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From a Woman’s Point of View

Jun13

Dorothy L. Sayers, (b. June 13, 1893) “I always have a quotation for everything – it saves original thinking.”
Dorothy Sayers quotations.
Jill Paton Walsh and Dorothy Sayers
Top Ten Mystery Writers
Biographical Sketch of Dorothy L. Sayers with a list of her published writings.
Dorothy L. Sayers’ Feminism by Susan Haack

I like Dorothy Sayers. She was something of a character. She was one of the first women to graduate from Oxford with a degree in Medieval and Modern languages. She had an illegitimate son, Anthony, when she was thirty years old, and although she felt she could not raise him herself, she entrusted him to the care of a cousin and supported him financially and by writing him letters. She later married a war hero, Arthur Fleming, who was in poor health, and she took care of him until his death. She taught herself old Italian and translated Dante’s Divine Comedy She also translated Song of Roland from the French..

“The only Christian work is good work, well done”

“I am occasionally desired by congenital imbeciles and the editors of magazines to say something about the writing of detective fiction “from the woman’s point of view.” To such demands, one can only say, “Go away and don’t be silly. You might as well ask what is the female angle on an equilateral triangle.”

Dorothy Sayers was first of all a Christian, secondly a writer and a scholar, and her identity as a woman came in a distant third–or later.

National Rose Month

Jun1

A rose is a rose is a rose is a rose. –Gertrude Stein

'The rose has thorns only for those who would gather it' photo (c) 2009, Parvin - license: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/God gave us our memories so that we might have roses in December.–J.M. Barrie

Gather the rose of love whilst yet is time.–Edmund Spenser

I’d rather have roses on my table than diamonds on my neck.–Emma Goldman

Take time to stop and smell the roses, but not if you are being followed by an angry Samurai.–J. Collins

Some people are always complaining because roses have thorns; I am thankful that thorns have roses. –Alphonse Karr

Won’t you come into the garden? I would like my roses to see you. –Richard B. Sheridan

'Red Roses' photo (c) 2012, aussiegall - license: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/The rose is a rose,
And was always a rose.
But the theory now goes
That the apple’s a rose. –Robert Frost

Oh, my luve’s like a red, red rose,
That’s newly sprung in June;
Oh, my luve’s like the melodie
That’s sweetly played in tune.–Robert Burns

O, how much more doth beauty beauteous seem
By that sweet ornament which truth doth give!
The rose looks fair, but fairer we it deem
For that sweet odour which doth in it live.
The canker-blooms have full as deep a dye
As the perfumed tincture of the roses,
Hang on such thorns and play as wantonly
When summer’s breath their masked buds discloses:
But, for their virtue only is their show,
They live unwoo’d and unrespected fade,
Die to themselves. Sweet roses do not so;
Of their sweet deaths are sweetest odours made:
And so of you, beauteous and lovely youth,
When that shall fade, my verse distills your truth. –Shakespeare’s Sonnet LIV (What, may I ask, is a canker-bloom? It must not smell like a rose.):

'Roses & Sage' photo (c) 2012, Tony Alter - license: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/Roses in literature:

In Beauty and the Beast, Beauty’s father picks a single rose from the Beast’s garden, an act of ingratitude which marks the beginning of all their subsequent troubles.
Snow White and Rose Red is also by The Brothers Grimm.
In Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland, the not-so-bright gardeners painted white roses red to please the Queen of Hearts.
The Rose by Christina Rossetti
The Rose in the Deeps of His Heart by William Butler Yeats
Short story: The Rose of Dixie by O Henry
A Rose for Emily is a short story by William Faulkner with a gruesome ending.
The Nightingale and the Rose by Oscar Wilde
The Rose in My Garden by Arnold and Anita Lobel
Robert the Rose Horse by Joan Heilbroner
The Children of Primrose Lane by Noel Streatfield (What exactly is a primrose?)
O the Red Rose Tree by Patricia Beatty
Rose in Bloom by Louisa May Alcott Eight Cousins is my favorite LMA book, and this one is its sequel. Wonderful books., they’re not really about roses, but rather about a girl named Rose and her eight boy cousins.
The Black Arrow: A Tale of the Two Roses by Robert Louis Stevenson, set during the War of the Roses in England.

The meanings of various colors and color combinations of roses: The Language of Roses

'Bright Yellow Center Rose' photo (c) 2007, kazandrew - license: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/Songs about roses:

Rose of Tralee
The Last Rose of Summer
Red Roses for a Blue Lady The lyrics page cites Vaughan Monroe as the artist who had a hit with this song in 1949, but I’m pretty sure I remember Andy Williams singing it.
Everything’s Comin’ Up Roses Anybody else remember the musical Gypsy about Gypsy Rose Lee?
Ramblin’ Rose I think this is one of my daddy’s favorite Nat King Cole tunes.
Moonlight and Roses
Primrose Lane
My Wild Irish Rose
Only a Rose
Yellow Rose of Texas
San Antonio Rose
Second Hand Rose
Rose of Washington Square From the musical Thoroughly Modern Millie.
Days of Wine and Roses From the very sad movie of the same title with Jack Lemmon and Lee Remick.
I Never Promised You a Rose Garden
Mexicalli Rose A cowboy song recorded by Gene Autrey and by Bing Crosby.

Coloring Pages, Crafts, and Recipes:
Roses Are Red
Painting the Roses Red
Hugs and Kisses Sweetheart Roses Recipe
Rosa Eglanteria by Pierre Joseph Redout.
Making a Paper Napkin Rose
A Rose By Any Other Name: A Science Unit Study by Karen Caroe.

Born Today

Jun25

Today is the birthday of:
ABEL BOYER (b. 1667, d. 1729) He was a French Huguenot refugee who fled to England. He published various historical worka and a French-English, English-French dictionary. He also wrote a memoir.
JOHN HORNE TOOKE-(b.1736, d. 1812) A British lawyer, politician and priest. Among other things, “in 1775 Horne attacked the government’s actions in America and was imprisoned for libel.” So he was one of our first British friends and supporters.
GEORGE ORWELL (b. 1903, d.1950) I read Animal Farm and 1984 a long time ago. I seem to remember that the pigs took over the barnyard in the first, and there was something scary about mice in the second. I also remember that the government was very fond of slogans such as War is Peace”, “Ignorance is Strength” and “Freedom is Slavery.” Orwell was a socialist, but anti-communist. One quote: “In times of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act.”
ERIC CARLE (b. 1929) Born in New York, raised and educated in Germany, Eric Carle is most famous for his picture book, The Very Hungry Caterpillar. Our favorite Eric Carle book is Pancakes, Pancakes; however, The Grouchy Ladybug is not bad. I sometimes feel like a grouchy ladybug. Wouldn’t that book title make a great blog title? (I’m sometimes embarrasssed that my blog title is so mundane.)