code0range.net

One thing is for sure: we don't know what life will bring.

 

"Make Music with Your Life"

Make music with your life

a

jagged

silver tune

cuts every deepday madness

into jewels that you wear

Carry 16 bars of old blues

wit/you

everywhere you go

walk thru azure sadness

howlin

Like a guitar player

--Bob O'Meally

To Be of Use

The people I love the best

Jump into work head first

without dallying in the shallows

and swim off with sure strokes almost out of sight.

They seem to become natives of that element,

the black sleek heads of seals

bouncing like half-submerged balls.

 

I love people who harness themselves, an ox to a heavy cart,

who pull like water buffalo, with massive patience,

who strain in the mud and the muck to move things forward.

who do what has to be done, again and again.

 

I want to be with people who submerge

Who He Thinks Will Win: 

Best Supporting Actor:  George Clooney

Best Supporting Actress:  Rachel Weiscz

Best Actor:  Phillip Seymour Hoffman

Best Actress:  Reese Witherspoon

Best Director:  Ang Lee

Best Film: Brokeback Mountain

 

However, he would have voted for:

BSA: Matt Dillon

BSA: Catherine Keener

BA:  Phillip Seymour Hoffman

BA: Felicity Huffman

Best Director:  Bennett Miller

Best Film: Capote 

 

Just finished this book.   It's just over 600 pages, but really worth the time commitment.  Pete Hamill is a NYC native and journalist--also a wonderful writer.  It's about Cormac O'Connor who comes to NYC in the 1700's but hangs around for over 250 years since he's been granted immortality as long as he doesn't leave Manhattan.

 What you get here is a history of NYC.  Hamill is one of the best historians of the city.  Cormac meets George Washington, Boss Tweed and others.  You get a good sense of how people really lived in NYC--not always a pretty sight.  I recommed the book to everyone who wants to learn more about how NYC develped.

One of my favorite Christmas presents is an eight CD set which contains every page of 4000 issues of the magazine beginning with issue #1.  It is completely searchable and quite easy to use.  Many articles which were published without bylines are now attributed.  It's really an amazing use of our current technology.  I have every cartoon, every cover--all at my fingertips.  Since I'm especially interested in the Algonquin Roundtable, I'm going to focus first on Dorothy Parker and Robert Benchley.  Just thought you'd be interested.

Here's some information about the man who seems to be the Democrats' choice so far to challenge Bloomberg.  This info came from his web site.

 

Fernando Ferrer is a son of the Bronx and a champion of New York neighborhoods. Raised by his mother, and his grandmother, who worked in the kitchen of the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, Ferrer took strength and inspiration from their example. Like generations of New Yorkers past and present, he grew up knowing the value of hard work, family, community, and faith ideals that continue to inform his vision for the City and for its many diverse communities.

If you watched The Daily Show closely last night, you caught a short item just before the first break. 

In this item, there is a picture of people at one of the shelters, which must have been in New Orleans because of the date on the picture (read on). The caption said: Voice of Barbara Bush on AMP's Marketplace (I have no idea what that is), Sept. 5, 2005.

Anyway what Barbara Bush is saying as a voiceover to this picture is:

"And so many of the people in the arenas here, you know, were underpriviledged anyway.  This is working very well for them."
 

Having raised two entire children on a firm foundation of guilt, Yossarian's plea for more blogs made me guilty.  Yes, I should blog more.  But sometimes life gets in the way.  I've been trying to exercise more.  That's very time consuming.  Sweat is so inconvenient.  Also, I'm preparing to bring five of my dearest friends to NYC.  So I've been online buying tickets, printing maps, and trying to figure out who can stand to room with whom for eight nights.  Arranging seats on the airplane was bad enough.  Then there's the end of another semester.  One student can't understand why she didn't do well on her research paper.   Now mind you, there was no research.  No reference to any secondary sources.  No parenthetical documentation.  No Works Cited page.  I guess I should have started by having her define the word "research."  Who knew she didn't learn that in high school.

Here's a wonderful poem by Marge Piercy. Maybe it says something to us about the work we need to do before the next election.

To be of use

The people I love the best
jump into work head first
without dallying in the shallows
and swim off with sure strokes almost out of sight.
They seem to become natives of that element,
the black sleek heads of seals
bouncing like half-submerged balls.

I love people who harness themselves, an ox to a heavy cart,
who pull like water buffalo, with massive patience,
who strain in the mud and the muck to move things forward,
who do what has to be done, again and again.

"This is Just to Say"
William Carlos Williams

I have eaten
the plums
that were in
the icebox

and which
you were probably
saving
for breakfast

forgive me
they were delicious
so sweet
and so cold

"This I Just to Say"
Erica-Lynn Gambino

(for William Carlos Williams)

I have just
asked you to
get out of my
apartment

even though
you never
thought
I would

Forgive me
you were
driving
me insane