The Roseledge Books Blog

Time to pack for Maine and clear the desk of clippings. The following weathered the several-month resting test for continued interest.

CONNECTIONS

Degrees of separation have dropped from 6 (remember Kevin Bacon?)to 4.74 which may — or may not — affect the number of steps to connect Tenants Harbor and the recent Kentucky Derby.  (The inference is  subtle.)  The real long shot was the mention/connection of Enid Bagnold who wrote National Velvet, a paperback copy of which RB will have later in the summer if it is currently published and being distributed. But clearly TH is in, of, and connected to a larger world of friends, neighbors, visitors, readers, et al.

Horses, and books, buoys and boats, all with special ties to the Harbor.

PLAGIARISM (curses!) updates

1. Bob Dylan was not sufficiently forthright in discussing who or what influenced his painting. Shoot. I expected more, especially when he was asked about it.

2. Quentin Rowan or Q. R. Markham in Assassins of Secrets seems to be more a pastiche-r than a plagiarizer, but without crediting sources for the parts, it’s still a big ick. (See New Yorker, Feb 13 and 20, 2012)  RB will have the book when or if it’s in paperback so readers can see how many abused sources they can spot.

3. Reviewer David Leavitt notes that Olaf Olafsson, in Restoration, “[minimizes] the obvious debt he owes [Iris] Origio….”  So RB will have Iris Orgio’s War in Val d’Orcia: an Italian War Diary, 1943-1944 for sure, then  you all can be ready to compare Ms. Origio’s book with Mr. Olafsson’s book when it is issued in paperback, probably next summer.

But, interestingly, reviewer Leavitt goes on to say,  “By far the most troubling — and interesting — problem [Olaf Olafsson's] Restoration addresses is the relationship between a work of art and the source material on which it draws…. Full disclosure: In 1993, I was sued by the poet Stephen Spender after I wrote a novel, “While England Sleeps,” based on an episode from his memoir “World Within World.” If I learned anything from that unhappy experience, it was that it’s essential for writers to acknowledge their sources fully and without hedging.”

4. LATEST ANTI-PLAGIARISM HEROES: Simon Dumenco (with a Council) and Maria Popova and Kelli Anderson (with a code of conduct) argue for the need to credit sources when aggregating content or developing it anew.  Also, Ms. Popovsa and Ms. Anderson have designed two symbols to put before the aggregated sources:
VIA which indicates big influence or a link of direct discovery;
HAT TIP which indicates a subtler significance or a link of indirect discovery, story lead or inspiration.

Here’s to A SUMMER OF FRONT PORCH TOASTS for these heroes, Simon Dumenco, Maria Popova, and Kelli Anderson, who know that good ideas come from thinkers who stood on the shoulders of giants who should be recognized.

The euonymus is gone, but Roseledge Books lives and is soon open.

I no more than get my new pacemaker installed, then re-installed (yes) and made checkable from afar, than someone is murdered on the television show NCIS when an Internet hacker figures out (from afar) how to make the poor guy’s pacemaker speed up until he dies.   I called Charlie to tell him to get busy and figure out how to make my pacemaker hacker-averse.  He sighed.  Now I read that my St. Jude Medical pacemaker may have wires that go amok. I called Charlie again. He thinks I should learn to talk Cyborg.  Good news outcomes:  I have more energy and I won’t nod off inapproprriately at Roseledge.  Now it’s time for me — and you — to be in Maine keeping tabs on the harbor.

Mainer friend Scott says Marshall Point is definitely the first lighthouse in the first Red Lobster commercial, which he knows because of the yellow house at the tip of Hupper’s Island which he was able to see because he cheated and looked up the commercial on (stop-and-start) You Tube because Red Lobster doesn’t advertise in Maine. Imagine that! As this is not fair, his conclusion doesn’t count and we still need on-site inspections, especially if he is going to climb the wind-shaped tree to get an “aerial” view which I think he should do to make amends. He is also sure that part of the commercial was filmed in Port Clyde Harbor, which probably requires either a kayaking expedition or dinner at the Dip Net to verify, and that the second lighthouse is Portland Head light which I think Edward Hopper also painted, so I was sort of right. But Edward Hopper’s Pemaquid Light is still worth a look.

All of Maine is worth a look, the closer and carefuller the better.

Another possible kayak outing for those Roseledge Books Regulars who
I know are kayakers and have promised they are coming in July
would be to construct an on-site water-trek of the Andrew Wyeth paintings in his current exhibit at the Farnsworth. Though it is titled Andrew Wyeth: Summers in Port Clyde: Watercolors from the 1930’s and Early 1940’s, a note notes that they were painted in Martinsville. This could make getting on the water a bit tricky, as public landings there are few. I hope the Farnsworth or someone publishes a paperback catalog to accompany the exhibit and maybe include a map of the painting sites.

Wouldn’t it be fun to find the sites from water (or land?) and see how 75 years has changed or not changed them? Changes in Maine are often subtle and usually pragmatic. Think of Maine farmhouses as they are amended, expanded and renewed over time.  Tenants Harbor has two lovely examples within an easy walk from RB.  Thomas C. Hubka’s Big House, Little House, Back House, Barn: The Connected Farm Buildings of New England is the best book I know on the subject and I hope RB will have it by the time you come by.

From the water, emphases change; but Roseledge Books remains outstanding.

Charlie has purchased the tickets for Maine.  We will arrive Sunday, May 27, just in time for the Memorial Day parade on Monday.  I hope you all can be there, too.  Andrew Greeley, the Jesuit sociologist at the U of Chicago’s National Opinion Research Center and romance novel writer, said about the Irish in his early ’70′s book, Why Can’t They Be Like Us? America’s White Ethnic Groups, that they were a people of contradictions.  The one I remember is that they expect the best and are not surprised when it doesn’t happen.  So mine is probably an Irish hope, but it’s my hope and I’m sticking to it.  See you soon.