A Game of Colors While Taking Medications - Disclosure Mandatory

It snowed last night and is sprinkling now – it is overcast and gray but not bitterly cold. The pavement and the sidewalks glisten. I have my preferred window seat. The sun will not glare in my fact on this day. People are speaking softly and they arrive in small groups without any children. It is still to early for the little ones. A gentle ballad is playing over the sound system – come back, come back, the man sings – it has a slight reggae beat – acoustic guitar and drums played with bushes. They said yesterday that snow might fall in the night. Someone said it was already snowing south of here. This morning the season’s first snow lightly blanketed the ground. It has by now melted off.

The widely held notion that, when in doubt, law and legitimacy spring from the ‘biggest club’ is being falsified, indeed it is becoming counter productive, in the world risk society – Ulrich Beck – World at Risk, 2008 p150

The colors of brainmashing:
      Redbashing
      Bluetrashing
      Greenwashing
      Yellowlivering
      Blacklisting
Mission accomplished

There is an aggression implicit in every use of the camera – Susan Sontag – On Photography, 1977 p7

Factoid: 10% of Americans over six years of age are reportedly receiving antidepressant medications. One third of Spanish women take antidepressants and 30% take tranquilizers

So successful has been the camera’s role in beatifying the world that photographs, rather than the world, have become the standard of the beautiful – Susan Sontag – On Photography, 1977 p85

My manager called today to let me know that I would get nine weeks transition plus my five weeks of vacation. It is anticlimactic and the game is just about over. We now know the score. We just have to wait for the clock to run out. I told Michael that I just might come in every day for the rest of time with the firm “For I may never again get an opportunity “to work”. “It almost feels nostalgic” I tell him. “Almost?” he asks implied that I had really not been having the experience of actually working for some time now. But I chose another interpretation “I can’t say that I will ever feel nostalgic about this job.” I was asked not to start telling people that I was leaving.” “I won’t” I promised but had already told a few - “But some people already know”, I said “Like who”, he wanted to know.” And I listed those whom I had already told that I would be leaving. “Oh, that’s OK” he says

The camera is a kind of passport that annihilates moral boundaries and social inhibitions, freeing the photographer… from any responsibility toward the people photographed. The whole point of photographing people is that you are not intervening in their lives, only visiting them – Susan Sontag – On Photography, 1977 p41

There’s a commotion outside in front of the coffee shop. Dog fight. Dog fight. “Little dogs I hope” say Linda. Their owners are getting them untangled. “Oh my God”, says Linda “It’s Cassie”. “Dog or owner”, I ask? “She’s an old friend,” she says as she gets a cigarette and joins. Cassie was one those trying to intervene in the fight. She was one of the owners. “Poor dog. Did it get mauled?” Walter says that dogs should settle their own disputes. “Maybe there should be a doggie court?”

The painter constructs, the photographer discloses. That is, the identifications of the subject of a photograph always dominates our perception of it – Susan Sontag – On Photography, 1977 p92

The lessons that you learn are not the ones that you think you lean” - The lessons that others learn is rarely the one that you were trying to teach them.

“Cassie is back and the Yorkies are ready to rumble again. Its got its dandruff up” I say. “Or is it Dander?” “Dander” Linda replies. I ask Walter if he ever gets his dandruff up. “Note any more” he responds rubbing his thinning hair. “Do bald people get dandruff” I ask. Walter quickly responds, too quickly I think.. “Good question” he says. “You know that dandruff is caused by Shampoo?” “Oh” I commented. “Oh yes, you should use real pooh” he said. Linda is working on her daily crossword. “What do you think Linda? Should you use real pooh” I ask. “Oh no” she says “You should use shampoo”. She hesitates and does the “oh well, you got me” shrug. “Wake up Linda!”

You can’t say more than you see – Thoreau

I read what I had just written back to Walter. “It’s like de je vu” he says. “Who”, he asks, “is going to play us in the movie. Linda asks, “Who is going to play Fred?” “Someone really annoying” I say. “What about Jason Alexander” Walter says. “Perfect” Linda adds.

Where the claims of knowledge falter, the claims of creativity take up the slack – Susan Sontag – On Photography, 1977 p117