The Barcelos Rooster

Recently my friend Tony took a vacation trip to Portugal. He brought me back a small souvenir, a small ceramic statue of a red rooster. He told me it was a popular "tchotchke" of the country found everywhere you looked. I Googled it and found out it's the unofficial symbol of Portugal. It comes from an old national legend where the bird symbolizes the famous Portuguese love of life.
You can read the full legend here.
Here's the statue that commemorates the tale, found at the Archeological Museum in Barcelos, Portugal.



My statue is all red.



I thought it would look good on the small marble shelf above my stove...and it does!

Lyrical

My good friend Joe had some bad news recently. His elderly father passed away. Fortunately, he was able to spend his last few days with him in his home state of California. When Joe and his sister were packing up his father's belongings there was his collection of books on lyrics by the masters of 20th Century popular song, great artists like Cole Porter, Irving Berlin, Frank Loesser, and Lorenz Hart. Joe asked me if I'd like to have them and of course I jumped at the chance. He sent them to me cross-country and they're now happily ensconced on my shelves along with other large coffee table books. I love them and am glad they found a good home (thanks Joe!) :)