Part of being a good citizen of the blogosphere is visiting, reading and, most importantly, taking the time to leave a comment on other’s blogs. It’s all about the conversation. In the interest of setting an example I’ve decided to link to those blog posts that have compelled me to leave a comment.
Why the killer lives on West 98th Street
The work of the world is common as mud.
Botched, it smears the hands, crumbles to dust.
But the thing worth doing well done
has a shape that satisfies, clean and evident.
Greek amphoras for wine or oil,
Hopi vases that held corn, are put in museums
but you know they were made to be used.
The pitcher cries for water to carry
and a person for work that is real.
From To be of use by Marge Piercy .
My name is Jeff Hess and I’m a biblioholic. I own hundreds of books. Not valuable books, mostly Science Fiction paperbacks and text books, tomes rescued by the bag from library book sales. A few years ago, in the interest of not burying myself, I began reading more books from the library and taking notes. My electronic chapbook was born.
This is a passage I copied from Reading Lolita In Tehran by Azar Nafisi.
Is it possible to write a reverent novel, said Nassrin, and to have it be good? … There must be some blasted space in life, she added crossly, where we can be offensive, for God”s sake. p. 50
My Soundtrack: She’s Not Shy by Irving on WOXY.
Typically, as my cadre of readers knows, it is my dad who sends me jokes and funny stories via email, but this one came from my Web Sorceress. And given that the Labor Day weekend is the traditional start of the silly political season (and the signal for Congress to shut down) here’s yet another take on all things political.
While visiting his niece, an elderly man had a heart attack. The woman drove wildly to get him to the emergency room. After what seemed like a very long wait, the ER doctor appeared, wearing his scrubs and a long face.
Sadly, he said, “I’m afraid that your uncle’s brain is dead, but his heart is still beating.”
“Oh, dear,” cried the woman, her hands clasped against her cheeks with shock.
“We’ve never had a Republican in the family before!”
My name is Jeff Hess and I’m a biblioholic. I own hundreds of books. Not valuable books, mostly Science Fiction paperbacks and text books, tomes rescued by the bag from library book sales. A few years ago, in the interest of not burying myself, I began reading more books from the library and taking notes. My electronic chapbook was born.
This is a passage I copied from Reading Lolita In Tehran by Azar Nafisi.
He kept repeating to his parents that he was having illegal dreams. p. 46
My Soundtrack: Can You Tell by Ra Ra Riot on WOXY.
In the year 2006, the Lord came unto Noah, who was now living in the United States , and said, “Once again, the earth has become wicked and over-populated, and I see the end of all flesh before me. Build another Ark and save 2 of every living thing along with a few good humans.” He gave Noah the blueprints, saying,
“You have 6 months to build the Ark before I will start the unending rain for 40 days and 40 nights.”
Six months later, the Lord looked down and saw Noah weeping in his yard — but no Ark.
“Noah!” He roared, “I’m about to start the rain! Where is the Ark?”
“Forgive me, Lord,” begged Noah, “but things have changed. I needed a building permit. I’ve been arguing with the inspector about the need for a sprinkler system. My neighbors claim that I’ve violated the neighborhood zoning laws by building the Ark in my yard and exceeding the height limitations. We had to go to the Development Appeal Board for a decision.
Then the Department of Transportation demanded a bond be posted for the future costs of moving power lines and other overhead obstructions, to clear the passage for the Ark ‘s move to the sea. I told them that the sea would be coming to us, but they would hear nothing of it.
Getting the wood was another problem. There’s a ban on cutting local trees in order to save the spotted owl. I tried to convince the environmentalists that I needed the wood to save the owls — but no go!
When I started gathering the animals, an animal rights group sued me. They insisted that I was confining wild animals against their will. They argued the accommodation was too restrictive, and it was cruel and inhumane to put so many animals in a confined space.
Then the EPA ruled that I couldn’t build the Ark until they’d conducted an environmental impact study on your proposed flood.
I’m still trying to resolve a complaint with the Human Rights Commission on how many minorities I’m supposed to hire for my building crew.
Immigration and Naturalization are checking the green-card status of most of the people who want to work.
The trades unions say I can’t use my sons. They insist I have to hire only Union workers with Ark-building experience.
To make matters worse, the IRS seized all my assets, claiming I’m trying to leave the country illegally with endangered species.
So, forgive me, Lord, but it would take at least 10 years for me to finish this Ark.”
Suddenly the skies cleared, the sun began to shine, and a rainbow stretched across the sky. Noah looked up in wonder and asked, “You mean you’re not going to destroy the world?”
“No,” said the Lord sadly. “The government has beaten me to it.”
My name is Jeff Hess and I’m a biblioholic. I own hundreds of books. Not valuable books, mostly Science Fiction paperbacks and text books, tomes rescued by the bag from library book sales. A few years ago, in the interest of not burying myself, I began reading more books from the library and taking notes. My electronic chapbook was born.
This is a passage I copied from Shelby Foote: A Writer”s Life by C. Stuart Chapman.
From a September, 1980, letter written by Walker Percy to Shelby Foote:
The only thing to do with Two Gates is get going and let ‘er rip. Where I”d be hung in a book like that is the very beginning. …Get on with Two Gates. Being blocked, I am convinced, means that you”re blocking yourself which is a dirty little trick to play on yourself since the one thing we need above all else is the perfect freedom to get hold of the beast, which is hard enough without grappling with yourself like Dr. Strangelove. p. 243
My Soundtrack: Forest Families by The Knife on WOXY.
Part of being a good citizen of the blogosphere is visiting, reading and, most importantly, taking the time to leave a comment on other’s blogs. It’s all about the conversation. In the interest of setting an example I’ve decided to link to those blog posts that have compelled me to leave a comment.
0542 Quote Of The Day
My Soundtrack: Salute The Institution by Simon Dawes on WOXY.
My name is Jeff Hess and I’m a biblioholic. I own hundreds of books. Not valuable books, mostly Science Fiction paperbacks and text books, tomes rescued by the bag from library book sales. A few years ago, in the interest of not burying myself, I began reading more books from the library and taking notes. My electronic chapbook was born.
This is a passage I copied from early GRRRL by Marge Piercy.
Always Unsuitable
Oh mamas, I would have been your friend.
I would have cooked for you and held you.
I have might have rattled the windows
of your sorry marriages, but I would
have loved you better than you know
how to love yourselves, bitter sisters.
From uncollected poems spanning several decades.
My Soundtrack: Know Your Onion by The Shins on WOXY.
Last year Veterans of Foregin Wars member Bill Moyers took an extra precaution to listen to President George Bush’s speech to the VFW. This year the talking-point word for the day is Facism. Make it a drinking game. Every time the President or one of his sock puppets utters the word they all down a shot or chug a beer. It might help ease the pain.
It’s been a busy week in Wally World: the universe’s source of cheap plastic crap. On The Writing On The Wal — the blog USA Today says should be on its readers’ radar — Jonathan Rees, Robert Feinman, Peter Sayles and I continue our work dedicated to drawing back the curtain on the Bentonvile Behemoth’s corporate disinformation and other flackery.
WAL MART SEEKS SECRET TALKS IN CHINA… The idea of a union, any union, scares the bejesus out of the Bentonvile Behemoth”s executives. So much so, accrording to the All-China Federation of Trade Unions, Wal Mart wants to hold talks with no media presence. Wonder what they want to hide? I don”t. Keep reading…
WAL MART GETTING FUELISH…? There are some five million duel-fuel vehicles – cars and trucks that can run on either gasoline or E85 – on American roads. E85 is a mix of 85 percent ethanol and 15 percent gasoline. Automakers want to double their production of such vehicles to two million per year. Keep reading…
NO. 2 AT WAL MART SENTENCED… Thomas Coughlin, the former vice president of Wal Mart was sentenced yesterday to 27 months of home detention, five years probation and the payment of a $50,000 fine and $411,000 in restitution for stealing from his employer. Keep reading…
WAL MART BAGS IT IN SARANAC LAKE… Wal Mart has decided that it doesn’t want to build in yet another community. I really need to do some kind of tally of how many communities have successfully fought off the Bentonvile Behemoth. The list just keeps getting bigger and bigger. Keep reading…
SUCKING ON THE BIG TEAT… So did Robson Walton. From Johnny Hart. Keep reading…
AT THE WALLY PLEX… There are sound stages on Hollywood”s back lots smaller than Bentonvile”s behemoths, so it”s no surprise that budding video talent has been sneaking cameras in at odd hours. And now for the midnight show at the Wally Plex featuring keithbehrman. Keep reading…
DON”T MEAN TO BRAG, BUT… We haven”t talked about our traffic here at The Writing On The Wal before, but we passed a bit of a milestone yesterday and we wanted to thank all of our readers who pushed us past the 5,000 unique visitors per month mark. Keep reading…
COMRADE SAM”S GREAT LEAP BACKWARD… While a spokesperson for the Bentonvile Behemoth calls it a matter of routine, a few people have taken notice that Wal Mart now has it”s very own branch of the Chinese Communist Party in the northeastern industrial city of Shenyang. Keep reading…
THE WORLD”S SMALLEST VIOLIN… Barbara Ehrenreich, author of Nickel and Dimed, continues to write about the places she worked while writing her book, including Wal Mart. This week she throws a pity party for the Bentonvile Behemoth because everybody is picking on it. Keep reading…
AT THE WALLY PLEX… There are sound stages on Hollywood”s back lots smaller than Bentonvile”s behemoths, so it”s no surprise that budding video talent has been sneaking cameras in at odd hours. And now for the midnight show at the Wally Plex featuring Doomcore. Keep reading…
IF I DON”T LOVE WAL MART I MUST BE A… From the blog that labeled me a Wal Mart-hating Marxist envious of their success (see comments) comes this detailed list of all those Americans who don”t subscribe to the benefits of an up-close and personal view of the Bentonvile Behemoth”s colon. Keep reading…
NEW YORKERS REJECT WAL MART,… AGAIN… If this keeps up Lee Scott is going to get a complex. The Bentonvile Behemoth wiffed its third attempt to crack the very lucrative urban New York City, market. First it was Flushing, then Queens and now Staten Island. too.
THE GOVERNOR NEEDS A SCORECARD… Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee isn’t impressed by the guys on the bus and pegged them as a traveling circus. Problem is, what he is ticked off about has nothing to do with Wake Up Wal Mart”s road trip. Rather, he meant to take a shot at Wal Mart Watch. Keep reading…
COMMUNISTS, CAPITALISTS OR BOTH…? Until The Wall came down in 1989 and the acolytes of President Ronald Reagan proclaimed the victory of Capitalism over Communism, the lines seemed to be plainly drawn between the Evil Empire and the World”s Shining Hope. Not so in the 21st Century. Keep reading…
My Soundtrack: Girlshapedlovedrug by Gomez on WOXY.
Part of being a good citizen of the blogosphere is visiting, reading and, most importantly, taking the time to leave a comment on other’s blogs. It’s all about the conversation. In the interest of setting an example I’ve decided to link to those blog posts that have compelled me to leave a comment.
My name is Jeff Hess and I’m a biblioholic. I own hundreds of books. Not valuable books, mostly Science Fiction paperbacks and text books, tomes rescued by the bag from library book sales. A few years ago, in the interest of not burying myself, I began reading more books from the library and taking notes. My electronic chapbook was born.
This is a passage I copied from early GRRRL by Marge Piercy.
Turn About
In the twilight of the room
the mirror beckons like a pond.
Dive in. Pass Through.
In that room on the dark
side of the mirror moon
are all the things you lost.
[snip]
If only you can remember
how to pass through the glass
like gauze curtains that tear
before you, like water
parting to let your warm body
drown in its cool embrace.
From uncollected poems spanning several decades.
My Soundtrack: Holdin’ On by The Emergency on WOXY.
Part of being a good citizen of the blogosphere is visiting, reading and, most importantly, taking the time to leave a comment on other’s blogs. It’s all about the conversation. In the interest of setting an example I’ve decided to link to those blog posts that have compelled me to leave a comment.
0509 Ohio’s small schools reform: you decide if it works
My Soundtrack: Time To Go by Michael Franti and Spearhead on WOXY.
How ignorant do we want to act before we become ashamed of ourselves. This week at least two groups of airline passengers have done what airport screeners don’t do: profile their fellow passengers and delay airline flights. First it was these two lads from England they objected to. And then they became scared by this t-shirt.
And then there’s this list.
Stop and think for a moment. If you’re a terrorist organization and you want sneak something dangerous onto a plane the first thing you’re going to do is dress and act in ways that scream: I’m a terrorist! Look At Me!
For the nightmare scenerio take a leap back in time to 1983 and read John Le Carre’s Little Drummer Girl. How do you feel about the blond college cheerleader in 12a now?
More than 10 years ago a writer friend and I batted a plot back and forth that involved information discovered on a carelessly discarded computer. Truth is always stranger than fiction and a report out today from the Assocated Press makes the case. People are buying new cell phones today the way they used to buy new cars.
Which generates a lot of used phones.
What’s the danger? This.
The married man’s girlfriend sent a text message to his cell phone: His wife was getting suspicious. Perhaps they should cool it for a few days.
“So,” she wrote, “I’ll talk to u next week.”
“You want a break from me? Then fine,” he wrote back.
Later, the married man bought a new phone. He sold his old one on eBay, at Internet auction, for $290.
The guys who bought it now know his secret.
The married man had followed the directions in his phone’s manual to erase all his information, including lurid exchanges with his lover. But it wasn’t enough.
Selling your old phone once you upgrade to a fancier model can be like handing over your diaries. All sorts of sensitive information pile up inside our cell phones, and deleting it may be more difficult than you think.
What nasty secrets have you tossed out lately?
My Soundtrack: Nitty Gritty by Primal Scream on WOXY.
Last evening I spoke with Rabbi Stephen Weiss who was in Israel during the recent fighting and we talked about the differences in the reporting coming out of the Middle East. There were 11,000 apartments destroyed in Lebanon, he told me. How do I know this? Because I’ve seen the number in every newspaper and heard it on CNN over and over.
But, he continued, do you know how many apartments were destroyed in Israel?
I had no idea.
10,000, he said. But no one is reporting that number. And do you know how much infrastructure damage was done in Israel by the rockets?
Again, I had to admit my ignorance.
More than a billion dollars in infrastructure damage alone. The U.N. is talking about sending billions to Lebanon but no one is sending money to Israel to help it repair its damage, he said.
Well, not quite no one. Jewish Federations and other Jewish groups are working rapidly to make a special effort to meet the burden of repairing the damage done by Hezbollah’s relentless rocket attacks.
This morning I did a quick check for stories about the relative amounts of damage done between 12 July and the cease-fire agreement. Lots and lots of news stories about damage in Lebanon like this one from Amnesty International, but I found nothing about the damage in Israel. The AI report mentions 970,000 Lebanese displaced by the war and completely ignores the 1 million Israelis displaced.
Who pulled the trigger here and who is acting in defense?
So if you’re someone who believes in the rights of the victims over the rights of the attackers, please consider making a donation to the Israel In Crisis campaign.
Robert Goldberg? He’s still good.
My Soundtrack: # Meet Me At The Pomegranate Tree by Quantic on WOXY.
My name is Jeff Hess and I’m a biblioholic. I own hundreds of books. Not valuable books, mostly Science Fiction paperbacks and text books, tomes rescued by the bag from library book sales. A few years ago, in the interest of not burying myself, I began reading more books from the library and taking notes. My electronic chapbook was born.
This is a passage I copied from early GRRRL by Marge Piercy.
The Air Like Stained Glass Cuts Me
You could not love, but only redecorate.
From uncollected poems spanning several decades.
My Soundtrack: Making Plans For Nigel by XTC on WOXY.
I’ve just watched 25 minutes of riveting video shot of the fighitng in Lebanon. Israeli journalist Itai Anghel accompanied Regiment 931 of the Nahal Infranty Brigade on the night of 6 August to Houleh, a Hezbollah-controlled village in Lebanon. What follows can only be understood by watching the video full screen. Watch for a surprise at the 15-minute mark.
[Update — 0707, 30 August — It looks like the website is getting overwhelmed. Here’s an alternative URL to watch the video:
http://switch248-01.castup.net/cunet/gm.asp?ClipMediaID=209947&ak=63628786
Don’t click on the URL. Instead cut-and-paste the URL into a fresh browser window. It worked fine for me just now.]
My Soundtrack: Glass, Concrete & Stone by David Byrne on WOXY.
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