Oz

If you have time over the holidays, I recommend reading some of the original "Land of Oz" books by L. Frank Baum.

They were written for older children or younger adults, so they're an easy read.  Most can be finished at one sitting.

Many characters will be familiar, but the books are different than the movie; not better, not worse, just different.  If I had to characterize it, I'd say the movie is a more complete story but the books create a more complete world.

They are all in the public domain, and can be downloaded or read online for free at Project Gutenberg, HERE.

Ancestral Mathematics

Transcribed from a photograph of a poster, found on Reddit:

Ancestral Mathematics

In order to be born, you needed:

2 parents
4 grandparents
8 great-grandparents
16 second great-grandparents
32 third great-grandparents
64 fourth great-grandparents
128 fifth great-grandparents
256 sixth great-grandparents
512 seventh great-grandparents
1,024 eighth great-grandparents
2,048 ninth great-grandparents

For you to be born today from 12 previous generations, you needed a total of 4,094 ancestors over the last 400 years.

Think for a moment-- How many struggles? How many battles? How many difficulties? How much sadness? How much happiness? How many love stories? How many expressions of hope for the future? --did your ancestors have to undergo for you to exist in this present moment…

Star Trek: The Novels

 

Excerpted from The Klingon Gambit by Robert E. Vardeman, ©1981:

"Status report, Mr. Sulu," Kirk demanded as he made his way to the command seat. 

"Klingons are increasing the attack, sir." 

"Estimates, Scotty." 

"We canna survive more'n ten minutes at this rate, Cap'n!"

Kirk slammed his fist against the armrest of the command seat. He couldn't fight. He dare not open fire. The Enterprise might outmaneuver the Klingon ship, but it couldn't outrun or out-fight it. 

"Captain, awaiting your order to fire.…"

It was hard being a young Star Trek nerd in the 70s. 

Cable television hadn't come to our city yet.  VCRs were expensive, and we didn't have one.  Star Trek was in syndication, but wasn't broadcast by one of our three local stations.

So, to bridge the gap, we had the Star Trek novels.  They came out fairly regularly, and I could pick one up at the Waldenbooks in the local mall for just a buck or two.  

Reading one of the books wasn't a lot different than watching an episode.  The characters were familiar, and I liked them.  They were an easy read.  There wasn't anything particularly challenging, but they were a fun way to spend an afternoon.

I found a bunch of old ones at the used book store, and I'm enjoying reliving a little bit of my youth.

Do a little dance…

 

And that reminded me of this:

Full lyrics HERE, if for some reason you think you need them.

Easy

 "It's easy to be a saint in paradise."  ~Captain Benjamin Sisko, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine

A Great Risk

From Slashdot:

With labor shortages already weighing on Europe's economic rebound, wage inflation will persist for longer if the Great Resignation -- the post-pandemic trend of people leaving the workforce -- carries on, the bank said. "It reveals a far greater potential risk of structurally higher wages," Morgan Stanley wrote.

I'm on the side of higher wages, myself.

3 Covers

Three covers of Gerry Rafferty's Baker Street, all different and all wonderful:

You can listen to the original on YouTube HERE. You can read the lyrics HERE.

Happy?

 Excerpted from the article "Enjoy!" by Sandy Grant:

In our societies, we experience fabricated leisure – a kind of planned ‘free time’ that is sandwiched between typically unpleasant work times. And we are bombarded with advertisements that promise we will have a great time if only we get the latest phone or the latest computer game. Ours is a culture that, under the guise of consumption, actually counsels the renunciation of enjoyment. In such a society, wants come apart from pleasures. If you get an expensive car because that’s what you think your status requires you to have, that is not the same as enjoying it. The individual who succumbs to this idea does not relish owning the car. She just thinks she must have and display it. We inhabit a world that devalues pleasure while apparently serving it up in large doses. Rather than enjoyment playing a central role in people striving to become otherwise than they are, our culture works a strange ascetic turn. I am what I desire. I am what I consume. We are absorbed in an existence as desiring and consuming subjects, living as though we really are just those selves and no more.

You can read the whole article online  at Aeon, HERE.

Shavasana

Shavasana
by Rosemary Wahtola Trommer

Once again, the field rehearses how to die.
Some of the grass turns golden first. Some
simply fades into brown. Just this morning,

I, too, lay in corpse pose, practicing
how to let myself be totally held by the earth
without striving, how to meet the day

without rushing off to do the next necessary
or beautiful thing. Soon, the grass will bend
or break, molder or disintegrate. Every year,

the same lesson in how to join
the darkness, how to be unmade, how quietly
we might lean into the uncertainty,

how generous the ground.

I found this poem at Jules of Nature, and she found it at Gwarlingo.

Eastern Perspective

If you have five minutes or so, this is beautiful and worth your time:

(You can watch it at the BBC HERE.)

Thanks, but

And I commanded Joshua at that time, saying, ‘Your eyes have seen all that the Lord your God has done to these two kings; so will the Lord do to all the kingdoms through which you pass. You must not fear them, for the Lord your God Himself fights for you.’  ~Deuteronomy 3:21-22

That's nice, I suppose, but I don't really need any empires defeated at the moment.  I could use a little divine help navigating the phone system at the credit card company.

Blocking

 

This has become a popular form of creative writing, and I've seen some beautiful poems and prose created by blocking selections of text.

I can't do it myself, because marking in a book just feels wrong.  But I enjoy seeing what other people created.

Bagism

 

Which led to this:

And for the younger members in the audience:

Bagism was created by John Lennon and Yoko Ono as part of their extensive peace campaign in the late 1960s. The intent of bagism was to satirize prejudice and stereotyping. Bagism involved wearing a bag over one's entire body. According to John and Yoko, by living in a bag, a person could not be judged by others on the basis of skin colour, gender, hair length, attire, age, or any other such attributes. It was presented as a form of total communication: instead of focusing on outward appearance, the listener would hear only the bagist's message.

Read more at Wikipedia, HERE.

Downside

 

I might create a Twitter account just to follow Jeff Tiedrich.  He's HERE.

shh

shhh, it's fine is on the web HERE.  The artist has chosen to remain anonymous.

It isn't really a "comic" in the traditional sense.  It's more like illustrated commentary.  I think its wonderful.

Friendly Beasts

 

Bestioles amiques by Affonso Lopes-Vieiva,c.1920

Midnight

Oh Midnight was the champion

He is the only bronc I couldn't ride

But now I hear old Midnights blind

And rides little children for a dime

It's silly me for me to feel sad for a fictional horse from a song that's nearly fifty years old.  

I'm ridiculous.

Full lyrics HERE.

Lucky Doris

 

No Exit by Andy Singer is on the web HERE.

Gregory Blackstop

 If you have eleven minutes to spare, there is a wonderful little video about autistic artist Gregory Blackstop online HERE.

You can view some of his artwork online HERE.

Ouch.

 Buttpoems by J. Smith is on the web in several places, including HERE.

Domino

 

By French artist Arman (1928-2005)
Pexiglass and resin with dominos

And that, of course reminded me of this:

Fun fact:  linguists have been hard at work since 1970 trying to decipher what the hell he's saying, so far without result.

Romantic Friendship

 From the article "What Is Romantic Friendship?" by By Sukaina Hirji and Meena Krishnamurthy, in The New Statesman:

What, then, were (Iris) Murdoch and (Philippa) Foot to each other? Close friends? Lovers? Murdoch herself grappled with this question. She wrote to Foot, “Sometimes I feel I have to invent a language to talk to you in, though my heart is very full of definite things to say. You stir some very deep part of my soul. Be patient with me and don’t be angry with my peculiarities. I love you very much.” It seems Murdoch herself didn’t quite know how to characterise her affections for Foot.

What they had may best be described as a “romantic friendship.”

There's a certain segment of the population that loves putting labels on relationships:  "I'm a polyamorous gender-fluid non-binary supercalifragilistic…"

But you don't have to do that.  You can just let it be. 

Bang A Gong

 

And that, of course, reminded me of this:

Full lyrics HERE.

I Will

 Mona discovered this beautiful cover version of an early Beatles song, and shared it with me.  Now I'm sharing it with you:

Full lyrics HERE.

No Escape

“The problem begins with that word ‘world’. It means two such opposite things. The real one we cannot see. The invented one we can’t escape.”  ~Richard Powers, The Overstory ©2018

Will You Love Me Tomorrow?

 When Robin Gibb starts to sing, it's so beautiful it just brings tears to your eyes:

Full lyrics HERE.

...with a little compassion

"If we were all perfected beings we wouldn't be here in the physical world. The fact that we're all here in these bodies means that we're not perfected. So having accepted we're not perfected, we can allow for each others inadequacies or failings with a little compassion."  ~George Harrison 

I wish I could've done more…

Of all the songs the Bellamy Brothers have done, my favorite is the one below.

The lyrics are underneath.  

My favorite part is the chorus.  The part I put in blue is actually from an Islamic du'a.  I wonder if they knew that?

Lyrics:

Bright-eyed and bushy-tailed I hit the highway
Naive and full of beans and Sunday learning
I slowly found out life would not bend my way
As my skin grew thick, my soul began churnin'

From all of that I should've picked up something
A lesson about the wheres, and whys and hows
Born yesterday while searching for tomorrow
Leaning on the universe for these unwritten vows

For those that I've wronged, I ask for forgiveness
For those that I gave comfort, I wish I could've done more
For those I could not rescue, I pray for understanding
For those who've helped me, I'm grateful
For giving me wings to soar…

I am stronger now 'cause I have shown my weakness
I am fearless because I've been afraid
I am wiser only after being foolish
More spiritual from prayers that I have prayed

For those that I have wronged, I ask for forgiveness
For those that I have comforted, I wish I could've done more
For those I could not rescue, I pray for understanding
For those who have helped me, I am grateful
For giving me wings to soar…

Enlighten what is dark in me
Bind what is bruised in me
Heal what is sick in me
Revive the peace and love in me

For those that I have wronged, I ask for forgiveness
For those that I have comforted, I wish I could've done more
For those I could not rescue, I pray for understanding
For those who have helped me, I am grateful
For giving me wings to soar…