The Writer's Life 11/8 - Grasshopper

There are a lot of interesting tidbits in today's NY Post: In the time flies category, 42 years have passed since the blockbuster deal that brought Phil Esposito to the Rangers. Hard to believe. I was pissed at the hated Espo coming to the team, and the beloved Jean Ratelle and Brad Park going to the Bruins...USA credit card debt now exceeds one trillion dollars. I don't know how or if it affects the economy, but it doesn't sound good... Here's a troubling line from the Fast Takes column on the violence that plagues America: "... subtract all our gunshot deaths and our murder rate is still higher than many of our peer nations..." Folks in Denmark's Faroe Islands are using unusual allies in capturing images for Google Street View. In remote areas inaccessible to many humans, they have attached solar-powered 360 degree cameras to the backs of goats... Van Gogh painted Olive Trees 128 years ago. Someone recently noticed an oddity about it - a tiny grasshopper embedded in the paint in the bottom left corner. Vincent often painted outdoors. Unfortunately, a magnifying glass is necessary to pick it out. Here's a photo of the work from nydailynews.com:

Democrats had a good night, recapturing the governorship in New Jersey and holding on by a comfortable margin in Virginia, as expected. Is it the start of a trend? Time will tell. 

According to Yahoo's Odd News, the Polish government is encouraging citizens to have more children, going so far as to use a youtube video that features rabbits. Poland's population is 38 million. Its birth rate in 2015 was 1.32 per woman. The replacement level is 2.1. Among European countries, only Portugal's is lower. Spain and Greece's are similar to Poland's. In the future these countries will have to import laborers to get things done and to provide the tax revenue to get them done.

I've completed the second of three sweeps of the novel I plan to self-publish in January. On my morning walk I thought of two brief additions, both from when I hitchhiked cross country in 1970. As I've said many times, a book is never finished. An author can get to 99%, which I've hoped I've now reached with this one. I just added the excerpts, plus an addendum to a nun's story. The memories are so meaningful and interesting to me. I have no idea if they will be to readers. Since the title is Present and Past, I tell myself any memory is in play, but I wonder if that is simply a rationale for self indulgence.

It was another cold day at the floating book shop. Fortunately, there were dollops of sunshine to provide enough warmth to allow me to put in a full session. My thanks to the local home attendant who bought two cook books, Indian and vegetarian; and to Natalia and Benedict, who purchased two paperbacks in Russian. I had a visit from Political Man, who was gloating about yesterday's election results.

Vic's Sixth novel: http://tinyurl.com/zpuhucj 

Vic's Short Works: http://tinyurl.com/jy55pzc

Vic's 5th Novel: http://tinyurl.com/okxkwh5Vic's 4th novel: tinyurl.com/bszwlxh

Vic's 3rd Novel: http://tinyurl.com/7e9jty3

Vic's Short Story Collection:http:// tinyurl.com/lh2tepa 
Vic's 2nd Novel Kindle: http://tinyurl.com/kx3d3uf
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