Annmarie's gift

If she hadn't died of cervical cancer last March, Tuesday would have been Annmarie James-Thomas 45th birthday.  Her husband found, among his wife's effects, her handwritten note of 20 points on how to live a happy life that she left behind for her 4 children.  Her children gifted her note to the world for her birthday.  They are worthy of your consideration. From The Telegraph
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The 20 point plan is as follows:
What you put out comes back all the time - no matter what.

You define your own script. Don't let others write your script for you.

Whatever someone did to you in the past has no power over the present. Only if you give it power.

When people show you who they are, believe them the first time.

Worrying is wasted time. Use the same energy for doing something about whatever worries you.

Whatever you believe has more power than what you dream or wish or hope for. You become what you believe.

If the only prayer you ever say is 'Thank you' then that will be enough.

The happiness you feel is in direct proportion to the love you give.

Failure is a signpost to turn you in another direction.

If you make a choice that goes against what everyone else thinks, the world will not fall apart.

Trust your instincts. Intuition doesn't lie.

Love yourself and then learn to extend that love to others in every encounter.

Let passion drive your profession.

Love doesn't hurt. It feels really good.

Every day brings a chance to start over.

Doubt means "don't". Don't answer. Don't rush forward.

When you don't know what to do, be still. The answer will come.

Trouble doesn't last always.

This too shall pass.

I will act with the intent to be true to myself.
-Annmarie James-Thomas

Everest

The Atlantic photo

I. MT. EVEREST
Most of you are more willing than I to pack off to Nepal, join an expedition and climb Mt. Everest. Hell no I won't go, but for you penny pinching explorers I understand they do a land office business in Kathmandu selling used trail and mountain gear.

I was perfectly willing to sit in the comfort of one of our several screening rooms and watch PBS or NatGeo documentaries of you risking life and limb, until I saw a Telegraph story of a 4 billion pixel photograph of Everest.  The photo, in stunning detail, is a masterfully melded collage of 477 photos taken during last year's spring climbing season.

Conquering Everest doesn't look intimidating in the photos.  Click on the link above, the pix are stunning.

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The Best of Christmas Quotes

by We Heart it.com

I was catching up on world events traipsing English language newspapers around the globe and came across a compendium of the 30 best Christmas quotes in the Telegraph.  I think they missed a few, demonstrated by Ralphie's noticeable absence, but over all the list is pretty good.  Below are several of my favorites.  The rest can be found by following the link. Can you guess who said what?

"Maybe Christmas, he thought, doesn't come from a store. Maybe Christmas...perhaps...means a little bit more."

One can never have enough socks. Another Christmas has come and gone and I didn't get a single pair. People will insist on giving me books.

Santa Clause has the right idea. Only visit people once a year.

'Let's just say that on this day, a million years ago, a dude was born who most of us think was magic. But others don't, and that's cool. But we're probably right. Amen.'

’Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house/Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse.'

'And girls in slacks remember Dad/And oafish louts remember Mum/And sleepless children’s hearts are glad/And Christmas-morning bells say ‘Come!’

'The one thing women don’t want to find in their stockings on Christmas morning is their husband.'

'I stopped believing in Santa Claus when I was six. Mother took me to see him in a department store and he asked for my autograph.'

'Unless we make Christmas an occasion to share our blessings, all the snow in Alaska won’t make it white.'

'The main reason Santa is so jolly is because he knows where all the bad girls live.'

'There ain't no Sanity Clause!'

'Always winter but never Christmas.'

'Christmas time! That man must be a misanthrope indeed, in whose breast something like a jovial feeling is not roused - in whose mind some pleasant associations are not awakened - by the recurrence of Christmas.'

'Christmas at my house is always at least six or seven times more pleasant than anywhere else. We start drinking early. And while everyone else is seeing only one Santa Claus, we'll be seeing six or seven.'

'Christmas is the season for kindling the fire of hospitality in the hall, the genial flame of charity in the heart.'

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Lost career opportunity

If you were young when television was in its infancy, you can't help but to be amazed by how much the world has changed. Some of us may recall organ grinders, or twice a day mail delivery. Others, including me can remember deliveries by horse and wagon. How many recall the many products sold door to door? Avon calling!

Not wishing to make fun of the dead, I love the skill and grace of the Telegraph's obituary page. While reading the Telegraph Obituary of Lindsay Masters, I nearly fell out of my chair.

Lindsay Masters

Telegraph photo

The first sentence tells a remarkable story of a time long gone;

Lindsay Masters, who has died aged 79, was a one-time door-to-door lederhosen salesman who transformed Haymarket, the publishing company that made Michael (now Lord) Heseltine’s fortune.

I can perfectly imagine how a career in lederhosen sales came to be. What I cannot I imagine is how incredibly difficult each sale must have been. Shelley,were leather shorts popular in post war Britain?

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A more civilized way to war....perhaps

Greeting from the President. For men of a certain age, those words struck fear in their hearts. Most served with distinction, many jimmied the system through various deferments to avoid service, some fled. Times were not always thus.

I trade obits from the Telegraph with several friends when something catches our eye. For some its military heroes, others explorers, musicians or lady's of questionable character.

Today's missive detailed the career of British Vice Admiral Sir Louis Le Bailly.

According to the Telegraph: "Admiral Le Bailly, who has died aged 95, was an iconoclastic naval officer and Director General Intelligence from 1972 to 1975, responsible at the height of the Cold War for the collection (from a wide variety of overt and covert sources) of information on the enemy, principally the Soviet Union and its allies."

What struck me most interesting, as you read further is the following description of how he happened to join the King's navy.

"Louis Edward Stewart Holland Le Bailly was born on July 18 1915, the son of an engineer in the Royal Naval Air Service. As a boy Louis and a cousin bought £5 tickets at Victoria station to take them to Germany and Austria, where they went mountain-climbing. His early impressions of Germany were favourable, as he noted its jolly Hitler Youth and clean streets that were a contrast to the slums and squalor of home.

His summons to join the Navy was delivered via a telegram from Gieves, the naval tailors, to a ski resort in Austria in 1928, and he joined Dartmouth in the Drake term."

I've heard of men changing tailors to avoiding paying the old ones bills, but how do you dodge a summons like this?

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