Thoughts Of A Boogieman Poop Blast Make A Little Girl Cry, or No, Bo Diddley

I don't let Bo Diddley push me around. 

I was at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1999 and there was a Louis Jordan tribute concert that night where Bo Diddley and others played. Somehow this nice ticket person gave me a free ticket in the front row with all the camera people because someone didn't show up. Bo Diddley came out on stage and said something like, "Let's get ready to boogie, everybody clap your hands." I don't like people bossing me around though, even if they ARE Bo Diddley, so I just sat there not clapping my hands, even though everybody around me stood up and started dancing and clapping. 

Bo Diddley did a double take of me, unable to comprehend that someone would not be standing up and dancing and clapping. He gave me me a couple more looks, and I swear he was about to call me out in front of the crowd, but he needed to start singing.

This just crossed my mind last night, so I looked it up and I found the video! You can't see me in the video, but I was in the front row to the right of the screen. Watching this 20 plus years later, I can perfectly see him for a split second look at me and think, "Why is this asshole not standing up and dancing and clapping???" The only reason I can see it in the video is because it happened to me. He was like 20 feet away from me staring right at me.

Every once in awhile I like to prove to myself that I don't have to go along with the crowd. That's how you know you could have resisted being a Nazi!

See it here.

https://youtu.be/unKL1EKIfK4

Bo Diddley left us on this day in 2008  

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First and last day of school- Zuzu 2nd grade, Gretel 3rd.

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Zuzu keeps asking me what some words mean that are hard as hell to define. How do you explain what "such" means? Or "even"? As in, "even even is hard to define." I told her I'd give her an example, and she asked what example means. She just asked me what time means. I don't know... an abstract concept representing one moment turning into another moment??? If I would have said that, it would have taken me the next year to explain what I was talking about.

June 2, 2021

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Bruno S joined us on this day in 1932. He was the star of Herzog's Enigma of Kaspar Hauser and Strozceck, and victim of Nazi experimentation on the disabled. Herzog immediately recognized he could lead a film. Anais Nin said that Kaspar's story was more compelling that that of Jesus Christ. Bruno certainly brought it to life. I'm overdue to rewatch those films.

June 2, 2022

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16 Cognitive Distortions, Positive Psychology, by Courtney Ackerman

12. Control Fallacies

A control fallacy manifests as one of two beliefs: (1) that we have no control over our lives and are helpless victims of fate, or (2) that we are in complete control of ourselves and our surroundings, giving us responsibility for the feelings of those around us. Both beliefs are damaging, and both are equally inaccurate.

No one is in complete control of what happens to them, and no one has absolutely no control over their situation. Even in extreme situations where an individual seemingly has no choice in what they do or where they go, they still have a certain amount of control over how they approach their situation mentally.

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See, even bad presidents can generally rise to at least a minimum level of competence and humanity. It's like Aziz said... George W. Bush guided us with his eloquence, haha. Read this statement... it's perfectly crafted... it's the speech Trump could have made. Just one problem though- Trump doesn't believe a word of it.

June 2, 2020

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Yesterday as a joke Zuzu told Gretel that the Boogieman was going to blast poop all over her, and Gretel started crying profusely. Do you have any idea how hard it is not to laugh in a situation like that???

June 2, 2018

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Last night Emma explained to the cats that she was giving them a "two-cat box." Two dutifully hopped right in.

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Small Talk

I caught this conversation at the post office the other day: 

Clerk- Hey buddy. 

Customer- Hey Joe. 

Clerk- What's going on? 

Customer- I came here to find out but nobody seems to know. 

Clerk- I know what you mean. 

The customer laughs. The clerk rings up his items. 

Clerk- Behaving yourself. 

Customer- Come on! 

Clerk- Or is that a redundant statement? 

They both laugh. 

Customer- How much you need? 

Clerk- $10.83 

He gives it to him. 

Customer- Take care of yourself. 

Clerk- You too. 

There's a certain magic behind small talk. I can't explain it. I also can't do it. When it was my turn we each stood there silently for about 15 minutes as he punched in info for several boxes bound for Rwanda. 

Finally I said, "Quite a process, isn't it?" 

The clerk scoffed, "Yeah, we have George Bush to thank for this. Is there nothing that man didn't mess up?" 

Me- I know what you mean buddy. 

Yep, small talk... it might become a lost art if we don't all jump on board.

June 2, 2010

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IFL Science article: What Is The Speed Of Dark?

I never considered that before!

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Well here's some good news, the president's lies are down to 68%, it was previously 71%. What an improvement! But wait, one of the truths of the past week was, "America first, Earth last." I think I prefer the lies.

Jun 2, 2017

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Huh... nonplussed means, "confounded or at a loss for words," so if you say that you are nonplussed you are using a word to convey the sense that you are at a loss for words.

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Anarchists simultaneously set off bombs in eight separate U.S. cities on this day in 1919. With 330 million of us in this country now, I simply can't believe this type of thing doesn't happen all the time.

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On this day in 1924, Calvin Coolidge signed the Indian Citizenship Act into law, granting citizenship to all Native Americans born within the territorial limits of the United States. Less than 100 years ago!

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On this day in 2010, the Detroit Tigers' Armando Galarrago pitched a perfect game, except that umpire Tim Joyce blew the call at first base on the 27th out. To his credit, he later admitted he was wrong shortly afterward. I think about this all the time. Was that actually a perfect game? I'm tempted to say yes, but a fielding error ruins a perfect game, and I guess an umpiring error does too.

The Nation- THE WORST CALL EVER…. Reconsidered

When The Nation weighs in on a baseball call, something seriously wrong happened.

https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/worst-call-ever-reconsidered/

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On this day in 1740, Marquis de Sade was born. Huh, a little Marquis de Sade baby. Hard to imagine.

"Beauty belongs to the sphere of the simple, the ordinary, whilst ugliness is something extraordinary, and there is no question but that every ardent imagination prefers in lubricity, the extraordinary to the commonplace."

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Lou Gehrig left us on this day in 1941. Great baseball player, and quite a good speech writer. An example to go out and do your job every day.

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P. T. Barnum and his circus started their first tour of the United States on this day in 1835.

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Another notable birthday- Dana Carvey (1955)

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On this day in baseball history a pitcher hit 2 home runs, one a grand slam, and the other with two on. Babe Ruth? Nope, Robert Person in 2002.

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On June 2, 1987, Denver Zephyrs slugger Joey Meyer hit a ball into the second deck of Mile High Stadium, measuring 582 feet from home plate- the longest homer in professional baseball history on video.

https://youtu.be/Z00iMx8hM5s

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Marquis de Sade again- "There is no God, Nature sufficeth unto herself; in no wise hath she need of an author."

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Roger Ebert's Blog- The quest for frisson

Social critic Roger Ebert at the top of his form. (The video at the end is a must see.)

https://www.rogerebert.com/roger-ebert/the-quest-for-frisson

June 2, 2010

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IFLScience- What Is The Speed Of Dark?

Well that's a question I never considered!

http://www.iflscience.com/physics/what-speed-dark

June 2, 2015

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The Onion- Last Cherry Tomato In Salad A Wily Little Bastard

That little bastard has showed up in a few of my salads too.

https://trib.al/V10rhsE

June 2, 2018

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You lose yourself, you reappear

You suddenly find you got nothing to fear

Alone you stand with nobody near

When a trembling distant voice, unclear

Startles your sleeping ears to hear

That somebody thinks they really found you

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Desmond Tutu- "If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor. If an elephant has its foot on the tail of a mouse and you say that you are neutral, the mouse will not appreciate your neutrality."

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Jean de la Fontaine- "A person often meets his destiny on the road he took to avoid it." 

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Gerhard Lenski, The Religious Factor- "Some people... profess to be agnostics, but any examination of their patterns of action reveal that all agnostics act as though they accepted one or other of the competing systems of belief."

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John Stuart Mill- "Truth emerges from the clash of adverse ideas."

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James Thurber:

"Early to rise and early to bed 

Makes a man healthy and wealthy and dead."

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Bruce Chatwin- "Men enjoy the feeling of absolute righteousness even when they commit atrocities."

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The Duke of Windsor, Look, 1957- "The thing that impresses me most about America is the way parents obey their children."

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Einstein- "The word 'God' is for me nothing more than the expression and product of human weaknesses, the Bible a collection of honorable, but still primitive legends which are nevertheless pretty childish. No interpretation, no matter how subtle, can (for me) change this."