The Necklace

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  “SHE WAS one of those pretty, charming young ladies, born, as if through an error of destiny, into a family of clerks. She had no dowry, no hopes, no means of becoming known, appreciated, loved, and married by a man either rich or distinguished; and she allowed herself to marry a petty clerk in the office of the Board of Education. . . .  She had neither frocks nor jewels, nothing. And she loved only those things. She felt that she was made for them. She had such a desire to please, to be sought after, to be clever, and courted.” —THE NECKLACE Guy de Maupassant    France, 1884 (pic by Grok) Read this short story here:  https://americanliterature.com/author/guy-de-maupassant/short-story/the-necklace

Ode To Big Blue

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 Feeling “Lightfoot” lately


The oceans of the world were the home of Big BlueHe was the greatest monster that the world ever knewAnd the place that he loved bestWas the waters to the westAround the blue Pacific he did roam
Big Blue moved alone for a mighty blue was heAnd the battles of the whales was an awesome sight to seeAnd he took them one by one and he drove them all awayIn the mating of the day he was the king
Big Blue had fifty wives and he sired forty sonsThough most of them fell victim to the cruel harpoon gunsAh but he was too much wise to get caught by the gunners' eyesAnd so he lived at sea a hundred years
His mouth was as large as a tunnel so they sayHis hide was thick as leather and his eyes quick and smallAnd his back was all scarred by the times he got awayAnd he knew the smell of whalers did Big Blue
Big Blue passed away to his natural decayBeside the Arctic Circle as he travelled up that wayAnd there never was a man who was born with a gunner's handWhoever took a pan to Big Blue
Now the gray whale has run and the sperm is almost doneThe finbacks and the Greenland rights have all passed and goneThey've been taken by the men for the money they could spendAnd the killing never ends, it just goes on
The oceans of the earth were the home of Big BlueHe was the greatest monster that the world ever knewAnd the place that he loved best was the waters to the westAround the blue Pacific he did roam

—Gordon Lightfoot 

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