All Rise for the Letter A!

October 29, 2021March 18, 2022 ~ jama ~ 38 Comments

#60 in an ongoing series of posts celebrating the alphabet

Any poet who so jubilantly sings the praises of the letter A is a poet after my own heart.

THE LETTER A
by Darren Sardelli

The letter A is awesome!
It's arguably the best.
Without an A, you could not get
an A+ on a test.
You’d never see an acrobat
or eat an apple pie.
You couldn’t be an astronaut
or kiss your aunt goodbye.
An antelope would not exist.
An ape would be unknown.
You’d never hear a person
say “Afraid” or “All Alone”.
The A’s in avocado
would completely disappear
and certain words would be forgot
like “ankle”, “arm”, and “ear”.

Without the A, you couldn’t aim
an arrow in the air.
You wouldn’t ask for apricots
or almonds at a fair.
Aruba and Australia
would be missing from a map.
You’d never use an ATM,
an apron, or an app.
The arctic fox and aardvark
would be absent from the zoo,
and vowels, as you know them,
would be E, I, O, and U.
There wouldn’t be an A chord
on the instruments you play.
Let’s appreciate, admire,
and applaud the letter A!

~ Reprinted from Blast Off! (The School Magazine, 2016), posted by permission of the author.

How fun to consider some of the marvelous things we’d miss in the absence of A!

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“Letter Perfect” by Alice N. Persons

February 7, 2020February 7, 2020 ~ jama ~ 38 Comments

#58 in an ongoing series of posts celebrating the alphabet

I’ve always had a thing for the letter “O.” Hardworking and versatile with many shades of pronunciation in English, its simple circular shape (eternal and open) is pleasing to the eye. Lacking any sharp edges, smooth, amiable O is happy any side up and is always ready to roll.

As a distinctive exclamation, O is a word unto itself and knows how to command our attention in verse as well as song (Shakespeare was especially fond of O):

O Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo? (Romeo and Juliet)

O curse of marriage! (Othello)

O brave new world (The Tempest)

O that this too too solid flesh would melt (Hamlet)

O Captain! my Captain! Our fearful trip is done . . .(Walt Whitman)

O perfect Love, all human thought transcending (Dorothy F. Gurney)

Such heft, such strong emotion! Sometimes, only O will do. 🙂

If it seems like O is always looking at you, it’s because it evolved from the Egyptian hieroglyphic symbol for the human eye. And O is the only letter whose name creates its shape on the speaker’s lips.

Say it now: “O.”

Perfect letter, perfect love.

LETTER PERFECT
by Alice N. Persons

~ for Dennis Camire

let us praise O
so round, friendly,
the circle with no opening
a letter of distinction:
Ovid, Odysseus, Ozymandias
of odd instruments,
oboe and ocarina
traveler to exotic places — the
Orient, Odessa, Opalocka, Oz.
Imagine the peculiar all-O diet:
okra, olives, oatmeal, Oreos, oranges,
osso buco, or oolong tea!
The natural world would greatly miss O —
that ocelot in the oleander,
the owl perched in an oak
and the osprey winging over the orchard,
where an opossum feigns sleep.
Some O names make us laugh —
Ophelia Butt, Olive Oyl, Paddy O’Furniture,
Oprah as Orca
and think of the great Oscars —
Wilde, Levant, Peterson, Meyer, and
the sleek golden Hollywood prize.
Where would sexy writing be without
Oral, orgasm, onyx and opal, the story of O?
O, most perfect letter,
you contain so much that is important —
and best of all, you are always
in love.

~ from Never Say Never (Moon Pie Press, 2004)

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[tasty poem + recipe] From My Mother’s Kitchen: An Alphabet Poem by Pat Brisson

October 19, 2018October 18, 2018 ~ jama ~ 36 Comments

#57 in an ongoing series of posts celebrating the alphabet

By now, most of you know I’m a big fan of abecedarian poems.

Of course I like the foodie ones best. But food that mom used to make? Even better!

Many of the foods in Pat Brisson’s poem kindled fond childhood memories — times when “homemade,” “family,” and “love” flavored each delectable mouthful and provided enough nourishment to last a lifetime.

*Cinnamon Tapioca Pudding via Thinking Outside the Sandbox (click for recipe)*

FROM MY MOTHER’S KITCHEN: AN ALPHABET POEM
by Pat Brisson

Food my mother made for us
Food from A to Zed;
Food she baked and cooked and boiled
To keep her family fed.

Apple pie with a flaky crust made from Crisco,
Beef stew (with too much gristle),
Chocolate chip cookies from the Tollhouse recipe,
Dates stuffed with walnuts and coated with sugar,
Eggnog at Christmas time,
French toast with butter and cinnamon sugar,
Ginger ale (stirred until flat) for upset stomachs,
Hamburgers and hot dogs on the 4th of July,
Ice cream? Breyer’s coffee for her and Neapolitan for us,
Junket rennet custard, a slippery, slidey treat,
Ketchup on our meatloaf,
Ladyfingers with fresh strawberries and whipped cream,
Mincemeat pies at the holidays, (eaten only by the grown-ups),
Noodles, broad and buttery,
Oatmeal cookies flavored with lemon,
Potatoes, usually boiled,
Quick bread, mostly date and nut,
Ravioli from Chef Boyardee,
Spaghetti with meat sauce,
Tapioca pudding with cinnamon on top,
Upside down peach cake,
Vanilla pudding made from scratch, served over steamed apples and yellow cake,
Watermelon slices with too many seeds,
10X confectioners sugar dusted on top of lemon pound cake,
Yeast bread warm from the oven with butter melting into it,
Zwieback when we were very young.

Food my mother made for us
Food from A to Zed;
Food she baked and cooked and boiled
To keep her family fed.

*Strawberry Lady Shortcake via I’m Not a Cook*

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celebrating roald dahl’s 100th birthday with a foodie alphabet and an orange raspberry victoria sponge

September 13, 2016August 9, 2017 ~ jama ~ 43 Comments

#53 in an ongoing series of posts celebrating the alphabet.

HAPPY ROALD DAHL DAY!

It’s time to polish off a few tummyticklers, plushnuggets and globgobblers. Wash it all down with a big tall glass of frobscottle and you’re all set (no whizzpopping, please). 🙂

I was actually introduced to Roald Dahl’s writing by one of my high school students in Wimbledon. Danny M. (who made good chocolate chip cookies and scoped out a yummy bagel shop in Queensway) raved about a collection of Dahl’s adult short stories called Kiss Kiss. Though I do not have a taste for the macabre, I found the stories addictive and loved the surprise endings.

After I read as much of his adult fiction as I could find, I moved on to Dahl’s children’s books, impressed by the eyebrow-raising irreverence and sardonic wit, delighted by the clever, inventive wordplay and generous servings of lickswishy, delumptious treats. He was unlike any author I’d read in my childhood. There was nothing Pollyanna or namby pamby about any of his magical stories, and I liked his recurring themes of child empowerment, justice and retribution. He made it okay to be a nonconformist, appealing to the inner rebel in all of us.

Whenever I’m asked about my favorite food-related children’s books, the first that comes to mind is Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Here was every child’s dream come true — a world where everything was sweet and edible. I want my own Oompa-Loompas, and even if Mr. Wonka wouldn’t approve, just once I’d like to drink from his river of hot melted chocolate.

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just my type x 2

June 20, 2013September 26, 2017 ~ jama ~ 20 Comments

#46 in an ongoing series of posts celebrating the alphabet

Hey there, Font Freaks! Why the long typeface?

I’ve got just the thing to titillate your Times New Roman. That’s right — a double platter of tippy top typography today! (Say that fast five times.)

Those of us in love with the alphabet usually love to play with our fonts — after all, there’s one for every mood, every emotion, every occasion, every whim.

When I first set up this blog two years ago, I changed the standard fonts that came with my template. You’re now looking at Fertigo Pro in the blog title, Adelle for headings, Slab for general text. They all seemed friendlier somehow.

Lately, I’ve been quite partial to Lucida Bright or Bookman Old Style when drafting new stories in Word. I’m surprised how anti-creative some fonts can be (sorry, Impact). And I still don’t get all the flack about Comic Sans or Courier. Neither has ever stolen my chocolate. 🙂

On to today’s offerings.

* * *

First Bite

Behold the delightful work of art student Pranita Kocharekar of Mumbai, India. She’s studying typography and recently designed this wonderful illustrative typeface called, “Bird Watching,” which earned her a 2013 Typographer of the Year Award. She used upper and lower case A-Z, 0-9, and some punctuation, and she’s thinking of selling bags and vests featuring the design. Yay!

Pranita also created this delightful story called Lost in Typeland, which features two characters who befriend each other, the famous typeface Bodoni and a little girl. Too cool. Be sure to click here to read the entire story and view Pranita’s portfolio.

* * *

Second Bite

Check out this clever paper-letter animated short, “The History of Typography,” created by Ontario-based graphic designer Ben Barrett-Forrest. It consists of 291 paper letters, 2,454 photographs, and required 140 hours of work! So amazing, Bravo!