The Pun Method of Teaching Christmas Carols

Posted on December 16, 2011 by literarylee

Walking the other day through the awesomely ugly yet somehow festive-this-time-of-year halls of the acres long, deep and wide building where I work, I was singing Christmas carols under my breath, blithely anticipating the holiday almost upon us.  I got to, “Oh Come All Ye Faithful,” and was reminded of hand motions my wife and I used to accompany the carol’s chorus when we sang it many years ago at home with our three young children.  Here’s how the motions went:

Oh (make the letter “O” with thumb and first finger)
come (a palm up hand with the fingers moving back and forth in the usual American-style beckoning motion)
let us (make the motion of eating salad from an imaginary bowl.  Lettuce.  Let us.  Get it?)
adore (turn an imaginary door knob and open an imaginary door.  A Door.  Get it?)
Him (point upward)
Christ (touch each palm with the middle finger, the American sign-language sign for Jesus)
the Lord (again, point up).

As I was walking down the hall remembering this, likely by that point absentmindedly singing loud enough that people walking by were either heartened, amused, or worried for my sanity, I realized we had been teaching our children a sacred song, one part of our parental task, using puns.   I think we were also teaching the joy of words and the art of humor, as holy a task as teaching the Faith and both, a brush with the Divine.   Our children learned the song and we all laughed and enjoyed the word play.  I wonder if we also gave thanks to the Creator of words whose birth as the Word we will celebrate soon.

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Do You Talk to Yourself? Write it Down!

Posted on December 15, 2011 by literarylee

Do you talk to yourself?  Write it down.  Carry a small notebook with you wherever you go so you can be your own secretary, taking down the notes, the words, the ideas you are speaking in your own mind.  Sitting on the bus right now, a few minutes before I started writing this, I was thinking of a friend who is going through an interesting and challenging life adventure right now who recently started a blog.  As I thought about him and what he is writing these days, I said to myself, as if I was talking to him, “Do you talk to yourself?  Write it down!”  Since I was listening to myself, I took my own advice and wrote this down in the small notebook I carry with me everywhere.

Listening to my own thoughts, paying attention and then putting them on paper is like tapping a keg of beer.  I take the pen, the word spigot, and wield it just so to release the words, to let their inky flow fill the page, the papery word mug that is soon full of a cool and frothy literary brew.  Sometimes, I take a swig of what I write and am amazed that it tastes pretty good.

Take dictation from yourself. Continue reading →

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How to Make Biscuits

Posted on December 13, 2011 by literarylee

We weren’t able to share Thanksgiving with my parents and other relatives in my childhood hometown this year.  If we had, my wife and I probably would have hosted the event.  I would have made the biscuits.  As it turned out, my mother assumed dinner prep responsibilities, but asked our daughter if she could take on the biscuit role.  My biscuit prowess is the stuff of legend, so she (our daughter) asked if I’d send her my secret recipe.  I think since I typed it at the end of a long, tiring day and was apparently feeling punchy, it ended up being a little unusual.  I share it with you now to show that a literary life can include humor, or at least, as in my case, attempts to be funny.  Try writing normal things in odd ways or odd things in normal ways. 

Biscuit Recipe

ok.  here ya go.  ta-da.  ready or not.

Put one tablespoon of vinegar in one cup of milk and let it sit whilst you mix the dry ingredients which are as follows.  Pay attention!

2 cups of flour
4 teaspoons of baking powder
1 half teaspoon of salt
1 tablespoon sugar

You got that?  Now combine the dry ingredients.  Go ahead.  Mix ’em.  No.  Really.  Do it.  Do it now!

Take one third cup of shortening.  Or was that two thirds of a cup?  No, I really think it was one third.  Yeah.  one third.  But make it a generous one third, o.k.?  Not level. Gospel Measure.  Plenty.  Then cut the shortening into the flour until the shortening looks like small peas.  Not green, no, no, but the size of small peas.  (that last bit is a sort of old timey, grandma, down home on the farm piece of advice, lore passed down generation to generation.)  Continue reading →

Posted in Humor, Living Literarily, Word Play | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

Happy Anniversary to The Life Literary

Posted on December 9, 2011 by literarylee

I wrote the first very humble, very simple post for this blog one year ago today.  Ah yes, friends, I remember that moment well.  There I stood (I stand to write) in my darkened home office, the monitor lighting my face even as this new venture was about to light my way.  I had set up the blog, it was ready to go, but I hadn’t written anything yet.  There sat the blank page, as inviting as a freshly poured slab of cement begging for someone to scrape his initials into it.  Most of what I write starts as a longhand draft or outline in my journal.  Usually, my typing it on this page becomes the second draft.  At that moment, I had no draft of nuthin’.  Just the ocean of the new blog, stretching out before me.  It seemed such a shame not to write anything at that moment, so I did what I recommend to anybody who isn’t sure what to write: put the pen to the paper and write anything.  Start the ink flowing and see what happens.  That post became the first of 418.

What I accomplished this year…

I collected ideas for ways anybody, especially the non-literary professional like me, can add a literary dimension to his or her life.  From keeping a journal to writing photo captions or a daily sentence, to memorizing poems or hosting a literary event, I wrote about both simple and also more involved ways to live literarily, actual ideas a person could use.  More than ever, I love words and passionately believe in their power to heal, to entertain, to ennoble, to deepen and broaden living.  I also believe, more than ever, that anybody can find a way to deliberately, purposefully interact with words, that suits his or her time and ability.

Besides sharing ideas for how to live literarily, I also wrote some things of my own this past year:
From the Bride’s Father’s Notebook – Reactions and observations from the two weeks surrounding our daughter’s wedding.
Garden: A Love Story – Essays and pictures and notes from a season of gardening.
The Duck Series – Where would we be without a few duck puns? (22 and counting)
Notes on Life and Time – My wit and wisdom on some of the bigger realities.
The Rider Chronicles – A grandfather’s take on having and loving a grandson
Hitting Bottom and Sitting Alone on the Bus – My attempts to be funny.
Letters from When I Lived Abroad – In Jerusalem and Bombay
Among the Liberators – A walking tour of Virginia Avenue, Washington’s own Avenue of the Americas. (still in progress)
Fifteen Original Poems – Just some fun rhymes.  Nothing that would ever make the New Yorker.
The Life Literary on Twitter – I wrote 290 tweets, mostly exercises in brevity or shamelessly advertising this blog.
Marigold Man – A novel over two-thirds finished.  I  only wrote a few tid-bits of the text in this blog, but I did write a few reflections on writing 50,000 words in one month.

And more.  Look at the list of categories along the right-hand side of the blog page to see what I wrote.  Click a few.  Also, browse the tabs directly under the header (the picture across the top of the page) to get an idea of what this blog is all about.

…and what’s ahead for 2012

Continue reading →

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National Novel Writing Month Follow-up Stats

Posted on December 8, 2011 by literarylee

Click this link for interesting statistics (such as, out of this year’s 256,618 participants, 36,774 made it to the 50,000 word mark) about National Novel Writing Month:

NaNoWriMo Follow Up Statistics

I received my winner’s t-shirt in the mail (I bought it..the only free awards were downloadable images) and feel great wearing it, possibly like someone who has run a race proudly wearing the commemorative t-shirt after crossing the finish line. 

Here are a few stats of my own: as of yesterday morning I finished chapter 14 and am at 56,667 words.  I think the book will have 19 or possibly 20 chapters (though I’m considering making smaller, more focused chapters) and I’m guessing 70 – 75,000 words.  Still doable by Jan 1!

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The Rider Chronicles 13 – Grandma, Grandpa, and the Little Pink Frog

Posted on December 7, 2011 by literarylee

For whatever reason, perhaps because plenty of willing hands are always available to perform the office, or because the hands typing these words have had their fill of it, helping raise three children as they did, I have never really changed Rider’s diaper.  Perhaps I took care of an early, benign, safe, slightly wet one some time ago, but certainly no more than that.  I am fully prepared to accept posterity’s censure, its criticism of me for this.  I don’t care.  I get excellent, quality Rider time without it.  A few times I’ve stood by Rider’s Grandmother as she did it, but I even avoid that.  Bad Grandpa!

But for bath prep, I was willing to strip the baby down while my wife filled the tub up.  I enjoyed disrobing duty because little Rider, though tired, was still happy and playful, observing everything around him, smiling on cue, lighting up whatever room he’s in.  Like a spring-loaded reflex, as soon as his back hits the changing table and his pants come off, his foot takes its place in his mouth.  Ah, yes, that’s what yoga’s Happy Baby pose is all about.  Was I ever even half this flexible, even at six months?  I wrapped him in a towel and carried this happy pink grandson of mine to the little, white, plastic pond for what must be one of his favorite play times of the day. Continue reading →

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Be St. Nicholas

Posted on December 6, 2011 by literarylee

Today around the world, millions of people are celebrating St. Nicholas Day.  Through the centuries, this figure has acquired many traits and stories and garb and even a new name.  Behind it all stands an actual historical figure, a real person named Nicholas who lived in the 3rd and 4th century A.D. (about 270 – 343) in Asia Minor.  He was known for his extreme generosity to the poor, for his compassion, and for how he helped people in trouble.  He was also known for his fierce belief in Christ.  He became a monk, a priest and later, a bishop.

Back in 1991, I discovered St. Nicholas and learned about his life.  I also learned the fascinating story of how, in the years after his death, people told and retold his story and in the process expanded it to the point that he was given a new persona and name.  These days he is known as Father Christmas, Pere Noel, der Helige Nickolaus, Wienachtsmann, Christkindl (Martin Luther’s contribution), Kris Kringle, St. Nick, De Kerstman, De Goede Sint, Sinterklaas and, of course, Santa Claus.  I both honor the historic figure and enjoy including the transformed one in my celebration of Christmas.  (Santa still fills stockings for me, my wife and whichever of our three adult children and their spouses are lucky enough to wake up in our home on Christmas morning and, of course this year, if our grandson is with us look for a ninth stocking on the mantel!) Continue reading →

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Writers In The Mist – Dr. Argyle Schield’s Field Notes, Part 2

Posted on December 5, 2011 by literarylee

Here is the second part of Dr. Schield’s tweeted field notes recording his observations of writer’s in their natural habitat.

(Writers In The Mist Introduction)
(Writers In The Mist – Field Notes Part 1)

WITM: I want to communicate with these shy creatures, but as soon as I approach, they scamper off into a library, lost in the stacks…

WITM: Today I placed an empty journal in a clearing with a trail of pens leading to where I sat, writing in my notebook and waiting…

WITM:…I soon saw a feral writer approach. He had taken the bait. As I wrote, he sat down near me, journal open. I was gaining his trust.

WITM: Moving slowly, deliberately, I reached into my knapsack. Startled, the writer almost bolted until he saw the thermos and two cups…

WITM: He immediately sensed I would do him no harm. Cautiously, he took the coffee, sipping it gratefully with a contented smile and sigh.

WITM: His gratitude at being befriended touched me. Writers in the wild think no one understands and thus are surprised by acts of kindness.

WITM: For the next 5 days, I returned to this urban glade. Each day, the now docile writer awaited me, coffee mug and journal in hand.

WITM: Yesterday, the writer left his journal in the glade. Today, when I tried to hand it back, he shied away, as if scared of it.

WITM: Fascinating to see Dickens (what I’ve named the wild writer) perform task after task, doing whatever it took to evade pen and paper.

WITM: Today Dickens spent the day gathering new journals, pens, a few books, stashing them in his lair. Is he preparing to hibernate?

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Jesus Christ the Apple Tree

Posted on December 4, 2011 by literarylee

Anonymous (Early American)

The tree of life my soul hath seen
Laden with fruit and always green
The tree of life my soul hath seen
Laden with fruit and always green
The trees of nature fruitless be
Compared with Christ the apple tree

His beauty doth all things excel
By faith I know but ne’er can tell
His beauty doth all things excel
By faith I know but ne’er can tell
The glory which I now can see
In Jesus Christ the apple tree.

For happiness I long have sought
And pleasure dearly I have bought
For happiness I long have sought
And pleasure dearly I have bought
I missed of all but now I see
‘Tis found in Christ the apple tree.

I’m weary with my former toil
Here I will sit and rest a while
I’m weary with my former toil
Here I will sit and rest a while
Under the shadow I will be
Of Jesus Christ the apple tree.

This fruit does make my soul to thrive
It keeps my dying faith alive
This fruit does make my soul to thrive
It keeps my dying faith alive
Which makes my soul in haste to be
With Jesus Christ the apple tree.

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Writers In The Mist – Dr. Argyle Schield’s Field Notes, Part 1

Posted on December 2, 2011 by literarylee

Throughout the month of November while I was frantically noveling, raking up words by the bushel and bagging them in a thumb drive, I mostly blogged items I had prepared before November began, being too busy with the book to bother with the blog.  Imagine my gratitude to the noted graphologist (one who studies writers in their own habitat), Dr. Argyle Schield, when he offered to post some of his field notes recorded over the month while observing actual writers in the wild.  I was glad for at least some current content on these pages.  Being the master of concision he is, Dr. Schield said he wanted to use Twitter to tweet the observations, meaning none could be longer than 140 characters.  I suggested to him we give the series a creative and original title.  He agreed, so we put our heads together and came up with “Writers in the Mist.”  Clever, huh?  Below are the first nine of Argyle’s observations.  I’m publishing the rest soon.  I hope you find them as fascinating and insightful as I do.

(Writers in the Mist Introduction)

WITM: Before labor, buys both pen and printer ink, though he writes with cyber. Classic instinctual nesting behavior for delivering a novel.

WITM: Witnessed hunter-gatherer writers obsessively counting piles of foraged words, adding a few more and compulsively re-counting again. Continue reading →

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