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