The Vice of Ambition, National Limerick Day, and Miscellany
It's National Limerick Day! Let's start our right with three.
A mathematician named HallHad a hexahedronical ball,
And the cube of its weight
Times his pecker, plus eight,
was for fifths of five eighths of fuck-all.
There was a young fellow named Bowen
Whose pecker kept growin' and growin'.
It grew so tremendous,
So long and so pendulous,
'Twas no good for fucking- just showin'.
There was a young lady named Blount
Who had a rectangular cunt.
She learned for diversion
Posterior perversion,
Since no one could fit in her front
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Connoseur and creator of filthy jokes, George Carlin, was born this day in 1937. He was also a master chant writer:
"Rat shit, bat shit, dirty old twat,
Sixty-nine assholes tied in a knot,
Yeah, lizard shit, FUCK!"
You have no idea how many times that's gone through my head over the last 35 years. No way I could guess within five thousand.
This picture hangs in my upstairs room.
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Haha, Gretel just told Emma that our dog and cat were doing the Kubrick Stare at each other. Emma asked her what she was talking about and Gretel said to look it up.
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Rep. Ralph Norman today, on the Capitol insurrectionists: "Who did they poll to say that they were Trump supporters?"
I don't know about polls, but I saw a bunch of poles that said they were Trump supporters. They had Trump flags on top of the poles, as they marched through the Capitol ransacking the place!
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I don't know what smell just hit me, but for a minute it was 1988 and I was getting ready for a Junior High dance.
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Michael Gerson, Washington Post- ”Recall when Trump tried to give a speech to the nation in March outlining his pandemic response. His remarks were rhetorically flat, poorly delivered, riddled with factual errors and entirely unequal to the moment. As is often the case, a failure of presidential communication revealed a series of deeper, more substantive failures. In the midst of a crisis, the Trump White House could not even produce a middling speech because its policy process is nonexistent; because Trump has chosen morally and intellectually mediocre White House advisers; because the president has no respect for the power of words and is incapable of public empathy or inspiration. And when Trump was given a format better suited to his style — his daily novel coronavirus task force briefings — he regularly revealed profound and disturbing ignorance.”
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A right-wing page I follow asked what the best thing is that Trump has done so far as president... I love spying on a non-scientific poll like that! About half said that he beat Hillary (and half of those referred to her as Killary), which correct me if I'm wrong, might have happened before he was president. About 40% said some version of "make America great again," "best president EVER," or some similar tripe with lots of emojis. And about 5-10% had some sort of content, like two supreme court justices.
I'd feel like crap if I was president several years and that's the best my own supporters could do... empty slogans, and that at least I'm not the person they hate. The fact that I'm not Hitler has never cheered me up!
Air hockey highlights from this day in 2009.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IVktES11ZoA
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Haha, Gretel just told Emma that our dog and cat were doing the Kubrick Stare at each other. Emma asked her what she was talking about and Gretel said to look it up.
May 12, 2022
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Rep. Ralph Norman today, on the Capitol insurrectionists: "Who did they poll to say that they were Trump supporters?"
I don't know about polls, but I saw a bunch of poles that said they were Trump supporters. They had Trump flags on top of the poles, as they marched through the Capitol ransacking the place!
May 12, 2021
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I don't know what smell just hit me, but for a minute it was 1988 and I was getting ready for a Junior High dance.
May 12, 2021
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Michael Gerson, Washington Post- ”Recall when Trump tried to give a speech to the nation in March outlining his pandemic response. His remarks were rhetorically flat, poorly delivered, riddled with factual errors and entirely unequal to the moment. As is often the case, a failure of presidential communication revealed a series of deeper, more substantive failures. In the midst of a crisis, the Trump White House could not even produce a middling speech because its policy process is nonexistent; because Trump has chosen morally and intellectually mediocre White House advisers; because the president has no respect for the power of words and is incapable of public empathy or inspiration. And when Trump was given a format better suited to his style — his daily novel coronavirus task force briefings — he regularly revealed profound and disturbing ignorance.”
May 12, 2021
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Baby Trump confronted with Coronavirus lies.
https://fb.watch/ktUNni64EM/?mibextid=irwG9G
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My kids went to the little front yard library down the street from us yesterday and came back with a book called Chips of Wisdom, somehow published by Herr's Chips. You might have the mistaken idea that this book is about chips. No, it's somehow a religious book. Not sure about this decision, but at least the price was right...
My kids went to the little front yard library down the street from us yesterday and came back with a book called Chips of Wisdom, somehow published by Herr's Chips. You might have the mistaken idea that this book is about chips. No, it's somehow a religious book. Not sure about this decision, but at least the price was right...
May 12, 2019
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A right-wing page I follow asked what the best thing is that Trump has done so far as president... I love spying on a non-scientific poll like that! About half said that he beat Hillary (and half of those referred to her as Killary), which correct me if I'm wrong, might have happened before he was president. About 40% said some version of "make America great again," "best president EVER," or some similar tripe with lots of emojis. And about 5-10% had some sort of content, like two supreme court justices.
I'd feel like crap if I was president several years and that's the best my own supporters could do... empty slogans, and that at least I'm not the person they hate. The fact that I'm not Hitler has never cheered me up!
May 12, 2019
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Just crossed my mind that I live a block from James Buchanan's house and it might be interesting to go over sometime and see how the curator's spin the whole worst-president-in-history thing. I'd have one tip for them- own it!
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Just crossed my mind that I live a block from James Buchanan's house and it might be interesting to go over sometime and see how the curator's spin the whole worst-president-in-history thing. I'd have one tip for them- own it!
May 12, 2016
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Kickball will be played Sunday at 5, right after the Punk Rock Flea Market. I'll bring the ball and the few shreds of what used to be bases. (Good news- my toenail has nearly grown back in the month since we last played.)
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The Donner Party of pioneers left Independence, Missouri for California on this day in 1846. Yeah, once again, just like those Everest hikers, some people need to lower their ambition.
Wendy Torrance:
Hey. Wasn't it around here that the Donner Party got snowbound?
Jack Torrance:
I think that was farther west in the Sierras.
Wendy Torrance:
Oh.
Danny Torrance:
What was the Donner Party?
Jack Torrance:
They were a party of settlers in covered-wagon times. They got snowbound one winter in the mountains. They had to resort to cannibalism in order to stay alive.
Danny Torrance:
You mean they ate each other up?
Jack Torrance:
They had to, in order to survive.
Wendy Torrance:
Jack...
Danny Torrance:
Don't worry, Mom. I know all about cannibalism. I saw it on TV.
Jack Torrance:
See, it's OK. He saw it on the television
Jack Torrance could have stood to have a little less ambition.
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Nurse, social reformer and statistician, Florence Nightingale, was born on this day in 1820.
"To understand God's thoughts we must study statistics, for these are the measure of his purpose."
I wonder if she knows the cube of a hexahedronical ball times a pecker plus eight.
English author and screenwriter Leslie Charteris was born on this day in 1907. I'm unfamiliar with her work, but wonder if she came up with this limerick:
There was a young fellow named Charteris
Put his hand where a young lady's garter is.
She said, "I don't mind,
And up higher you'll find
The place where my fucker and farter is."
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Katharine Hepburn was born on this day in 1907. Seems she's reflected on death a bit.
"Afraid of death? Not at all. Be a great relief. Then I wouldn't have to talk to you."
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Journalist Howard K. Smith was born this day in 1914. What is the limit of journalistic impartially?
"They said it was against the rules to take sides on a controversial issue. I said, 'I wish you had told me that during World War II, when I took sides against Hitler."
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Yogi Berra was born on this day in 1925.
"A nickel ain’t worth a dime anymore."
Talk show host Tom Snyder was born on this day in 1936.
"If we're not supposed to eat animals, how come they're made out of meat?
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Tony Hawk was born on this day in 1968. Completing the 900 was one of the great accomplishments in the history of sports.
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We lost Erich von Stroheim on this day in 1957. I love him in Sunset Blvd, playing the butler and ex-husband to Norma Desmond. What a dynamic.
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This baby of mine just gave me about 10 face rakes and 5 beard pulls in about 1.5 seconds. I'm going to start calling her Zuzu Howard. (Also this beard has to go.)
May 12, 2016
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Emma Eck, getting ready to do some gardening- "I think I'm going to need help picking up a dirtbag."
Emma Eck, getting ready to do some gardening- "I think I'm going to need help picking up a dirtbag."
May 12, 2013
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Kickball will be played Sunday at 5, right after the Punk Rock Flea Market. I'll bring the ball and the few shreds of what used to be bases. (Good news- my toenail has nearly grown back in the month since we last played.)
May 12, 2009
Postscript- my daughter read this today and thought it was hilarious.
Postscript- my daughter read this today and thought it was hilarious.
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The Donner Party of pioneers left Independence, Missouri for California on this day in 1846. Yeah, once again, just like those Everest hikers, some people need to lower their ambition.
Wendy Torrance:
Hey. Wasn't it around here that the Donner Party got snowbound?
Jack Torrance:
I think that was farther west in the Sierras.
Wendy Torrance:
Oh.
Danny Torrance:
What was the Donner Party?
Jack Torrance:
They were a party of settlers in covered-wagon times. They got snowbound one winter in the mountains. They had to resort to cannibalism in order to stay alive.
Danny Torrance:
You mean they ate each other up?
Jack Torrance:
They had to, in order to survive.
Wendy Torrance:
Jack...
Danny Torrance:
Don't worry, Mom. I know all about cannibalism. I saw it on TV.
Jack Torrance:
See, it's OK. He saw it on the television
Jack Torrance could have stood to have a little less ambition.
...
Nurse, social reformer and statistician, Florence Nightingale, was born on this day in 1820.
"To understand God's thoughts we must study statistics, for these are the measure of his purpose."
I wonder if she knows the cube of a hexahedronical ball times a pecker plus eight.
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An act of the U.S. Congress established Glacier National Park in Montana on this day in 1910.
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On this day in 1993, the series finale of The Wonder Years aired. Began in 1988, ran 6 seasons & 115 episodes. That episode absolutely killed me.
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Philosopher, Jiddu Krishnamurti, was born on this day in 1895.
"Religion, it seems to me, has nothing whatsoever to do with any belief, with any priest, with any church or so-called sacred book. The state of the religious mind can be understood only when we begin to understand what beauty is; and the understanding of beauty must be approached through total aloneness.”
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English author and screenwriter Leslie Charteris was born on this day in 1907. I'm unfamiliar with her work, but wonder if she came up with this limerick:
There was a young fellow named Charteris
Put his hand where a young lady's garter is.
She said, "I don't mind,
And up higher you'll find
The place where my fucker and farter is."
...
Katharine Hepburn was born on this day in 1907. Seems she's reflected on death a bit.
"Afraid of death? Not at all. Be a great relief. Then I wouldn't have to talk to you."
...
Journalist Howard K. Smith was born this day in 1914. What is the limit of journalistic impartially?
"They said it was against the rules to take sides on a controversial issue. I said, 'I wish you had told me that during World War II, when I took sides against Hitler."
...
Yogi Berra was born on this day in 1925.
"A nickel ain’t worth a dime anymore."
Someone once asked him what he thought of little league baseball. “I think it’s wonderful. It keeps the kids out of the house.”
One time a sports reporter called him early and Barrett answered the phone sleepily. The reporter apologized and Berra, "I had to get up to answer the phone anyway."
Genius or idiot, I'm not sure. Maybe Jackie Robinson wouldn't have stole home off a genius.
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Barbara Dane joined us on this day in 1927. Still alive!
Nine Hundred Miles
https://youtu.be/-gxRnNTWJYU
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Talk show host Tom Snyder was born on this day in 1936.
"If we're not supposed to eat animals, how come they're made out of meat?
...
Tony Hawk was born on this day in 1968. Completing the 900 was one of the great accomplishments in the history of sports.
...
We lost Erich von Stroheim on this day in 1957. I love him in Sunset Blvd, playing the butler and ex-husband to Norma Desmond. What a dynamic.
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Tragedy on this day in 1932- ten weeks after his abduction, Charles Jr., the infant son of Charles Lindbergh, was found dead near Hopewell, New Jersey, just a few miles from the Lindberghs' home.
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The Soviet spacecraft Luna 5 crashed on the Moon on this day in 1965.
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Other notable birthdays- Henry Cabot Lodge (1850), Farley Mowat (1921) , Emilio Estevez (1962), Kim Fields (1969), Rami Malek (1981)
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Other notable deathdays- Robert Reed (1992), H. R. Giger (2014)
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Razzles is gone. Sixteen years was long enough for her. This leaves us catless for the first time since 2001. She was a good cat, a replacement for Spider-Eyes who had just died, leaving a Spider-Eyes-sized hole in my life. Razzles was bigger but a dead ringer, so to speak. And she was blind like Spider-Eyes, which I was considering a prerequisite.
Back when I got her, I could be alone with her in a room, hold one arm out to my right and barely rub my fingers together and she'd look right at them. (Or rather, point her ears at them.) Then I'd do the same thing to the left and her head would dart in that direction. An unfathomable sense of hearing! She navigated the house pretty well, while still bonking her head just enough to amuse us.
Later on, her ears got bad too. Once Zuzu was shining a flashlight in Razzles' ear and said, "I can see the body thing that makes her move."
A year or two ago Gretel was smiling at Razzles and I asked if she liked her. What she said surprised me:
"Yes, she's not dead yet, but she's gonna die, and mommies and daddies die too. You and mommy and Zuzu and me are all gonna die."
Wow.
So cats are entities unto themselves, not a means to and end, not here for the purpose of teaching us lessons, but we do still learn from them. Their comparatively short lives teach us to appreciate them while they are here, and really to appreciate our own lives too.
The kids were very sad after I left with her this morning, but when I got home I found the two of them prancing around in their underwear, meowing, whiskers painted on each of their faces, paint marks all over their bodies, representing fur. They were paying tribute.
I looked back in my history and saw this post about her from 8 years ago:
-I'm playing Guess the Metaphor with Razzles, my blind cat. She was chasing her tail in circles around the living room, caught it, let it go, swiped at another cat but bonked her head on the coffee table. Best one yet Razzles! It was "The 2012 election."
Quaint.
A note of triumph. A blind cat never quite gets to fulfill their catly desire and duty to chase and hunt. Back when we had several cats, mice didn't stand a chance over the winter. After our other cats were gone and we were just left with Razzles, the mice started taking over. What kind of a cat would allow mice the run of the house???
Then there was a period of time that she seemed to be aware of them. She sat over near where they would congregate. One morning I came down and guess what- there was a dead mouse in the middle of the kitchen. Now maybe that mouse just ate a rotten crumb, or died of old age or something, but in my mind (and possibly in reality) Razzles captured her and killed her. Her crowning achievement.
A blind cat capturing a mouse. Is that a metaphor for something? Persistence in the face of adversity.
Goodbye to Razzles, and my thanks to her.
Florence Nightingale- "You ask me why I do not write something.... I think one's feelings waste themselves in words, they ought all to be distilled into actions and into actions which bring results."
Razzles is gone. Sixteen years was long enough for her. This leaves us catless for the first time since 2001. She was a good cat, a replacement for Spider-Eyes who had just died, leaving a Spider-Eyes-sized hole in my life. Razzles was bigger but a dead ringer, so to speak. And she was blind like Spider-Eyes, which I was considering a prerequisite.
Back when I got her, I could be alone with her in a room, hold one arm out to my right and barely rub my fingers together and she'd look right at them. (Or rather, point her ears at them.) Then I'd do the same thing to the left and her head would dart in that direction. An unfathomable sense of hearing! She navigated the house pretty well, while still bonking her head just enough to amuse us.
Later on, her ears got bad too. Once Zuzu was shining a flashlight in Razzles' ear and said, "I can see the body thing that makes her move."
A year or two ago Gretel was smiling at Razzles and I asked if she liked her. What she said surprised me:
"Yes, she's not dead yet, but she's gonna die, and mommies and daddies die too. You and mommy and Zuzu and me are all gonna die."
Wow.
So cats are entities unto themselves, not a means to and end, not here for the purpose of teaching us lessons, but we do still learn from them. Their comparatively short lives teach us to appreciate them while they are here, and really to appreciate our own lives too.
The kids were very sad after I left with her this morning, but when I got home I found the two of them prancing around in their underwear, meowing, whiskers painted on each of their faces, paint marks all over their bodies, representing fur. They were paying tribute.
I looked back in my history and saw this post about her from 8 years ago:
-I'm playing Guess the Metaphor with Razzles, my blind cat. She was chasing her tail in circles around the living room, caught it, let it go, swiped at another cat but bonked her head on the coffee table. Best one yet Razzles! It was "The 2012 election."
Quaint.
A note of triumph. A blind cat never quite gets to fulfill their catly desire and duty to chase and hunt. Back when we had several cats, mice didn't stand a chance over the winter. After our other cats were gone and we were just left with Razzles, the mice started taking over. What kind of a cat would allow mice the run of the house???
Then there was a period of time that she seemed to be aware of them. She sat over near where they would congregate. One morning I came down and guess what- there was a dead mouse in the middle of the kitchen. Now maybe that mouse just ate a rotten crumb, or died of old age or something, but in my mind (and possibly in reality) Razzles captured her and killed her. Her crowning achievement.
A blind cat capturing a mouse. Is that a metaphor for something? Persistence in the face of adversity.
Goodbye to Razzles, and my thanks to her.
May 12, 2020
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Gretel just asked me if she can say bad words. She's nine. I told that I'd give her the same answer I gave her when she was three... that she can, but only if she whispers them to herself under the covers at night. She said she remembered, and that one time she did that when she was seven. Haha, glad that made an impression.
May 12, 2023
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On this day in 1960, La Dolce Vita won Cannes.
https://youtu.be/1BeWEPXWDX4
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Florence Nightingale- "You ask me why I do not write something.... I think one's feelings waste themselves in words, they ought all to be distilled into actions and into actions which bring results."
I think this often when I write. Yet I still write! (I wonder if I need more or less ambition.)
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The Hill- Former Bush, Obama WH ethics lawyers call Comey firing ‘worse than breaking a law’
What other conclusion could a bipartisan duo of ethics lawyers come up with? "Worse than breaking the law," sounds like a high crime to me. The guy misses his old life... give him back his old life. From the short article:
""What the president did was worse. It was a challenge to the very premises of our system of checks and balances precisely because it violated no mere letter of the law but its essential spirit," the article continued.
Trump abruptly fired Comey on Tuesday, saying in a letter at the time that the ouster was recommended by Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein. But the president contradicted that statement on Thursday, saying that he would have fired Comey regardless of Rosenstein's recommendation."
http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/333068-ex-bush-obama-wh-ethics-lawyers-on-comey-firing-its-worse-than
May 12, 2017
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Psychology Today- Ways Kids Appear to Be Acting Bad but Aren't
Good reminder... I've been irritated at a few of these.
https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/joyful-parenting/201705/not-naughty-10-ways-kids-appear-be-acting-bad-arent
May 12, 2017
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Vox- Mad Men, perfectly explained in a single shot
https://www.vox.com/2015/5/4/8542087/mad-men-recap-lost-horizon-review
May 12, 2018, 8:45 PM
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The Hill- Former Lindsey Graham donor says support stopped when he didn’t defend McCain from Trump
“I asked myself, ‘What is the character of a man who will not defend his best friend? If he won’t defend John McCain, why would I expect him to defend any of us in South Carolina?’”
Or for that matter, our country? Or for that matter, humanity? Trump above all.
https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/497332-former-lindsey-graham-donor-says-support-stopped-when-he-didnt-defend-mccain
May 12, 2020
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I'm glad the Go-Go's made it to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. They've always been a favorite of mine. As far as I'm concerned their energy, spirit and style define the 80's. I'm excited to make it back sometime and have them included in the exhibit. Yes or No is not one of their flashiest songs but it's one of my favorites.
https://youtu.be/02-DfG3LO30
May 12, 2021
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Einstein- "Everything must be made as simple as possible. But not simpler."
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Hume- "In our reasonings concerning matter of fact, there are all imaginable degrees of assurance, from the highest certainty to the lowest species of moral evidence. A wise man, therefore, proportions his belief to the evidence."
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Henry David Thoreau, Walden- "Live in each season as it passes; breathe the air, drink the drink, taste the fruit, and resign yourself to the influence of the earth."
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Rodolfo R. Llinas, I of the vortex: From Neurons to Self- “If you let something tumble long enough, it comes out almost perfect. Such is the power of random collisions and patience, and that constitutes the sum total of nature’s intelligence. All the rough edges, the flaws, the things that don’t work are systematically dispatched by natural selection. What remains and carries on into the next generation and the next after that and so on are the advantageous aspects, what does workwhat makes survival easier. And survival is the fuel of natural selection.”
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Sendak- “I’m writing a poem right now about a nose. I’ve always wanted to write a poem about a nose. But it’s a ludicrous subject. That’s why, when I was younger, I was afraid of [writing] something that didn’t make a lot of sense. But now I’m not. I have nothing to worry about. It doesn’t matter.”
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Ralph Waldo Emerson, Journals- "Don't be too timid and squeamish about your actions. All life is an experiment. The more experiments you make the better.
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