So true is the knowledge
We gain, long after college:
There is no shame
In thinking freely within a considered frame
So simple
And yet – it ain't
This business of freedom
Within constraint.


That being said, allow me to share with you that here in Missouri, today is exceedingly cold!

U.S. President No. 36 Lyndon Baines Johnson 27 Aug 1908 ~ 22 Jan 1973

And today marks 40 years since Lyndon B. Johnson's fierce old heart gave out.

Inauguration

So, being as Inauguration Day fell on the day on which I was expected to write my monthly post on the far out, instructive group blog at Interesting Nonfiction for Kids, I spent a good portion of this past Saturday writing THIS 

Now that much of the 57th Inauguration is behind us, let me say how much I loved James Taylor's America the Beautiful, old Baby Boomer that I am, and the President's speech, and how grateful I am to live on such a day as this. It's not simply that I'm a fan of our current President and his point of view. I am. But Inauguration Day marks a glorious achievement for our bumptious, contentious republic. Peaceful passing of power and all....

Truly, it's a big deal, history-wise.

The 19th of January

Okay, what I want to imagine is Paul C. & Robt. E. Lee, sitting and playing cards together, don't you??

"We live in a rainbow of chaos."  Paul Cezanne, the great and complex (I mean LOOK at that intense face!) artist who was born on this day in 1839. Which happened to be the 32nd birthday of a very different, but equally intense (I'd be willing to bet) of C.S. General Robert E. Lee. 
      "I cannot trust a man to control others who cannot control himself." Robt. E. Lee  Jan. 19, 1807 ~ Oct. 12, 1870

TOP 10 REASONS WHY SOME JERK DID THAT:

Here I am w/ one of the three historical markers that the Nat'l Park Service installed last summer in the park across from the Truman Presidential Library.

I just found out that one of the markers got tagged - sullied. spray-painted. dissed and defaced by one of the neighborhood's many nitwits, of whom, I suppose, we should all be proud because he [I assume it's a 'he'  sexist, I know] managed, whilst holding a spray can to get his knuckles high enough off the pavement to write ugly words - "fuck you" to be exact -  on a panel featuring a painting of mine. and more importantly, the history of this person's town. Why would he do that? 

  Maybe because - oh, i know - yeah: here're my 

 TOP 10 REASONS WHY SOME JERK DID THAT:

10. Like I give a shit about history:. stiffs riding horses, writing w/ feathers, permanent power outage.  

9. Much less w/ lame, tedious crap about the Oregon Trail.

8. Because what? - Do people think he's some sherry-sipping asshole who sits around watching Masterpiece Theatre?

7. Or American Experience, for crying out loud?

6.What did this society ever do for me?

5. Trying to impress buddies.

4. Trying to impress a girl w/ whom he hopes to have unprotected sex [Like, really? wrecking, figuratively poking a thumb in the eye of The Man is going to get him laid?]

3. Uh - yeah

2. And - as a bonus - offending the very sort of people who see him as nothing more than some lame-ass paint-can puke.

1. Who would likely think: "Why am I going to get my panties in a wad about outraged old ladies who're satisfied to sum him up as a lame-ass paintcan puke..It isn't as if anyone around here will give a shit about what I do or say unless I paint it on something they DO care about."

Let Him Be a Lesson

"Always remember that others may hate you but those who hate you don't win unless you hate them.  And then you destroy yourself."  
                  Richard Milhous Nixon, born 100 years ago today, 9 Jan. 1913, one of the most interesting political figures EVER.  Being that he was so smart and ambitious and never could get past his deep-dyed resentments, being so pissed off about being such a broke, odd-looking outsider.  Baby, let this guy be a lesson: Get over yourself before it's too late. 
         

Zeb

General Zebulon Montgomery Pike
5 Jan 1779 ~ 27 April 1813



"May Heaven be propitious and
smile on the cause of my country."
Zeb Pike, valiant explorer & soldier.

      Swell quote and well worth echoing even now. Please God, let everything work out for all the world's countries, being that the world is ever so small.  Didn't ol' Zeb have a great face? And don't I hope I get a whole bunch done today? Manuscript revisions. Drawing. Sweeping. Cleaning. Writing. Going to a funeral for an old man who once was a U.S. Marine, embroiled in vicious battles in the South Pacific.  May all be well for him in Paradise. I hope he chances to meet Zeb Pike there and all the old soldiers.

New Years Day + 3

     So, ideally I would have posted at least a paragraph on the first day of 2013, a year which used to sound positively futuristic.  Suddenly it's all speculative nonfiction, 365 chapters. 362 now.  What did I do w/ the first three installments?  Worked on a painting/colored pencil drawing in the style of my illustrations for Our Colonial Year.  Rather quiltish, doncha know.

One of my favorite books ever.

          But in this case, the art is for a Laura Ingalls Wilder calendar, for 2014.   What on earth will we have experienced by then, for crying out loud?  

       • And I've been writing the scene in which the dead body is discovered, in an adult novel I've been thinking about, more or less (more less than more).  More about this later. 

      • Been sending out postcards, doing my best to alert art directors and editors to 1. the fact that I at last have an online portfolio.   And 2. that it sure would be fun to illustrate a book for somebody. 

       • Been watching reruns of reruns of seasons 1 and 2 of Downton Abbey and so cannot wait for Sunday night. So want John Bates to be freed from the slammer.

       • Making resolutions? Nope.

       •  Shipping some things a few bless-ed customers purchased from my new SHOP on Etsy!

       • Been procrastinating? Yup. Or else I'd have written something here three days ago.