Friday, March 2nd - Day after a snow day. Sunny. No clouds. Bright blue sky. Temperature in the 30s. Gentle breeze, barren trees. Dry air for now. Rain in the forecast. Allergy season approaching. A brief lull in local-national news. Who will run for the Senate from Maine now that Olympia Snowe is stepping down? No word yet.  No complaints, except for the fact that it's only the beginning of March. Upcoming birthdays and still too cold to take a long walk, unless you're all bundled up in four layers of clothing. Days getting longer. Sunrise at 6:15 a.m. Sunset at 5:30 p.m. Just waiting on Spring. Oh well.  One, two, what shall I do? No answer. Will I take a vacation this summer? No answer. Are we having take-out food for dinner? No answer. Hello? No answer. Then spoke the silence:  Breathe.... Blog... Be.

Quotes of the Day:

"Only those who skim through books can know the fleeting joys associated with pretending to be intelligent."

"If you would read a book cover-to-cover, Grasshopper, pace yourself well and make sure you're hooked before reaching page 50."

"The smiling optimist garners more ice cream from the happy ice cream vendor while the scowling pessimist walks away gloomy over a lesser portion until he brazenly decides to bribe the cheerful vendor with an extra two dollars, but then feels guilty and tries to undo his crime, but it's too late. Everyone stares at him in alarm while sampling from their own bountiful portions and laughing at his as he, our woebegotten protagonist, becomes sadder, surlier, in need of even more ice cream (!) while his good friend, the optimist, almost giddy by now from the sugar rush and his own swollen ego, is overheard to say, in a clearly audible voice to everyone within earshot: what's his problem?"

Catch 22 by Joseph Heller - This is the book that catapulted everyone - for better or worse - into the 1960s with its surrealistic take on warfare, survival, love, death, heroism, probability, contingency, coping strategies, bureaucracies, doltish generals, doubting parsons, dying pilots, and vengeful "furies" - full of comical, Alice-in-Wonderlandesque, "looking glass logic" and the adamant rantings of the irrepressible Yossarian - a man who in the midst of all moralistic bromides to the contrary - defends his "me first" philosophy of self-preservation at all costs.

The Ambassadors by Henry James - Could this virtually forgotten, brilliant, dazzling tour-de-force of a novel about a man sent by a prim and proper puritanical lady to "rescue" her son in Europe be perhaps, indeed, the most exquisite sustained work of fiction by an American author? If I didn't have a soft spot for Melville and Hawthorne, I'd say yes....I still might say yes...Why do people shy away from this man? He is arguably the greatest American prose stylist ever! Is it because we never read him in high school - or in college for that matter?

Villette by Charlotte Bronte. Any story about a school-teacher who moves to France to find new strength and a basis for identity is right up my alley. Can someone make a reservation for me in Provence?

The Man Without Qualities by Robert Musil. Here we have a glimpse of pre-war Vienna - a year in the life of that doomed city through the eyes of one hyper-conscious fellow who cannot be pinned down to a set principles or qualities - a man condemned to restless ironic poses and nihilistic rebellions. I've been waiting and waiting to read this book and I will do so after I finish Kafka's The Castle.

The Castle by Franz Kafka - If you've ever felt confused, disoriented, misunderstood, frustrated by people in your midst who can't see the elephant in the room - leading you to question their general obtuseness and lack of curiosity while pursuing your own special grail quest to uncover a complex truth - this is the book for you.

In the news...a fire-fighter in Florida leaves his wife and two young children to drive all the way to Maine (in February - no less!) on a "business trip" of sorts - where, it turns out, he has been visiting his mistress and trying to collect on some drug money. How many people, all across America, are conducting similar northward migrations in the middle of winter? I wonder. The way we live now. Disturbing.