all-evening dinners

Pop and Kay spent a good five hours over dinner. True, it was a barbecue, which might account for an extra hour, but it shows off the trend. Dinner is an all night thing, in the preparation, the eating, and in the cleaning up. They will start at six or seven and I'll be lucky if they finish by eleven.

As for last night, at least there wasn't that loud TV. It helps a lot. I guess they actually wanted to enjoy their conversation without having to talk over it.

I suppose if one doesn't have anything better to do, it is not a bad plan. I have even fancied it for myself at times, as part of also learning how to really cook. If reading and writing were not so compelling to me, I would see how it may be just as well to luxuriate over the basic necessities and make of it a way of life and even a bit of an art.

But their practice of this is a bit hard on me, as the kitchen is a central and vital location, and I end up having to work around them.

Elvis

Elvis and his boys visit a karate studio, and he gets lost in that dream world. Elvis really liked macho things - karate, guns, cars, football, teenage girls.

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Presley seemed to lap up the atmosphere of karate. He was getting very expansive in his conversation. He was telling the assembly, which included Sonny, Ed Parker, Charlie Hodge, Elvis’s rhythm guitarist, and Gerald Peters, his chauffeur, a dry-humored Englishman who once drove for Winston Churchill, what he intended to for the future of karate. “I’m gonna start my own karate system,” Elvis promised. “We will make our own movie about the art and have our own competitions.” Presley himself planned to star in the lead role as the boss tough guy.

-- “Elvis: What Happened?” by Steve Dunleavy

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62. The 90s

As the morning begins to lose its cool, fresh feeling, I think about how nice it is to be able to open up these two windows in the big room. Remember, these windows were put in as part of the renovation when we bought the house. I remember, after these windows were put in, in that spring of 2000, I vented some pique at mother for her way of covering up windows with furniture and hence keeping the windows permanently shut, despite my pleas to stop doing that. I chided her, “Maybe we should move the china cabinet here now!” She understood and laughed. She did not put in these windows just to cover them up and keep them shut, thank god!

George Washington

Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson had some good insights on George Washington’s decision-making and executive leadership.

Hamilton said, “He consulted much, pondered much, resolved slowly, resolved surely.”

Jefferson said, “Perhaps the strongest feature in his character was prudence, never acting until every circumstance, every consideration, was maturely weighed; refraining if he saw a doubt, but, when once decided, going through with his purpose whatever obstacles opposed.”

[Source: Ron Chernow, “Alexander Hamilton”]

Rape Wank

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Daily Fun

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