Teaser Tuesdays

The Chinese, who seem to have spent thousands of years sitting around thinking up sage proverbs, have one that says, sagely, "If you would be happy for a week, take a wife; if you would be happy for a month, kill your pig, but if you would be happy all your life, plant a garden."

[page 74]

Gremlins

Read my own post yesterday about Kate Puzey, Peace Corps volunteer and the mis-spelled CORE jumped out at me.

Sometimes the brain and the fingers don't seem to connect. In newspaper lingo, we always knew these glaring errors were caused by the ever-present Gremlins.

GREMLINS! present in the composing room. The typesetter besieged with gremlins. Of course, the errors were not caught until the presses ran, the newspapers were delivered and at the news stands. Then a disgusted reporter would shudder to see his story not at all as he wrote it - or sometimes it was his mistake.

However, I am the writer as well as the typesetter and proofreader - so I am thrice to blame for such a glaring error.

Examples from newspapers: when Robert, a foreign correspondent at the time, was in Denmark covering the funeral of Dag Hammarskjöld, his carefully crafted story showed up in the Toronto Star, saying two-headed children lined the streets. He knew immediately he should have written blond children, instead of tow-headed. [extracted from article by Wilhelmine Estabrook]

One writer blew his stack when a story came out in the paper, under his byline, saying "The queen and her entourage pissed over the Firth of Forth." And another while covering the funeral of a self-important bigwig, was aghast to see that "mournful crows lined the sidewalk," when his copy could prove he'd written crowds.

• IMPORTANT NOTICE: If you are one of hundreds of parachuting enthusiasts who bought our Easy Sky Diving book, please make the following correction: on page 8, line 7, the words "state zip code" should have read "pull rip cord."

• It was incorrectly reported last Friday that today is T-shirt Appreciation Day. In fact, it is actually Teacher Appreciation Day.

• From a California bar association's newsletter: Correction -- the following typo appeared in our last bulletin: "Lunch will be gin at 12:15 p.m." Please orrect to read "12 noon."

• Just to keep the record straight, it was the famous Whistler's Mother, not Hitler's, that was exhibited. There is nothing to be gained in trying to explain how this error occurred.

• Apology: I originally wrote, "Woodrow Wilson's wife grazed sheep on front lawn of the White House." I'm sorry that typesetting inadvertently left out the word "sheep."

In a cookbook - should have been: You will need larger bowls if you double the recipe. Instead: You will need larger bowels if you double the recipe.

On a restaurant menu: "fired rice"

Advertisements in newspaper:

Our experienced mother will care for your child. Fenced yards, meals and smacks included.

For Rent: 6-room hated apartment. Man, honest. Will take anything.

And now, the Superstore-unequaled in size, unmatched in variety, unrivaled inconvenience.

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Once in awhile an e-mail chain letter will be circulated with Church Bulletin typos (which you now know are caused by gremlins) and provide some laughs.

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Brigham Young U.'s Student Newspaper Is Pulled After Embarrassing Typo


On and on it goes . . .

Music

"...something special happens when a group starts to sing togther--something extraordinary from a cognitive (and dynamic complex systems) perspective, something you've probably experienced yourself in any place where people come together to sing: football games, church, campfires, or political rallies."

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"Confucius reportedly said, 'Music produces a kind of pleasure which human nature cannot do without.'"

"Music and health are intimately related in human history, from shamanic healing to 'witch doctors,' from the Hebrews to current-day programs of music therapy. King David played the harp to relieve the stress of King Saul (Samuel I, 16:1-23), and the ancient Greeks (in particular Zenocrates, Sarpander, and Arien) used harp music to ease the outbursts of people with mental illnesses."

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"The six types of songs that shaped human nature

--friendship, joy, comfort,

knowledge, religion,

and love songs--

I've come to think are obvious..."

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Peace Corps Volunteer

Catherine "Kate" Puzey, Peace Corps volunteer, was found dead outside her home in a remote, rural village about a seven hour drive north of Cotonou, in West Africa.

Peace Corps volunteer’s killing devastates relatives in Cumming
by Kathy Jefcoats

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Monday, March 16, 2009

Kate Puzey settled into the West African nation Benin almost two years ago as a Peace Corps volunteer teaching English.

Relatives said she acclimated quickly, dining with local seamstresses and wise women, and attending a birthday party for a village child. Puzey, 24, wrote on her blog of witnessing a ritual circumcision and anticipating the start of mango season in April.

So her parents, Harry and Lois Puzey of Cumming, were devastated to learn last week that someone had killed their only daughter. Her body was found Thursday outside her home in Benin.

“We’ve been told they have a major suspect but we don’t know any details,” Harry Puzey said Sunday. “We don’t think her death was political or random but an individual act by one person.”
Lois Puzey said her daughter was a staunch defender of the “underdog.”

“She was whipsmart, articulate and honest with people,” Lois Puzey said. “She would always stand up for the underdog. That was a major part of her personality.”

Kate Puzey was born in Germany, where her parents were U.S. Department of Defense teachers. When she was 7, they moved to Okinawa, where Kate graduated high school at the top of her class. She graduated from the College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, Va.

“We taught her to be a citizen of the world,” he said.

Kate wrote about her experiences around the world on her blog, at

http://beinginbenin.blogspot.com/.

One entry about Benin begins:

“I realized some time ago my education here goes way beyond the local language and customs. I’ve become familiar with so many new sounds. I now know the sound of a chicken when it’s being killed, a goat when it’s giving birth, the baby next door when it’s hungry. … With all the noise I find myself listening more. That is, before I put in earplugs at night to try and get some sleep!”

Lois Puzey said she is devastated.

“She was an incredible person, gifted in people skills,” she said. “She would just light up a room. It’s hard to believe someone bigger than life is gone.”

Kate Puzey was comfortable in her adopted, albeit temporary, home, said her cousin, Emilie Jacobs-Finnegan.

“She always saw the positive in people,” Jacobs-Finnegan said. “But she was not naive. She was feisty, a real steel magnolia, but she had a way of soothing people. She was open-minded and compassionate.”

Lois Puzey said her daughter’s body will be accompanied back to Georgia in a few days by a Peace Corps official.

Services are set for 11 a.m. Saturday at Alpharetta’s Sanctuary at Birmingham United Methodist Church.
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Kate's Blog

There are over 100 Peace Corps volunteers currently working in Benin.

Out of the Woods

When we travel by car, my husband does the driving and I read aloud. On one road trip, we were introduced to Chris Offutt's writings in his book of short stories Whiskey Straight and were both blown away by his writing.

The man can write.

His book The Same River Twice broke my heart, as did No Heroes.

I don't read short stories as much as I used to (recalling how I savored/devoured the stories by John O'Hara and his characters' perfect dialogue).

shadows and light

By a departing light
by Emily Dickinson

By a departing light
We see acuter, quite,
Than by a wick that stays.
There's something in the flight
That clarifies the sight
And decks the rays.