"These quarrels must be quietly debated." (Titus Andronicus)

.....Cuzzzzzin Ruth commented on my previous blog that no one but she appears to be writing comments.  Well, that's scary.  It's like the saying "If a tree falls in the forest, does it make a sound?" ...or something like that.  I know I have been working on a book, so I have neglected blog writing.  Perhaps readers have become tired of looking for something to read on this venue.  I confess I'm not sure how to notify them.  Maybe I'll send an email to all my past readers...that is, except for my good friend Phil who has decided never again to read my blog.  So, then--that is a severe loss because in the past five years he has been one of the best of commentators.  He will be missed.  I'm not sure of his reasoning. A friend should bear a friend's infirmities, but Brutus makes mine greater than they are. (Thank you, Cassius...I will invite you to my Facebook and Twitter).  


.....As far as my novel is concerned, I guess that I am not a great novel writer because I have my characters stuck in 1776 at an Inn in Pennsylvania after accompanying George Washington in his venture across the Delaware to combat Hessians living on the other side as allies of the British Redcoats.  I have no idea why Hessians are doing that.  Oh, I do know why they are doing that; I do do research, but I don't know why are doing that for the reason they are doing that.  For one thing, they could get killed--which they were when Washington surprised and defeated them in a battle after he and his bedraggled Confederate Army won a decisive victory.  The Hessians and Redcoats should have learned a lesson from that.  But it turned out that they didn't.  The Colonists eventually won the war, even without speaking German.  The British wasted their money hiring German soldiers; witness WWI and WWII.

.....As you may have gathered, the painting atop this blog is a Hessian soldier all decked out in a fancy uniform.  I didn't plan to have it where it is; I had no idea how to move it or to resize it. I'm not an engineer.  I'm just a poet--and oh, yes, also a teacher.  I hope all my lost readers will have learned a lesson once they get back here.