My Virtual Reading Room

From elle_belle10 's beautiful LJ:
**

Mourning's at Eight-Thirty

OR, A HEADLINE A DAY KEEPS EUPHORIA AWAY

'Tis day. I waken, full of cheer,
And cast the nightmare's shackle.
Hark, hark! the sanguine lark I hear
Or possibly the grackle.

Phoebus arises. So do I;
Then, tuneful from the shower,
Descend with head and courage high
To greet the breakfast hour.

All's well with my new world. I seem
A mover and a shaper
Till from the doorstep with the cream
I fetch the morning paper--

Till I fetch in the paper and my hopes begin to bleed.
There's a famine on the Danube, there's a crisis on the Tweed.
And the foes of peace are clever,
And my bonds no good whatever,
And I wish that I had never
Learned to read.

( Read more... )

"...Acting doesn't allow you to grow old in the accepted sense. Of course wrinkles appear, and bones may not be quite so supple, but if you are in a room full of actors in their later years, you will be conscious of an extraordinary youthful energy.  It is invigorating to be with those people. Actors never give up. Their questing is eternal. This is both touching and brave. For most actors, the fear of being out of work continues to the end of their lives. Even if this may be a painful experience, it energises them. They keep in touch with what is going on, and cobwebs do not enshroud them."

(Anna Massey, in "Telling Some Tales")