Monday Musings

The Author’s regular blog will not be published today. Next week, her blog, Monday Musings, will return. You can follow the Author at her  Website  or on  Twitter .

Yesterday was “Read an Ebook Day.” An essential holiday for authors such as myself that provide an Ebook option to the print versions of our books. A small device, like your phone or tablet, can hold thousands of books, and once downloaded, there is no requirement for internet or WiFi availability to access the content. Of course, you can even read on an Ebook application on your laptop or desktop computer. For avid readers that travel, that means not loading your luggage with pounds of book weight, leaving tons of room for fun souvenirs.  Sight-challenged readers can enlarge the font on their E-reader, allowing them to read previously blurred cloudy images that kept them from enjoying books. When did the concept of Ebooks emerge? Surprisingly in 1930, Bob Brown introduced this idea after watching his first talkie movie. Almost 20 years later, Angela Ruiz Robles designed an automated book reader, the Enciclopedia Mecánica. Her prototype device had graphics and texts loaded on spool...

Yesterday Americans looked back at 9/11/2001, mourned the loss of lives, and stood agape, realizing our national vulnerability. Memorial services honored heroic fire-rescue personnel and everyday citizens who perished in the Twin Towers, the Pentagon, and Shanksville, PA. Across the pond, the British grieve the death of their longest reigning monarch, Queen Elizabeth II, who died on September 8th. A formal protocol was immediately enacted as  Operation London Bridge  was initiated with the phrase, “London Bridge is down.” The Queen’s children and grandchildren raced to Balmoral Castle in Scotland to pay their last respects. Since her death occurred in Scotland,  Operation Unicorn  was also activated. Her funeral will be held on September 19th. Now the United Kingdom, the Commonwealth realms, and Territories look forward as their new royal, King Charles III, accedes to the throne. This process also follows a rigorous course, described as  Operation Spring Tide. O...

Today has been one of those days: rain, rain, and more rain; one deluge followed by another.  Sunshine is delicious, rain is refreshing, wind braces us up, snow is exhilarating; there is really no such thing as bad weather, only different kinds of good weather. ~ John Ruskin Rain washes our slates clean. Nature is so powerful, so strong. Capturing its essence is not easy — your work becomes a dance with light and the weather. It takes you to a place within yourself. ~ Annie Leibovitz Rain is invigorating. A poet is someone who stands outside in the rain hoping to be struck by lightning. ~ James Dickey Waiting to be struck by inspiration, to scribe meaning. How does the rain make you feel? What emotions does it evoke? You can follow the Author at her  Website  or on  Twitter .     

In contemporary slang, “according to Hoyle,” means  correctly or properly according to a rule or authority . The phrase originated with the 17th-century work of lawyer Edmond Hoyle, an English writer who published “A Short Treatise on the Game of Whist” as well as other books on the rules and play of card games. Eventually, books were written by other authors on games that hadn’t even been invented during Hoyle’s lifetime. One text is the “Bible” of card game rules. The phrase has expanded in general usage to mean  keeping in the way something is usually done . The rules can vary depending on regional cultures and mores. Have you recently used the phrase “according to Hoyle?” Were you playing a card or board game or referring to a local custom? You can follow the Author at her  Website  or on  Twitter .

What is happiness? Happiness is an emotional state characterized by feelings of joy, satisfaction, contentment, and fulfillment. In general, it’s considered to be “subjective well-being,” which consists of two components: (1) the balance of emotions, i.e., experiencing more positive than negative feelings, and (2) life satisfaction. According to Aristotle, happiness can be achieved via the  golden mean : the balance between deficiency and excess. He also differentiated between “hedonia,” happiness derived from  pleasure,  and “eudaimonia,” satisfaction derived from virtue and  meaning . We can cultivate happiness in our lives by pursuing intrinsic goals, i.e., personal growth rather than status or money, enjoying the moment, for example, by practicing gratitude and the process rather than the destination, and reframing negative thoughts to a positive outlook. It’s not a “one and done” endpoint; it’s a constant pursuit that needs continuous sustenance and nurturing. M...

On July 23, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared monkeypox a global health emergency. Only four previous disease outbreaks have received this designation: Polio, Ebola, Zika, and Covid-19. Two weeks late, on August 4, Biden declared monkeypox a public health emergency in the US. What is monkeypox?  Monkeypox virus is a member of the same family of viruses as the variola virus, the smallpox virus. It’s NOT related to chickenpox.  In 1958 there were outbreaks of a “pox-like” disease in colonies of research monkeys, hence the name; however, the disease source is unknown. African primates and rodents may harbor the disease and infect humans. Monkeypox was first recorded in people in 1970, and before 2022, it had spread in areas of Central and Western Africa. Previous cases in other countries on multiple continents besides Africa were linked to international travel to endemic regions or via imported animals. What are the signs & symptoms?  The physically prominent ...