Category Archives: Blogs' Archive

There is not anything in the world that people won’t respond to in more than one way.  Today somebody posted a picture on my page of a new product at Whole Foods, a pre-peeled orange in a plastic container.  The obvious intent was to show what a shallow, spoiled, wasteful consumerist society we are, but my first thought was “Hey! Cool!  I hate peeling oranges!”

So, I said something to that effect and there were plenty of other commenters.  Someone suggested that maybe there could be a peeling table near the checkout for those who were seriously too lazy to peel their own and that would save on the plastic, someone else mentioned what a boon this would be for people with rheumatism or Parkinson’s disease, and so on.

Of course, the plastic both adds to the expense and is not very environmental but that could be replaced with some biodegradable material which could be recycled as a planter, bringing new orange trees into the  world.

Also, if the oranges are going to be pre-peeled (and why not segmented?), that’s a bit of a job creation program, but  it will probably be handed over to robots pretty quick, it’s a repetitive task.

As far as it being a sign of how lazy we are becoming, how decadent as a society, I say so be it.  The whole goal of mankind, the story of our civilization, is an attempt to make our lives easier, and more luxurious. I’m all for that.

But, for me, it’s mostly an irrelevant point anyway, because I prefer tangerines.

(update:  apparently Whole Foods has pulled the product because they couldn’t take the mockery.  Oh, well.  I’m sure it will be tried again.)

Well, the family’s back from the cottage so the flat  is nice and noisy again. I had a couple of days of quiet to get things done and watch whatever I wanted to on TV in English, but I was soon bored.

After I finished reading A Confederacy of Dunces, I looked at the table of contents on Kindle and there was  a book there I hadn’t  read, but I’m sure Kindle just put it there, they do crap like that and I resent it, because I don’t want to just pay for random shit and you know they’re just counting on  people not noticing.  But, with nothing else to read, I started it.

It was a sci-fi  fantasy by a female author, with a romantic premise.  I guess their algorithm picked up on the fact that I like science fiction and my wife reads a lot of Nicholas Sparks,  so the Kindle Book Selector Robot input those two concepts and spat out Persephone: A Space Opera, in which Princess Aja, who  can totally see the future even though she described it at first as more like mind reading.  It’s way more than mind reading.  It has something to do with her blood, and then when she mixes blood with somebody like in an elementary school blood brother type ritual, she gets emotionally totally unified with that person, and she did that to Captain Kirk/Han Solo, I don’t remember what his name is and I’m pretty sure no physical description was ever given, but you get the idea.

Lots of sex happening, and somehow none of it is in the least erotic, or romantic, and they’re being chased hither and yon through asteroid belts that only she can navigate (this blood thing makes her a super pilot, too) by the evil general Bom, who probably wants to kill her, or at least steal all of her blood, and besides, he’s her father, but somehow all tension and excitement have been removed.

This is the downside of self-publishing.  Average people, who write well enough  to keep a diary or compose a business letter, make up a story out of their own sexual fantasies and put it down on  the page.
I shouldn’t criticize.  It’s probably as good as anything I’ve got published, and  I’m close to certain it’s sold more copies, because that’s such a low bar it’s lying on the sidewalk and, I must confess, I got 6 chapters in before I put it down and said “What am I doing?”

So, if you ever come across it by  accident and find yourself reading, don’t let me stop you.  Enjoy.  But I’m not recommending it.

I’m watching a documentary about Timothy McVeigh, the Oklahoma City bomber, and not really learning much  I didn’t  know.  Right  wing nuts are nothing new.  I doubt if there’s been  a day  since 1783 when somebody, somewhere, didn’t say “What the hell has  happened  to America.”  Actually, you hear  it from both right and left, but the right seems to be more militant,and more heavily armed.  Most on the  left  are just  too  busy  smoking pot all the time.

So, not a whole lot I want to comment on  tonight, so I’ll just leave a poem here that I wrote yesterday, because I kind of like it:

Although our perception
of it is limited
this world we live on
exists – it’s a fact

I see a lot of my fellow progressives mocking Mitt Romney for criticizing Trump and saying he should release his tax returns.  That makes no sense to me.  As long as he’s criticizing Trump, maybe we should just bite our  tongues and let the  Republicans knock each other out.

I believe it was Napoleon  who said “When your enemy is making a mistake, don’t interrupt him.”  I don’t  think Romney is  making a mistake here.  It might be a bit of hypocrisy, but that’s not our problem.  His criticisms of Trump are spot on, and we should just be glad  to hear them.

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Today was a good day for poetry.  Two on the Poems about Paintings page, and two on the Occasional Poems page, although one was just a  rhyming comment.  The other one I was extremely pleased with, about how everybody has a  world inside their  own head, and  all of these  distinct worlds co-exist within  the physical world where we all live.

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Living in Prague, I do not get all the hot new TV shows when they are hot and new.  So, I just watched my first full episode of Breaking Bad.  I guess I can see why everybody liked it so much, but I’m not so much into the crime and violence shows, and I already know what it’s all about from hearing everybody talk about it all the time, so I don’t think I’ll be a regular viewer.

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Finished “A Confederacy of Dunces” today.  Not what I expected, but a really  entertaining  read.  The way people  talk, and write about it, I expected something deep and complex and fraught with meaning and I suppose you could read it that  way, but it just  struck me as fun, there were several points  in the book  where I  just laughed  out loud, big guffaws: the car accident, having to climb down  off the table  where he was giving  a speech after everybody had left  the room, the bird and  the earring.  The characters were very believable, which I guess would make it a tragedy, because so many of them were sad, pathetic people living miserable lives, but the saddest and most pathetic didn’t see it that  way, so it was funny.  I definitely recommend this book.

It’s a phenomenon we all notice in childhood, and it remains true throughout life, and it’s been true throughout all of human  history.  Some people can get away with everything.  Some people can’t get away with anything.

Take a look at Donald Trump.  Makes blatantly racist comments about Mexicans.  Isn’t forced out of the race.  Makes crude, obnoxious, schoolboy level jokes about a female reporter, and it doesn’t bother his fans a bit.  Not even  the women.  Demeans of a prisoner of war.   Surely, I thought, in such  a military loving crowd, that will finish him.  Nope.  Makes fun of a handicapped reporter.  On stage, doing the arm motions, eh, eh, eh, what a spaz.  An average person, your friends would all stop talking to you and you’d never be invited anywhere again.  Didn’t even slow him down.  Starts swearing during his speeches, calls his opponent a pussy.  Crowd loves it.  Quotes Mussolini.  Fine and dandy.  Gets endorsed by the KKK.  Says he’s cool with that.  Still, he’s almost certain of the GOP nomination.

Chris Christie, on the other hand, who recently  dropped out of the race, sees the writing on the wall, and endorses Trump.  Looks fat and stupid standing behind Trump on stage.  Internet goes wild.  (what?  People didn’t notice he looked fat and stupid before?)  Christie is threatened with recall in New Jersey.  His political career is in a shambles.  Because he ENDORSED the guy who was endorsed by the KKK.

The guy who was actually endorsed by the KKK is doing just fine.

I don’t feel bad for Christie.  He is a horrible person whose career should have been finished long ago.  I’m just mystified at how Trump keeps getting away with it.