Brenda is making her swoop – Matt is brining a truck and a strong back – after this we can clean up what is left – discover what it is that we need to replace – Dave said to me, we only need one plate and bowl each – and a glass and a cup and a fork and a spoon, I added – and besides that would make us clean the dirty dishes and not leave them to pile up in the sink and stink – tis’ an important point for two old bachelor brothers living together – I’m not planning on having anyone over – nor am I, I added. And if I do find a lady, I’m going to find one for whom I can sleep over at her place – sounds like a good plan to me, I said. As for me I had already given up the allusion of finding good sex on the sly – I knew that I would have to pay a lot more than it would be worth.
Lying here together goes back so far… / it becomes still more difficult to find / words at once true and kind, / or not untrue and not unkind – Philip Larkin
More aches and pains – left wrist as well as right arm sufficed with shots of pain – get used to it – waking up with aches and pains – but even that would be ok if they would just cease sometime during the day. And they do but only when a passion diverts my attention which seems to happen less and less often nowadays.
In contrast to someone close to the top, a man near the base of the [social] pyramid who gains approval from those above faces a loss of real dignity – Richard Sennett – The Hidden Injuries of Class, 1972 p213
That’s what retirement is all about, being around to help out others, even if I have to chug a pint that I had planned to nurse all afternoon. I borrowed Michael’s car and took off. I’ll be there in thirty minutes. Forty minutes later I spotted her. I had brought her two gallons of gas. I drive back to the city and park the car. I took a nap and woke up in time to get to the Royal Ground before five.
An object is only ours when we have it - when it exists for us as capital, or when it is directly processed, eaten, drunk, worn, inhabited, etc. – Karl Marx
The US attacked (literary – with warplanes – shot down their MIGS) Libya for trying to extent its territorial soverinety into the Gulf of Sidra beyond the recognized twelve miles but its ok for Isreal to attack unarmed humanity relieve vessels 85 miles offshore who were “on the verge of breaching its sovereign borders” and we are talking of Gaza here, not recognized nor claimed as a part of Isreal. “Israel was left no choice to ensure the safety of its people” – if it really was their borders they were defending that could have waited on the beach and put handcuffs on them – scooped them up like turtles coming up on moon lit beaches to lay their eggs.
A bird trills for a thousand nameless ears / A star shines for a thousand newborn eyes / The bird changes the day with a glance / The star deposits death and goes on its way – Vicente Huidobro – The Selected Poetry of, 1981 p173
I go back to the Elixir - ‘The Neighborhood Saloon”. Dave, the man behind the bar, says “Welcome back. How’s the writing going?” “Well”, I reply, “but still kind of aimless.” He says, “I would like to get paid for it myself” He turns down the lights and looks my way as he does. He knows that he is interrupting my reading and I acknowledge that it’s OK. He lights the bar candles and fills the snack trays with salty pretzels. He misses my candle and I hand it to him and he returns it lit. I say, “Now I can read”, but I can’t. I try several paragraphs but its too much trouble to see any words. It’s the Friday Night Fight from Tucson or Basketball (Cleveland vs. Milwaukee). Now Dave has turned down the lighting to were even writing has become difficult. I finish of the salty pretzels and start a second SacBrew red.
Two dozen candles to be light. They have all been lit - fire and beer - cold winter campers gathering around the campfire toasting boots and butts and guzzling beer. High school weekend field parties - booze, girls and passed out drunk. Drink until you puke your guts out and you I never once got laid. while getting drunk (or that i can remember). Check it out now - the funk - it’s so rubber.We call them woodsies.
Fragmentation and division in the self are the arrangements consciousness makes in response to an environment where respect is not forthcoming as a matter of course – Richard Sennett – The Hidden Injuries of Class, 1972 p214
Consumerism orientated to the future… increases the sense of uncertainty about the self’s present needs – Richard Sennett – The Hidden Injuries of Class, 1972 p168
It is time! It is time for liberals to unfurl the banners of socialism and anarchy – it’s better to be shot than to be laughed at.
We can talk about guns and butter all we want, but when the guns are there with all of its emphasis you don’t even get good oleo – Martin Luther King jr
NeoPanglossian: this is the least bad of all possible worlds – the NeoPanglossian mantra: It could be worse
There is no room for failure in our schemes for respect – Richard Sennett – The Hidden Injuries of Class, 1972 p183
America is a record sitter, indeed a trendsetter – among ‘advanced’ nations it has the highest or almost the highest rates of:
Poverty
Childhood poverty
Elderly poverty (2nd)
Long-term poverty
Permanent poverty
Incarceration
CEO pay
Health-care cost
Hours worked (3rd)
Infant mortality
In terms of inequality American is a trendsetter as well but few other countries seem to lbe ooking towards America as a developmental model – bringing freedom and democracy to a mall near you..
Social inequity is maintained by creating a morality of anxiety [whose logic]… leads people to turn on each other rather than on the system – Richard Sennett – The Hidden Injuries of Class, 1972 p173
There are those who are poor by choice
And they are the worthy poor
There are those who suffer not by choice
They are our undeserving poor
There is something sick about
Our metaphors
There is something smelly
In Denmark
And it ain’t any the less the affluent
That flows in our sewers
Study the orphan stopped in his tracks / By the sin of rivers bearing scant water / By the sin of mountains that won’t bend down / Grow grow says the cello / Like I am growing / Like the idea of suicide grows in the beautiful gardener – Vicente Huidobro – The Selected Poetry of, 1981 p119
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