“Friendship is a pretty full-time occupation if you really are friendly with somebody. You can’t have too many friends because then you’re just not really friends.”
—- Truman Capote
Image by Steve Schapiro/Corbis
Imagine what author Truman Capote would have had to say about Facebook! (Although he would have worked it to the hilt, no doubt about that.) He led a crowded celebrity life with a multitude of acquaintances; but his great intimate lifelong friend was fellow author Harper Lee. Here is a glimpse of them together at the time of publication of In Cold Blood —
We have intimate friends whom we see all too rarely — they live in Cologne, Germany, and although over the course of 27 years we have managed to be together on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean, it hasn’t been so frequent. They are arriving in a few days, and they will be my full-time occupation while they are here. So I’m taking a break from blogging during that time, but to stay in touch with you, my newer but also precious blogging friends, I will be reprinting posts from a year ago September. Ironically, the post leading off this feast of friendship will be my most popular ever, Lonely Angel, with the amazing video, Free Hugs.
Look for it soon — Meanwhile, all my greetings, friends, bis bald, till soon —
Touch2Touch 
Ich auch … moi aussi! Taking a break. Have fun with your friends.
bis später … Tschüß 🙂
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Little known facts about well known people: Tschuess, Rebekah!
Und gute reise —-
😀
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Ich danke Dir 🙂
Many years ago I would have said «Ich danke Ihnen» but I think we’re over that now, huh?! 🙂
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I think so!
Ich denke—
(I don’t really know German, just what I’ve picked up here and there over the many years we’ve visited with these and other German friends. You’re a whiz, though!)
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…and I don’t know French at all, even though I said ‘moi aussi’. 🙂
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Could’ve fooled me!
You said it so authoritatively!!!!!!!
😉
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I know a whole slough of NOUNS, but cannot put a sentence together. Mostly food words, from the grocery stores, but also odd words like deneigement (snow removal). Totally meaningless 🙂
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I don’t agree —- you can communicate quite well with a whole bunch of nouns, a verb or two — always in the present tense, of course— and some flutters of hands!!!!
Nicht wahr? Non?
Ah so desuka!
😀
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Oh, and merci for deneigement, I love it.
I know a lot of French, but I didn’t know that one.
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Only once, I got totally stuck and had to give up. Went to the gas station to buy salt … the type you put outside on ice. Usually they have it outside, so you can just grab a bag, but not so this time. I went in, and the French word for ‘salt’ escaped me. Two young men, working there and I thought surely I can get by in English. No way. No matter what I did … didn’t work. So, I’ll never forget ‘sel’ again 🙂
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Maybe you already know this — but it’s a good story:
Salt was so important in the Middle Ages and even later — to preserve things, to flavor them —
that it was incredibly expensive. People would get paid wages in salt — hence, salary! (True etymology.)
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Learning languages on a need-to-know basis… My Greek is limited to “hello,” “a room with two beds (please),” and food, but in French it goes as far as “le radiateur est en panne” (the radiator is broken) – which happend during our honeymoon, just to make the trip a bit more adventurous… By the way, giving the chassis number of our car when ordering spare parts, the mechanic agreed: “Oui, c’est ancienne!” I did understand that!
Have a great time with your friends, Judith (as we hopefully will with our longstanding American friend by the end of September – what a coincidence!).
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Vive l’amitié!
Ja, Freundschaft!
(Love the “need-to-know basis” —;-)
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Oh how wonderful that you can spend some quality time with your friends. My husband and I get so homesick for our dear ones abroad. Meanwhile, as you are enjoying your break, I will enjoy getting to know you better through your backlist of posts.
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Namaste, Michele!
Do you feel a connection with certain countries because of your friends there? That is a special relationship — although all friendships, at home and abroad, are really special relationships!
Till soon, Judith
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Wishing you and your friends die Gemütlichkeit and thanking you for yours!
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Thanks so much, Patti!
Bis bald —-
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And such is the distinction between an acquaintance and a friend. An acquaintance is someone you spend time with when it’s convenient; a friend is someone you make time to spend with.
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A fair distinction to make —
I find sometimes I’m hard-pressed to make the time for some of the people I love the most. And those are frustrating periods —
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