Thursday, April 17, 2014



GERARD MANLEY HOPKINS (1844 - 1889) Victorian Poet.  In a period of traditional verse, Gerard Hopkins experimented with rhythm and imagery.

Today, Neil Paul, will be in The Neat L'l Bookshop reading and discussing Hopkins.  1:00 p.m.

Come by ~ stay a while;  "The coffee pot's always on."

"Nothing is so beautiful as Spring ~ "  G. M. Hopkins



Wednesday, April 16, 2014

Author, David Richard Beasley




Speaking at the York Grand River Society, author David Beasley, described his family's military history through the rebellions in New York State followed by the American Revolution, the War of 1812 and the formation of Upper Canada.

Follow one family's fascinating, well-researched story through the War of 1812 and their contribution to the building of a nation.  From Bloody Beginnings / Richard Beasley's Upper Canada by David Richard Beasley. 2008.
www.davuspublishing.com

Other books by D. R. Beasley include:  Sarah's Journey, The Canadian Don Quixote, the Life and Works of Major John Richardson and Beasley's Guide to Library Research.

Tuesday, April 15, 2014


One hundred and two years ago today the British passenger liner, the TITANIC, sank tragically losing 1,490 lives.  In 1912, the largest ship in the world, Titanic, was supposedly unsinkable.

Over the century, the sinking of the Titanic has crept into everyday dialogue.  British Conservative politician, William Hague said, expressing his opposition to joining the single currency, "It was inevitable the Titanic was going to set sail, but that doesn't mean it was a good idea to be on it."

Roger Morton, on losing five of the last six primaries as President Ford's campaign manager, said, "I'm not going to rearrange the furniture on the deck of the Titanic."

And Bob Dylan sings:
"Praise be to Nero's Neptune
The Titanic sails at dawn
And every body's shouting
'Which side are you on?'
And Ezra Pound and T. S. Eliot
Fighting in the captain's tower
While calypso singers laugh at them
And fishermen hold flowers."

        'Desolation Row'  1965, Bob Dylan, (b. 1941)
        American singer and songwriter, www.bobdylan.com

The Oxford Dictionary of QUOTATIONS, Oxford University Press, 2001.

Monday, April 14, 2014

 
 
 

 
 
"I do not know what I may appear to the world; but to myself I seem to have been only like a boy playing on the sea-shore, and diverting myself in now and then finding a smoother pebble or a prettier shell than ordinary, whilst the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me."
 
~ SIR ISAAC NEWTON (1642 - 1727)  Brewster's Memoirs of Newton.  Vol. ii. Chap.xxvii
 
[please click on photo for larger image, lbw]
 
 
 


Sunday, April 13, 2014


"Everyone Welcome. . ."

Third Thursday
 April 17 at 1:00 p.m.
 
Neil Paul
Reading & Discussing Poetry
of
Gerard Manley Hopkins
 
 
"Coffee pot's always on..."
 
 
[Informal ~ If you can come for only a short time, that is okay!]
 
  


Spring
by Gerard Manley Hopkins

Nothing is so beautiful as Spring ~
  When weeds, in wheels, shoot long and lovely and lush;
  Thrush's eggs look little low heavens, and thrush
Through the echoing timber does so rinse and wring
The ear, it strikes like lightnings to hear him sing;
  The glassy peartree leaves and blooms, they brush
  The descending blue; that blue is all in a rush
With richness; the racing lambs too have fair their fling.

~ Gerard Manley Hopkins  (1844 - 1889)  Victorian poet, A Philosopher's Stone and Other Poems.


Saturday, April 12, 2014

"Whether The Weather Be Fine

Whether the weather be fine
      Or whether the weather be not,
Whether the weather be cold
       Or whether the weather be hot,
We'll weather the weather
        Whatever the weather,
Whether we like it or not."

                                         ANONYMOUS

~ The Children's TREASURY of VERSE
Illustrated by Patricia Ludlow, Kibworth Books, 1999.