"A person who won't read has no advantage over one who can't read." Sam'l Clemens, 1835-1910

So, we got a tiny sifting of snow today. And, if yesterday was a stellar deathday, what extraordinary souls came into the world through the door marked 30 November.... Still, it was on this day, 110 years ago, that Oscar Wilde passed away. A very sad story, in the end. Seven years, as of today, since Gertrude Ederle died, at a most advanced age, when who remembered what she did when she was young? Too few, I bet, but I'm a melancholy sort. I had the privilege of writing about her, if only briefly, and painting her, some years back when I was working on my book, Remember the Ladies.

Had there been room in that book, I'd have included Lucy Maud Montgomery. At nights, when I can't sleep, I listen to her words. (That link should take you to where you might purchase an audio version of L.M.M.'s lovely Anne of Green Gables. I got into the habit of audio books when I was working at Hallmark & Current. Many an artist listened as she painted.) What a splendid writer Ms. M. was! If she hadn't croaked years ago, she'd be celebrating her 136th birthday today along with another, though very different writer, Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill. along with yet another, exceedingly different writer, who'd have turned 175 years old today and much to say about our world and its politics, were Sam'l Clemens, a.k.a. Mark Twain still alive. Man oh man, I'd buy a ticket to that.. Hmmm.... I wrote & illustrated a book about Mr. Twain & his river. I loved that book. I was in love when I did it, like a blockhead. It's out of print now, the world being rotten & unfair.