...or your food?

In my experience, most people are quite happy to talk about things other than the Dallas Cowboys, those idiots in Washington, and the Kardashians.

But they’re waiting for you to bring it up.

Zippy the Pinhead is on the web HERE.

But there are millions…

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The best protest songs are a little bit goofy.

"President Trump."

In this excerpt from The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams explains the political structure of his fictional world.  Actually, it would go a long way towards explaining our own:

The President in particular is very much a figurehead-- he wields no real power whatsoever.  He is apparently chosen by the government, but the qualities he is required to display are not those of leadership but those of finely judged outrage.  For this reason the President is always a controversial choice, always an infuriating but fascinating character.  His job is not to wield power but to draw attention away from it.  On those criteria Zaphod Beeblebrox is one of the most successful presidents the Galaxy has ever had-- he has already spent two of his ten presidential years in prison in prison for fraud.  Very very few people realize that the President and the Government have virtually no power at all, and of those very few only six know whence ultimate political power is wielded.  Most of the others secretly believe that the ultimate decision-making process is handled by a computer.  They couldn't be more wrong.

Waiting

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I just read the script for the first time, and now I want to see it.

(It’s on the web HERE, if you want to read it yourself.)

Dom

"He (Dom DeLuise) created so much joy and laughter on the set that you couldn’t get your work done. So every time I made a movie with Dom, I would plan another two days on the schedule just for laughter."  ~Mel Brooks

Isn't that a great way to be remembered?

Keith Jarrett

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When Keith Jarrett plays, I see the notes in colors.

Revenant

I had to look it up.  I still don’t want to see the movie, but I hope I get a chance to use the word- especially the second meaning:

revenant  [rev-uh-nuh nt] (noun)

1. a person who returns.

2. a person who returns as a spirit after death; ghost.

(Source:  Dictionary.com)

Tiny Shrunken Head

I don’t care about the joke.

I want to know why Ruthie has a tiny shrunken head.

(One Big Happy is on the web HERE.)

For fear of consequences...

Another excerpt from Al Smith's autobiography, Up to Now ©1929:

The Anti-Saloon League maintained an active and vigorous lobby at Albany at all times and exercised a widespread influence over the representatives of country districts.  The lobbyists were paid and felt they had to earn their salaries at least to some degree.  They therefore made it their business to stir up something every year.  Not one, but probably a dozen men from rural sections have said to me in private conversation that they did not believe in a given excise or local option bill, did not believe it was in the best interest of the state, and did not believe it would accomplish what was sought by the sponsors, but were afraid to vote against it for fear of the consequences on Election Day.  In fact it was largely a campaign of intimidation.

Substitute "NRA" for "Anti-Saloon League," and you could print that in tomorrow's newspaper.

Here Comes the Sun

 

Mona took this picture of the setting sun peaking through the clouds on her way home from work- not bad for a snapshot on a cellphone!

Complete harmony and sympathy...

Al Smith has been out of office for over a century, but I think he'd be right in home in politics today.  From his autobiography Up to Now, ©1929:

It was interesting to me to see how the reactionary legislator who was unfriendly to this kind of legislation would always manage to find such strong legal and constitutional arguments against it.  Always declaring in favor of the principle and being in complete harmony and sympathy with what was sought to be done, the clever debater could invariably find a way of explaining that, in his opinion, the proposed enactment would not bring about the result desired.  Although he himself had no suggestion to cure the wrong that was so apparent from the studies of the investigating commission, he could always find such legislation was either in opposition to the constitution or improperly drawn.

(Do you know what I'm never asked?  "So, what are you reading?")

...and send it soaring

Radha Krishna Flying Kite
Water Color Painting on Paper
Artist：Kailash Raj (via HinduCosmos)

I enjoy seeing the goddesses and gods depicted enjoying very human pastimes.

Right Now

"Fear keeps us focused on the past or worried about the future. If we can acknowledge our fear, we can realize that right now we are okay. Right now, today, we are still alive, and our bodies are working marvelously. Our eyes can still see the beautiful sky. Our ears can still hear the voices of our loved ones."  ~Thích Nhất Hạnh

Empty without her

"She never failed to indicate, by her attitude to me and to her more intimate friends, and she has openly proclaimed that she thinks I am the greatest man in the world; and I have no hesitancy in saying to the world that my life would have been empty without her."  ~Al Smith on his wife Katie, from his autobiography Up to Now ©1929

It just makes me happy to know that there were always people in love with each other.

 

A basket hanging on the door knob

I enjoy reading old biographies.

The politics don't matter; regardless of the era, it's always the same problems and the same solutions and the same objections by the same vested interests, all in a never ending cycle of greed and selfishness.  I skim those parts.

The joy comes from learning about the things they did for fun.

This excerpt from Al Smith's autobiography talks about how they used to spend New Year's Day.  (It was written in 1929, so keep in mind that what was "thirty-five or forty years" to him is 120 or 125 years to us.)

We carried on all the usual social obligations of young men.  The mention of New Year's calls will awaken memories in some of the old-timers in New York of the custom of calling on friends on New Year's Day.  The business of preparing and printing New Year's calling cards was an industry all in itself, and a man's affluence and standing were judged by the elaborate card he was able to leave with his friends when he called to pay his respects on the first day of the new year.  The custom was so universal in lower New York thirty-five or forty years ago that the people who, as the result of sickness or death in the family, did not keep what was called "open house" on New Year's Day left a basket hanging on the door knob to receive cards of would-be callers.