Loose Leaf Notes

1. On Veterans Day, while watching a PBS special on homeless vets, I became interested in the word perish, how it rhymes with cherish and doesn’t sound anything like death.

2. On a walk with my grandson Liam on Monday, we saw a big dog wearing big flowers behind each of its ears.  After we saw the dog and laughed about it some, Liam explained how he learned to run fast and gave me a demonstration HERE.

3. My niece likes to call her “to do” list her “ta da” list because it makes it sound like she might actually get some of it done.

4. Do you wake up and smell the coffee or do you stop and smell the roses?

5. During a recent visit (in preparation for a story) to Rising Sun Community School, a 3-year-old Floyd Montessori school, I got a school tour from an 8-year-old who also served me tea (see above).  Two other students demonstrated how they might resolve a conflict in one of the school’s Peace Corner areas.  The director said the goal of the school is to serve the community and teach children to be good citizens of the world.  Watch for the feature story in the Thanksgiving issue of The Floyd Press.  A video clip of the visit is HERE.

6. Tea is actually my cup of tea.

7. Porcelain pots simmer / in a Victorian tea parlor / Readers see the future / in lingering loose leaves.

8. While Republicans are vowing to fight the EPA, approve the Keystone Pipeline and generally undermine environmental regulations aimed at curbing the carbon pollution that is creating climate change, President Obama just struck a huge deal with China to step up carbon pollution reduction.   More HERE.

9.  “I have no wish to punish conservatives, or see them suffer in any way. Up to me, I would send them all to heaven, just to get them the hell out of here.”  – My Dharmacratic poet friend Will.

10. On Saturday Joe and I attended a Historical Society event featuring Floyd native and Radford University English and Appalachian Studies professor Ricky Cox, performing and talking about Floyd Folksong Traditions.   We learned about The Story of Freeda Bolt, a ballad written by a Floyd Countian about a Floyd woman who was murdered by her lover in 1929.  It was recorded by the Floyd County Ramblers in 1930 and recorded again by the famed Carter Family in 1938.

11. Besides being a thoroughly entertaining and informative program, Cox had the crowd at the EcoVillage hall cracking up with his humorous storytelling.  HERE is a clip where you can get the idea.  HERE is one of the more funny songs that Cox performed and talked about, and HERE is Cox performing with the late R.O. Slusher dancing dolls, which were animated by a nylon line attached to his guitar, a unique innovation by Slusher.   The Roanoke Times covered a story on Slusher’s dancing dolls when they were featured on exhibit at Floyd’s Old Church Gallery HERE.  Look for a story and pictures on the Cox event in Thursday’s Floyd Press.

12.  “Be willing to be a blade of the grass that forms the beautiful fields of a grassroots movement. And if you’re passionate enough? Be willing to be a field.”    – Mara Robbins, poet and director of Citizens for the Preservation of Floyd.  More from Poetic Justice HERE.

13. Get your virtual fortune cookie fortune HERE.

_________Thirteen Thursday