Category Archives: Datebook
Each Day is Valentine’s Day
Well, OK. It was Valentine’s Day. But I’m not going to feel too bad about missing most of it because I’m fully with Lorenz Hart on this one: Each day is Valentine’s Day. And that goes in both directions: If you have someone you love and cherish, no need to set aside one particular day [...]
The Language of Flowers 2012: “Gawd Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen” Limited Edition
Back in the heat of the dog days, our roving correspondent Dena Santoro reported on finding an 1875 copy of The Language of Flowers in a London bookshop in 1988. And here, as a gift to all you fine folks who have stuck by Like Fire throughout the year, is her limited holiday edition, updated [...]
Something for the Fourth: The Artillery Book
Where once I was the kind of bad urban teenager who bought paper bags of fireworks from shifty kids in Chinatown dealing out of the back of their parents’ kitchens, now I’m the cranky kind of broad who worries about the neighborhood kids setting her roof on fire, and is just as glad if the [...]
Yes You Will: Happy Bloomsday, 2012!
Happy Bloomsday! I’m assuming everyone else is off at the pub, or having a little grilled mutton kidney, or knocking around Dublin in a white dress as is appropriate to the date. Me, I’m in Boca Raton primping for a family wedding—no stately plump folks in sight, just lots of sleek tans and frosted toenails. [...]
This Is What You Shall Do
“This is what you shall do; Love the earth and sun and the animals, despise riches, give alms to every one that asks, stand up for the stupid and crazy, devote your income and labor to others, hate tyrants, argue not concerning God, have patience and indulgence toward the people, take off your hat to [...]
Short Shelf: Winter’s Tales
Happy Vernal Equinox to all our readers! Usually this would be an occasion for a sigh of relief, signaling at least the thought of the end of winter in sight. This year, having had no winter to speak of—one freak blizzard just before Halloween that immediately melted, one lovely little snowfall in January that did [...]
Pocket Review: The Kama Sutra by Vatsyayana, Translated by A.N.D. Haksar
Kama Sutra Vatsyayana, translated by A.N.D. Haksar Penguin Classics, 2012 New York is an old city with an eternally crumbling infrastructure, but the powers that be do what they can. Lately they’ve been concentrating on making repairs to the subway, a system over a century old that moves more than four million people every day. [...]
I Feel About Average
New Year’s Day Kobayashi Issa New Year’s Day— everything is in blossom! I feel about average. (Translated by Robert Hass) Yes, another poem. Poetry is good for us, and reading a new poem every morning will stretch your mind in many directions, will expose you to new writers and thoughts, and will improve the quality [...]
There! Bless You Now! Old Year, Good-Bye!
The Passing of the Year by Robert W. Service My glass is filled, my pipe is lit, My den is all a cosy glow; And snug before the fire I sit, And wait to feel the old year go. I dedicate to solemn [...]
Holiday Wishes
Happy holidays from our friends at GalleyCat! And from all of us at Like Fire to all of you, dear readers. Peace on earth, at the very least.
