Saturday, June 16, 2018

When Adam Burnt the Food Storage




In 1989 I was redlighted by the Tarzan Zerbini Shrine Circus.
That is circus lingo for abandoned without any pay. It happened
in Arkansas, when I was sent ahead of the show to supposedly
do some publicity for the upcoming performances as a clown.
However, when I reached my destination I found that the show
was not scheduled to play there and that my phone calls to the
show office in Missouri (this was before the days of personal cell
phones) were not answered. I had been fobbed off with a wild
goose chase, and the Welcome mat was decidedly withdrawn.
Tarzan Zerbini was a loutish boor more at home as a carny barker
than as a showman, and we did not get along -- so my rude jilting
did not come as a complete surprise.


However, it did throw a large and determined monkey wrench
into the financial works of the Torkildson clan. It was too late in the
season to get another circus gig, so I parked Amy and the kids with
her parents in Tioga, North Dakota, while I drove down to
Minneapolis to visit my alma mater Brown Institute of Broadcasting
for help in putting together an audition tape to find work in radio again.
Brown had an excellent placement service for all their ‘Brownies,’
and could usually get their graduates a job within a week or two
of being asked for help. But 1989 was not a lucky year for me,
career-wise. I waited and waited for job offers, staying with my
parents. Finally I realized that I’d better just take the first job I
could find in the Mini-Apple so I could bring the family down from
their Siberian exile in North Dakota. And that’s how my oldest son
Adam got to set fire to our food storage.


I went to work as a telemarketer for Time/Life Books, in their Grain
Exchange Building office downtown. For those unfamiliar with
these monolithic highbinders, Time/Life offered a vast series of
coffee table books on everything from a sixteen volume set called
“Australians at War” to “The Encyclopedia of Collectibles.”
 Cookbooks. History. Sewing and photography DIY -- they
covered every known facet of the human experience, and
by golly they were bound and determined to sell every single
person on the planet at least a dozen books this very instant
come hell or high water. That’s were I came in. I was given
sixteen pages ripped from a Canadian telephone directory
and told to call each number to offer “How Things Work” or
some other glossy almanac at a discount price. I quickly
learned to push the telephone buttons with the eraser end of
a pencil and not my index finger to save said digit from becoming
painfully inflamed.  


And I had amazing initial success. I was calling a town called
Iqaluit up in the Canadian Territories -- home of the Inuit tribes.
They were extremely complaisant people; everyone I talked to
agreed to take the book and sign up for the Time/Life Book Club
as well. I got a tremendous cash sales bonus that first week
and was able to bring the family to Minneapolis. Of course
nobody in Iqaluit ever paid for their books, and eventually I
was fired for it. But by then we were well established in a five story
rent-controlled townhouse on Como Avenue, and I quickly
found another telemarketing job at Fingerhut.


Together at last as one big happy family, my thoughts as an
LDS paterfamilias turned towards a major religious bugaboo
of the times -- food storage. This was an era when the LDS
Church asked every family to lay in a two year supply of food
and water. Nothing was ever said about Judgement Day or
the Apocalypse -- it was just considered a prudent precaution
in case of layoffs or local natural disasters like floods and tornadoes.
With my ever-growing brood I was hard pressed to find the
wherewithal to stock up to such an extent. The best I seemed
able to do was to buy a few extra canned goods each week.


One particular Sunday in Sacrament Meeting the High
Councilman gave a very stirring talk about the absolute
necessity of having that two year supply on hand -- no excuses
or temporizing! I could see it had a strong effect on Amy,
and as we drove back home after church she said to me
“Timmy, we’ve got to follow the prophets on food storage!”
I agreed with her, saying that we would keep accumulating
canned goods and filling empty distilled water plastic jugs
with tap water until we reached the two year goal. But I could
tell she was not at all satisfied with my lackadaisical attitude.
It smacked of heterodoxy.


And so a few weeks later it came to pass that a UPS truck
delivered unto us forty brown cardboard boxes filled with one
gallon cans of dried beans, egg powder, sugar, oatmeal, cracked
wheat, yeast, dehydrated onions, flour, powdered milk, peaches,
and so on. The total came to two thousand dollars. Payable at
sixty dollars per month. Amy had placed the order with a
company in Utah without consulting me.


I decided to approach the issue in a calm and dispassionate
manner.  But first I sat in our blue Ford station wagon,
locked the doors, and screamed until my vocal cords began
moulting. I also beat my head on the steering wheel. Then I was
ready to face Amy.


I asked her to please consider sending it all back and getting
a refund, but that met with such a cold response that I turned up
the lapels of my jacket and wearily agreed to keeping it all in the
basement and using it up little by little, to see if it would help
stretch our grocery budget so we wouldn’t have to go on food
stamps again. Just one of those amusing little episodes that go
to make up the rich tapestry of a solid marriage.


At the same time our son Adam began playing with matches.
Every little boy goes through that phase. Usually a few stern
words and the careful secreting of matches in an out of the way
place is enough to discourage a young boy from burning down
the house around his ears. But Adam did not take kindly to being
told “no.” Not then, and not now. Once his mind is fixed on an action
or idea, he carries through no matter the obstacles -- or consequences.
In this case, he simply went next door to the neighbors, noxious
chainsmokers, and procured another book of matches without
any trouble. Then he lit a fire in our basement, using some scraps
of paper and cardboard from the food storage boxes.


Luckily I caught the blaze before it did too much damage, using
the kitchen fire extinguisher to douse it. Several gallon cans of
egg powder had burst from the heat, leaving behind an evil
smelling yellow stain on the basement walls.

I went out to the Ford again for another screaming session.
Then both Amy and I talked earnestly and kindly to Adam,
who seemed sincerely abject about the alarm and destruction
he had caused. He never tampered with matches again, and
we eventually ate up all the food storage in the basement --
and paying for it long after it was gone.  

Friday, June 15, 2018

writhing




writhing with mindless
intent towards the pale blue sky
and the climbing sun


when they are stepped on




when they are stepped on
they lose their motivation
as part of a mob


spider's smoke



the white spider's smoke
is caught on the bright green dew
of this June morning

note de marketing sur les médias sociaux





Les médias sociaux sont plus populaires que n'importe quoi sur la planète Terre à l'exception des paquets de ketchup chez McDonald. (Ces bébés sont partout, mec!) Alors naturellement les annonceurs et les commerçants veulent exploiter cette popularité, inondant des sites comme Twitter, Facebook et Instagram avec autant d'annonces numériques que le seul contenu original laissé est généralement une émoticône. Mais les spécialistes des médias sociaux font souvent de la publicité dans le mauvais sens, manquant des marchés de niche importants et même chassant les consommateurs. Voici quelques conseils qui vont stimuler les ventes comme la mayonnaise sur la gélatine: Faites de votre marque un nom mémorable Ceci est fait avec des adjectifs et des superlatifs, par exemple: "Ice Cubes vieilli" ou "Hamburger R us surévalué." Puis assurez-vous que le même "handle" est utilisé sur toutes les plateformes de médias sociaux - de sorte que le nom "Bob's Puny Plumbing Supply "Est utilisé systématiquement sur tout, de LinkedIn à Snapchat. De cette façon, les consommateurs ne seront pas confus et se promèneront dans les bois à la recherche de James Comey au lieu de faire un achat en ligne. Utilisez de vrais témoignages Par «réel», on entend des choses que personne ne peut retracer à qui que ce soit. Et par «témoignages», on entend tellement la mélodie que le lecteur risque de tomber malade du diabète. Et par «utilisation», on entend «appliquer» ou «employer» ou «exploiter» ou «utiliser» ou «un gros chat de civette originaire d'Andalousie». Connaissez votre public cible Sont-ils grands ou petits ou maigres ou gros ou vieux ou jeunes? Est-ce qu'ils se grattent les bras pendant les matchs de football ou découpent leurs spaghettis au lieu de les faire tournoyer sur une fourchette? Et sont-ils dans ce pays illégalement? Si oui, assurez-vous de les rattraper pour la prime.

Thursday, June 14, 2018

the eager pansies (Thai translation by Sutita Chomphupuang)





the eager pansies
suck up the summer nectar
until their heads burn


                 เจ้าแพนซี่น้อย

เจ้าแพนซี่น้อย                                ที่แสนจะบอบบาง
สีสรรค์สวยสดงดงาม                     ผีเสื้อ ผึ้ง บินตามมาชื่นชม
เจ้าทะเยอทะยาน                           อยากบานสะพรั่ง

ชูช่อเกสรขึ้นตั้งชัน                         ส่งกลิ่นหอมชวนฝันไปไกล

Visiting Thailand, a new poem by Sutita Chomphupuang



Welcome you all, to explore your horizon.
Thailand is one of the best in Asia.
Excellent in food, good with hospitality.
Spectacular scenery will likely  to capture your heart.


มาเที่ยวเมืองไทย                   ชาวไทยต้อนรับ
น่าประทับใจนัก                       คนไทยใจดี
อาหารไทยก็อร่อย                  ชายหาดสวยก็มากมี
ไปเที่ยวไทยมาหลายที           ไม่มีเบื่อเลยสักครา

An Evening With Peter Pitofsky

The inimitable Peter Pitofsky


On our 1981 honeymoon I took Amy to Ringling Brothers at the Salt Palace.
I was still blacklisted from performing with the show at the time, but my good
old pal Tim Holst, now the Assistant Performance Director, wangled two
front row seats for us. And that is where I first met Peter Pitofsky.

How he ever got to join the show as a clown is a matter of conjecture
and myth. Some say that one of the show elephants laid an egg and
Peter popped out of it, like Mork. Others insist that he was stranded,
left behind, during an unsuccessful invasion from Mars -- which would,
indeed, explain his unearthly abilities to moo like a bull in heat and spit
cherry pits into a tin cup at twenty feet. It was also claimed that he
could pull cotton candy out of his navel -- but I never saw that myself.
He never did learn to tell Earth time; always appearing either hours
early or the next day for any appointment he ever had.

What Peter told me, years later, when we were roommates while
working at Disneyland, is that he didn’t bother to send in an
application for the Ringling Clown College, since he is severely dyslexic,
but that when he heard about the place he bought a plane ticket to
Sarasota, and then hitchhiked down to Venice, to show up on the
doorstep, so to speak, like an orphan in a wicker basket. He was
told to go away, but instead camped out by the security gate, with
a hand printed sign hung around his neck with just one word on it:
 “Pleez.”

Eventually they let him in and he became a sort of bete noire at the
Clown College. He was very active and antic at all times, but
absolutely unpredictable and untrainable. He had dozens of
strange, eccentric walks that in any other human being would have
pulverized the metatarsal bones into jelly. He fell down like a sack of
cement for no apparent reason, then bounded back up only to run
into a nearby pole or pillar or wall. Nobody wanted to work with him --
or rather, everyone wanted to work with him because he was so
brilliantly erratic; but they were afraid he’d steal their clown gag
from right under their noses.

So during the big audition show he was simply allowed to
wander around the arena at will, up into the audience, down
in the ring, doing anything he wanted. And that’s pretty much
what he did on the show, at least the night that Amy and I
saw him. Tim Holst had mischievously stuffed him full of
fabulous stories about my pre-blacklist antics in clown alley,
so that when I was pointed out to him in the front row he
simply stopped what he was doing to run over to me and
give me a lingering slobbery kiss along the side of my face.
Then he fell down into a salaaming position.

“Master!” he shrieked at me, much to the embarrassment of Amy.

“Get up, you loon, and go back to work!” I yelled cheerfully at him.
He leaped up and sped back into the ring, where he had been using
a large push broom to buff his nails. He kept coming back to our seats
that evening, offering me an empty popcorn box; trying to sit in Amy’s
lap and being vigorously pushed off; and parting my hair, looking for
fleas. I told Amy I wanted to treat him to dinner after the show.
She gave me a quizzical look and then burst out laughing,
saying “Okay, it’s your funeral!”

So that evening after the show Amy and I escorted Peter
over to the Big Boy restaurant, where he immediately ordered
french fries, nothing but french fries. When they came he stuck
several up his nose and then proceeded to use the rest like
Lincoln Logs, building  a creditable miniature cabin on the
tablecloth. While Amy and I ate our salads, Peter
demanded bread, lots of bread, and plenty of butter.
When the wary waitress brought it he put a piece of
bread in the palm of his hand and began buttering it.
He didn’t stop with the bread, however -- he kept buttering
right up his arm to his shoulder, while the waitress stood
there goggle-eyed. When he had finished with all the butter
he turned to the waitress and asked sweetly:
“May I have some gravy, please?”

“Gravy?” the waitress quavered.

“Yes, gravy. I want to wash my hair.” he replied impatiently,
and then mooed like a bull.

I decided to intercede before Peter got us all thrown out on our ear.

“Just bring the gentleman a hamburger and a Coke” I told the
waitress firmly. “And ignore anything he says or does.”

Peter settled down somewhat after that outburst. He ate his
burger with complete docility -- but afterwards he couldn’t
resist going from booth to booth to see what other people
were eating, sometimes shaking his head and saying sotto voce
“I wouldn’t eat that if I were you” and then wandering quickly away,
leaving his victims choking on their chicken fried steak.

Amy and I were completely charmed by Peter’s comedic idiot savant
personality. Amy had to excuse herself several times to use the lady’s
room so she wouldn’t have an accident from stifling so many giggles.
I immediately fell into the Oliver Hardy/Bud Abbott role of fuming
straight man to Peter’s bizarre buffoonery.   

“Stop that!” I growled at him, more than once. “Behave yourself
and talk sense!” We were kindred spirits, really; I could sense
when an outburst was coming, and what it was likely to be --
what I would do if I was Peter right then -- so I could check
his more egregious high jinx. We finished our meal with milk
shakes, and as soon as Peter had his in front of him I saw the mad
gleam in his eye and immediately said “Don’t even think of pouring
that into the front of your pants!”

“Not even a little bit?” he asked meekly.

“Not a drop.”

“Okay, you’re the boss of me here and I don’t wanna
be off on a bad thing which you would yell and scream at
me for an hour maybe . . . “ he replied, going into his Jerry Lewis
routine.

We parted that evening firm friends, although it would be
several years before I saw him again. In the meantime Amy
and I baked him chocolate chip cookies about once a month,
sending the package in care of Ringling Brothers to their office
in Washington D.C. When I finally did see Peter again he told me
our cookies always arrived smashed into crumbs, so he’d
put them in a bowl and then pour milk over them for his
breakfast. I think that was the sanest thing I ever knew him to do.  

Wednesday, June 13, 2018

the hot summer light



the hot summer light
is tempered by calm green leaves
until it grows bland

Президент Трамп предложит налоговые социальные сети




Вернувшись с триумфом в Белый дом из своих переговоров с Северной Кореей в Сингапуре, президент Трамп немедленно вызвал пресс-конференцию, чтобы объявить еще одну из своих запатентованных бомб: он сказал журналистам, что для того, чтобы покрыть расходы из-за его жестких переговоров с Ким Чен Юном , он попросит Конгресс передать налог на социальные медиа этим летом. «Этот пухлый маленький мамщик знает, как копать и иметь дело», - признался Трамп, автор бестселлера «Искусство сделки». «В обмен на его ядерный арсенал он просит твердую золотую копию горы Рашмор, размер жизни! И это будет стоить. Поэтому, чтобы равномерно распределить боль, я решил, что все на Facebook и Instagram, и особенно на Twitter, должны кашлять немного холодных наличных денег для использования своих личных счетов в социальных сетях. Конечно, как президент, я буду требовать привилегии исполнительной власти, чтобы избежать предлагаемого налога. В конце концов, я - герцог Дикер и барон Бартера. Хотя детали налогового плана все еще неясны, внутренние источники утверждают, что план предусматривает 10-процентный налоговый налог за твит и пять центов за каждый, как на Facebook. Желая, чтобы кто-то с Днем Рождения на любой платформе в социальных сетях автоматически взял на себя плату в двадцать пять долларов. Что касается того, как этот новый новый налог будет применен, Трамп был очень кратким: «Старый мальчик Кимми собирается предоставить IRS взвод его личных сотрудников - эти ребята сломают коленные чашечки, как хлебные палочки. Они никогда не слышали о Верховном суде!