An Inheritance-Based Economy

“Even as most younger Americans struggle to obtain decent jobs and secure property, the Welfare Institute concluded, America is moving toward an “inheritance-based economy” where access to the last generation’s wealth could prove a critical determinant of both influence and power.”

-- Joel Kotkin at The Daily Beast

Pop and Kay

I was apparently too quick to see trouble in paradise. Kay did come, but instead of spending the night, she came this morning. Then I got this break: Pop will be leaving with her for the weekend. In its mysterious randomness, the world sometimes spins out a little kindness. They are going to a wedding.

Celebrities and Stuff

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Journaling

I need to go back to keeping a list of writing prompts, distilled from the myriad mundanities of my days. I have been feeling a hunger to express myself again. Maybe going through my early blurty entries has reawakened this appetite for keeping a real journal, something more like a diary rather than a clippings book. The difference between then and now, however, is that I am really into my little projects now - the book-blogging and the hardcover quotebooks. Back then I hungered to find projects that would absorb my attention and energy, but I essentially had nothing between me and my blog, not even any blogging pals, so that I was free to simply write about my days as they flowed by me, such as they were, all empty and trivial. As blah as it may be, there is something emotionally satisfying in it. It is as creative as I get.

The problem today is that I have to pick my opportunities around my projects, and when I do, I cannot recall what I might have wanted to write about. Therefore I must resort to an old solution: making a quick note when something seems a little fertile for journaling, and keeping the list of those notes nearby. Easy. One just has to see it and start doing it.

Pop and Kay

Fuck, they are back! And, to add insult to injury, a light rain is falling: it will be tricky getting my cats back inside.

* * *

Whew, a misunderstanding. They are still leaving. She wanted to do some shopping first. It is unusual for Pop to take on night-driving, but he assures me they are going.


* * *

Hnmm, they took both vehicles. Maybe they are going to drop off her truck at her place. I don't know. It's no big deal, but the cats like having a vehicle to hide under, from which they can safely surveil the happenings out front, and I think they preferred her higher-up truck. Well, they will just have to be glad that they are not indoors. It's going to be a little cold, though.

The Cats

Wow, Coco really doesn't want to come inside. She was at the patio, but she apparently only wanted the rain to lighten up, which it has, and now she is gone again. I should not be surprised. She is the most insistent and loudest to go outside when the cats are being kept in. Ash And Sammy came in readily enough and are lounging in the big room with me. Coco should be getting hungry before long.

1977 Sadat

Anwar Sadat gets the ball rolling for peace when he startles his people and the world with this statement before his legislature, the Egyptian People’s Assembly.

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“I am ready to travel to the ends of the earth if this will in any way protect an Egyptian boy, soldier, or officer from being killed or wounded … Israel will be surprised to hear me say that I am willing to go to their parliament, the Knesset itself, and debate with them.”

-- Prime Minister Anwar Sadat (November 9, 1977)

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

And he does. It is a grand gesture since the way of things until then was to pretend that Israel did not even exist.

[Source: Lawrence Wright, "Thirteen Days in September"]

LJ Life

Miss Anthropic Joy, a computer pro, has been posting about her creative retooling of her desk pages. I said, "It must be nice. I'm more of a default person myself. Even my picture frames still have the original pictures of the models that were sold with them."