Coucoumellisms

 Born on May 31, 1819, in West Hills, Long Island, New York, Walt Whitman is a controversial figure in American Poetry, considered by some to be “America’s Poet” and by others a self-centred windbag. Contrary to poets like T.S. Eliot or Ezra Pound, Walt Whitman does not look for meta-narratives to find meaning in the world. Instead, he finds meaning in what is in front of him. All the mundane things we see and do give just as much meaning to life as the mystical epiphanies we experience. The physical is just as important as the spiritual. Walt Whitman challenges the polarization of both Gnostic religious ideas in a society still influenced by puritanism and the idea of democracy as uniformity of thought and expression within the context of a young republic.  Whitman was born towards the end of the Industrial Revolution, only 36 years after the end of the American Revolution. At 13, he learned to set type in a printer’s officer. At 16, he was spending summers along the coast of...

Certain things happened at my part-time job which led me to seriously consider quitting.  It turns out that I did not have to quit, because I was fired instead, with no real explication why (although I have a few hunches).  I was more than happy to leave, it saved me the bother of going through agonizing weeks of " Do I continue and see if it gets better even though I don't foresee it getting better soon or do I quit now? " I suppose that this was God's not so gentle nudge out the door and through a new one.  This particular job experience gave me the desire to work for myself, at something I LIKE to do. For years now, people have been telling me I should make pinatas to sell.  So I decided I would start up my own business, making pinatas, painting pictures, and sewing things to sell. It took a while to finally come up with a logo that I liked, that looked professional. I wanted it to be something mushroom-y because the coucoumelle is a mushroom. I also wa...

Lover's Eyes: Love was kind for a time But now just leaks and it makes me blind This mirror holds my eyes too bright I can't see the others in my life Were we too young And heads too strong To bear the weight of these lover's eyes 'Cause I feel numb beneath your tongue Beneath the curse of these lover's eyes But do not ask the price I pay I must live with my quiet rage Tame the ghosts in my head That run wild and wish me dead Should you shake my ash to the wind Lord forget all of my sins Well let me die where I lie 'Neath the curse of my lover's eyes 'Cause there's no drink Or drug I've tried To rid the curse of these lover's eyes And I feel numb beneath your tongue Your strength just makes me feel less strong But do not ask the price I pay I must live with my quiet rage Tame the ghosts in my head That run wild and wish me dead Should you shake my ash to the wind Lord forget all of my sins Well let me die...

If the creative juices stirring in our houses are any sign, Christmas (and more imminently, Advent) is coming. I can't sit down anywhere and just DO anything, without one or more people sitting down beside me and wanting in on the project. I really want my kids to be creative, honestly I do. But not when I am being creative! Because then I have to work around the child that insists apon sitting on my lap and "working" too. I have to fight for the scissors, I keep losing track of the glue, my paper selection dwindles rapidly and I start to get stressed out about people wrecking what I have done. What I need is a proper art studio, with a high table/counter for me and a lower table for little hands to work at. No, wait, maybe a cage would be better? No no no, must.remember.to.let.them.be.creative.too. Anyway, amid the mess of paper that accumulated in our office downstairs, the misplaced glue sticks, the battles for scissors, the jealously hording of my own private, person...

I've been toying with the idea of doing something about the funny things our family ends up saying when we mix up our French with our English, and I finally did something about it. I made a little book, dedicated to my goddaughter and niece, Claire. Here it is:

My children - November 14, 2008 I took this photo for Christmas cards. I like how it turned out, other than that Jean-Alexandre is not looking at the camera.

This year, Dominic got lucky, he had two pinatas. The first was the best one, and we shared it with our American cyberbuddies when we went apple-picking near Albany NY. Dominic and his raptor baby, just hatching.. The second one was supposed to be a red soccer ball, but unfortunately turned out looking something more like a brain... some alien brain... Dominic hits the pinata at his birthday party He did have fun running around with the broken pinata on his head afterwards, pretending to be Ironman. Gabriel liked Dominic's first pinata so much, that he put forth his order, one just like it. I was a bit disappointed to be doing the same thing, so I asked him if he really wanted the same dinosaur or if he preferred a different one. To my relief, he said he wanted a triceratops instead. Gabriel and his baby triceratops, just hatching.

For the crafty people: Choose two rolls of ribbon with colours that go well together, and a pipe-cleaner to match: Cut about 2 feet of ribbon (more or less depending on the size of bow you want to make) cut ends into a point (or you can cut two points): Fold over one end of ribbon: Do the same for the other end: Prepare second ribbon in the same manner: Place one bow on top of the other: Place over pipe-cleaner and wrap pipecleaner around both bows: Wrap around twice and twist in back: Fluff out bows. You can leave it like this if desired: ... or you can tie some deocrations to the middle, like this cone. Small bells work well too, the dollar store is full of things that can be tied on: This is where my ribbon ended up, above the mirror in my hair-salon, the colours go well with autumn flowers too: Have fun!

Fireproofing our marriages Posted: October 04, 2008 1:00 am Eastern by: Jonathon Falwell © 2008 (...) The new movie titled "Fireproof" is proving to be a great encouragement tool for Christian couples across the nation. Released last weekend, the film starring Kirk Cameron as a firefighter battling to save his marriage was the nation's fourth-most attended movie of the week (in only 839 theaters). The filmmakers tell me that it was even the top-grossing film in about 200 of the theaters it was in. (...) (...) To learn more about "Fireproof," please visit these websites: http://www.fireproofmymarriage.com/ and http://www.fireproofthemovie.com/ . NOTE: I was fascinated to read that Kirk Cameron will not kiss an actress while filming a scene for a movie. Therefore, in "Fireproof," Cameron's real-life wife, Chelsea Noble, was brought in to shoot the kissing scene (she was made up to resemble actress Erin Bethea, who plays Cameron's wife in the fil...

Let the Hollywood Left know what you think of them: see An American Carol. By Frank J. Gaffney Jr. It’s election season, so it is appropriate that an important vote will be cast this weekend. No, I am not talking about early balloting in Ohio or Oregon for the November presidential race. Rather, this vote is a national one — and it will be taking place at a theater near you. This weekend, the returns will be tallied on box-office sales of the opening weekend of An American Carol — a marvelously politically incorrect take-off on the timeless Dickensian morality tale. Set around the Fourth of July in contemporary America rather than a Victorian Yuletide, it has been created and directed by my friend, the zany and wildly successful David Zucker. This Carol’s Scrooge character, played by Kevin Farley, is a dead-ringer for radical leftist filmmaker Michael Moore. The ghosts who visit him — including John F. Kennedy, George S. Patton, and George Washington — labor to teach their subject abo...

Religulous vs An American Carol : (Bill O'Reilly) (...) This week marks the opening of two highly charged movie comedies. The first, "Religulous," is a Borat-style journey starring Bill Maher that is designed to demonstrate that anyone who believes in God is a total moron. The second, "An American Carol," is a slapstick satire that pokes fun at the far left. Director David Zucker, who did the "Airplane" movies, mocks Michael Moore, Rosie O'Donnell and other liberal enthusiasts. Full disclosure: I have a small part in "Carol." (...) (...) No question but that both movies are going to anger some folks. Maher in particular is a provocateur. Promoting his film on "The View," he told one of the women, a believer, that she should go to a mental hospital. Borat would be proud. On the "Carol" front, more than a few people will be horrified that movie icon George Clooney is mocked. Talk about roping a sacred cow! Belittlin...

I'm very pro-life, so it may come as a surprise to many people that I am not actually very conservative. I am sure that many liberals would read some of my pro-life stuff and roll their eyes at it. And I suppose some of the conservatives out there would read some of my other stuff and be shocked because I seemed like such a good conservative. I do agree with many of the things that the Harper government has done. I totally agree with them in cuting funding to things like the Vancouver safe-injection project. We're not going to get rid of drugs by giving them a place to safely inject themselves. That money would be better put to use in detox programs. Perhaps in LONG-TERM detox programs. Perhaps the failure of some of these programs is that people don't actually STAY long enough. I was all for the private member's bill making it a separate offense to kill a wanted unborn child. I think the government has "no balls" for backing down on that one. However,...