December 2025 Madeline’s Christmas by Ludwig Bemelmans In an old house in Paris That was covered with vines Lived twelve little girls In two straight lines. They left the house at half-past nine In two straight lines, in rain or shine. The smallest one was MADELINE.   She was not afraid of mice She loved winter, snow and ice And to the tiger in the zoo Madeline just said . . .                “POOH POOH!” It was the night before Christmas And all through the house Not a creatu

December 2025 I’ll Never Find Another You by Tom Springfield There’s a new world somewhere   They call the promised land   And I’ll be there someday   If you will hold my hand.   I’ll still need you there beside me   No matter what I do   For I know I’ll never find another you.   There is always someone For each of us, they say   And you’ll be my someone   Forever and a day   I could search the whole world over   Until my life is through   But I know I’ll never find another y

December 2025 Bye Bye Blackbird Music by Ray Henderson, with lyrics by Mort Dixon French translation by Debra Milligan Blackbird, blackbird   Singing the blues all day   Right outside my door    Blackbird, oh blackbird   I gotta be on my way   To wherever there’s sunshine galore.   Pack up all my cares and woes,   Here I go Singing low   Bye bye, blackbird   Where somebody waits for me   Sugar is sweet and so is he   Bye bye, blackbird   No one here   Can love or understand m

30 November 2025   When Faith Faces Evil: The Winged Watchman by Hilda Van Stockum My journey to writing THE DAWN was not linear.  It was a circuitous series of intriguing steps, that led to other steps.  Each one granted me information and insights.  I was largely, if not completely, unaware of those creative dimensions until the summer of 2008 when I set out to compose THE DAWN.   Once I started to write this novel, I was in for a penny, in for a pound.  A very large pound!

30 November 2025 I awoke this morning, refreshed and recharged after a day of exhausting work, mentally, emotionally and physically.   Ah!  The wonders of a long winter’s nap, even when I’m not actually in pittoresque New England, and it’s not officially Winter!   Officially Anything has become a joke.  It’s been a joke for a long time, but no one was allowed to laugh:  The Prudes-In-Charge banned laughter.   It’s time for a little levity, in the midst of our woes.  And the w

24 November 2025 Yesterday, I commented to Dear Husband the lively exchange that comprised my introduction to a young man, an electronics technician for the Associated Press.  It was early summer when I ran into him (quite literally) in a soda shoppe in Washington, D.C.   “I’m a trouble-shooter,” He said.   “I’m a trouble-maker,” I replied.  “Please don’t shoot me.”   In the end, five long years later, I had to shoot him, metaphorically speaking.   “I don’t know if I’ve ever

21 November 2025 I will admit to having to catch up on Current Trends — periodically, regularly, routinely — since I was about twelve years of age.  It’s not been a Lather-Rinse-Repeat cycle, but it can feel that way a lot of the time.   During the summer of 2017, I encountered a hilarious online ad for Adobe software.  The satirically detailed, reality-focused marketing of the Hovering Art Director was perfect.  The acting was superb, the writing fantastic.  This selling-pro

20 November 2025 This morning, I came upon this passage from my translation review of Chapter 56, from THE DAWN into L’AUBE, presented here in the English:   Artur wondered if Camille truly was a widow, and if her widowhood was that small, tidy box which offered security to Camille but which also imposed restraint upon the brilliance of her illumination.  The small, tidy box compelled confinement, one which she initially might have embraced while sensing that circumscription,

16 November 2025 Just in Time Music by Jule Styne, with lyrics by Betty Comden and Adolph Green Just in time, I found you just in time   Before you came my time was running low   I was lost, the losing dice were tossed   My bridges all were crossed   No where to go   Now you’re here, Now I know Just where I’m going   No more doubt or fears I’ve found my way   For love came Just in time You found me Just in time   And changed my lonely life That lucky day.   Now you’re here  

Mid-November 2025 As I Love You by Jay Livingston and Ray Evans; changes by Debra Milligan I will love you as I love you,   All my life.   Every moment spent with you   Makes me more content with you.   Just as you are, you are all I could pray for.   All that you are, that’s what I wake up each day for.   Every single touch and tingle I adore   Every kiss from you to me seems so very new to me Each one warmer than the one before as I love you more and more.   I will love you

November 2025 By The Time I Get to Phoenix by Jimmy Webb; changes by Debra Milligan By the time I get to Phoenix   He’ll be rising   He’ll find the note I left hanging on his door.   He’ll laugh when he reads the part that says   “I’m leaving” Cause I’ve left that man so many times before.   By the time I make Albuquerque   He’ll be working   He’ll probably stop at lunch   And give me a call.   But he’ll just hear that phone keep on ringing Off the wall   That’s all.   By the

1 November 2025 Something Stupid by C. Carson Parks; changes by Debra Milligan I know you stand in line until I think I have the time   to spend an evening with you.   And if we go someplace to dance,   I know that there’s a chance I won’t be leaving with you.   Afterwards we drop into a quiet little place and have some tea for two   And then you go and spoil it all   By saying something stupid   Like, I love you.   You can see it in my eyes   That I despise the same old line

All Saints’ Day 2025 True Love by Cole Porter   I give to you and you give to me   True love, True love   So on and on, It will always be   True love, True love   For you and I have a guardian angel On high With nothing to do   But to give to you and to give to me   Love forever true.   Yes, you and I have a guardian angel On high   With nothing to do   But to give to you and to give to me   Love forever true   Love   Forever true.

1 November 2025 I bought a new dress the other day.  The garment was advertised/labeled as “Wedding Guest Dress”.   I laughed as I pulled the trigger on the online purchase.  The thing is semi-backless.  You tie two fabric sections in the back to create your own level of special and unique decency, or indecency, at the Sacred Event.   Weddings sure aren’t what they used to be.  Then again, neither are marriages!   I recall my own wedding.  One of my much older sisters served

29 October 2025 End-of-Year Resolutions: The Tanya Tucker Defense   Many years ago, I used to use the Tanya Tucker Defense to explain why things didn’t work out between Me and Older Guy.   “Well, he was older than me.  I thought he knew what he was doing.”   I tossed that one out by the time I was thirty.   I moved on to making resolutions, and I soon discovered that the ones I made at the End-of-the-Year were the most dicey.  I don’t know if it’s a matter of my instinctive

24 October 2025 Walk Away, René by Michael Brown, Bob Calilli, and Tony Sansone; Changes and French translation by Debra Milligan And when I see the sign that points one way   The lot we used to pass by every day.   Just walk away, René   You won’t see me follow you back home.   The empty sidewalks on my block, they are not the same   You’re not to blame.   From deep inside, the tears I’m forced to cry From deep inside, the pain that I chose to hide.   Just walk away, René  

20 October 2025 Sitting by the Side of the Road Original version, Sentado à beira do caminho, by Roberto Carlos and Erasmo Carlos; Changes in English by Debra Milligan I can’t stay here waiting anymore for you to suddenly come back to me   So many cars and hurried trucks pass me by   I am sitting by the side of a never-ending road   My gaze wanders into the distance of a sad road   Where the sadness and nostalgia of your love still exist. And this Sun burning on my face is th

Halloween 2025 The Shadow of Your Smile Music by Johnny Mandel, with lyrics by Paul Francis Webster The shadow of your smile, when you are gone   Will color all my dreams and light the dawn.   Look into my eyes, my love, and see   All the lovely things you are to me.   Our wistful little star was far too high   A teardrop kissed your lips and so did I Now when I remember spring All the joy that love can bring   I will be remembering   The shadow of your smile.   One day we wa

15 October 2025 There are times when I look at the state of the State of California, and I alternate between laughing and not laughing.  I don’t cry because the Golden State is not worth my tears.  This vast domain has always been a loony legislative playground for Marxists Under the Dome.  The rest of us, the hard-working citizens who live outside of the urban zones, and way beyond the coast, we do our best to ignore the parasites, survive them, triumph over them.   The late

14 October 2025 Hi-Lili, Hi-Lo Music by Bronislaw Kaper, with lyrics by Helen Deutsch; French translation by Debra Milligan   A song of love is a sad song Hi-lili, hi-lili, hi-lo A song of love is a song of woe Don’t ask me how I know   A song of love is a sad song For I have loved and it’s so   I sit at the window and watch the rain Hi-lili, hi-lili, hi-lo   Tomorrow, I’ll probably love again Hi-lili, hi-lili, hi-lo   On every tree there sits a bird, singing a song of love