Howling Enigma

First, I thank Delores at thefeatherednest for awarding me the wolf. This award requires the following:

1. Add Semper Fidelis Award logo to blog. [It's up top]
2. Thank person who nominated you and link back to their blog.[Did that first]
3. Nominate five bloggers you consider part of your 'wolf pack'. [Will work on that now. It's complicated]
4. Post something special for each one of your nominees.[Yes]
5. Let your nominees know that they are nominated. [That's the complicated part]

I treasure each and every follower of this blog, and consider each a cornerstone to this effort because this effort is all corners. So I will confine myself to those members who receive little in the way of notice here but are in some way remarkable. I will post five names and write some special things about them, satisfying instruction #4. Understand, they are typical of the people I have sought out, on and off the internet, toward spending my retirement in the company of good minds --among which you all number-- and I hope you all visit and share with them.

No Guitar Music: Arno (Arnaud) Cahaigne is employed in the maritime, visiting, photographing places that few see outside his ports-of-call or his blog  --but Arno sees, and I trust his impressions . His text composition is sensitive, surreal and comprehensible --a poet in prose. Here is a line at random:
"Ok dear reader and dear reader (spectra, do you exist?), The scapegoat is dead, it does not solve anything. The other story behind the bed. I will, in this narrow corridor, look for the magic tavern. Where the stories are new and where you drink without paying." You don't get lines like that often enough.

Anitra Ford's Personal Blog: She writes:"You have reached the woman who was a model in the 60's, an actress in the 70's and wound up behind Door Number Three on The Price is Right. I now walk the beach and hike in the hills of Southern California -- and think of you, the one who might check into this blog and read a thing or two." I remembered her from an early film by Nicholas Meyer (who went on to write Star Trek movies and some of my favorite Conan Doyle pastiches). She is an accomplished hiker, keen intellect and observer, photographer and writer. I know good poetry when I read it, hers is . And she replies to comments in the most courteous and pleasant way.

Un Breve Instante No Tempo  Milton Ostetto describes himself: "A lover .... An intense vitality of family... Photography ... fine wine .. Friends .." And he does take the most wonderful photographs of scenes, seascapes and nature, but it is his depiction of people in everyday life, street scenes, crowd shots, individual impromptu portraits that catalogue an emotional range from joy to despair and all  degrees between. He is able to capture peoples' strengths in the most unexpected ways. I don't know the Portuguese word, or any other, for talents between detective and flâneur, but it would be appropriate to his powers of observation. A true artist.

Pinecone Stew: Harry Goaz --"Can act. Can ride a unicycle. Can make toast."-- is an actor of substantial experience, a busy rancher and presenter of enigmas. His excellent photos and curiously selected captions bear close attention, and reward it. As an appreciator of enigmas and trainrides, I feel he has scaled them as if they were twin peaks (incidentally, Harry portrayed Deputy Sheriff Andy  Brennan in "Twin Peaks"). Hint:  Do not neglect the labels under his posts.

Gwendoline: She is lovely, a grandmother, a gardener, a teacher and, like Arno, exceptionally tolerant of my French, which is at best American. By way of introduction, she writes, "Speaking little, you hear more. Natural, casual", and that does thematize her fascinating photographic essays into art, architecture, details of antiquated building and door hardware, garden design and progress --mainly in the Auvergne region but elsewhere as well--and wildlife. She is a keen observer and truly delightful writer. Recently, I learned she sometimes substitute-teaches a class of a colleague who is the mother of Audrey Tautou.

So, I have recommended five people, as instructed by the lone-wolf award, but I could write all night about everyone with whom I am connected on Blogger. All are remarkable in their success at insightful progress, making sense of the forces that shape our lives, people they know and people they are. They have worked long and hard at it. They have pasts and have learned how to have pasts. They do not belong merely to the prickley cult of now. They seek an informed view of the future.

I will depart from the Malthusian geometry of choosing five recipients and close with an important question to all dear readers. On July 1st, Google Reader will be deactivated. I have tried to learn and understand whether or not this will impact related functions. I'm clueless here. There's a column on my dashboard that is headed "Reading list | All blogs". It has current, updated, pics and text snippets of blogs I follow. I click on them to visit the site. Is that going away? I used to have a thing called "Google Reader" that had whole texts and was accessible from my Gmail. Haven't been able to find that for a month or two, but seldom used it when I could. Figured that's all I was losing. Is this something more? Will I lose my blogroll? Will I lose my links to you? I worry. Ladies and gentlemen, please advise!