Moll Flanders and I Order Pizza to Go

Walter said that while lying in bed last night he had pondered a meteor crashing through his ceiling and while he was pondering this possibility a mixed metaphor came to his mind – “Don’t cry over the spelt milk of human kindness” and he said that he couldn’t figure out what it meant and that this was bedeviling him – it had become an obsession – a mental nematode. He had been unable to get back to sleep. I told him that it meant that he should not bemoan a lack of opportunities for gratuitous sex. In some cases you should look a gift horse in the mouth, I said. Ok, he replied, but how does the meteor figure into it? It doesn’t, I told him. As Freud supposedly said "sometimes a cigar is just a cigar."

Lets go back to my place and bad mouth Bush – It used to be a great pick up line. But it doesn’t seem to work with Obama.

45% of all unemployed workers in the U.S. have been jobless for more than six months – a higher rate that that during the Great Depression

Laughter on American television has taken the place of the chorus in Greek tragedy. It is unrelenting … so  obsessive is it that you go on hearing it behind the voice of Reagan or the Marines’ disaster in Beirut. Even behind the adverts. It is the screen that is laughing and having a good time, You are simply left alone with your consternation – Jean Baudrillard – America, 1988  p49

In the competition for the benefits

            Of cooperative action

It is usually those who refuse

            To cooperate that benefit

Things last no longer than the time it takes for them to happen… I doubt now whether we really see our whole life flashing before us at the moment of death; that marvelous perspective presupposes that things unfold in a necessary, predestined order, the sense of which lies beyond them. There is nothing like that today; things merely follow in a flabby order that leads nowhere – Jean Baudrillard – America, 1988  p72

It’s a yearning a little too much for the ladies. Slinky low cut dresses and a best ass competition - erotic and exciting - with guitar solos - um um thum um um thum um um over and over in a hypnotic round and the drum goes ginka, chinka, chinka, chink and the guitar overrides the beat with another um uma thu - um, uma un thu um over and over and conversations get louder and louder swelling into a cacophony. Oh Erica you are missed and you fell and cracked you rib. No I didn’t push you my little vervet. A chorus joins us, harmonizing  – voices and guitar. Erica I am so sorry.

The under thrust of the breast is to beat a rhythm of distillation, mild and erotic but slightly restrained. James Jones’s little bird held in the big hand of the Burt Lanchaster. His Captain’s lady (Deborah Kerr) embraced on that nocturnal beach while America's innocence remained intact.  The soft hearted Sergeant; mean and sadistic. An Hawaiian sunset with Frank Sinatra going to his oblivion - on and on - Pearl Harbor of the heart - destruction and re-creation - erotic and devastating - innocent adultery - boom da boom da, uh uh boom da - the juke box plays on. Is this the Stones? Unda Unda Unda; oh yeah. Umba, Umba. It’s not, but it could have been.

Moll Flanders eats erotic pizza with Albert Finney - oh you, dum da dumph da, bang bang - munch, munch, slirp, slurm - and the boys sing on, but I don’t understand a word and it bleeds into another tune without ever pausing, pulsating, pulsating without a cigarette break, nerves on edge - dumdum dump, uh-ouch - dumb due boom plunk. Take five boys. Let me rest - um, um, um and still no face off - bung ad bung ad undo, blink bluing and a female chorus. Damn it I want a cigarette. And we check Ids. One Guinness Stout and the aroma of desire and in slinky black too. Bunga Bunga Bung - oh, ooh, ooh! Damn it, when do I get to stop and have a cigerette. I am sore and I am tired and I not do this any more, but I do. Blink, blinka boomda, plinka plinka doomda. On and on and on. Shall there every be a rest? So slumber? No oblivion? No. No. No. Mixed media. Mixed metaphor. Mixed up.

About 10% of all Americans over age of six now take antidepressant drugs. Antipsychotics are the top selling drug class in the U.S. Many subscribed off-label.

The obsessive desire for survival (and not for ‘life’) is… the most worrying sign of the degradation of the species – Jean Baudrillard – America, 1988  p43

Progressives want to restore. Radicals want to raze and rebuild

All you need to know about American society can be gleaned from an anthropology of its driving behavior – Jean Baudrillard – America, 1988  p54

75% of the Fortune 50 Companies are in healthcare or have health divisions. Healthcare is expected by the year 2019  to account for 20% of the U.S. GNP. Successful healthcare companies focus on the dysfunctional or redundant parts of the system.

In this world now dominated by economic thought, we have discovered that comfort and security are not solutions to the human condition – Wes Jackson – Becoming Native to This Place, 1994 p105

Main Street Merchants in the Global Village Talk about Conspiracies

Light April showers - déjà vu all over again - the lightening, the contrasting paces of both the vehicles and the pedestrians, the swish-wish of the wipers - the swiss-swass of tires on the wet asphalt. But it is only when it drizzles - a Seattle drizzle. This does not occur during a hard driving rain nor in ominous thunderstorms. It  does not happen when ozone rents the air nor while tornadic winds blow down trees. It has to be subtle. Drama destroys the ambiance. Something subtle and quite that tries to lull you asleep. So it has been all day.  Today was almost an umbrella day buy not quite

Only two Oxbridge graduates were killed in all of the French and Napoleonic wars from 1793 to 1815

History is an endlessly interesting argument where evidence is everything and storytelling is everything else – Jill Lapore – The Whites of Their Eyes, 2010  p47

A convict stands a better chance of being granted parole if his case comes up right after the judge has had breakfast (70%) than if it comes up right before lunch (25%)

Our institutions were built on a former reality and don’t do well in the modern context – Wes Jackson – Becoming Native to This Place, 1994 p16

Main Street Merchant meetings

            Talk about the Fourth

                      The parade

           Not about the flood

                     This time

The water is suppose to continue

            Rising

If someone from the media

            Has an inquiry

            Refer them to me

She seems to be their spokeswoman

            Very officious and gadding about

The other one is busy coordinating

            Things

She has the latest news bulletin

            From the Corps. She has a

            Cellphone to her ear

Am I late for the meeting; Am I Late?

            Has it already begun?

The are five people in the middle

            Of the street conferring

Small town politics can happen

            Anywhere. Business on

A hot July day while wearing

            A tee-shirt and shorts
You don't have to go very far

The global village that television was supposed to bring is less a village than a playground – Wes Jackson – Becoming Native to This Place, 1994 p88

NPR received all of $2.7 million of Federal money in 2010. Jerry Falwell’s Liberty University received $446 million during the same period

Laughter on American television has taken the place of the chorus in Greek tragedy. It is unrelenting – Jean Baudrillard – America, 1988  p49

British women consider themselves old at 30 years of age, while British men do not think they are old until they are at least 58

Here were two grown men discussing “beauty” seriously and with dignity as if they and the topic were as normal as normal topics of discussion between men such as soybean prices – B H Fairchild – The Art of the Lath, 1998 p11

The incidence of Americans disabled by mental disorders -  significant enough to qualify for SSI or SSDI - increased five fold during the last 20 years. The increased incidence rate for children was over five times greater. Mental illness in now the leading disability for children in the U.S. An NIMH survey reported that 46% of the respondents met established criteria for having a mental illness.

It will be an awful thing if we quit being human before we become extinct – Wendell Berry

Money creates a network of self-interest. There is no need to resort to a conspiracy theory.

When you go to confession and entrust your sins to the safekeeping of the priest, do you ever come back for them? An yet the atmosphere in a bank is that of the confessional – Jean Baudrillard – America, 1988  p81

A conspiracy

            So huge as to transcend

            All of humanity

Every life form conspires

Every creature conceives

The biomass teems

Spiritual omnivores on

            The edge of extinction

We are different but not

            That different

It seems to be a characteristic of life that no matter what level of organization, the juvenile stage is characterized by an excess of potential energy and an inefficiency in the use of energy… But we have seldom considered a corollary – that an excess of potential energy can generate a juvenile condition – Wes Jackson – Becoming Native to This Place, 1994 p87

We're Safe for the Time Being. We Didn't Get Wet This Time Around

The water recedes. Again it rains. The water comes back up again, slightly higher than last week’s crest. It was all those levey breaks upstream, someone says. They saved us this time. I think we’re save now. There will be high water for anohter month but I don’t think there will be a repeat of ’93. It all adds up. But what does it add up too? Some people say it’s global warming. Other are saying it is simply climate change. There is a big fight about the terminology. Ideological battles are fought by shooting terminology at each other. Big guns shot big words. Sticks and stones may break my bones but names make the sea level change.

Do you have an amber? Amber is a color, the bartender replies. Other pubs have an amber, the man on the other side insists. Well it is a color and not a type of beer. You’re just being a hard case, he tells the bartender. No, amber is a color. What are you looking for in a beer? Something malty. Something like an ESB? That would be our Pony Express ale. We don’t currently have it available. Here try this. Have I had it already? No. Is it an Albatross? No. It’s our Emperor Norton. Ok, diffidently a lager. I am not real fond of lagers but will probably go for this one.

She wiggles her vibrating thigh like a frightened bird up against my thigh. We talk without any eye contact sitting at the bar facing a long mirror in which we watch each other. She is willing but not yet ready to give in. I am fascinated but unable to make my move. She brings up a reference to her boyfriend in an attempt to disengage and then she yields to her girlfriend’s desire to get something to eat. They leave after soliciting my recommendation on where to go. Another failed seduction. I give her friend a kiss on the cheek before they leave. The one with the quivering thigh glared at me with rejection and leaves with her. Paul is boasting of how he could have shown them both a good time. It was a fantasy, but nevertheless it is titillating. I am stimulated and anxiously watch the door for additional opportunities. A ménage a trois is a nice fantasy, but getting one to agree is hard enough. A man needs something to bargain with. You gotta have something obvious. Good girls like bad boys. Bad girls like bad boys too.

The neon lights were blinking around the sign at the Japanese restaurant next door. It reminds me of Paris. I have never been to Paris. But the trees and parked cars breaking up and reflecting the lights in this light rain is how I imagine Paris might be.

What if they paid you

            To watch TV

We could wipe out

            Unemployment

            With a single stroke

                        Of a pen

With everyone working

            Except when the lawn

                        Need mowing

            Or the car needed

                        To be driven

With the money thereby

            Earned  you could afford

            The utility bill and perhaps a

            Premium channel 

                        Subscription

With money left over there would be AC

            To make it all bearable

            Why with prudent savings

                        Even a big screen

                        Might be a possibility

For everyone. Wow! What that would do

            For our economy

Why when I last visited NYC

            I didn’t even think of looking

            Over the barriers and into the gapping hole

                        That was once the WTC

Because I hadn’t watched enough TV

            Since then there has been a debate

                        Sort of

            About preventing a mosque being built

                        Too near this sacred site

            And what exactly does too near mean

No it was not really a mosque someone else

            Claimed but a Muslim culture center

Well a prison is a type of culture center

            Isn’t it and would you want one

                        Near you. And there are
            More and more muslims in our prisons
            And more and more of all minorities
                         Whites are rapidly becoming
                         A minority too

But that has nothing to do with TV
                         Or does it

When I get back home I’ll watch it again

            On TV and see if I too can spot the

            Missiles being launched from

                        Beneath the airplanes

I’ve seen it all before

            On my TV

            In my house

With the AC on

            Full blast

One of the neighbor is out

            Mowing his lawn
Another is driving his car

Only in an age of speed could we stop time. Only in an age of speed would we want to – James Gleick – Faster, 1999  p63

A fourth of all U.S. computer hackers are reputed to be informers for the federal government

When the two toughs materialized behind him out of the fog that autumn evening he knew at once they were from that other world, the world that up to now he had only read about in the papers – John Banville – Christine Falls, 2006  p159

When the local NFL team unexpectedly loses a game the incidence rate of domestic violence increase by 10% but if the loss is to a traditional rival the rate will increase by 20%

Still beneath the frontal lobe of the stem of consciousness, is the reptilian speechless game. Man is amphibian to oblivion – Roland Johnson – ARK, 1996 BEAM 12

You will get out of debt

            In another dream

If you can’t get what

            You want go back

            To sleep

We work for our amusement – James Gleick – Faster, 1999  p10