Article Last Updated: 03/14/2008 12:08:09 PM EDT

John Lennon wrote notes down on a piece of paper and when he had enough, he had a book. Carl Palmieri has been doing that for years. He has written down sayings and words of wisdom from his mother, father, other family members, friends and employees for years. He has taken all this advice and collected it into a series of books.

On Wednesday at 7 p.m., Springhouse Road resident Palmieri will join a roundtable of local authors in a presentation of their books at the new monthly event at Borders, 1499 Post Road. Palmieri will discuss two of his books, "Phil In His Words: Our Dad" and "Josephine, in Her Words: Our Mom."

"I have had an affinity towards the words," said Palmieri, who retired last year as head of Computer Resolutions, a company he founded. The Shelton company is now run by one of his sons.

"The reality is that there is much wisdom out there from ordinary people," said Palmieri, who started collecting quotes in 1962. He was inspired by the "tongue-in-cheek" witticisms that appeared on the back of the tag of the Salada tea bag that he recalled growing up.

This year, Palmieri whose parents were farmers in Westport, where his mother, now 92, and his brother, Frank, still run the family-owned Palmieri's Nursery on Main Street plans to publish four more books on the topics of relationships, money, sex and intimacy, and success. All these books offer collections of short, at times pithy, bits of advice to help people navigate the often difficult journey through life.

Palmieri has turned to these bits of advice to rid himself of addictions, including alcohol and food, and, he said, in certain circumstances, gambling. Equipping himself with the advice from others and the lessons he learned from his own experiences overcoming his addictions, Palmieri devotes his time in retirement to helping others follow 12-step programs to break their addictions. Sadly, he was unable to help two of his three brothers, who had food problems, overcome their own addictions. All three brothers had weighed more than 350 pounds each. His brother, Joe, died at age 58 in 2003. Nine months later, Vinny, died at 62. Today, Carl himself, at 65, is 5 feet 8 inches and weighs 170. His weight has been as high as 211.

His books of wisdom, some from family and friends and some from well-known authors and resources, are helpful for anyone. In the collection of sayings from his mother, he also includes words from Galileo, Abraham Lincoln, Pope John Paul, II, Gandhi and the Dalai Lama.

Sayings range from the serious to the lighthearted, such as "Four basic food groups include milk chocolate, dark chocolate, white chocolate and chocolate truffles." And similarly, Mark Twain wrote: "Part of the success in life is to eat what you like and let the food fight it out inside."

On a more serious note, Josephine said, "The best part of life is all the time." Think about it.

"Phil, In His Words: Our Dad" not only offers words of wisdom but also reflections and remembrances of his father coming to this country at age 15 in 1930 and having to earn a living when his own father returned to Italy. The book is presented in an interactive manner that gives readers an opportunity to record their own memories of their fathers.

One example of his father's advice that Palmieri recalls is when he told him, "It is easier to push a pencil than a wheelbarrow." In the book, Palmieri writes: "This stuck with me throughout my whole life, and there were times when I thought he was wrong. I even said that when my brothers got old maybe they would have bad back or be sore, while I often said that the ones pushing a pencil would have their minds shot."

His father offered another bit of advice: "If you work hard and mind your own business, nobody can beat you." In the book, Palmieri writes: "Dad believed in working hard; that made the difference between him and other men who were not willing to work up to Dad's level. Dad also believed in working smart; he believed that working hard and working smart made it so that you could not be beaten."

In addition to his inspiration and self-help books, Palmieri has a literary agent shopping around a novel about the gambling industry, which he has been trying to get published since 1999. He said the book is also about organized crime's attempt to infiltrate the political system.

As a child, Palmieri lived in an old mansion on Richmondville Avenue in Westport, which belonged to the owner of Lee's Mill, where his father had worked before establishing his own farmlands. The Palmieri family was one of six related families that occupied the mansion. After he received a bachelor's degree in business administration from the University of Bridgeport, Palmieri, whose nickname is "Tuchy," began his career marketing and installing accounting computers for the Burroughs Corporation. In 1987, he started his own computer business.

In the past two years, Palmieri has published seven books through BookSurge that offer self-help and inspiration for people and specific advice for people in recovery, especially those dealing with food issues. They include "Off the Wall Contrarian Quotes for People In Recovery" and "The Food Contrarian: Quotes for People Recovering From or Dealing with Eating Issues." He and his wife, Susan, conduct seminars giving people inspiration. Currently, he helps people through a 12-step program for overeaters at Norwalk Hospital.

 (c) Tuchy palmieri 2009

 look inside the food contrarian on Amazon .com

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