More rain – pling, pling, pling. The bison roamed through
camp early this morning. I had to wait on one to vacate my campsite after
taking the dog for his morning walk. The little dog would have barked and
jumped up and down on his leash. The bull would have turned and snorted. The
contest would have been brief. Bison have a musky smell. Big mammals are
returning. Mountain sheep and elk have been re-introduced. Moose have returned
on their own. I encountered two prairie rattlesnake yesterday and a bull snake
today. The bull snakes eat the rattlesnakes. Prairie rattlesnakes never get
very big.
What happens when the plains begin is that all of a sudden
there are not trees. ‘No trees!’ People
started wearing big hats not simply because the brims were shady and wouldn’t
catch on the branches, but to help break up the landscape – Edward Hoagland –
Hoagland on Nature, 2003 p98
“Writing a book?” They always ask. I am trying to become a
writer, yes, but I don’t see that that means a book. “What have you published?”
They’re hoping that they’ve heard of me. That I might be a celebrity. I’m not.
They’re disappointed. Would it hurt anyone, if you claimed to be some
moderately obscure writer. You shouldn’t claim to be Hemingway or Fitzgerald.
They might know that they’d dead, although with my beard I do look a little
like Hemingway. A poet would be a safe bet. Not many know anything about Hart
Crane. Yes I wrote a well known poem called The Bridge. Ever heard of it? But
then they might Wiki him (and yes he’s dead too) and then they will be doubly
disappointed: one (and most importantly) that you weren’t someone famous and
two that you lied to them. Oh well, stick to someone contemporary and obscure.
But then you wouldn’t be famous and they wouldn’t recognize your name and they
wouldn’t get a thrill. Always trying to please ‘em, aren’t we? But they do feel
better if you’re published and not just some bum (it’s one or the other).
Nothing is worthwhile for which you don’t get paid, even if it ain’t much.
Anyway, it does make it easier for them
to walk up and start talking to you. “What you doing?”. Now you wouldn’t say
that to someone just sitting there minding they’re own business. Although you
might, if you mistook them for someone famous walk up and say, “By any chance
are you Ben Kingsley?” I’ve had that happen. A man is talking with a young
woman in yellow shorts. He is talking about investments. He had been talking
about medical diagnostics earlier. Now they (actually its just him who is
talking) are onto the old standby, sports. It could be worse. It could be the
weather.
And it takes three kicks
At the horse chestnut
To get it
to move
Meanwhile a flock of white pigeons
Have wheeled around the lamppost
Three times
Turning counterclockwise in the
Darkening
sky
Prairie chicken could be caught by hand when they got drunk
on fermented chinaberries; so could the geese when their wings froze together
when the rain blew cold – Edward Hoagland – Hoagland on Nature, 2003 p103
“Oh, you went to Penn State,” she asks him. It is the lady
in yellow shorts. Her name is Jenny and she is from Philly. He had been in
earlier and had spotted her then. He had left to watch the Carnival parade. Now
that he was back he immediately zeroed in on her. They are discussing summer
festivals. They both live around here. They discuss their regular pub, about
the pool tables, about the good people there and about the wine bar around the
corner. It turns out that they share a common hang out, just that they hadn’t
ever ran into each other there. What a coincidence! I am about to head home to
watch the Simpsons. She says that the times go by fast because it is the seasons
that define time. And there are no seasons here. And she asked if she could
borrow my pen which I lent to her. And she wrote down his number. Ah baby, I’m
on the edge of distraction. All I want is your disease. An older women walks
by. I think I know her. She is meeting a friend. “We change the world by making
more commodities available,” she argues but not in those exact words. Her
friend says, “No you need to change your paradigm. It is not getting more. It
is not what you hear, but what you think that is important.” For her the world is
bi-polar – truth or ignorance; choice or non-choice; democratic or republican.
“No, no, no”, he tells her “It’s the rules of war – you don’t show your own
dead – it’s not a lack of exposure! It’s the rules of the system.” “No,” she
insists, “It’s either control or lack of control.” I think I’m missing
something. Oh, well that’s what you get when you ease drop. That is Alphonso
behind the bar. To Alphonso, everyone is “my friend.” ”How are you, my friend?”
“Good afternoon, my friend.” “How are you doing today, Alphonso?” “Great my
friend. Have a seat my friend.”
Vandals understand affordness in their environment. Flat
porous smooth surfaces are for writing on. Glass shatters giving an emotional
kick. Knobs are for turning. Children understand this instinctively. Adults
have had to unlearn this in order to become good consumers. That is what
schools are for. The unteachers will unlearn ya’ in de school.
When you mix the Left and the Right you don’t get the “Middle of the Road” but the individual
We assume that every time we do anything we know what the
consequences will be, i.e., more or less what we intend them to be. This is not
only not always correct, it is wildly, crazily, stupidly cross-eyed-blithering-insectly
wrong - Douglas Adams – The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
Philo Vance’s Hot Day
What?
Simple,
what!
He glanced at the clock
What?
Y’know old bean, the
Situation
has been
Most
provokin’
Y’know I’ve some
Most
int’restin’
Ideas and he stood up
And yawned
It’s a beastly hot day, but
It must be
done –eh,
What?
The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace
alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an
endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary – H L Mencken
In tragedy the hero loses due to his weaknesses; in a comedy
he wins by overcoming his weaknesses
When simple things need pictures, labels, or instructions,
the design has failed – Donald Norman – The Design of Everyday Things, 1988 p9
A puffy Navajo sky
Men descending
Calmly
under
Black
umbrellas
With
machine pistols
It was both un-Flemish
And it was
un-Popish
A singularity
One time,
one
Place, one
man
And
a canal
We encounter about 30,000 discernible objects in everyday
life
Borrowing is only a good option when it is largely
unnecessary – Mark Thornton – Tariffs, Blockades, and Inflation: The Economics
of the Civil War, 2004 p67
Freedom is having a choice about who will be obeyed
FM From Rosebud
On the Reservation
It’s Saturday night
Go bowlin’
Drink a few beers
Don’t get too hostile
Stay alive
Call suicide prevention
Pack the
pews
The morning after
Drive cross country
Tallgrass
Pow-wow in Montana
It’s a
living
Barely getting by
Imaginary
grace
Big Medicine
About 2 billion pounds of chicken litter (manure, feathers,
spilled feed and bedding materials) are fed to cattle in the US each year.
Among other things spilled feed contains meat and bone meal from dead cattle. I
spite the fact that feeding cows other dead cows can lead to ‘mad cow disease’ and assurances to the
contrary it’s still being done. All official claims, assertions and testimonials
come with small print that negate their factuality.
Aw, tight assed woman
On the blue wheeled bicycle
Hair streaming
High flying legs
Sun freckeled nose
Passing me by
When adjusting the air-conditioner, do you turn in ‘up’ or
‘down’ to make it cooler? Towards you is on. Away from you is off. Up is on.
Down is off. As is clockwise and counterclockwise. Or it may mean hotter or
colder, or louder or softer for that
matter. Or turn it right or left, except for a sailboat or when backing up (
and why not ‘down’?) a trailer. In is on. Out is off. But dials are apparently
relics. Once everything had push-buttons. I hate machines that I have to talk
to. A President with Tourette’s might accidentally blow up the world. Touch was a
necessity for mechanical contraptions. You had a feel for how they worked. Now
they want to know what you want, so goddamn arrogant. I hate machines, no I
mean I hate devices. One knob, one meter, one bite of knowledge. Just keep it
out of the red.
