Spring at Last

-tulips in the Stanley Park Rose garden, April 2008

Credit your source of inspiration

Look for the extraordinary in the ordinary

Surprise your mom with fresh flowers

Sit in the grass

Start where you are

Find a fountain and make a wish

- the above sayings taken from the book called Instant Karma from Barbara Ann Kipfer

Are We Having Fun Yet?

-taken during Expo86, Vancouver

Today, I threw up my hands, got on the phone, and called Neil and Richard for a beer at lunch. I picked them up from TRIUMF and we went to the UBC Golf Course Pub which was packed. Geez. Doesn't anybody work anymore?

Neil tells me he's retiring early. We toasted his early retirement. I moaned about my job hunting woes. Then, we toasted my new job at the Port of Vancouver (they say you're supposed to pretend you've already got the job you want).

After a beer and two hugs, I was on my way.

Then, I found this fantastic video while I was stumbling around (not from the beer), but from StumbleUpon.

I don't know anyone personally that I can think of who at this very moment would say that they are having ENOUGH fun.

Watch this The 8 Irresistable Principles of Fun and put a smile on your face.

Salut!

The Nature in Me

Earth day seems like a good day for a poem.

I wrote this a long time ago, 1999, when I wrote a lot of poetry because my mind was in a place much different than now. I was quite depressed then and it was a time of questioning and searching and in hindsight, a lot of personal growth even though it felt like a misty, foggy, dark place back then.

And, a friend of mine took me to a place we used to go cycling to in Point Roberts. There's a bluff high above the water. An old wooden bench is perched on the edge of the bluff under an arbutus tree. On one side is an American flag and the other has a red maple leaf, the paint peeling from the wind that hits the bluff. We didn't say much. But, together, we sat there. The wind from the sea was soothing. I can still see the white caps on the green surface.

I can still remember how it felt. It was comforting. Being there looking out to sea provided perspective.

So, if for any reason, you're not feeling so well today, or you're feeling lonely or lost or at a dead end, there are few things that offer greater comfort than nature if you can let yourself be silent in it.

So, any day, you're feeling like that, but perhaps especially on this artificially designated "Earth Day", go for a walk in nature, if you can. And, pay attention to how what you are seeing can be a metaphor to how you are feeling.

Here's what I wrote then.

The Nature in Me

Standing on that bluff
wind crossing my brow
like the affectionate
touch of a grandparent's hand,
I want to sit on that bench
placed there it seems
solely to aid in my contemplation.

Survey the mountains,
tiles of water forming sea,
greens and greys and whites,
light, in all its subtlety.

Learning from this outer landscape:
Continuity.
What's going on inside of me?

Not so special
in comparison to what is.

Grass, clouds
volcanoes, earthquakes
gorges, mountains
lakes and caves

Life on earth.

Sun Run Smorgasbord

I love watching the Vancouver Sun Run. That's right. I said watching. I've walked it twice in the past. But, with 59,000 participants, and me not being big into crowds, it's, for me, a spectator sport. Besides, I can't run 10K. Yet.

I woke up at 8:49 this morning, jumped out of bed, and managed to be down at the end of Robson, camera in hand, just in time to catch the first wave. The gun went off at 9:00 am. The temperature was 2 degrees according to the news but at least it wasn't raining, or snowing.

The first wave of legs was moving incredibly fast led by two Kenyans, one of whom must have been the winner crossing the finish line at just under 28 minutes.

I love the way the Run attracts everyone. People in costume. People who look like they deserve a medal just for showing up. People in wheelchairs. Teams dressed up in wierd hats. A UBC chemistry professor I once typed manuscripts for in the 80s. A Japanese man with a Dr. Seuss hat. Muslim women with their head scarves the only parts of their bodies not wrapped in Nike gear. And,even a guy completely wrapped in white from head to toe with a sign that said Sun. Run. Mum. (Look carefully at the photo above and you'll see him).

But, the participant who really caught my attention was the older gentleman who looked as if he had been on an early pilgrimage towards the Calgary Stampede and he just happened to get caught up in the run. He didn't even have a number but he was there. Present. Cowboy hat and all.

Ideas coming faster than Hamsters can eat

As I go about my day, I always have ideas (don't you?) and yet, I don't act on them because I can`t make things. I can barely draw a straight line. Honestly, sometimes I have trouble getting out of a room if the door handle is ultra modern or unusual. Designing anything practical just isn't high on my list of aptitudes. I'm not likely to become an inventor. If only I could find a partner, business or otherwise, who could translate my ideas into tangible forms.

Idea number 1. You know how so many people don't have a will (including me) so when they kick the curb nobody will know what they want. Now, if you could create a will that was on a Blog, that detailed what you wanted to have happen to you, then it wouldn't matter when you bit the dust because all anyone would have to do is Google you and your wishes would be right there for the whole world to see. No confusion. It could even detail whether you wanted to donate any organs (yours, not someone elses). Morbid but efficient. It could be called Blog-Gone. Bye, bye.

Idea number 2. Maybe you can relate to this one. My apartment is pretty small but not as small as the 450 sq. ft. bachelor suite I managed to live in for almost four years without committing any homocidal acts. Therefore, in order to accommodate the sorting of mixed paper, newsprint, plastic, tin, and glass that I must in order to be a good green citizen, it's as if I need a recycling station built into my apartment. But, let`s get real, there`s barely room, in my apartment, for the stuff I`m not intending to get rid of. Like, my couch. My bed. I`m only into wabi sabi to a certain degree.

So, I was thinking, if someone could design a sorting station for recyclables and incorporate that into the design of all new houses/apartments then they'd be doing the occupants a big favour in terms of time efficiency and usefulness. It could be a new type of closet organizer. Maybe such a thing already exists. If so, let me know.

All I know is that I need to find a better way to organize my recyclables than the little piles I've created around my apartment. They're like little communities unto themselves. It's like the Capulets and the Montagues in Romeo and Juliet have moved in but in garbage form. Don't let the mixed paper mingle with the tin or there will be hell to pay.

When I talked to Stacy Toews of Level Ground Trading one of the things that amazed me the most is that his company boasts only 1 grocery bag size of landfill waste per week. They manage this because they have 13 streams of recycling. Think about that.

I was driving back from Lighthouse park on garbage day in West Vancouver and I couldn't believe how many people have two garbage cans at the curb waiting to be picked up. That shouldn`t even be allowed. What have they got in there? Manolo Blahniks that have only been worn once? Bandages from their most recent plastic surgery? The remnants of King crab legs? Bags full of doggy doo from their 7 Shitsus? Honestly!

Green Entrepreneurs

In early March I began to write some very short little pieces for Shared Vision Magazine talking to "green" entrepreneurs.

I've talked to an aromatherapist with a company called SmellThis!,a young mother who has a small baby products line made out of bamboo called Bamboobino, and Stacey Toews, a guy who owns a direct fair trade coffee company in Saanich called Level Ground Trading.

I don't know about you but it's not all that often that I meet people who really blow me away in terms of how they have crafted a life that has stayed true to their personal values and, most significantly, are doing something that has made a positive impact on quite a few other people. Their life is their example.

Stacey Toews would seem to be that kind of guy. After speaking with him, I would have no qualms recommending his product because I have no doubt that how Level Ground Trading interacts with the farmers and the cooperatives in the five countries where they work (Colombia, Bolivia, Peru, Ethiopia, Tanzania) is above board.

His definition of direct fair trade means he has met the people in person, it's not a one-sided definition of the word "fair", it ensures the farming practices being used are sustainable, and he cares about how being in the community can impact the community positively through other projects.

When he and his wife met, about 16 years ago, they both agreed that they wanted to create a family through adoption. They had volunteered when they were in their 20's in South East Asia. He worked with street youth in a remote part of the Phillipines. So, they adopted three kids from Haiti with the help of an organization called The Foundation for Children of Haiti. As life would have it, just 6 months ago, they had a baby they made together, biologically. (I wanted to avoid saying they had their own baby because of course their adopted children are their own, as much as children are anyone's.)

When I talked to him it was really clear to me that we all need to become a lot more educated about the terms that are floating around now because even though I've heard the terms fair trade and direct fair trade, I didn't really know what the difference was. And, just because someone is using them, doesn't mean their business practices are following the spirit of the original intent.

So, the next time you go to buy coffee beans, buy direct fair trade and buy his. He sells at more than 300 locations in Canada and the US.

There's a big sustainable living Expo this weekend starting on Friday called EPIC. If you're interested, it runs until the 20th from 10:00 am - 5:00 pm at the Vancouver Convention & Exhibition Centre.

Canada's Prime Ministers

Kim Campbell, the 19th Prime Minister of Canada (for a very short time).

Photographer: Denise Grant
© Denise Grant
Photo courtesy of Rt. Hon. Kim Campbell
and the National Archives of Canada.

Can you name the Prime Ministers of Canada? Dennis Smith probably can.

He's the creative director for a new media company called 7th Floor Media and they produced first a CD and then an internet site that tells you everything you need to know about who has been in the hot seat trying to lead Canada since July 1, 1867.

We were talking about the kind of projects that 7th Floor Media works on which are typically focused on either education or culture and he mentioned a project from way back called The Prime Ministers of Canada.

It's worth checking out if you're Canadian if for no other reason than to remind yourself who they were. Or to forget, especially if we're referring to the present one.

Talking to Myself

-photo of the work of a calligraphy class at Ghost Ranch

Do you talk to yourself?

Is talking to yourself a sign of intelligence or are you just plainly disturbed? Is there such a thing as plainly disturbed? And, how do you know when you talk to yourself that you aren't disturbed? Because in some instances, it's a sign.

Maybe you're actually highly intelligent and as a result, you need to talk to yourself to sort out all your incredibly brilliant thoughts. Ya. just keep telling yourself that.

Children talk to themselves all the time. It's great fun to listen to them.

I ask these questions, rhetorically, because lately, I notice as I'm walking around that more and more people on the streets are talking to themselves. Not street people per se but just people who are walking down the street. Some days are worse than others and at times, it's as if the entire West End of Vancouver is having a personal conversation out loud. It's as if they've let the robots out and they've all been misprogrammed. Or, maybe they're actually on the phone but I don't see their headphones in their ears and I mistakenly think they are talking to me, only to realize that they're not even looking at me.

I know I talk to myself. I talk to myself when I'm mad at myself or in the past when I've been particularly busy at work. People would come into my office and say, Are you talking to yourself again? And, I'd say, Yes. Of course. What's scary is that it seemed perfectly normal to me. In fact, when I stop talking to myself, when I'm completely quiet, that's when I really begin to get worried. I scare myself. It means I'm thinking way too much. And,that's always a dangerous thing.

The embarrassing part is when you don't know that you're talking to yourself and you're in the grocery store, looking at your list, picking at the wilted vegetables that look as if they've been grown in a test tube and you're having a running commentary about your grocery list with yourself and suddenly you realize someone is looking at you.

Or sometimes, you're driving and you're mad about something and you're having one of those two person, but there's only me in the car, monologues and you look beside you and you're being stared at by a cute little kid who's multitasking by picking his nose and watching you. Or worse yet, a cute guy. Watching you. Not picking his nose.

The scary part is when you're walking down the street and someone starts screaming obscenities because they appear to be suffering from some sort of mental illness in which they are having auditory hallucinations and in need of help and medication and they've come up behind you without warning. Your shoulders go up to your ears and you're just hoping they aren't carrying a hatchet raising it ready to strike a mere few feet behind you but you're too afraid to turn around and look.

There was a man with Tourettes Syndrome who used to wander around the West End and it was not unusual for him to come up behind people at a light while they waited to cross the street and suddenly start spewing a diatribe about the Nazis all the while pointing an accusatory finger emphasizing every syllable. The first time it happened to me I nearly had a heart attack. I wonder what happened to him?

If you start to carry around a little puppet or start acting like a ventriloquist then I'd say it's definitely reached a point of pathology. You might just want to nip that in the bud. Or, if you start to write speeches for yourself.

Otherwise, go for it. You might even learn something about yourself.

Like, for example, you might want to get more friends, you know, to talk to!

Were you saying something? I couldn't hear you. I was talking to myself.

And, as this post so clearly illustrates, I really have nothing to say tonight.

Some things really are best left unsaid. I'm sure you'd agree.

Reminder from Rumi

- Pacific Spirit Park, Vancouver, March 2008

I want to share with you another Rumi poem. I loved this one. In A Year with Rumi this poem was April 13th. May it speak to you in a way that matters to you.

An Evolving Course

We began as mineral
We emerged into plant life and into
the animal state, and then to being human.

And always we have forgotten our former states
except in early spring
when we dimly recall being green again.

That is how a young person turns
toward a teacher, how a baby leans
toward the breast, without knowing
the secret of its desire
yet turning instinctively.

So humankind is being led along
an evolving course through this migration
of intelligences, and though we seem
to be sleeping, there is an inner wakefulness
that directs the dream.

It will eventually startle us back
to the truth of who we are.

Day trippin' at the Zoo

-Greater Vancouver Zoo, April 2008

I spent the day yesterday at the Greater Vancouver Zoo with the supercalafragilistic John family. Peggy. Chris. Catherine. Catherine`s friend Rene. (No. 1 daughter, Courtenay, was in San Francisco on a band trip).

It was a lot of fun. You can walk around the site or take a little train like the one in Stanley Park that circles the site. You can ride a bike. You can take a small bus and go into areas that you can`t walk into that have bison and black bears and other animals.

My favourite part was seeing Shadow the grizzly bear that they rescued when she was orphaned as a cub. She was in fine form yesterday, playing in the water, running in her natural habitat, trying to rip down a tree, flipping rocks.

There were giraffes, rhinos, camels, a Siberian tiger, a lion and lots of other animals that I'd never even heard of.

It`s a great day trip when the sun's shining.

Know thyself? Huh?

There is no better time to "know thyself" than when you're looking for a new job. Well, maybe when you're walking down the aisle about to c-c-c-c-commit yourself to someone else; to enmesh your life with theirs, it would come in handy then as well.

This is especially true when you are moving ever so slightly, barely visibly, on the fringe of the 9-5. For example, you might know yourself well and internally the feelings inside will tell you whether you are doing the right thing for you. All those feelings could be saying, yes, absolutely, makes sense even when what you're doing might look a little strange from the outside looking in. But, given who you are, it's absolutely in line with what makes sense for you. I expect people who are not straight or who live some other "alternative lifestyle" know this feeling well.

When you are trying to make sense of what's right it helps to start being curious about other people's reactions and paying attention to those. It seems quite threatening for some people if they don't agree with how you're approaching a situation.

If there is one thing my father said to me that I have found very useful it's that "you can't live someone else's life. You can't spend their money". When you realize the truth in that statement, it's very freeing. It removes the tendency for your ego to compare your own situation to others which is truly a pointless exercise. You don't have their money. You aren't in their life. You can't even get into their head to the same degree they are in their own head. All we have is our own life. What are you going to do with yours? For me, lately, its more like, what am I going to do next week?

A couple of years ago I was at this event where there was a psychic. She did what she called psychometry - she took a piece of jewellery or some physical item such as rings, watches, glasses, necklaces from all the people in the audience and took them out one by one, asked who belonged to the item, and started doing a reading based solely on looking at you and feeling the energy from your personal item.

By the time she got to me, it was late. In fact, I was almost the last person to be read. She picked up my ring which had been my maternal grandmother's ring that had been passed down to my sister who left it to me when she died and said something along the lines of: Are you looking after someone? I'm getting that you're going to be caring for someone. "Well", I said "I'm kinda looking after my mother, she's elderly and she's not been very well but it hasn't been anything major as in major caregiving but she's the only one who comes to mind".

"No, I'm not getting that they will be elderly, necessarily," she said. "I just see that you caring for someone; looking after them. Children perhaps."

All the time she's saying this I'm thinking to myself, you must be picking up someone else's energy. I'm not a caregiver. I don't have any children. I'm not going to have children. That's not me at all. I don't want to look after anyone. I can barely look after myself. I'm the youngest in my family. You must have it all wrong lady. Maybe you're just tired.

Well, strangely enough, in the last few months, I keep thinking about what she said. It keeps coming back to me and I can't help but wonder why?

Because, it has not escaped my attention that the thing we most need to do but don't want to, is possibly the thing that will be brought into our reality to force us to do what we must to learn, to grow, to change, to face our fears, to take us to the place we need to be.

And, then there's the rent...!

Story time tag. You're it!

-Iona Beach Regional Park, March 2008

Okay kids. Listen up. We're going to play a little game. See that poll over there on the sidebar? The one where I asked you what 1 thing you would take to the deserted island. I gave you some choices. Well, bless your little hearts. Nine,count'em 9 of you have played with me. Yeaaa. Somebody IS out there. ET did call home.

But, now it gets better. I want to know why you chose the way you did from the list: Your best friend. Family. Johhny Depp. Matches. Scarlett Johannsen. A Mensa member. iPod. Because, here's the catch. You all assumed, probably, (because you watched too much Gilligan's Island as kids), that we'd be spending forever out there on that deserted island. WRONG. First of all, where on the friggin planet IS there a deserted island (especially one that Survivor hasn't already tracked down?) We got infrared. GPS. Satellites. We're lucky if we get a few hours of peace without the US military sendin' in the paratroupers.

That's why I chose Johhny Depp. If it's only one night. I want to spend it with someone I don't know since I already know what I know about those of you I know.

But, I notice your choices and it warms my heart to think that one of you actually chose matches. I think I know who that is. That's gotta be a male. No creepin to the other side on the Kinsey continuum for him. All male. I actually KNOW someone THAT practical? Who knew?

So what's your story? Why did you choose the way you did? Don't go gettin' all nervous. You get to stay anonymous! Nobody's going to find out who you are ya little wallflower.

Anyway, tell us why you chose the way you did. What was the thinking behind your choice. All you have to do is write it in the comments section. Choose anonymous from the little choices. It's the one at the bottom of the comment form.

Maybe you chose family because you have something really important to discuss with your mother-in-law. Maybe you chose your husband because he's a workaholic and it's the only way you could get him alone for a few hours. Maybe you chose someone who drives you nuts and you think, if only you were stuck together on a deserted island you would have to work it out. Tells us why you chose the way you did. Maybe you chose the way you did because let's face it, the choices sucked. ha. Work with me here...it will be fun.

Click on comment. Keep it short (says she who never does). Keep it anonymous. This sandbox is big enough for all of us wallflowers. Really!

Hope Beyond Hope

- Stanley Park, March 2008

Faith Sees the Invisible
- anonymous
Have you ever been on the fringe of a problem that seems so difficult that no matter how much you think about it you’re having trouble figuring out what you can do to help provide some resources or scenarios for someone else that might make a difference?

And, even when you do attempt to provide suggestions, it’s as if they are stuck in some never-ending loop because they don’t appear, at this point in time, to have the personal resources, the insights, the inner strength, the openness to create the changes they need to make in their life to make things better? And, the only reason they don't appear to is because their mind won't let them?

I think about the people I have chosen as friends. I’m not aware that we have any significant disabilities but that’s not to say that there haven’t been a few curve balls. We have jobs or the abilities to find a job. We have friends. We’re intelligent. We have some type of emotional support from at least one other person. We have experienced love or what felt like a reasonable facsimile. In general, we have been treated relatively gently by the universe and we’re still here aren’t we?

But, what if you know someone in which that isn’t the case? Someone who hasn’t been treated that gently? And, what if they’re not young anymore and you just don’t know where to turn to find a way to help them help themselves? What do you do when you know serious issues from their childhood, which have never been properly resolved and which can no longer be kept at bay, have brought them to this point? Their negative perceptions of them self and others have kept them in their self-imposed prison which is growing ever smaller and closing in on them.

And, as I write that, I realize that it’s always our self-imposed prisons as a result of our perceptions that determine our reality. I’ve experienced it firsthand. Change your thoughts and perceptions and truly change your life. It sounds so simple and although I’m not always very good at practicing it, it can be as simple as you decide it is. Choose!

Unfortunately, it’s not an understanding that can be imposed from the outside; that can be given from one person to the other. And, sometimes it can take years of “good” therapy in a system where the odds of finding that seem right up there with the odds of winning the lottery.

As this situation has been weighing on my mind I’m reminded that in wellness the last thing we do is give away our personal power to someone else; the power to control our destiny, to make decisions for better or worse. And yet, when we’re not well, that faith in our own ability to make decisions for ourselves seems to be the first thing to go. In the end, believing that you have the power to take control of your life, that you have everything you need inside of you to create a life that’s meaningful to you, seems pretty paramount to well-being.

When I worked at Riverview, I remember a psychiatrist there. I asked him how he kept going when faced with trying to help people who seemed to have layer upon layer of issues that seemed irresolvable. And he said, “No matter what, you have to have hope.” You can’t predict how people will find their way to a place that’s workable for them. You have to have hope for them.

I think of the few people whom I’ve met who seem to have had a charmed existence. On the outside, it would seem as if they have never been brought to their knees. Sometimes, as a result, they can seem arrogant and their use of spiritual clichés, annoyingly so, seem dismissive of real difficulties that other people have had or are experiencing.

It gets a little more real, however, when someone’s path that intersects with yours directly is coming to you in a way that means you need to be able to be helpful and comforting. You need to find some answers to the question: What can I do? And, you know that you need to find answers because you genuinely want their pain to be alleviated while at the same time you need to be protectively selfish so as not to get bogged down by them yourself.

You could say, well, that’s just their journey. You could tell yourself that it’s their way of being faced with the lessons they are here to learn. But, what if you have witnessed a lifetime of sadness because you are related to them and as a result you can at least understand, better than others, how they got to be the way they are.

And, what if, at the same time, you know that in comparison to what’s out there, they are one of the lucky ones. If only their past had not coloured all their perceptions, negatively. If only the past had not made it so difficult for them to trust and to receive so that they could step out of their self-imposed prison more easily. If only they could open their mind, reach out their hands and put behind them the story they’ve spent a lifetime cultivating so instead of clinging to it in fear with all their will, they could focus their energy on creating a new story in line with the present reality while they still have time, while they are still here, in a physical body, on earth.

And as I write that I think, but that’s the challenge for all of us isn’t it, regardless of our circumstances?

Puppy Love

-Granville Street, Vancouver, April 2008

Downtown yesterday and spotted this very tired puppy with his very tired master. At least they each have someone to love.

A Passion for Shipspotting

-from Prospect Point, Stanley Park, April 2008

Enthusiasm really is contagious. I have a friend named Neil. I met Neil in a coffee shop about 13 years ago. We've done a lot of walking and talking, some cycling, even camping once, and we've been friends ever since.

One of Neil's passions is shipspotting. When you walk around the Stanley Park seawall with Neil, those freighters in the harbour aren't just big, big boats (blasphemy, sorry Neil), they have a history, an owner, a personality. He knows when they leave and what country they are registered in and who owns them. He knows what flag is flying and what type of cargo they're carrying. He knows where they're going next. He passes the binoculars to you and describes in detail why that particular ship is unique.

I swear he's a walking small business. I see walking tours for tourists. I see a blog. I see photography specializing in ships. In my mind, I've got three full time jobs lined up for Neil (heck, he needs to start advertising for staff already) and he hasn't even retired yet. I'm not sure why he's still working at his day job really! There's no time to waste on that old thing. Been there. Done that. So over it.

As a result of this passion he spends a lot of time at Prospect Point and he's beginning to amass quite the photo album of ship photos.

Today, he dropped by after an afternoon of shipspotting and I continued with my pitch for how he could supplement his retirement income by setting up a blog dedicated solely to shipspotting. It's perfect, I say. It's a highly focused topic. It's got ready-made content that's forever being refreshed every time a ship comes in and out of the harbour. You know there's already an international interest in the topic because of the number of people on Shipspotting.com. All you have to do is post a photo a day or on some consistent schedule and voila, soon you will have 15,000 people reading your blog because they will have found out about it from shipspotting.com. Maybe then you could get advertising and you're finally doing what you love and making money too.

"What about if I want to take a few days off?" he asks. "That's a pretty big commitment," he says. "What if I only want to do a Saturday blog?"

Let's just say, I'm not sure I've convinced him yet. Until I do you can still learn a lot more about what's coming in and out of Vancouver's harbour by looking at his photos and reading what he has to say.

Wanderings with Rumi

-in Stanley Park, April 2008

Our Closeness

"Friend, our closeness is this.
Anywhere you put your foot
feel me in the firmness under you.

How is it with this love,
I see your world and not you?"
- Rumi

Every day I read a poem from this fantastic book I have called A Year with Rumi which offers one of his poems for every day of the year.

I have to spend time mulling over the words, trying to figure out what they might mean but the pleasure lies in paying attention to how the words become relevant to something that is going on in my life.

And, strangely enough, inevitably, almost every poem, every daily reading, awakens in me a thought, a feeling, a question that helps, or gets me to consider and reconsider how I've been feeling about something that has been on my mind.

In Honour of April Fool's Day

“You will do foolish things, but do them with enthusiasm”.
- Colette (1873 - 1954), in New York World-Telegram and Sun, 1961