God and His Little Dog Gog

They hate each other one of them said. There is a lot of hostilities. She wants to go back to the hotel. He was to cruise all the bars where the beat poets had hung out. The Vesuvius next door. I once had a conversation with Ferlinghetti there. His book store is next door. One of two in the city named for Charlie Chaplin movies. Does he know anything about the beat generation, I asked? Not really. He’s trying to find someone to as about where Ginsburg read Howl. It not anywhere near hear. It’s over in Cow Hollow. It’s a hardware store. In Ginsburg’s time it had been and old garage. She don’t give a damn. Her feet are aching. Here ankles are swollen. She’s got thick thighs. Three kids back in Milwaukee – two girls and a boy. He’s a dentist. Hates his chosen career. That’s what happens when you chose money over anything else. Probably dreamed of being a doctor and couldn’t get admittance. He asks Paddy about Howl. Paddy don’t know. He’s a diving instructor when not tending bar, not a poet. There aren’t any poets here anymore, just yellowing photos on the walls of glassy eyed young men and a lot of tourist who want to soak up the smell of history. They’re celebrities now but then they were just dirty beatniks. Well not really celebrities, not like Puff Daddy or Madonna. Didn’t get their fifteen minutes of fame from a million hits on their U-Tube video. Paddy points towards me. He says, ask they guy. He a trivia nut. Knows everything there is to know that no importance. They Little People disappear as the guy approaches my table. Well, they don’t really disappear. As far as this guy is concerned there were never there. They are never conspicuous. They come and go. But are only there when their presence is relevant. But when evidently present they are never conspicuous. Like when the barmaid delivers their flights of beer. You want to know about Ginsburg, I say before he has a chance to say anything. Yeah, he says, how did you know? I have a sense about that kind of thing. I’m a two-headed doctor, you know. You mean a shrink, he said? No, unlike you, I don’t have a degree. I don’t have a license. Sort of a conjure man. Some would say a witch doctor. One of the little people whispered, your carrying this too far. He thinks your’re full of shit. But he is fascinated buy your story.

Who decided what

            A people want to see

It wasn’t the people

            I know I’m one

And no one asked me

What a people want

            Is irrelevant

            To the elected politician

In spite of what they say

            Every dollar is better

                        Than a vote

Someone (or something) must have decided

Corporations are people too

            Let’s not forget

            It’s not just a body

But we’re the people

            Are we not

And we’re quite willing

            To go along

            With the program

And what is the program

                        I asked

And just who did you ask

                        This of

Anyone who would listen

And did anyone listen

                        No

I was told to mind

            My own business

This is my business

                        I said

Do you make money at it

                        I was asked

No, I said. And they said

            Then it’s not your

                        Business

Let those whose business

            This business is

            Get on with their

                        Business

The business of business

            Is business

And it’s none of yours

Then whose business

            Is it, I ask

Not yours, I’m told

            Infatiqualy

Even before the Revolution, America was a very iniquitous society with the top 20% controlling 95% of the wealth and 60% of the population with no wealth at all. In 1774 only 23.2% of the white population had any form of wealth.

Water thinner than blood or under bridges; bridges // Crossed in the future or burnt in the past – Robert Pinsky – The Figured Wheel, 1996 p273

Most countries educate their populace either by investing equally into every student or disproportionately more into disadvantaged students. The US does the opposite – invests more into the advantaged student than the disadvantaged student

Simple ain’t easy – Thelonious Monk

We abstract

            Always abstracting

Until nothing’s left

Abstractions

            In concrete vaults

            Skeletons

Abstractions

            Of abstractions

With fading headstones

            Inscriptions

Barely if at all legible

In a world of rich and poor, the only choice before you is whether or not you intend to purchase a place among the haves – Thomas Frank

Cigarette dangling

            Aiming his Day-Glo Frisbee

To the sound of country rock

Clink – it hits the chains

Thunk. God Damn!

            Another tree

In his best white ribbed

            Undershirt and baggy drawers

He’ll put down the six pack

            To take better aim next time

Good luck, Joe

Thunk. God Damn it!

            Better put down your beer, Joe

I have never seen misery exceeding what I have witnessed in the American cottage where disease has entered – Frances Trollope – Domestic Manners in America, 1832

By the 1830s two-thirds of industrial works in northeast US were women. In the cotton textile mills 80% of the workers were women and children. 40% of the children were under ten years of age.

Anything worth doing is worth doing in excess

The only way we know that we don’t know something is when we fail to find it out. The rules for what is knowable are ubiquitous and invisible. They are predetermined and inflexible.

Questions disperse power; answers concentrate power

A cigarette smoker today runs twice the risk of cancer as did a smoker fifty years ago.

Shopping is the number one vacation activity of Americans (Travel Industry Association of America)

The day when a day

            Was all day long

            And the night?

Will that could wait

Woe is he who does not dream and woe is he who only dreams

We came too late to a world too old – Arturo Perez-Reverte – The Nautical Chart, 2001 p41

Montgolfier balloons on the Fourth sailed upward as a hazy blur rather than with a sizzle. It was nothing spectacular, rather caught in the breeze and lifted up by the heat of a flare, drifting to the southeast to disappear behind a line of trees on the south side of the lake. They’re being released at several points along the west side. Fireworks other than snakes are never subtle and these are so gentle. Its impossible to class them with the multicolored starbursts. Symbols of a kinder gentler celebration.

Ships and men ought to disappear when their hour came, to sink to the bottom out in the open sea instead of being left high and dry to rot ashore - Arturo Perez-Reverte – The Nautical Chart, 2001 p43

An ubiquitous display of the flag is symbolic of the imaginary community

Fanaticism is the only way to put an end to the doubts that constantly trouble the human soul – Paul Coelho – The Zahir: a novel of obsession, 2008

There was a young man from Kansas

Who ran off and joined Hamas

The CIA took notice

And sent a Predator on a mission

To fly up his ass

If you ask me, it was the Communists… But if it wasn’t the Communists, mark my work, it was the Catholics – Agatha Christie – The Crooked House, 1949

The oldest know recipe for Ravioli comes from England (around 1300)

I am Sitting in a Room Filled with Marshmallows

One dollar buys 1,200 calories of potato chips and cookies and only 750 calories of whole foods such as carrots. It will purchase 850 calories of soda but only 170 calories of fruit juice from concentrate.

It is good to collect things, but it is better to go on walks – Anatole France

Almost a fifth of all American meals are consumed in an automobile.

MacDonald’s serves a kind of comfort food, but after a few bites I’m more inclined to think they’re selling something more schematic than that – something more like a signifier of comfort food. So you eat more and eat more quickly, hoping somehow to catch up to the original idea of a cheeseburger or French fry as it retreats over the horizon. And so it goes, bite after bite, until you feel not satisfied exactly, but simply, regrettably, full – Michael Pollen – The Omnivore’s Dilemma, 2007 p124

A one pound package of prewashed lettuce leaves contains about 80 calories of food but it took 4,600 calories to get it to your salad plate

I’m going on a bike ride

I can go anywhere, anywhere

            So long as the sun shines

Maybe I’ll see you, Baby

            I’ll see you somewhere

Going on a bike ride, bike ride

            In the sunshine, sunshine

Bicycle wheels go round and round

And the trees go bye and bye

Together we wander on

The Chief Justice of the Alabama Supreme Court declares that First Amendment rights only apply to Christians because “Buddha didn’t create us, Mohammad didn’t create us, it was the God of the Holy Scripture” that created us. Wait a minute, is he saying that the gods create their believers or in the case of Buddha and Mohammad each prophet.  Who created the aethiests – Karl Marx? Jesus must have created the Christians for otherwise Jews also would have First amendment rights. He got that one wrong.  God created the Jews and Jesus created the Christians. It’s all such a illogical mishmash and he is supposed to be a judge? God help the poor Alabamians. And what exactly is the connection between being created by the Biblical God and the Constitution? Is there something in the Constitution that saws that it does not apply to non-Christians and is it only the First Amendment to which this doctrine applies?

What a woman

            Leaves behind

            Is her scent

She selects her

                        Mate

Based on her

                        Nose

His nose only comes

            Into play

            Afterwards

            And it lasts

                        And lasts

The rest of his life

She’s indifferent

            He’s done his part

Sensual qualities are

            Irrelevant

                        Now

Only genetic compatibility

            Matters

           For her choice

But not for him

Now she can’t remember

            Anything about him

Other than his anger

He’s still shopping around

            Trying to match up

            Her scent

It’s all he has

Child birth related death has dropped by 3.1% in the developed world since 2003, but has increased 1.7% in the US during the same period. The US rate is more than triple that of the UK.

Everyday language is a forgotten and therefore used-up poem – Martin Heidegger, ‘Language’

The US with only 5% of the world’s population consumes 75% of the world’s prescription drugs

To simplify one’s life! It seems the most natural thing in the world to undertake, yet it’s just about the most difficult – Henry Miller – Big Sur and The Oranges of Hieronymus Bosch, 1957 p263

US golfers played the fewest number of rounds since 1995 last year, playing a total of 462 million. More golf courses have closed than opened for the last eight years. Last year 14 18-hole courses opened and 158 closed. Of the closures 97% were public courses.

Everything that comes about

            Is a fulfillment

Some prophesy foretold

All though many predict

            Few foretell

Hindsight is totally

            In the know

The good life is the holy life. (Wholly living, wholly dying). It is the kind of life in which you do your utmost everyday, not for art, not for country, not for family, not for yourself even, but because it’s the ‘only’ thing to do – Henry Miller – Big Sur and The Oranges of Hieronymus Bosch, 1957  p193

And so I said to the Little People we shall follow the next person who walks in that door. I saw a head nod. We are on. What one agrees to there all agree to. They don’t have to vote on it – they share thoughts, feelings and emotions (although I’m not sure that they have emotions). I don’t think they feel pain either. Dealing with the Little People is a lot like dealing with the government except that you aren’t put on hold and have to listen to crappy music for an unspecified period of time (usually stated as being 10-15 minutes but usually until you give up) to able to talk to a real person. The half a dozen options are useless. Maybe they might have been useful if you could have figured out what they were for. Either that or run the security gauntlet and have to site in butt aching chairs only to find out your’re at the wrong window. But I’ve gotten sidetracked. I do that a lot. Then Charlie walked in. He was one of the regulars. He slid onto a stroll at the bar. Harold got up and walked to the other end. Harold couldn’t stand Charlie. And I said to the Little People. No not Charlie, he’ll be in here crying in his beer until they kick him out. And he don’t have any thoughts that need interpretation. And when they kick him out he’ll just go back to his SRO and pass out. No we won’t follow Charlie. Then a man and woman walk in. Tourists types. They’ll do I said. Can you tell me anything about them, I asked the Little People?

Knowledge is a post card

            Which in itself is

                        Not knowledge

            But a mere commodity

Choose among them

            Turn the rack

                        Read it

            Does it say

What you want it

            To say?

                        No

            Choose another

And I base this

            On the ones

                        That

            I’ve received

Send me another one

The great hoax which we are perpetuating every day of our lives is that we are making life easier, more comfortable, more enjoyable, more profitable. We are doing just the contrary. We are making life stale, flat, and unprofitable every day in every way. One ugly word covers it all: waste. Our thoughts, our energies, our very life are being used up to create what is unwise, unnecessary, unhealthy – Henry Miller – Big Sur and The Oranges of Hieronymus Bosch, 1957  p218

Recreation: to assembly a bunch of consumer goods for personal use and transport them to a site distant from one’s residence over the weekend

Of all the degrees, ‘Doctor of Divinity’ would have suited him [Jesus] least – Henry Miller – Big Sur and The Oranges of Hieronymus Bosch, 1957 -p263

Crazy for You

And what was it that we were meeting here to talk about. Remember my scheme to use the talents of the Little People. I was going to figure out a way to employ their ability to read minds and overhear conversations. I was looking for some way to employ them to solve mysteries. This concern with terrorist (the War on Terrorism as President Bush labeled it and to which Congress gave its rubber stamp). That seemed like a good place to employ the Little People, not that Homeland Security was clamoring for their assistance. Homeland Security seemed to be quiet happy preventing imaginary plots (or fomenting plots that they could the thwart). They were kept busy imagining things that didn’t happen and quite happy putting into effect policies that nothing imaginary might be imagined and if it were imagined that it stay imaginary. And since when did the police tolerate outside interference. No I needed first to work out our tactics. Then we would look out for some opportunity to use them. Something that didn’t involve public authorities (or the Internet or the telephone for that matter). First we would try a simple case of tailing someone. Say someone here in this bar. “Got any idea boys? Are you picking up on any evil or crazy thoughts in here? Is there someone who could lead us on a merry chase?” Maybe later we try a case of what is called a ‘domestic situation’ – the bread and butter of the private detective.

A sane man who by pretending to be a lunatic, has done as he pleased and escaped punishment, he had a joke – if you wanted to call it that – on the world. But if he was a lunatic, who ignorant of his craziness, thought he was pretending to be a lunatic, then the joke – if you wanted to call it that – was on him – Dashiell Hammett – The Dain Curse

Am I crazy or what

But everything makes sense

When your crazy

            Nothing makes any sense

And this all makes sense

            Or at least I think it makes sense

And when you are really crazy

            You thing it all makes sense

And I think this makes sense

            But I’m not really sure

Uncertainty is a sign of sanity

            Are you sure that you not sure?

Does it make any sense

            Any sense at all

            This is noting

And nothing makes

            It nonsense

And there is no sense

            In nonsense

“What do you think

Does this make any sense?”

“Me? I’m not so sure

            That’s why I’m asking

You”. And you say, “I’m sure

            That your crazy”:

“Crazy for you”, I tell her.

“That would defiantly make

            Your crazy,” she replied

Preventable yes, most things (those that are anthropocentric at least) are preventable, if acted upon before their onset. After it has happened nothing can be done except for some type of mitigation. What is the chance that it will happen – a million to one. What is the chance that it did happen – One hundred percent. It did happen and there is no denying that. Odds are only applicable before an event. The event itself resets the odds. The event is a threshold. What is the chance of an intelligent lifeform springing up spontaneously – we don’t know. What are the odds of an intelligent lifeform – 100% (we are witnesses to it – assuming of course that humans are intelligent, and that is not a given). What are the chances of an asteroid hitting the earth – a million to one. What are the chances of an asteroid having hit the earth - 100%.

Today, it is those most sheltered from actual state violence – from day-to-day reality of police brutality – who also feel most threatened by the state, most free to threaten violence against hypothetical violations, and most entitled to opt out of civil discourse… Our racist double standards for who can safely gesture at political violence are enormous – Patrick Blanchfiled – The New York Times

While there is zero tolerance for petty thieves there is infinite tolerance for the crimes of bankers

When someone is disloyal to you, they never forgive you for having failed you…, the greater the offence committed by the betrayed, the greater the traitor’s sense of grievance  – Javier Marias – Fever and Spear, 2007 p379

Plip plop the rain begins. I had been expecting it since early morning. Everybody was taking of the coming rain. I asked the ranger what kind of storm was expected. Is it supposed to be bad? We had been talking of trees and they were cutting several down. Just don’t park under one with a lot of dead branches. No, just a gentle rain, he said. I had heard that green wood was more dangerous that dead wood. When they are leafed out they can be, he said. They were only beginning to leaf at this time. There is no danger now. I’ve seen a lot of green ones go down. There is really no place safe to be. In the summer everything is green. In the winter everything looks dead. If you’re going to be out here you’ll have to take your chances. There is no safe house in the woods.

I against my brother / I and my brother against our cousin / I, my brother and our cousin against the neighbor / All of us against the foreigner – Bedouin proverb

A goose flapped its way into the fork of a dead tree about thirty feet above the ground. I had never seen a goose sitting in a tree. There are a lot of woodpeckers about but not much of a chance catching them napping out on the lake. The mate of the first goose (the one sitting in the tree) makes an effort to join it on it’s perch. It’s a small notch. The notch is not big enough for two big birds. They would first have had to construct an edifice of sticks like a stork. That would have worked. But they do not construct nests, maybe in the reeds but not in trees. The second one knocked the first one out as it landed on the perch. There is a lot of flapping and honking but only the second one now sits in the notch of the dead tree. Tammy and John walk over to my campsite. They are having a fish fry tonight. Some guest will be coming over. They invite me to join them. I offer to help but Tammy says that John is the chef. I offer to clean up. No, they say just come over and eat. I will, I promise them. I’d seen him using a Dutch oven earlier. Yeah, we both like campfire cooking. Thanks, I said. We’ll call you when its ready, John  said. The first goose is now trying to join its mate up in the notch of the dead tree. Flap, flap flap – honk, honk – it circles around again and lands. It tries once more and fails. They both fly off and land on the lake.

Distance invokes many ghosts. Loneliness does too. And ignorance even more – Javier Marias – Fever and Spear, 2007 p384