embellished greatly, it was originally released in three volumes in the years 1923, 1927 and 1933. The version I own (published in 1972) has 17 color plates and 63 black and white pictures. This paperback version may have more or less illustrations, but it is worth it just for the story.
• Life of the Ancient Egyptians Hardcover by Eugen Strouhal – Nearly three hundred color and black and white photographs illustrate the life of a citizen of ancient Egypt. The twenty chapters cover all aspects of life from birth to death, marriage to war (they’re the same, aren’t they?) and education to dress and adornment. All walks of life are covered, including farmers, scribes, temple workers, shipbuilders, and managers. This is not the myopic view of ancient Egypt through the eyes of the pharaohs.
• Akhenaten : King of Egypt Paperback by Cyril Aldred – Akhenaten, the heretic king, who believed in worshipping only one deity, the sun. Nefertiti, his loving queen, her image is still used today to symbolize beauty and grace. Written by the late Cyril Aldred, this book follows the lives of the most controversial pharaoh and his wife, Nefertiti.
• The Complete Valley of the Kings : Tombs and Treasures of Egypt’s Greatest Pharaohs Hardcover by C. N. Reeves, Richard H. Wilkinson, Nicholas Reeves – A book that covers the Valley of the Kings. Includes diagrams of the tombs and pictures of treasures. Read the customer comments about this great book.

• Archaeologists Open Ancient Tomb in Egypt – The Reuters press release at the opening of priest Iufaa’s tomb written by Miral Fahmy.

Salt Lake City, like many of her counterparts in the United States, is divided by railroad tracks. They are quite active and the trains that rush past the busy city streets are very audible, no matter how far away you live from them. The whistles from these trains are so noisy during the wee hours of the night that I have trouble sleeping at times (even though we live at least 15 miles from the tracks). I hated trains.

During a particularly sleepless night, I tried a relaxation technique. I imagined that the trains were boats. When my husband and I visited San Francisco, we stayed at a lovely hotel in Oakland called the Waterfront Plaza Hotel. Right on the bay, we could hear the horn blasts from the boats all night, but it was relaxing to us. The image of the huge ships gracefully sailing past us, announcing their presence was romantic. That sleepless night in Salt Lake, I pretended that the whistles I heard were from the gently floating ships on the San Francisco Bay. I fell asleep quickly that evening.

It didn’t take me long to realize how silly this was. Only a couple evenings of thinking led me to the conclusion that there might be residents of Oakland and San Francisco that abhor the sounds of the bulky and overloaded ships. Boats aren’t romantic if you see them every day. Then I remembered the romance of trains. People all across the nation build model trains, elaborate tracks, and beautiful minature houses and buildings, all to be serviced by the epitome of transportation in the nineteenth century. Trains are romantic.

Now, as I lie awake at night, listening to the resounding whistle blasts, I hear trains, clanking and blustering along the rails. I imagine them bringing supplies to my favorite stores and transporting people from there to here and back. Unfortunately, none of this has really helped me to sleep any better or more than I did before.

Introduction and quote compilation by Laura S. Moncur, Staff Writer.

They hand us now in Shrewsbury jail:/ The whistles blow forlorn,/ And trains all night groan on the rail/ To men that die at morn.

A. E. Housman

• Across the Columbia Plain : Railroad Expansion in the Interior Northwest, 1885-1893 Paperback by Peter J. Lewty – A history of the growth of the railroads in Northwest America. Includes a map of the railways and a glossary of terms.
• Always in Camera : Archive Photographes of the Great Age of Steam from the Public Record Office, 1860-1913 Paperback by Robin Linsley – Pictures of the steam monstrocities that streamed past the plains of the United States.
• America’s Railroads : The Second Generation Hardcover by Don Ball – Modern trains are featured in this book. Enjoy the newest in railway technology (circa 1988).

• California State Railroad Museum – Located in Sacramento, this museum features the history of trains. On permanent display are artifacts that defined the romance of the train era.