Hi! It's a blizzard here in Hell's Kitchen today

[aquamarineNYC]

Greetings dear Literature Network members :)

It's all quiet west of the theater district here in midtown Manhattan, otherwise known as Hell's Kitchen. Snow drifts on my fire escape are already a foot high just past lunchtime The city is delightfully quiet in a blizzard, hardly any sirens even, a good day for watching old films.

I was watching the delightful O. Henry's Full House
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0044981/
on the idiot box and Googled him on hearing his description: New York City is Baghdad-on-the-subway, which led me here:
http://www.online-literature.com/o_henry/

Am looking forward to looking around this site, seeing what others are interested in and writing about here.

[Virgil]

Tell me about it. I just came in (5:30 PM) from shoveling out. I live in Staten Island. We are buried in snow. The only consolation is that I won't be able to get to work tomorrow. I think we got just short of two feet (60 cm).

[aquamarineNYC]

The only consolation is that I won't be able to get to work tomorrow. I think we got just short of two feet (60 cm).

YAYYY a snow day. lol. What fun Virgil. Wishing you a lovely day off work.
Wow, so it was 2 feet. Just came in from tromping down Ninth Avenue with bags of groceries, wonderful vista of almost no traffic, everybody cheerful in the face of a late winter Event, long icicles off the canopies.
So nice.

[Darlin]

Greetings to you too, aquamarineNYC and welcome to the forum. So nice to see you’ve started posting. Hope you're warm and safe. :wave:

[aquamarineNYC]

Greetings to you too, aquamarineNYC and welcome to the forum. So nice to see you’ve started posting. Hope you're warm and safe. :wave:

Hi Darlin,
Thanks for your friendly, caring welcome, it's appreciated. :)

Looking at your public profile I noticed that you like Pearl S. Buck, who is also one of my favorite authors. Her Good Earth was life-changing for me and I ended up living in India for a decade partly because of her writing.

I found out a few weeks ago that a great uncle of mine founded the Vincent Smith School, in 1924 along with Pearl S. Buck's tutor, Adelaide Vincent Smith. Miss Adelaide Smith taught Pearl at Miss Jewel's School in Shanghai.

It's an odd bit of trivia but I thought you might be interested.

Wishing you a wonderful day.

[Virgil]

Hi Darlin,
I found out a few weeks ago that a great uncle of mine founded the Vincent Smith School, in 1924 along with Pearl S. Buck's tutor, Adelaide Vincent Smith. Miss Adelaide Smith taught Pearl at Miss Jewel's School in Shanghai.

It's an odd bit of trivia but I thought you might be interested.

Wishing you a wonderful day.
Yes, that sounds quite interesting. Welcome to lit net. I hope you enjoy it here. I'm always glad when an "older" person comes along. And not only that, we both live in NYC.

[aquamarineNYC]

Yes, that sounds quite interesting. Welcome to lit net. I hope you enjoy it here. I'm always glad when an "older" person comes along. And not only that, we both live in NYC.

Hi dear Virgil! Way cool a fellow New Yorker! Thanks for the welcome, sunshine. I'm already enjoying it so much here on this board. For a long time I've been wanting to share literary companionship with others, share reading, ideas, share love of language.

In the early 90's I ran a small writing group here in the city for a few years but it petered out after a while, it was only $10 a session and I think the glamour of more official Gotham Writing groups overshadowed mine. It was based on the idea of writing without stopping in 5, 10, 15 minute timed increments about random subjects, simple, uncomplicated and produced really interesting results. It was originally started in NYC by a man, Timothy Hunt, who has gone on to be an award winning journalist and I inherited his group when he left for Canada. It might be an interesting writing exercise to introduce here?

LOL, so I'm an older fart am I at 52? You're 44. Guess we're part of the older folks here on this list. It's such an astonishing thing to be alive at the time when the internet was invented, when Google was invented, surfing in a marvellous ocean of wisdom and information, a dream come true.

Anyway, hello Virgil, nice to meet you! :)

[Ryduce]

Hello!!I'm just welcoming you to the forum.Hope all is well.

[aquamarineNYC]

Hello!!I'm just welcoming you to the forum.Hope all is well.

Say hey dear Ryan. Wut up? Word. :)

So, with your liking cold weather have you been enjoying the winter Olympics?
I'm a hot weather person but I've loved watching the snowboarders, especially the Flying Tomato, Shaun White (http://oakley.com/about/shaun_white/). And, I guess this is some old fart thing, I've been enjoying the ice skating too, especially John Weir (http://www.delawareonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060212/NEWS/602120344/-1/NEWS01), whose mischievous sense of humor and outspokenness seems seriously unlikely in a figure skater. He's such a rascal I can almost forgive his wearing a mullet.

I was disturbed hearing you talk about getting stabbed in the arm. Perhaps you might tell that story in lit net, maybe a thread about surviving trauma? Do you still feel the need to carry a knife? Perhaps scars by necessity breed weapons?

Thank you for welcoming me Ryan. It's scary being a newbie in any forum and comforting to be welcomed.

[Ryduce]

I find curling to be absolutely incredible,and I'm not being sarcastic either.It's one of the sports that when you turn it on you laugh,but all of a sudden 5 hours of your life is gone and your trying to sign up at your local YMCA.

[aquamarineNYC]

I find curling to be absolutely incredible,and I'm not being sarcastic either.It's one of the sports that when you turn it on you laugh,but all of a sudden 5 hours of your life is gone and your trying to sign up at your local YMCA.

No way! Really?
Honestly, that sport is a total mystery to me Ryan. But I Googled it and sure enough it looks interesting (http://www.curlingbasics.com/).
But then again I like playing the card game Solitaire. I like the hunting and matching along with the quietness of it. What do you like about curling? Racing after the curling gizmo and making the ice smooth and frictionless as possible? It's sort of like a slow motion billiards in a way and very subtle in a geometric kind of way. How nice of you to share with me what you like. :) I appreciate the trust.

[Dixie Chick]

aquamarine,

From one 52-year old to another, welcome. No snow here in Alabama. Just old farts like me.

Elaine

[Virgil]

aquamarine,

From one 52-year old to another, welcome. No snow here in Alabama. Just old farts like me.

Elaine
I didn't realize you were older too Dixie. And when I said "older" in the earlier post it was only to separate us from the 22 and under crowd. Not that I don't like the young folk, actually I'm quite impressed by them, but it's nice at times to relate to the older crowd. I've noticed we have a little different perspective at times on things.

[aquamarineNYC]

oops, posted prematurely there. I meant to end that by saying dear Virgil that I'm grateful for the companionship here of fellow old farts like you. (wink)

So what are you Virgil and you Dixie Chick doing over the holiday?
It's nice weather here in NYC, just chilly but sunny. Think I'll go for a walk in the Park today, catching up on a few errands at home.

Since you didn't reply to my post Virgil, I was afraid I offended you but I was playing. I sincerely am happy for the literary dialogue with anyone here, my age, or any age for that matter.

Whatcha reading today?

[aquamarineNYC]

I didn't realize you were older too Dixie. And when I said "older" in the earlier post it was only to separate us from the 22 and under crowd. Not that I don't like the young folk, actually I'm quite impressed by them, but it's nice at times to relate to the older crowd. I've noticed we have a little different perspective at times on things.

LOL, so nice to meet you too Dixie chick. :)
Aww Virgil, I knew what you meant, don't mind please if I poked a little fun. Yeah the literate kids are really impressive, there are some marvelous young brainiacs here. My just turned 17 year old niece, writes poems that blow my mind. Like this one:

still
Mar 28 2005


When we reached the end:
we found that the epilogues had hung themselves.
we found them crouched like icicles in the corners
of extinction.
they reminded us of
hangnails, and we turned away, spluttering
to mourn yesterday instead.


"the scars are in the bedsheets
they are fictions poking like spiders
all covered in childhood. there is a life sentence here,
in my non-existence.
the bars have melted from the windows."


Futile, futile, polite little suicides,
like scratched photographs and flaking highways.
They would sit above the cities, swinging their legs
and talk about how this year, the little plastic poppies
dabbed across the crowds could almost be
nostalgic.


he leans into the sky and lights his cigarette with the sun
"I will separate myself
and you will celebrate your vulgar entity"


The end was no landmark.
no exquisite antique or graceful remain.
it squeezed cruelty through its fixed lament.
it ebbed and it was ours to deny.


"our genesis will be wrapped
like a baby. they will deceive you.
and you will stretch into yourselves.


I am here, I will be useless,
And have everything to show for it."