Summer Reading: Persuasion

I am not the voracious reader that my wife is.  I like books and I have lots of them.  Most of which, I accumulated we got married.  I just don't usually spend as much time reading as she does.  Each  summer, I try to read more than I usually do and as I've tried here before, I will try to review each book I finish this Summer.

Today's Review

Persuasion by Jane Austen



My experience when it comes to reading a book adaption of a movie I have seen or seeing a movie version of a book I have read is generally the same.  I tend to like the version which  I have read or seen first better than the one I've experienced second.  This is not necessarily the Case with Jane Austen's Persuasion.

I really enjoy the film Persuasion and have just recently finished the novel.  I am a big  fan of Austen's works generally through the medium of film.  I found that the reading of Persuasion really enhanced my appreciation of the film.  Much of the dialogue in the movie is pulled verbatim from the book.  The only difference being that it was adapted into dialogue from exposition in the original source.  This task is done artfully by the filmmakers and removes any need of a voiceover narration which would have hampered the cinematic presentation.

On the other hand,  a reading of Persuasion gave me new insights and understanding of her characters some that I had grown to love and others I had learned to disdain in my multiple viewings.  Mary, for example, is a much worse sister to Anne on paper than celluloid.  If you have seen the film, you know that is quite an achievement.  There is also more to like about Captain Wentworth, Mrs. Smith and even Lady Russell.

I would definitely recommend this book to anyone, especially those fond of any Austen work in print or pixel.

Next Time: Post of the Week

You can find this post at both Home School Dad and Your Basic Dave where I am posting concurrently over the summer.

Friday Fragments Donut Edition

Today is National Donut Day.  It is  on the first Friday of June each year.

For Friday Fragments at   Half Past Kissing Time I will share some fragments of donuts with you.


Fragment 1.  Donut History

 Did you ever wonder what donuts have to do with the salvation army?  This short video explains...



Fragment 2:   Donut Music
About 20 years ago, I wrote a song that is not specifically about donuts but chronicles a relationship that takes place at a Krispy Kreme.  I called it the wall of glaze as a tribute to the glaze waterfall that engulfs the donuts on the donut assempbly line there.

Here are the lyrics

The Wall of Glaze  
Lyrics by Dave Roller
Music by Jeff Half Dozen (actually Jeff Six, but half dozen has a more donut themed approach)

It was our first date
On a Friday night
She got a blueberry donut and a medium Sprite
She looked so good and I stood amazed
That I could lose my heart at the wall of glaze.

At the Krispy Kreme
At the Wall of Glaze
Just a memory of my younger days
Of how she looked so good
And how I stood amazed
That I could lose my heart
At The Wall of Glaze

End of senior year
Going separate ways
I was off to the army
Her to the college days
We promised to write every week
It would be like we never went away
How we cried and cried at The Wall of Glaze

At the Krispy Kreme
At The Wall of Glaze
Just a memory of my younger days
Of how we promised to write every week
Like we never went away
But the tears fell like rain
At The Wall of Glaze

Well you know the story
Left a boy came back a man
And I wrote her in my letters
Things I still don't understand
Oh my love for her just grew and grew
I was longing for that day
When I'd ask for her hand at The Wall of Glaze

So on a Friday night
Got down on my knees
Put a ring on her finger
Said will you marry me please
She said I'm sorry
But you were just a passing phase
And she broke my heart at The Wall of Glaze

At the Krispy Kreme
At The Wall of Glaze
It's the end of the story
Not the starting page
I put a ring on her finger
She said "Boy, you're just a phase"
And she broke my heart at The Wall of Glaze

Now I sit alone
On a Friday night
With a blueberry donut
And it don't feel right
I know I shouldn't be here
But I feel trapped in a cage
Since she broke my heart at The Wall of Glaze

At the Krispy Kreme
Called The Wall of Glaze
Just a memory
Of my younger days
I know I shouldn't be here
I feel trapped in a cage
since I lost my heart, since she broke my heart, now that we're apart
At The Wall of Glaze.

Fragment 3 Free Donuts

The aforementioned Krispy Kreme was giving away free donuts today.  Dunkin Donuts was giving away 1 free donut if you bought a drink, which was fine if you were getting a drink.  If you were not all the drinks cost more than one donut so it would not have been worth the trip.

We did not get any free donuts today, but you can enter here to win free donuts a year from Entenmanns.

For more Friday Fragments click here.

Next Time: Summer Book Review

You can find this post at both Home School Dad and Your Basic Dave where I am posting concurrently over the summer.

Home School Dad Flashback: Because they're nouns....

This summer is the last summer I will be posting here at Home School Dad, as I announced yesterday.  So over this summer I will be reposting  at HSD and YBD some of the previous posts.  This was one of the first posts I did back in 2009 . . .



Home School Dad: Because they're nouns....: A noun is a person, place, or thing!

Next Time: Summer Book Review

Your Basic Dave an Intro

When I went back to work in 2013 and stopped being the everyday home educucator.  I  began to think whether I would still blog and what I would blog about.  I opened this blog, but only posted one time. . I have since deleted that post.  I wrote at that time that " If our family ever does stop homeschooling.  I intend YBD to become my main blog. "  As I announced in the recent HSD, we have stopped homeschooling, at least for a sesaon.  I am in the process of mothballing HSD, and will be posting here and at HSD concurrently through the summer.  In September, I will be posting only here.

What can you expect at YBD?  You can expect your basic Dave.  Funny.  Crazy.  Sarcastic.  Eclectic, Encouraging,  Absent Minded.  I am not sure exactly what this blog will look like in the next few months and years.  But as Kermit and Fozzie like to sing, getting there is half the fun, come share it with me.

I have to be moving right along. Later Gators.

Next Time:  Nouns.