Savory redemption meatballs saved the day….

Posted on July 19, 2013 by gigoid

Ffolkes,

Routine is important, I think, to just about everyone, whether they know it or not. Often, I think, people don’t know just how much they depend on routines to keep their lives running smoothly, which makes it harder for them to deal, when those routines suffer unpredictable changes. What any of that has to do with this morning’s blog, I haven’t a clue, but, it sounds good, doesn’t it? Kind of classy and intelligent, as if I were some Piled High and Deep (PhD) preparing to discourse on some esoteric principle, one that is only relevant to those in a small field of scholars, and which provided the subject for a thesis nobody will ever read outside the room where the degree committee reads the papers submitted by the candidates…..

That paragraph would fit right into a thesis, too, wouldn’t you say…. pompous, obsessively wordy, and all-too-sure of its own importance, just like one of the fat cats on Wall Street…. Hmm…. I don’t know where THAT vitriol came from; it’s especially harsh for me this early, even if I were leading into a rant on the BRC and the corporate assholes who pay them. Goodness knows they deserve whatever we can give them, as they are responsible for just about ALL of the misery that is still present in the world, and will ultimately doom the entire species to an ignoble death, choking on the fumes of our own folly, gasping in pain and anguish….

I suppose that’s a bit too graphic for pre-breakfast imagery, but, what can I do? Those responsible for our state don’t give a DAMN about anyone else, and aren’t going to change; unfortunately, I don’t see the masses rising up in protest, either, as most of them don’t even realize the danger, and will believe anything told to them by some guy on TV, if he’s got the right skin color, and accent. The public is well under the control of those in power over them, and can pretty much do anything they want to do, without even having to explain. They do hand out some information, but you can be sure it has nothing to do with what they are actually up to; it is only what they wish you to hear, and believe….

I’ve had a bad habit of late, of beginning my rants right here in the intro section… which is, I see, just another evolution of routine, if I look at it in a certain way. As that will fit right in with my plan for the day (oh, you didn’t think I had a plan? Hah!….), I will now look at it that way, and declare this intro invalid, as such, and rename it “section one”, thereby removing any implications as to format, or necessary information that needs to be included. It may not make things clearer, but, it will distract you, once again, from the real issue, which, given the way things look around here today, shall remain unresolved, in the words of Poe, forevermore….

Shall we Pearl?…..
_____________________________

I got up incredibly late, for me and my routine, but, it isn’t surprising, given that I was up to almost 1 AM, dealing with a friend in near-crisis mode, requiring my input and assistance…. (a discrete way of saying, helping her deal with a screwup….) It wasn’t a particularly onerous task, but, dragged out forever, as the people involved have their own sense of time, which only narrowly resembles the one the rest of us use…. The end result was that I had to stay up, waiting to complete a call to resolve the issue, before being able to go to bed, well after midnight…. So, this Pearl may be a bit of a throw-together, a patchwork pearl, so to speak, starting with this one right here, which I’m sure you’ll enjoy…. or else…. In addition, today, as a special treat, we will have the ever popular “comments in parentheses” from yours truly, just for fun….

Teach me to feel another’s woe,
To hide the fault I see;
That mercy I to others show,
That mercy show to me.

— Alexander Pope (1688-1744) — The Universal Prayer, Stanza 10
(Hard to find a better rephrasing of the Golden Rule….)

“Morality is moral only if it is voluntary.” — Lincoln Steffens
(Well, duh!…. As if there was any other way….)

“To find a fault is easy; to do better may be difficult.” — Plutarch (46 AD-120 AD)
(Huh? What does that MEAN? Oh, right…. people are selfish, and lazy, too…. got it….)

“Time, whose tooth gnaws away everything else, is powerless against truth.” — Thomas Huxley (1825-1895)
(Hmm… Sadly, time also give the unscrupulous opportunity to hide, or color, the truth, stealing some of its power, turning it to illusion….)

Ambidextrous, adj.: Able to pick with equal skill a right-hand pocket or a left. — Ambrose Bierce, “The Devil’s Dictionary”
(As is now well known, this is a primary skill for any politician, and is becoming more popular every day among the religious hierarchies….)

“Whenever people say we mustn’t be sentimental, you can take it they are about to do something cruel. And, if they add, we must be realistic, they mean they are going to make money out of it.” — Brigid Brophy
(Wow…. rare honesty, and a damn clear vision of reality, wouldn’t you say?…. How many times have you heard these ideas, either plainly, or in paraphrase, pass the lips of an elected official, just in the last week or two?… A lot of times, I’d wager….)

“The fundamental delusion of humanity is to suppose that I am here and you are there.” — Yasutani Roshi

I coming out…. of the parentheses, that is, not the closet, where I’ve never been….. The last one for this group had to be an excellent pearl, and, to my way of thinking, I nailed that in one…. This is a very deep statement, when you take the time to explore its depth; if not, it just sounds like a Zen koan, or some mystical obscurity designed to confuse reality. In truth, this is elemental, and a truth from which there is no real escape, no matter how strong our delusional belief……

We are all in this boat together, ffolkes; what I do is going to affect others, just as what they do will affect me…. We cannot exist in reality without this connection, and it would, indubitably, be a good thing if we would get a handle on that, and start living as if we planned to survive past the next century…. Otherwise, reality is going to step in, and destroy all our delusions at once, along with our existence as a species…. Sorry to be the bearer of the bad news, but the evidence is plain, even though nobody wants to talk about it…. SIGH….. Ah well, onward….
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Sometimes, introduction is superfluous…..

Gold Mouths Cry

Gold mouths cry with the green young
certainty of the bronze boy
remembering a thousand autumns
and how a hundred thousand leaves
came sliding down his shoulder blades
persuaded by his bronze heroic reason.
We ignore the coming doom of gold
and we are glad in this bright metal season.
Even the dead laugh among the goldenrod.

The bronze boy stands kneedeep in centuries,
and never grieves,
remembering a thousand autumns,
with sunlight of a thousand years upon his lips
and his eyes gone blind with leaves.

~~ Sylvia Plath ~~

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Yesterday was a wasted day, physically, due to overusing my body the day before, when I pretended I wasn’t disabled for a short, but, telling period of time. Today, I find that I am still, in spite of all my wishes to the contrary, old…. or, at least, older than I would like to be….. I’m missing my youthful strength, and the ability to do anything I asked of my body, without regard for the consequences for that entity…. I’m tougher now, of course; that’s what happens over time…. but, my body no longer can do what I ask without consequences, and those consequences seem to last longer than ever before; certainly much longer than is convenient….

Now that I’ve meandered through a totally unnecessary explanation of something that isn’t really important to anyone other than me, and perhaps my doctor, I can get around to sharing the whole reason for bringing this up at all…. Essentially, it’s all a lead-in, a hook, so to speak, to demonstrate the point of the exercise, which is to make a simple statement, to wit: I feel lazy today…. There, I’ve said it, and you may chastise me as you see fit….. later. Right now, I’m using this little break in routine to make that statement, which fulfills all legal requirements for notifying y’all of my intention to go old-school…. Hell, the law says I could not say anything at all, but, I’m a nice guy, mostly, so, there you go….

So, here is another old-school pearl, of the random, harlequin style we all love so well…..

Pretty! in amber to observe the forms
Of hairs, or straws, or dirt, or grubs, or worms!
The things, we know, are neither rich nor rare,
But wonder how the devil they got there.

— Alexander Pope (1688-1744) — Epistle to Dr. Arbuthnot, Prologue to the Satires, Line 169

“Nothing is so firmly believed as what we least know.” — Michael de Montaigne (1533-1592) — Essays, Book i, Chap. xxxi, Of Divine Ordinances

“To rebel against a powerful political, economic, religious, or social establishment is very dangerous and very few people do it, except, perhaps, as part of a mob. To rebel against the scientific establishment, however, is the easiest thing in the world, and anyone can do it and feel enormously brave, without risking as much as a hangnail. Thus, the vast majority, who believe in astrology and think that the planets have nothing better to do than form a code that will tell them whether tomorrow is a good day to close a business deal or not, become all the more excited and enthusiastic about the bilge when a group of astronomers denounces it.” — Isaac Asimov

“I used to sit on the banks with a raft and watch the water roll lazily by. One day I pushed my raft into the shallows of the water and found the water moved swifter than I thought, but my raft was actually a little rowboat. Then, after some time, I rowed my little boat into deeper water. There were great storms, mighty winds, tremendous waves, and sometimes I felt so alone. But I have noticed my little rowboat is now a mighty ship manned by my friends and loved ones, and beautiful calm seas, warm sunny days, and nights filled with comfortable dreams always double after a storm. Now, I could never go back and sit on the bank, in fact, I search for deeper water. Such is life when lived.” — B D Gulledge

“I have known a vast quantity of nonsense talked about bad men not looking you in the face. Don’t trust that conventional idea. Dishonesty will stare honesty out of countenance, any day in the week, if there is anything to be got by it.” — Charles Dickens

“I see in the near future a crisis approaching that unnerves me and causes me to tremble for the safety of my country…. Corporations have been enthroned, an era of corruption in high places will follow, and the money-power of the country will endeavor to prolong its reign by working upon the prejudices of the people until the wealth is aggregated in a few hands and the Republic is destroyed. — Former US President Abraham Lincoln, Nov. 21, 1864 — letter to Col. William F. Elkins — printed in “The Lincoln Encyclopedia”, — ed. Archer H. Shaw, Macmillan, 1950, NY

“There’s a tendency today to absolve individuals from moral responsibility and treat them as victims of social circumstance. You buy that, you pay with your soul. It’s not men who limit women, it’s not straights who limit gays, it’s not whites who limit blacks. What limits people is lack of character. What limits people is that they don’t have the fucking nerve or imagination to star in their own movie, let alone direct it.” — Bernard Mickey Wrangle
_____________________________

I’m feeling like the White Rabbit, so I’d best get on with this….. Well, if that won’t do it, I don’t know what will…. In that vein, and on that note, I will leave you to get on with the day….. Y’all take care out there, and May the Metaphorse be with you…..

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

Which is Why….

—
Sometimes I sits and thinks,
and sometimes
I just sits.

gigoid

A prodigal child no more…

Posted on July 10, 2013 by gigoid

Ffolkes,

There are possibly a number of y’all out there who might be wondering just what the hell happened to me. The last post on this blog was put up 10 full days ago, along with a glib promise, to post again the next day, that I was not able to meet…… And, if you’ll stop yelling out questions all at once, I will explain…. Thank you…. The day after penning and posting that blog, on July 1st, our second full day aboard ship, I arose early, as usual, to begin the day’s effort, when I tried to log on to the network provided on board…. Long story short, it took over two minutes for the ship’s name server to log me in, whereupon I tried to access my blog page, to see how many ffolkes had stopped in to read the first post….

Five minutes later, I was still waiting for the page to load…. and it got worse…. After attempting to go to other pages on the net, I gave up, as each time it was slower than my first dial up connection, loading pages as if still running Windows 3.1…. Unacceptable! Apparently, if more than 10 or 11 users attempt to use the network on the ship, it affects the speed, as they just don’t have anywhere near enough bandwidth to handle the traffic…. This, for a price almost 100 times the going rate for internet service anywhere !! For a minimum use plan, paying for each minute used as you go, the price was $1.00/minute; for a 200 minute plan, it went all the way down to $.79/minute, their best bargain….

I had budgeted enough money for contingencies, I’d hoped, but this was out of reasonable bounds, and would have been frustrating to use every time I logged on… So, rather than annoy myself, and my companion, I just quit for the time being, and hoped my gentle readers would understand…. If it is any consolation, I did get a lot of pictures, and had a great time, which I will attempt to share over the next few days….. We stopped in four ports of call, as well as a day cruising in a glacier fed fjord, and I’ll take them in the order we approached them from on board, to wit: Ketchikan, Icy Strait Point, Juneau, Tracy Arm Fjord and Glacier, and Victoria, B.C., our final stop….. well, until San Francisco, where we disembarked to go home….. Look for those pix and comments in section three of the next few posts, ‘kay?

Murphy greeted me this morning with an old, but classic, shot to the head, to welcome me home, I suppose…. The half-and-half milady Pat was kind enough to get for me at the store yesterday, so I’d have it this morning with my coffee, broke into a million clumps when it hit the coffee, first thing, turning it into brown cottage cheese, and totally spoiling my welcome-home cuppa… not to mention having to get dressed, walk to the store in the bright sunlight, and go through the rigmarole to replace it….. I managed that without hurting anyone unnecessarily (the one guy who spoke to me won’t wake up for hours, and should recover fully….), but it just goes to show….. well, nothing, really, except I HATE MURPHY, THAT FUCKING ASSHOLE!!!

Shall we Pearl?……
_____________________________

After deciding not to partake of those delights provided by using the internet while on board the Grand Princess (which, in some respects, failed to live up to its sobriquet…. The trip, as a whole, and for the most part, was fantastic, but a few things about the ship itself left something to be desired….), I decided also to completely ignore the world outside the ship, and the places we visited. I listened to no news, on TV or radio, or on the net….. I checked my phone for messages only once, while in Ketchikan, but, otherwise, left it out of the equation, turned off and sitting in the safe. For ten peaceful days, all I thought about, or mostly, was what to eat next, or what movie to watch, or what comedian to go see in the theater on board, or how much more I needed to take out of the casino to make up for the shore excursions we got gouged for (the subject of an upcoming rant….)…

I did manage to come out pretty well in that category; I beat their blackjack dealers, over the course of the trip, for about three or four hundred bucks, which makes up for a lot…. Any who…. Since I have absolutely no idea what’s been going on out there in the world, I’ll ease my way back in with a random pearl, on the subject of human nature, intelligence, and the nearly uncountable facets of interrelated effects that has on people, and on reality at large…..

“Belief is the death of intelligence.” — Robert Anton Wilson

“Of course the US Constitution isn’t perfect; but it’s a lot better than what we have now.” — Eric Sheppard

“If science were explained to the average person in a way that is accessible and exciting, there would be no room for pseudoscience. But there is a kind of Gresham’s Law by which in popular culture the bad science drives out the good. And for this I think we have to blame, first, the scientific community ourselves for not doing a better job of popularizing science, and second, the media, which are in this respect almost uniformly dreadful. Every newspaper in America has a daily astrology column. How many have even a weekly astronomy column? And I believe it is also the fault of the educational system. We do not teach how to think. This is a very serious failure that may even, in a world rigged with 60,000 nuclear weapons, compromise the human future.” — Carl Sagan, The Burden Of Skepticism, The Skeptical Inquirer, — Vol. 12, Fall 87

“Curiouser and curiouser!” — Lewis Carroll, “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland”

“The moment a person forms a theory his imagination sees in every object only the traits which favor that theory.” — Thomas Jefferson, in a letter to Charles Thompson, September 20, 1787

As Meander says, “For our mind is God;” and as Heraclitus, “Man’s genius is a deity.” — Plutarch (46-120 AD) — Platonic Questions, i

‘T is education forms the common mind:
Just as the twig is bent the tree ‘s inclined.

— Alexander Pope (1688-1744) — Moral Essays, Epistle i, Line 149
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Since I was on the water for so long, and I feel like absorbing some obscure genius, this is the perfect fulfillment of both urges….. Enjoy!

Aquatic Nocturne

deep in liquid
turquoise slivers
of dilute light

quiver in thin streaks
of bright tinfoil
on mobile jet:

pale flounder
waver by
tilting silver:

in the shallows
agile minnows
flicker gilt:

grapeblue mussels
dilate lithe and
pliant valves:

dull lunar globes
of bulbous jellyfish
glow milkgreen:

eels twirl
in wily spirals
on elusive tails:

adroir lobsters
amble darkly olive
on shrewd claws:

down where sound
comes blunt and wan
like the bronze tone
of a sunken gong.

~~ Sylvia Plath ~~

_____________________________

After two days at sea to start the voyage to Alaska, covering about 1200 nautical miles, the Grand Princess docked in Ketchikan, Alaska, at a dock right across from the town’s main downtown streets, with a panoply of still snow-capped mountains providing a beautiful and dramatic backdrop to a scene from 150 years ago. The buildings, all wooden, and built in the style of the time of the Klondike Gold Rush, were fronted with wooden sidewalks, even though they housed shops and boutiques from modern times, filled with all the local treasures, such as smoked salmon and Tlingit curios, as well as the touristy usuals such as T-shirts, magnets, and stuffed bears and wolves of all sizes…..

I must confess, I went a bit crazy in the shops we went into, stocking up on souvenirs for the folks back home, and found a new hat for myself, as well. We had a very good pizza for lunch at the Fish Pirate’s Restaurant and Bar, to the accompaniment of live music by Sitka Tex, who played some great western swing, in a very smooth baritone, with some pretty hot guitar licks….

We picked up his CD, and then went on our tour, called the Duck Tour, in an amphibious vehicle that carried us around the town for local history, then drove right into the harbor at the marina, for a tour along the waterfront, where we were able to see a number of eagles fishing the waters off a rock where they like to congregate…. The tour driver and narrator were very personable and funny, using every old duck joke there is to punctuate their presentations (What happens to a duck who flies upside down? He quacks up!….). Funny, for the first six jokes, then it got a bit old, even with the liberal use of a duck-bill shaped quacking toy…. but, fun nonetheless…

Below, you will find the best pictures I got from our day in Ketchikan, or in the case of our email readers, a link to the blog site where I’ve posted the pix….. I hope you enjoy them, because I really enjoyed the opportunity to take them….
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All in all, I wish I was still on board, but, hey, it’s also nice to sleep in my own bed….. Plus, once I got some half-and-half, it was the best coffee I’ve had in too long a time…. This Pearl went fairly smoothly, given the issues I found upon arising, may Murphy’s ass burn in hell….. It’s done, anyway, so let’s see how it reads….. Not too shabby, all in all, so we’ll go with it…. Naturally, there is a lot to catch up on around here, so, I’ll see y’all tomorrow….. Y’all take care out there, and May the Metaphorse be with you…..

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

Which is Why….

—
Sometimes I sits and thinks,
and sometimes
I just sits.

gigoid

Moments of intense serenity…..

Posted on June 28, 2013 by gigoid

Ffolkes,
One. More. Day…… Tomorrow, Patricia and I leave to go on our trip, and I am, officially, jazzed to beat the band. So much so, I’m not sure I can write at all. Normally, I can’t seem to shut myself up, nor do I make much of an effort to do so, but, today, I find myself to be rather disinterested in composing anything fresh… so, I’ll force myself to keep typing, as I don’t want to develop any bad habits….. I can’t predict at all how it will turn out, but, I’ll do the best I can…..

I didn’t mean for that last statement to sound like a threat…. I just meant that, given the tendency of this blog to be completely subject to the dangerously random, always mysterious, effects of universal entropy, NOBODY can predict how it will go, but, as the person most responsible for any property damaged in the process, I will do my best to keep it from entering the realm of perilous, in a physical sense. Beyond that, I don’t see what else I can do, without spending a fortune for insurance…

Oh, well, I’m sure y’all have no real interest in the bones of the operation, or in hearing about my problems with blog maintenance/management, so, even though this doesn’t quite meet the exacting standards for one of my intro sections, (no laughing….), it will have to do. I have a feeling it would be best for me to just jump in and start diving for pearls, before I stick more than just one foot in the soup…. and, sorry about mixing metaphors like that…. They just threw themselves together before I could stop them….. Any who….. Shall we Pearl?…..
_____________________________

“You can’t legislate morality. We tried to outlaw consumption of alcoholic beverages. We found that violation of the law led to bigger crimes and bred disrespect for the law.” — Jimmy Carter, 1976

This statement would be a perfect segue, into a rant on both politics and religion, together, or separately. It’s also a good one for a discussion of how both those entities encourage and support each other’s lies. However, starting to plow such a fertile field for our inquiries runs the risk of going on for a very long time, as it is a subject with a LOT of instances in real life from which to draw inferences and/or conclusions; the news is filled every day with stories that can be used to show how the government is screwing the public, with the complete support of the churches.

I could do that…. but, I won’t do it today. Instead, I’ll find some pearls which will lead your minds on a shorter trip than I could write in a rant, and get you to the same point, mostly…. and if not, well, it will be more fun, and less mental effort…. So, here we go….

“Deep down, most everyone is fairly superficial.” — Smart Bee

“If the life of natural things, millions of years old does not seem sacred to us, then what can be sacred?” — Edward Abbey

“In this world, you have to be oh so smart or oh so pleasant. I spent years being smart. I recommend pleasant.” — Elwood P. Dowd

“Ignorance is the soil in which belief in miracles grows.” — Robert Green Ingersoll (1833-1899)

“So if you know the place and time of a battle, you can join the fight from a thousand miles away.” — Sun Tzu

“A man must sit with his mouth open for a long time before a roast duck flies in.” — Chinese proverb

“We lie loudest when we lie to ourselves.” — Eric Hoffer

Perfect!… I love it when a plan comes together… A perfect seven-star pearl, sharp as a tack….. Okay, onward….
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This is a poem that I’ve shared previously, but, is so good, I have no qualms about doing so again… It is timeless, and brilliant, and makes me wish I could write half as well….

Soliloquy Of The Solipsist

I?
I walk alone;
The midnight street
Spins itself from under my feet;
When my eyes shut
These dreaming houses all snuff out;
Through a whim of mine
Over gables the moon’s celestial onion
Hangs high.

I
Make houses shrink
And trees diminish
By going far; my look’s leash
Dangles the puppet-people
Who, unaware how they dwindle,
Laugh, kiss, get drunk,
Nor guess that if I choose to blink
They die.

I
When in good humor,
Give grass its green
Blazon sky blue, and endow the sun
With gold;
Yet, in my wintriest moods, I hold
Absolute power
To boycott any color and forbid any flower
To be.

I
Know you appear
Vivid at my side,
Denying you sprang out of my head,
Claiming you feel
Love fiery enough to prove flesh real,
Though it’s quite clear
All you beauty, all your wit, is a gift, my dear,
From me.

~~ Sylvia Plath ~~

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I confess to feeling too hyped to write…. I have a lot in there that wants to come out, but, a bigger part of me just wants to dance, or fall asleep to pass the time until we leave, tomorrow, in the early afternoon….. So, I’ll cheat again, and dip into the archives…. This is a short little piece I wrote the day before Halloween in 2011, as part of a pearl created using a really old format, one that encouraged ranting a bit too much…. History aside, I like this one, just because, and it’s a good one to finish with on a day like today…..

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“His philosophy was a mixture of three famous schools: the Cynics, the Stoics and the Epicureans – and summed up all three of them in his famous phrase, ‘You can’t trust any bugger further than you can throw him, and there’s nothing you can do about it, so let’s have a drink.'” — Terry Pratchett, ‘Small Gods’

Laughter is probably my favorite part of Life; I can’t think of a single time in my life when laughter was unwelcome. Conversely, I can think of any number of times when it was not only welcome, but life-saving, or, at the very least, life-preserving. In its way it also affirms life; it lets you know that you are alive, and that life is good.

The sound of a child’s laughter can bring a smile to the grimmest curmudgeon, and the laughter of a beautiful woman can be either joyous, or cruel. Laughing is our best defense against the tyranny of repressive thought; it can bring a tyrant to his knees, for tyranny lives in fear of ridicule. Laughter cannot cure pain, but can ease it, and make it more bearable.

In a way poorly understood, but acknowledged, laughter prolongs life, actually reversing many of the effects of time. When laughter is in our lives, everything is more colorful; vision, hearing, touch, smell, all are more acute when under its influence. Conversely, when it is long absent, the world turns dreary, and washed of all color. Without laughter, our lives become drudgery, merely a time to survive, in silence and despair.

The Universe is one huge joke, and the punch line has yet to come. We can spend our lives in black and white, trudging along the dusty road of Time with head hanging down and steps heavy as sorrow. Or, we can look for the brighter side of Life, and laugh at ourselves and everything around us, marching ahead with eyes up and seeking new vistas, hopeful for the dawn of each new day. Your choice…..

“Excuse me, but didn’t I tell you there’s NO HOPE for the survival of OFFSET PRINTING?” — Zippy the Pinhead
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It’s done…. tomorrow morning, I don’t know what I’ll do…. I’ll be a mess, I’m sure, and may or may not be able to post…. If not, look for the first post from the road on Sunday…. And, since I can’t see any typos of a major nature in one pass, it is “done”. Y’all take care out there, and May the Metaphorse be with you…..

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

Which is Why….

—
Sometimes I sits and thinks,
and sometimes
I just sits.

gigoid

Have the mango smoothies been certified yet?….

Posted on June 14, 2013 by gigoid

Ffolkes,
Dark, out-of-focus images of lava filled volcanoes, steaming rivers flowing down their sides, against a backdrop of a smoky sunset of unimaginable color and beauty, float around in my mind’s eye, with no concomitant tales of interest attached, making me wonder yet again just what it is that makes me want to do this again. Each morning, I stare at the blank page before me, and let my mind assume a trance-like state, while it searches through the inner realm for yet another fresh way to begin, only to find mere remnants of ideas once fully formed, or abandoned phrases that have no connection to anything real.

Somewhere inside me is a lake of material, waiting to be written; I can feel it, and often catch glimpses out of the corner of my eye, before it flashes off into the vast, unknown reaches of my mind, where I never willingly go, knowing it will be safe there until ready to flow out onto a page…. A lot of what I write is spontaneous, at least in the sense that I don’t decide beforehand what subject is to be explored. Instead, I let Smart Bee, or some random thought, dictate the choice of material, having found long ago that I am more likely to come up with something interesting that way. When I decide beforehand, I feel like I’m back in school, writing a paper on a given subject, with the length and style pretty well fixed, and not amenable to alteration. It’s probably not a particularly efficient method, but it works for me, most of the time….

“If you really want to hear about it, the first thing you’ll probably want to know is where I was born, and what my lousy childhood was like, and how my parents were occupied and all before they had me, and all that David Copperfield kind of crap, but I don’t feel like going into it, if you want to know the truth.” — The Catcher in the Rye, by J.D. Salinger, 1951

But, it does make it hard each day to come up with an intro, (especially when J.D. has already written the ultimate version of this kind of opening, one that denies normalcy)…. and it just occurred to me that y’all are probably getting tired of hearing that. I wish I didn’t whine about it so often…. a statement that occurs to me to be just about as dumb as anything I’ve ever come up with…. If I didn’t do it, I wouldn’t have to whine about it… If I didn’t whine about it, I probably wouldn’t do it as often… Any way one looks at it, whining about it just exacerbates the issue, and makes it into something significant, instead of the minor issue it ought to be…..

Hmm…. it also occurs to me that I am approaching this in a manner that guarantees the issue won’t die, an event which is anathema to me…. Why am I doing this to myself? I am forced to admit, I believe my sub-, or un-, conscious mind seems to have set up a situation here where I am continually set up to fail, at least in my own eyes, and THAT is unacceptable! The world, and the assholes who have set themselves up as the BRC, fuck me in the ass on a daily basis, just like they do everyone, and doing it to myself is NOT what I’d call intelligent…. So, it stops here….

No more whining about intros… no more angst about blank pages…. no more bullshit cop-outs relating how hard it is to come up with ideas on a daily basis, and make them interesting, to boot. It’s the same issue every day, and all this repetitive fooferaw is getting on my nerves, so, I’m done with it…. I know it doesn’t help this particular Pearl, but, in the future, you can look forward to an intro section that doesn’t complain, that doesn’t serve cheese, with or without whine, one that doesn’t drag on forever before getting on with the show…. In deference to that glorious future…. Shall we Pearl?…..

“The character of human life, like the character of the human condition, like the character of all life, is “ambiguity”: the inseparable mixture of good and evil, the true and false, the creative and destructive forces — both individual and social.” — Paul Tillich

Having discovered within myself exactly how much such ambiguity can affect our lives, I feel compelled to add that one must learn to use that ambiguity, to balance its overall effect on us, with competence, confidence, and steadfast aplomb, else it will use us, instead….
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“Truth needs no flowers of speech.” — Alexander Pope

What immediately comes to mind when I look at this, is an image of a politician, mouth open, spewing out lie after lie, couched in flowery terms designed to draw in the listener with sweet, colorful little statements of intent, that have no relation at all to what is real, or what they will actually do. The more flowery a speech one hears from one of these pundits, the more you can be assured that all of it is lies. It is a time tested method of fooling the public…. tell them what they WANT to hear, and they will fall right into line…. Tell them what they don’t wish to hear, and they will mill around in confusion, and go through immense contortions to keep from using their minds, or making their own decisions, and, most importantly to them, it will make them uncomfortable, and fractious…..

My mind is almost automatically inclined to rant when I see a line such as this, and I’m always willing to take a few shots at the BRC, politicians, AND/OR any of their myrmidons and/or supporters, comprised of the mass of humanity that prefers to NOT use their brains for anything other than figuring out how to use the remote control, or sitting on. But, I slept a bit late today, and I’m feeling a bit lazy, at the moment, anyway, so I’m going to depend on SB to come up with an old-school pearl that will poke a stick or two into the eyes of the assholes who most deserve it….. SB is usually pretty good at that, so, let’s see what’s what….

“Heroism on command, senseless violence, and all the loathsome nonsense that goes by the name of patriotism — how passionately I hate them!” — Albert Einstein

“History is always written wrong, and so always needs to be rewritten. …What is interesting is brought forward as if it had been central and efficacious in the march of events, and harmonies are turned into causes. Kings and generals are endowed with motives appropriate to what the historian values in their actions; plans are imputed to them prophetic of their actual achievements, while the thoughts that really preoccupied them remain buried in absolute oblivion.” — George Santayana, The Life of Reason: Reason in Science, 1918

BIBLE A bible is a book which one or more religions consider to be holy, and to be something that they should follow. It is of course generally rather impractical to follow books, not just because they don’t often go anywhere, but also because they are not very good at public speaking, decision making, problem solving, or any of the other qualities recognized as being an advantage for leadership. A religion based around the teachings of any compilation of Toxic Custard would be very strange indeed. To subscribe to this new cult following, send $15 now. — Daniel Bowen’s TOXIC CUSTARPEDIA

“A tough lesson in life that one has to learn is that not everybody wishes you well.” — Dan Rather

“Who does not see that the same authority which can establish Christianity, in exclusion of all other religions, may establish with the same ease any particular sect of Christians, in exclusion of all other sects?” — James Madison, Memorial and Remonstrance

“And unextinguish’d laughter shakes the skies.” — Alexander Pope (1688-1744) — The Iliad of Homer, Book i, Line 771

Ffolkes, I just can’t make it any plainer than that…..
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This is a reprint of a poem I used some time ago…. It’s being reused because, a) it’s bloody brilliant, and b) it kind of fits in with the mood for today…. and those are all I need to justify it to myself, as I know the poetry buffs out there will enjoy it, for the genius it is….

Witch Burning

In the marketplace they are piling the dry sticks.
A thicket of shadows is a poor coat. I inhabit
The wax image of myself, a doll’s body.
Sickness begins here: I am the dartboard for witches.
Only the devil can eat the devil out.
In the month of red leaves I climb to a bed of fire.

It is easy to blame the dark: the mouth of a door,
The cellar’s belly. They’ve blown my sparkler out.
A black-sharded lady keeps me in parrot cage.
What large eyes the dead have!
I am intimate with a hairy spirit.
Smoke wheels from the beak of this empty jar.

If I am a little one, I can do no harm.
If I don’t move about, I’ll knock nothing over. So I said,
Sitting under a potlid, tiny and inert as a rice grain.
They are turning the burners up, ring after ring.
We are full of starch, my small white fellows. We grow.
It hurts at first. The red tongues will teach the truth.

Mother of beetles, only unclench your hand:
I’ll fly through the candle’s mouth like a singeless moth.
Give me back my shape. I am ready to construe the days
I coupled with dust in the shadow of a stone.
My ankles brighten. Brightness ascends my thighs.
I am lost, I am lost, in the robes of all this light.

~~ Sylvia Plath ~~

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In keeping with today’s themes, which are, respectively, Truth, and Madness…. (what else?), I submit the following, an excerpt from the archives, from early 2012, comprised of two short pearls, one a short indictment re: the spread of religious dogma, and one short but telling list of woes currently present in Reality…. If nothing else, they’re in color…. Oh, right, that’s only if you have the correct software… never mind, just read on, you’ll understand….
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“God is more interested in your future and your relationships than you are.” — Billy Graham

Now, if that isn’t a scary thought, I know nothing of fear; I assure you, however, fear is an old friend, with whom I am quite familiar, in all its guises. Now, to give credit where it is due, I suppose it must be noted that, from the standpoint of someone of Mr. Graham’s ilk, this is a very powerful statement of belief; it has all the proper elements for that particular delusional thought process (if one may stretch the definition of ‘thought process’ just a bit).

It is based purely on assumption, with no hint of anything resembling direct evidence. It implies omnipotence, displays deified arrogance, identifies a source for guilt, and encourages a fear of death. It vagueness allows the moral ambiguity necessary for the complete abrogation of personal responsibility for one’s actions. And, like all such proclamations of this nature, its very words indicate a complete and utter dislike for humans, both individually, and as a species.

My immediate and forceful response to this was “Then you, and God, need to get a Life! If y’all have nothing better to do in your copious free time than to try to shove this kind of crap into people’s minds, then you need to find a new activities director for the imaginary cruise you are on…. or find some better drugs.” But, that’s just me…..

(Oops…. I think I just heresied on several important religions…..)
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Conscious is when you are aware of something and conscience is when you wish you weren’t. — Smart Bee (Anonymous, by any other name, smells as sweet…)

Insane politicians (is there another kind?). Human trafficking. Racism. Bigotry. Child abuse. Spousal abuse. Slavery. Crack cocaine, heroin, morphine, or other drug abuse. War on crime. War on women. Televangelists. Fundamentalist zealots. National Security Agency. FBI. CIA. Untold trillions of dollars of national debt. Genetically modified food. Military Industrial Complex. The 1%/99% Society. Taxes. Global warming. Air pollution. The oceans are dying. Terrorism. Nuclear accidents. Massive global weather changes. Ozone depletion. Overpopulation. AIDS. Mutating viruses. The Bohemian Club. Reaganomics. Nationalism. Elitism. Illuminati Conspiracy. Women’s reproductive rights. Bill of Rights (or rather, loss of same). War on the US Constitution. Rampant ignorance. Lawyers. Priests. Rabbis. Imams. Puppy mills. Wall Street. Corporate personhood. The IRS. Insane politicians. (Did I say that already? Well, it deserves mentioning twice….) Rising incidence of halitosis.

Except for the last, which is more of a personal foible, I’d say that’s a fairly extensive, and mostly complete, list of stuff I am aware of that I wish I weren’t; and it all came right off the top of my head, no research. It certainly keeps my sense of outrage in good shape….. which is why we all need to practice the following sentiment at every opportunity…. otherwise, we are all going to be up Shit Creek without a paddle, proverbial or otherwise…..

“Speak out. You’ve got to speak out against the madness.” — Steven Stills
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Well there you go…. This is what happens when I’m allowed to dress myself, I guess…. Let’s see how it looks in the mirror…. Wow… it’s like a vampire, nothing shows at all…. I suppose that’s my usual morning alteration of consciousness kicking in, but, just in case it isn’t, try to ignore any parts that are showing signs of infection, okay…. And that’s all I’m required to say, according to public health regulations, so I’d best draw this to a rapid close, and catch that last train out of town, before the authorities show up for a late breakfast interrogation…. Y’all take care out there, and May the Metaphorse be with you…..

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

Which is Why….

—
Sometimes I sits and thinks,
and sometimes
I just sits.

gigoid

Priceless moments of shared arrogance…..

Posted on June 8, 2013 by gigoid

Ffolkes,
That was close…. I almost began today’s missive with a song…. Not just any song, mind you, but a particularly bright, bouncy, tuneful one from a particularly perky musical that shall remain nameless, lest I get sued for intellectual theft, or chastised by my readers for excessive tackiness, either of which is unacceptable to me, especially before I’ve finished my first cuppa….. It also saves you from having to go wash out your ears so early in the day…..

Since my morning routine has returned to some semblance of its former normalcy, or mendacity, depending on your relative point of observation, it seems my initial comments are turning on me as well. Not sure what to think about that, or what I should do, if anything….. It’s not as if what I do here in the intro section is written in stone; in fact, nothing like consistency has ever come into the equation at all. It has been both a stimulant, to be more creative, and a hassle, because I’m not always in a creative frame of mind first thing in the morning. I do prefer to write then, as I seem to have more energy than later in the day, but that preference isn’t based on how creative I can be, just how awake I am, and how long I can sit.

None of this is getting me any closer to an introductory section that will do what I wish it to do, which is pull the reader into what is written, like the siren call of the muses…. Oh, well, it’s probably a good thing I can’t seem to find a template for this; if I did the same thing every day, I’d go stark, raving sane, and lose all my sense of humor, most likely, turning this into merely another mass of poorly written garbage, in spite of how pompous and extensive my vocabulary gets, or how accurate my observations…. A conundrum is what it is, and I don’t like it….

Sadly, or fortunately, depending on your viewpoint, my likes and dislikes have absolutely no effect whatsoever on reality, so I’m going to have to just suck it up, and get on with the business of the day, just as if I knew what I was doing, or where I was going. I suppose that could be seen as another metaphor for life in general, but, I’m not in the mood right now for logical, or practical, metaphors, no matter how close to the truth they may be. I’m currently busy feeling curmudgeonly, grumpy because I can’t have my own way, and things aren’t being amenable to my manipulation today, especially my own attitude…. I can see I need to adjust it, so, pardon me if I spilled any of it on you….

I’m going to bring this section to a rapid close now, before I get into anything that could be construed as illegal, or even immoral, which is more of how I judge things in my life…. Not that I’m such that I could be held up as an example of anything other than how to grow old gracelessly, but, I do try to make my decisions based on morals, and/or ethics, rather than laws…. Always have, always will…. Regardless, I have to go now, or “bad things” could happen….. Shall we Pearl?…..
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Oooh! Did you see that? Oh, no, I guess not, since you’re not here in the room with me…. I just created a new pearl format, completely by accident, courtesy of Smart Bee, and the principle of serendipity….. The following pearl, composed of four parts poetry and three parts prose, is just about as perfect as it can be, in terms of being a clever and useful concept, artfully brought to light by the way the given quotes direct the mind’s eye, to the correct vision implied by the tenor of the presented metaphorical signs…. All a short, confusing way to say, look, look, it’s a plane, it’s a bird, it’s not any of that! It’s virtual wisdom at its best…..

Curse away!
And let me tell thee, Beausant, a wise proverb
The Arabs have,–“Curses are like young chickens,
And still come home to roost.”

— Edward Bulwer Lytton (1805-1873) — The Lady of Lyons, Act v, Sc. 2

“By the streets of “by and by”, one arrives at the house of “never”.” — Cervantes

The charge is prepar’d, the lawyers are met,
The judges all ranged,–a terrible show!

— John Gay (1688-1732) — The Beggar’s Opera, Act iii, Sc. 2

“The most interesting information comes from children, for they tell all they know and then stop.” — Mark Twain (1835-1910)

And oftentimes, to win us to our harm,
The instruments of darkness tell us truths,
Win us with honest trifles, to betray ‘s
In deepest consequence.

— William Shakespeare (1564-1616), Macbeth — Act i, Sc. 3

“Man is a credulous animal, and must believe something; in the absence of good grounds for belief, he will be satisfied with bad ones.” — Bertrand Russell, “An Outline of Intellectual Rubbish”

Death, be not proud, though some have called thee
Mighty and dreadful, for thou art not so.

— John Donne (1572-1631), “Death, be not proud”

Sniff…. I couldn’t be prouder, and I’d like to thank the Academy, and my director, and my mum and dad, and…..
__________________________________

I’m in the mood for obscure genius, so…..

Two Lovers And A Beachcomber By The Real Sea

Cold and final, the imagination
Shuts down its fabled summer house;
Blue views are boarded up; our sweet vacation
Dwindles in the hour-glass.

Thoughts that found a maze of mermaid hair
Tangling in the tide’s green fall
Now fold their wings like bats and disappear
Into the attic of the skull.

We are not what we might be; what we are
Outlaws all extrapolation
Beyond the interval of now and here:
White whales are gone with the white ocean.

A lone beachcomber squats among the wrack
Of kaleidoscope shells
Probing fractured Venus with a stick
Under a tent of taunting gulls.

No sea-change decks the sunken shank of bone
That chucks in backtrack of the wave;
Though the mind like an oyster labors on and on,
A grain of sand is all we have.

Water will run by; the actual sun
Will scrupulously rise and set;
No little man lives in the exacting moon
And that is that, is that, is that.

~~ Sylvia Plath ~~

__________________________________

I am running late, a bit, since I got up at a completely reasonable hour, and have been dawdling over getting this done, letting my mind wake up at its own pace…. and now, I don’t have the time, or the energy, to rant, not effectively…. Once again, though, the archives will come to the rescue…. Here is a politirant I wrote on 7/14/2012, a little less than a year ago, during the run-up to the Presidential election in November of that year….

I remember the piece quite well, and consider it one of my better rants, especially as it continued through two sections, of what, then, were the longer, five section pearls of the old format…. At that length, it’s a bit long, but it’s all quite accurate, and still pretty relevant, given that the political scenery hasn’t altered significantly since it was written… But, then, political scenery never does really change anything but the faces of the people at the top, does it?….. Enjoy, ffolkes, this one is pretty good, and on the mark…. “And that is that, is that, is that.”……
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Ignore the man behind the screen.” — The All Seeing, All Powerful, Wonderful Wizard of Oz

As the time passes and we draw ever nearer to the election this year, this becomes increasingly relevant. It is important to remember that ALL the political candidates are guilty of using the art of prestidigitation in their communications with the public. Of course, Mitt the Twitt and the GOP are showing particularly egregious new heights to which they are willing to take the art; they have paraded a series of lies before the public that are not even hidden, or palmed like cards; they’re just out there, proven as lies, but ignored. They don’t seem to care; they just deny, ignore, and issue their next false accusation or made up statistics….

‘Shit Happens’ according to… Denialism: What shit? — Smart Bee

The Democrats aren’t completely free of this syndrome, either; if you believe they are, then you have entered the Twilight Zone, and may have trouble finding your way back to the real world. I admire Obama, much the same way I did Carter; they are both basically decent men trying to do an impossible job, while constantly having to contend with an entire segment of those who are supposed to support him who, instead, are attempting to thwart his every reform, simply for the sake of divisiveness. In their fight to get ANYTHING done, they have had to resort to chicanery of their own. I figure they, at least, feel a bit of guilt about it, whereas I can see no such reaction from Mitt or any of the GOP spokesbozos…. They just deny and ignore any such suggestions of wrong-doing….

Let’s consider Mitt the Twitt for a moment. Here is a man who admits to being rich as Croesus, yet finds it necessary to hide at least half of his real worth, as if it would tarnish his image of someone who can relate to the common man. I think the common man, to Mitt, is someone who only has $50,000 worth of investments, to go along with the house they own, their three cars, and the vacation home in Maine. In contrast to EVERY OTHER candidates policy of publishing their taxes, he continues to refuse to release any returns beyond the last one; there are inconsistencies and red flag items of interest to the public in that one, too, but he refuses to discuss any of it…

This is the same man who tied his dog to a kennel on the roof of a car, and went off on vacation, without ever thinking of how terrified the dog might be, barreling along at 80 mph, with the wind blowing straight through the kennel. He laughs about it, and turns questions about it to other subjects, refusing to even comment on it. This is the same man who, when asked about a serious incident of bullying and gay bashing during his last year in high school, shrugged it off as “youthful pranks and high spirits”…..

This is the same man who…. well, never mind. I could go on most of the day, and not get to all the little incidents from just the last few months that indicate the Twitt’s complete disregard for the majority of Americans, and show clearly how entrenched he is in the 1%, and how committed he is to solidifying the stranglehold that the banks and corporations have on the rest of American society. His total focus is on the agenda of the rich, to the detriment of the poor, and I am totally astounded at just how many IDIOTS are our there in this country supporting him, in the mistaken belief that he gives a shit about them….

No politician is acting in the best interests of the people they govern. None of them. But people continue to act as if they do, and it is driving me crazy! Normal, intelligent people are backing this asshole, thinking that he isn’t going to screw them over. It is incomprehensible to me how people can blind themselves to the obvious so completely that they would fall for this shit…. I will say it one more time, and I hope they can understand it….

And then shall many be offended,… — Matthew 24:10

You are being lied to, by every politician who is currently seeking office, and by every one currently in office. If you don’t see that, if you don’t believe that, then you are deliberately fucking yourself in the place it will most hurt, and apparently, enjoying it…. The man, the party, and 99% of everyone you see on TV is LYING TO YOU!!!!! They are doing so every day, every hour, every minute, and you are accepting it like you are a starving sheep and what they are saying is manna from heaven.

WAKE UP!….. I’m stopping here, my blood pressure is spiking. That’s how worked up I get when I think of how deliberately stupid people can be…. I don’t so much mind the stupid part, but the fact that they have to CHOOSE to not see what is right in front of their face just sets me off…. and so much indignation, righteous or not, is giving me indigestion….. stay alert, ffolkes, the politicians are coming, and they’re dangerous when unregulated….
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Certain passages in several laws have always defied interpretation, and the most inexplicable must be a matter of opinion. A judge of the Court of Session of Scotland has sent the editors of this book his candidate which reads, “In the Nuts (unground), (other than ground nuts) Order, the expression nuts shall have reference to such nuts, other than ground nuts, as would but for this amending Order not qualify as nuts (unground)(other than ground nuts) by reason of their being nuts (unground).” — from the Guinness Book of World Records, 1973

I’m almost speechless. (I know, you’ll believe it when you see it…. I did say ‘almost’…. that’s something…) It’s absolutely beautiful! Perfectly priceless absolute nonsense, dressed only in legal briefs…. It is so impenetrable, I can’t tell if it is the law itself, or the judges written opinion on the law, or a passage from Nightmare on Elm Street! Which I’ve never seen, by the way….

How’s that for tangential? Any who, this was included today as a finishing touch to my Twitt-rant above. This goes to show just how the political hacks we are burdened with today work their verbal magic, to distract us from looking at things they don’t want us to see. Bureaucratese is what I’ve heard it called, a language and skill set that society has had practiced on them since the days of ancient Greece. When a document such as the one above reaches a certain level of impenetrability, the majority of people alive will either fall asleep halfway through reading it, or totally ignore it after reading the first 11 words or so. It’s a classic piece of distraction, and is probably used in courses for political science majors in college, and in law schools, as an example of how to carry off the trick.

To me, what this law indicates is that one, or more, of the people involved in writing the law have a monetary interest in being able to obfuscate the definition of “Nuts”, in order for them to achieve some financial reward owing to the indicated distinctions in that definition. In other words, a loophole or three is created, so the “Nut” vendors can make more money, charging more for each kind of Nut than could be accomplished without the legislation. It’s similar to the law in this country that was pushed through the Federal Courts back in the mid-1800’s, when a corrupt Federal judge awarded “personhood” to corporations, after being paid handsomely by those corporations for his verdict…. Same, same, alla same…. Evil is loose in the world….

— Bother! said Pooh, as he had another plate of Piglet sausage. — Smart Bee (Remember Mitt the Twitt at the NAACP?…..)

I suppose all I’m trying to say here is, once again….. Wake up ffolkes…. the beloved ruling class, the priestly hierarchies, and the corporate “persons” in the shape of banks and multi-national corporations, are continuing their campaign to hide from all of us the actual business they are pursuing, which has everything to do with benefiting them, and everything to do with screwing everyone else as much as they will allow…. I don’t know about y’all, but I’m about done with allowing ANY of it….

“I’m not tense, just terribly alert.” — Smart Bee

So, please…. DON’T ignore the man behind the screen…. he’s the one who is killing us all….
__________________________________

Ollie would be proud, I think… and just in time, too. The store is now open, and I’m done with this, so, all is right with the world, such as it is today. I’m not any more certain than you are what that may mean, or even whether it SHOULD mean anything, but, obscurity is what we’re always shooting for around here, and sometimes, it’s just easier than other times….. Especially when my fingers take over the keyboard like this, and just type away as fast as they can, without any idea of what will come out….. I’d better put a stop to it, before I hurt myself, or y’all…. Y’all take care out there, and May the Metaphorse be with you…..

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

Which is Why….

—
Sometimes I sits and thinks,
and sometimes
I just sits.

gigoid

Massive portions of buttered peas….

Posted on May 7, 2013 by gigoid

Ffolkes,
And then I woke up…. Another day dawns, bringing me one step closer to Europe. Today and tomorrow will be spent on planning, to make sure I’m not going to forget anything important, and packing what little I have left to put in, having spent much of the last two weeks slowly filling up the bag I’m taking. I’m so jazzed, I’ve essentially been ready to go for weeks. If I weren’t relatively ancient, I’d feel like a kid two days before Christmas; as it is, it takes all I have to keep from dancing a jig, or otherwise making an old fool of myself…

This is also affecting my writing, as I can barely keep my mind focused on the task at hand…. it just wants to think about what’s coming up, and will focus in on what I want to do only with great reluctance. I find myself unable to get mad about it, as the rest of my head is also caught up in the frenzy of emotion that goes with this…. So, I’ve come up with a semi-practical solution, which should serve to get the job done for the today, tomorrow, and Wednesday, before I leave at 0800…..

As I did yesterday, I’ll be dipping into the archives for one section, then go with a poem, chosen from the list in my head, and one old-school pearl, of the short, quick, but pointed variety, followed by the usual ridiculously egotistical closing remarks. This should allow me to get posted, with decent material, but take the minimum amount of time to put together. That’s the plan, anyway….

We’ll see just how much of it Murphy lets go without a response…. He’s been quiet so far today, so I’m hoping he’s focused on some other poor fool for a day or two…. He will, no doubt, have a trick or two to show me on the trip, but, I’m hoping he lets me slide here at home before I go…. Cross your fingers, or legs, or knock on some wood, or somehow help to guarantee my desire…. It won’t help much, but, it makes him feel good, and sometimes it will make him a bit more lenient…..

Once I’m on my trip, look for some more changes, as I intend to write about what I’m seeing, and put up some pictures of where I’ve been that day, rather than trying to maintain the long, rambling politico-religious ranting habits heretofore exhibited so regularly. Other changes my be instituted as well, like posting in the evening, after the day’s events, rather than beforehand, like now. So, stay tuned, as we evolve into a mobile state, and I learn how to put all of my adventures online. Hopefully, it will be entertaining, for y’all as much as me…. For now, ’tis enough to know it’s time to dive….. Shall we Pearl?…..
__________________________________

Here is an old-style Pearl, from September of 2011….

Ffolkes,

Taking pot shots at political figures is a time-honored pastime in this country, and though I try not to engage in doing so on a regular basis, I’m not above letting all my frustration drive me to rant. The current political scene certainly offers a multitude of opportunities, especially now that so many Republican candidates for the Presidential election next year have jumped out into the glare of public scrutiny.

Every day I can read any number of articles outlining the latest spate of nonsense that is uttered by one of them; the difficult part at this point is choosing only one about which to write. Got some rampant ignorance? Plenty of that going around. Want an outrageous claim or two? Step right up. Like to hear the real facts? We can help, it happens every day…..what is a body to do? There is so much to choose from, they all seem to blend together into one giant nightmare of avarice and ignorance.

I guess the part of all this that is most disturbing to me is just how clueless our beloved ruling class has become. Even the most honorable politicians these days must take part in the insanity, if only to maintain their position where they can do some good. The majority of people who have been elected in this country have no real understanding of the mainstream, whatever that may be.

The gap between the wealthy and the poor in this country has never been larger, and is growing every day. How can a person who makes $200,000 a year even conceive of what it is like to live on less than $10,000 a year? Quite simply, they cannot. More importantly, they have no desire to even try, because their purpose is not to improve the lot of everyone, but to solidify and maintain their own position. They may feel momentary jabs in their atrophied consciences, but easily dismiss them in favor of enjoying the fruits of their public thievery.

The seeds of revolution have been sown, and are being nourished by the ongoing scenario in today’s world. The rich are getting richer, and the poor are getting poorer. The old saw about a watched pot is not entirely true; the pot will eventually come to a boil, given time and heat. I’ve been watching this pot for a long while, and note that the heat has been turned up. Whether I watch it or not, it WILL boil over…….

After that, I need some uplifting, so onward to the good stuff…..

“It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society.” — Krishnamurti (Amen!)

“You can’t start worrying about what’s going to happen. You get spastic enough worrying about what’s happening now.” — Lauren Bacall

“I maintain there is much more wonder in science than in pseudoscience. And in addition, to whatever measure this term has any meaning, science has the additional virtue, and it is not an inconsiderable one, of being true.” — Carl Sagan, The Burden Of Skepticism, — The Skeptical Inquirer, Vol. 12, Fall 87

“What is beautiful is good and who is good will soon also be beautiful.” — Sappho

“Education is an admirable thing, but it is well to remember from time to time that nothing that is worth knowing can be taught.” — Oscar Wilde (1856-1900)

“The ideals which have always shone before me and filled me with the joy of living are goodness, beauty, and truth. To make a goal of comfort or happiness has never appealed to me; a system of ethics built on this basis would be sufficient only for a herd of cattle.” — Albert Einstein

Alone I sit, waiting for the future to become now. When it does, I’m goin’ there…… y’all take care out there….

__________________________________

No comments are necessary to introduce this, but I’ll just say that I wish I had learned of this woman’s poetry ages ago….

Medusa

Off that landspit of stony mouth-plugs,
Eyes rolled by white sticks,
Ears cupping the sea’s incoherences,
You house your unnerving head—God-ball,
Lens of mercies,
Your stooges
Plying their wild cells in my keel’s shadow,
Pushing by like hearts,
Red stigmata at the very center,
Riding the rip tide to the nearest point of
departure,

Dragging their Jesus hair.
Did I escape, I wonder?
My mind winds to you
Old barnacled umbilicus, Atlantic cable,
Keeping itself, it seems, in a state of miraculous
repair.

In any case, you are always there,
Tremulous breath at the end of my line,
Curve of water upleaping
To my water rod, dazzling and grateful,
Touching and sucking.
I didn’t call you.
I didn’t call you at all.
Nevertheless, nevertheless
You steamed to me over the sea,
Fat and red, a placenta

Paralyzing the kicking lovers.
Cobra light
Squeezing the breath from the blood bells
Of the fuchsia. I could draw no breath,
Dead and moneyless,

Overexposed, like an X-ray.
Who do you think you are?
A Communion wafer? Blubbery Mary?
I shall take no bite of your body,
Bottle in which I live,

Ghastly Vatican.
I am sick to death of hot salt.
Green as eunuchs, your wishes
Hiss at my sins.
Off, off, eely tentacle!
There is nothing between us.

~~ Sylvia Plath ~~

__________________________________

As promised, or threatened, take it as you may, here is an old-school pearl, fresh as I can make it from my immense stash of Smart Bee’s best….. I hope you get the point of this one, it’s a doozy…. and fun, too! Well, it’s fun if one is used to stretching the limits of the mind…. if not, well, probably not so much….

“Love is not all: it is not meat nor drink Nor slumber nor a roof against the rain; Nor yet a floating spar to men that sink And rise and sink and rise and sink again; Love can not fill the thickened lung with breath, Nor clean the blood, nor set the fractured bone; Yet many a man is making friends with death Even as I speak, for lack of love alone. It well may be that in a difficult hour, Pinned down by pain and moaning for release, Or nagged by want past resolution’s power, I might be driven to sell your love for peace, Or trade the memory of this night for food. It well may be. I do not think I would.” — Edna St. Vincent Millay

“Hang sorrow! care ‘ll kill a cat.” — Ben Jonson (1573-1637) — Every Man in his Humour, Act i, Sc. 3

“Stop thinking, and end your problems.” — Lao Tzu

Untwisting all the chains that tie
The hidden soul of harmony.

— John Milton (1608-1674) — L’Allegro, Line 143

“The truly brave are soft of heart and eyes, And feel for what their duty bids them do.” — Byron

“Life is never fair, and perhaps it is a good thing for most of us that it is not.” — Oscar Wilde, An Ideal Husband

“All of a sudden, I want to THROW OVER my promising ACTING CAREER, grow a LONG BLACK BEARD and wear a BASEBALL HAT!!… Although I don’t know WHY!!” — Zippy the Pinhead

Alas, we never do really know why, do we?….. TTFN….
__________________________________

Well, I hope this works….. It does, at least as far as it goes…. I don’t believe I’ll need to worry about replying to the Pulitzer Committee anytime soon…. It’s done, though, and, at this point, that’s all that matters to me…. I’m outta here, ffolkes…. Y’all take care out there, and May the Metaphorse be with you…..

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

Which is Why….

—
Sometimes I sits and thinks,
and sometimes
I just sits.

gigoid

Bee balm is often useful with such wounds…

Posted on March 17, 2013 by gigoid

Ffolkes,
“What we have heah, is a failyuh to obfuscate.” On that hopelessly obscure note, the tiny little alien, which looked suspiciously like a miniature orange bulldog in a green jumpsuit, wobbled what was apparently his head weakly from side to side, formed what seemed to be a smile with what seemed to be a mouth, closed what appeared to be his eyes (I think it’s a he…), and fell backwards into the lap of the fat dignitary seated in back of the podium…. the mayor, I believe….

Everything would have been okay, but the mayor thought the alien was going to throw up on him, and proceeded to dump the poor wee beastie off the stage, into the crowd, which started using him for a soccer ball…. A real mess…. While it wasn’t the most dignified ending to a press conference I’d seen in my days in the mayor’s office, it was better than the one we tried to hold after the sewers all exploded at once…. No matter how hard we blew the fans, the smell wouldn’t disperse….

Ever since the entropy bomb went off last year, it’s been pretty crazy around here, what with the Anti-Alien groups fighting it out with the End of Timers, while the remnants of the churches are busy dealing with the twelve disciples, who ALL rose from the dead, and are now recanting their stories on the talk show circuit, with franchised copies of the shows running even on Al-Jazeera….. When the Chief of the World Police issued his proclamation of insanity, and said his officers would now be found patrolling the subways, because it was too dangerous for them on the streets, well, things really began to deteriorate….

I was sitting here, trying to think of how society might look AFTER the apocalypse happens, and came up with the above….. It was fun, but, all in all, not as smooth flowing, or as good, as I’d like…. Not enough coffee before starting, I’d wager….I’ll do it over again another time, I think, and do a better job of it…. Don’t know why I started out in a negative entropy scenario, but, then, I never do know, do I? No, of course not…. I am perhaps the world’s first unconscious writer.

That is to say, what I write is seldom connected to a subject that has been chosen consciously, and much of what gets written comes from the same unreliable well of inspiration. This is, arguably, an unusual format, but seems to work for me… It works well enough that I’m not willing to entertain the thought of going back to the way everyone else does it, unless I use the “in your cups” method of writing, wherein one creates while intoxicated on adult beverages, or recreational drugs, such as marijuana, or bourbon…. muses of choice, such as they are…. But, they have their own drawbacks, and plain old objective inattention works just fine for me…. It’s cheaper, too….

Of course, this opinion is probably not shared completely by those who read my work; in fact, I would doubt it seriously. But, I don’t write for anyone but myself, ultimately, so I’m the only one who has any investment in making it right…. For others, to wit: y’all, it is merely a matter of finding stuff to read that doesn’t waste your time. Which is why I DO try to make what I write stimulating, and interesting, or at least within shouting distance of either one of those attributes….. I’m selfish, like most people, but I try to make what I’m selfish about amenable for discussion, at least…. and, unlike many folks in this sad world, I DON’T try to push what I think on anyone else….

A statement such as the last one is obviously an invitation to rant, but, since I’m still in the intro, we’ll forgo that small pleasure, and finish up here…. As I look back over what I’ve produced so far, I see that it is, oddly enough, sufficient unto the day as another faux intro section…. Once again, I’ve crafted together six-plus paragraphs stuffed with nothing more than idle chatter, which is enough to satisfy my strange and flexible standards for this part of today’s effort. In short, nyah, nyah, nyah, it’s done…. so there!….. Sorry, sometimes the little asshole in me just has to get in his two cents…. It’s best to just ignore it, and it will generally stop right away….. Shall we Pearl?….
__________________________________

I found a pearl two days ago that I’ve saved for a religirant, but, as of this moment, I don’t have quite enough outrage stored up to pull it off…. so, I’ll save it for another day. It’s a diatribe with Mother Teresa as the target, so I’m sure you’ll all want to see that…. I may be one of the few people in the world who sees her as a force of evil, and is willing to say so…. Besides, I always enjoy taking a few shots at someone I consider to be a waste of sperm….. Her reputation can take it, I think, as she has the wool pulled completely over the eyes of most of the world….

In the meantime, I went diving for pearls to substitute for a rant, and came up with the following seven star grouping, with which I am quite pleased… The group makes a very cogent point, and finishes nicely with a well-rounded piece of nonsense to set the proper tone for cogitation…. I hope you enjoy it all, and, if not, well, that’s just too bad…. your choice…. 🙂

“The truth that many people never understand until it is too late, is that the more you try to avoid suffering, the more you suffer, because smaller and more insignificant things begin to torture you in proportion to your fear of being hurt.” — Thomas Merton

“If you think education is expensive, try Ignorance.” — Andy McIntyre

“Conventionality is not morality. Self-righteousness is not religion. To attack the first is not to assail the last.” — Charlotte Bronte
(The latter claim is, it seems to me, true for both initial statements….)

“At any given moment, an arrow must be either where it is or where it is not. But obviously it cannot be where it is not. And if it is where it is, that is equivalent to saying that it is at rest.” — Zeno’s paradox of the moving (still?) arrow

“True is suffering; this is true cause; this is true cessation; this is the true path. Know the sufferings; give up they causes; attain the cessation of the suffering; follow the true paths. Know the sufferings although there is nothing to know; relinquish the causes of misery although there is nothing to relinquish; be earnest in cessation although there is nothing to cease; practice the means of cessation although there is nothing to practice.” — Buddha, The Four Noble Truths

“A man learns to skate by staggering about making a fool of himself; indeed, he progresses in all things by making a fool of himself.” — George Bernard Shaw

“Is it NOUVELLE CUISINE when 3 olives are struggling with a scallop in a plate of SAUCE MORNAY?” — Zippy the Pinhead
(I would answer, yes, yes it is….)
__________________________________

When I went looking for a poem this morning, I had not intended for today’s choice to be quite so heavy, or complex…. But, like much of Sylvia Plath’s work, I find this too compelling to ignore…. and, most certainly not, when it finishes like this, with a chilling bit of precognition about social media…

“The city is a map of cheerful twitters now,
And everywhere people, eyes mica-silver and blank,
Are riding to work in rows, as if recently brainwashed.”

Enjoy!

Insomniac

The night is only a sort of carbon paper,
Blueblack, with the much-poked periods of stars
Letting in the light, peephole after peephole . . .
A bonewhite light, like death, behind all things.
Under the eyes of the stars and the moon’s rictus
He suffers his desert pillow, sleeplessness
Stretching its fine, irritating sand in all directions.

Over and over the old, granular movie
Exposes embarrassments—the mizzling days
Of childhood and adolescence, sticky with dreams,
Parental faces on tall stalks, alternately stern and tearful,
A garden of buggy rose that made him cry.
His forehead is bumpy as a sack of rocks.
Memories jostle each other for face-room like obsolete film stars.

He is immune to pills: red, purple, blue . . .
How they lit the tedium of the protracted evening!
Those sugary planets whose influence won for him
A life baptized in no-life for a while,
And the sweet, drugged waking of a forgetful baby.
Now the pills are worn-out and silly, like classical gods.
Their poppy-sleepy colors do him no good.

His head is a little interior of grey mirrors.
Each gesture flees immediately down an alley
Of diminishing perspectives, and its significance
Drains like water out the hole at the far end.
He lives without privacy in a lidless room,
The bald slots of his eyes stiffened wide-open
On the incessant heat-lightning flicker of situations.

Nightlong, in the granite yard, invisible cats
Have been howling like women, or damaged instruments.
Already he can feel daylight, his white disease,
Creeping up with her hatful of trivial repetitions.
The city is a map of cheerful twitters now,
And everywhere people, eyes mica-silver and blank,
Are riding to work in rows, as if recently brainwashed.

~~ Sylvia Plath
__________________________________

“If you have an important point to make, don’t try to be subtle or clever. Use a pile driver. Hit the point once. Then come back and hit it again. Then hit it a third time–a tremendous whack.” — Sir Winston Churchill

I have used this quote previously, usually as part of a group of pearls leading to some point or another; it’s a very good quote, strong, positive, with a solid essence of meaning. It’s also damn good advice, which I try to heed at every opportunity I give myself to rant…. Winnie had a very good point here, mainly because he had the task of getting an entire island full of asses who believe themselves to be independent minded to work together to save those selfsame asses from the Germans, who were themselves displaying their own form of assholiness…. A bloody disgusting task, if you ask me, but, he was obviously the man for the job, as he seldom gave a shit about what anyone else thought, about much of anything….

The insight shown in this statement, however, is much deeper than is at first apparent…. Winnie understood that the average Englishman, as is true for the whole planet, as a rule of thumb, is pretty stupid, and stubborn to boot, being mostly unwilling to listen to anything they don’t wish to hear, whether smart or dumb, much less see any need to act on it. This, as might be clear to others, as it is to me, is NOT a particularly valuable frame of mind if one wishes to survive, and Winnie, knowing his people, was quite willing to use a two-by-four as his primary teaching tool to get his points across to the idiots he was forced to deal with during WWII….

Sad to say, this stupidity on the part of the larger part of humanity continues to this day…. Witness, if you will, the current crop of movies, if you wish to get a clue as to where the mind of humanity is focused…. It may amaze you, and will most likely depress you, to see that there is not a single movie about anything more serious than adolescent acne anywhere to be seen… Oh, there are what are termed psychological thrillers, but, they are mostly just shock literature, designed to make a good screenplay more than to explore the human psyche…. Nothing out there is remotely intelligent, because there just isn’t a market for it…..

I’m not proposing any solutions here; this is strictly a gripe session, for my benefit only. I get so tired of watching the parade of human events, because it so often turns sad, and depressing, to see how stupid and ignorant people can be…. and how cowardly most people are in asserting morality in public…. You know a society is going downhill when the police drive around acting as if they are under siege, and the people do not trust them at all to show either fairness, or restraint. In the town where I live, the worst traffic offenders I see on a daily basis are the police, who set the worst possible example for other drivers, even, and especially, when they are NOT responding to calls….

And the government wonders why nobody trusts them? Our society is sick, ffolkes, and I’m out here with my pile driver to hit that point again. That last paragraph was my second hit, and now, the tremendous whack of which Winnie spoke….

We are all responsible for the sorry state of the world, equally…. Those of us who are not actively engaged in actions which are destructive, are guilty of not speaking up often enough to get the attention of those who are, nor are we engaged in doing anything which will stop their deliberate depredations. They are guilty of being assholes, yes…. but we are all guilty of complicity in that, and can claim no less responsibility for when we fall down the hole we’ve been digging for ourselves…. And, that is the TRUTH….

“I’m amoral, and it’s been bothering my conscience.” — Smart Bee

“To escape criticism — do nothing, say nothing, be nothing.” — Elbert Hubbard (1856-1915)

“You, therefore, have no excuse, you who pass judgment on someone else, for at whatever point you judge the other, you are condemning yourself, because you who pass judgment do the same things.” — Romans 2:1
(I’ve always maintained there is a lot of good advice in the Bible, as long as one doesn’t go all fanatic about its origin…. this is a perfect example of that contention….)
__________________________________

Lordy, lordy, what a long, strange trip it’s been!….. I shall now test the proof of the pudding….. Hmm… this Pearl is a bit hard to classify, and I don’t think I’m up to judging it for overall quality at this point…. So…

Tiny Truth, Just in Time

I’ll leave history to say if it’s a crime,
as it will always do….
Who may challenge the prerogative of Time?….
Nobody, that’s who….

~~ gigoid

Y’all take care out there, and May the Metaphorse be with you…..

—
Sometimes I sits and thinks,
and sometimes
I just sits.

gigoid

That is one querulous chipmunk…..

Posted on March 12, 2013 by gigoid

Ffolkes,
Fear, correctly handled, can be a powerful motivator; just ask any married man…. Ba da bing….. Rim shot….. No? You didn’t recognize the classic format? Shoot, I could have sworn y’all were old enough to remember that kind of stuff….. Maybe you do, it just doesn’t register that you do….. You know, a comedian makes a joke, usually very punny (sorry, never can resist a good pun….. or, a bad one, for that matter….), and the drummer in the band does what is called a “rim shot”, three quick drum beats, ba da bing, indicating the feeling of dropping off the edge of a cliff….. No, still no stirring of the old memory box?….. Hmm, this is more serious than I had imagined….

If this evidence is typical, we, as a society have a big problem….. we’re losing our sense of humor….. Everyone alive should be able to recognize the rim shot joke format; it is perhaps the only classic, truly American style joke that exists. Though it was present, and in use for a time in Europe, it wasn’t until Americans such as Jack Paar, Steve Allen, Johnny Carson, and the sociological genius, George Carlin, in the late twentieth century, that the genre became recognizable as an American art form, brought to its peak in the latter half of the century on TV, with proponents like Jay Leno, and most particularly, David Letterman, the savior of late night TV, upon the retirement of Carson, and the clear winner in that time of TV history known as the Late Night Wars of the Eighties…..

Whew, love those run-on paragraphs…. Any who…. Now, it appears that modern culture has lost touch with this classical American style of humor, which grew out of the ancient styles of Groucho, Zeppo, & Harpo Marx, (Leonard & Gummo only appeared occasionally), and Larry, Moe, and Curly Joe, the inimitable Stooges. Never again will the stage or screen see the kind of uninhibited nonsense as produced by those two genius comedy groups, the Marx Brother’s, and the Three Stooges, during their periods of popularity…… No one will ever poke their finger in an eye with quite the panache that Moe could give, and it is a foregone conclusion that the art of clowning lost its greatest genius when Harpo Marx passed on…. I still get a runny, big, red nose on the anniversary of this death….

How will future generations ever cope with all of the stress and angst they will have to face, in the fight to survive the environmental damage being done by today’s Beloved Ruling Class and the Asshole Division of Megacorpse? Humanity will be assuming a heavy handicap in trying to face down such experienced evil-doers without the benefit of having George C on their side…. Nobody could issue indictments of the asinine behavior of the 1% better than Grandmaster Carlin, and the video discs he left behind, targeting the corporate assholes, are as valid now as when he filmed them 10-20 years ago, all precise, detailed attacks on the people whose sole purpose is to fuck the rest of us at every turn….

I would suggest that society take a very close look at the state of humor in today’s culture, and begin the attempt to bring back the jokes needed to motivate society to action. Our artists have always shown the way, in revolutions and historical times of tension, by singing, and quoting poetry, and carving statues, and making jokes about the government, or otherwise expressing the outrage and feelings of anger that people have when confronted with the chicanery of their peers; we look to Art to show us how to live….. It will be a sad thing indeed if we cannot learn to at least laugh at the foolishness of our own demise, because, damn if it isn’t hilarious…. from the point of view of the rest of creation, anyway…..

Hmm…. without even noticing, I’ve already ranted once, and managed to get an intro section out of it as well…. Cool, eh? If nothing else, it’s different than your average intro, without question…. whether that is a good sign, or not, remains to be seen….. I’m going to bow to the inevitable now…. Shall we Pearl?…..
__________________________________

It’s time, as is obvious from the intro, to mix things up a bit…. Oh, don’t panic, just a little shake-up, no major disruptions…. In this section, rather than the recently typical entry of a politirant, or a religirant, I’m switching to a harlequin pearl, the quickest, most efficient form of pearl creation in my somewhat limited repertoire of same….

I’m confused, which is both normal, and expected, so I’m going with my usual response to that condition, and making random changes to routine, so as to “go with the flow”, as it were…. You should know by now not to encourage me like this….. There IS a point to this pearl, and you SHOULD be able to figure it out fairly easily…. If not, well, you can always look at the ads while the adults are busy playing…..

“The dictate of the light says: ‘Know yourself and what you are.’ The dark replies, ‘By all means, but then become afraid.'” — Tanith Lee

“The only way to combat criminals is by not voting for them.” — Dayton Allen

“And never, ever cut a deal with a dragon.” — Smart Bee

“Plato affirmed that the soul was immortal and clothed in many bodies successively.” — Diogenes Laertius (c. 200 AD) — Plato, xl
(I don’t know about y’all, but it’s nice to have this confirmed by ancient decree…..)

“What I need is a MATURE RELATIONSHIP with a FLOPPY DISK…” — Zippy the Pinhead

“Individuality seems to be Nature’s whole aim — and she cares nothing for individuals.” — Goethe

For those who didn’t make it to page 249 of “The Anthropic Cosmological Principle” by John Barrow and Frank Tipler, I quote : “In a randomly infinite Universe, any event occurring here and now with finite probability must be occurring simultaneously at an infinite number of other sites in the Universe. It is hard to evaluate this idea any further, but one thing is certain: if it is true then it is certainly not original!”

I have no excuses, and no rational explanation for my behavior…. too bad, so sad…. They said he showed such promise…..
__________________________________

Something about Sylvia Plath’s poetry draws me…. like my own poetry, I don’t wish to lose whatever it is about it that feels so right, so I don’t question it closely, I just enjoy…. and hope you do as well….

Child

Your clear eye is the one absolutely beautiful thing.
I want to fill it with color and ducks,
The zoo of the new
Whose name you meditate —
April snowdrop, Indian pipe,
Little

Stalk without wrinkle,
Pool in which images
Should be grand and classical

Not this troublous
Wringing of hands, this dark
Ceiling without a star.

~~ Sylvia Plath
__________________________________

You are about to witness an unprecedented event of major proportion…. Well, for this corner of reality, it’s major….. The remainder of today’s Pearl of Virtual Wisdom is hereby canceled. The reason is not one of a malicious nature, but, rather a sudden burst of good news that will require some thought and assimilation in order to settle comfortably…. which is a long winded way to say, YIPPEE!

Following up on a phone message from yesterday, I spoke this morning with a Mrs. H, who informs me that a) my status as a disabled retiree has been approved by Social Services, and b) my benefits can start immediately…. oh, and c) she would be my caseworker from now on…. I am still trying to catch my breath, as the adrenalin is making it hard to settle down long enough to cheer….

After almost 3 years, it is an exquisite feeling to know that my wait is, essentially, over. The money owed in back pay will be in my account within 30 days (or, possibly, by her report, less than that….), and my monthly benefits should begin by the first of April, or May, at the latest.

Needless to say, I am feeling a bit overwhelmed, so I’m taking the rest of today off, in re: these Pearls, and am going to go do something fun, if not foolish…. Hopefully, I can avoid anything legally actionable, but, I’m making no promises….

I leave you in this last section, not with a rant, but with a pearl of nearly infinite luster…. Well, actually it’s a pearl and a rant, all in one…. It doesn’t have anything to do with my news, it just seemed like a good substitute for the 1200 or so words I would usually accompany this with…. Just feel grateful I didn’t have the impulse to discuss this one…. we would still be here late tonight….. Enjoy, & I’ll see ya in the closing….

“Conservative intellectuals have taken on the left’s sense of persecution and repression — though in this case, at the hands of cultural commissars. The same conservative intellectuals who denounced the psychology of victimization have been nursing a fine sense of victimization of their own. How many times have we read or heard the same half-dozen stories about the horrors of political correctness? This sense of being victims at the hands of multicultural barbarians, militant feminists, and spineless university administrators (the usual characters in this drama) gives conservative intellectuals, as it has long given their counterparts on the left, a kind of collective identity. It is a powerful, organizing myth, which is not to say the individual stories are untrue– it is the total picture that is false. The myth of liberal repression allows the conservatives to cross-dress as intellectual insurgents. Charles Murray has perfected this appropriation of radical rhetoric– the courageous, lonely truth-teller, sadly bearing the hateful facts but facts they are, willing to voice the unspeakable, to break through the repressive apparatus of liberal conformity.” — Paul Starr, at http://www.princeton.edu/~starr/libcon.html
__________________________________

Okay, I can relax a bit now…. I was afraid I wouldn’t get this done before exploding… and if I don’t hurry, that statement will be a lie, or at minimum, wrong. In any case, it’s done, and I can go start my random wandering around in a daze, trying to figure out what to do first…. It may sound like a threat, but it’s really just a promise…. I’ll be back….. Y’all take care out there, and May the Metaphorse be with you…..

—
Sometimes I sits and thinks,
and sometimes
I just sits.

gigoid

If we must, we can use the anchovy paste….

Posted on March 6, 2013 by gigoid

Ffolkes,
Now, this is scary…. I never knew that a mere blank, white screen could hold so much fear….. Not only is the screen blank, so is my head, and time is passing. It’s already after 0800, due to being up until 0100 for some unknown reason, and not arising until after 0700….. No big deal, but throws me off a bit to have my schedule change again, willy nilly, just because my head wouldn’t shut up last night…..

Then, of course, there is the problem of this morning’s Pearl…. Once more, I’m completely at a loss as to how I should get going…. no fictional scenarios are floating around in there, and my sense of humor doesn’t seem to be awake quite yet, despite the rest of me being up and about, just as if I were normal….. which, as we all know, just isn’t the case….. I left that unfortunate state behind me, a long way in the past, and haven’t seen hide nor hair of it since, oh, 1958 or so…..

“We have met the enemy and they are us and you are me and we are all together.” — Walt Kelly, Lennon, and the Beatles

“When you talk to the half-wise, twaddle; when you talk to the ignorant, brag; when you talk to the sagacious, look very humble and ask their opinion.” — Edward Bulwer-Lytton

“Each second we live is a new and unique moment of the universe. And what do we teach our children in school? We teach them that two and two make four and that Paris is the capital of France. When will we also teach them what they are?” — Smart Bee

Okay, so, I cheated….. sue me. I thought, maybe, if I threw out some pearls, it might jog my brain, and something worthwhile would fall out….. I do like all three of these little gems, especially the first and last…. the middle one is one of those ‘surprise’ pearls, by which I mean that the source is a surprise….

Edward Bulwer-Lytton is the author of the book in which the line “It was a dark and stormy night….” was first used, and the opening paragraph of that book, whose title I never can remember, is used as the ultimate example of the over-blown, floridly wordy, and pompous style of writing that seems to abound in certain literary genres….. It is such a bad piece of work, that, each year, a contest is held, wherein people submit the worst opening lines for a book they can think of, to win a prize, which has grown to thousands of English pounds for the year’s winner….. Some pretty funny stuff is composed every time….

I’m not going to rant here… in fact I’m going to just abandon all attempts at making this a real intro, and just dump it on y’all in its current state. I don’t think it will splash, or cause any permanent damage, so, I’ll take my chances, since it’s way too late to start over…… In the interests of self-help, and to make at least one strong attempt to regain control of this missive, we’ll leave this alone now…. Shall we Pearl?…..__________________________________

“This song of the waters is audible to every ear, but there is other music in these hills, by no means audible to all…. On a still night, when the campfire is low and the Pleiades have climbed over rimrocks, sit quietly and listen … and think hard of everything you have seen and tried to understand. Then you may hear it – a vast pulsing harmony – its score inscribed on a thousand hills, its notes the lives and deaths of plants and animals, its rhythms spanning the seconds and the centuries.” — Aldo Leopold

Mr. Leopold’s fanciful flight of imagination is lovely, and true, as well. Without mentioning it by name, he gives a fine description of what has been called the Music of the Spheres, or, as I like to call it, Star Song…… I’ve found, over the course of a moderately long life, that some folks can hear this music, and some can’t. It doesn’t have anything to do with intelligence, per se, though more intelligent ffolkes seem to hear it than those who are less endowed with that characteristic. But, it isn’t essential…. I believe the ability to hear it has to do with two factors; one is imagination, and one is curiosity, both of which are somewhat dependent on having been developed in childhood.

Babies all hear this music, but learn, as do we all, to tune it out as they become more concerned with other aspects of growing. If imagination and curiosity are encouraged when young, a child will again learn how to tune in to this universal music, but, if not, they may never hear it past the age of 10 or so, losing along with it much of their sense of wonder, and many of childhood’s most important lessons. These losses can affect the course of their lives for all their days, keeping them unaware of much of the beauty in the world.

I am forced, at this point in this narrative, to make a confession…. I’m lost. When I started this pearl, I had a specific argument I was going to present, with evidence, suppositions, and conclusions all laid out in logical order for your examination. Now, however, I am faced with the simple fact that, while composing the above two paragraphs, that argument has flown completely out of my head, and gone off to wherever such ideas go when Murphy gets hold of them like this….

If I knew, I’d go kick his ass and get them back…. SIGH…. I don’t, though, so I’m going to make one try to salvage this space, and fill up the remainder of this section with an old-school group of pearls…. I’ll try to keep them in the same general genre, or near the same area of thought as above, but, obviously, no guarantees are possible…. Lloyd’s would never cover it…..

“It’s hard to face tomorrow, but it’s easier than facing no tomorrow.” — Smart Bee
——–
A novice of the temple once approached the Chief Priest with a question. “Master, does Emacs have the Buddha nature?” the novice asked. The Chief Priest had been in the temple for many years and could be relied upon to know these things. He thought for several minutes before replying. “I don’t see why not. It’s got bloody well everything else.” With that, the Chief Priest went to lunch. The novice suddenly achieved enlightenment, several years later.

Commentary:

His Master is kind,
Answering his FAQ quickly,
With thought and sarcasm. ~~ Smart Bee
——-
“Everyone is born with genius, but most people only keep it a few minutes.” — Edgard Varese
——-
Against those skilled in the attack, the enemy does not know where to defend.
Against the experts in defence, the enemy does not know where to attack.

— Sun Tzu
——-
— Bother! said Pooh, as Eeyore missed another period.
——-
Like. if guns are outlawed, the lawyer population will explode out of control. — Smart Bee

Bloody brilliant, if I do say so myself…. but, then, I’ve always said Smart Bee was much more than just your average database….. There IS a point to the group of pearls included, but, don’t bother trying to figure it out, you’d only get a headache…. It’s kind of the same idea as the old saw about “Never try to make a pig wear shoes…. You’ll both end up dirty, and the pig still won’t dance….”
__________________________________

I’m in the mood for a bit of mad genius…. so, here is one of the maddest genius’s ever, by acclimation….

Thalidomide

O half moon—-

Half-brain, luminosity—
Negro, masked like a white,

Your dark
Amputations crawl and appall—

Spidery, unsafe.
What glove

What leatheriness
Has protected

Me from that shadow—
The indelible buds.

Knuckles at shoulder-blades, the
Faces that

Shove into being, dragging
The lopped

Blood-caul of absences.
All night I carpenter

A space for the thing I am given,
A love

Of two wet eyes and a screech.
White spit

Of indifference!
The dark fruits revolve and fall.

The glass cracks across,
The image

Flees and aborts like dropped mercury.

~~ Sylvia Plath
__________________________________

“If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. {2} If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. {3} If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing. {4} Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. {5} It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. {6} Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. {7} It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. {8} Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. {9} For we know in part and we prophesy in part, {10} but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears. {11} When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me. {12} Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known. {13} And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.” — 1 Corinthians 13 NIV

It is such a shame that the Bible has to be regarded as divinely inspired, in my mind. There are a number of passages in the various books by different authors that display a deep insight into human nature, and, like the one above, beautifully give to man words of such truth they can form the basis of one’s entire world-view. Insisting that such ideas are only possible to God, to me, isn’t realistic, nor is it true. I’ve known a number of people I would consider very wise, who have never even heard of the Christian God…. so, where does that fit into the picture?….

No, from what I can tell from reading it, most, or, okay, I’ll be fair, much, of what is written, most especially those parts intended as dogmatic proclamations, are more human in origin, obviously, than they are divinely inspired. The premises all favor the church over the individual, and submission of each individual to dogma is required of the faithful; that much is apparent in every statement that asserts God’s authority over Man as Creator.

It’s obvious to me, anyway…. I could never figure out why God, who could make universes, needed me to fall down on my knees and humble myself….. What kind of sick thrill does he get from that? I know that anyone who acts in a subservient manner to me makes me uncomfortable, and feel like I want to kick them, and tell them to stand up and show some pride…. or at least some dignity….

Any who, in the Bible, there is all this good advice, and good ideas, like the one above…. but, in order to find them, one must wade through all the nonsensical stuff that the priestly hierarchies would have us believe is “written by the hand of God”…. Much more likely t’was the hand of Guido, or Etienne, I would think, at the insistence of assholes like Paul, and Peter, those evil men who barely waited until Jesus was underground to start perverting his teachings…. I’ll bet they were a bit surprised to have to wait until after he rose, and left again, before getting down to the business of altering texts, twisting meanings, and generally setting things up to suit themselves, all with the convenient authority he so trustingly gave them….

Not for nothing is it said that Jesus was an innocent…. he believed he could trust his disciples, forgetting entirely they are human, and will act out of self-interest FIRST, every time, when it comes to morality…. Hell, soon after he died, all twelve of the disciples went their own ways, and began the task of creating the thousand and one different sects based on the teachings of Christ that exist today…. or at least, setting the stage for their creation…. There WERE only twelve of them to start with…. Even with that, it takes a while to split it all up to the point we now see today, with thousands of separate churches, all based on one or another of the basic core principles Jesus left behind as legacy, and all interpreted through the lenses of each person’s glasses, colored in self-interest….

Ah well, at least if one has the patience to look, some good things can be found in the Bible…. I just wish that people would learn not to take it so seriously… because, I’m sorry to have to tell them this, but, God doesn’t publish books, nor does He (as I understand the concept of Him….) use ghost writers….. In fact, I should think that, if such an entity had something to tell us, He might make it pretty obvious where the message came from, and what it meant…. otherwise, what would be the point? If nothing else, I would expect a God to be, at minimum, logical…..

Okay, I’m done….

“Due to intense mind fog all thoughts have been grounded.” — Smart Bee
__________________________________

Whew, what an ordeal! I wasn’t sure I’d ever get done, but, once again, the perseverance I learned at my father’s knee stood me in good stead…. It’s done, and you can’t make me do it over…. Well, I suppose you could, but, you wouldn’t, would you? Would you? Hmm…. I think, before you have a long time to think about that, we’ll take our leave, until tomorrow…. Y’all take care out there, and May the Metaphorse be with you…..

—
Sometimes I sits and thinks,
and sometimes
I just sits.

gigoid

Engaging in palliative syncopation….

Posted on February 28, 2013 by gigoid

Ffolkes,
In the normal course of events, I don’t spend a lot of time with dead bodies; it has never been, to me, an attractive way to pass the time, nor has it ever tempted me to stop doing even the most onerous chore in order to pursue such mundane activities. However, due to the circumstances I am about to relate, I’ve recently been compelled to spend far too many of my precious minutes in the company of more than just one or two of the poor devils, and I must confess to a certain degree of discomfort in that regard. I mean, it’s not as if they will bore me to death with unwarranted chatter. But, good gracious, my good fellow, must they smell that way?….

Okay, mildly amusing, and just the right touch of macabre I was shooting for. There are times when stopping is hard; this was one, as it was kind of fun to think about what was going on, and what might happen next…. Ah, fiction…. I’ve read as much, or more, than 99% of the folks, or ffolkes, my age, and my lifelong love of reading shows no signs of lessening….

I’ve currently got 10 books on loan from the library, and reading four of them in random rotation, just for fun (Two are old Heinlein books I’ve already read, so they’re just for fun anyway….). I fully intend to write fiction, eventually, but have stuck pretty much to non-fiction in this blog, for the simple reason of maintaining what there is of my sanity….

But, that’s finished…. I’m no longer concerned about my sanity; if the world doesn’t like me the way I am, well, let’s see, how you say in English?…. Ah…. fuck them! Hard!…… Yep, I’m done trying to shield other folks from my mind’s randomness. I’ve decided that I’ve been nice my whole life, and never once killed anyone, in spite of the many, many opportunities, attached to viable reasons, that I’ve encountered over my life, so, society can just deal with all the stuff that holding in those homicidal impulses has created in me….. warts and all.

You may note a bit more harshness to future rants as a result of this decision. The time limit for our making the changes needed for us to survive our racial stupidity is approaching rapidly, and it’s time for me to step up my campaign against the PTB (powers that be), the BRC (Beloved Ruling Classes), and the PPA (preacher/priest assholes), and all those who, for their own aggrandizement, exercise power over others for gain.

It’s time now to take off the gloves I’ve been wearing, and throw some bare-knuckle punches. I’m even considering buying a power-glove to wear, to increase the effect of any blows that land. (A power glove is lead lined, weighs about 2-3 lbs., and effectively turns the fist into a war hammer….) Figuratively speaking, of course…. ( 😉 )

“I ‘m armed with more than complete steel,–The justice of my quarrel.” — Christopher Marlowe (1565-1593) — Lust’s Dominion, Act iii, Sc. 4

Actually, I think I’m kind of looking forward to it. I’ve been relatively nice so far, trying to increase credibility by maintaining a reasonable tone…. but the time is past for shyness, or, for that matter, for being nice to my targets. They have shown no mercy and no ‘niceness’ to any of us, so there is no further reason to do so, even to maintain my own integrity. At this point, laying a few on their chin, and causing some real pain and suffering on their part, ARE acts of integrity, as they serve to give notice of our intent for change.

Until the revolution actually begins, though, I think I can get a few Pearls in…. but, only if I ever learn to shorten up these intro sections and get on with it…. Sometimes, I drive myself crazy….. Shall we Pearl?…..
__________________________________

Once again, Smart Bee is being cute…. I can’t find anything worth a word or two, after a half-hour search…. To save time, and because it was so much fun yesterday, I’m going to find an Old Pearl to put here…. I’ll be right back…. Okay, that was quick…. Here are two Pearls, both short, as they were in the beginning…. Both were published sometime in 2008…. Actually, the first was published on June 23 of that year; the other a few months later….

A light in the darkness

Ffolkes,
Last night, the Universe lost one of its’ brightest lights. One of those people who make everyone else’s life better, just from being, has passed on to another plane of existence, and boy, I’ll bet he’s p___ed! George Carlin has left us, and it is no laughing matter, though he would perhaps disagree.

I don’t know if most folks understood just how much compassion he had for his fellow man; what else could be the cause for his particular twisted world view? He was well aware that we laugh to take away the pain of existence, and turned the power of his scintillating intelligence on everyday events that would surely make you cry, if only you weren’t laughing so hard at how ridiculous he made them seem. And the man had no fear; no subject was taboo for him. Be glad that you lived in a time that included his presence; we are all lessened by his passing…..

“Fear is the main source of superstition, and one of the main sources of cruelty. To conquer fear is the beginning of wisdom, in the pursuit of truth as in the endeavour after a worthy manner of life.” — Bertrand Russell, “An Outline of Intellectual Rubbish”

And this one….George would have liked this one….

“Eternity has nothing to do with the hereafter… This is it… If you don’t get it here, you won’t get it anywhere. The experience of eternity right here and now is the function of life. Heaven is not the place to have the experience; here’s the place to have the experience.” — Joseph Campbell

Y’all take care out there….and have a laugh on George!……

Okay, so this next one isn’t so short…. but, it’s a good one….

special stuff

Ffolkes,
It’s Friday. Just saying it makes it true enough….yay! Okay, enough giddiness. This morning’s offering is short, and not so sweet……

“The mastery of nature is vainly believed to be an adequate substitute for self-mastery.” — Reinhold Niebuhr

I’ve never heard this person’s name before, but his observation is spot on; far too many humans take the first choice, and this is what has led us to the precarious world in which we live. War, the state of the economy, dissolution of the nuclear family, global warming, destruction of the ozone layer, all the most serious, species-threatening issues of current events can be laid at the doorstep of this simple idea. People choose gluttony over restraint, profit over compassion, power over others instead of self-control. And it won’t change, unless we, as a species, undergo a shift of paradigm, and become mature. I fear for our children…..

Folly, thou conquerest, and I must yield!
Against stupidity the very gods
Themselves contend in vain. Exalted reason,
Resplendent daughter of the head divine,
Wise foundress of the system of the world,
Guide of the stars, who are thou then, if thou,
Bound to the tail of folly’s uncurb’d steed,
Must, vainly shrieking, with the drunken crowd,
Eyes open, plunge down headlong in the abyss.

— Johann Christian Friedrich von Schiller, The Maid of Orleans

Sorry to be so gloomy, but I calls ’em as I sees ’em…..here, this may help…

“If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put foundations under them.” — Henry David Thoreau

and remember…..

“Problems worthy of attack prove their worth by hitting back.” — Pat Hein

Y’all take care out there……

Well, there you have it…. two days in the work life of gigoid in 2008… and it saved you from a rant! Glory be!…..
__________________________________

Soliloquy Of The Solipsist

I
Make houses shrink
And trees diminish
By going far; my look’s leash
Dangles the puppet-people
Who, unaware how they dwindle,
Laugh, kiss, get drunk,
Nor guess that if I choose to blink
They die.

I
When in good humor,
Give grass its green
Blazon sky blue, and endow the sun
With gold;
Yet, in my wintriest moods, I hold
Absolute power
To boycott any color and forbid any flower
To be.

~~ Sylvia Plath

Brilliant!….
__________________________________

Against the Word the unstilled world still whirled
About the center of the silent Word.
— T.S. Eliot

I’ve always been fond of this little snippet from T.S.; it has a certain charm to it. I find to be pleasantly complex, while yet describing a very basic idea. Of course, it’s not a rantable item, nor particular helpful in any sort of self-improvement activities. But, I don’t much care, I just like it, so there….

Actually, I’ve included it where it is as a filler; Smart Bee is being particularly uncooperative this morning. It’s almost as if it were suffering from what I am, and is trying to tell me, to wit:

” — Bother! said Pooh, as his fur turned gray and he began losing his memory.” — Smart Bee

So, in the face of such obstruction, I have only one defense, and that is to go old-school, reverting back to the type of pearls as demonstrated in section one today…. I give you therefore, the next in a seemingly endless parade of aphorisms, all pointed in one direction, or at least, all located in one dimension….. Let’s see what we find….

Content if hence th’ unlearn’d their wants may view,
The learn’d reflect on what before they knew.

— Alexander Pope (1688-1744) — Essay on Criticism, Part iii, Line 180

“Destiny is no matter of chance. It is a matter of choice: It is not a thing to be waited for, it is a thing to be achieved.” — William Jennings Bryan

“Our genetic heritage endows each of us with a series of emotional set-points that determines our temperament. But the brain circuitry involved is extraordinarily malleable; temperament is not destiny.” — Daniel P. Goleman

“It is one of the commonest of mistakes to consider that the limit of our power of perception is also the limit of all there is to perceive.” — C. W. Leadbeater

“I have learned this at least by my experiment: if one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours.” — Henry David Thoreau, “Walden”

“Metaphysical totalitarianism of any kind stifles the freedom we have as human beings. It is not acceptable to have a religion where the alternative to faith is punishment – that’s how you train dogs, not develop people.” — Deng Ming-Dao

“There was once a man, Harry, called the Steppenwolf. He went on two legs, wore clothes and was a human being, but nevertheless he was in reality a wolf of the Steppes. He had learned a good deal of all that people of a good intelligence can, and was a fairly clever fellow. What he had not learned, however, was this: to find contentment in himself and his own life.” — Hermann Hesse, Steppenwolf

Not bad, a seven star pearl, in less than a hundred clicks…. I’ll take it, and run…..
__________________________________

Well, there you have it, ffolkes, another day’s random walk through the back corridors of my mind, such as it is….. Let’s go see how it looks front to back…. I can’t honestly say it’s the best I’ve ever done, but I plead both age and distraction…. My monthly gelt just arrived at the bank, and I get to go shopping for food! Yippee! I can also get my guitar out of hock, I think, so it’s all good…. In any case, that’s all I can do; there’s only so much nonsense acceptable by the universe, so I’m outta here…. Y’all take care out there, and May the Metaphorse be with you…..

—
Sometimes I sits and thinks,
and sometimes
I just sits.

gigoid

Ned Moore, aka gigoid, is a 70 year-old, (!!!… When did that happen?….), retired dilettante, who would rather read than eat, most days. His first blog, "gigoid’s folly", has been emailed out to folks he knows for about 18 years now. He still considers it his best defense against angst, and the ever-present specter of sheer insanity..... Due to rigorous curmudgeon training requirements, he has discontinued his Facebook presence, but still indulges in the occasional Twitter session... In essence, he's socialized, but, not overly sociable; all labels and stereotypes are forbidden in his presence... and he doesn't care what anyone thinks about that..... In fact, he doesn't want to talk anymore.... If you feel you MUST contact gigoid, his email address is: alphagigoid@gmail.com You can go read now.... Go on, beat it.... gigoid, the dubious

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gigoid

Exploring Consensual Reality

Tag Archives: Sylvia Plath

Savory redemption meatballs saved the day….

A prodigal child no more…

Moments of intense serenity…..

Have the mango smoothies been certified yet?….

Priceless moments of shared arrogance…..

Massive portions of buttered peas….

Bee balm is often useful with such wounds…

That is one querulous chipmunk…..

If we must, we can use the anchovy paste….

Engaging in palliative syncopation….

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