Category Archives: Blogs' Archive

I’m quite certain the press is not reporting accurately on the scene in Baltimore, because since when does the press report accurately on anything. Accuracy does not drive ratings, and ratings is the name of the game. If it bleeds, it leads.

I was struck, though, by the image of people forming a line to defend the police against the protesters. What struck me was that the police behind them were armored up heavier than players in the NFL -helmets with full face plates, riot shields, probably wearing bullet proof vests- and the people protecting them were in their street clothes. Their only protection was their faith in the crowd. That’s courage.
It’s probably just as well that the cops had their faces completely covered. Otherwise, they would be humiliated, in the pages of newspapers and on millions of facebook feeds.

Why do writers constantly post pictures of typewriters and wax nostalgic about them? How do we get that verb, to wax? It’s not as if you were actually waxing something. But, I digress.
If these writers are old enough to remember using an old typewriter (and it’s never the picture of an electric they post. Always some old banger that required a fair bit of finger strength with every single letter. The ribbons were constantly getting twisted. Keys would stick. They were a pain in the butt. And it’s not just the typing that’s gotten easier. There was no spell check on a typewriter. You couldn’t just hit print and run off 20 copies. You couldn’t add a photo, or link to a news article. Really, the old days sucked. I can’t imagine how we did it, but I’m pretty sure we didn’t do it as well.

Glad Bernie Sanders is running! Democrats can seriously stop bitching about not having a choice. Pick a side, but either way, you can’t deny it’s a choice.

(this was written last night, honest it was. Then the internet failed to co-operate, so i went to bed and am posting it now)

You learn something new every day, or at least you do if you want to. I suppose there are many people who go through entire days, maybe weeks, maybe even whole years, without absorbing any new facts or expanding their minds in any way.
In fact, come to think of it, they might well be the majority.
I am not 100% sure that I do learn something new every day, but I like the phrase, I like the concept, and I’m pretty sure that just through following facebook and glancing through the news, I actually do. I haven’t tried to catalog it, or keep a record or anything. Maybe I should. That might make an interesting book. 365 new things.
Today I learned that in ancient Rome there was a thing called garum, which was a key element of Roman cuisine, and has almost disappeared from existence. Almost. There are plenty of descriptions of it in literature, though, and one little Italian fishing village where it is still made, so it’s not a completely dead thing.
Apparently, it was like an oil, made from fermented fish and salt. That sounds a bit gross to me, but the culinarily savvy commenters seemed to think it’s great stuff. So, maybe some day I will get an opportunity to try it.
Because, as important as it is to learn something new every day, experiencing something new is even more awesome. And experiencing something new really doesn’t happen every day.

We just had a lovely, little rain, made most lovely by the fact that it happened after I was home from work (which makes it sound like I actually work, I had a grand total of one class today) and the whole family was home from their various daily endeavors.
I suppose it would not have been a terrible rain to be caught out in, it’s warm enough, but it was a bit of a downpour, even if it didn’t last long.

It was preceded by lightning and thunder and lightning and thunder, of course, preceded fireworks. All of the miracles of our early existence on this planet have been transformed and rendered artificial. In the beginning, we drank water from the stream. Today we have coffee and tea, beer, wine, and funny cocktails, and the coconut flavored aloe vera drink, with the slimy bubbles, that I had while sitting on a park bench this afternoon, enjoying the sunshine and the warmth even as the clouds gathered. But, it’s still nice sometimes to get a drink of cool, fresh water, and that experience would be even greater if you could find an unpolluted stream somewhere.
In the beginning we walked, everywhere. Today we can travel by car, by airplane, by train, by tram, by bicycle, ship, or horse. But, it’s still pleasant to get back to the original experience and go for a nice, long walk, just like our cave ancestors did.
In the beginning, we heard the songs of the birds. Today, we can listen to jazz, blues, rap or rock and roll, thousands of different songs on demand. I’m not complaining about the modern world, I love it. But the birds still sing the same and occasionally it’s nice to stop and listen to them.

Everybody keeps saying that Hillary’s got a lock on the Democratic nomination, but somehow Obama managed to make jokes about at least 4 possible nominees in his White House Correspondent’s Dinner Speech last night, which was the funniest Correspondent’s Dinner Speech since Stephen Colbert. Seriously, Obama could pull a reverse Al Franken, if he’s of a mind to go that route.
The joke about Hillary living out of a van in Iowa was pretty funny, but I totally cracked up at the Khaleesi coming to Westeros line, and I’ve never even seen Game of Thrones so have no idea what the hell that was all about and, to be fair, that wasn’t even Obama’s line, but the whole “Luther the Anger Translator” part was brilliant and whether or not the words actually came out of Obama’s mouth, you know damn well they were Obama approved.
But he also joked about Bernie Sanders (There could be another pot smoking socialist in the White House. It would be just like an Obama 3rd term) Martin O’Malley (Hillary didn’t get recognized at a Chipotle, but Martin O’Malley didn’t get recognized at a Martin O’Malley for President rally) and Joe Biden. He fairly gushed about Joe Biden.
If Joe Biden is planning to run (and if he’s planning to run, I’ll bet Obama knows about it), then this speech was practically an endorsement.
I don’t know if it was intentional or if he was just getting in some good jokes, but here’s the whole speech if you’d like to listen.

The survey said that only 6.7% of people ever read poetry. Ever.
I’m not surprised.
It isn’t exactly basketball, or hockey, or even football, either the American version or what everybody else in the world means when they say football. Although they are very different games, the principal appeal for the fans is the same. You can sit around your living room with friends and drink beer and cheer when your team scores.
Nobody does that with poetry. Nobody leaps from their chair and shouts “Shelleeeeey!” “Wordswooooorth!”
It’s not as if poetry was a cute kitten video that everybody could watch and say “awwwww.” Well, maybe some poetry is. If it’s a poem about a kitten, for instance.
It’s not as if poetry was a reality show. If someone doesn’t like a poem, they do not recommend it to their friends, but they don’t try to vote it out of the library.
Poetry is poetry. It requires reading, which is not all that popular any more. It requires quiet reflection, which is at odds with our fast paced lifestyle.
It’s O.K. that we’re only 6.7% If someone wants to be like everyone else, there are plenty of ways for them to express that.