Author Archives

Opinionated writer with hopes for a better future for all plus a big helping of skepticism about humanity.

• How many states were trying to secede after the 2012 election?

  By Marilyn Armstrong on November 17, 2012 • ( 15 )

  Not one single state filed anything suggesting secession. Why? First, because no state government was stupid enough to lose the benefits they get from the central government. Secession is illegal. The Civil War decided the issue and there’s no going… Read More ›

• 1969 – It was a very good year.

  By Marilyn Armstrong on November 16, 2012 • ( 11 )

  

  1969. It was the year I grew wings. The world spun faster and everything changed. Neil Armstrong walked on the moon in July 1969. I watched it unfold. I was a new mommy with a 2 months old baby boy. Home… Read More ›

• What’s next for small town America?

  By Marilyn Armstrong on November 13, 2012 • ( 6 )

  

  It’s lovely out today. The sun is shining. We are having one of the warm weeks we sometimes get in November. These end abruptly when the jet stream drops down from the arctic. Until then, it’s delightful, springlike with a… Read More ›

• We Have Met the Enemy and He Is Us – Walt Kelly and Pogo

  By Marilyn Armstrong on November 12, 2012

  

  “We have met the enemy… and he is us” I receive many inquiries concerning this quote, so perhaps this page will answer most questions, and explain the origins. From the foreword to The Pogo Papers, Copyright 1952-53 “The publishers of this… Read More ›

• Vegan Witches At Work

  By Marilyn Armstrong on November 11, 2012 • ( 4 )

  

• Collateral Damage

  By Marilyn Armstrong on November 10, 2012 • ( 2 )

  

    Another anniversary of D-Day just passed. In case you didn’t notice, it was June 6, just a couple of weeks ago. We celebrate battles, invasion and victories. We honor our fighting men, our veterans and our departed soldiers. War… Read More ›

• The Last Best Autumn – 2008

  By Marilyn Armstrong on November 2, 2012 • ( 8 )

  

  I have been returning, over the years, to the same locations to shoot. If it weren’t for the data embedded in the file, I often wouldn’t be able to tell when they were taken. Except for the pictures I took… Read More ›

• Coney Island after Hurricane Sandy

  By Marilyn Armstrong on November 1, 2012 • ( 8 )

  

  See on Scoop.it – Forty Two: Life and Other Important Things CONEY ISLAND, NEW YORK—Despite rumors of looting in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, there was no evidence of mobs near the area’s famous boardwalk this afternoon. around the usually bustling… Read More ›

• Old Coney Island Impressions

  By Marilyn Armstrong on November 1, 2012 • ( 7 )

  

  Coney Island was back with new rides, glitzy, fancy and clean. They kept the  boardwalk, the Cyclone, and the Wonder Wheel, but replaced the other rides and got rid the polyglot food stands, losing much of the unique atmosphere of… Read More ›

• WHERE DO THE SWANS GO?

  By Marilyn Armstrong on October 28, 2012 • ( 17 )

  

  When the wind blows, when the rain falls, when the snow piles up, where do the swans go? Do they shiver in nests beneath tall trees? Do they hide under one another’s’ broad white wings? When the lake freezes over, how do… Read More ›

• Serendipity – The Swans Are Back

  By Marilyn Armstrong on October 26, 2012 • ( 4 )

  

  So today, I took serendipitous photographs of swans on an unnamed pond on the road whose name I don’t know. The road runs between Uxbridge, through Northbridge and Whitinsville, past the old mill and the High School through Webster. I’ve never… Read More ›

• How Come They Don’t Simply Open the Windows? A Film Maven’s Dialogue

  By Marilyn Armstrong on October 25, 2012 • ( 7 )

  

  Earlier today, my husband the movie maven wrote me and a few of his old TV pals. He had a question, perhaps one that has long needed answering. Given the cost and scarcity of panes of glass in Ye Olde… Read More ›

• Young Swans

  By Marilyn Armstrong on October 25, 2012 • ( 2 )

  

  These are from last year. I don’t know which of them I’ve published, but I think just one or two maybe and a while ago at that. These are immature mute swans. They will be white at maturity. These are… Read More ›

• MEETING A PRESIDENT

  By Marilyn Armstrong on October 18, 2012 • ( 3 )

  Back in 1993, a lifetime ago, our world was different. We were different. Whatever future we had in mind, I think we didn’t imagine the one in which we find ourselves. It had been a hard year. Licking our collective… Read More ›

• AND THEN, IT STARTED TO RAIN

  By Marilyn Armstrong on October 18, 2012 • ( 2 )

  

    Yesterday was lovely, but I didn’t go out. Today, I made sure to get to the sunshine and down to the dam. I was going on the theory that have had two dry days, I could be sure expecting… Read More ›

• The seasons, they go round and round …

  By Marilyn Armstrong on October 16, 2012 • ( 7 )

  

• October Country

  By Marilyn Armstrong on October 16, 2012 • ( 14 )

  

  Mid October would typically be when this region would be hitting peak color. We would be looking forward to another week or two of brilliant color, but the unpredictable New England weather  zapped us again. The leaves brightened early. It… Read More ›

• Humpty Dumpty — Through the Looking Glass, by Lewis Carroll

  By Marilyn Armstrong on October 12, 2012 • ( 6 )

  ‘When I use a word,’ Humpty Dumpty said, in rather a scornful tone, ‘it means just what I choose it to mean — neither more nor less.’ – ‘The question is,’ said Alice, ‘whether you can make words mean so many different things.’ –… Read More ›

• Everything You Wanted to Know About Everything Worth Knowing

  By Marilyn Armstrong on October 12, 2012 • ( 3 )

  I originally wrote this when I had more or less no readers. So, I figure it deserves another go round. It was fun to write and maybe you’ll find it fun to read. – I’m the kind of person who… Read More ›

• Do you remember Nunley’s?

  By Marilyn Armstrong on October 11, 2012 • ( 9 )

  

  – If you grew up or lived on Long Island sometime before and until the late 1980s, you’ll remember Nunley’s. When they closed and sold their wonderful old carousel that had an actual working Calliope, I tried to talk the city… Read More ›