Monday, July 16, 2018

BITS & PIECES

Openers:  The heel of the stiletto caught on the straps of the black lace bra she had dropped a few moments earlier.  She kicked it out of the way without looking.  It skittered across the stage.
-- Jonny Porkpie, The Corpse Wore Pasties, 2009

I've Been Reading:  My list of weekly reading has moved from here (Ta-da!  Look, it's gone!  As if it were magic!) to the comments section of Rick Robinson's blog Tip the Wink each Monday.  Check it out.

Political Ads:  As I type this, the television is on, tuned into an Alabama station (a local fox affiliate).  An amazing ad for the Republican candidate for Attorney General just aired.  The gist of the ad (delivered with the force of a heavy hammer) is that the candidate is a Republican...and his opponent is not.  He's a Democrat.  He's running as a Democrat.  He voted on some of things Nancy Pelosi voted on.  If Democrats get in they will vote for (gasp!) abortion.  He does not support (cue sounds of angels) President Trump.  He even had an Obama sticker on his car!  Don't be fooled -- he's not a Republican, he's a Democrat!  I am a Republican.  He isn't.

What happened to the concept of running on the issues?  (Actually, in Alabama, not being a Republican is an issue.)

This ad was followed immediately by one from the Republican candidate for Lieutenant Governor, a woman named Twinkle* (not a stripper name).  She stands with President Trump.  I can imagine what Trump says about her name.

*  Italics mine.

Happy Birthday:  Today is the 228th anniversary of the establishment of Washington, DC, as the capitol of our country via the Residency Act of 1790.  

Congress itself was established in 1789 when the Constitution was ratified.  During the second session of the First United States Congress, it passed The Residency Act, which provided that a permanent capitol be set on the banks of the Potomac and authorized George Washington to establish a committee to make it so.  The act also set the date of 1800 for the new capitol to be ready. 

At the time, the Federal Government was based in New York City.  The act designated Philadelphia as the temporary capitol until the new one was ready.  Philadelphia has been the fledgling country's capitol city until 1783, when riots forced the Continental Congress to flee to Princeton, New Jersey.  The capitol then moved to Annapolis, and then Trenton, and finally to New York.

Many cities had vied to become the capitol city...Williamsburg, Virginia; Wilmington, Delaware; Kingston, New York; Germantown, Reading, and Lancaster, Pennsylvania; and Nottingham Township, New Jersey, As Well as Philadelphia, New York City, Princeton, and Annapolis.  The Southern states did not want the capitol to be in the North and the Northern states did not want it to be in the South.  At one time, it was suggested that the United States have two capitols -- one in the North and one in the South.

Other Birthdays:

     Joshua Reynolds, artist, born 1723
     Mary Baker Eddy, founder of Christian Science, born 1821
     Shoeless Joe Jackson, baseball player, born 1887
     Ginger Rogers, actress, singer, and dancer, born 1911
     Robert Sheckley, science fiction author and editor, born 1928
     Charles Ray Hatcher, serial killer who confessed to 16 murders from 1962 to 1982, born 1929
     Michael Flatley, dancer whose feet were on fire, born 1958
     Larry Sanger, co-founder of Wikipedia, born 1968
     and...
     Jack!, incredible grandson, born 2012

You Should Always Listen to Mother:  Evidently, 91-year-old Anna Mae Blessing's son was making noise about placing her in an assisted living facility.  The Maricopa county resident did not like the idea. After mulling things over for several days, and fearing her 71-year-old son would actually do it, she pulled out a gun and shot him.  Multiple times.  After killing her son, she turned the gun on his girlfriend.  This is where Anna's finely honed plan went awry.  The women struggled and the girlfriend managed to get the gun from Anna.  Plan B of Anna's finely honed plan then went into effect:.  Anna pulled out a second gun.  Alas for Anna, the girlfriend also managed to get that gun away from Anna.  Anna, it seems will now be going to an assisted living facility -- not the one she had feared, but the one with bars.

Not To Be Undone:  Florida Man goes out with a bang.  Palm Beach Garden resident 71-year-old Alan J. Abrahamson's body was discovered early one January morning.  He had been shot in the chest during an early morning walk.  His wallet was missing, as was his watch and money he usually carried in a binder clip.  A search revealed no gun, no shell casing, and no suspects.  It took a while to work out what happened.  Abrahamson, despite an outward perfect life, had been thinking of suicide since (at least) 2009, as well as ways to avoid a suicide verdict from his insurance company.  The gun he used to kill himself was tied to a weather balloon, which, released after his death, would float out to sea.  He had surreptitiously obtained a gun and hollow point bullets, as well as a weather balloon and a helium tank.  He also figured the amount of helium needed to lift the gun.  What he did not think to do was to destroy his phone -- when the police were finally able to get it unlocked, the entire plan was right in front of them.

Today:  Trump meets with Putin (ho showed up fashionably late).  Vlad brought his wish list.

A Poem by e. e. cummings:

IF I BELIEVE

if i believe
in death be sure
of this
it is

because you have loved me,
moon and sunset
stars and flowers
gold crescendo and silver muting

of seatides 
i trusted not,
          one night
when in my fingers

drooped your shining body
when my heart
sang between your perfect 
breasts

darkness and beauty of stars
was on my mouth petals danced
against my eyes
and down

the singing reaches of 
my soul
spoke
the green-

greeting pale-
departing irrevocable
see
i knew thee death.

          and when
i have offered up each fragrant
night, when all my days
shall have before a certain

face become
white
perfume
only,
          from the ashes
then
thou wilt rise and thou 
wilt come to her and brush

the mischief from her eyes and fold
he
mouth the new
flower with

thy unimaginable
wings, where dwells the breath
of all persisting stars

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