A Friend Pest Request, Sweet Valentine and the Irony of Power without Authority

Facebook spam - I got my first friend pest request of – an alumni of mine or so he claimed only problem was that had graduated when he was a year old. His portrait had him flipping the bird – and I stuck up my middle finger too aimed towards this screen and said ‘fuck you too! Arsehole’.

No one wants to be part of a fiction, and even less so if that fiction is real – Paul Auster – The New York Trilogy: The Locked Room, 1986 p265

Zero tolerance
      UNTIL
It touches you
This is not the intent
      OH GOD
Save me from the vice grips
Or as the case may be
      This Camping Utensil

This game of power without authority indeed begets a new character type … the ironic man - R Sennett – Flesh and Stone: the body and the city in Western civilization, 1994

Not all of these red Valentine balloons have gold hearts, some have white ones and say “I Love You”. So maudlin – would not “I Luv U’ be more appropriate. Whether white or gold each pair is tied on each parking meter so that one rises almost, but not quite above the other. Across the street is the doggy bakery. I can stand it no longer. I must escape from Cow Hollow and catch the first buss to anywhere else. I wind up at Washington Square in North Beach. The local flock of parrots just flew over. I’m at the corer of Stockton and Union on a bench facing away from the park. It is the only sunny spot not occupied by homeless men stretched out soaking up the rays.

The mask of cooperativeness are among the only possessions workers will carry with them from task to task, firm to firm…These windows of social skills, whose ‘hypertext’ is a winning smile – R Sennett – Flesh and Stone: the body and the city in Western civilization, 1994

St Peter and Paull is chiming noon - There are many ways to fail but very few ways to succeed

It isn’t that simple but it’s simple enough / the rock is least living of the forms man has fucked – Frank O’Hara – The Collected Poems of, 1994 p302

A bus has just passed turning left off of Stockton onto Union headed towards Russian Hill. St Peter & St Paul chimes the half hour. I have not stirred. The Italian Restaurants of North Beach are in cook mode - their aromas permeating the air. I’m sitting just across from the Flor d’Italia which claims to be the oldest Italian restaurant in America. I wander on down Columbus to the San Francisco Brewery. Josh asks me “Burger and a beer?” “You serve the special on weekends?” I asked. ”No” he says “I guess your right” “Well I guess I should not have asked? Make that a King of the Hill” I tell him. The King is a stout barley wine.

Teamwork…can hardly claim our affections…in its fictions and it’s feigning of community - R Sennett – Flesh and Stone: the body and the city in Western civilization, 1994

5:50 and its starting to get dark. The cherry trees have just passed their peak and are starting to display their foliage. I’m sitting under a burnt out lamp.

Failure is the great modern taboo - R Sennett – Flesh and Stone: the body and the city in Western civilization, 1994

I shall stop now and read the Sunday Chronicle and drink my coffee, while it is still hot. Sunday is the only day that I buy a paper. Walter just came in and plunked his paper down on the table next to the window. “Morning Walter”. “Morning Fred.” He is pissed about the doubling of the price of the Chronicle as soon as its contract with the Examiner had expired. He trying to abstain.. I am satisfied with reading a second hand paper - most of the time I can find one, but not on Sundays. I can find a second-hand copy so long as I can forgo the sports section – which I can.

Those that cannot be readily penetrated become objects of deep fascination - – Robin Tolmach Lakoff – The Language War, 2002

I finish my laundry. It is clean and dry. About half of the t-shirts I have to reverse before folding.

Women are meant to be penetrated and interpreted; a woman who resist is no woman… [but] a woman who permits herself to be penetrated by strangers is no lady - – Robin Tolmach Lakoff – The Language War, 2002

When you hear hoof beats, think horses, not zebras.

Therapists are our new authority figures - – Robin Tolmach Lakoff – The Language War, 2002

Favorite Car Colors (% of cars sold)
              North America       Europe            Asia
Silver          20                   35              37
White           18                   11              14
Black           17                   24              13
Red             13                    8               8
Blue            12                   12              11
Neutrals         9                    6               7
Green            4                    3               4