Joe wanders over. Joe wanders around a lot. Joe needs an
axe. He
wants to attack a stump. Now he wants a sledge hammer and a wedge.
They’re in the shed. My brother goes in for surgery tomorrow at six AM. I have
an appointment with orthopedics myself at the same time but at the VA (I had a
total knee replacement and this is the six month assessment). I’ll drop off him off then head on over to the VA. I
should make it back before he comes out of the operating room (and I made it back in time. He (Joe) tells me not
to rush. Good luck Dave. Don’t chop off a leg, (Joe). Hw starts in on his poison
oak story again. Joe repeats and repeats (I've heard about the 2002 tornado at least six time in the month I've lived here). Finally you have to say, I hear the
dog barking. Excuse me, I have to check on him. His name is Tail Dog. He weights
all of ten pounds. All the girls think he's so cute. He a real chick magnet.
What’s his name? Tail Dog – and if I say it real slow and distinct, they
don’t make any comment or look at me like I'm kind of weird. Picking a proper pet name is very important. Some think that it borders on cruelty to give a dog an improper name. I always tell them that they can call him 'Mr Dog' if they wish. The little kids giggle. They get it. Children don't know what's weird and what's not.
Broadly speaking [conservation’s] implications of saving and protecting what we own that is of
genuine worth, whether of wealth, of health, or of happiness, is inclusive
enough to take in all the functions of government – Franklin D Roosevelt
Just as fast as the truth can spread, untruth spreads faster
Prairie States
Coal trains throb horizon
To
horizon
Big Muddy flows bank to bank
Thunderheads broil
A light show tonight
Wall to wall
Heat Lightning
Experience has taught us that
material wants know no natural bounds, that they will expand without end unless
we consciously restrain them. Capitalism rests precisely on this endless
expansion of wants. That is why, for all its success, it remains so unloved. It
has given us wealth beyond measure, but has taken away the chief benefit of
wealth: the consciousness of having enough – Robert Skidelsky – How Much is
Enough?, 2012
He hurt his shoulder helping me move. My landlady had
her agent tell me three weeks befroe the end of my lease that she would not be
renewing it. That she intended to move in her self. You can’t fight that. Even
in San Francisco you couldn’t fight that. He tore all the tendons in his right
shoulder. Worse damage I’ve seen this year said the surgeon. Keeping him
immobolized is going to be the problem. He’s not one to sit still. We’re
getting too old for this I said. I ain't every going to move my self ever again. Him and myself both are too old for this shit.
A third of all US home sales are all cash deals and a fifth
of those deals are conducted by Mandrian speakers. Overall, Chinese buyers
spent $22 billion on U.S. housing in the 12 months through March 2014 buying
mostly high-end, expensive homes with a median price of over $500,000
The aim of science is not to open
the door to infinite wisdom, but to set a limit to infinite error - Bertrolt
Brecht – Life of Galileo, 1947
The average college-educated head of household under 40 owes
$404 a month in student debt payments
I got a watermelon windsock and a propane BBQ grill. The
weather is getting hot. The sky is getting blue. Tomatoes are setting and the
peppers are turning red. Everyone gathers under my awning during a rain. Or at
least those who appreciate prairie thunder and rain on a hot tin roof do. We
sit around and rock. Even Dave is
learning to slow down.
That which is cannot be true –
Herbert Marcuse
35% of student debt belongs to Americans over 40 years old
up from 25% in 2004.
Longer repayment schedules, more midcareer workers returning to school
and additional borrowing for children's education.
The more people there are, the less
one person matters – Isaac Asimov
Warm purple space - room in which one is willing to
compromise
No one who starts economics at the
age of 40 ever is [a real economist]. There is too much other stuff in one’s
head. Economists have to start innocent of all distracting ideas. – Robert
Skidelsky – How Much is Enough?, 2012
Antibiotic effectiveness is expected to fall 30% over the
next seven years primarily caused by misuse in the medical industry. Already nearly
23,000 people die annually in the United States and nearly 2 million become
sick because of improper antibiotic use
Once it had been discovered that
labour was the source of wealth, it was the task of reason to mine, drain and
exploit that source more efficiently than ever before – Zygmet Bauman – Liquid Modernity, 2000 p142
Only 20% of scientists that cite an article may have
actually read that article
Oh yes, I’ve come off the road. Even I am learning to take
it easy. I though I had settled in. I was getting comfortable. Then I was told
I had three weeks to get my butt up and out. I looked for a house but it as a
buyers market. You would go out and look at a place and by the time you got
there, there was already and offer on it.
[He] was one of that uncomfortable
class of men whose birth is lowly and who are destined all their lives to serve
their betters, but whose clever brains and quick abilities make them wish for
recognition and rewards beyond their reach…. Often the thought of what might
have been turns them sour; they become unwilling servants and perform their
tasks no better – or worse – than their less able fellows. They become
insolent, lose their place and end badly – Susanna Clark – Jonathan Strange and
Mr Morrell, 2004 p33
A voyeur is someone who peeks in thourgh others’ windows to watch
them watching TV
What can be seen in broad daylight
is always less interesting than what happens behind a window – Baudelaire –
Paris Spleen
At least six Americans have been shot by their dog in the
last five years. A third of these incidents happened in Florida. The actual
number of such incidents is probably much higher as only incidents reported in
newspapers have been taken into account. Maybe Floridians just like to read dog
stories.
The slow miniaturization of our
terrestrial habitat’s proportions, through the constant acceleration of all
paths, is an insidious form of the desertification of the world – Paul Virillio
– City of Panic, 2005 p113
69% of the of patients using anti-depressants do not
actually meet the criteria for depressive disorder
Modernity knows of no other life but
‘made’; the life of modern men and women is a task, not a given, and a task as
yet uncompleted and relentlessly calling for more care and new effort – Zygmet
Bauman – Liquid Modernity, 2000 p134
Only 10 percent of American children spend time outside on a
daily basis
You get better and better at doing less and less until eventually
you become ‘excellent’ at doing nothing.
There is something more important
than getting it right: not knowing exactly what getting it right is – James P Carse – Breakfast at the Victory, 2004 p185
