The Natural World

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Elvis

Elvis is known, practically notorious, for going overboard on his pet interests. His bodyguard has an interesting statement on this distinctly Elvine propensity.

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“Without trying to be an amateur psychiatrist, the best way to explain it is that everything Elvis does, everything that interests him, everything that he takes up, he grabs, strangles and beats it to death. If he suddenly takes a liking for a certain food, he will eat it four times a day, every day for a month, until it makes him physically throw up.”

-- Dave Hebler

[Source: Steve Dunleavy, “Elvis: What Happened?”]

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Monday

Those occasional thunderstorms were scheduled to begin at around 5:45. It's six now, and the sun is shining so prettily. The storms have been pushed back to 9:45, but why do I have this ill feeling that we will not even get a little drizzle this week...

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2015

It ain't looking very rain out there. The sky looks quite nice in fact. Let's check the weather. Yup, they have now pushed the storms back to 11:00.

I'm still keeping the cats indoors. In truth, it looks a little iffy out there. The winds are kicking up. They also boost the chance to a perfect 100% for one a.m. I'm going to play it safe.

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2245

The storm is here. Falling hard. With Full-on electrical effects. I'm surprised the power hasn't shut off - yet.

Pop

Pop took out the weed-eater and put in some lawn work this afternoon. Later, after he has showered, his hair is still wet and largely uncombed, with hair flopping casually over his forehead, and when I see him walking down the hall and turning sideways toward me, in the dim light, I could swear that I am looking at a young version of himself, someone in his twenties perhaps. He seems looser, the hair looks more black, and he also appears thinner, smaller. The image gives off the impression of a jaunty if somewhat somber youthfulness. I am touched by the idea of Pop as an adolescent, as just another kid in the world trying to make sense of his life, who hasn't gotten a job yet, nor a wife and kids. If we were the same age - teens or twenty-somethings - I don't suppose we'd be friends, but that is part of who we are: we don't really make friends with anyone.

The Movies

People have been disenchanted with the movies since movies first came to be. Here is a sharp jab by a critic from the 1920s.

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“I wish that the public could, in the midst of its pleasures, see how blatantly it is being spoon-fed, and ask for slightly better dreams.”

-- Iris Barry

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[Source: Laura Frost, “The Problem with Pleasure: Modernism and Its Discontents”]