[embed]https://youtu.be/BKAYGVIkbok[/embed]
Full lyrics HERE.
I used to be afraid I'd fade away. I didn't want to be the face in the yearbook that seemed vaguely familiar, a gauzy memory of the weird kid who didn't want to recite the Pledge of Allegiance.
I'm not afraid of that anymore. Everybody fades away.
Consider Alexander the Great. You know the name, you might have a vague idea that what made him "Great" was that he invaded a lot of places a Very Long Time Ago. But do you really know him?
Do you know the goofy things he did when he was in love? Do you know what made him laugh, the stories he liked to tell, what his favorite breakfast was, how long he cried when his mother died?
Nope. He faded away.
Consider more recent history. Can you name the first seven Presidents of the United States? Probably not, and least not without effort- but they were very big in their time. (As an aside, I bet you can name the seven castaways on Gilligan's Island, and you've probably already started singing that little jingle in your head to jog your memory.)
So anyway, everybody fades away. You might find fame for a generation or two, but that's about all- and that's a lot of work for a reward you mostly won't even be around for.
So I'd suggest you just sing a song, dance a dance, kiss your girl, and enjoy what we have right now.
It's more than enough.
Tuesday, May 31, 2016
Monday, May 30, 2016
Saturday, May 28, 2016
Friday, May 27, 2016
Green Green
Wednesday, May 25, 2016
Ev’ry girl and boy
[embed]https://youtu.be/At_OIlye0mk[/embed]
Some people think this song is about Jesus, some people think it's about a drug dealer, but Bob Dylan- who should know best since he's the one who wrote it- said that it's a nonsense rhyme he wrote to amuse his young son.
Full lyrics at BobDylan.com.
Some people think this song is about Jesus, some people think it's about a drug dealer, but Bob Dylan- who should know best since he's the one who wrote it- said that it's a nonsense rhyme he wrote to amuse his young son.
Full lyrics at BobDylan.com.
Sunday, May 22, 2016
"Nobody ever knew it, but I went out in the woods and I cried…"
[embed]https://youtu.be/1NSVOyhWnXM[/embed]
I like songs that are little character sketches. You don't hear many like that anymore.
Full lyrics HERE.
I like songs that are little character sketches. You don't hear many like that anymore.
Full lyrics HERE.
Saturday, May 21, 2016
Dice
Greek or Roman box of dice (missing cover). More details at Museum of Fine Arts Boston.
This is just such a lovely little thing!
Friday, May 20, 2016
featuring COZY COLE on DRUMS
[embed]https://youtu.be/dBotlTI4BUk[/embed]
This song peaked at #3 in 1958.
Popular music used to be so much more varied than it is now!
This song peaked at #3 in 1958.
Popular music used to be so much more varied than it is now!
I no longer recall
I Promise
by C. Wolf
I no longer recall the sound of your voice
Not it’s pitch, it’s volume, nor it’s cadence
Your exact height
Your weight
Your shoe size
It’s been fifty-eight years
Of course, memory fades
Some recollections, however, never diminish
The way you bit your bottom lip when I smiled
The extra time you took to open your eyes after a kiss
The doors you opened
The unrequited passion
The hand reaching to hold mine
Oh I promise, as long as there is breath in this body
I will remember you.
(source: MyLastHurrah)
by C. Wolf
I no longer recall the sound of your voice
Not it’s pitch, it’s volume, nor it’s cadence
Your exact height
Your weight
Your shoe size
It’s been fifty-eight years
Of course, memory fades
Some recollections, however, never diminish
The way you bit your bottom lip when I smiled
The extra time you took to open your eyes after a kiss
The doors you opened
The unrequited passion
The hand reaching to hold mine
Oh I promise, as long as there is breath in this body
I will remember you.
(source: MyLastHurrah)
Thursday, May 19, 2016
Welcome to a new kind of tension…
[embed]https://youtu.be/Ee_uujKuJMI[/embed]
This seems like a nice follow-up to my Henry Wallace post.
Full lyrics HERE.
This seems like a nice follow-up to my Henry Wallace post.
Full lyrics HERE.
Fascist
Henry A. Wallace served as Vice-President during Roosevelt's third term. I tend to think of him as kind of a 1940's-era Bernie Sanders.
The essay below is, sadly, still relevant more than 70 years after he wrote it:
The Danger of American Fascism
by Henry A. Wallace
An article in the New York Times, April 9, 1944. From Henry A. Wallace, Democracy Reborn (New York, 1944), edited by Russell Lord, p. 259.
On returning from my trip to the West in February, I received a request from The New York Times to write a piece answering the following questions:
1. What is a fascist?
2. How many fascists have we?
3. How dangerous are they?
A fascist is one whose lust for money or power is combined with such an intensity of intolerance toward those of other races, parties, classes, religions, cultures, regions or nations as to make him ruthless in his use of deceit or violence to attain his ends. The supreme god of a fascist, to which his ends are directed, may be money or power; may be a race or a class; may be a military, clique or an economic group; or may be a culture, religion, or a political party.
The perfect type of fascist throughout recent centuries has been the Prussian Junker, who developed such hatred for other races and such allegiance to a military clique as to make him willing at all times to engage in any degree of deceit and violence necessary to place his culture and race astride the world. In every big nation of the world are at least a few people who have the fascist temperament. Every Jew-baiter, every Catholic hater, is a fascist at heart. The hoodlums who have been desecrating churches, cathedrals and synagogues in some of our larger cities are ripe material for fascist leadership.
The obvious types of American fascists are dealt with on the air and in the press. These demagogues and stooges are fronts for others. Dangerous as these people may be, they are not so significant as thousands of other people who have never been mentioned. The really dangerous American fascists are not those who are hooked up directly or indirectly with the Axis. The FBI has its finger on those. The dangerous American fascist is the man who wants to do in the United States in an American way what Hitler did in Germany in a Prussian way. The American fascist would prefer not to use violence. His method is to poison the channels of public information. With a fascist the problem is never how best to present the truth to the public but how best to use the news to deceive the public into giving the fascist and his group more money or more power.
If we define an American fascist as one who in case of conflict puts money and power ahead of human beings, then there are undoubtedly several million fascists in the United States. There are probably several hundred thousand if we narrow the definition to include only those who in their search for money and power are ruthless and deceitful. Most American fascists are enthusiastically supporting the war effort. They are doing this even in those cases where they hope to have profitable connections with German chemical firms after the war ends. They are patriotic in time of war because it is to their interest to be so, but in time of peace they follow power and the dollar wherever they may lead.
American fascism will not be really dangerous until there is a purposeful coalition among the cartelists, the deliberate poisoners of public information, and those who stand for the K.K.K. type of demagoguery.
The European brand of fascism will probably present its most serious postwar threat to us via Latin America. The effect of the war has been to raise the cost of living in most Latin American countries much faster than the wages of labor. The fascists in most Latin American countries tell the people that the reason their wages will not buy as much in the way of goods is because of Yankee imperialism. The fascists in Latin America learn to speak and act like natives. Our chemical and other manufacturing concerns are all too often ready to let the Germans have Latin American markets, provided the American companies can work out an arrangement which will enable them to charge high prices to the consumer inside the United States. Following this war, technology will have reached such a point that it will be possible for Germans, using South America as a base, to cause us much more difficulty in World War III than they did in World War II. The military and landowning cliques in many South American countries will find it attractive financially to work with German fascist concerns as well as expedient from the standpoint of temporary power politics.
Fascism is a worldwide disease. Its greatest threat to the United States will come after the war, either via Latin America or within the United States itself.
Still another danger is represented by those who, paying lip service to democracy and the common welfare, in their insatiable greed for money and the power which money gives, do not hesitate surreptitiously to evade the laws designed to safeguard the public from monopolistic extortion. American fascists of this stamp were clandestinely aligned with their German counterparts before the war, and are even now preparing to resume where they left off, after "the present unpleasantness" ceases:
The symptoms of fascist thinking are colored by environment and adapted to immediate circumstances. But always and everywhere they can be identified by their appeal to prejudice and by the desire to play upon the fears and vanities of different groups in order to gain power. It is no coincidence that the growth of modern tyrants has in every case been heralded by the growth of prejudice. It may be shocking to some people in this country to realize that, without meaning to do so, they hold views in common with Hitler when they preach discrimination against other religious, racial or economic groups. Likewise, many people whose patriotism is their proudest boast play Hitler's game by retailing distrust of our Allies and by giving currency to snide suspicions without foundation in fact.
The American fascists are most easily recognized by their deliberate perversion of truth and fact. Their newspapers and propaganda carefully cultivate every fissure of disunity, every crack in the common front against fascism. They use every opportunity to impugn democracy. They use isolationism as a slogan to conceal their own selfish imperialism. They cultivate hate and distrust of both Britain and Russia. They claim to be super-patriots, but they would destroy every liberty guaranteed by the Constitution. They demand free enterprise, but are the spokesmen for monopoly and vested interest. Their final objective toward which all their deceit is directed is to capture political power so that, using the power of the state and the power of the market simultaneously, they may keep the common man in eternal subjection.
Several leaders of industry in this country who have gained a new vision of the meaning of opportunity through co-operation with government have warned the public openly that there are some selfish groups in industry who are willing to jeopardize the structure of American liberty to gain some temporary advantage. We all know the part that the cartels played in bringing Hitler to power, and the rule the giant German trusts have played in Nazi conquests. Monopolists who fear competition and who distrust democracy because it stands for equal opportunity would like to secure their position against small and energetic enterprise. In an effort to eliminate the possibility of any rival growing up, some monopolists would sacrifice democracy itself.
It has been claimed at times that our modern age of technology facilitates dictatorship. What we must understand is that the industries, processes, and inventions created by modern science can be used either to subjugate or liberate. The choice is up to us. The myth of fascist efficiency has deluded many people. It was Mussolini's vaunted claim that he "made the trains run on time." In the end, however, he brought to the Italian people impoverishment and defeat. It was Hitler's claim that he eliminated all unemployment in Germany. Neither is there unemployment in a prison camp.
Democracy to crush fascism internally must demonstrate its capacity to "make the trains run on time." It must develop the ability to keep people fully employed and at the same time balance the budget. It must put human beings first and dollars second. It must appeal to reason and decency and not to violence and deceit. We must not tolerate oppressive government or industrial oligarchy in the form of monopolies and cartels. As long as scientific research and inventive ingenuity outran our ability to devise social mechanisms to raise the living standards of the people, we may expect the liberal potential of the United States to increase. If this liberal potential is properly channeled, we may expect the area of freedom of the United States to increase. The problem is to spend up our rate of social invention in the service of the welfare of all the people.
The worldwide, agelong struggle between fascism and democracy will not stop when the fighting ends in Germany and Japan. Democracy can win the peace only if it does two things:
1. Speeds up the rate of political and economic inventions so that both production and, especially, distribution can match in their power and practical effect on the daily life of the common man the immense and growing volume of scientific research, mechanical invention and management technique.
2. Vivifies with the greatest intensity the spiritual processes which are both the foundation and the very essence of democracy.
The moral and spiritual aspects of both personal and international relationships have a practical bearing which so-called practical men deny. This dullness of vision regarding the importance of the general welfare to the individual is the measure of the failure of our schools and churches to teach the spiritual significance of genuine democracy. Until democracy in effective enthusiastic action fills the vacuum created by the power of modern inventions, we may expect the fascists to increase in power after the war both in the United States and in the world.
Fascism in the postwar inevitably will push steadily for Anglo-Saxon imperialism and eventually for war with Russia. Already American fascists are talking and writing about this conflict and using it as an excuse for their internal hatreds and intolerances toward certain races, creeds and classes.
It should also be evident that exhibitions of the native brand of fascism are not confined to any single section, class or religion. Happily, it can be said that as yet fascism has not captured a predominant place in the outlook of any American section, class or religion. It may be encountered in Wall Street, Main Street or Tobacco Road. Some even suspect that they can detect incipient traces of it along the Potomac. It is an infectious disease, and we must all be on our guard against intolerance, bigotry and the pretension of invidious distinction. But if we put our trust in the common sense of common men and "with malice toward none and charity for all" go forward on the great adventure of making political, economic and social democracy a practical reality, we shall not fail.
Source: The Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt Institute
The essay below is, sadly, still relevant more than 70 years after he wrote it:
The Danger of American Fascism
by Henry A. Wallace
An article in the New York Times, April 9, 1944. From Henry A. Wallace, Democracy Reborn (New York, 1944), edited by Russell Lord, p. 259.
On returning from my trip to the West in February, I received a request from The New York Times to write a piece answering the following questions:
1. What is a fascist?
2. How many fascists have we?
3. How dangerous are they?
A fascist is one whose lust for money or power is combined with such an intensity of intolerance toward those of other races, parties, classes, religions, cultures, regions or nations as to make him ruthless in his use of deceit or violence to attain his ends. The supreme god of a fascist, to which his ends are directed, may be money or power; may be a race or a class; may be a military, clique or an economic group; or may be a culture, religion, or a political party.
The perfect type of fascist throughout recent centuries has been the Prussian Junker, who developed such hatred for other races and such allegiance to a military clique as to make him willing at all times to engage in any degree of deceit and violence necessary to place his culture and race astride the world. In every big nation of the world are at least a few people who have the fascist temperament. Every Jew-baiter, every Catholic hater, is a fascist at heart. The hoodlums who have been desecrating churches, cathedrals and synagogues in some of our larger cities are ripe material for fascist leadership.
The obvious types of American fascists are dealt with on the air and in the press. These demagogues and stooges are fronts for others. Dangerous as these people may be, they are not so significant as thousands of other people who have never been mentioned. The really dangerous American fascists are not those who are hooked up directly or indirectly with the Axis. The FBI has its finger on those. The dangerous American fascist is the man who wants to do in the United States in an American way what Hitler did in Germany in a Prussian way. The American fascist would prefer not to use violence. His method is to poison the channels of public information. With a fascist the problem is never how best to present the truth to the public but how best to use the news to deceive the public into giving the fascist and his group more money or more power.
If we define an American fascist as one who in case of conflict puts money and power ahead of human beings, then there are undoubtedly several million fascists in the United States. There are probably several hundred thousand if we narrow the definition to include only those who in their search for money and power are ruthless and deceitful. Most American fascists are enthusiastically supporting the war effort. They are doing this even in those cases where they hope to have profitable connections with German chemical firms after the war ends. They are patriotic in time of war because it is to their interest to be so, but in time of peace they follow power and the dollar wherever they may lead.
American fascism will not be really dangerous until there is a purposeful coalition among the cartelists, the deliberate poisoners of public information, and those who stand for the K.K.K. type of demagoguery.
The European brand of fascism will probably present its most serious postwar threat to us via Latin America. The effect of the war has been to raise the cost of living in most Latin American countries much faster than the wages of labor. The fascists in most Latin American countries tell the people that the reason their wages will not buy as much in the way of goods is because of Yankee imperialism. The fascists in Latin America learn to speak and act like natives. Our chemical and other manufacturing concerns are all too often ready to let the Germans have Latin American markets, provided the American companies can work out an arrangement which will enable them to charge high prices to the consumer inside the United States. Following this war, technology will have reached such a point that it will be possible for Germans, using South America as a base, to cause us much more difficulty in World War III than they did in World War II. The military and landowning cliques in many South American countries will find it attractive financially to work with German fascist concerns as well as expedient from the standpoint of temporary power politics.
Fascism is a worldwide disease. Its greatest threat to the United States will come after the war, either via Latin America or within the United States itself.
Still another danger is represented by those who, paying lip service to democracy and the common welfare, in their insatiable greed for money and the power which money gives, do not hesitate surreptitiously to evade the laws designed to safeguard the public from monopolistic extortion. American fascists of this stamp were clandestinely aligned with their German counterparts before the war, and are even now preparing to resume where they left off, after "the present unpleasantness" ceases:
The symptoms of fascist thinking are colored by environment and adapted to immediate circumstances. But always and everywhere they can be identified by their appeal to prejudice and by the desire to play upon the fears and vanities of different groups in order to gain power. It is no coincidence that the growth of modern tyrants has in every case been heralded by the growth of prejudice. It may be shocking to some people in this country to realize that, without meaning to do so, they hold views in common with Hitler when they preach discrimination against other religious, racial or economic groups. Likewise, many people whose patriotism is their proudest boast play Hitler's game by retailing distrust of our Allies and by giving currency to snide suspicions without foundation in fact.
The American fascists are most easily recognized by their deliberate perversion of truth and fact. Their newspapers and propaganda carefully cultivate every fissure of disunity, every crack in the common front against fascism. They use every opportunity to impugn democracy. They use isolationism as a slogan to conceal their own selfish imperialism. They cultivate hate and distrust of both Britain and Russia. They claim to be super-patriots, but they would destroy every liberty guaranteed by the Constitution. They demand free enterprise, but are the spokesmen for monopoly and vested interest. Their final objective toward which all their deceit is directed is to capture political power so that, using the power of the state and the power of the market simultaneously, they may keep the common man in eternal subjection.
Several leaders of industry in this country who have gained a new vision of the meaning of opportunity through co-operation with government have warned the public openly that there are some selfish groups in industry who are willing to jeopardize the structure of American liberty to gain some temporary advantage. We all know the part that the cartels played in bringing Hitler to power, and the rule the giant German trusts have played in Nazi conquests. Monopolists who fear competition and who distrust democracy because it stands for equal opportunity would like to secure their position against small and energetic enterprise. In an effort to eliminate the possibility of any rival growing up, some monopolists would sacrifice democracy itself.
It has been claimed at times that our modern age of technology facilitates dictatorship. What we must understand is that the industries, processes, and inventions created by modern science can be used either to subjugate or liberate. The choice is up to us. The myth of fascist efficiency has deluded many people. It was Mussolini's vaunted claim that he "made the trains run on time." In the end, however, he brought to the Italian people impoverishment and defeat. It was Hitler's claim that he eliminated all unemployment in Germany. Neither is there unemployment in a prison camp.
Democracy to crush fascism internally must demonstrate its capacity to "make the trains run on time." It must develop the ability to keep people fully employed and at the same time balance the budget. It must put human beings first and dollars second. It must appeal to reason and decency and not to violence and deceit. We must not tolerate oppressive government or industrial oligarchy in the form of monopolies and cartels. As long as scientific research and inventive ingenuity outran our ability to devise social mechanisms to raise the living standards of the people, we may expect the liberal potential of the United States to increase. If this liberal potential is properly channeled, we may expect the area of freedom of the United States to increase. The problem is to spend up our rate of social invention in the service of the welfare of all the people.
The worldwide, agelong struggle between fascism and democracy will not stop when the fighting ends in Germany and Japan. Democracy can win the peace only if it does two things:
1. Speeds up the rate of political and economic inventions so that both production and, especially, distribution can match in their power and practical effect on the daily life of the common man the immense and growing volume of scientific research, mechanical invention and management technique.
2. Vivifies with the greatest intensity the spiritual processes which are both the foundation and the very essence of democracy.
The moral and spiritual aspects of both personal and international relationships have a practical bearing which so-called practical men deny. This dullness of vision regarding the importance of the general welfare to the individual is the measure of the failure of our schools and churches to teach the spiritual significance of genuine democracy. Until democracy in effective enthusiastic action fills the vacuum created by the power of modern inventions, we may expect the fascists to increase in power after the war both in the United States and in the world.
Fascism in the postwar inevitably will push steadily for Anglo-Saxon imperialism and eventually for war with Russia. Already American fascists are talking and writing about this conflict and using it as an excuse for their internal hatreds and intolerances toward certain races, creeds and classes.
It should also be evident that exhibitions of the native brand of fascism are not confined to any single section, class or religion. Happily, it can be said that as yet fascism has not captured a predominant place in the outlook of any American section, class or religion. It may be encountered in Wall Street, Main Street or Tobacco Road. Some even suspect that they can detect incipient traces of it along the Potomac. It is an infectious disease, and we must all be on our guard against intolerance, bigotry and the pretension of invidious distinction. But if we put our trust in the common sense of common men and "with malice toward none and charity for all" go forward on the great adventure of making political, economic and social democracy a practical reality, we shall not fail.
Source: The Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt Institute
Wednesday, May 18, 2016
Monday, May 16, 2016
...smile
"From time to time, to remind ourselves to relax and be peaceful, we may wish to set aside some time for a retreat, a day of mindfulness, when we can walk slowly, smile, drink tea with a friend, enjoy being together as if we are the happiest people on Earth." ~Thich Nhat Hanh, in Being Peace
Friday, May 13, 2016
Human, being.
I am very glad, indeed, to have this opportunity to address the two Houses directly and to verify for myself the impression that the President of the United States is a person, not a mere department of the Government hailing Congress from some isolated island of jealous power, sending messages, not speaking naturally and with his own voice-- that he is a human being trying to cooperate with other human beings in a common service.
Those are the words President Woodrow Wilson used to open his first address to a joint session of congress.
I like them.
I think people sometimes forget that behind the grandstanding and theatrics of Washington life stand real human beings, bearing the same strengths and frailties we all do. Not gods, not demons; just a bunch of guys.
Thursday, May 12, 2016
"You keep using that word…"
An excerpt from Alben W. Barkley‘s autobiography That Reminds Me–, ©1954:
The Republican Party: using "Socialist" as a pejorative since 1910!
He (Republican rival Colonel Hendrick) did, however, take after me on the grounds of being "socialistic" because I advocated federal aid for roads.
The Republican Party: using "Socialist" as a pejorative since 1910!
Tuesday, May 10, 2016
Sign O' The Times
An excerpt from Alben W. Barkley's autobiography That Reminds Me--, ©1954, written when he was 77 years old:
From time to time one hears that modern kids are being raised "too soft," and that the modern generation is "going to hell." In my own adult life, covering more than half a century, I have heard this so many times that I almost start to believe it myself every now and then. But then I see how youth stands up under such cruel and arduous tests as two World Wars and the Korean conflict, and I am convinced that this talk of "soft" youth is a lot of bunk. What I say goes for the girls as well as the boys, for many a time I have heard lamentations and wailings over the reckless course of the "flapper" and the "jazz baby" and whatever they call them today; yet American girls are making intelligent and devoted wives and mothers.
No, I have a great deal of faith int the so-called "modern generation"-- and I have seen quite a few of these "modern generations" go by. Whatever the peculiarities of the the times are, they usually work out their own problems according to the needs of their generation.
Monday, May 9, 2016
...and I gave her a lanyard.
[embed]https://youtu.be/0EjB7rB3sWc[/embed]
The great thing about Billy Collins is that he’s accessible; you don’t have to have a dictionary and a degree in literature to understand him.
Via Ron Davison, who is on the web many places including HERE.
The great thing about Billy Collins is that he’s accessible; you don’t have to have a dictionary and a degree in literature to understand him.
Via Ron Davison, who is on the web many places including HERE.
Sunday, May 8, 2016
The Station
I pointed out the nearest exit to Mona while we were at the concert last night, and the lady next to her laughed at me and said I should get up on stage and give a safety lecture.
Screw her.
I have never forgotten the tragedy of the nightclub fire at The Station, where one hundred people died and over two hundred were injured. Most people instinctively tried to leave the way they came in, creating a huge bottleneck at the back, while there were exits at the sides that went unused.
Almost everyone could have gotten out safely if they had known where to go.
Screw her.
I have never forgotten the tragedy of the nightclub fire at The Station, where one hundred people died and over two hundred were injured. Most people instinctively tried to leave the way they came in, creating a huge bottleneck at the back, while there were exits at the sides that went unused.
Almost everyone could have gotten out safely if they had known where to go.
Kevin Farley
We got to see Kevin Farley's standup last night, and he was wonderful!
He was funny, he was personable, and he has the knack of making a bunch of strangers in the audience feel like family. We had a great time. If he's in your area, it's a show you won't want to miss!
Saturday, May 7, 2016
Word o' the Day
I'll save you a search. From Dictionary.com:
Definition of fard
transitive verb
1 : to paint (the face) with cosmetics
Frazz is on the web HERE.
(Edit: I just realized that replacing the D with a T in “splentid” was part of the joke. :D )
Friday, May 6, 2016
Thursday, May 5, 2016
Weeps
[embed]https://youtu.be/oDs2Bkq6UU4[/embed]
George Harrison, Jeff Lynn, Ringo Starr, Eric Clapton, Phil Collins, Ray Cooper, Elton John…
The sad part is how many faces you saw reunite to perform this song at the Concert for George.
George Harrison, Jeff Lynn, Ringo Starr, Eric Clapton, Phil Collins, Ray Cooper, Elton John…
The sad part is how many faces you saw reunite to perform this song at the Concert for George.
Tuesday, May 3, 2016
All sense of proportion
[embed]https://youtu.be/QAK0KXEpF8U[/embed]
Via Ron Davison, who maintains a blog HERE.
I have a knee-jerk reaction against the term "political correctness." In my life, I've never heard anyone denied their right to say unkind things-- but I've heard a lot of people say unkind things followed by "I guess I'm not 'politically correct,' hur-hur, hur-hur," apparently believing that the suffix converts them from bigots and bullies into Fearless Defenders of Free Speech.
I gave this a chance because I trusted Ron's judgement, and I'm glad I did because it's brilliant.
(He also pointed out that I've been mispronouncing "Cleese" for my entire life. It's not pronounced the way you think it is.)
Via Ron Davison, who maintains a blog HERE.
I have a knee-jerk reaction against the term "political correctness." In my life, I've never heard anyone denied their right to say unkind things-- but I've heard a lot of people say unkind things followed by "I guess I'm not 'politically correct,' hur-hur, hur-hur," apparently believing that the suffix converts them from bigots and bullies into Fearless Defenders of Free Speech.
I gave this a chance because I trusted Ron's judgement, and I'm glad I did because it's brilliant.
(He also pointed out that I've been mispronouncing "Cleese" for my entire life. It's not pronounced the way you think it is.)
Monday, May 2, 2016
As if I didn't know that…
https://youtu.be/HvliMzAFWHM
Full lyrics HERE.
She comes back to tell me she’s gone…
As if I didn’t know that!
As if I didn’t know my own bed!
As if I’d never noticed
The way she brushed her hair from her forehead…
Full lyrics HERE.
Sunday, May 1, 2016
There have been so many fatal addictions that began with chronic pain: innumerable athletes, Michael Jackson, Kurt Cobain, now (presumably) Prince.
I saw myself trending that direction once. Two ibuprofen worked wonders on my back pain, but but after a while it didn't work anymore so I took four. Four worked wonders for a while, but after a while it didn't work anymore so I took six…
I was fortunate enough to recognize the trend, and found alternative treatments that worked. I still need pain medication about once a week, but yoga and stretching keep the pain manageable (yet always present) the rest of the time.
I was lucky that a non-pharmaceutical solution worked for me, but what if it hadn't? Not to be overly dramatic, but when six pills stopped working and I was considering more, I was having thoughts that perhaps a life of constant pain wasn't worth living.
I could very well have been the one on the slab today, surrounded by people saying "tsk-tsk, such a waste…"
I saw myself trending that direction once. Two ibuprofen worked wonders on my back pain, but but after a while it didn't work anymore so I took four. Four worked wonders for a while, but after a while it didn't work anymore so I took six…
I was fortunate enough to recognize the trend, and found alternative treatments that worked. I still need pain medication about once a week, but yoga and stretching keep the pain manageable (yet always present) the rest of the time.
I was lucky that a non-pharmaceutical solution worked for me, but what if it hadn't? Not to be overly dramatic, but when six pills stopped working and I was considering more, I was having thoughts that perhaps a life of constant pain wasn't worth living.
I could very well have been the one on the slab today, surrounded by people saying "tsk-tsk, such a waste…"
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)