All aboard. People I very much appreciate:

Tuesday, July 30, 2019

Dang-d-dang-dang, Nearly Plum Forgot!


Good grief, it's July 30th and I nearly let this month go by without mentioning its real commemorative importance. I guess all the explosions of the blasted 4th cancelled my real reverence for it. Then Norma staggered in with a reminder. A fraction of which is piled on our kitchen counter:
Yes, plums is one thing, but somehow it reminded me of one of my favorite pieces of music that was released by the Marcels in July of 1961. Possibly one of the finest examples of vocal synchronization ever produced --ever! (Marcels, Blue Moon)


I turned 12 that year and, like most kids that age, could fall in love even when nobody else was around. I still celebrate Blue Moon:
I hope you do too.



Thursday, July 18, 2019

Why Does Hercules Always Look Like He Got Dressed In A Hurry?

One thing being another and what they are, I decided to repost  this old thing from 10 years ago under the title above. When I started this blog I hoped things would get better in the Middle East --on general principle and personal experience. 52 years ago I lived with 3 other guys at Palomar Apartments. We lived across the pool from 4 Lebanese students. We'd get together and play a kind of water polo with a volley ball. They were just as goofy as we were --the same except they had holes in them, stitched and healed over. We learned they had been made to operate machine guns at age 12 or so. They also said, "America, don't send troops into Middle East; you never get out!"

So, let us time travel:

Tuesday, December 22, 2009

Armed Religion

Last January, Israel's Welfare Minister, Isaac Herzog, said his country aimed to prevent an "over-dramatization" of facts by fanning out its diplomatic corps to all corners of the globe to explain why it needed to bomb the Gaza Strip into a different grade of gravel. It was heralded as a battle for public opinion. I doubted it would go well. "Over-dramatization" is hard to avoid in all situations that cannot be exaggerated.

I thought, world will listen to spin and reject it, because people are choosing a more enlightened path for themselves. People are miserable with spin. Matthew Arnold wrote, "He who finds himself loses his misery" , which is a start. Quote only isolates end result of a long process that begins with facing the truth about one's self and can be very miserable indeed. It's personal, you see.

On an individual level I can only comment as an older man who finds himself in the grocery store with other older men. We are all creeds and colors, but that is superfluous in two places: the beer aisle and the chip aisle. There we are just older men in profound meditation, a subculture apart, bound by experience in the belief we know better than to believe we know better.

We even have the same physique. This is not genetics, but conditioning. Our chief form of exercise is kicking ourselves and this develops the same muscle groups. It is also outward and visible evidence that we know how to have pasts.

Problem with Middle East is too much past. Whoever was there first has to deal with everybody else who was there first too. They have aligned this absurdity with the disposition of their immortal souls, which any old guy in a grocery store will tell you is just silly. Result is, you get deevolution to whatever mental age children spend most of their time running at each other.

In fairness to children, they possess joy. They feel what Virginia Woolf likened to bursting from the schoolhouse door on the last day of  term: "sudden joy". Later, we find joy in finding chips, plain chips with no fancy-shmancy seasoning and health stuff in them, and calling all the other old guys over."They're here, bottom shelf, found 'em!" Then, as one, we shuffle off to the beer aisle, strong, joyous, united and search for...well, everybody likes a different beer. I like stout, others prefer pilsner, lager or some excellent non-alcoholic brews. At that point freedom is best served by divided forces and we accept that. Why is it so much easier in a grocery store?

Sunday, July 7, 2019

Enigma: Getting All Religious

Every night, before bed...
...I go out to the garden lamp where Darwin Doorbooger  awaits supper on the switchbox. He hasn't grown much over the years --the great pillar at his nose is 1/2 inch electrical conduit conducting current to the light. He's  maybe 5/8ths-inch long now.

"Hi, Darwin."
"Hi, Geo., stay back a bit."
"Reason?"
"There are bite-sized bugs, attracted to the lightbulb, that I really like."
"Sure thing, Darwin."
"What are you up to tonight, Geo.?"
"Well, it's 11 o'clock and I just captured a wolf-spider in a cup and card, then deposited him safely outdoors --where he can have a more rewarding life."
"I can't eat wolf-spiders. They're bigger than I am."
"That's not the point, Darwin, I did it so the spider could..."
"Nonsense, you did it because you humans think you must do God's work for Him!"
"Darwin, I could say I'm sorry you feel that way but one does not apologize to an insult."
"Oh it's just the hunger and the rattling I got from your recent holiday conducted with explosives."
" 'Sokay Darwin. I celebrated in peevish silence and checked all night for field fires. Our neighbors aren't all idiots but one's  all it takes."
"I know, Geo. I saw you (sniff). "
"Uh-huh. I love you too, Darwin."