Anticipation -- is making me wait...

TWO NEW BOOKS OUT
I want to own them sometime:

Reading Jackie, by William Kuhn
and
Jackie as Editor, by Greg Lawrence

Both books talk about the twenty years Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis spent in New York City working as a book editor, at two different publishing companies -- Viking, and Doubleday.
In my experience reading about her life -- you feel yourself being "pelted with crap" dredged from scandal sheets (which, let's face it, only say terrible things about everybody), alleging that she may have -- spent money, had a relationship or two with humans of the Opposite Sex. --

Aa-aauuhhgg--augh--big deal...
And -- that type of biographer -- with the pen dipped in mud, right? -- hardly talks at all about JBKO's years as NY editor because -- you know -- they cannot come up with any garbage -! And the whole -- Interesting Books / Quality Ideas / Hard Work / Supporting Causes and Issues Important to the Human Spirit THING -- turns those writers to stone. They can't deal with it.

So after, like -- 50,000 pages of unsubstantiated gossip & drivel, they write, possibly, a sentence: "Oh, and she worked as a book editor in New York 1975 to 1994." Other than that -- they - got - nuthin'
--------------------------
I'm so glad these two New books are out, by Kuhn and Lawrence
I have often wished someone would write about the Editing Years -- and now two people have.
Can't wait.

-30-

Talkin' miracle on 34th street blues

Eeeeoooouuuhrrrrrggghh.
-------------
Sometimes you don't know how to feel.
-----------------
Was wondering if I could
"talk" a movie.
Like -- Bob Dylan sings his thoughts.
Rappers rap a song.
Can I talk a movie?
------ --------
Was thinking of trying that, with the movie
"Shag"
and the movie
"Miracle On 34th Street" --
(no spurious re-makes, the Real one, from 1947).

-30-

"...ask what you can do for your country"

No Labels
--------
Rise Of The Center
-------
power to the people

-30-

A decree went out from Caesar Augustus

Christmas Eve service
with friends
at Episcopal Church last Friday night --
the pastor got up there -- he was filling in for regular Episco. priest who was ill -- this guy, robed, said, "You can see I'm not Father ____________, I'm ______________________"
...and when I heard his name,
realized this is Lutheran minister in whose basement
I rented space (and called it an "apartment")
when I was 16 and had first Summer Job away from home,
in our state capital.

One of those "small world" moments.
He talked about the economy in his sermon. He said economy is not based on numbers, as many believe; it's based on people's will and desire -- based on people's efforts, and What They Want.

(Wish I had the text of it -- it was good!)

And the word went out from Caesar Augustus, that all the world should be taxed. ...
(We got that, too. ...)
A nice Christmas Eve -- sky wasn't black, was fuzzy-gray: what is that? Cloud cover? Fog? I'm clueless.

-30-

Christmas magic

One of my favorite things at Christmas is
to watch two "Bewitched" (TV series) episodes with a Christmas theme:

"Sisters At Heart"
and
"Humbug Not To Be Spoken Here"
----------------------------
"Sisters" -- 1970 -- written by the tenth-grade English class from L.A. high school --
the theme includes a social issue which was current at the time --
I thought it was cool that the students at the time had "read" and understood the style of "Bewitched" situations and themes and writing and humor
so well that they could -- DO that.
Thought that was terrific.

"Sisters" has the replacement Darrin, Dick Sargent.
The "Humbug" episode has the "real" Darrin -- Dick York -- (yeah, the guy with the face.)
The grumpy client, Mr. Mortimer, who does not believe in "all this Christmas fuss" is played by an actor named Charles Lane, who also appeared in the Christmas-themed film, "It's A Wonderful Life" -- (Mr. Potter's rent collector who, in one scene, has to sit down & Explain Things to Mr. Potter....)

Charles Lane is great. His face is so familiar -- he appeared in A LOT of movies & TV shows, in a career which continued decade upon decade.

A person may view the above-referenced episodes on You Tube.

...and of course -- almost forgot to note -- the Humbug "Bewitched" episode is of course a take-off on Charles Dickens' story, "A Christmas Carol" ...

"Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good - night!"

-30-

just what I always wanted what is it

Christmas.
Thinking about it -- best holiday recollections are very simple moments and that overall sense of anticipation and mysteriousness.
The awe of all those presents
under the Tree
in the dark
in the early morning.

And then there's always the True Meaning of Christmas --
the goal being to Live that, year-round,
but of course we live with the knowledge that it will be "Merry Christmas" on the 25th, and then Back to bombing people into the Dark Ages (or the Stone Age, however that saying goes), the next day. Or Monday.

Merry Christmas!
(Bombs - away!)
Peace on earth, goodwill toward men!
(Back to business.)

One of my earliest memories: was in the living room, was not in kindergarten yet -- at least a year before -- and the really tall Christmas tree which we had decorated, and our calico cat urgently tap-whacking at a dangling tree ornament with her paw, and then monitoring it with the typical catly attitude of, "how dare that ornament swing around like that?" when she's the one who just hit it -- it's as if cats fake themselves out -- playing "pretend" to themselves...

I thought it was so great -- so cute and beautiful, to watch her -- so went and told parents -- because others should enjoy this, too...then there's all this
flurry of hurry and worry...
Is the cat knocking down ornaments?
Is anything broken?
etc. etc. -- Immediate exodus to living room....
No harm; all well.
Think I learned in that moment,
"If you are going to tell somebody something, you had better tell it right or they won't "get it."

------------------------------

In our family we had a joke where -- you open a present, hold it up, and say,

(jubilantly): "It's wonderful! Just what I've always wanted!" - then

(stealthily, off to the side): "What is it?"

Was based on something which actually happened once when somebody-or-other's relative got carried away with the habit of saying, "Wonderful! Just what I've always wanted!" and belatedly realized they actually didn't KNOW what the thing was, and -- asked.

So -- you stayed alert to an opportunity for,

"Wonderful! Just what I've always wanted!

(What is it?)"

One Christmas when I was in pre-school years, there were under-the-tree presents, and then there was one more that I had to be taken out to the garage to see.

(A garage-present?? What kind of present is in the garage?"

Sled.

It was a sled-situation.

Merry Christmas, man! Merry Christmas.

-30-

they "had issues"

Do others besides me remember a movie called
"Network"
where a TV newscaster urges Americans to open their windows
and shout out as loudly as possible,

"I'm as mad as hell and I'm not going to take this anymore!" - ?

-30-

only a pawn in their game

On Google
type in
Rise Of The Center.

They've got something going on.

Having realized so many people are "unplugged" from our political system --
voting
or keeping up with reliable, serious news (which must be sought out, while negative hate-mongering will batter you each time you turn on most shows you think are supposed to be "news"),
searching for sanity and
Something.

Rise of the Center
ROTC ...

-30-

damn right have you seen my thighs

Sex And The City 2
is very funny, and well done.
A fun movie to see if you enjoy those characters, and that -- "franchise."

The critics beat up on it --
the critics just --
have bees in their bonnets.

SATC was racy as an HBO series, and the two movies match up to that -- (if you will be put off by a gay wedding right in the first act -- don't rent it!)

The "Samantha Jones" character -- indefatigable.
In both her business, and her social life.
(In the first HBO season, 1998, Samantha and Carrie in a nightclub: Samantha zeroes in on the "fabulous" eligible man she wants to meet up with:
Carrie: "He only dates models."
Samantha: "Well -- [mirror check] -- I'm as pretty as a model, and -- I own my own business!"
And she takes off after the guy.
(Carrie's voice-over): "Samantha had the kind of deluded self-confidence that leads men like Ross Perot to run for president."

All four of these ladies -- seriously, could anyone actually
eat that much
shop that much
or ... "date" that much??

"Seriously," -- no.
That's why it's a TV show & two movies; not serious -- fun.
(The fashions! The hair-and-make-up! Fun!)
------------------------------
Some viewers would say Samantha has loose morals, sexually, and risks social disease.
(Come to think of it, I've said that -- if only to myself.)
However, the character has some kind of combination of determination and optimism which is inspiring and amusing. Sometimes she has to muster optimism in desperate (if silly) circumstances.

Well -- she's in public relations. She "sells the sizzle." You have to have optimism for that, and when you don't have it, you've got to fake it.

---------------------------
[Dressy lunch, New York City, the four women]
Samantha is telling the other three about all the terrific vitamins she's taking, and the great results she's getting from them.
Ever-skeptical Miranda: "Where are you getting your information?"
Samantha (holds up a hard-cover book with Suzanne Somers' picture on the front and speaks with aplomb and élan -- lah - dee - dah): "From Suzanne Somers and her team of doctors."

(LOL. Doesn't every celebrity with a book to sell always have a "team" of doctors??!!)
Miranda: "You're taking medical advice from the woman who invented the thigh-master?"
Samantha: "Damn right! Have you seen my thighs?"
--------------------------
The "Carrie Bradshaw" character finally -- finally -- got married to "Mr. Big" in the first SATC movie, and as the "2" movie begins, I was freaked out to see that --
after all that Carrie went through (and put herself through) trying to get that romance to "pan out" as a "real" relationship -- dating for ten years, etc. etc. blah blah blah --
Finally
they are married and happy and as the 2 movie gets rolling,
you know what she's doing?
...
She is --
nagging
the ever-living life out of that man!
I couldn't believe it.

-30-

I was down in the Senate gym getting a massage...

Go on Google
and type in
Mike Gravel - The Pentagon Papers

Listen to that.

-30-

It's the Wild West

[Went looking for "wild west" quotes and found

this: "I won't be wronged,

I won't be insulted, and I won't

be laid a hand on. I don't do

these things to other people,

and I require the same from them.

--J.B. Books in The Shootist, 1976.]

"It's the Wild West."
That's what the I-T (at work) said about the Internet.

"This is Lexington."
That's what someone speaking for "Anonymous" said about the ongoing effort to "avenge" the wikileaks guy's arrest by picking on Master Card and Visa and something called "Pay Pals"). They say they are protecting free speech from BIG GOVERNMENT AND BIG CORPORATE CONTROL.

"This is like The Pentagon Papers."
That is what I say about the Wikileaks phenomenon. (No, event.)

The Pentagon Papers. Have to look it up; was too young when it happened to really get what it was. I had the sense it was a Mystery of some kind that people had to figure out and find out about.
To me, it was alluring.
What I remember:
Daniel Ellsberg's psychiatrist.
Something about a safe. (The Papers were in it??)
P. Papers wound up in the New York Times.
Government did not enjoy this.
But we seem to have lived through it.
----------------------------
It's the Wild West.

-30-

grouching, slouching

The "Wikileaks" thing -- with the cables / communications from countries around world being "leaked" -- read that there's a sort of group of people -- very loosely related -- mostly guys between 19 and 23 years of age, giving MasterCard and others grief.

Sounds like their concern is
freedom of speech on internet
being constricted by governments and big business

One quoted on the Lede Blog (or nytimes) said, like, "This is Lexington." Like it's fight for freedom.
We live in interesting times.

This week's New York Times Review of Books contains story on
The Master Switch by Tim Wu.
[excerpt from the review]: -------------------
The organizing principle [of the book] ... is what Wu, a professor at Columbia Law School, calls "the cycle." "History shows a typical progression of information technologies," he writes, "from somebody's hobby to somebody's industry; from jury-rigged contraption to slick production marvel; from a freely accessible channel to one strictly controlled by a single corporation or cartel -- from open to closed system." Eventually, entrepreneurs or regulators smash apart the closed system, and the cycle begins anew.

The story covers the history of phones, radio, television, movies and, finally, the Internet. All of these businesses are susceptible to the cycle because all depend on networks, whether they're composed of cables in the ground or movie theaters around the country. Once a company starts building such a network or gaining control over one, it begins slouching toward monopoly. If the government is not already deeply involved in the business by then (and it usually is), it soon will be.
------------------------- [end quote]

Would this explanation ( / analysis) make the wikileaks folks and the tormentors of mastercard and other giants feel any better? Would it give them a useful perspective? Would they be OK with it? Should we be?

-30-

Snap crackle pop

Friday, posted here about a photograph of
"George Plimpton's Cocktail Party
New York City.
Nov. 30, 1963"
-------------------
(Come to think of it, that was one week after you-know-what. Well -- the invitations probably went out a week before the day in dallas.
And -- not going to a party you already replied to -- isn't going to un-do what was Done.)
-----------------------
(a humble poem about the photograph)

Snap crackle pop

A room vibrating

with elegant fun

Oval coffee table

Armchair, sofa,

slim end table

another armchair

Supporting

George Plimpton

and

"literary agent Maggie Abbott."

On back wall

picture, picture,

.....picture, picture,

............picture, picture

in front of the pictures and

beyond the sofa,

men standing

in groups of --

.....five, two, two, three,

.....and one standing,

.....one sitting,

Listening

to what

Truman Capote

is saying.

Tall slim glasses in people's hands,

two glasses

on the coffee table

Suits / ties - men.

The women: dresses and

one double strand of

pearls

One guy -- standing,

listening --

energetically (!)

Left hand in pocket

Right hand holding

tall slim glass

(all glasses are the same - ?!)

and white handkerchief

sticking up (peeking out?)

from suit jacket pocket,

upper left.

He seems about to levitate.

Windows. Curtains.

Pictures in between.

The PHOTOGRAPH

is black-and-white.

Conversation:

"Really? I hadn't heard that."

"When's his book coming out?"

"What did they think of that?"...

------------------------------------

The phrase "tall slim glasses" made me think of a song:

"Long Tall Glasses" -- Leo Sayer -- look it up; listen

-30-

the chattering classes

You know how they have "LOL" for "laughing out loud" on the internet? I'm creating a new one: "GAL" for "giggling a little"...

Enticing black-and-white photograph in book about "the 1960s" --
George Plimpton's Cocktail Party
Big living room with two conversation areas (visible in photo) and people standing, sitting.
(Thought one guy looked like a young Henry Kissinger but now don't think so after all.)
The people look animated, heartily intense. Enthusiastic.
I can imagine myself at that cocktail party.
(Step into the photo...)

Paragraph under reads,
[credit TIME, Visions of the 1960s, Copyright 2010 TIME Home Entertainment Inc.]
"No, this isn't a backstage shot from Mad Men; it's a cocktail party at the Upper East Side apartment of Paris Review editor George Plimpton, who would carve out an amusing sideline for himself in the'60s as a sort of Everyman of sports, beginning with his popular 1966 book recounting his attempts to play football with the NFL's Detroit Lions, Paper Lion.

The cattle call of the chattering classes shown above features a host of notables; we won't name them all, but for those who enjoy Where's Waldo?, here are some of the attendees: Ralph Ellison, Peter Matthiessen, Sidney Lumet, Arthur Kopit, Arthur Penn and Truman Capote. Host Plimpton is seated in the left foreground, next to literary agent Maggie Abbott.
-------------------------------------- [end quote]

"The chattering classes."
GAL

-30-

greaser, esp usu.

...

Love,

Money, and

Good work

is what a person needs.

The Dictionary is so funny.

They have little codes and abbreviations: "esp" is for "especially";

"usu." means "usually"

Why does "usu" have a . after it, and "esp" does not?

Another thing I may never know.

Walking out the door after work one cold night last week, someone behind me said the word "greaser." "Greasers." "Murmur, mumble, grumble greasers..."

Had the impression he was using that word as an epithet for our Hispanic co-workers.

Had additional impression that it may actually have been meant for me, though am not Hispanic -- maybe an experiment to see if I might

scold preach argue lobby

"at" him.

[Not even gettin' sucked in, babe! Not a chance! Not going down that road -- my car's out here warming up for a minute, and only road I'm going down is the one that leads to home...]

On the way into town, thought -- "he had the wrong word (can't these people even get their damn prejudices organized??)--when I think of the word "greaser" I think it's a guy -- probably a white guy, I don't know -- with slicked-back hair and a T-shirt with a pack of cigarettes rolled up in one of the sleeves. You know?

Like Fonzie, on "Happy Days."

They used the word that way in the movie "Shag" (so funny and charming, & such wonderful music !!) -- a girl says, "Oooh, he's a greaser."

The guy she's talking about is like the T-shirt cigarette guy I described above, NOT Hispanic.

AND -- the girl in the movie pronounces "greaser" with the "s" like a "z" which I thought was weird. I would tend to pronounce it the way the co-worker pronounced it -- with the "s" like the "s" in "savvy," or "Lisa."

(The girls in that movie are supposed to be living in South Carolina so wondered if the "greezer" pronunciation was some kind of Southern thing.)

-------------------

Instead -- get this -- the Dictionary wants us to pronounce it "gree'-zer" too! Like in the movie!

I was surprised. It only allowed that one pronunciation, no second option.

As for definitions, however, they gave me two.

"(1846) 1 : a native or inhabitant of Latin America; esp : MEXICAN -- usu. taken to be offensive

2 : an aggressive swaggering young white male usu. of working-class background"

So -- a "greaser" is BOTH --

Fonzie, AND

Che Guevara.

But only if you want to use that word, which we don't.

Hmm. An aggressive swaggering young white male.

Intriguing.

-30-

Sugar and spice and everything nice

Gossiping,
excluding, and
back-stabbing
are the central activities / tactics of a new thing psychologists identified in 1995:
Relational Aggression.
You can read about it on the Information Superhighway (internet).
(They were calling it that, in the early 1990s - !! Seems like no one remembers that except me -- they always think I'm off-the-wall...)

It's a relief, sort of, to learn of this, (relational aggression) because -- instead of an uncertain feeling of an amorphous, floating-around, mysterious unpleasantness that you can't understand and wonder if you said / did Something Wrong, you can say, "Hey, I know what that is. I read about it."
Somehow having the information organized and explained makes you less likely to feel hurt by it.

It's attributed to teen-age girls more than anyone else, but some people of various ages and both genders do it.
Psychologists were probably motivated to study it and try to come up with solutions because --
1. trouble in schools, when students' behavior becomes too disruptive and damaging, and
2. "Relational Aggression" would not be "new" (as I put it, above) but it would have increased bad results because Now it can escalate / spiral super-fast, through all the Technology.

----------------------------------
After I first read about this phenomenon / behavior pattern, memories went flip, flip, flip, through my head like turning pages in a photo album -- that one! that one! that one!
OMG -- that's what that was, it was Relational Aggression!

There's a more complex level of it, which involves more manipulation through relationships, which is for the Psychologists, not the English Majors to contemplate -- the kind I notice is the "excluding" -- the obvious, circumstantial kind.

A beautiful person who used to work with me told me once that she did not at all care for one man who works here. I asked her Why -- (some people never like any authority figures, but she did not seem like that type) -- she answered (English, her second language, so she had her own style of it) -- "He try to make you feel, these (gesturing with her hands) people are part of my ... my circle, and you are not."

Epiphany! That's what she had perceived -- Relational Aggression.

I've observed several times (and always wondered -- WHY? Why the rudeness?) -- where, OK, two people are in a room. Another person -- person X, walks in, and Person X speaks animatedly with one of the original people in the room and pointedly ignores the other one.

An office manager I observed years ago, would do that same thing in such a rapid-fire way, it was disconcerting and a little scary. It was just that she had practiced a lot and become really good at it. She would turn to one person by her desk and be REALLY-SUPER-NICE, overly-done, laughing almost too loudly, whatever ... very exaggerated behavior. Then she would turn, mid-sentence sometimes, to another person nearby and say, with a hostile expression and a deadly, low, angry voice: "Yes?" or "What do you want?" And then an uncooperative response, then snap back to the first person and do the "Oh my gosh that's so funny, & so great to see you! you always have to come in and talk to me, I know!"

Like -- Mood Ping-Pong or something.

I could never forget listening to one woman tell another (these were not teen-agers, but people in their 50s) that she and her husband had been to a dinner party at B & R's house, Saturday night. You had the impression that the dinner-party one was trying to make the other one feel bad, or something, because she had not been invited to this.
(Meanwhile I'm having one of those moments -- like, hmm, these papers on my desk seem to need re-shuffling, and maybe even to be put into different file folders -- ermh -- anything but watch this silliness. Pretend to ignore...)

The recipient of the information just said something pleasant, like "Oh that sounds like a fun evening" or something & moved forward with a question she had about something else -- appearing unaffected by the Idea of Not Having Been Invited to this Dinner Party.
And the Dinner Party one --
SAID IT AGAIN !
Louder, and with more emphasis.
"P and I went to B & R's Saturday night for a dinner party!"
(LOL) Smooth.
Ve-e-e-e-ry subtle.

I thought at the time, my goodness if you don't have ANY emotional maturity by the time you're in your 50s I don't know when you are going to get it.
But what I needed to remember is, that person probably was not striving for emotional maturity.
--------------------------------
"Relational aggression" also reminded me of a time in fifth grade when a whole bunch of girls in my grade level came in from recess really really mad at each other. There were 6 or 7 or 8 of them on Each Side of the conflict, and it was a Whole Big Thing of not speaking to each other. I never knew what it was about. (My father would say, "Do not be drawn into other people's soap operas." [Today we would say, "Don't get sucked into people's drama."])

The evening after the Recess Eruption, I was in a mall store for a little bit, while my mom shopped; I was to meet her in half hour, or something, and I saw Marty, a fifth-grader from a different class. She was involved in that "insurgency" and I remember feeling surprised by that. Because she seemed like a "together" kind of person.
When I saw her in the store, she was going down an aisle, away from me, but in a moment she turned back & hurried over toward me, smiling. She laughed when she reached me: "I wasn't going to talk to you, but then I remembered, you're not one of the ones I'm not talking to!"

We both laughed. It felt grown-up, to be Out at The Store, standing together and talking, without our mothers.

-30-

sincerity and humility: arguing with self

In New York Times Review of Books:
a book called
Dear Mrs. Kennedy
is a collection of some of the letters of condolence received by Jacqueline Kennedy after the assassination.

The reviewer writes,
"The letters were written in a spirit of sincerity and humility scarcely imaginable today..."
I read that and immediately wanted to disagree -- no, no -- there is always sincerity and humility, people are no different -- human nature is...

And then I remind myself, 'What are you arguing for? You make observations like that all the time!'

I think we can choose how we are going to be, and then live it, best we can.

On You Tube if you type in
"Jacqueline Kennedy thanking the public"
you will see a televised talk she gave in January of 1964.

"Whenever I can bear to, I read them. ...
All of you who have written to me know how much we all loved him,
and that he returned that love in full measure..."

She says, "loved him" with firm emphasis,
...and that he returned that love in full measure
("mea-szhuh")
[those distinctive accents...]

-30-

fold my hands and pray for rain

...
Well, he puts his cigar
Out in your face just for kicks
His bedroom window
It is made out of bricks
The National Guard stands around his door.
Ah -- I ain't gonna work for Maggie's pa no more. ...

--Bob Dylan
"Maggie's Farm"
(album: Bringing It All Back Home)

-30-

tried this too

...and
Bob Woodward and
Carl Bernstein.

-30-

try something

E-mailed Ralph Nader, today,
about the Fairness Doctrine.

-30-

Man-up

The following is something I've been wondering about.

(from Wikipedia):
---------------------- The Fairness Doctrine was a policy of the United States Federal Communications Commission (FCC) introduced in 1949, that required the holders of broadcast licenses both to present controversial issues of public importance and to do so in a manner that was, in the Commission's view, honest, equitable and balanced.

The 1949 Commission Report served as the foundation for the Fairness Doctrine since it had previously established two more forms of regulation onto broadcasters. These two duties were to provide adequate coverage to public issues and that coverage must be fair in reflecting opposing views.

...In 1987, the FCC abolished the Fairness Doctrine.
------------------------
[end quote]

There you go. That explains what has happened to "the news."
How could President Reagan allow that?
And why didn't President Clinton or Pres. Bush fix this?

Probably the same reason I didn't think too much about it until now.
You grow up in a world where you're accustomed to "Trusting" the "news."...
As a private citizen -- I'm just busy doing stuff.
and as Leaders and Politicians,
they probably don't want to be perceived as arguing with the media --
like they don't want the story-line to get started:
he's trying to change the laws about broadcasting because he doesn't like something they said about him...

Well there'll be criticism -- so what?
As one of my co-workers says, "There comes a time when you just have to Man-Up, and do it."

(When I first read that paragraph in Wikipedia, I thought, "How could FCC just 'abolish' a law?" -- but --
then realized --
it wasn't a law, was a policy. Their own policy.
Somebody had an "agenda" there, and it needs to be reversed.
The Fairness Doctrine needs to be a law, passed by Congress and the President.

(Hope to hear from Phil in Wales on this topic -- how do they do it in U.K.?)

-30-

Illusion to me now

ILLUSION.

That word keeps haunting me lately.
In "Tangled Up In Blue" (Blood on the Tracks album) Bob Dylan says,
"All the people we used to know, they're an illusion to me now...gettin' through...
tangled up in blue...."
--------------------------
And Fleetwood Mac / "Gold Dust Woman":
Well did she make you cry? Make you break down?
Shatter your illusions of love, Now tell me --
is it over now, do you know how --
to pick up the pieces and go home....?
---------------------------
and, Election Day, a guy at work: "It's an illusion. To make us think that we have a say...."
---------------------
online dictionary -- ILLUSION.
1. something that deceives by producing a false or misleading impression of reality.
2. the state or condition of being deceived; misapprehension.
3. an instance of being deceived.
-----------------------------
Just remembered another one -- on a documentary / feature about the television series "Bewitched" Kasey Rogers (who played Larry Tate's wife Louise for most of the series, though not at the beginning) talked about Agnes Moorehead (the actress who played Samantha's mother, Endora):
Kasey Rogers said when Miss Moorehead was asked about her choice of acting as a career, she would reply, with pleasantly flamboyant emphasis,
"I love the illusion!"
-----------------------
-----------------------
The Election Illusion (if that's true) is to fool us.
Dylan's illusion in "Tangled Up..." is past stuff which may not be relevant depending on how you look at it, and how you feel.
"Gold Dust Woman" illusion is -- sadness and disappointment, hitting hard:
"SHATTER your illusions of love..."
And Agnes Moorehead's Illusion was -- All In Fun, and for the noble purpose of Telling A Story.
(I LOVE the ILLUSION - !)

-30-

Try as I will

[excerpt from book about Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn]
--------------
Jules Dassin submits a play to Kate. It is an English adaptation of a French success, Days in the Trees, by Marguerite Duras. Dassin hopes to interest Kate in a Broadway production. She reads it at once, goes to her desk, sits down, begins to write. "My dear Mr. Dassin: Thank you so much for sending me this fascinating play. I found it most interesting, but unfortunately...."

She stops. Her false tone offends her. She picks up a new sheet of paper and begins again. "Dear Jules Dassin: Try as I will I cannot make head or tail of this confusing manuscript, and therefore..."

She stops again. Once more, "Mr. Dassin: This is surely the most idiotic and depressing piece of claptrap I have ever in all my life..."
No. She has gone too far, she thinks.
Finally, "Dear Mr. Dassin: I am grateful to you for thinking of me in connection with your play. I am returning it to you unread, as, alas, I am not available at this time, and have no idea as to when I might..."
No, again. Why lie?

Later, she tells us of her struggle to find the proper response, and quotes these four beginnings.
"And what did you decide in the end?" asks Ruth.
"Oh, I just put all four of them into an envelope and sent it off to him!"
-----------------[end Excerpt]

[From Tracy And Hepburn, by

Garson Kanin. CopyR. 1970,

Viking Press, New York, N.Y.]

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shatter your illusions of love

Lately I want to hear the Fleetwood Mac song "Gold Dust Woman."
Often.
And again.
A - a-a-a-a-n-n-d -- AGAIN.
--------------------------------------
If I feel a passion for listening to a song or artist / band again and again, and a lot, I no longer "worry" that I might "get tired of" the music...doesn't happen.
If that's what I want to listen to -- a lot -- I go with it.

On You Tube, there is a performance of this song -- the title is
Stevie Nicks rare 1981 solo "Gold Dust woman" 8 min. !!

The Comments typed in, (read when you scroll down), are a hoot.
samples:

"that was intense..."
"u gotta luv Stevie - shes bonkers !!!"
"rad! she's the best"
"this is near religion..."
"what's the meaning of the song? weird hair-dos"
"there is no meaning...it's a Stevie dream that lets you absorb the spell any way that suits you"
"this is how this song should ALWAYS be performed...I never get tired of it"
--and I agree with THAT one, and many others --

----------------
a blog I follow sometimes is "Style Rookie" written by a teenage girl named Tavi -- think she's 15 years old -- quite precocious -- checked her latest post and it was titled "Gold Dust Woman" -- I was like, "Whoa!" at first glance, it was like the internet was talkin' right TO ME. Someone else had that song on their mind also.

The Style Rookie blog shows fashion ideas to which I can barely relate -- I'm not at that level of sophistication -- but that kid is a hell of a good writer -- I do know that.

-30-

all I had for breakfast was puff-ed rice

It's Thanksgiving!
"Bewitched" ('Samantha's Thanksgiving to remember')
it's on You Tube
I watched that wonderful episode every Thanksgiving, on the family black-and-white TV -- remember? -- Aunt Clara zaps the Stephens family (as well as the nosy Mrs. Kravitz) back to Plymouth.
Samantha has to "twitch" up appropriate wardrobe for them so they'll fit in, and they sit down to dinner with the Pilgrims and Indians; Darrin with his trademark nervous, sardonic edge, mentions the cereal he had for breakfast, leaving him with good appetite for the sumptuous dinner - ! ("All I had for breakfast was puff-ed rice.")

What fun. Ding! Zing! All those zapping sounds.
I LOVE that show.

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food fight

Cossacks. Turks. Wall Street bandits. Corporate plutocrats.
Dick Cheney. (Aaaaauuugggghhhh!?!)
Whatever you got.
The following excerpt is from All Too Human / (a political education), by George Stephanopoulos.
-----------[quote] The word on the Hill was that D'Amato had targeted Harold and me: We were both from New York, and he knew that we'd worked to defeat him in the past. The Republicans also banked on the fact that distracting senior staffers like us was half the battle. If we were busy with our lawyers or testifying in the hearing room, we couldn't be working on health care and crime.
...At first, we were nervous; none of us had testified to Congress before on a matter of policy, much less as witnesses before an investigating committee. But the hearing turned out to be a partisan political food fight.
--------------------[end quote]

[from All Too Human, by George

Stephanopoulos, CopyR. 1999.

Little, Brown andCo. Boston

New York London]

That seems really objectionable and wrong, to me, regardless which Party is doing it -- to spend your energy and ingenuity simply attacking individuals in an administration to distract them from the work they're supposed to be doing is Improper, Inappropriate, and Not Behaving Like Adults.

It would be like if you're out playing baseball and the members of one team run across the field and attack and beat up all the members of the opposing team, and then claim victory because the other team is too injured to pitch or hit.

It seems to me like the idea (notion?) of COMPETITION has gone awry since the 90s.

Example: if one company buys another one which is its competition and then CLOSES it, is that fair competition?

To me, that's not Competing, and Winning by Doing A Better Job, that's -- I don't know -- something else.

It would be like if I were playing ping-pong against somebody, and they abruptly laid down their paddle on the table, took out a gun, and shot me dead. Then -- served the ball over to my side of the table, 11 times, and -- naturally -- I don't hit it back because I'm --dead -- and then the Opponent claiming victory in a shut-out.

Well, granted -- I didn't hit the ball back, but did this Opponent -- WIN?

Is that the competition parents are supposed to raise their children to engage in?

Like -- you don't have to be Excellent, or even Good -- you just have to be Aggressive enough, and Mean enough and Unscrupulous enough to Change The Situation so that you dominate and benefit.

Is that Competition? Healthy Competition?

Or is that Piracy?

Don't worry about winning it fair and square, by striving and excelling and succeeding?

No -- just TAKE IT.

Winner-take-all.

That figure-skating imbroglio in 1994 -- perfect example. Tonya Harding thought she could skate better than all other contestants except Nancy Kerrigan, and we remember what happened there.

Did Tonya Harding and her posse of thugs SET an example which some people followed?

Or did the Harding Clique learn that behavior from our politicians and corporate leaders?

-30-

hoofbeats approaching ?

"They're coming for your Social Security money."
George Carlin says this in the You Tube film referenced here yesterday.
[quote]:
They want more for themselves, and less for everybody else.
They don't want well-informed, well-educated people capable of critical thinking.
That doesn't help THEM.

They don't want people who are smart enough to sit around the kitchen table to figure out how badly they're getting f----d by a system that threw them overboard thirty f---ing years ago...
-------------------
He says "nobody seems to notice" --
they DO notice.
The knowledge has seeped in.
-------------------------

"...the vanishing pension that disappears the moment that you go to collect it,
and now -- they're comin' for your social security money."

dictionary definition: "plutocracy" -- government or state in which the wealthy class rules
dictionary definition: "oligarchy" -- a form of government in which all power is vested in a few persons or in a dominant class or clique; government by the few

I read those two words more often in news stories lately -- I used to not know what they meant. They never came up.
---------------------------------
Imagining wealthy, privileged people "coming for" our social security money makes me think of "hearing hoofbeats" -- in his book All Too Human / a political education, George Stephanopoulos talks about 92 campapign & five years working for Clinton in White House -- Stephan....refers to "hearing hoofbeats" -- he says his Jewish friends have it in their DNA to listen for hoofbeats because of Cossacks coming to hurt them (remember in "Fiddler on the Roof"?) -- and he adds that Greeks hear hoofbeats, also -- Turks.

-30-

thew us overboard - ?

Check this out:
go to YouTube, and type in
George Carlin describing facts about this plutocracy

then click on that, and play it -- it's about 3 minutes.
It has some "f" word in it -- (since it's George Carlin (RIP), probably don't have to warn about that...)

-30-

slumming angel mean streets

Type in, on Google,
Nathan Bransford blog
go to it, then Scroll Down a little until you see a picture of Alan Greenspan.
And read that post.
-------------------------
Vintage Books put out some quality paperbacks of the novels of classic American crime writers, pre-1950: the first Raymond Chandler book I picked up, on the back was this quote:
"Chandler wrote like a slumming angel and invested the sun-blinded streets of Los Angeles with a romantic presence." -- Ross Macdonald
Then, as I picked up other Raymond Chandler-authored books from the bookstore shelf, I kept flipping them over to see the back and read something as Good as that. Well, it was that, on every book -- same quote!
-----------[From "The Simple Art of Murder," an Essay, by Chandler]:
In everything that can be called art there is a quality of redemption. It may be pure tragedy, if it is high tragedy, and it may be pity and irony, and it may be the raucous laughter of the strong man. But down these mean streets a man must go who is not himself mean, who is neither tarnished nor afraid. [end quote]

[The Simple Art Of Murder.

RaymondChandler.

CopyR.1934. Curtis Publishing]

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the RADIO rolled you?

...And -- there's another song like that.
On You Tube,
listen to three songs:
"Done Too Soon" by Neil Diamond -- 1970
"Life Is A Rock (but the radio rolled me)" by Reunion -- 1974
"We Didn't Start The Fire" by Billy Joel -- 1989.
---------------------------
Similar topics and expressed in a similar writing-style: sort of a fast -- list -- of people and /or things -- places, events....
Interesting -- wonder if Reunion was influenced by the Neil Diamond song, and wonder if Billy Joel was influenced by both of the previous numbers -- maybe Neil Diamond was inspired by a song which came before 1970 that I haven't discovered yet!
("nothing new under the sun"...)
-------------------------
And early this evening I was informed and introduced to an (apparently) famous recording by one Clarence Carter.

Great, jumping censorship boards!

Holy Ladies' Auxiliary!

-30-

wrapped in influences

"There is nothing new under the sun."
Wondering, "Who said that? Who is the famous person who made that statement, which became a quote?"
--------------
Ecclesiastes, that's who.
didn't know, was biblical.
--------------------------
"What has been will be again,
what has been done will be done again;
there is nothing new under the sun."
--Ecclesiastes 1:9

--------------------------------------

Listening to that Neil Diamond CD, came upon a song called "Done Too Soon" --

Jesus Christ, Fanny Brice,

Wolfie Mozart and Humphrey Bogart and

Genghis Khan and

On to H.G. Wells.

Ho Chi Minh, Gunga din....

and it goes on like that -- bunch of people, through History.

And I thought, "That reminds me of something."

Billy Joel.

Harry Truman, Doris Day, Red China, Johnnie Ray,

South Pacific, Walter Winchell, Joe DiMaggio.

...

Rosenbergs, H-bomb, Sugar Ray, Panmunjom,

Brando, "The King And I,"and "The Catcher in the Rye"...

...

We didn't start the fire, it was always burning,

since the world's been turning....

-- a song called "We Didn't Start The Fire" --he sang it in a real rapid-fire style, you had to listen fast to keep up.

-------------------------------

Both songs about same topic -- world's different yet the same, and People are essentially the same, but they struggle with differences in goals & what they think is right.

Stream-of-consciousness style.

The Neil Diamond song, 1970

Billy Joel's "We Didn't Start...", 1989

So I'd assume Billy Joel was influenced by Diamond's "Done Too Soon."

When I think about influences, I think about that "nothing new under the sun" statement.

Woody Allen has said Jack Benny was a powerful influence & inspired much of his own comedy. Or was it Bob Hope? (OK, Bob Hope.)

Bob Dylan idolized Woody Guthrie and was inspired to find his own style by soaking up Guthrie's style.

In rap music, & hip-hop (and also R & B, I guess) they sometimes use lines from someone else's song, and they call it "sampling." (There's a Janet Jackson song with Joni Mitchell lyrics in it, for example.)

------------------------ And I was very interested to learn, back in the 90s, that the movie "Clueless" was based on the story-line in Jane Austen's "Emma."

------------------

There isn't anything new. And yet everything is new.

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