Quadrennial Happenstances Involving Feathers

Given all the excitement this year generated by the quadrennial World Cup (the U.S. is going to the second round, hurrah!) and all the excitement generated by the Olympics – both occurring in even numbered years are there any quadrennial events that occur in off years (the odd numbered years): Why yes, there is - The Naccabiah Games (Jewish Olympics), the World Games, the Caribbean Games, the Chinese National Games, the Deaflymics (Deaf Olympics), the African National Cup, the All Africa Games and the Pan American Games. So why is it that all the importing stuff happens in even numbed years. We even call elections that take place in odd numbered years – off year elections. Is there something magic about even numbers? I don’t know – I am just posing the question.

If it didn’t happen – it should have happened or it might have happened but maybe not quite the way I said that it did happen. It might have appeared not to have happened at all but its happening may not actually have been improbable – we can’t write about what is not imaginable.

It would surely be unfair to call philosophers ‘liars’ just because they prefer to avoid the truth and talk about truth instead – Robert C Solomon – Lying and Deception in Everyday Live, “What a Tangled Web”, 1993 p43

With feathering
Your tail will not spin
But your propeller will

Self-deception further reinforces individuality by supporting the unrealistic dreams and fantasies that allow a person to cope and thrive in difficult or even impossible circumstances – Robert C Solomon – Lying and Deception in Everyday Live, “What a Tangled Web”, 1993 p50

Walter has now given us metal names: Moe Libdium, Al Minium and Maggy Nesium. He said that he has been too busy to develop the story line for Max Torque. A Peterbuilt truck smashed into a Starbuck’s coffee shop - it actually happened. Walter read it directly from the Chronicle. Frank Chu now has a club named after him, I say – It is called the Twelve Galaxies. Walter sais that he didn’t know who Frank Chu is Linda confessed her ignorance also. I tell them that that’s like admitting that you’ve never heard of Emperor Norton. But actually its is worse. Norton I was only Emperor of the US and Protector of Mexico, while Frank Chu, on the other hand, has twelve Galaxies to worry about. I didn’t try to explain Meg and my Christmas project to raise money to buy him a new pair of shoes. Any yes, Frank did make it to the St Stupid’s Day parade and wearing those oversized shoes – not as big as John Wayne Gracy’s were, but he had shoes that were hard to fill.

I’m at SFMOA with a cappuccino waiting on Michael again. I will check for voice mail this time as soon as I put down this pen. No, no messages. Cappuccino ladies are best enjoyed in the morning, Neon does not reflect from them admiringly and neither does the noon day sun. Dawn and dusk are their highlights. The lecture began at noon. I had told Michael to meet me at 12:15, which he did, so instead we went to the 21st Amendment for lunch. My feet are killing me - I though I was doing them a favor by getting sandals - but exposure to the air and the freedom to move has split the leathers that are my heels. So now I’m tiptoeing around, planning to stay near home and wearing socks. I’m also applying a cream to re-moisture the skin.

Survival without justice is inhumane

I am seriously contemplating suicide just not to witness the eventual failure of my life, but of course that would be another form of delusion, for to leave one’s life, one’s work unfinished implies the possibility of success, what is left unlived, untold, may contain the potential truth one always seeks – Raymond Federman – The Twofold Vibration, 1982 p67

Drivers in the right lane are more likely to speed up and try to make it through a yellow traffic signal than is a driver in the left lane. For every extra second (beyond three seconds) that a light stays yellow, the likelihood of a driver pressing foreword (speeding up) increases by more than threefold.

We fool ourselves in order to fool others, and we fool others in order to fool ourselves. And to make it complicated (as it should be) we do not always know which is which, who is self, and who is other – Robert C Solomon – Lying and Deception in Everyday Live, “What a Tangled Web”, 1993 p43

The emissions of off highway engines (aircraft, marine vessels, off-road vehicles and stationary engines) are unregulated – aircraft results in 11% of the transportation derived CO2 and their green house gas emission are expected to rise 60% over the next ten years; marine vessels entering US ports account for 4.5% of US mobile-source greenhouse gas emissions and their pollution levels are expected to double of the next decade; non-road vehicles and engines account for 9% of US mobile source CO2 emissions and their emissions are expected to rise by 46% over the then twenty years.

The earth is either silent, or else it expresses itself clumsily, incoherently. It finds coherent speech only when it falls into the ‘zones of culture’; space which is at home with the word – Victor Krivulin, 1993

The more you read the more lose ends get connected (especially those lose ends that you didn’t even know were lose ends) and if they do not get interconnected, there is something wrong with your reading plan

All local history tends to commemorate only success – Charles N Glaab – Kansas City and the Railroads, 1993 p193

It is estimated that 14% of all Americans will be homeless at least once with having of them having to sleep outdoors or in a shelter

Salutations, black earth, be strong and alert / there’s a fertile black silence in work – Osip Mandelstam – The Voronezh Notebooks, 1996 p32

Unlimited choice is a bad thing
Something without its opposite is no thing (nothing)
Eat all the candy and get sick
Getting old brings with it
      Lactose intolerance
To become an infant again without
      Being allowed to suck on a teat
This is just plain mean

Bodies touch, but do not rub / any membrane that might lubricate – Lucia Perillo – Inseminating the Elephant, 2009 p38

One is accepted, tolerated – but only in a de facto, secondary role