I fell down – old men fall down – stepped down on my front
steps and my right leg gave out. I fell
forward, doubling back on my knee. My good knee. Oh
the pain. Only after two days am I able to drive again. It is difficult to put on my shoes. I'm using the long handled shoe horn they gave my in the hospital (but it's still hard, the back of the sandle wants to fold under my heel). I don't wear socks, at least not in the summer. So they are no problem. I was also given a device for putting on socks, but I seem to have lost it). There is no swelling or bruising, that’s good. I am using
a cane (the one they gave be in rehab) to get around (at least I don't have to use the walker. I'll save that for this winter when there is ice). I don’t trust the right knee – it’s subject to giving out. It's given out
twice more. I grit my teeth just thinking about falling (help I've fallen and can't get up - I don't laugh anymore). That’s my good knee, not
the one that I had replaced last year (I guess I should say the replacement is the good one now).
Ask the wind, the wave, the star,
the bird, the clock, everything that sighs, everything that speaks, ask them
what time it is, and the wind, the waves, the star, the bird, the clock will
reply; “It’s time to get drunk. So as not, to be one of the martyred slaves of
Time, get yourself drunk; get yourself drunk always! On wine, on poetry, on
virtue; whatever you like – Charles Baudelaire – Paris Spleen
The US military’s global empire includes more than 539,000
facilities at 5,000 sites covering more than 28 million acres
That’s the thing about final
straws—you’re left to assume everything that came before was tolerable - Elizabeth Preza
Only 61% of the murders committed in the US are ever solved.
It may seem paradoxical that with
our increasing understanding of the mutability of scientific theory goes an
increased confidence in the predictions we make on the basis of scientific
theory – Michael Arbib – The Constitution of Reality, 1986 p6
Only 5% of students in American higher education today
graduated from high school and enrolled in college within a year to attend a
four year institution and live on campus?
For the Uncreated is that whose
beginning does not exist; and Nothing we say, is that whose beginning does not
pre-exist. Nothing contains all things – Otto Von Guerricke
Gold is the ultimate ‘pet rock’
Travel is a vanishing act, a
solitary trip down a pinched line of geography to oblivion. But a travel book
is the opposite. Yet the convention… [is] to start – as so many novels do – in
the middle of things, to beach the reader in the a bizarre place without having
first guided him there – Paul Theroux – The Old Patagonian Express, 1979 p4
Only about 10% of New York City’s crosswalk buttons actually
function. Only about 10% of office thermostats are functional. Some thermostats
actually initiate a white noise hum to simulate a fan. We need to have a sense
of control even if we don’t actually have control.
19% of US high school graduates cannot read
You can always tell a fugitive by
his vagrant expression of smugness – Paul Theroux – The Old Patagonian Express,
1979 p1
A Moscow subway car travels on average 346 miles a day
Anything soft, segmented and
bilaterally symmetrical might be called a worm – Stephen Jay Gould – Wonderful
Life, 1989 p137
The average middle-class, two-parent family spends about
US$3,900 a year on child care for a two-year-old (for those who have a two-year
old i.e).
Vulgarity… means no more than a
yielding to natural impulses in the face of conventional inhibitions – H L
Mencken – The American Language, 1919 p27
The object is to return (from where ever it is that you
went) and not say a word. To oblivion and back
When two sides collaborate at the
same prophesy, the odds of self-fulfillment goes up geometrically – Todd Gitlin
– The Sixties, 1987 p316
The conceptual cannot not push it’s lead horse
Intellectual transformations often
remain under the surface. They ooze and diffuse into … consciousness, and
people may slowly move from one pole to another, having never heard the call to
arms – Stephen Jay Gould – Wonderful Life p79
Americans spend on average 30 minutes a day cooking and 1
hour 14 minutes eating. They spend 28 minutes shopping.
Where my tank passes / Is a street /
What my gun says / Is my opinion / And of the whole lot / I’ll spare only my
brother / By just kicking him in the teeth – Berthold Brecht – Poems
We have the country that the 1% want but don’t want to live
in
Rarity has one happy aspect – given
enough time, it gets converted to fair frequency – Stephen Jay Gould –
Wonderful Life p62
I’ve become the old man with the perpetually blinking turn
light
I strongly reject any conceptual
scheme that places our options on a line, and hold that the only alternative to
a pair of extreme positions lies somewhere between them. More fruitful perspectives
often require that we step off the line to a site outside the dichotomy –
Stephen Jay Gould – Wonderful Life, 1989 p51
Humans produce 3,000 times more
heat energy on average than all the world’s volcanoes
If a book is not a blow to the
head, why read it – Philip Roth
Economics is war by other means
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
The military said Erdogan’s power consolidation justifies
the attempted coup; Erdogan said the coup justifies
further consolidation of power
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
Authenticity is incompatible with capitalism
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
The more one relies on individual solutions the more
structural problems that get created. The individual is both concrete and
abstract and we confuse these two concepts of the individual
The number of non-military federal
officers with arrest and firearm authority (200,000+) now exceeds the number of
U.S. Marines (182,000). Spending on guns, ammo and military-style equipment at
67 federal agencies – including 53 regulatory, administrative agencies amounted
to $1.48 billion between 2006-2014. … In 1996, the Bureau of Justice Statistics
officially counted 74,500 federal officers who had arrest and firearm
authority. - Adam Andrzejewski
Her name is Tango. Him? Oh, his name is Trail Dog. She likes
to fuss over him (the dog, my dog). What a cute little dog (I’m envious). I
think she’s cute too. But I’m not going there. I’m not going to say anything.
It always gets me into trouble. I notice that her long auburn hair swishs back
and forth as she walks. I notice other things too. But I’m not going there. I’m
not going to say another word. Trail dog and I go one way. She and Tango go the other.
There is nothing to lose in a Trump
presidency that we will not lose sooner or later voting for New Democrats –
they are two sides of the same problem - Peter Gaffney
Someone stronger than I am. You have no choice. And here I
had thought that you had lost your mind. One night only and gone – manshow.
Losing friends is a bitch. But it in not a rage. There is nothing to be done. Who
cares. We have to have an ending. The poor old guy, he’s got to die.
Americans don’t feel the same way
about money as we do about it. They are not embarrassable on the subject. Money
is its own vindication; money is its own just cause – Martin Amis – The Moronic
Inferno, 1986
And then he died and I had all these notes. This was my
response. He had gotten at something very beautiful. Out of the ballpark you
might say. Oh, to work on only one thing. But that is not my carefree option.
The imagination seems to just disappear. It gets completely lost. When shall
the curtain be lifted. Life is not good enough.
The ideology of personal growth,
superficially optimistic, radiates a profound despair, and resignation. It is
the faith of those without hope - Christopher Lasch – The Culture of
Narcissism, 1979 p51
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