Brainteaser: Dial-A-Poem

Here is a brainteaser, a puzzle, for you to try to solve.

I met a traveller from an antique land . . . That is the first line of a sonnet (composed in 1817) by Percy Bysshe Shelley, a sonnet the title of which can be dialed on a cell phone as 699-626-3427. What is that sonnet's title?

To read the answer to this puzzle, and to read Shelley's sonnet, click on the following phone number: 699-626-3427.

Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822)

English poet

(Portrait by Alfred Clint, 1819)

A Puzzle! "Let's Do It"

Here is a brainteaser, a puzzle, for you to solve, if you can.

"My sole inspiration is a telephone call from a producer." So said the American composer, a famous songwriter, whose name can be dialed on a telephone as 265-376-7837. What is that famous songwriter's name?

To read the answer to this puzzle, click here.

Listen now to Lady Gaga singing "Let's Do It," a song that the composer whom I quoted above wrote.

I Just Called to Say I Love You

"I Just Called to Say I Love You" by Stevie Wonder was one of my mother Evelyn's favorite songs. Listen to it now.

A Face Devoid of Love

A face devoid of love or grace,

A hateful, hard, successful face,

A face with which a stone

Would feel as thoroughly at ease

As were they old acquaintances --

First time together thrown.

Emily Dickinson (1830-1886)

(This poem is in the public domain.)

The face of my hateful younger brother Roger:

"A face devoid of love . . . "

Friend

Don't walk in front of me -- I may not follow.

Don't walk behind me -- I may not lead.

Walk beside me --

And just be my friend.

Albert Camus

Bread Upon the Waters

 THE FINAL SAY

Quotations (from the Bible and James Baldwin)

in a pair for comparison

Cast thy bread upon the waters: for thou shalt find it after many days.

     --The Bible: Ecclesiastes 11:1 (King James Version)

In other words:

People who treat other people as less than human must not be surprised when the bread they have cast on the waters comes back to them, poisoned.

     --James Baldwin (1924-1987)

Read more about James Baldwin.