Oddity after oddity keeps piling up in front of me, daring me to question why all these strangenesses are happening so closely together…. Therefore, going with standard policy, I won’t bother to even think about it, as I’m not in the habit of answering dares from reality….. I’m old enough to have learned the usual consequences of that sort of stupidity, & have no desire to spend the rest of the day dealing with whatever my stupidity has cost me, in terms of having to fix something that can generally found to be both real, and critical to my serenity of spirit…. elusive as that may be…..

Having thus dodged a number of bullets at once, I’ll head off into the wilds of Consensual Reality,to see what kind of mischief I can find….. I suppose it doesn’t HAVE to be mischievous, but, that’s the venue I end up choosing most often, and I’m not one to break tradition, as you know, without sufficient reason to do so….. We have NO reasons today, so, mischief it is, provided I can find any…. It isn’t very hard, most days…..

Of course, most days, I’ve got more than five functioning neurons to work with; this morning, my brain feels as if I swapped it out for a bowl of oatmeal, or something; I just can’t seem to get going faster than it takes to keep up with this little snail over here….. Oh, wait, that’s a hallucination…. Never mind….

No, actually, my brain IS pretty foggy today, a result of once again getting more sleep than I know what to do with…. I had an attack yesterday afternoon, where my back seized up for some unknown reason, putting me into severe grunting mode for about an hour and a half, until shortly after six o’clock, pip emma, when I gave up the fight against gravity, & trundled off to bed…. Once I found a comfortable position, I fell out almost immediately, oddly enough, and spent the next nine hours in a restless, but heavy sleep…. go figure.

Now, it’s a bit past 3 AM, and I am once more up, typing, and hoping to find a bit of clarity, or inspiration, both of which have thus far been well-hidden from my desperately seeking gaze…. The cat is happy, but, I’m a bit less than perfectly situated, attitude-wise…. I’m feeling a bit of a grump, actually, & finding it convenient that nobody else is about, as I’d be sorely tempted to take a big bite out of them, just for existing in my space…. As you can tell, I’m finding it a bit tough to gather my wits about me….

I suppose I’ll have to cut this off here…. It would be completely self-centered, and more egotistical than usual, for me to continue in this vein; probably isn’t very interesting for y’all either…. So, I’ll head out now, to go for a dive…. Maybe the peace and serenity that often settles over the oyster beds at this time of night will seep into my soul while I’m there, and help me find some peace of mind…. Or, maybe not…. I suppose we’ll see, won’t we? We always do….

Shall we Pearl?…..

“Some obstacles exist in order to challenge us. They are a test of our resolve.  Others however, are there to awaken us to the undesirability of a course of  action. Their purpose is to make us turn to some more fruitful path. The hard  part is telling one kind from the other. ” — Smart Bee

Sometimes, Smart Bee is smarter than others…. This pearl was the very first one that came up in front of me today…. As you can see, it is a PERFECT pearl for the introduction that precedes it, restating the gist of the entire six paragraphs in three short lines…. and, in the process, waking up my mind, with the shock of recognition….. My first thought, upon reading it, was, “Well, no shit!”…. a clear indication of how much I liked it….

Okay, we can go Pearl now….

“The moment of enlightenment is when a person’s dreams of possibilities become images of probabilities.” — Vic Braden
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Given the state of my intellect this morning, I’m not going to even attempt a rant until the third section…. I could hurt myself, as well as many of my Gentle Readers, in the state I’m in, if I tried to bring myself to the point needed to carry out one of those rather emotional episodes….. As cathartic as the experience may be, it’s still pretty volatile…. Since I’m well aware of my own (potential) lack of control today, we’ll skip right past a rant, to the next available old-school pearl we can put together on short notice…. Let’s not waste any more time, & get right to the dive, shall we?….

“So very difficult a matter is it to trace and find out the truth of anything by history.” — Plutarch (46-120 AD) — Life of Pericles

“Diogenes said once to a person who was showing him a dial, “It is a very useful thing to save a man from being too late for supper.” — Diogenes Laertius (c. 200 AD) — Menedemus, iii

“If the wind will not serve, take to the oars.” — Latin Proverb

“Morality is learned, not legislated.” — Smart Bee (at gigoid’s insistence…..)

“Bother!”, said Pooh, as he rolled another joint for the President. — Smart Bee

“Although it is tempting to resent disaster, there is not much use in doing so… Whether we remain ash or become the phoenix is up to us.” — Deng Ming-Dao

“The universe is not required to be in perfect harmony with human ambition.” — Carl Sagan

Not bad at all, even WITH the “one of these is NOT like the others”  entry, from Pooh…. but, I will point out, even that one has a point to make….
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I’m in the mood for Emily, so Shawna will have to skip over this section today…. (Sorry, S….)…. In fact, I’m SO in the mood for Emily, you get a two-fer….. Enjoy!…. I did….

“I have been thinking that I would make a proposition to my Republican friends…that if they will stop telling lies about the Democrats, we will stop telling the truth about them.” — Adlai Stevenson

I really, really love this; it’s a PERFECT political insult, and much closer to reality than most would care to admit…. Of course, both parties lie about each other, so, one must keep in mind that to be truly perfect, one must realize it works also in the opposite direction, swapping the position of the party names in the joke…. An all-purpose political insult is always good to find, to paraphrase Mae West….

My memories of Adlai Stevenson are vague, beginning as they do when I was very small; he was involved in national politics during the years following WWII, and after I was born in 1950, during the Korean conflict, which, thanks to my birth, my father was not required to attend (though he did get stationed in Japan AFTER that time, in 1954, when the US ARMY was still there in force, keeping a weather eye on the Japanese, AND on Korea…..) But, I do remember that he was the sworn enemy of Joe McCarthy, that bigoted paranoid who caused such a stir back in the early part of the second half of the century….

During those years, McCarthyites pounded the public awareness with all kinds of verbal garbage, trying to drum up the public’s fear of Commies and Pinkos…. I remember a lot of the rhetoric being bandied about then, and can only be glad that such nonsense didn’t last too long…. thanks to people such as Adlai, who, even back then, as a four to seven-year old, I could tell was hated by the McCarthy camp….. The vitriol with which they spoke of him was VICIOUS, and had the effect of convincing me, and probably several adults, his was a voice of reason, one who spoke gently, clearly, and with intelligence, in contrast to all the loud, bombastic, ignorant bullshit being flung about by the idiot Senator and his cronies….

Today, of course, our political legacy from the past is one of unadulterated fiction; in my admittedly critical point of view, there isn’t a single elected official among the 455 men and women who sit in our federal government (SOTUS, HoROTUS, pOTUS, vpOTUS, & 12 judges on the SCOTUS….) who speaks to the public with only the truth to guide their words…. all of which is a long winded way of saying they ALL lie to the public, regularly, and consistently….

If you have evidence to the contrary, PLEASE, PLEASE, show it to me…. I honestly would LOVE to see some conclusive proof that even ONE of our elected officials habitually tells the truth when making statements to the press…. Just ONE would be good… It would imply the potential presence of others, which would be a big improvement over what we have now, which is a big ZERO….

SIGH…. I’m ranting, aren’t I? I didn’t even notice when it began, but, I guess I am…. Oh well, it’s never out of place, not in this society…. I’m going to pull an Adlai, though, and do something which, if not enlightening or particularly uplifting, may well come as a relief…. I’m stopping the rant here, and will come back to praise Mr. Stevenson (and, further vilify Mr. McCarthy) another time…. For now, let’s find some old-school pearls on the subject of our Beloved Ruling Class, and have some fun with that…. It will be better for all of us, I’m sure…..

“It’s not that we don’t have enough scoundrels to curse; it’s that we don’t have enough good men to curse them.” — G. K. Chesterton, ILN, 3/14/08

“We have met the enemy; in fact, we elected him.” — Cruickshank’s Law #1

“To be overtly queer, in a culture that denigrates and hates queerness, is to be political.” — Michael Bronski

“Successful and fortunate crime is called virtue.” — Seneca (8 BC) — Hercules Furens, i, 1, 255

“Anyone can grab a Tiger by the balls, but it takes a real man to squeeze!” — Smart Bee

“I didn’t attend the funeral, but I sent a nice letter saying that I approved of it.” — Mark Twain

“There is a case for telling the truth; there is a case for avoiding the scandal; but there is no possible defense for the man who tells the scandal, but does not tell the truth.” — G. K. Chesterton, ILN, 7/18/08

Aha!…. An Oreo pearl…. and if I need to explain that, I’ve done something very wrong….. Hope you enjoyed that as much as I did, because I damn near orgasmed there on the Twain quote!….    Bwuuuhahahahahaha!!!…..
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I was right, or write, whatever the case may be, when I implied my own level of mischievousness today; it almost got away from me, but, I managed to keep it within the assigned limits, so, we’re good to go…. I’ve proofed the above, but, if my recent attempts at that are any indication, you’ll find at least one, if not many, egregious typos and/or errors of syntax, or grammar…. You can bet on it…. If not, well, good, but, otherwise, so be it…. I’m done with this one, and will now perform the necessary incantations and spells to get it online…. See y’all tomorrow, ffolkes…. Be well, and happy…..

Y’all take care out there,
and May the Metaphorse be with you;
Blessed Be, dearest  Carole, Mark, and Theresa…
and everyone else, too…

When I works, I works hard.
When I sits, I sits loose.
When I thinks, I falls asleep.