Terrorists Are Out There To Stymie Our Numbing Routines

She said that this was the last day for which the temperature was supposed to be in the seventies. A lot of people stop by on the way into work – they don’t all seem to have to go in as early on Fridays as the do on other days. Some don’t have to go in at all on Fridays. The woman getting chemo said that she didn’t. I’m of a mind to get back on the road. The coming cold weather is intimadating, but that is exactly why I should. I’ll look for a little travel trailer along the way – I’m headed towards New Mexico. It’s cold and it snows at high elevation. My own little snug corner of the world so long as I have a propane heater. The little dog has long fur but his paws get cold and he hops around on three feet - holding up one at a time out of the snow

The country is the city without houses, the city merely a kissed country, a hamster choices / whether if you own forty cats or just three snakes you’re rich – Frank O’Hara – The Collected Poems, 1971 p339

Walter wants to produce an all purpose food product that he plans on calling Toasty Toes. It is a multipurpose food, he says – a breakfast cereal, chips for dipping or you can put them in a blender and make them into a drink. Everyone wants Toasty Toes is his slogan – but he fears he may be infringing on Frito-Lay’s trade name.

Performanative habitualities in a mediated adulthood that dims down the horizon of options through immersion in a numbing routine that allow many of us to feel relatively real – Thomas De Zengotita – Mediated: How the media shapes the world and the way you live in it, 2006 p189

The Texas School Board is to vote on whether calling Medieval European crusaders “invaders” or “attackers (which is true) is a pro-Islamic biase that might encourage their gun-toting children to become jihadists

In real life one is usually a passive victim, whereas in the adventure story one can think of oneself as being at the centre of events – George Orwell – Dickens, Dali and Others, 1946 p212

Where rationality is silent; irrationality goes on a wilding

Devoted followers are anachronistic in a world that’s made for devoted fans – Thomas De Zengotita – Mediated: How the media shapes the world and the way you live in it, 2006 p105

Democrats tend to believe that compromising with people who you disagree with is a virtue while Republicans tend to believe it is not a virtue and that one should stick to one’s position. Those who identify with the Tea Party are the most skeptical of compromise (Pew Research)

Systematically conditioned by media to avoid anything that [they] couldn’t understand in a minute, these multitudes have learned to think of their indifference and ignorance as sturdy commonsense. They have internalized the flattery heaped upon them by generations of political shysters, serving various agendas all of which have this in common: they rely on the nation’s civic laziness. The vaunted “wisdom of the American people”… is the more to be cherished for being there by definition, effortlessly acquired, no tedious study, no demanding ethical reflection required, yet another convenience in a convenient world – Thomas De Zengotita – Mediated: How the media shapes the world and the way you live in it, 2006 p170

The whole mother bug
Sprung from the mud


The entire left femur
Was burning with fever


The brightest enamel paint
Of underhanded complaints


Tacky to the touch
No longer feeling it within reach


Sheer speed and lives on the line. That’s the recipe for feeling good – Thomas De Zengotita – Mediated: How the media shapes the world and the way you live in it, 2006 p192

Women’s Representation in national government: (%):


Country        lower chamber upper chamber    cabinet
Germany           33                            60
Rwanda            56             35
Spain             37                            53
Bolivia           25             39             50
Argentina         39             47
Denmark           23             47
Cuba              41
Netherlands       41
Norway            40                            50
Costa Rica        39
Mozambique        39
Angola            38
Switzerland       29
United Kingdom    22
United States     19             17

The growth of ‘realism’ has been the great feature of the intellectual history of our own age – George Orwell – Dickens, Dali and Others, 1946 p219

I reach into my pocket
      To check my mobile phone
      For the current time
But remembered it is at
      Home being recharged
      Which I should have done
            Overnight
There’s a clock on the wall
But I can’t see it from here
       But I’ll take a look
       When I get up to go pee
             Which I must do soon
And besides I say to myself why do
       I care as to what time it is
But I must because I’m
      Making such a fuss
I do and I did and its
      Three minutes pass eleven
      On Monday morning

I was NEVER so upset / as when last I met // another idiot walking by / with much the same preoccupations as I – Robert Creeley – The Collected Poems, 1945-1975, 1982 p470