Carols Twenty-Four Seven - Strike Your Tent, Go Out and Buy

Country fried skillet, eggs sunny side up with coffee. More than I needed. It was the holidays and this was my fourth day in a row of heavy eating. I did not really need this, but it was becoming addictive. Someone swiped by overcoat and its cold. “Don’t you have a coat, Honey?” she asked. “I do, but I misplaced it”, I replied. Traildog’s leash snapped. The floor creaked under my feet. An airplane fell out of the sky. They crucified Christ.

Any felt sense of a larger world – is mainly televisual – David Foster Wallace – Consider the Lobster, 2004  p134

Only 50% of Americans between the ages of 18 and 24 have read a book in the last year that was not required for either school or work

Everything undertaken for its own sake is worthwhile – Geoff Dyer – Otherwise Known as the Human Condition, 2011   p53

The supporters of Occupy Wall Street (25%) out number the opponents (16%), but most Americans are indifferent (59%).

Truly decent, innocent people can be taxing to be around – David Foster Wallace – Consider the Lobster, 2004  p140

It’s a very bourgeoisie world
Where people don’t share

            It’s not that they won’t give

            It’s that no one should take

That’s in the rules, one must earn

            One’s own way

            Earn your way or else

Pay your own dues

It’s in the rules

            And it’s their rules

It’s a very bourgeoisie world

Those who lack things are defined most conspicuously by what they own – Geoff Dyer – Otherwise Known as the Human Condition, 2011 p61

Money sets history in motion

There is a difference between a great leader and a great salesman. There are also similarities of course – David Foster Wallace – Consider the Lobster, 2004  p226

Slavery was the recruitment of a new stock of peasants. That slavery in modern times has been linked to racial attitudes was merely a matter of convenience.

While Marxists cast the fight between society’s elites and its toiling masses as an eternal, defining aspect of capitalism, populists do not. True to the evangelical spirit, they regard even the worst abuses as a function of a particular ‘kind’ of predatory capitalist (and his political enablers) whose perverting effect upon the economy can be purged through spiritually infused collective action – Jonathan Kay – Among the Truthers: a journey through America’s growing conspiracist underground, 2011 p142

When questioned, I defer to my other occupation – a botanist, a whore-monger, a politician – anything buy the indefensible claim to be a poet. “What have you published? Maybe I’ve hear of you.” “I doubt it”, I would have said. They will be disappointed. It'll be better to tell them that you install seamless vinyl siding instead. Charlie Harper penned jingles, didn't he? That was a career and not just a job. He was in advertising. Don’t waste your gift. After they have asked if I can make money at it, they will ask me “How long have you been doing it?” What do you do, by the way? Bye and bye you must get by and you must buy.

The serial number of a human specimen is their face, that accidental and unrepeatable commination of features. It reflects neither the character nor the soul, nor what we call the self. The face is only the serial number of a specimen – Milan Kundera – Immortality

“Man Ray!" David asked, pointing to the cover of the book that I am reading?  "I think so", I reply, as I look for the photo attribution on the back cover, “Yes Kiki, 1926. You got a good eye.” And he had only seen it depicted upside down standing on the other side of the bar.

In any case, the big deal, as they saw it, wasn’t what I’d said, but simply that I’d be ‘on TV’ – an accomplishment in its own right – Jonathan Kay – Among the Truthers: a journey through America’s growing conspiracist underground, 2011 p249

I dreamt last night about of an indoor golf academy where all of the instructors were required to have their doctorates in golf. Yesterday Neil was commenting on an article in the paper about the number of fake degrees claimed by employees of the Department of Defense. There are a lot of administrators in the public schools with Doctorate’s of Theology from Bible Colleges.

Human brains seem programmed to see design and intention behind the world around them – Jonathan Kay – Among the Truthers: a journey through America’s growing conspiracist underground, 2011 p26

82% of public schools would fail if the standards set by "No Child Left Behind" were strictly enforced

In America, at some point life inevitably retreats indoors, becomes hidden – Geoff Dyer – Otherwise Known as the Human Condition, 2011  p62

50% of all schools have lowered their proficiency standards since 2005 in order to inflate their test scores

When caught, fess up immediately, declare right from the start that you are the victim of a terrible addiction… You are rarely challenged these days when you take a loss of virtue and turn it into a medical condition – E J Dionne Jr – Truthdig 6/9/11

The best lines are

            Composed while drinking wine

But even if written on the spot

            Are illegible the next morning

And all that remains is the

            Tag line and it refuses

            To divulge its allure

It was all so beautiful and

            Clear last night

            To a muddled mind

For the truth is that life on the face of it is a chaos in which one finds oneself lost. The individual suspects as much, but is terrified to encounter this frightening reality face to face and so attempts to conceal it by drawing a curtain of fantasy over its, behind which he can make believe that everything is clear – Jose Ortega y Gasset