Yesterday, on our 26th anniversary, Sharon and I went for a long drive and ate out (nothing fancy, just a buffet).

Also, I recently received the initial (6-month) royalties statement from my baseball book publisher.

Good idea to tell good news. I am happy for all the good news everyone has had, happy for the posted and the ones that are not shared.
I sent a lyric to Song of the year, and it made the short list. That was nice. And a song to which I wrote the lyrics was sent in by the composer of the melody, and it also made the short list. I feel like a gorilla beating my chest and bellowing me me me.........................
I have been away from the forum ( just fatigue and laziness) and I have come back to a forum with poems that are almost all written by men. Where have all the women gone???

In 2014 my husband suffered a heart attack. But he is still alive and kicking. Thank goodness for doctors. Hail them.
I am going to be published in two anthologies. One, the Dos Madres Press imprint, I will be in there with the likes of Annie Finch and Rick Mullins. The other one, there will be pictures of the poets poems. These anthologies give me something to look forward to.
This morning on my suburban lawn I saw five does and a fawn. They are beautiful.

Had a great weekend went out with friends for wine and nibbles last night, never laughed so hard in months. Got up this morning went for a walk of about 2 mile, had to take my GTN spray when I got home. Nice lunch now just chilling with a few more drinks waiting for Thursday to roll around so I can get down to some serious poetry work with the lovely Jayne Osborn. May even get a spot of fishing in between now and Thursday depending on the weather and if my other half tells me to order the skip we need.

Oh yippee!! I've just found the leather fob with my car key and house key on it - mislaid for nearly two weeks. My sanity has returned.

I can't tell you how many hours I've wasted searching every nook and cranny in the house dozens of times over, including going through all the trash bags (Yuk) to no avail. (I did absentmindedly put my keys in the fridge once, some years ago!)

I felt chilly just now so I went upstairs to get a gilet from my wardrobe. My keys were in the pocket; I completely forgot that I wore that garment on the fateful day.

(Dave E --- not one word, right!!!!? I've been ribbed enough by Pete already, having ''lost'' my keys twice recently :D)

Jayne

(Dave E --- not one word, right!!!!? I've been ribbed enough by Pete already, having ''lost'' my keys twice recently :D)

Jayne[/quote]

My lips are sealed, Boss!!

I never heard the word 'gilet" before, so my minor good news is that I just learned a new word.

Yes, Rogerbob, isn't it a lovely word. Embrace it as a gift, along with our French-influenced British love. I believe that until now you would have called it a vest

I fell down the stairs last week, the way old people do, and since then I have had my leg strapped and cannot move more than twenty feet, walking like a zombie..That's the bad news. The good news is I am getting better and can actually wash my hair and stuff. And walk twenty five feet. Like a zombie.

Of course I have had plenty of time to work on entries to competitions and watch cricket. But then there's more bad news...

Ouch! Being a certifiable Old People, I commiserate. I guess that explains why you haven't been around. It's good to know you can wash your hair while there's still some left, and hopefully this means you can do all the basic stuff - particularly the eating and drinking. Take care, get well, enjoy your cricket, and do try the NFL on Sunday afternoons (I think I got that right) your time. Take care.

John,
Poor you. I commiserate too. I missed my footing and fell down a flight of stairs back in January; next day I felt as if I'd been hit by a train. It was truly awful.
Added to your unfortunate tumble, we got thrashed at cricket by Bangladesh -- you are really suffering, my friend!!!! :eek:

Bob re post #87,
Over here we always used to refer to them as ''Body warmers'' which is a bit daft, I suppose, because any item of clothing could be called a body warmer --- but then it became fashionable to call that particular type of apparel a ''gilet''. That makes more sense . . . and it is a nice word, as Annie said (though a vest in the US is what we call a waistcoat, which is a different garment altogether).

A bit more (albeit trivial) good news, but no one said the good news had to be something earth-shattering! :

I've finally finished knitting a jacket in very chunky wool, using needles the thickness of broom handles, after . . . Oh, it has to be seven years since I started it . . . and all I have to do now is sew it together.

(So I might be wearing it in five years' time!! :rolleyes:)

Jayne

Thank you, fellow oldsters for your kind words. You should see the purple bruises. I shall be pushing a Dyson about on Wednesday nonwithstanding.

Re Bangladesh. It's our gift to the poor world much better than Aid.. Losing 10 wickets for 58 is bad, but Australia bowked us out for 52, in 1948 and the West Indies for 43 not so long ago. On the other hand we have done it to them, and not so long ago. A bad day at the office, no more.

A rugby team recently lost by more than 100 points.I wish I could remember who that was.

John, Jayne, and any others with bruises or worse,

My sympathies! Something like that happened to me this past March, breaking a foot, so I kind of know what you've been through. And then after graduating from the boot, I had the Summer of Lace-Up Shoes.

The good news is that after six months of following doctor's orders, taking extra Vitamin D, and doing special exercises, everything seemed to be back to normal. Let's hear it for Vitamin D!

Claudia

We take longer to heal as we get older, but at least we're all still in one piece!

That's Good News, for sure :D

Tomorrow I'm going to the funeral of a lovely man; he died on his 80th birthday a week last Saturday, but he went out on a high - after a big party in a London hotel, with all his family there. From what he said to me just two days before, I know that's what he wanted, . . . so even that is Good News in a way, I suppose. (I'll still shed a tear for him though.)

Jayne

Not exactly good news, but there is a key-finding thingy you can buy. One part goes on your key-ring. The other part has a button which, when pressed, causes your key-ring to beep wherever it may be.

The bad news is when you can't find the second bit . . .

Haha, yes indeed Brian!

Perhaps the day will come when one can have an implant in the wrist of the second bit. . . along with credit card info, medical conditions, next of kin contact details etc?

I got a prompt (1 day) dental appointment to have my dislodged crown superglued back into place.
May everyone else needing urgent attention receive it, too.

Last winter, I enjoyed the lack of really cold air. I enjoyed watching squirrels eating acorns from the oak tree in my front yard—until I woke one morning and my truck wouldn't start. Dead. Dead. Dead. It seems the squirrels liked the space between the firewall and the engine, and they also acquired a taste for insulated copper wiring. Two-hundred fifty dollars later, my truck started again. Sorrowfully, I had blamed all of this on field mice which inspired me to write a metrical Billy Collins poem. Another year has passed and on the way to the doctor, whom I've seen too much of this year, the truck began to malfunction. It limped back home some hours later, and yesterday my buddy opened the hood to find another nest, same place, same chewed wires. We cleaned it out. I bought his lunch, which was way less expensive than $250 smackers. So, today when the fox squirrel came, I shot him in the head with my .22 caliber rifle, skint his hide, fried him for supper with french fries and drippin' gravy. I'm not sure if he was the single offender. I am on the prowl. Supper was very good.

Charlie--I don't know what to say...

But my firstborn got into college! With a nice scholarship to cut the price quite a bit. Now, it may or may not be the college she attends, but it would be a fine place and it's the first answer she's had. She's thrilled, and we're very proud.

Charlie - are the nests of mice and squirrels really that similar...? And you a country boy...? Perhaps a calmer investigation of the circumstances would have saved a life, as would a bit of basic maintenance on that truck in the intervening year...?

But what do I know; I'm just a sad old hippie having to come to terms with other people's definitions of Good News as best I can.

Simon, will you tell your firstborn that someone a million miles away raised a cup of British tea to her success. May the offers keep rolling in.

I'm very excited. My best friend Steve, who's been on his own for a few years, has met a lovely lady and, after a whirlwind romance, they're getting married very soon.

I'm going to be the ''Best Man''.
Friends are saying ''Don't you mean Best Woman?" - and I tell 'em no, there's no such thing, traditionally. I regard it in a similar way to being a "Chairman" (I'm one of those, too, and woe betide anyone who addresses me as Chair, Chairwoman -- or Saints Preserve Us! -- the utterly nonsensical ChairPERSON. The role isn't gender specific.)

Anyway, I'm chuffed for them both and I need no excuse whatsoever to drink champagne. Cheers :D

Jayne

I returned to my home in the foothills of the Catskills after months out west. The woods are quiet and peaceful, and the bare oaks seem like cathedral pillars. I blew the leaves out of the gutters and off the deck, and I’ll spend the better part of the weekend clearing them off the moss. I put peas to soak overnight and will serve fresh split pea soup for my beloved’s arrival today at noon. I lit the first fire of the season in the woodstove, and was comforted by the smell of a season’s dust burning off.

My old Subaru started right up; no critter invasions. My weapons: mothballs and dryer sheets.

Michael, I'm amazed your car battery hadn't gone dead after months of not being used. Had you disconnected it? Used a trickle charger?

Trickle charger, Rogerbob.

As Franklin said, experience keeps a dear school, but fools will learn in no other...

In my defense, Ann, there isn't much room behind the engine, but enough for a squirrel to build a nest. He dragged a few sticks in with the leaves which was one tip-off, the other being when my buddy went to clean it out, and there he was, all bushy-tailed and red. Scared them both nearly to death, it did. It's not that I'm for slaying squirrels indiscriminately, but they are tasty, given good reason. Some people even call them tree rats. The good news is that I have leftovers for breakfast with eggs and gravy. It doesn't get any better than that.

You've said this before Jayne, but I'm sure you're joking about the woe and that you'd be your usual generous self in gently making your preference known.

I'm among those who, with no disrespect intended, would almost certainly use one of those forms of address you so disdain. In fact, I'd probably do it again after being corrected, only because I'm so absent-minded.

It seems that no one who pays attention to language and usage over a lifetimes doesn't end up lamenting at least some of the ways usage evolves, but like King Canute we cannot stop the tide even if we think its arrival is nonsensical.

I've never heard the term "best man" applied to a woman, and it strikes me as an odd choice since I don't hear "man" in that context as genderless. If Hillary had won the election, no one expected Bill to adopt the title "First Lady."

To follow-up on the narrow point, I'm generally one to prefer gender neutral language if I can find it without losing precision, so I like, for example, the clear, brief, and well-established chair better than the unwieldy chairperson or calling a woman a chairman. Having said that, I think there's a clear difference between, say, chairman and best man. The one is a trochaic compound word; the other has a space and is a spondee or very nearly. (Ha. Auto-correct changed spondee to spider!) Therefore, I think it's harder to argue that the latter could be gender neutral. But I'm all for Jayne (and everybody) defining themselves as they wish. Jayne, you the man!

Meanwhile, my kid is still accepted to college! Yes!

This may scandalize linguistic purists, but the maid of honor at my wedding was neither a female domestic servant nor a virgin.

I was a little slow at first, Julie, but I got it. Whew!

This is why women should never be put in charge of anything. It creates too much confusion. (For us rubes) Or is it we rubes? I can never get that right.

Not wishing to labour the point, but I found this on Wikipaedia:

In most modern Anglophone countries, the groom extends this honor to someone who is close to him, . . . When the groom wishes to give this honor to a woman, she may be termed the best woman or best person, although traditionally she would still be referred to as the 'best man'.

I just think it's fun to be called the best man . . . :D
My husband also had a woman in that role when we got married, which was much more unusual all those years ago!

Jayne

England are ahead in the Test Match, my daughter Ellie's getting married in February, I've got a book out and I won £25 from The Oldie (three in a row!), what's not to like?

I had the honor of being allowed to read 5 of my humorous poems this past Saturday night at the annual Freedom Follies, held in the venerable (1875) Dirigo Grange Hall in the small town of Freedom, Maine. Another poet read her rendition of Emily Dickinson's post-mortem musings, and the MC did a stirring rendition of one of Holman Day's (a sadly forgotten Maine poet, novelist, and film maker) ballads.

Rounding out the 2 1/2 hour program was original country music, modern dance, family skits, Broadway show tunes, more country music, and reminiscences of life in Freedom, Maine, in the early 1940's. The performers ranged in age from 2 to 80-ish, and a good time was had by all.

Today I have seen a copy of my collection The Killing Tree, and as far as I can tell it is free of errors. I can proudly present this bundle of poems to the world.

Sweet, J.D. Where can one review and buy your book of poems?

Thank you!

Some of the book's poems (e.g., "Working Farm for Sale" and "Citizen Vain") have appeared online, and the book can be ordered at the link. Other online sellers should start carrying it soon.

Thanks again.

Bad link, J.D.

Sorry about that. I'll just put out the whole URL and hope the link will be solid. https://www.finishinglinepress.com/p...-by-j-d-smith/

Yes, that link works fine, John. (Nice photo of you! :))

I'm looking forward to receiving my pre-ordered copy of your book.

Jayne

I recently approved the dust jacket for The Frangible Hour. Lovely testimonials from Rhina Espaillat, Timothy Steele, Richard Wakefield, Deborah Warren and Sam Gwynn and gorgeous artwork by Scottish artist Ruth Addinall on the front cover.

The book should be available around December 6. Will keep you all posted! :)