"When you sing

there is no distance 

so let your love

be known"

--Bono

https://www.instagram.com/tv/B92YsciHcUu/?utm_source=ig_embed

Thanks, Bono!  :)

What to say? Al’s impersonation of Bernie Sanders could have been mistaken for Bernie, to my ears, except for a little bit of the speech’s wording. Both Al and Lawrence broke out with their original accents. Lawrence said that he got bored with football in his mid-twenties and hasn’t watched it since. At no point did Al start calling Lawrence, “Larry,” (thank you, Al!). Lawrence’s lack of ambition and uncanny knack for stumbling into opportunities, as well as his ability to build on these serendipitous…

Email me at wendylanders@wendylanders.com.

I'd love a chance to correspond with readers about Improvising to Beat the Band.

I went to Pima's Zoo Lights night, and I'm really glad I did. It wasn't that crowded, although attendees said it had been in the past. There were free cookies and cocoa. I got a complimentary picture made (not with Santa, but I was tempted). 

I had my face painted. I even got a little kid's blinking glow light ring. I had no shame. The tuba embemble played at the entrance, and the guitar ensemble played while people waited in line to get their picture taken. 

There was artificial snow blowing around small…

Work Without Hope, written by Samuel Taylor Coleridge, published in The Bijou: An Annual of Literature and The Arts in 1825.

All Nature seems at work. Slugs leave their lair— 
The bees are stirring—birds are on the wing— 
And Winter, slumbering in the open air, 
Wears on his smiling face a dream of Spring! 
And I, the while, the sole unbusy thing, 
Nor honey make, nor pair, nor build, nor sing. 

Yet well I ken the banks where amaranths blow, 
Have traced the fount whence streams of nectar flow. 
Bloom, O ye…

I really like U2's new single, Ahimsa.  It's very contemplative.

A Taste of Casa Grande is the yearly fundraiser for Against Abuse. Restaurants in Casa Grande, Arizona have dozens of booths inside Eva's Mexican Restaurant. I eat more there than I do at Thanksgiving. It ends with the biggest raffle I have seen.

This short story by Kate Chopin was written in the Louisiana Bayou country in the late 1890s. It was published in Vogue, and is considered to be a forerunner of modern feminism. Fifteen dollars back then would be getting close to $500 today. Blowing it all one afternoon in town would be hard to justify in a society where women were expected to sacrifice for their families. It is reminiscent of the 1980s "shop 'till you drop" mentality. It's interesting that pretending to have money again for an afternoon…

I just watched the Ghost Adventures episode that took place near where I live. Freakish, yet it explains a lot.

I didn't actually have a "free day" on Amazon on Wednesday, Sept. 11, 2019, although I did give away a copy of Improvising to Beat the Band anyway. When I looked at Amazon that day, my book wasn't listed as a promotional day, so no error there.

A big thanks to whoever it was who had system administration privileges to download it! Like I mentioned in my acknowledgments, I appreciate the encouragement. I hope you get as much out of reading it as I got out of writing it.