The young man was new to the community and was looking for an opportunity to fish with the oldest resident and best fisherman in town. The old man though it would be his last opportunity to share pass along the secret to his fishing success. It is still a secret.

One day while sharing some of my old memories with my grandaughter I though of the small beekeeping hobby I had growing up in Arizona. Later in the day I took a little time to draw a picture showing some of those memories. The painting is not exactly accurate, but I will explain that more later. I build my apiary by collecting swarms, mostly in trees and around homes in our town. I placed an ad in the local paper in the spring when bees were swarming and received many calls. The Cushman Mailster was my transportation. My hives were kept on the roof of the small apartment behind our home. I have many great memories of it.

THE FIRST DOG IN OUR MARRIAGE

By Rodger Minatra

About two years ago I paid $1100 for a dachshund puppy which I had to drive 4 hours roundtrip to get. Although it really doesn’t matter now, I would never want my dad to know that. He would honestly drop his head in shame that his oldest son would pay so much for a dog. “Never carry the money for a dog in your pocket” he would say (I believe he was quoting his dad). It meant that you should never pay for a dog.

“What are you doing?”

“Rubbing this on my chest.”

“You’re not supposed do that, you stick it up your nose!”

Many years ago in a Readers Digest publication called Word Power (1980), I came across an article called Are You a Skid-Talker, by Corey Ford. I've managed to keep that publication for all these years. The article is about something Corey Ford calls skid-talk. To me it sounds a lot like mixed metaphores, but I like the term Skid-talk better. Corey Ford says, "Skid-talk is more than a slip of the tongue, it is a slip of the mind." I've got a lot of mileage out of this article, and I've tried to record other phrases in the margins that fit the description of skid-talk. Here are a few that I've managed to record. I will share more with you when I review the article and look through my notes.

Don't count your penneys before they hatch.
You hit the nose on the head.
Little britches have big ears.

One of the first things I do when visiting other people in their home, in their office, or even on their social media site is to look for their bookshelf, virtual or real. I want to find out what they are reading or what books they think are important enough to display, even if they are not reading them. I have occasionally had people show the same interest in my reading selection, which is the reason for this post.

I have a wide range of reading interest, ranging from children’s books to biographies. Although this list is not comprehensive, I thought it might answer some questions and generate some interest. This list is mostly in the order of purchase dates and includes the title and the author.