Beyond Walden Pond

These are mean little bees. There are too many of these mean little buggers getting way to close to me. I wave my hand to chase them away. But that makes it more likely that one of them will go off. They are buzzing my ear. No don’t sting me there. That would be mighty sore. I ‘m careful about how I wave my hands about. A slow calculated choreographed motion. Nothing too quick and sudden.

Floodlight will reveal / piers built of reinforce concrete and steel, / and hover crafts whose beelike buzz resounds / where Charon used to ply his wooden oar – Wislawa Szymborska – Poem s New and Collected, 1957-1997, 1998 p121

A woman is five times as likely to find a proud man attractive, as she is a happy man. Men are five times as likely to find a happy woman attractive as they are to find a proud woman attractive

Man arbitrarily placed in the world, makes an arbitrary choice allowing him to survive in it, before being arbitrarily removed from it – Beth Archer – The Voice of Things, Introduction, 1972 p11

Get on your feet

Pure at heart

With healthy lungs

All thumbs

Stab me in the back

I take it on the chin

Break a leg, I say to him

He gives me the evil eye

All employees must wash

            Their hands

Clean out their mouths

            With soap

Rid their minds of any sense

Recycle when possible

Let these be all our

            Responsibilities

Evil chemistry and evil biology are all matters of great concern – John Ashcroft, 2004

Each age carries its own destruction through the perfection of its own principles – what had been abstract when ideal when made concrete is longer so.

A mathematician is not a man who can readily manipulate figures; often he cannot – Vannevar Bush

I stopped in Cape Girardeau and did my laundry and got cash from an ATM. I bought three books. I am back in Missouri. The weather is in the mid-seventies. I buy some beer (Schlafly) and get some ice.

Once we allow ourselves to-be disobedient to the text of an accountant’s profit, we have begun to change our civilization – John Maynard Keanes

If being an idealist is wrong; being a realist is worse

The operative theory about America’s political situation holds that the middle possesses the wisdom, but our numbers (U.S. Citizenship test) show it’s actually the extremes that are engaged… while the middle is relatively ill-informed – Douglas E Schoen – Newsweek 3/28/11 p61

It’s a little bit after ten. We gathered firewood from the fire pits of vacant campsites. We drove to the overlook above the Champlain Valley. A lady was collecting butterflies. Trail Dog is more anxious regarding his competition than he is interested in the females. Audrey liked him more than he liked her. I’m warming up another cup of coffee. We is my dog and I.

The innocence of the liberal hawk is one of the few truly renewable resources America seems to have in abundance – Gary Younge – The Nation, 4/11/11 p10

This might be

            Walden Pond

Through the dappled

            Ash leaves

Over there, over

            There

Just beyond

Our line

Of sight

It is well known that smoothness is always an attribute of perfection because its opposite reveals a technical and typical human operation of assembling; Christ’s robe was seamless, just as the airships of science fiction are made of unbroken metal – Roland Barthes