nbsmithblog…random digressions and musings

One of the last posts this pedometer geek writer wrote, I mentioned that it was one hundred days until Christmas. It was already obvious (to me) since the requests for donations and the number of catalogues in the mail had proliferated.

Yesterday marks fifty days until the Christmas holiday, and the catalogues and the requests keep coming. Just yesterday there were three catalogues and seven requests for donations, which are down from two weeks ago when there was a day when at least eleven donation request letters were received.

In that pile of requests was one charity, which was unfamiliar to me. Frankly, I was shocked by the request. The last couple lines of the donation letter was a request for $19,500 (to ostensibly pay for a helicopter for a day to protect elephants from poachers). Don’t get me wrong. I think people who kill elephants for their tusks, thus leaving baby elephants without parents, is an abomination; however, I don’t have that kind of money. Even if I did, I could only see spending it to help family. As I mentioned in the earlier post, I must be on the Sucker’s List.

On the other hand, this pedometer geek now has received even more address labels, probably enough for two of my children’s lifetimes, not to mention my own.

As for the miscellanea, this pedometer geek poet has three photo haiga in the Johnson-Humrickhouse Museum of Coshocton, Ohio in a special exhibit through the end of December. The exhibit opened on October 5, 2025, but because of a previous engagement, my husband and I couldn’t attend; however, we intended to go the following week. It was not to be.   

My husband and I finally visited the museum on October 26 and saw the exhibit as well as the rest of the museum. Even without the special exhibit of haiga from haiku from poets from as far away as India, the museum was worth seeing. We easily spent a couple of hours looking at all the exhibits.

One of the haiga was originally published in Kokako #43 (and can be seen on a previous post) and a second haiga was originally published in Heterodox: Etymology (Hybrids in Japanese Inspired Micropoetics) edited by Jerome Berglund, and the third haiga was published originally in Enchanted Garden Haiku Journal in April 2024. The haiku was also translated into Romanian by the editor, Steliana Voicu, but I digress.

In some haiku happenings, this poet had several haiku selected for inclusion in the Haiku Foundation’s column, Haiku Dialogue, over the last couple months. Marietta McGregor, a guest editor, chose the following haiku for inclusion in the column:

high school talent show
playing Mary Had a Little Lamb
on beer bottles
~Nancy Brady, 2025

The newest guest editor, Deborah Karl-Brandt, selected the following haiku about music and feelings in last week’s column:

getting prepared
for a difficult day
Mortal Kombat 
~Nancy Brady, 2025

Thanks, Marietta and Deborah, for including these haiku with the other haiku poets’ haiku from around the globe. To read all the haiku, check out Haiku Dialogue at https://thehaikufoundation.org/

In a few days, it will be Veteran’s Day, and I appreciate all those who have served our country. Thank you for your service, both here and abroad!

Veteran’s Day
the silence
of white stones
~Nancy Brady, 2018

Published in Hedgerow #125, November 2018

“No generative AI was used in the conceptualization, planning, draft, or creation of this work, nor is permission granted for use in AI training.”