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FAWNS NEWSLETTER April 2009
Fellowship of Australian Writers – North Shore Branch
Web : http://sites.google.com/site/fawnorthshoreregional/ Email : fawnorthshore@gmail.com
(C/- The Secretary, 35 Eyre Street, Smithfield 2164)
Meetings held 1pm on the third Sunday of each month at;
Community Centre, Willow Park, 25 Edgeworth David Avenue, Hornsby
President: Jan Foster Secretary: Maria Encarnacao
Treasurer: Dorothy Walker Editor: Jany Garland
Some words from the President:
Happy Easter to all!
It’s time to start thinking about the items you want to submit for this year’s anthology, to be produced later in the year. There’s plenty of time to prepare and write something new, or to dig out something old but good for inclusion. I’ll be after everyone for something, so the sooner you hand it in, the quicker I’ll leave you alone. You’ve been warned!
Here’s a quote from a man ahead of his time, who certainly knew what was important in life:-
“A room without a book is like a body with-out a soul.” Cicero (106 – 47 BC)
Jan Foster
PS: This is a true story:-
Our new young next door neighbours, Scott and Lori, have just constructed a new concrete alcove out front for their wheelie bins and, down in the corner, he's scratched into the wet cement,
"Scott loves Lori". Ain't that sweet! Jan F.
Conversation overheard by Minnesotan, North Shore train line.
Where are we?
Warrawee.
No, where are we?
Warrawee.
Did you say ‘Where are we?’
Yeah.
Well, we’re at Warrawee.
The Minnesottan shakes her head.
Carol Devine, February 2009.
It’s True : After Queen Victoria’s surgeon Sir Henry Thompson published a book in 1874, Cremation: The Treatment of the Body after Death, attitudes to cremation changed in Europe. Nowadays nearly 50% of people in England and Germany are cremated.
Mx 17.2.09
Easter Fun
A lady opened her refrigerator and saw a rabbit sitting on one of the shelves. “What are you doing in there?” she asked. The rabbit replied: “This is a Westinghouse, isn’t it?”
To which the lady replied “Yes.”
“Well...” the rabbit said, “I'm westing.”
I hope all FAWNS Members have a westful Easter Bwake. (Jany G. (Ed.)
AN IRISH WISH
May there always be work
for your hands to do.
May your purse always
hold a coin or two.
May the sun always shine
on your window pane.
May the hands of a friend
always be near to you.
May God fill your heart
with gladness to cheer you.
Valwyn found this old cutting when she was cleaning out during her move to her new abode. She says “It’s rather sentimental but typical of the 1950-60’s, and is probably from the Melbourne Sun News Pictorial”.
QUIET MOMENT : The Inner Force:
Think health and happiness and good –
we’d find contentment if we would.
The inner force of heart and mind
directs the passage of mankind
through varying avenues of chance,
to triumph over circumstance …
It is to him who understands
that victory lies in his own hands
that all the good things come to birth
to make a paradise on earth.
No evil can the senses bind
till we admit it to the mind;
we win when every fear and doubt
with will and courage we shut out.
Southern Cross
It’s said that fear of Friday the 13th in Christianity stems from the day of the Crucifixion (Friday) and the number at the Last Supper (13).
The word “paraskevidekatriaphobia” (fear of Friday 13th) was devised by Dr Donald Dossey, who told his patients that “when you learn to pronounce it, you’re cured”. Apart from Friday, 13th March 2009, the last time Friday the 13th occurred consecutively (February and March) was 1998, and the next time this happens will be February and March in 2015. (Mx 13.3.09) JYG
Some Foreign Words and Phrases:-
Ab ovo (L) – From the egg; from the beginning.
Laissez-faire (F) – Let alone; non-interference.
Mangum opus (L) – A great work.
Passim (L) – Everywhere; throughout; in all parts of the book, chapter etc.
I like the dreams of the future better than the history of the past.
Thomas Jefferson
This is an Acrostic poem about Phobias:-
X Xuella, a new politician
E Espoused an unequal position
N Not given to high-flown phrases
O Or words from Thesaurus’s pages
P Plain speaking to all men – her strength
H How she’d keep all “non-white’s” at arm’s length
O One shouted out loud “Are you serious?”
B Being biased like that’s deleterious
I I fear that your vision’s myopic
C Could you be a touch xenophobic?”
© Janet Bryant March 2009
THE VALUE OF A SMILE A smile costs nothing, but gives much. It reaches those who receive without making poorer those who give. It takes but a moment, but the memory some-times lasts a lifetime. None is so rich or mighty that he can get along without it, and none is so poor that he can be made richer by it. A smile creates happiness in the home, fosters goodwill in business, and is the countersign of friendship. It brings rest to the weary, cheer to the discouraged.
A smile is sunshine to the sad, and is nature’s best antidote for trouble. Yet, it cannot be bought, begged, borrowed or stolen, for it is of no value to anyone until it is given away.
Some people are too tired to give you a smile. Give them one of yours, as none needs a smile so much as he who has no more to give. Anon
He that contemneth small things shall fall by little and little. Ecclesiasticus
It often requires more courage to dare to do right than to fear to do wrong.
Abraham Lincoln
WRITING PROMPT:
G.K.Chesterton said that poetry is "mysteriously silent on the subject
of cheese", so write a poem about cheese OR 100 words of prose on the same subject.
