Two things

I was listening to Kaleidoscope, a radio program I'd listened to when I was growing up 50 years ago.  Today's show recalled highlights in the life of Edward R. Murrow.  He died at age 57 of lung cancer, the fate of many heavy smokers, when I was 9.

Kaleidoscope used the quote in the screen shot above, a quote I'd never heard.  I typed it in a text editor and saved it while some music played between audio paragraphs of the program, then searched for it online.  

Not only did the search turn up the quote, but I was able to download a PDF of the book it came from, Prime Time: The Life of Edward R Murrow.  I would have been happy with a simple citation, confirming that I'd transcribed it correctly, so acquiring the book about the journalist who did so much in the 1940's and 1950's was an unexpected added benefit.  Being able to do that in an instant, using the internet as an enormous reference library, leaves me mentally in monosyllables:  "Wow."  

It struck me that's how I write, too.  Until I heard that quote, I hadn't thought about it in those terms.  But the writing I've done for Tabby's Place, the descriptions of cats for the website and the correspondent letters for the special needs cats, it has been dependent on observing the cat and its surroundings.  If I witness it, I can describe it.  Making stuff up isn't the way I work.