Flowers

 

I will not have the mad Clytie

Whose head is turned by the sun;

The tulip is a courtly queen,
Whom, therefore, I will shun;
The cowslip is a country wench,
The violet is a nun; -
But I will woo the dainty rose,
The queen of everyone.

The pea is but a wanton witch,
In too much haste to wed,
And clasps her rings on every hand
The wolfsbane I should dread; -
Nor will I dreary rosemary
That always mourns the dead; -
But I will woo the dainty rose,
With her cheeks of tender red.

The lily is all in white, like a saint,
And so is no mate for me -
And the daisy's cheek is tipped with blush,
She is of such low degree;
Jasmine is sweet, and has many loves,
And the broom's betrothed to the bee; -
But I will plight with the dainty rose,
For fairest of all is she.

Thomas Hood

The Power of Positive Thinking

Norman Vincent Peale arrived at the Marble Collegiate Church in New York City in 1932 with a congregation of 600.  By the time he left in 1984, his flock had grown to 5,000.  What was his secret to success?  It was the power of positive thinking.

In 1952, Dr. Peale wrote a book called The Power of Positive Thinking which sold millions of copies and was translated into 41 languages.  Here is an excerpt from the bestseller:  “The way to happiness: Keep your heart free from hate, your mind from worry. Live simply, expect little, give much. Scatter sunshine, forget self, think of others. Try this for a week and you will be surprised.”

As a child growing up in Ohio, Norman had a terrible inferiority complex and developed the habit of positive thinking to combat it.  He applied Christianity to everyday problems, explaining that positive thinking was "just another term for faith".  His sermons were well received not only helping to fill the pews at the Marble Collegiate but to inspire those at home as well:  750,000 people received his sermons each month by mail.  He also had a weekly radio broadcast called "The Art of Living" with a wide listening audience.  Furthermore, Dr. Peale and his wife started Guideposts magazine in 1945 which has a readership of 4.5 million today.

Dr. Peale's idea is simple, but it works:  think positive and you will achieve positive results.  Or as the Bible says:  "Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart." (Psalm 37:4)

Photo of Marble Collegiate Church, New York City, courtesy http://4.bp.blogspot.com.

From Madison Ave. to Mulberry St.

New York City skyline circa late 1930 courtesy http://www.nycvintageimages.com.

Theodor Geisel found himself on Madison Ave. in New York City with a manuscript in his hand,  ready to burn in his apartment incinerator after being rejected by a twenty-seventh publisher.  But who should he run into on that day but his old friend from Dartmouth College, Mike McClintock, who had just started his first day as a children's book editor of Vanguard Press.  The two men caught up on their lives and within a few hours, Theodor had signed a contract with the publishing company.  Published in 1937, And to Think that I Saw it on Mulberry Street, was a book based on Theodor's childhood years in Springfield, Illinois where his mother would chant rhymes to her children to soothe them to sleep.  Her maiden name was Seuss, which was also Theodor's middle name, and which he later adopted as his pen name.  At the time of Dr. Seuss' death in 1991, his books had been translated into 15 languages; 200 million copies were in print.  Eleven television shows had been broadcast.  In his lifetime, author Theordor Geisel, who was also a cartoonist and script writer, was honoured with two Emmy Awards, two Academy Awards, a Peabody Award and a Pulitzer Prize.  Dr. Seuss never forgot that chance encounter in New York City as a young man:  "If I had been going down the other side of Madison Ave., I'd be in the dry cleaning business today."

Note:  For a complete list of Dr. Seuss's books, please visit:
http://www.bukisa.com/articles/43936_when-did-dr-seuss-win-the-pulitzer-prize

Photo of Theodor Geisel circa 1957 courtesy http://en.wikipedia.org.

Ten Things You Didn't Know About Berlin

1.  Berlin has been the capital of Germany since 1990, the year Germany reunified and a year after the Berlin Wall fell.  It was also the capital from 1871 to 1945.

commons.wikemedia.org

2.  The few bits of the Berlin Wall remaining have been covered with graffiti paintings done by artists from around the world.

www.wandmalerei-berlin.de

3.  Numerous museums are found in Berlin including the Pergammon which is home to the Ishtar Gate from ancient Babylon.

http://www.gonback.com/berlin/IMG/Pergamon_Museum3.JPG

4.  Berlin Central Station, which opened in 2006, is the biggest train station in Europe.

http://www.civicartsproject.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/Tiergarten_Berlin_Germany_CAPAEZ02001.jpg

5.  Kaufhaus des Westens is the world's largest department store, covering an area of 60,000 square metres.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaufhaus_des_Westens

6.  Berlin Zoo (Zoologischer Garten) houses 14,000 creatures and 1500 different species, including Knut the Bear.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berlin_Zoological_Garden

7.  Beneath Berlin remain numerous bunkers and tunnels built by the Nazis; however, most are flooded or crumbling.

http://www.wired.com/images_blogs/underwire/images/2007/05/01/bunker.jpg

8.  Thousands of parks, forest and beaches line the outskirts of Berlin.  Popular parks include:  Tiergarten, Volkspark Freidrichshain, Treptower Park and Viktoriapark.  Tourists can visit the Grunewald Forest.  A popular lake with a beach is the Wannsee.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gro%C3%9Fer_Tiergarten#mediaviewer/File:Berlin_Tiergarten_Siegess%C3%A4ule_Luftansicht.jpg

9.  The Radisson Hotel has the largest aquarium in the world.  Passengers riding its elevators are treated to a spectacular view of fish.

http://whenonearth.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/aquadom-berlin-aquarium-elevator-woe1.jpg

10.  Berlin is full of music like opera, rock, pop and jazz.  It is home to three opera houses and numerous orchestras, choirs and bands.

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2009/04/03/travel/berlin-opera-span.jpg

More Pies!

Today the National Pie Baking Championships are being held in Orlando, Florida.  I thought of the Robert Munsch Book More Pies! which my son Thomas used as his story for a storytelling session in Grade 3.  I remember him getting props from Jacqueline's toy kitchen like a plastic chicken drumstick.  He took three paper plates and drew the faces of the lumberjack, firefighter and construction worker, attaching popsicle sticks to the plates to hold them.  He was ready for his presentation. 

Robert Munsch came up with the idea for More Pies! from a fan named Samuel who wrote him a letter and then became the main character in one of his books.  The first words out of Samuel's mouth are "I am still hungry" even though his Mom has just served him breakfast.  He goes on to request a salad bowl full of cereal, four milkshakes, four stacks of pancakes and fried chicken.  After consuming all of the above, Samuel is still hungry.  His Mom sends him outside, saying he is to eat nothing until lunch. 

Samuel hops the bus downtown to Vancouver's Stanley Park where he discovers a pie eating contest is about to start.  With hefty competition, a firefighter, a lumberjack and a construction worker, Samuel digs in to his first pie:  Chuka -- Chuka -- Chuka -- CHOMP!!!  He proceeds to devour several pies and eats the three burly men under the table, winning the competition. 

He rolls himself home where he finds his mother in the kitchen baking pies!  He can't eat another bite...but his younger brother is ready and willing.

More Pies! is one of my favourite Robert Munsch books.  Michael Martchenko's illustrations have vibrant colours.  The backdrop of Stanley Park, which Rob and I strolled through on our honeymoon, is beautiful.  And the plot is so easy to follow; and yet adults can appreciate it too. 

Thomas, who re-enacted the story of More Pies! five years ago, is now a strapping young man.  He has a bottomless pit of a stomach like Samuel.  He might very well be able to eat those hefty men under the table. 

For National Pie Championships' recipes visit:
http://www.piecouncil.org/Recipes/ViewRecipe/?id=168

Image courtesy www.scholastic.ca.

Back to School

Today I got to spend the day with 13 Grade 2's.  Wow!  We learned a lot!  We learned that composer Edvard Grieg, who wrote a song called "Butterfly" that we listened to, is a dead ringer for Albert Einstein.  We learned what "lukewarm" means, neither hot nor cold, and how we should not be lukewarm Christians, but be on fire for God.  Yes, that's right, God.  You see, the school that I taught at today, Brantford Christian School, allows its teachers to talk about God and Jesus, without having to look over their shoulders.  In fact, we even prayed together, sometimes led by me, sometimes by a student, offering our prayers of thanks and supplication (one of the grade 2's used that term) to God.  We also learned about how to borrow tens from the ones column and ones from the tens column -- it must be the "new math" because I don't remember doing that when I was a student.  We read The Berenstain Bears Go to the Moon and one of the students explained to us that there is no oxygen on the moon.  The students wrote their own moon stories; some let their imaginations run wild.  We coloured beautiful drawings of underwater scenes full of puffinfish and eels and sharks swimming amongst the coral reefs and seaweed and rocks and then painted the drawing with streaks of green and blue tempera.  We played Dr. Dodgeball in the gym; I found out that short arms can throw a ball a long way.  We found out that humans and cats and pigs are verterbrates (with a backbone) and that worms and clams and starfish are invertebrates (without a backbone).  We also paid a visit to the library where we browsed amongst the school's 13,000 plus books.  The volunteers have the library running like a well-oiled machine.  We even had time for Show & Tell, something every generation of kids seems to love.

It's nice to be back in the classroom again after a couple of years.  I miss writing on the blackboard.  I miss calendar time.  I miss reading stories.  I miss singing songs.  I miss the bell ringing.  I miss the apple for the teacher (or bouquet of dandelions).  I miss the students' hunger for learning.  I miss the teachable moments, the ones that you don't predict that pop up in the middle of a lesson (or at lunchtime or in gym class).  I miss the smiles and hugs.  I miss walking with a couple of students at recess.  I miss being called "Mrs. Jonasson".  Thank you, Grade 2's, for a wonderful day!  It's good to be back!!! 

Photo courtesy www.litelines.com.

Ten Things You Didn't Know About the London Tube

Gustav Dore's etching of the London Underground circa 1870.

 Here are some facts about the Tube that you might not know.

1. The most popular route for tourists is Leicester Square to Covent Garden on the Piccadilly line. It is quicker to walk this distance than travel on the tube.

2. The oldest tube line in the world is the Metropolitan Line. If you happen to sit in one of the older carriages on this line you won't be surprised by this fact. It opened on January 10th 1863.

3. Northfields station on the Piccadilly line was the first to use kestrels and hawks to kill
pigeons and stop them setting up homes in stations.

4. There are only two tube stations which have all five vowels in them - Mansion House and South Ealing.

5. More than 50% of the London Underground runs above ground.

6. The 409 escalators on the Underground network do the equivalent of two round the world trips every week.

7. The Northern Line station at Angel has Western Europe's longest escalator - 318 steps.

8. The most popular station to watch mice on the tracks is Oxford Circus.

9. The originally Tube carriages had no windows and buttoned upholstery. Unsurprisingly they were known as padded cells.

10.  Thousands of Londoners used the London Underground as a shelter during the London Blitz from September 1940 to May 1941.

Photo of Londoners spending the night in the Tube during the Blitz courtesy http://en.widipedia.org.