Comedy Day

I post this so that Comedy Day in San Francisco might

win some money to continue to help the homeless.

Please vote, too.

A Little Post

I've got a bunch of cleaning to do before Thursday and to postpone it a little more I thought that I'd write a blog post.

I'm doing really badly at the National Novel Writing Month, only 5005 words and they aren't so much a story as a grouping of things that happened to me when I was in SF. I had hoped that I might be able to put them all together then connect them with a story line.

Not so much.

I haven't given up on the idea yet, but I have pretty much given up on NaNoWriMo this year. At least last year I got eight times further before I realized that I was done.

Anyway, that's all from Camp Grumpy.

Heil Obama?

I was told by a neighbor about this video. He said that it was sick and wrong because school children were pledging an allegiance to our president. This neighbor held it up to the light and declared it to be the same as the Middle Eastern people pledging their allegiance to Saddam Hussein.

I know that this neighbor did not vote for our now president, so rather than take his word for it, I told him I would have to see the video and get back to him.

The above is that video. He, my neighbor, said that it was like watching the Nazi Party.

I have to wonder if it isn't the word "allegiance" that's is causing all the hoopla. We grew up saying the pledge of allegiance to the flag, so I wonder if we've lost track of a meaning.

Here's what my computer's dictionary has to say on the subject of "allegiance."

loyalty or commitment of a subordinate to a superior or of an individual to a group or cause : those wishing to receive citizenship must swear allegiance to the republic | a complex pattern of cross-party allegiances.
ORIGIN late Middle English : from Anglo-Norman French, variant of Old French ligeance, from lige, liege (see liege ), perhaps by association with Anglo-Latin alligantia ‘alliance.’

Okay, so now were on the same page. We will follow where you lead. I'll bet that was something Jesus heard all the time, good thing he came before the Nazi Party or he'd have to keep explaining himself all the time.

If you watch the video you will see that it pledges all kinds of things, to take care of one another, to love, to smile, to work harder for those who can't. Isn't that what a society should be about? And yes, it also says that we pledge allegiance to our president.

Does this mean that there weren't people pledging to follow Bush Jr. or Bush Sr? No, in fact I think that they were doing it, but they were doing it behind closed doors and in a whisper. Or maybe it's the message that a black man could have an all inclusive "let's make the world livable, joyful, loving place" idea for mankind that really worries the Republicans. Taking that step closer to being what Gene Roddenberry saw as humanity's future, is scaring the "I've got mine, and you can go screw" Conservatives.

I go back to a book that I read when I was barely into my 20's, Trying Hard to Hear You by Sandra Scoppettone: Love is better than hate.

When I see my neighbor, I will tell him that I saw the video, and that I don't see what the problem is, love is better than hate.

What a Rotten Week

Darrell's best friend died last Sunday. He was also a good, dear friend of Theanna's. I knew him, but not well.

Rob was almost 7 feet tall, was battling a weight problem, and like most men of that frame and girth, he had a voice that carried. I'm told that he was a very playful man with a heart as warm as the sun. He must have been an extremely special person because his passing has caused a depth of grief that I have not seen in my friends before.

They used to get together, along with a mutual friend, Ron, Saturday nights to watch movies and eat large flavorful meals that Rob took joy in cooking for them. They called themselves the Saturday Night Supper Club. I attended once and it was a good meal, but through no fault of their own, I felt as if I didn't belong. This was theirs.

Like so many rituals there was a feeling of warm familiarity and absolute trust; everyone knew their part in the evening. It was like a weekly family holiday in a home without baggage.

There's a Rob shaped hole in the world and it will take time to not remember that harsh reality every second of every day, but as time passes the tears will be replaced by smiles and laughter when telling of Rob's life.

Far be it for me to try to put it better than W.H. Auden's poem Funeral Blues, used in Four Weddings and a Funeral for a good reason. However I do disagree, I think love does last forever. I believe that our like kind attractions, go on and on, much like the universe.

Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone, 

Prevent the dog from barking with a juicy bone, 

Silence the pianos and with muffled drum 

Bring out the coffin, let the mourners come.

Let aeroplanes circle moaning overhead 

Scribbling on the sky the message He is Dead. 

Put crepe bows round the white necks of the public doves, 

Let the traffic policemen wear black cotton gloves. 

He was my North, my South, my East and West, 

My working week and my Sunday rest, 

My noon, my midnight, my talk, my song; 

I thought that love would last forever: I was wrong. 

The stars are not wanted now; put out every one, 

Pack up the moon and dismantle the sun, 

Pour away the ocean and sweep up the woods; 

For nothing now can ever come to any good.

See you later, Rob. Next time, I hope to know you better.

RIP

Aw, Soupy Sales died.

My friend, Ade, used to go dancing with him and Artie Johnson at the Copa.

Like You Needed To Know

I'm taking a new medication and one of the side effects is that I pooh so hard that it feels like the anal version of the dry heaves.

But, hey, at least it's not snowing.

Ever Had One of Those Days?

The best laid plans are actually a misunderstanding...

All the energy has been sucked out of your body and replaced with some kind of bitter fluid...

You can't for the life of you remember why you were ever happy...

The one thing that you enjoy, you either can't find, is illegal, or your doctor says you can't have anymore...

Money, as much as you enjoy having it, seems to make every endeavor like climbing Mt. Everest, backward, on fire, in your stocking feet...

All you want to do is to go to bed and hope that tomorrow will be better but they're calling for rain...

You miss far away friends, but they don't miss you...

Or if they do miss you, they are putting on the bravest faces ever and get on with their lives...

Some times, the only thing that makes sense are crackers and cheese...

A New Saying to the Vernacular and How to Use It.

When things are going well, you're feeling relaxed, then BOOM, everything is horrible, people are yelling at you and you start to feel kind of sick.("Sorry about spitting my chaw into your gram ma's ashes, I really swallowed the dwarf on that one.")

Or if you see something wonderful, magical, you are delighted until you realize that you've misunderstood what was going on and it's actually awful. ("Ooo! Ahhh! I love fireworks and these are particularly good... Bombs? Whoa, did I swallow the dwarf there or what?")

And finally, when you're doing your best, you're amazed by your own skill, then everything goes dark. ("I had everyone's attention, it was the best presentation I've ever given, and that's when I realized that PowerPoint was actually showing images from that weekend I spent in Amsterdam. I was totally swallowed by the hippo.")

In The Year 2000

Too Cute