Archive | November 2007

To This Great Stage of Fools: Born November 30th

Nov30

Another Red Letter Day for literature in the English language:

Jonathan Swift, b. 1667. Read “A Lump of Deformity Smitten With Pride.”

Mark Twain, aka Samuel Clemens, b. 1835. Mark Twain’s Christmas greeting from 1890:

It is my heart-warmed and world-embracing Christmas hope and aspiration that all of us, the high, the low, the rich, the poor, the admired, the despised, the loved, the hated, the civilized, the savage (every man and brother of us all throughout the whole earth), may eventually be gathered together in a heaven of everlasting rest and peace and bliss, except the inventor of the telephone.”

Lucy Maud Montgomery, b. 1874.

Christmas broke on a beautiful white world. It had been a very mild December and people had looked forward to a green Christmas; but just enough snow fell softly in the night to transfigure Avonlea. Anne peeped out from her frosted gable window with delighted eyes. The firs in the Haunted Wood were all feathery and wonderful; the birches and cherry trees were outlined in pearl; the ploughed fields were stretches of snowy dimples; and there was a crisp tang in the air that was glorious. Anne ran downstairs singing until her voice re-echoed through Green Gables.

Winston Churchill, b. 1874. Christmas with Churchill by Gerald Pawle, Blackwoods Magazine, Vol. 314, No. 1898, December, 1973.

Poetry Friday: Dante Gabriel Rossetti Ushers in the Holiday Season at Semicolon

Nov30

Here’s a nice antidote to the slappy, happy Christmas music already filling the stores and airways. It’s a bit sentimental, perhaps, but definitely, seriously Christmas-y. The picture is also by Rossetti.

Reverie



My Sister’s Sleep

She fell asleep on Christmas Eve:
At length the long-ungranted shade
Of weary eyelids overweigh’d
The pain nought else might yet relieve.

Our mother, who had lean’d all day
Over the bed from chime to chime,
Then rais’d herself for the first time,
And as she sat her down, did pray.

Her little work-table was spread
With work to finish. For the glare
Made by her candle, she had care
To work some distance from the bed.

Without, there was a cold moon up,
Of winter radiance sheer and thin;
The hollow halo it was in
Was like an icy crystal cup.

Through the small room, with subtle sound
Of flame, by vents the fireshine drove
And redden’d. In its dim alcove
The mirror shed a clearness round.

I had been sitting up some nights,
And my tired mind felt weak and blank;
Like a sharp strengthening wine it drank
The stillness and the broken lights.

Twelve struck. That sound, by dwindling years
Heard in each hour, crept off; and then
The ruffled silence spread again,
Like water that a pebble stirs.

Our mother rose from where she sat:
Her needles, as she laid them down,
Met lightly, and her silken gown
Settled: no other noise than that.

“Glory unto the Newly Born!”
So, as said angels, she did say;
Because we were in Christmas Day,
Though it would still be long till morn.

Just then in the room over us
There was a pushing back of chairs,
As some who had sat unawares
So late, now heard the hour, and rose.

With anxious softly-stepping haste
Our mother went where Margaret lay,
Fearing the sounds o’erhead–should they
Have broken her long watch’d-for rest!

She stoop’d an instant, calm, and turn’d;
But suddenly turn’d back again;
And all her features seem’d in pain
With woe, and her eyes gaz’d and yearn’d.

For my part, I but hid my face,
And held my breath, and spoke no word:
There was none spoken; but I heard
The silence for a little space.

Our mother bow’d herself and wept:
And both my arms fell, and I said,
“God knows I knew that she was dead.”
And there, all white, my sister slept.

Then kneeling, upon Christmas morn
A little after twelve o’clock
We said, ere the first quarter struck,
“Christ’s blessing on the newly born!”

Dante Gabriel Rossetti

To This Great Stage of Fools: Born November 29th

Nov29

Last year’s quiz for November 29th birthdays. Check it out, and then come back and read about why today is my favorite birthday of the year other than my own.

Three of my favorite authors were born on this date:

1. C.S. Lewis, b. 1898. The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, in particular, has a wonderful Christmas-y theme to it, and I would be happy to enjoy it again with a cup of hot chocolate sitting near the Christmas tree. Several bloggers have written at various times on sundry blogs I frequent about C.S. Lewis, so you can enjoy these tributes:

Jared at Thinklings: Remembering Jack
Carrie reviews Jack: A Life of C.S. Lewis by George Sayer. (I read the same biography earlier this year, but I never got around to writing about it. So . . . what she says.)
Lars Walker at Brandywine Books: The Feast of St. Jack and on the 23rd The Great Man’s Headgear

2. Louisa May Alcott, b. 1832.

“Christmas won’t be Christmas without any presents,” grumbled Jo, lying on the rug.

“It’s so dreadful to be poor!” sighed Meg, looking down at her old dress.

“I don’t think it’s fair for some girls to have plenty of pretty things, and other girls nothing at all,” added little Amy, with an injured sniff.

“We’ve got Father and Mother, and each other,” said Beth contentedly from her corner.

The four young faces on which the firelight shone brightened at the cheerful words, but darkened again as Jo said sadly, “We haven’t got Father, and shall not have him for a long time.” She didn’t say “perhaps never,” but each silently added it, thinking of Father far away, where the fighting was.

Little Women by Louisa May Alcott

Today seems a as good a day as any to remind you and myself to pray for those who are far away, where the fighting is.

3. Madeleine L’Engle, b. 1918. I have two Christmas books by Mrs. L’Engle, and I always ask for one of her books on my Christmas list. THis year I’d like a hard cover copy of The Love Letters or of A Wrinkle in Time.
You may want to look for the following books at the library or in the bookstore; I think either one would enrich your Christmas celebration:

The Twenty-four Days Before Christmas: An Austin Family Story tells of the arrival of a Christmas baby during a snowstorm.
Miracle on Tenth Street and Other Christmas Writings includes the story above and other Christmas stories and poems by Madeleine L’Engle. A Full House, another Austin family story, is one of our favorites; we read it every year.

Are any of you fans of these three authors? Which of their books are your favorites? Little Women is good, but my favorite Alcott book is Rose in Bloom. On my list I mentioned two books by Madeleine L’Engle, A Ring of Endless Light and A Severed Wasp, but tonight I’m thinking that my true favorite of all her books is one that’s not as famous, Love Letters, a book about an American woman who runs away from her troubled marriage and ends up in Portugal identifying with the equally troubled life of a sixteenth century Portuguese nun. Not a Christmas story, but I highly recommend it.

As for C.S. Lewis, how could I possibly choose just one? My favorite Narnia book is The Horse and His Boy because it has the best story and the richest lessons, but Lewis’s other fiction books and his nonfiction are all just as rewarding and enjoyable as the Chronicles of Narnia. Till We Have Faces is an excellent story, based on the tale of Cupid and Psyche but infused with all sorts of philosophical and theological truths. And The Screwtape Letters is the most insightful book about sin and temptation and goodness I’ve ever read or ever hope to read aside from the Bible itself. Just take a year or two and read them all.

Ten Best Movie Musicals Ever

Nov28

Oklahoma (1955)
The first great movie musical. Yes, it’s pretty corny, but the songs are great anyway. And I can’t resist the humor of “Poor Jud Is Dead.” “It’s summer and we’re running out of ice.”

The King and I (1956)
I really enjoy all the Siamese children and the wives and, of course, Yul Brynner as the king of Thailand. “Etcetera, Etcetera, Etcetera. . .”

West Side Story (1961)
A musical version of Romeo and Juliet transferred to New York City in the 1950’s. Leonard Bernstein wrote the music, and Natlaie Wood makes a beautiful Maria (Juliet). Winner of the Academy Award for Best Picture in 1962 as well as numerous other awards, this movie deserved them all.

The Music Man (1962)
76 trombones lead the big parade; Professor Harold Hill can charm the money out of an Ioway skeptic; and who can resist lyrics like these:
Marian Paroo: Do you think that I’d allow a common masher – ? Now, really, mama. I have my standards where men are concerned and I have no intention…
Mrs. Paroo: I know all about your standards and if you don’t mind my sayin’ so there’s not a man alive who could hope to measure up to that blend of Paul Bunyan, Saint Pat, and Noah Webster you’ve concocted for yourself out of your Irish imagination, your Iowa stubbornness, and your li’berry full of books!

My Fair Lady (1964)
Of course, the ending is unsatisfactory. Why does Eliza go back to that conceited Henry Higgins? And Rex Harrison can’t even sing–just speaks his lyrics. Nevertheless, the songs and the acting and the story of a flowergirl who becomes a lady are all delightful enough to make up for any flaws.

The Sound of Music (1965)
Classic, pure classic.

Camelot (1967)
“In short, there’s simply not / a more congenial spot / for happily ever aftering than here in Camelot.”
I simply refuse to think that this movie has anything to with JFK; King Arthur is much more interesting than the Kennedys.

Oliver! (1968)
Another great movie musical, and Dickens is one of my favorite authors. Jack Wild plays an engaging Artful Dodger, and Mark Lester is so cute as Oliver. I also think Oliver Reed is a great actor. (I once saw Oliver Reed in a film about Dante Gabriel Rossetti, and to this day I picture Rossetti looking a lot like OR.)

Hello Dolly (1969)
I like Barbra Streisand in movies. This musical is one of the great Broadway musicals of all time, and Streisand is bold and brassy and funny as the matchmaker who wants a match for herself.

Fiddler on the Roof (1971)
Tevye the Jewish milkman talks to God and tries to understand his wife Golde and looks for husbands for his six daughters. Unfortunately, the world is changing, and the dependable things in Tevye’s life are becoming few and far between.
Perchik: Money is the world’s curse.
Tevye: May the Lord smite me with it. And may I never recover.
Tevye: As the good book says ‘Each shall seek his own kind’. In other words a bird may love a fish but where would they build a home together?

And then they quit making them. I have a couple more musicals on my list of 107 Best Movies Ever, but none of the musicals made after 1971 made my list. What is there after Fiddler on the Roof? Grease?

Country Favorites

Nov27

I’ll admit it. I grew up in West Texas among what we called back then “kickers and cowboys,” and I listened to a lot of country music whether I wanted to or not. I did develop a taste for some of it, sentimentality and cryin-in-my-beer notwithstanding. My mom called it “honkey-tonk music.” Anyway, I have a daughter who likes the twenty-first century version of country, even though we live in the big city, major suburbia, so I thought I’d make her a mix CD for Christms of classic country songs. These are the songs I’ve picked out so far. Any suggestions to add to it?

Delta Dawn by Tanya Tucker

I Can’t Help it (If I’m Still in Love With You) by Hank Williams Jr.

Hey, Good Lookin by Hank Williams Sr.

Tennessee Waltz by Patti Page

Ring of Fire by Johnny Cash

Old Dogs, Children, and Watermelon Wine by Tom T. Hall

I Walk the Line by Johnny Cash

Sixteen Tons by Tennessee Ernie Ford. My daddy loves this song. He can’t carry a tune in a bucket, but he tries sometimes to do his Tennessee Ernie imitation, singing way down low.

Crazy by Patsy Cline.

Your Cheatin Heart by Hank Williams Sr.

Wildwood Flower by the Carter Family.

Luchenbach Texas by Waylon Jennings. My kids think this song is one of the funniest they’ve ever heard. Willie Nelson used to have a Fourth of July picnic at Luchenbach every July. I don’t think he does it anymore.

Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain by Willie Nelson

King of the Road by Roger Miller

Rose Garden by Lynn Anderson.

The Gambler by Kenny Rogers.

Here You Come Again by Dolly Parton

The Most Beautiful Girl by Charlie Rich.

Kiss an Angel Good Morning by Charlie Pride.

Galveston by Glen Campbell. Because I like Glen, and because we live near Galveston.

Gentle on my Mind by Glen Campbell.

Will the Circle Be Unbroken by The Carter Family.

Happiest Girl in the Whole USA by Donna Fargo.

Happy Man by B.J. Thomas. I used to love to listen to B.J. in his pre-Christian phase and in his Christian incarnation. Raindrops anyone?

You Light Up My Life by Debby Boone. Is this one really country?

Through the Years by Kenny Rogers. I once saw Kenny Rogers and Dolly Parton in concert at Johnson Space Center. They were filming a TV special, and all the NASA employees got free tickets. It was outdoors by the big rockets, and we sat on a blanket and listened to Kenny and Dolly (I think) and others. Ahhh, memories.

I probably don’t need suggestions. I doubt if all of those songs will fit on one CD. Nevertheless, feel free to admit your guilty secrets if you’re a country music fan, and tell me your favorites.

Children’s Fiction of 2007: Dear Jo by Christina Kilbourne

Nov27

Back when I was a teenager, the book Go Ask Alice was published (1971), the purported journal of a heroin addict who ended up committing suicide by overdose. I remember reading the book and believing every word of it. I also remember as an adult that I found out it was probably a fictional account, and I was disappointed, but not terribly surprised. Cautionary tales read like fiction somehow because everything in the story combines to carry the message.

Dear Jo is another cautionary tale written in the form of a journal, but this time the moral of the story is “don’t meet stranger through the internet because they might be internet predators or even murderers.” Maxine, the journal writer, is writing about her feelings in aftermath of the disappearance of her best friend, Leah. Leah went out to meet a boy she first met on the internet and never came back. At the beginning of the story, it’s been six months since Leah was last seen, and it doesn’t look as if she’ll ever be found.

This novel doesn’t claim to be the journal of a real person or based on a true story, but just as Go Ask Alice warned kids of the 70’s of the dangers of drugs, Dear Jo warns kids of the twenty-first century of the dangers of the internet. And just as Go Ask Alice didn’t keep a lot of kids from experimenting with drugs, I doubt a book like this one will keep kids off the internet. (In fact, Brown Bear Daughter read it, liked it because it was so sad, and immediately asked if she could get a Xanga.) However, it may make them think twice before engaging in risky behaviors such as corresponding with pseudonymous guys or arranging meetings with strangers.

The story itself is decently written with lots of pop culture references: Avril Lavigne, the Goo-Goo Dolls, downloading MP3’s, Bratz dolls, Bob the Builder. Many of these references will be dated in only a few years, but maybe the information about internet safety will be dated by then, too. Predators and police alike may have developed new methods and new gimmicks by even next year. All an author can do is include the most current information possible and hope that parents and kids take heed.

I did have a little trouble with the time element in the book. A lot of Maxine’s journal is her memories of Leah and what happened before Leah was abducted. Then, the narrative switches to events that are happening six months after Leah’s disappearance and following. And sometimes Maxine writes about what happened immediately after Leah left. So the sequence of events gets a little confusing. But I think most kids would be able to keep up with what happened when.

The book does describe some pretty serious crimes: abuction, murder, and child endangerment. However, the descriptions are never gratuitously graphic, but more matter of fact. Most of the book deals with Maxine’s feelings as a survivor and her struggle to come out of her depression and make something good or redemptive out of a very bad thing. Dear Jo would be a great book to have available in every library and to reccomend to teens and pre-teens who spend a lot of time on the internet. (Are there any kids who DON’T spend time on the internet these days?) It’s propaganda, but it’s good propaganda for a worthy cause. And the story is absorbing enough to keep kids reading all the way to the end where the obligatory page of “tips for internet safety” is printed. I just hope they read those tips, too —and use them.

Dear Jo has been nominated for the Cybil Award for Middle Grade Fiction, and here’s what another blogger thought about it:

Charlene Martel of The Literary Word: “Via way of this journal, we follow along this painful story of loss and tragedy. A story that is all too real as these things can, and do happen all the time. It’s a great book in that it really brings home the message about the perils of the internet and why parents should be more “hands on” in supervising when their kids use it.”

Children’s Fiction of 2007: My Last Best Friend By Julie Bowe

Nov27

Bethy-Bee’s review:

Iva May has one last best friend, Elizabeth Evans who moves away (she didn’t even get to say good bye!). When Iva May goes to her first day of school Jenna still picks on her and —wait a minute, let me tell you about Jenna. Her name is Jenna Drews and she is bratty, bossy and other mean things. Anyway, Iva May comes in the bus, and mean old Jenna is there waiting for her. Jenna is the meanest girl ever. Anywhere. You get the picture. She gets on and Jenna picks on her and she sits down and wishes Elizabeth was there to comfort her, but she was not. Later, in recess she wishes Elizabeth was there to play with her, but she was not. Iva May needs a new friend, but not Jenna.

Sherry’s thoughts:

This book is another one about friendship, making friends, telling stories in order to impress a new friend. It reminded me of Tall Tales, another Cybil nominee, without the alcoholism and pitched to a little bit younger audience. Iva May is an engaging character, and the story feels believable and fun. The idea of having a secret friend with whom you exchange notes hidden in a secret hiding place is a great device. Kids love secret messages and secret languages and secrets in general. Does anyone remember The Secret Language by editor and author Ursula Nordstrom? It was one of my favorite stories many, many years ago. I should re-read and see if it’s held up to the passage of time.

My Last Best Friend is a cute school story about how to and how not to make friends. It may not last a hundred years, but it should be good to pass an afternoon for the younger set and inspire them to their own secret-message writing and receiving.

Other bloggers review My Last Best Friend:

KidsReads: “Without meaning to do so, Ida has slipped into another special friendship. Should Ida risk revealing her true identity?”

Laura Bowers: “Debut author Julie Bowe tells a charming story that will win the heart of any girl who’s faced her fear sideways.”

Little Willow interviews author Julie Bowe.

Catching the Thoughts as They Pass Through

Nov26

I’m reposting this tip from last year for MotherReader’s edition of the Carnival of Children’s Literature. She’s asking for tips “as a reader, writer, illustrator, reviewer, publisher, or editor of children’s literature. I want a lesson learned from a teacher, librarian, author, or parent with regards to kids’ lit.” Send them to her by Tuesday.

“It is an unhappy thing, but it is the fact with many men, that if you do not seize your fancies when they come to you, and preserve them upon the written page, you lose them altogether. They go away, and never come back.” —A.K.H. Boyd

“A really good book . . . should make you walk into a lamppost. That’s because you can’t stop reading it when you are walking down the street.” —Nick Hornby

I’ve always been forgetful. I’ve lost my keys more times than I can count. I’ve left my purse in the grocery cart in the Kroger parking lot about as many times as I’ve misplaced my keys. (And it always is there when I come back for it, either in the cart where I left it or turned in to the service counter. So far.)

However, I’m getting worse, not better. I do believe I’m slowly losing my mind altogether, and it’s an interesting process. I forget thoughts I want to hang on to. I forget what I read and why I liked it. I forget why I started reading a particular book in the first place. (I also forget my name, but I haven’t come to the place that my mother predicted I’d get to a long time ago. I haven’t lost my head—because it’s still screwed on.)

So, what works for me is to start a blog post for each book I’m reading and type in the quotations and profound thoughts I want to remember about the book as I read it. If I wait until I finish the book, or heaven forbid, a week or two after I finish reading those thoughts are gone and the quotations are un-find-able. If I have a draft of a post with quotations and observations, I can go back and organize and edit it later —or delete it if there wasn’t really much there to write about.

Check out the carnival at MotherReader on Wednesday, and if you find my mind or any tips on reclaiming it, please leave a comment here.

Children’s Fiction of 2007: Elijah of Buxton by Christopher Paul Curtis

Nov26

I was prepared to like this new historical fiction novel by Newbery award-winning author Christopher Paul Curtis. After all, Bud, Not BUddy, the book that won the Newbery in 2000, is a great story. In fact, I was not disappointed, although I must say that the book starts out a little slowly. I read someone’s review of the book comparing it to The Great Brain series (sorry, I don’t remember who), and the book does begin with that flavor. Elijah is an eleven year old boy living in a settlement for free (escaped or bought out of slavery) Negroes in Canada just across the border from Detroit, Michigan. The year is 1860, and the name of the settlement is Buxton. (It’s a real place, by the way. A little of its history is recounted in the author’s note at the back of the book.)

In the first few chapters, Elijah gets into all sorts of scrapes because of his fra-gile constitution or because of his typical boylike mischief. He runs from an imaginary “hoop snake”, scares his mother with a toad frog, and finds out he has a gift from God, the gift of “chunking rocks” quite accurately. The story reads like a typical boyhood adventure story, with a bit of an atypical setting.

About midway through the tone and plot turn serious as Elijah learns to get past being fra-gile in order to help a friend redeem his family from slavery. There’s also a great discussion of why it’s inappropriate for even black people among themselves to use the n-word. Elijah casually uses the word “nig—” to refer to himself and his friends, and his friend Mr. Leroy jumps all over him, saying, “How you gunn call them children in that school and you’self that name them white folks calls us? Has you lost your natural mind? You wants to be like one n’em? You wants to be keeping they hate alive? . . . You thinks just ’cause that word come from twixt your black lips it man anything different? You think it ain’t choke up with the same kind of hate and disrespect it has when they say it? You caint see it be even worst when you call it out?”

Elijah learns his lesson, and I think the author meant for there to be a lesson embedded in there for kids of today, too. Derogatory terms have a history; words have meaning; sticks and stones and words can all hurt.

The entire book is written in first person from Elijah’s point of view, and it’s all written in dialect like the language Mr. Leroy uses in the above quotation. Some kids may have a little trouble with the dialect, but I don’t think it will be too bothersome. I thought after I got used to it that it gave the book a sense of history and transported the reader back in time as well as or better than any other device the author could have used.

As I said, the ending turns serious and pretty much heart-rending. This is not a book for younger readers, and older ones (grades 5-8) may have some challenging questions about what happens in the book and about the dark side of U.S. history. That’s a good thing, but be prepared for the discussion.

Wonderful story. Probably a Newbery contender. Nominated for the Cybil Award for Middle Grade Fiction.

Children’s Fiction of 2007: Three for Another Reader

Nov25

I read the following three books because they were nominated for the Cybil Award for Middle Grade Fiction. As my mom would say, if these books come in parts, you can leave mine out.

Runaround by Helen Hemphill.
From the inside cover blurb: “Everything eleven year old Sassy knows about love comes from romance magazines. But now that she has her eye on her handsome neighbor, Boon, she wants more details.”
Yuck. I will admit to reading my grandmother’s copies of True Romance in secret when I was a kid of a girl, and like Sassy, I had lots of questions about what went on in those magazines. But in Runaround Sassy has no other source of information. Her mother is gone, and her dad is uncommunicative. Her sister, Lula, is only thirteeen and already has boyfriends galore. And Sassy flirts outrageously with Boon who’s a year older than Lula, until Sassy finally gets Boon to kiss her. Again, yuck. They might as well be reading True Romance magazine, not a practice I would recommend for eleven year olds or twelve year olds or teens or even adults.

Other views:
Kidslit: “This is a well-crafted novel that is perfect for tween readers. It has just the right amount of romance, including french kissing, but doesn’t go so far that it would make it more appropriate for older readers.”
Camille at BookMoot: “There are some wonderfully funny and painful moments as Sassy and Lula learn about guys and life. You do not want to get into a haircut fight with these sisters.”

Penina Levine Is a Hard-Boiled Egg by Rebecca O’Connell.
“I’m Jewish, and I shouldn’t have to write a pretend letter from the Easter bunny because the word “Easter” offends me. And my teacher is a jerk because she gives me a zero for not completing the assignment. Oh, and by the way, I’m jealous of my little sister because she gets more attention than I do.”
That’s my summary of the book. I think Penina is a brat, and the teacher really is a jerk or at least unbelievably dense. Any teacher I know of would have given an alternate assignment when Penina started yelping, even though I agree with the teacher that her complaints were unjustified and overblown. (A bid for attention?) There are an interesting couple of chapters about the celebration of Seder in a large Jewish family. That part might be worth reading aloud to kids, but the rest of the story is forgettable.

Other views:
JessMonster at BookPyramid: “At any rate, while part of me sympathized with Penina for being the religious outsider (rebelling against attending mass in honor of the Immaculate Conception, anyone?) I also found her profoundly irritating on some level.”
Behind the Stove: “Penina herself is a winner – I liked the kind and intelligent way in which she ultimately makes her point to her teacher, and I loved Penina’s stubbornness, her enthusiasm for her heritage, and her refusal to be untrue to her nature. I found Penina downright endearing, the sort of little girl I would have liked to be friends with.”

Bird Springs by Carolyn Marsden.
Ten year old Gregory and his mother and baby sister have to move from their Navajo reservation home in Bird Springs to a homeless shelter in Tucson when Gregory’s father skips out and the rains don’t come. The blurb says the story has a “sense of hope,” but I thought it mostly had a dearth of action. Gregory wanders around the shelter, worries, makes a new friend, worries some more, gets a haircut, worries, and goes into a sewer tunnel with his new friend Matt. And Gregory talks like a six year old: “My dad is a warrior. He gots a horse called Blackie, and one day when he gets Blackie back he’s gonna ride on down and get me.”

I couldn’t find any other blog reviews of Bird Springs. If you’ve read the book and have a second opinion, please leave a comment and a link.