Dill time, time for clatite

It's dill time, which means it's clatite time. I've been eating it as often as possible. Apparently lots of other folks like the dish, because my post about it gets more hits than most of my other posts.

There are no sufficient words to describe the delicious combination of flavors produced by fresh dill, cottage cheese, and a good dough.

Gift from the Sea by Anne Morrow Lindbergh

 

 

I finally read Gift From the Sea by Anne Morrow Lindbergh. It's a short book, first published in 1955, and now considered a classic.

I was surprised by the beauty of the book's language and by its relevance to today's world. Morrow Lindbergh uses nature to help her think about her role in her world. For help, she refers to the words of famous poets - and of her own friends.

She is as poetic and philosophic as T.S. Eliot in "Four Quartets," but easier to understand. Hers is a gentle touch, and a humble one.

In an afterward she wrote in 1975, she says she is astonished that a book of essays written to work out her own problems "should have spoken to so many other women." I would suggest that her words are just as poignant today for men as for women.

Examples:

Police Beat - Markesan, Wisconsin

Here are some recent police calls in the small city of Markesan, Wisconsin, courtesy of The Markesan Regional Reporter (There were some more serious calls, but I'll omit those):

Saturday, June 28: LOST PROPERTY - A Markesan resident contacted police to report that he had lost his cell phone at some point the previous night when he was walking home from downtown Markesan. The complainant provided a description of the cell phone to police.

Friday, June 27: LOCKOUT - Police were dispatched to a N. Margaret Street address on the report of a vehicle lockout. Police confirmed the complainant's license and registration and safely gained access to the vehicle.

Same day: ANIMAL PROBLEM - Police received an anonymous complaint regarding a loose dog running in the neighborhood of West Vista Boulevard. Police were able to identify the dog's owner and provided a written warning.

Beatles, Bell-bottoms and Bombs

 

In honor of the 50th anniversary year of the Beatles' first live performances in the USA, here is an essay I first published in 1989....

My initiation into the era known as “the Sixties” began on September 4, 1964, when I attended the Beatles' concert in Milwaukee.

Outdoors Summer Checklist (Before You Grow Up!)

Priceless ideas for summer fun...written by my friend Mary Kult and published in my church newsletter, Good Shepherd's "Breaking Bread":

 

How will you celebrate the bonus daylight? Consider the following for yourself, children and grandchildren:

Pop was a person

 

     He told the worst jokes and the best jokes. He couldn’t open a milk carton or an aspirin bottle. He was almost twice as old as I was when he died. Yet no barriers ever prevented us from talking, dancing, drinking, laughing together – two friends.

Writer’s Diary: Relearning an Old Lesson

Why must we learn the same lessons over and over? It’s true in life and true in art. Darn it.

Here’s the ever-so-basic writing lesson I relearned this week: Write a first draft. Put it in a drawer. Wait a week or so. Revisit it with new eyes.

You’d think I would have remembered such an elementary lesson after writing for the public since 1977. But I had lost that gem. Maybe I misplaced it because my years of freelancing were followed by steady assignments in newspapers, magazines, and advertising – where I learned to write fast and meet deadlines. Then, last March, when I found three writing contests I could enter for free, I ran amok and dashed off three entries in a fell swoop. I wrote headlong and e-mailed them in one evening of hyper-inspiration.

Yesterday, three months after I entered the contests, I pulled out the entries to share with my friend Liz Rhodebeck, an excellent writer, for critique. To my dismay, I read the first entry and found it choppy and hard to follow. Here and there I found confusion with my descriptions of bodies in motion. Worst of all (and inexcusable) was the fact that a character’s name suddenly changed in the story. Yeah…that might throw a reader. That mistake was a result of careless editing: I had changed the name every time but one. Had I simply used “Find and Replace,” I could have remedied the problem. But I was rushing along too fast for that sensible solution.

So today I rewrite…and swallow my pride. As a lesson to myself, and to any interested writer, below you’ll find the original bollixed essay (which appeared here as a blog post, in a slightly different form), followed by a rewrite. The revision isn’t perfect. We writers know that no work is ever perfect; we don’t finish anything so much as abandon it. But I think the rewrite flows better and makes more sense.

Too bad I can't re-enter the contest! Haste makes waste. May I never bollix up such a chance again.