Fighting the Universal Spider Too

Creep along on this patch of black ice – any slip and you’ll be on your ass. You’ve already fallen four or five times this winter and any one of them could be disastrous. Oh, but that you were ten – then this would be so much fun. One little slip and boom! It’s all over so fast – before you’ve realized what happened, your on your ass – no time to react. Cautiously feel the traction before you put your weight down – how long can you balance, especially went your momentum is headed down hill? Carefully, carefully before you step – baby steps – tip tip tap. To add to the uncertainty a fog is obscuring your vision – as thick as pea soup – slice it with your knife – but it not thick enough to hold you up.

Economists want the market to perform well. They are deeply convinced that when the market performs well, people in general benefit. Most of their research is geared accordingly in one way or another to understand what makes the market function well – Herman E Daly – For the Common Good., 1989 p63

Ask him
       If when he had
            This desire
He was wearing
       Any underwear

The orange fire popped bright sun-flares out into the darkness. Resin hissed, and wood cracked, as it tore itself along its grain. Sparks rushed in flocks into the darkness before passing out of sight – Robert Macfarlane – The Wild Places, 2009 p34

It’s been a morning in which
      Tall women saunter in
      Wearing long coats
      Or dressed in slacks
It’s been a morning in which
      Men discuss Catholic
            School sports
      Especially soccer – it’s
            A great sport
It’s just been this morning that
      He shoved the printout
            Across the table
      We get these from the
            Home office, he said
It’s been a morning during which
       The snow has been melting
        Piled up along the curb
              No longer pristine
Glad to see it gone but not
By the end of this morning

Wildness is a quality to be vanquished… it is a quality to be cherished – Robert Macfarlane – The Wild Places, 2009 p30

Factoid: Children with older fathers score lower on cognitive tests than do those who have younger fathers

There is a subspecies of the cottontail – the Lower Keys Marsh rabbit, that has the scientific name Salvilagus palustris hefneri. Yes, I kid you not, it is name for Playboy publisher Hugh Hefner. But the amazing thing is that six years ago it was declared endangered – there are only 300 Hefner bunnies left.

It is doubtless the same poem continuing. If themes sometimes blur, they only recur somewhat later, all the more clearly, virtually identical – Alain Robbe-Grillet p84

There is a 50% chance that a child in the United States will be on food stamps at some point during his or her upbringing

A new Research 2000 poll of more than 2,000 Republicans, conducted for the liberal blog Daily Kos, has some eyebrow-raising findings:
-- 63% of them believe President Obama is a socialist
-- 53% believe Sarah Palin is more qualified to be president than Obama is
-- 39% believe he should be impeached
-- 36% believe he wasn't born in the United States
-- 31% believe the president hates white people
-- 24% believe the president wants the terrorists to win
-- 23% believe their state should secede from the union

I bought a laptop today - a Toshiba Satellite. Will have paid $1100 after all the rebates (it lasted five years when some of the keys would no longer work and by that time is was a clunky box compared to the newer models – but in the long run it only cost 60¢ per day). I still want to get a digital camera (it took another three years before I did get one). I also need to get my passport renewed. I turned the computer on - it works!

It is insufficient simply to appropriate the articulation of a culture, without understanding its logic – Barbara Browning – Infectious Rhythms: metaphors of contagion and the spread of African culture, 2000

Sweet Home Alabama - four part harmony - white Ebonics - trailer trash - the Chronicle’s Young become De Young, a museum. He was shot by an evangelist, a womanizing holy man - is there any other - one dollar microbrew – not a stout but a very chocolaty porter. A song and a dance is just a step on your toes - just a shot away.

It’s a small world - there’s so much we share, that it’s time we’re aware. It’s a small small world - Disney - 1964 World’s Fair.