What do you call working 11 hours straight and then driving home and getting a flat tire and a dead battery?
HAPPY NEW YEAR!
HAPPY NEW YEAR!
Saturday, December 31, 2016
Friday, December 30, 2016
Little Chilly
"Humorless," "perpetually serious," "caustic and austere," "even cold and aloof." Jesus Christ, was this guy born in a black robe?
Hey Chilly, you're gonna love this one he-he-he-he How do you stop a lawyer from drowning? Shoot him before he hits the water. HAHAHAHAH... sorry.
Even when young, here at 17. Now THAT is a starched collar.
Is that?...Could it be? That's another one with Ivanhoe and Spessard. I don't know if that truly meets the definition of a "smile," I've enlarged it a couple of times and I don't know, but I dare you, I double-dare you to find another picture of Chillingworth that meets the definition. Which never stops American TV. Investigationdiscovery.com is the source for the header image. They have Giggles dancing with Marjorie to the radio after coming home from the party the night of June 14. No.
The Darkest Murder
On the header now, the victims, Marjorie McKinley Chillingworth, and at dead center, Judge Curtis Eugene Chillingworth, their children, and Florida governor-elect Ivanhoe Holland and wife Spessard, 1940.
"A man is trying to ruin us"
Judge Joseph Peel to bolita operators Bobby Lincoln and Floyd "Lucky" Holzapfel, the hitmen.
"The judiciary to State Attorney to Attorney General to Governor."
Judge Joseph Peel and his beautiful, glamorous, Palm Beach socialite wife Imogene.
Thursday, December 29, 2016
"There's a hole in the ocean"
It is the darkest murder I have ever heard of.
On a late June morning in 1982 I sat in the breezy lobby of my apartment building which opened onto the bay waiting for a friend to car pool to work. I was a new lawyer, new to south Florida and as I waited on my friend I was reading the Miami Herald newspaper.
I became so riveted to a story that I got annoyed with my friend for breaking my concentration when he showed up.
A former Palm Beach County judge, Joseph Peel, who had been convicted in 1961 of the 1955 murders of Judge C.E. Chillingworth and his wife Marjorie, had been paroled from prison, he was dying of cancer, and had given a deathbed interview to a Herald reporter in which he all but confessed to being the mastermind of the contract killings.
"Punk ass, where've you been?," I growled from my black study to my startled friend when he came into the lobby.
It was Florida's Crime of the Century.
Phoro: the headstone to the double empty graves.
more
Wednesday, December 28, 2016
Monero (XMR)Tuesday, December 27, 2016
Genius, choose only one: the alert-eyed, preppy guy on the left or the one whose eyes you can't see, with his tie askew looking like Hemingway after he received electroshock to his alcohol-besotted brain.
My son is a genius. He has been investing, just a little of his and Dad's money in cryptocurri nces, e.g. Bitcoin, since the summer. A little Bitcoin, a little Monero--not buy and hold either, speculating, trying to time the market, stuff you're never supposed to do, seasoned pro or rank amateur. Kid has not missed. He has bought, low, sold, high; bought again, low. PISSES me off. Every frigging time I tried to invest in the market on my own, "Hmm, the Japan Fund, I think I'll do that!, I've gotten killed.
He tried to get me to put a few shekels into Monero a few weeks ago, "Dad, this looks like a good time, it's about $7.50." "Umm, wait till it dips below $7," was my non compus mentis response. So he
bought me one, just one, for Christmas at $7.50. At this instant it's up to $12.60, +24% on the day.
Kid's a genius and NOT a chip off the old nlockhead.
Smaller story but one of particular interest to me personally.
When a university decides to go "Big Time" in college athletics it makes the decision to have its major sports teams, the tackle football team, preeminently, become the face and reputation of the entire university nationally.
Why would a university ever do that? "The Flutie Effect." If you capture magic in a bottle student applications to your university increase, you can become more "selective" in whom you admit, the SAT profile of your university increases; or not: you can admit more students and get more tuition revenue, you can charge more to attend your university; you get more revenue from TV contracts. It can be a Golden Circle. The converse is also in play: Big Time college athletics can disfigure the face and tarnish the reputation of your university.
Scott Barnes, the athletic director at the University of Pittsburgh, left to assume the same position at Oregon State University on December 22. Barnes had been on the job at Pitt for twenty months, I think it was. It was a lateral move at best. Oregon State University vs the University of Pittsburgh. The PAC 12 Conference vs the ACC. Oregon State "Beavers" vs Pitt "Panthers." Corvallis, Oregon vs Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Barnes' move did not beautify the face of Pitt nor enhance its reputation nationally. It did the converse. And with me, personally.
The only reasons given for the move were, "personal and familial." One Pittsburgh pencil wrote that the only problem Barnes had with Pitt was that it was not located in Oregon. Before coming to Pittsburgh, Barnes worked for seven years in Logan, Utah for Utah State University. No, relocating Pitt to Oregon was not an option. It is not sufficient explanation, either. Barnes knew Pitt was not located in Oregon before relocating from Logan. He knew Logan was not in Utah.
I am going to draw a red line here, I am going to draw it in pencil equipped with an eraser, but I am going to draw it. If the only explanation we ever get, and Pittsburgh pencils do not dig deeply, is "personal and familiar" and Pittsburgh is not in Oregon, then this is the penultimate red line. If Barnes' move is made more specifically personal and familial, like an aged, dying parent, then I will erase the red line. But if it is not, and I do not expect it to be, then one more disfiguration, say if head football coach Pat Narduzzi makes a "lateral move" and I am done supporting Pitt sports.
If, for example, this is, as it appears very much to be, about Scott Barnes--or his wife--not digging the city of Pittsburgh, as it was for football coach Todd Graham who left after one year, then the fault lies, as it did then, with those who hired Barnes. Graham said his mistake was coming to Pitt in the first place--from Tulsa, Oklahoma. Anybody who prefers Tulsa to Pittsburgh or Logan to Pittsburgh or Corvallis to Pittsburgh should never, ever, be considered for the job. Right? Does that not seem a fair question to pop in the job interview, "Sir, all other things being approximately equal, compensation, conference, authority, resources, potential for success, would you rather live and work in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania or in Logan, Utah, Tulsa, Oklahoma, Corvallis, Oregon, or some other pustule on the anus of America? Don't be afraid to hurt our feelings."
The face behind the face and reputation of the University of Pittsburgh is now Chancellor Patrick Gallagher. That was a beautiful face behind when he first came to Pitt. When football coach Paul Chryst left for Madison, Wisconsin for personal and familial reasons, Chancellor Gallagher summarily executed athletic director Steve Pederson (a long overdue execution, that). Gallagher personally led the search for a "Big Name" replacement for Chryst. He didn't get a Big Name, he elevated a coordinator from another school, but he got a Big Time coach in Narduzzi.
Gallagher then chose, but was not as personally involved (Pitt hired a "search firm" as aid (same as they did with Graham and Michael Haywood (the latter lasting 31 days))), Scott Barnes as permanent AD. That was a lateral (you want to get laterals, not give laterals (especially in football)). I thought it was a good hire. Barnes did a great job from what I could tell at Utah State, albeit with all the attractions of Logan, Utah. It was even remarked that Barnes and Gallagher seemed almost like brothers, family, at the news conference.
Barnes did a pretty good job at Pitt, as much as he could do in twenty months, twenty months is not time enough to implement one's "vision," it is more like a "blink," but he seemed to do well with fund-raising and he increased tickets sold to bowl games. Couple blinks.
Couple others: After one year, Pitt football lost its offensive coordinator to Georgia in another dreaded "give" lateral. I don't even remember the guy's name so it wasn't too dreadful. Then in year two they lost the replacement for the offensive coordinator. That was a guy who had been fired from his previous job as OC so it wasn't even a get lateral, it was a labor pool hire. But that guy turned out to be Matt Canada and Oh my God. But one year, 44 points per game (and 800,000 more francs) after selling pencils out of a cup on a street corner, Canada was off to speak French on the bayou, eh?
One other blink was forcing out, or holding the door open for, men's basketball coach Jamie Dixon to go "home" to Fort Worth, Texas and Texas Christian University. I was comme ci comme sa on Dixon's exit, as a lot of Pitt lovers were. Barnes chose (I think with the "aid" of one of those loathsome search firms, too) Kevin Stallings of Vanderbilt as Dixon's replacement. That went over like a lead balloon with most Pitt-ies (I do wish Stallings hadn't been caught on an open mic threatening to kill one of his Vandy charges, but I am otherwise willing to give him a chance) and attendance at Pitt basketball games has suffered noticeably this, Stallings first, year, but we'll see how he does.
Good blinks and bad blinks, Barnes' attenuated "tenure" at Pitt is a bad look on Chancellor Gallagher's face.
I hope we get a chance to see how Stallings does. There is a, it's like a Tourette's Syndrome, with new athletic directors: "out with the old, in with the new," they can't help it, it's a tic they all have. Imo, the new AD, whoever he, or she, is, should be prescribed medication to control those tics; in my view if he or she comes in and immediately axes Stallings or especially if (s)he holds the door open or does any such thing with Narduzzi then he or she should be (figuratively) strung up from the top floor of the Cathedral of Learning and left to dangle. And if that tic tocks then I am done with Pitt sports.
When a university decides to go "Big Time" in college athletics it makes the decision to have its major sports teams, the tackle football team, preeminently, become the face and reputation of the entire university nationally.
Why would a university ever do that? "The Flutie Effect." If you capture magic in a bottle student applications to your university increase, you can become more "selective" in whom you admit, the SAT profile of your university increases; or not: you can admit more students and get more tuition revenue, you can charge more to attend your university; you get more revenue from TV contracts. It can be a Golden Circle. The converse is also in play: Big Time college athletics can disfigure the face and tarnish the reputation of your university.
Scott Barnes, the athletic director at the University of Pittsburgh, left to assume the same position at Oregon State University on December 22. Barnes had been on the job at Pitt for twenty months, I think it was. It was a lateral move at best. Oregon State University vs the University of Pittsburgh. The PAC 12 Conference vs the ACC. Oregon State "Beavers" vs Pitt "Panthers." Corvallis, Oregon vs Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Barnes' move did not beautify the face of Pitt nor enhance its reputation nationally. It did the converse. And with me, personally.
The only reasons given for the move were, "personal and familial." One Pittsburgh pencil wrote that the only problem Barnes had with Pitt was that it was not located in Oregon. Before coming to Pittsburgh, Barnes worked for seven years in Logan, Utah for Utah State University. No, relocating Pitt to Oregon was not an option. It is not sufficient explanation, either. Barnes knew Pitt was not located in Oregon before relocating from Logan. He knew Logan was not in Utah.
I am going to draw a red line here, I am going to draw it in pencil equipped with an eraser, but I am going to draw it. If the only explanation we ever get, and Pittsburgh pencils do not dig deeply, is "personal and familiar" and Pittsburgh is not in Oregon, then this is the penultimate red line. If Barnes' move is made more specifically personal and familial, like an aged, dying parent, then I will erase the red line. But if it is not, and I do not expect it to be, then one more disfiguration, say if head football coach Pat Narduzzi makes a "lateral move" and I am done supporting Pitt sports.
If, for example, this is, as it appears very much to be, about Scott Barnes--or his wife--not digging the city of Pittsburgh, as it was for football coach Todd Graham who left after one year, then the fault lies, as it did then, with those who hired Barnes. Graham said his mistake was coming to Pitt in the first place--from Tulsa, Oklahoma. Anybody who prefers Tulsa to Pittsburgh or Logan to Pittsburgh or Corvallis to Pittsburgh should never, ever, be considered for the job. Right? Does that not seem a fair question to pop in the job interview, "Sir, all other things being approximately equal, compensation, conference, authority, resources, potential for success, would you rather live and work in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania or in Logan, Utah, Tulsa, Oklahoma, Corvallis, Oregon, or some other pustule on the anus of America? Don't be afraid to hurt our feelings."
The face behind the face and reputation of the University of Pittsburgh is now Chancellor Patrick Gallagher. That was a beautiful face behind when he first came to Pitt. When football coach Paul Chryst left for Madison, Wisconsin for personal and familial reasons, Chancellor Gallagher summarily executed athletic director Steve Pederson (a long overdue execution, that). Gallagher personally led the search for a "Big Name" replacement for Chryst. He didn't get a Big Name, he elevated a coordinator from another school, but he got a Big Time coach in Narduzzi.
Gallagher then chose, but was not as personally involved (Pitt hired a "search firm" as aid (same as they did with Graham and Michael Haywood (the latter lasting 31 days))), Scott Barnes as permanent AD. That was a lateral (you want to get laterals, not give laterals (especially in football)). I thought it was a good hire. Barnes did a great job from what I could tell at Utah State, albeit with all the attractions of Logan, Utah. It was even remarked that Barnes and Gallagher seemed almost like brothers, family, at the news conference.
Barnes did a pretty good job at Pitt, as much as he could do in twenty months, twenty months is not time enough to implement one's "vision," it is more like a "blink," but he seemed to do well with fund-raising and he increased tickets sold to bowl games. Couple blinks.
Couple others: After one year, Pitt football lost its offensive coordinator to Georgia in another dreaded "give" lateral. I don't even remember the guy's name so it wasn't too dreadful. Then in year two they lost the replacement for the offensive coordinator. That was a guy who had been fired from his previous job as OC so it wasn't even a get lateral, it was a labor pool hire. But that guy turned out to be Matt Canada and Oh my God. But one year, 44 points per game (and 800,000 more francs) after selling pencils out of a cup on a street corner, Canada was off to speak French on the bayou, eh?
One other blink was forcing out, or holding the door open for, men's basketball coach Jamie Dixon to go "home" to Fort Worth, Texas and Texas Christian University. I was comme ci comme sa on Dixon's exit, as a lot of Pitt lovers were. Barnes chose (I think with the "aid" of one of those loathsome search firms, too) Kevin Stallings of Vanderbilt as Dixon's replacement. That went over like a lead balloon with most Pitt-ies (I do wish Stallings hadn't been caught on an open mic threatening to kill one of his Vandy charges, but I am otherwise willing to give him a chance) and attendance at Pitt basketball games has suffered noticeably this, Stallings first, year, but we'll see how he does.
Good blinks and bad blinks, Barnes' attenuated "tenure" at Pitt is a bad look on Chancellor Gallagher's face.
I hope we get a chance to see how Stallings does. There is a, it's like a Tourette's Syndrome, with new athletic directors: "out with the old, in with the new," they can't help it, it's a tic they all have. Imo, the new AD, whoever he, or she, is, should be prescribed medication to control those tics; in my view if he or she comes in and immediately axes Stallings or especially if (s)he holds the door open or does any such thing with Narduzzi then he or she should be (figuratively) strung up from the top floor of the Cathedral of Learning and left to dangle. And if that tic tocks then I am done with Pitt sports.
I didn't hurt him. I didn't put my hands around his neck and squeeze till he went "Agh, agh, agh" and his eyes bugged out of his head. I didn't chase him around the house, it was his house after all, didn't hurt him or chase him or threaten to murder him or grab a knife, I had no weapons, I didn't do anything. I didn't threaten him at all or curse him. I didn't do anything but I do remember that upside down globe to this day.
Monday, December 26, 2016
I see skies of blue...
Hull 0
City 3
...unfortunately a red rose too
And I think to myself
What a wonderful club.
City 3
...unfortunately a red rose too
And I think to myself
What a wonderful club.
A.E. Hotchner's little book of reminisces was refreshing. At first. He loved Hemingway, Hemingway was kind to Hotchner, it was nice to read that, everything about Hemingway is so darn critical and dark--and there's a lot of darkness and a lot to be critical about! Hemingway in Love overall is still sad, I felt so darn sad for Hadley, sad also, but less so, for Hemingway--it does seem the loss of Hadley haunted Hemingway the rest of his life, and after finishing the book I refreshed my memory on her. BIG MISTAKE.
Hadley was the great Lost Love of his life? What about Agnes, the nurse, Agnes von Whatever, Farewell to Arms nurse? She was his first great love and he did lose her, she didn't want him. Hadley he had, didn't lose her as toss her aside. And then regretted it for the rest of his life.
Where is Hadley in any of his novels? I see Agnes, Pauline, other women, I can't remember reading a character and thinking, "Ah, Hadley." Did that "Same Old Lang Syne" chance meeting of Hadley at Lipp's even occur? Hadley verifies only one post-divorce encounter, on the ski slopes after she remarried.
Her father committed suicide. Ah jeez, I forgot that. So Hemingway married a girl whose dad shot himself in the head with a pistol and then his own dad swallows his dad's Civil War pistol--At home with the family! Nice touch, Ed.-and Hemingway's mother later sends him the pistol. Wtf, mom?
I looked up Dr. Hemingway's grave. First time for that, I think. "John 15:13" it says on the bottom of the tombstone. Okay, look up John 15:13. "Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends." Huh?
I forgot the pictures I posted here of Dr. Hemingway, too. I refreshed my memory. Clearly, the man was not there. Hemingway with him: the clearly odd body language between them; Hemingway's obvious effeminate poses. I thought of Hemingway's later writing, of his wife penetrating him. "See, we are now one, aren't we?" "Yes." Of son Gregory/Gloria's sex change. And I didn't want to think about it no mo'.
Hadley was the great Lost Love of his life? What about Agnes, the nurse, Agnes von Whatever, Farewell to Arms nurse? She was his first great love and he did lose her, she didn't want him. Hadley he had, didn't lose her as toss her aside. And then regretted it for the rest of his life.
Where is Hadley in any of his novels? I see Agnes, Pauline, other women, I can't remember reading a character and thinking, "Ah, Hadley." Did that "Same Old Lang Syne" chance meeting of Hadley at Lipp's even occur? Hadley verifies only one post-divorce encounter, on the ski slopes after she remarried.
Her father committed suicide. Ah jeez, I forgot that. So Hemingway married a girl whose dad shot himself in the head with a pistol and then his own dad swallows his dad's Civil War pistol--At home with the family! Nice touch, Ed.-and Hemingway's mother later sends him the pistol. Wtf, mom?
I looked up Dr. Hemingway's grave. First time for that, I think. "John 15:13" it says on the bottom of the tombstone. Okay, look up John 15:13. "Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends." Huh?
I forgot the pictures I posted here of Dr. Hemingway, too. I refreshed my memory. Clearly, the man was not there. Hemingway with him: the clearly odd body language between them; Hemingway's obvious effeminate poses. I thought of Hemingway's later writing, of his wife penetrating him. "See, we are now one, aren't we?" "Yes." Of son Gregory/Gloria's sex change. And I didn't want to think about it no mo'.
Darrius Rucker is not crying today! His beloved Miami "Dolphins" (mammal not fish) beat the Buffalo "Arm Pits" on Christmas Eve behind the immortal Jay Ajayi's 206 yards and then made the National Concussion League playoffs yesterday when the Denver "Broken Horses" were easily ridden by the Kansas City "Chieves."
It is Boxing Day in the Kingdom-formerly-known-as-United! Everyone is putting on the gloves and going at it. On the pitch there are eight dreary tilts sheduled including the Hull "Yo-Yos" at home to the Manchester City "Black and Blues With the Red Bullet Wound and the The Golden Shower Schooner." Enjoy.
Sorry kids, Christmas is over, you're off the header. Better, you shouldn't be reading blogs anyway. Back to your studies! I know :( Now for today's lesson, Uncle Ben's gonna learn ya a Rumanian Christmas greeting, K? Yeah! Say, "Trump voters." Trump voters. "Footis." Footis. "Gura." Gura. "Mudda sa food." Mudda sa food. "Asha meena." Asha meena. AWESOME! Now, let's put it all together, K? K!
"Trump voters, footis gura mudda sa food asha meena!"
Trump voters, footis gura mudda sa food asha meena."
SHOUT IT!
TRUMP VOTERS! FOOTIS GURA MUDDA SA FOOD ASHA MEENA!!!
ALL RIGHT! Uncle Ben will bring you each a NEW Christmas present tomorrow!
YEAH! YEAH! THANK YOU UNCLE BEN!!
Okay, good night, kids.
GOOD NIGHT, UNCLE BEN!
"Trump voters, footis gura mudda sa food asha meena!"
Trump voters, footis gura mudda sa food asha meena."
SHOUT IT!
TRUMP VOTERS! FOOTIS GURA MUDDA SA FOOD ASHA MEENA!!!
ALL RIGHT! Uncle Ben will bring you each a NEW Christmas present tomorrow!
YEAH! YEAH! THANK YOU UNCLE BEN!!
Okay, good night, kids.
GOOD NIGHT, UNCLE BEN!
Sunday, December 25, 2016
Oh man, this really was a tremendous play.
Frigging Antonio Brown, you can hardly see his little spindly-legged self in black there getting devoured by, there are actually three Baltimore players there, Blackbirds in white short of the goal line, that is the painful part.
Unbelievable play there by Antonio Brown. My God. I could not do that.
Frigging Antonio Brown, you can hardly see his little spindly-legged self in black there getting devoured by, there are actually three Baltimore players there, Blackbirds in white short of the goal line, that is the painful part.
Hey! Tweet! Fifteen yard penalty, unnecessary breaking the legs of Antonio Brown.
Mother-fucker gets out of that.
Mother-fucker gets out of that and still has motor control and possession of his faculties to extend an unbroken limb with the ball over the frigging goal line! Game, set, division title, playoffs, Stillers.
Unbelievable play there by Antonio Brown. My God. I could not do that.
Red Army Choir Finale
Officially the "Alexandrov Ensemble," ninety members were killed in a plane crash today en route to Latakia, Syria. Their performance of the Soviet/Russian national anthem is awesome. Latakia is the source and the name of my favorite pipe tobacco. In case you're interested.
Wow, Kevin Durant having a big game vs Cleve. today. Score is 103-99 with 3:47 left but the Elf Magician is only 3/10 1/6. GS shooting well otherwise, 47.3%, Cleve. not so well, 38.5%. Kyrie Irving is a putrid 8/22 but does have 10 assists. LBJ is 10/20 and Durant is 11/21, 36 points 12 'bounds. Big game K. Durant.
Met my old lover at the grocery store(1)
"I was at Lipp's on their enclosed terrace having a drink--there was a taxi stand there and a cab pulled up to discharge a passenger and damn if it wasn't Hadley. Hadn't laid eyes on her since our divorce."(2)
I stood behind her in the frozen foods
And I touched her on the sleeve
She didn't recognize the face at first
But then her eyes flew open wide
She went to hug me and she spilled her purse
The beer was empty and our tongues were tired
And running out of things to say
We drank a toast to innocence
We drank a toast to time
Reliving, in our eloquence
Another "Auld Lang Syne"
She gave a kiss to me as I got out
And I watched her drive away
Just for a moment I was back at school
And felt that old familiar pain
And, as I turned to make my way back home
The snow turned into rain.
"I was at Lipp's on their enclosed terrace having a drink--there was a taxi stand there and a cab pulled up to discharge a passenger and damn if it wasn't Hadley. Hadn't laid eyes on her since our divorce."(2)
I stood behind her in the frozen foods
And I touched her on the sleeve
She didn't recognize the face at first
But then her eyes flew open wide
She went to hug me and she spilled her purse
And we laughed until we cried.
"As I approached her, she saw me, gasped, and threw her arms around me. Having her up against me shortened my breath. She stepped back and looked at me.
We went to have ourselves a drink or two
"As I approached her, she saw me, gasped, and threw her arms around me. Having her up against me shortened my breath. She stepped back and looked at me.
We went to have ourselves a drink or two
"I invited her into Lipp's for champagne."
We drank a toast to innocence
We drank a toast to now
We tried to reach beyond the emptiness
But neither one knew how
I said the years had been a friend to her
And that her eyes were still as blue
"'My goodness, Ernest,' she said, 'you look the same.'
"'Not you.'
"'Oh?'
"'You look even lovelier.'
We drank a toast to now
We tried to reach beyond the emptiness
But neither one knew how
"All things truly wicked start from an innocence."
And that her eyes were still as blue
"'My goodness, Ernest,' she said, 'you look the same.'
"'Not you.'
"'Oh?'
"'You look even lovelier.'
She said she saw me in the record stores
And that I must be doing well
"'I follow you in the newspapers. A Farewell to Arms was wonderful. You're a romantic, you know.'"
She said she's married her an architect
Who kept her warm and safe and dry
And that I must be doing well
"'I follow you in the newspapers. A Farewell to Arms was wonderful. You're a romantic, you know.'"
She said she's married her an architect
Who kept her warm and safe and dry
"'You still married to what's his name?'
"'Yes, I'm still Mrs. What's His Name.'"
And running out of things to say
"'And I'll always love you, Tatie. As I loved you in Oak Park and as I loved you here in Paris.' She raised her glass and touched it with mine. She drank the last of her champagne and put down her glass."
We drank a toast to time
Reliving, in our eloquence
Another "Auld Lang Syne"
'I must go to my appointment,' she said.
"'Good-bye, my Tatie.'
She gave a kiss to me as I got out
And I watched her drive away
Just for a moment I was back at school
And felt that old familiar pain
And, as I turned to make my way back home
The snow turned into rain.
"The light changed to green. Hadley turned and kissed me, a meaningful kiss; then she crossed the street and I watched her go, that familiar, graceful walk.'"
The shore lights began to appear in the distance and faraway music skimmed along the water. Ernest leaned his head back and closed his eyes...(3)
As Gregorio steered toward the approaching dock, Ernest said, "That was the last time I saw her."
He was asleep now. (4)
...
Reluctantly, I stood up and crossed the room, the stab of his thin, seeking voice forever in my ear: "How can he know that it will be the only true love of his life? How can he know?"
I quietly let the door close to its latch, hoping my friend was dreaming of being in his favorite room at the Ritz, on the garden side, in a huge brass bed with a heavenly companion who, I'm sure, is Hadley.
1.Same Old Lang Syne, Dan Fogelberg (1980).
2. Hemingway In Love, A.E. Hotchner (2015), ch "Paris Is Sometimes Sad," conversation with Hemingway July, 1955; Hemingway meeting with Hadley undated.
3. Hemingway In Love, "Paris Is Sometimes Sad," Hotchner's description.
4. Hemingway In Love, ch "That Room at St. Mary's, 1961.
We are vertebrates tipped at the head with a divine flame.
I believe the following:
-that each human being possesses a soul and that collective mankind can be said to have a soul;
-that the soul is mutable by us;
-that each human being possesses a soul and that collective mankind can be said to have a soul;
-that the soul is mutable by us;
-that each of us has the obligation to be the best person we can be;
-that we owe that obligation to the soul, to each of our souls, and to the collective soul of mankind;
-that to do otherwise is to erase the distinction between homo sapiens and the lower animals;
-that the pursuit of happiness is inconsistent with the obligation to the soul.
The Case for Relegation
"Astonishingly awful" (Fox Sports);
"New rock bottom, "remarkable disgrace" (New York Post);
"New level of ineptitude" (New York Daily News);
"Humiliated" (NJ.com);
"Embarrassed" (Boston Herald).
Who? Who else?
J-E-T-S, JETS! JETS! JETS!
"New rock bottom, "remarkable disgrace" (New York Post);
"New level of ineptitude" (New York Daily News);
"Humiliated" (NJ.com);
"Embarrassed" (Boston Herald).
Who? Who else?
J-E-T-S, JETS! JETS! JETS!
Saturday, December 24, 2016
JOHNSTOWN, Pa. (AP) — Authorities in Pennsylvania say an infant likely died three or four days after her parents died from what officials suspect were drug overdoses.
Cambria County officials said Friday that 27-year-old Jason Chambers, 19-year-old Chelsea Cardaro and 5-month-old Summer Chambers were found dead in a Kernville home.
Coroner Jeffrey Lees said the parents had been dead for about a week when their bodies were found Thursday. He said autopsies Friday confirmed that the infant died several days later from dehydration and starvation. Neighbors believed the family was out of town.
Friday, December 23, 2016
What is this now?
"Trump's comments on nuclear arms rattle U.S. and foreign leaders"
"Trump challenges the world order"
"Trump, promising arms race, could set world on uncertain path."
Okay, stop. Putin said the following earlier this week:
Putin went on: Russia would, “need to strengthen the military potential of strategic nuclear forces, especially with missile complexes that can reliably penetrate any existing and prospective missile defense system.”
Now: the missile defense system, remember SDI? Star Wars?, that was what caused Gorbachev to fold. His morally and economically bankrupt Soviet Union could not compete. Remember Reykjavik? Reagan sorrowfully refused to give up SDI. That was the beginning of the end of the USSR. That was a good thing!
We never got SDI of course but Europe did get a missile defense system and that has bedeviled Gorby's successors, especially as NATO expanded.
So what Putin was saying there was that he hasn't, and won't, give up. He won't give up until Russia can blast through the anti-missile system.
Trump "rattled"? Trump "challenged the world order"? Trump "could set the world on an uncertain path"?
No.
Putin did all of that rattling and challenging and uncertain-izing.
Trump responded to Putin's truly alarming statement of intent with a laying out of the American response:
“Let it be an arms race…we will outmatch them at every pass and outlast them all.”
That is Reagan-esque and that is good. And Putin knows he would have to fold just as Gorbachev had to fold. Americans have the capability for a new arms race, the Russians do not. Putin knows this very well. So today he did the self-evident thing, he stated Russia wasn't interested in a new nuclear arms on accounta the Russians would be lapped by the U.S. in such a race. That is why they have gone cheap with cyber-invasion of America.
Trump got this one right. And for the Putin-Trump mutual admiration society, Trump is ready to go all in on expanding and modernizing the American nuclear arsenal and establishing facts on the ground that will stop Russia from neutralizing the European missile defense system.
It is all good. Trump got the various strands of an American response to Putin's bluster exactly right. Spend away, Trump, and be lavish in your spending.
"Trump's comments on nuclear arms rattle U.S. and foreign leaders"
"Trump challenges the world order"
"Trump, promising arms race, could set world on uncertain path."
Okay, stop. Putin said the following earlier this week:
“Of course the U.S. has more missiles, submarines and aircraft carriers, but what we say is that we are stronger than any aggressor, and this is the case."
Russia's nuclear capability is stronger than that of "any aggressor," meaning the U.S. That was a statement of fact by Putin, "that is the case." I take that as fact that the Russians believe that. Maybe they do. Maybe that is fact-fact. Whether it is fact-fact or Russian belief fact, that is not good!
We must disabuse the Russians of that belief fact and of the fact-fact if it exists.
Putin went on: Russia would, “need to strengthen the military potential of strategic nuclear forces, especially with missile complexes that can reliably penetrate any existing and prospective missile defense system.”
Now: the missile defense system, remember SDI? Star Wars?, that was what caused Gorbachev to fold. His morally and economically bankrupt Soviet Union could not compete. Remember Reykjavik? Reagan sorrowfully refused to give up SDI. That was the beginning of the end of the USSR. That was a good thing!
We never got SDI of course but Europe did get a missile defense system and that has bedeviled Gorby's successors, especially as NATO expanded.
So what Putin was saying there was that he hasn't, and won't, give up. He won't give up until Russia can blast through the anti-missile system.
Trump "rattled"? Trump "challenged the world order"? Trump "could set the world on an uncertain path"?
No.
Putin did all of that rattling and challenging and uncertain-izing.
Trump responded to Putin's truly alarming statement of intent with a laying out of the American response:
“Let it be an arms race…we will outmatch them at every pass and outlast them all.”
That is Reagan-esque and that is good. And Putin knows he would have to fold just as Gorbachev had to fold. Americans have the capability for a new arms race, the Russians do not. Putin knows this very well. So today he did the self-evident thing, he stated Russia wasn't interested in a new nuclear arms on accounta the Russians would be lapped by the U.S. in such a race. That is why they have gone cheap with cyber-invasion of America.
Trump got this one right. And for the Putin-Trump mutual admiration society, Trump is ready to go all in on expanding and modernizing the American nuclear arsenal and establishing facts on the ground that will stop Russia from neutralizing the European missile defense system.
It is all good. Trump got the various strands of an American response to Putin's bluster exactly right. Spend away, Trump, and be lavish in your spending.
We Need to Listen to Them-Empathetically
"Artvoice," a Buffalo, New York outlet posed these end-of-year questions to some local buffaloes, including Carl Paladino, who was co-chair of Trump's campaign in New York state, and Republican nominee for governor in 2010:
THE QUESTIONS WE POSED:
1. What would you most like to happen in 2017?
2. What would you like to see go away in 2017?
1. Obama catches mad cow disease after being caught having relations with a Herford. He dies before his trial and is buried in a cow pasture next to Valerie Jarret, who died weeks prior, after being convicted of sedition and treason, when a Jihady cell mate mistook her for being a nice person and decapitated her.
2. Michelle Obama. I’d like her to return to being a male and let loose in the outback of Zimbabwe where she lives comfortably in a cave with Maxie, the gorilla.
Just "old style humor" there, explained Paladino.
I'mNotRacist!
Now, did everybody HEAR that?
THE QUESTIONS WE POSED:
1. What would you most like to happen in 2017?
2. What would you like to see go away in 2017?
...
Carl Paladino
DEVELOPER, SCHOOL BOARD MEMBER, POLITICAL ACTIVIST
2. Michelle Obama. I’d like her to return to being a male and let loose in the outback of Zimbabwe where she lives comfortably in a cave with Maxie, the gorilla.
Just "old style humor" there, explained Paladino.
I'mNotRacist!
Now, did everybody HEAR that?
Thursday, December 22, 2016
I'm dreaming of a BLUE Christmas
He-he-he-he. Amazing. Adorable. That's what you can do with the beauriful, unique, single color of Sky Blue. Where's the Red Bullet Wound of Lancashire? The Golden Schooner? NOWHERE!!
No*
The two finest writers to come out of Cambria County, Pennsylvania (Well, wait..."The two finest"? "Two".) are Malcolm Cowley (Blue Juniata) and Jennifer Haigh (Mrs. Kimble). Cowley, however, was only born in Belsano, he grew up in Pittsburgh. Haigh, on the other hand, was born in the town-formerly-known-as-Barnesboro and grew up in Cambria County. Both had the good sense to move on. I have read only The Portable Hemingway by Cowley and nothing by Haigh.
Today on NPR I heard, a continuation, I gather, of the network's listening-to of Trump voters. You know, that's the thing to do now if you're a befuddled East or Left Coaster. "You can walk from Florida to Idaho without ever alighting on a blue county," informed one guest. We have to walk in his foot steps, so to speak.
Malcolm Cowley could not be reached for comment on accounta he died in 1989. Jennifer Haigh however could be, and was. "Coal country," so characterized by NPR, is "like family," so characterized by (and to) Ms. Haigh: "loved," "delightful," "infuriating," "heart-breaking." (I bat one out of four there.) What frosts Ms. Haigh's balls ("takes issue with," is her term) is the anger toward the Beloved Infuriating and their ilk, my word, for their votes for an ignorant, racist, misogynistic, tool-of-Russia, Strongman. You can see why. We need "empathy" for her unempathetic family, prescribed Ms. Haigh. We need to listen to them.
No.
Like Mr. Cowley I spent time living in Pittsburgh. Like Ms. Haigh, I was born in Barnesboro (Unless the area birthed a second hospital between 1955 and 1968, I believe that biographical detail on Ms. Haigh's origin is incorrect. She was born, as I was, in Miner's Hospital in neighboring Spangler.) and grew up in Barnesboro. I also spent four additional years in Western Pennsylvania in college in Pittsburgh, while Ms. Haigh went to elite Dickinson College in central Pa. She followed up Dickinson with the elite Iowa Writers' Workshop, I followed (only in the sense of "came after") Song Binbin to elite MIT before returning to my roots in the Commonwealth of Ilk at the Temple of Themis in Philadelphia. Then, I was gone for good.
All of which is to say that I have spent at least as much time in Cambria County listening to our (Ms. Haigh's and my) Family of Ilk as has she. Each of us has been blessed to listen to them all of our fucking lives, and I ain't listenin' to 'em no mo!
Today on NPR I heard, a continuation, I gather, of the network's listening-to of Trump voters. You know, that's the thing to do now if you're a befuddled East or Left Coaster. "You can walk from Florida to Idaho without ever alighting on a blue county," informed one guest. We have to walk in his foot steps, so to speak.
Malcolm Cowley could not be reached for comment on accounta he died in 1989. Jennifer Haigh however could be, and was. "Coal country," so characterized by NPR, is "like family," so characterized by (and to) Ms. Haigh: "loved," "delightful," "infuriating," "heart-breaking." (I bat one out of four there.) What frosts Ms. Haigh's balls ("takes issue with," is her term) is the anger toward the Beloved Infuriating and their ilk, my word, for their votes for an ignorant, racist, misogynistic, tool-of-Russia, Strongman. You can see why. We need "empathy" for her unempathetic family, prescribed Ms. Haigh. We need to listen to them.
No.
Like Mr. Cowley I spent time living in Pittsburgh. Like Ms. Haigh, I was born in Barnesboro (Unless the area birthed a second hospital between 1955 and 1968, I believe that biographical detail on Ms. Haigh's origin is incorrect. She was born, as I was, in Miner's Hospital in neighboring Spangler.) and grew up in Barnesboro. I also spent four additional years in Western Pennsylvania in college in Pittsburgh, while Ms. Haigh went to elite Dickinson College in central Pa. She followed up Dickinson with the elite Iowa Writers' Workshop, I followed (only in the sense of "came after") Song Binbin to elite MIT before returning to my roots in the Commonwealth of Ilk at the Temple of Themis in Philadelphia. Then, I was gone for good.
All of which is to say that I have spent at least as much time in Cambria County listening to our (Ms. Haigh's and my) Family of Ilk as has she. Each of us has been blessed to listen to them all of our fucking lives, and I ain't listenin' to 'em no mo!
They are ignorant, racist, misogynistic, tools of the Russian tool and I have disowned my remaining family so that I never have to listen to them again. They need empathy of the ilk Woody Allen prescribed for Nazis: baseball bats.
*It's still "No" but I have made changes to this today, December 23, after checking the NPR transcript. Not worth an "Update," just an *.
*It's still "No" but I have made changes to this today, December 23, after checking the NPR transcript. Not worth an "Update," just an *.
Wednesday, December 21, 2016
Christmas, 2016
There she is (again), the official child of Christmas, forever, the divine Rhema Marvanne, singing O Holy Night. Rhema
Christmas, Mexico City
Twenry-nine people are dead in a fireworks explosion in the Mexican capital. Trump bombed them, I think, I said I think. God keep our dear, maligned, Mexican friends and neighbors.
Tuesday, December 20, 2016
Oh my God.
"The Temptation of Saint Anthony" is a fecund search term for paintings that are so bad they're funny.
For years, largely before this reincarnation of Public Occurrences, I was as driven in my amateur study of art as I was to become of China. But then 9/11 happened and I dribbled away from art to Islam. Still dribbled, dabbled; it was art that actually was the wedge to China.
Art is more ethnocentric than Trump. "Art" in the West means "Western Art." I really exhausted Western Art and thought c'mon, that is so stupid, there is other art. And man, Chinese art was soooo different. Studied that good and then that first trip to China and I abandoned Islam, wasn't making any headway anyway, nobody important believed what I believed, I couldn't make any headway--I did appear on a radio show on Islam, though, "a," one.--and I got frustrated and then took that first trip to Beijing and immediately got hooked on the CR.
DID make some headway on China, HAD an itsy-bitsy amount of notice, never went back to Chinese art, Art, or Islam, and then went as far as I could go on the CR and have become a dissipated, driftless piece of shit since. How's your life?
Christmas, Berlin, Germany
A terrorist attack last night, reportedly by a Muslim immigrant, has left a dozen dead and scores injured. The terrorist drove a truck into the city's Christmas Market.
Monday, December 19, 2016
"Something Is Afoot"
There are profounder matters at work than mere unreason...
Among such profounder matters is surely what has come to be called "the search for identity." As "identity politics," "identity crises," "identity loss," [etc.]...the term "identity" has doubtless of late been much abused...But...something important is afoot. Something, something rather general, is happening to the ways in which people think about who they are, who others are, how they wish to be portrayed, named, understood, and placed by the world at large.
...When someone is asked "who," or..."what," he or she "is," the answer is as likely to be ethnic (a Serb"), national ("an Australian"),...or even racial ("a White")...as it is religious...
Available Light, Clifford Geertz (2000), ch VIII "The Pinch of Destiny: Religion as Experience, Meaning, Identity, Power.
Sunday, December 18, 2016
Dick Head Caught on Camera
Ah jeez, Trump again:
For the first time, marine biologists have captured a type of ghost shark on camera that boasts one of the more unusually-placed penises in the animal kingdom.
For the first time, marine biologists have captured a type of ghost shark on camera that boasts one of the more unusually-placed penises in the animal kingdom.
...
Perhaps the most unusual feature of the shark is a retractable penis it has on its head. Researchers aren’t sure why the shark boasts such unconventional genitalia but Mr Ebert said scientists found its behaviour and keen attraction to the camera “a little comical”.
“It would come up and bounce its nose off the lens and swim around and come back,” he said.
Perhaps the most unusual feature of the shark is a retractable penis it has on its head. Researchers aren’t sure why the shark boasts such unconventional genitalia but Mr Ebert said scientists found its behaviour and keen attraction to the camera “a little comical”.
“It would come up and bounce its nose off the lens and swim around and come back,” he said.
Manchester City 2 Arsenal 1
"It was the first time since 2012 that [City] had won a match after trailing at half time."
City manager Pep Guardiola lit into his squad at half-time of their match today. They responded just two minutes after the break and went on to win. Before the match Guardiola gave a soulful interview to former Arsenal player Thierry Henry of Sky Sports:
“It doesn’t mean my footballing ideas are special, different, better than the others. I am not saying it’s my football, my ideas, and the other coaches are nothing. It’s the way I believe. I’m not special.
“What I am living through now is what all of the managers in the world are living. I am not top of the league right now, but I am focused more on understanding the league.
“It is a challenge, but it’s a normal situation for all the managers around the world, and I know at this club you have to build something."
"This unpredictable game here in England makes it so fascinating for the fans, because you never know what will happen. It’s always there’s a last chance for one team, which makes it so beautiful, but to try to control it is a bit more difficult and we will need more time.
"I cannot change. This is what I believe in and it can be successful.”
"Will I be a success? I don’t know. After six months we have made some good things, some not so good things."
“It doesn’t mean my footballing ideas are special, different, better than the others. I am not saying it’s my football, my ideas, and the other coaches are nothing. It’s the way I believe. I’m not special.
“What I am living through now is what all of the managers in the world are living. I am not top of the league right now, but I am focused more on understanding the league.
“It is a challenge, but it’s a normal situation for all the managers around the world, and I know at this club you have to build something."
"This unpredictable game here in England makes it so fascinating for the fans, because you never know what will happen. It’s always there’s a last chance for one team, which makes it so beautiful, but to try to control it is a bit more difficult and we will need more time.
"I cannot change. This is what I believe in and it can be successful.”
"Will I be a success? I don’t know. After six months we have made some good things, some not so good things."
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