A Correction and Some Old Oddities, on the Last Bookstore Day of the Season

I stand corrected--specifically, on my spelling of a wine grape name from yesterday’s post, corrected by an anonymous commenter. (Susan, was that you?) I found two spellings online but should have known better than to trust the Internet, where errors proliferate and where I have now been responsible for spreading this one. How far the former spelling champion has fallen! The correction, however, sent me to Tom Maresca’s book, Mastering Wine, where I am somewhat comforted to read that pinot grigio is not known for a “big aroma.” At least I didn’t get that part wrong. Maybe I need to buy a case in the spring, sear the correct spelling into my brain, and explore the subtlety of the bouquet.

Last night I added books to my Librarything listings (see link at right). Adding only a few at a time, slowly, as the spirit moves me, I find it interesting to see which of my books are shared with other members. So far I have a little disappointment that no one else has listed Memoirs of an Unrepentant Field Geologist; Reading the Landscape; or The Rural Efficiency Guide. I had hoped to find other fans of those wonderful old books, but the titles in my library that have the largest number of other members listing them are better-known books: Wind in the Willows; The Borrowers; Walter Mosley titles; Harlan Hubbard books; The Art of Simple Food, by Alice Waters. This is fine, of course, but has no one else discovered the less-known old oddities?

Here’s one such that came into my hands the other day, Three Tony’s Scrap Books, by Tony Wons, a radio personality during the Great Depression. The books are compilations of “scraps” he collected and that his listeners clipped and mailed in, and I’m especially interested, given the time period, to see if there’s any wisdom there for our current crisis. Here’s something about finances from that old expert, Anonymous:

I once had money and a friend;
On both I set great store.
I loaned my money to my friend,
And took his note therefore.
I asked my money of my friend,
And naught but words I got.
I lost my money and my friend,
For sue him I would not.
If I had money and a friend,
As I had once before,
I’d keep my money and my friend
And play the fool no more.

And here’s a thought articulated by Lord Avebury, who I’m guessing and hoping would be the Lord Avebury also known as Sir John Lubbock, friend of Charles Darwin and author of one of the books in my library, but no citation is given beyond “Lord Avebury” in the book. The thought is:

Rest is not idleness, and to lie sometimes on the grass under the trees on a summer’s day listening to the murmur of the water, or watching the clouds float across the sky, is by no means a waste of time.

That punctuation is not what I would have used, but I fully endorse the sentiment.

It’s the last day in the bookstore, and the Christmas tree has to come down today, but I’ll wait until later in the afternoon to undecorated it, leaving the lights on until the last. In fact, maybe I’ll leave the lights on a few more days, since we’re not leaving town until other tasks are completed, and, as I always maintain, holiday lights in windows or outdoors are very cheery at this time of year. Although at this moment, early afternoon, the sun is shining in Northport!!!