Small town life . . . enough to make a shy, bald Buddhist reflect and plan a mass murder
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Small town life
The Republicans had an information booth at the County Fair. They had a full-size cardboard cut-out of Bush standing next to their table. Someone walking past asked if they used it for darts and the man working at the booth was very offended.
Small town life
The secretary at our attorney's office called to verify some details before we wrap up my mother-in-law's estate with the court. She was confused because there were two listings for cremation expenses. She wanted to know if my mother-in-law was cremated at Eureka Veterinary Hospital for the paltry sum of $65. No, that one was for her dog, who was very ill.
Planning the weekend
BBC4 will be broadcasting a dramatization of The Odyssey this weekend. If you can't catch it on the weekend, it will be available on Listen Again.
Quote for today
"The Germans are called brutal, the Spanish cruel, the Americans superficial, and so on; but we are perfide Albion, the island of hypocrites, the people who have built up an Empire with a Bible in one hand, a pistol in the other, and financial concessions in both pockets. Is the charge true? I think it is."
- EM Forster, From "Notes on the English Character," Abinger Harvest (1936)
More Forster.
Small town life
I have a house cleaning client who is a bit of a neatnik. For example, I have to polish her shower tile with Pledge (so the water rolls off faster). I have to vaccuum the furniture after the grandchildren come over, even though they don't eat in the living room. She just about had a heart attack once when she saw dust on the baseboard (inside the closet in the guest room). Horrors!
I was there last week and looked out the window to see that she was outside in the yard with her husband, who had been trimming a shrub. She was dusting him off (from hat to shoes) with a handbroom before he came inside.
New definition
The golden years: when the kids leave home. So says my almost-10-year-old.
The cutest thing
I saw at the fair was 2 little kids, probably 3 and 4, on the bumble bee ride. This is a kiddie ride with giant bumble bees the kids sit in. The ride spins around at about .25 miles per hour while the bumble bees gradually rotate up and down. These little kids (who were the only ones on the ride) were raising their arms up in the air and shrieking, just as if they were on the roller coaster.
Small town life
The County Fair is here and we spent the day there yesterday. There were more fashion crimes per square acre than I've seen in a while. Lots of middle-age lycra misdemeanors and even more too-tight felonies. Something about the fair must make people want to fit into that outfit they haven't squeezed into in about five years.
Mr. T news flash!
US military clears A-Team of charges.
"WASHINGTON, DC—After more than 30 years spent hiding in the Los Angeles underground as wanted criminals, the members of the crack commando unit Alpha Team, commonly known as the A-Team, were cleared of all charges brought against them by the U.S. military, an army official announced Monday."
Requiescat in pace
Getting closer to the election, I'm thinking about Paul Wellstone. And how to really win an election.
Send 'em to school
The earlier the better.
Fiddling around
I'm so happy to be able to include a link to WingNut Daily. Say it 3 times and you'll feel good too: WingNutDaily, WingNutDaily, WingNutDaily. I was there thanks to Rogue Classicism's linking to a "downfall of the US likened to Rome" article by Doug Casey.
"After Tiberius died, there was great rejoicing, since people figured it couldn't get much worse. But it did: They got Caligula, then Claudius, then Nero – and the decline of the Empire was just beginning."
WND goes on with descriptions of Bush and Kerry:
" Bush is unintelligent, unknowledgeable, psychologically unbalanced, pig-headed, mean-spirited, bad-tempered, and a religious fundamentalist to boot. It's hard to imagine a worse set of personality traits in a president.
Kerry doesn't appear to suffer from any of these particular flaws – he's got a whole set of his own that are already apparent, however, and unquestionably many more that will only become apparent once he's in office. He seems terminally vain, devoid of a moral compass, interested only in his own aggrandizement, and a serious philosophical statist-collectivist. "
Casey thinks Bush is going to lose.
New word
I read today. Englightenmented. As in "I was enlightenmented." That's about as irritating as "disorientated."
Small town life
New sign at work: Take checks only from people you know.
Fame is only good for one thing- they will cash your check in a small town.--Truman Capote
Must read
"Barrelhouse: for smart people who don’t have a stick up their ass."
Well, I think I qualify for the second part. Interviewed at Bookslut. Online here.
From the mouths of short folk
"It's strange how ice cold water tastes really good even though it doesn't have any taste.
Sovereign-huh-what?
Listen to Bush and weep.
Important religious news I missed
And I had to get it from the BBC.
"More than 700 members of the Church of SpongeBob meet for services in New York, Texas and California."
Reality Olympics
The scoop on the ancient Olympics.
"To be sure, Greek cities generally granted travelers safe passage to and from the competitions. But many continued warring even as their athletes competed in the hallowed stadium at Olympia. Once, an army even invaded Olympia's Sacred Grove in the middle of a wrestling match, while spectators critiqued soldiers' martial skills from the sidelines."
Ancient Greek spectators critiquing from the sidelines--that I can imagine.
Farm day
Today we went an open house at the Shively Farm, a CSA (community supported agriculture) farm a littleways from here. The land was donated to College of the Redwoods by a farmer, John Bianchi. He died about 10 years ago and left his land to CR to be used to promote agricultural studies. There was controversy about the bequest for a while because some folks wanted to sell the land off. After all, who wants to be a farmer in this day and age?
We saw a very young orchard, lots and lots of goats (one boy kept reminding us they were for sale!), chickens, a few cows, flowers, and vegetable crops. We came home with a beautiful bouquet of gerberas and sunflowers too.
Olympics
Free lectures on the history of the Olympics.
I was wrong, wrong, wrong
It wasn't a Bushism at all. He was only reading what was written for him.
“Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we. They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we.”
My foot is so near my mouth
“Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we. They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we.”
Hey, I'd rather be a dictator too
(only if I had my own small planet of one, though). But GW really would rather be a dictator. And why not, since God speaks through him?
Death
The Blog of Death. An obituary for every day. Links too.
Clueless customer of the day
Can I have a medium coffee in a small cup?
Improve your performance
Sorry, this isn't about sex, but more SAT prep nonsense.
In the end, Peterson's says, it's mainly aiming to inject some fun into the stressful standardized test process - and if scores creep up a few points, so much the better.
"We don't want people to think they really will raise their scores 100 points if they wear the right color," said Jessica Rohm, vice president of communications for Thomson Learning, Peterson's parent company. But "just taking the edge off by bringing in some fun things associated with testing I think will raise their scores a little."
Hide your wallets, parents. Via Number 2 Pencil.
30 years later it sounds familiar
About Watergate:
"It is perhaps just one more piece of evidence that we do not have free choice in elections any more than in our public schools. If Watergate represents some sort of an exception to the norm, it is such only by its tawdry details and, above all, by the fact that it was brought to light. In other respects -- the crime itself, the cancellation of the democratic pretense which it represents, and, in particular, the circus atmosphere, followed by the numbness on the part of nine tenths of the population -- Watergate is not a new matter."
--Jonathan Kozol, The night is dark and I am far from home
Annoying customer of the day
Why would you think I want to buy Loverboy tickets from you?
