Mae West

Mae West (pictured) is probably most well-known for being a Hollywood sex symbol and tossing off risqué one-liners as easily as batting an eyelash.

But she was also a studious and industrious writer, writing and collecting more than twenty thousand jokes over four decades. She was a playwright as well as a movie star. She only made nine movies, but she received writing credit for five of them, and is single-handedly credited with saving Paramount Studios from bankruptcy. In every movie she was ever in, she insisted on creative control over all of her dialogue.

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THE WIT AND WISDOM OF MAE WEST

"It's not the men in my life that counts, it's the life in my men."

"A woman in love can't be reasonable ... or she probably wouldn't be in love."

"Too much of a good thing can be wonderful."

"His mother should have thrown him out and kept the stork."

"Sex didn't begin in Hollywood, it just went there to get in the movies."

"I only like two kinds of men. Domestic and imported."

"Say what you like about long dresses, but they cover a multitude of shins."

"You only live once, but if you do it right, once is enough."

"She's the kind of girl who climbed the ladder of success wrong by wrong."

"A man in love is like a clipped coupon; and it's time to cash in."

"Too many girls follow the line of least resistance ... but a good line is hard to resist."

[selected from all over the web; too many sources to list]

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My band has a "special guest appearance" at a big community event this evening, followed by another busy weekend with friends and our church family. And I know Lent is underway. Usually I mark the occasion in my post. This year a snowstorm blitzed through the area on Ash Wednesday and dumped nearly a foot of snow, canceling *everything* that evening and school for the rest of this week. A Catholic friend told me that this is the earliest Lent has started in the past 160 years, and it will be at least that long before it comes this early in the calendar again.

But on Monday, I'm thinking of writing a post on "What *NOT* to give up for Lent." I welcome your suggestions, but get them in this weekend, people. Stat!

I'll see you on Monday.

Mark

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WEB SITE of the WEEK: Find everything you ever wanted to know - and then a whole lot more - about salt at http://www.saltinstitute.org. Click the "Major Uses" link, then the "Consumer Tips on Using Salt" link to find out some neat things salt can do. Like putting some in with your boiling eggs will make them peel more easily. Or a pinch in your brewed coffee helps to remove the bitterness. Or place several handfuls in a tub of warm water and soak for ten minutes to help ease and remove fatigue. The site says there are more than 14,000 uses for salt.

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WORDS for YOUR WEEKEND: "Education is the best provision for old age." (Aristotle)