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Mar. 22nd, 2014
Shit, I forgot that "Hannibal" was on last night. In truth, I have been feeling myself go cold on the show. This morning's post on the episode, though, is making me regretful. I'm going to see if there is an encore presentation, even though I am not sure if I really do want to keep watching.
Yes, We Can
Mar. 22nd, 2014 10:41 am"We've been warned against offering the people of this nation false hope. But in the unlikely story that is America, there has never been anything false about hope."
-- Barack Obama
A discussion at PolitiCartoons got me thinking about Obama's famous "Yes, we can" speech, when he was first running for president. I don't think I ever bothered to get the text of that speech, and I will mend that oversight now. It can serve as a poignant counterpoint to the events and problems of today, now that Obama is nearing the end of his presidency.
It also occurs to me that we have not heard a really big speech from Obama since that time. I don't think even his second inaugural speech was as strong as the "Yes, we can" speech. Maybe he should take a few days and write a grand speech about Russia and the Ukraine conflict. Although it presumably would not turn Putin around, it would be good to have a definitive statement on the books laying out the importance of these revived tensions with Russia. Obama has a talent for speech-making, and one cannot do very much in this kind of nuclear-armed laden conflict; so, maybe he should give us another grand speech and define the moment for history.
( Read more... )
-- Barack Obama
A discussion at PolitiCartoons got me thinking about Obama's famous "Yes, we can" speech, when he was first running for president. I don't think I ever bothered to get the text of that speech, and I will mend that oversight now. It can serve as a poignant counterpoint to the events and problems of today, now that Obama is nearing the end of his presidency.
It also occurs to me that we have not heard a really big speech from Obama since that time. I don't think even his second inaugural speech was as strong as the "Yes, we can" speech. Maybe he should take a few days and write a grand speech about Russia and the Ukraine conflict. Although it presumably would not turn Putin around, it would be good to have a definitive statement on the books laying out the importance of these revived tensions with Russia. Obama has a talent for speech-making, and one cannot do very much in this kind of nuclear-armed laden conflict; so, maybe he should give us another grand speech and define the moment for history.
( Read more... )
Landays from Afghanistan
Mar. 22nd, 2014 02:02 pm“In Afghan culture, poetry is revered…. A folk couplet—a landay—[is] an oral and often anonymous scrap of song created by and for mostly illiterate people: the more than twenty million Pashtun women who span the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan. . . . Sometimes landays rhyme, but more often not.”
-- Eliza Griswold, editor and translator of the forthcoming volume "I Am the Beggar of the World: Landays from Contemporary Afghanistan"
It looks like the Twitter form of poetry. Maybe it is a style of poetry I can get into. I have tended to think that you need at least four lines for a poem, for at least a good heroic quatrain, but maybe I was shooting too high.
<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
When sisters sit together, they always praise their
brothers.
When brothers sit together, they sell their sisters to
others.
~ ~ ~
My body belongs to me;
to others its mastery.
-- Landays from contemporary Afghanistan
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
[Source: Sully's Dish]
-- Eliza Griswold, editor and translator of the forthcoming volume "I Am the Beggar of the World: Landays from Contemporary Afghanistan"
It looks like the Twitter form of poetry. Maybe it is a style of poetry I can get into. I have tended to think that you need at least four lines for a poem, for at least a good heroic quatrain, but maybe I was shooting too high.
<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
When sisters sit together, they always praise their
brothers.
When brothers sit together, they sell their sisters to
others.
~ ~ ~
My body belongs to me;
to others its mastery.
-- Landays from contemporary Afghanistan
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
[Source: Sully's Dish]
Pop does some heavy-duty cleaning in the kitchen this afternoon. He is cleaning the deep-fat fryer. It is quite a job, and I think it is one of those things that a person just really doesn’t need to do. You use the fryer for a year or two and then get a new one. But although Pop will drop bundles of cash on cowboy hats and jewelry, he gets all thrifty when it comes to something like this. There’s no talking him out of it. It really means something to him; at his age, this is like climbing a mountain. He has his own notions, though.
Pop's Book
Mar. 22nd, 2014 06:31 pmAfter a good day’s work in the kitchen, Pop sits out on the patio and reads his Grisham book, “Sycamore Row”. I think Lorie got him to read it. That was a little over two months ago, but he seems to be making headway. I kind of wonder if he is really getting anything out of it. Does he enjoy some of the dialogue?
It is an interesting sight nonetheless. I can wish that it was part of family life throughout, to have seen my parents reading books in my childhood, as though it were as much a way of life as watching television. But it really isn’t us.
As for what I am doing with my books, I cannot really say. I don’t know. I consume them more like drugs. It is not a matter of middle-class leisure. It is more of a way to avoid class realities.
It is an interesting sight nonetheless. I can wish that it was part of family life throughout, to have seen my parents reading books in my childhood, as though it were as much a way of life as watching television. But it really isn’t us.
As for what I am doing with my books, I cannot really say. I don’t know. I consume them more like drugs. It is not a matter of middle-class leisure. It is more of a way to avoid class realities.