---o0o---
Monday, August 31, 2015
Sunday, August 30, 2015
Saturday, August 29, 2015
Friday, August 28, 2015
Poem: The 1950's
By Jack Brummet
The 1950s were about
The American Jitters: The Day The Earth Stood Still
Huntley Brinkley, The Thing, Ed Murrow, The Blob
Fidel, Godzilla, Senator Joe McCarthy, Gorgo
Who will own the moon,
Wild-eyed Nikita pounded his loafers on TV
As he promised to bury us,
The Cold War ignited on Ike's watch,
Jack Kennedy inherited the residue,
Alarms shrieked duck and cover,
Dad was in the basement,
Sandbagging the jam closet,
And caching beans and gasoline.
We scared ourselves for good
And grew up to fear nothing but nothing itself.
---o0o---
The American Jitters: The Day The Earth Stood Still
Huntley Brinkley, The Thing, Ed Murrow, The Blob
Fidel, Godzilla, Senator Joe McCarthy, Gorgo
Who will own the moon,
Wild-eyed Nikita pounded his loafers on TV
As he promised to bury us,
The Cold War ignited on Ike's watch,
Jack Kennedy inherited the residue,
Alarms shrieked duck and cover,
Dad was in the basement,
Sandbagging the jam closet,
And caching beans and gasoline.
We scared ourselves for good
And grew up to fear nothing but nothing itself.
---o0o---
Thursday, August 27, 2015
poem: The Cover-up
By Jack Brummet
The logical beauty of cover-up theories
Is they can never actually be refuted,
But snowball with every new telling.
The absence of facts
Further inflames the conspiracy theory:
Points to the utter, diabolical
Efficacy of the cover-up.
The logical beauty of cover-up theories
Is they can never actually be refuted,
But snowball with every new telling.
The absence of facts
Further inflames the conspiracy theory:
The
lack of facts
Points to the utter, diabolical
Efficacy of the cover-up.
---o0o---
Wednesday, August 26, 2015
Poem: Convergence
By Jack Brummet
It is one ocean with many names
And into the ocean, sooner or later, flows
Every river, spring, raindrop, creek,
and swamp,
Every lake, lagoon, aquifer, mudpuddle, and pond,
Every snowflake, icicle, glacier, flood, bay, and teardrop.
---o0o---
It is one ocean with many names
And into the ocean, sooner or later, flows
Every lake, lagoon, aquifer, mudpuddle, and pond,
Every snowflake, icicle, glacier, flood, bay, and teardrop.
---o0o---
Tuesday, August 25, 2015
Poem: Joshua Brought Down Jericho
By Jack Brummet
Jericho was locked down tighter than a submarine.
It made Helms Deep and Fort Knox look porous.
Joshua studied the walls, scoping a way inside,
When a man with whirling gaslight eyes appeared
And grew ten feet tall and five feet wide.
It was The Lamplighter himself. "Take the shoes
From your feet on my holy ground,
And follow the ark, with seven priests with seven trumpets.”
Seven priests tooting seven horns led a parade
Around and around and around Jericho
Like Sambo marched the tigers around the tree,
Or the way the earth spins in the dark around the sun.
They marched in silence six long days.
On the seventh day they lit out at dawn
Behind the seven priests and seven trumpets
And marched around the city seven times.
After the seventh orbit, the priests blew a cadenza.
And the roar swelled each passing minute.
Every man, woman, boy, and girl,
―Young, old, red, yellow, black, and white―
And every critter, bird, and bug
Was buried in the rubble and dust
As the walls came tumbling down. ----o0o----
It made Helms Deep and Fort Knox look porous.
Joshua studied the walls, scoping a way inside,
When a man with whirling gaslight eyes appeared
And grew ten feet tall and five feet wide.
It was The Lamplighter himself. "Take the shoes
From your feet on my holy ground,
And follow the ark, with seven priests with seven trumpets.”
Seven priests tooting seven horns led a parade
Around and around and around Jericho
Like Sambo marched the tigers around the tree,
Or the way the earth spins in the dark around the sun.
They marched in silence six long days.
On the seventh day they lit out at dawn
Behind the seven priests and seven trumpets
And marched around the city seven times.
After the seventh orbit, the priests blew a cadenza.
And the roar swelled each passing minute.
Every man, woman, boy, and girl,
―Young, old, red, yellow, black, and white―
And every critter, bird, and bug
Was buried in the rubble and dust
As the walls came tumbling down. ----o0o----
Poem: Escape
By Jack Brummet
Some of us try astral projection.
The rest of us
leave in dinghies, bikes, and cars,
Racing down
highways, expressways,
Streets and boulevards.
Streets and boulevards.
A continent of smoking skull orchard
---o0o---
Monday, August 24, 2015
The Crisis Clinic
By Jack Brummet
I graduated from The Crisis Clinic's three week training this weekend [1]. This was harder than any class I took in college, and it feels great. I work my first shift this week.
I graduated from The Crisis Clinic's three week training this weekend [1]. This was harder than any class I took in college, and it feels great. I work my first shift this week.
[1] "Crisis Clinic offers telephone-based crisis intervention and information and referrals to community services for youth and adults in Seattle-King County, WA. We offer emotional support to those in crisis or considering suicide through our 24-Hour Crisis Line. For youth we offer Teen Link, a teen answered help line. King County 2-1-1 offers information and referrals to community services based on our database of more than 5,000 services. The Washington Recovery Help Line is a state wide service offering emotional support and linkage to substance abuse, problem gambling and mental health services to anyone in Washington State. Our Washington Warm Line is a peer-answered help line for people living with mental illness."
---o0o---
Sunday, August 23, 2015
Saturday, August 22, 2015
Friday, August 21, 2015
A Profile in Courage: President Jimmy Carter
By Jack Brummet, Presidents Ed.
Watching President Jimmy Carter's heartbreakingly beautiful press conference today, all I could think was please please please let us all show the same acceptance, courage, joy, and hope when we come to the end of the line. What a wonderful man.
Watching President Jimmy Carter's heartbreakingly beautiful press conference today, all I could think was please please please let us all show the same acceptance, courage, joy, and hope when we come to the end of the line. What a wonderful man.
---o0o---
Thursday, August 20, 2015
Poem: Prayer In Istanbul
By Jack Brummet
Art by Jack Brummet - The Blue Mosque
Art by Jack Brummet - The Blue Mosque
1.
On a dusty cobblestone street
I hear three muezzins
In three directions
Call people to prayer
At three mosques,
With a slight delay
Between the calls.
Three chanters in three different rooms
Sing the same song
In phase-shifted rounds
Through nine silver speakers
Mounted on three
Ivory-white minarets
Capped in gleaming cerulean blue.
2.
At the washing stations,
Water splashes from brass spigots
Into pale grey limestone basins.
The faithful wash,
Bag their sandals,
And for the fourth time since dawn,
Walk onto the lush carpet
Of the cool quiet mosque
Tiled in words and symbols.
3.
They kneel, face the wall
And pray one more time.
I don’t know what they pray for,
But when I see their faces
And watch their devotions,
I know it’s something good.
4.
It’s so still and calm
In the mosque,
You could hear a fly expire.
---o0o---
On a dusty cobblestone street
I hear three muezzins
In three directions
Call people to prayer
At three mosques,
With a slight delay
Between the calls.
Three chanters in three different rooms
Sing the same song
In phase-shifted rounds
Through nine silver speakers
Mounted on three
Ivory-white minarets
Capped in gleaming cerulean blue.
2.
At the washing stations,
Water splashes from brass spigots
Into pale grey limestone basins.
The faithful wash,
Bag their sandals,
And for the fourth time since dawn,
Walk onto the lush carpet
Of the cool quiet mosque
Tiled in words and symbols.
3.
They kneel, face the wall
And pray one more time.
I don’t know what they pray for,
But when I see their faces
And watch their devotions,
I know it’s something good.
4.
It’s so still and calm
In the mosque,
You could hear a fly expire.
---o0o---
Wednesday, August 19, 2015
Tuesday, August 18, 2015
Monday, August 17, 2015
Was William Shakespeare high when he wrote his plays?
By Jack Brummet, Lit Ed.
From The Telegraph, August 9, 2015:
"South African scientists have discovered that 400-year-old tobacco pipes excavated from the garden of William Shakespeare contained cannabis, suggesting the playwright might have written some of his famous works while high.
"Residue from early 17th century clay pipes found in the playwright’s garden, and elsewhere in Stratford-Upon-Avon, were analysed in Pretoria using a sophisticated technique called gas chromatography mass spectrometry, the Independent reports.
"Of the 24 fragments of pipe loaned from the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust to University of the Witwatersrand, cannabis was found in eight samples, four of which came from Shakespeare's property."
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
"In Sonnet 76, Shakespeare writes about “invention in a noted weed", which could be interpreted to mean that Shakespeare was willing to use weed, or cannabis, while he was writing."
---o0o---
Sunday, August 16, 2015
Saturday, August 15, 2015
Сибирский костюм для охоты на медведя, 1800 год
This is from a Russian Facebook friend. I don't know what it says, but I love the image.
"Сибирский костюм для охоты на медведя, 1800 год"
According to Steve, in the comments, the translation is: "It says "Siberian costume/outfit for bear
hunting".
"Сибирский костюм для охоты на медведя, 1800 год"
According to Steve, in the comments, the translation is: "It says "Siberian costume/outfit for bear
hunting".
---o0o---
At Dirty Dick's
By Jack Brummet
Dean Ericksen sent me this great found photo. It chimed. I remembered WH Auden's poem Master and Bosun's Song (which Francis used to often read and became one of the maybe ten poems I can recite from heart). I don't know the provenance of Dirty Dick's, but Auden wrote:
"At Dirty Dick's and Sloppy Joe's
We drank our liquor straight.
Some went upstairs with Marjorie
And some, alas, with Kate..."
We drank our liquor straight.
Some went upstairs with Marjorie
And some, alas, with Kate..."
---o0o---
Friday, August 14, 2015
Thursday, August 13, 2015
The face of Matilda, the sleeping bigfoot
This footage, released by Adrian Erickson, purportedly shows a sasquatch in the woods. She looks very peaceful. People who have seen the whole 5 minute clip says the Bigfoot has a "black tongue".
---o0o---
Australian artist Stelarc's arm ear
By Jack Brummet, Appendages Ed.
The Australian artist Stelarc has grown an ear on his arm. He first got the idea back in 1996, but took a while to find doctors w̶i̶t̶h̶ ̶a̶d̶v̶e̶n̶t̶u̶r̶o̶u̶s̶ ̶i̶n̶s̶u̶r̶a̶n̶c̶e̶ ̶c̶a̶r̶r̶i̶e̶r̶s̶ w̶i̶t̶h̶ ̶a̶ ̶s̶i̶c̶k̶ ̶s̶e̶n̶s̶e̶ ̶o̶f̶ ̶h̶u̶m̶o̶r̶ willing to do the work. The ear looks pretty much like an ear now. Stelars plans to insert a microphone into the arm ear, and connect the microphone to the internet, so that people around the world can hear through his arm ear.
He said, "People's reactions range from bemusement to bewilderment to curiosity, but you don't really expect people to understand the art component of all of this."
---o0o---
Wednesday, August 12, 2015
Tuesday, August 11, 2015
Monday, August 10, 2015
Free public artesian well water in Lynnwood, Washington
By Jack Brummet, Hydration Ed.
One of the last Artesian wells in Washington State is not too far from Seattle. You can go there 24/7 and fill up containers. There may be a wait, even late at night.
Directions: 2331 164th St. SW, Lynnwood Take I-5 exit 183 and go right on 164th 3-4/10 of a mile to the bottom of the hill and you will see cars on the north side. GPS: 47.850159, -122.265591.
"This is fresh flowing water right out of the ground. No treatment and that's what they want," said Arden Blackledge, General Manager of the Alderwood Water District, which monitors and tests the water monthly.
According to the Alderwood Water and Wastewater District:
"This well, known as Well No. 5, or the 164th Street Artesian Well, is in excess of 400 feet in depth and is cased to approximately 120 feet. The well flows at about 10 gallons per minute.
"The source of water at the well is an underground aquifer (a water-bearing layer of permeable rock, sand or gravel). The well taps the Intercity Aquifer at approximately 200 feet.
"Alderwood Water & Wastewater District maintains this flowing artesian well as a community source of water for those who prefer untreated water."
From a Yelp comment: "This is some of the best tasting water I have ever had. Makes FIJI WATER taste like sewage!"
One of the last Artesian wells in Washington State is not too far from Seattle. You can go there 24/7 and fill up containers. There may be a wait, even late at night.
Directions: 2331 164th St. SW, Lynnwood Take I-5 exit 183 and go right on 164th 3-4/10 of a mile to the bottom of the hill and you will see cars on the north side. GPS: 47.850159, -122.265591.
"This is fresh flowing water right out of the ground. No treatment and that's what they want," said Arden Blackledge, General Manager of the Alderwood Water District, which monitors and tests the water monthly.
According to the Alderwood Water and Wastewater District:
"This well, known as Well No. 5, or the 164th Street Artesian Well, is in excess of 400 feet in depth and is cased to approximately 120 feet. The well flows at about 10 gallons per minute.
"The source of water at the well is an underground aquifer (a water-bearing layer of permeable rock, sand or gravel). The well taps the Intercity Aquifer at approximately 200 feet.
"Alderwood Water & Wastewater District maintains this flowing artesian well as a community source of water for those who prefer untreated water."
From a Yelp comment: "This is some of the best tasting water I have ever had. Makes FIJI WATER taste like sewage!"
---o0o---
Sunday, August 09, 2015
Saturday, August 08, 2015
Friday, August 07, 2015
Thursday, August 06, 2015
Wednesday, August 05, 2015
Tuesday, August 04, 2015
"The laws of physics do not apply to Donald Trump"
From last night's Morning Joe news and commentary show:
"The laws of physics do not apply to Donald Trump."
It's true. Image: Donald Trump with future cabinet member Ex-Governor Sarah Palin.
---o0o---
Monday, August 03, 2015
Sunday, August 02, 2015
Poem: Dasvidaniya, Ivan Ivanovitch
By Jack Brummet
Dasvidaniya, Ivan Ivanovitch,
Living life like it couldn't last.
Each day you feel the marrrow diminish
And each week ending is a week too fast
From which there is no turning back.
So you cinch it up tight and leave no slack
To slip through those towering gates,
Relieved from duty in these United States,
Where you were born but never fit.
Now the powers that be coil and spit
As their venomed fangs are bared.
You want to abandon ship, but never dared
And paced and tried to raise the nerve,
Knowing or praying, hoping for the call
Before stumbling into that last blind curve.
It never came and now you sit and wait,
And swear this time you'll play it straight,
Hovering in circles until you stall.
---o0o---
Dasvidaniya, Ivan Ivanovitch,
Living life like it couldn't last.
Each day you feel the marrrow diminish
And each week ending is a week too fast
From which there is no turning back.
So you cinch it up tight and leave no slack
To slip through those towering gates,
Relieved from duty in these United States,
Where you were born but never fit.
Now the powers that be coil and spit
As their venomed fangs are bared.
You want to abandon ship, but never dared
And paced and tried to raise the nerve,
Knowing or praying, hoping for the call
Before stumbling into that last blind curve.
It never came and now you sit and wait,
And swear this time you'll play it straight,
Hovering in circles until you stall.
---o0o---
Saturday, August 01, 2015
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