Quote de jour
Writers have criticized other writers since the first written word. Here's a funny loop of writer quotes.

"Plato was a bore."
~ Friedrich Nietzsche

"Nietzsche was stupid and abnormal."
~Leo Tolstoy

 "I'm not going to get into the ring with Tolstoy."
~Ernest Hemingway

 "He (Hemingway) has never used a word that might send a reader to the dictionary."
~William Faulkner

"Poor Faulkner, does he really think emotions come from big words?"
~Hemingway

And so it goes, ad infinitum. If you write, keep writing and don't worry about criticism.

Now on to reading. I don't often cry while reading but last week's brilliant book about cats The Feline Mystique produced sobs late into the night. A must read for all cat lovers. I'm skimming at warp speed (current #1 NY Times best seller)  Dan Brown's The Symbol. It's no DaVinci Code but does contain a few juicy bits of imagery and fun facts about the Masonic  symbols in Washington. Another reason I'm skimming is to finish quickly so I can dig into the recent memoir Voluntary Madness by Norah Vincent. I can't decide if Ms. Vincent is brave or crazy for living life as a writing experiment. First, she spends 18 months living disguised as a man and writes about it in her memoir Self-Made Man.  She sinks into a depression during the gender-bending experience and checks herself into a psych ward. One loony bin leads to another and I can't wait to find out what happens.  http://www.norahvincent.net

A tiny mountain of magazines this week.

Summer has returned for a couple days and I'm itching to go for a hike. Meanwhile, the front yard view is changing fast. The maple tree is now naked and leaves swept up and composted. Nature knows there is no point in hanging on. Life's like that. Whatever we run from pursues us, but if we accept what is, it transforms us.