For Yoyo

If I could doodle you well enough, Either in my imagination or anyone else's, Not to mention in some sweet stone reality, You'd smile so neatly, We'd be in a spin, It'd cheer me up Or on to victory Or out of this dismal daunting dread I'm in, And then maybe we'd break out of this sin together Where mere veneer covers us, thinly like skin, All our beastly blessed ventures-- It'd poke right through this dearth of confession, This yearn and yen, This deadly wedly den of thought Combined with all our thoughtlessness And just desires and desserts.

Dogger's Lack of Appeal

Further Scribbles From His Early 1990's Notes

I wish I had more connection to people these days, but it isn't so and it doesn't seem likely to be forthcoming. I'm just here and I'm just me--not more attractive than I used to be, not more tolerant of others, not reaching out any further than what you may see at first brief glance here. If it's a hard existence or a long sentence, it's a self-imposed one and there's little likelihood of talking my way out of it or into any other frame of mind. There will probably be no suddenly growing an appealing puppy-dog tail that I could wag. What about YOUR tail--who will be crowing over that? I can't wake up, I can't wake up, Although I have good intentions and I often rise before the morning shines, Or before my submarine alarm clock goes off-- It's dreadful, And I'm being slowly crowded off the bed.

As noted elsewhere in this blog, Gatsby ended his life in 1994.

News Off The Internet

HEADLINES

NASA astronauts to drink their own urine today... NASA astronauts to drink each other's urine today... NASA astronauts to drink Space Zombie urine today... Some days the news is just so fucking weird. I think somebody somewhere is just making stuff up, don't you? There is a more common vulgar phrase, "Eat shit" which I've heard all my life. I wonder if NASA will attempt to facilitate that one as well?

Somewhere

Take a look forward Or take a look back, You might be there Or surprisingly here Or, anyway, somewhere near— You know it isn't clear, but it's all we've got any more Except to roll in the feces or Dodge the rain-flooded walkway out there in the yard Or cringe like sapient dogs on the mudroom floor.

Southern Comfort?

Edith Wharton: "There are lots of ways of being miserable, but there's only one way of being comfortable, and that is to stop running round after happiness. If you make up your mind not to be happy there's no reason why you shouldn't have a fairly good time."

Self-Actualization

Hey Jude — Beatles Hey Jude don't make it bad Take a sad song and make it better Remember to let her into your heart Then you can start to make it better Hey Jude don't be afraid You were made to go out and get her The minute you let her under your skin Then you begin to make it better And any time you feel the pain, Hey Jude, refrain Don't carry the world upon your shoulders For well you know that it's a fool who plays it cool By making his world a little colder Na na na na na na na na na Hey Jude don't let me down You have found her now go and get her Remember to let her into your heart Then you can start to make it better So let it out and let it in Hey Jude begin You're waiting for someone to perform with And don't you know that it's just you Hey Jude you'll do The movement you need is on your shoulder Na na na na na na na na na Yeah Hey Jude don't make it bad Take a sad song and make it better Remember to let her under your skin Then you'll begin to make it better Better, better, better, better, better, Yeah,Yeah,Yeah Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na, Hey Jude! ( 16 times till fade out)

More Erratum!

You couldn't follow me if you tried! It's not that you're so slow or that I'm so fast—it's just that I'm almost perpetually errratic!

Perfect Process?

Eric Ambler: "For the skeptic there remains only one consolation: if there should be such a thing as superhuman law it is administered with subhuman inefficiency."

Obama's Team

I was reading a reprint of an article today from the Christian Science Monitor how one of Barack Obama's favorite books is "Team of Rivals", a book detailing Abraham Lincoln's style of administration during the Civil War. That was a book I enjoyed very much, both the writing and the portrait of Lincoln that Doris Kearns Goodwin painted. Lincoln was a very great man, but it is to be hoped that other men, sometimes even lesser men, can benefit from an admiration of his style of "keeping his enemies close", of being "inclusive". Many in Lincoln's cabinet were the exact same men who had vied with him for the republican nomination and had pretty thoroughly disrespected him, behind his back and to his face! They did not immediately decide to be agreeable to Lincoln even after becoming members of his cabinet--for a while, there was just too much Ego in the room!

I find it encouraging that President-elect Obama admires Lincoln in that regard. Of course, it's easier to admire such greatness than it is to emulate it, so I won't be holding my breath or holding my water or anything else. Nonetheless, I might actually start to believe that such grandeur is still POSSIBLE these days, and that would be a very great thing in itself.

Below is the article from the Christian Science Monitor:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/csm/20081106/cm_csm/epresident

Jack Handey "I can picture in my mind a world without war, a world without hate. And I can picture us attacking that world, because they'd never expect it."