Little Golden Books

So Provo City Library is having a lovely exhibition of all your favorite art from the golden days of Little Golden Books.  You can find my piece about it here.

My personal favorites?  Anything done by Eloise Wilkin--she of the fat-cheeked babies.  I snatch up those books whenever I can find them.

Do you have any fondly remembered Little Golden Books?

A column about enduring

I usually write my columns on Fridays and send them down to the paper first thing Monday morning. Generally by Thursday I have an idea or two kicking around upstairs, but last week?  Not so much.  Then I wandered down to South Temple to watch the runners and voila!  There was my column.

Sometimes the universe looks out for you.

Thanks for that, Universe!

A tiny thank you note to my garden

Dear My Garden,

I had such big plans for you this year, remember?  And when spring came rolling down the mountains this year back in March, I hung out with you a ton.  We were BFFs going to the mall, trying on this outfit and that outfit, so that when summer came rolling around you'd be outfitted with more daisies than a 1960's bride.

But.

I don't know.

This year.

It's kinda kicked my butt, frankly, so the two of us pretty much stopped hanging out together.  I hate to say I abandoned you, but okay.  I did.  That's why when I stood on the porch today and (surprise!) saw your coral roses and pink dailyness and white phlox and yes--your daisies--shimmer with morning light, I was overwhelmed with gratitude for the way you've kept calm and carried on.

Thank you, My Garden.

So how's this for a blurb?

Tonight at the store a special order came in by an author named Patrick Taylor who was described on the cover this way:  "Patrick Taylor has become probably the most popular Irish-Canadian writer of all time."

This raised all kinds of interesting questions--like, how many Irish-Canadian writers are there?  Are Irish-Canadian writers a thing?  And exactly what does "of all time" mean?  Who's been keeping track?

And that word "probably"?  This guy is only "probably" the most popular Irish-Canadian writer of all time?

Turns out there's an art to blurbing a book . . .

Stop me if I've told you this story before

Or don't . . .

Because it's a good one.

When my parents were driving up to Sun Valley for their honeymoon, TRQ asked the Coach who was better-looking--TRQ or her sorority sister rival.

Not clever enough (yet) to know the right answer, the Coach gave this some serious thought and then said:  "Well, she has a better face but you have a better body."

We laughed about this story (again) last night over dinner at David's Kitchen because it was my parents' wedding anniversary, and they invited us to join them for some sweet and sour pork chops, as well as walnut shrimp.  Pot stickers were also involved.

Happy anniversary to two of the best people I know.

A tiny screed about Facebook

You can find it here.

I've thought about quitting it altogether because maybe then I'd finish writing a book.  But I would miss your smiling faces.  Yes I would!

Just another reason why I love TRQ

This is the conversation TRQ and I had at dinner last night.

TRQ:  George Clooney's wife has really thin arms these days.

ME:  Is that right?

TRQ:  Yes.  They're worried that she has anorexia.

And then the two of us carried on our conversation about George Clooney and his wife with the thin arms as though they're neighbors of ours.

It's pretty clear where I get my taste for celebrity gossip, don't you think?