Photo Essay: A Walk to Pioneer Park on Sunday Morning

It started to rain as I began my walk

 Great party last night . . . 

 World War One casualties, nailed 

why aren't there any birds around to eat these?

 Looking east from Pioneer Park

when did the pioneers turn their back on us?

and don't forget to take the kids home, too . . . 

And we cast lots

And we cast lots . . .

First Nephi. Chapter Three. Verse 11.

The outcome always matters

but maybe not the method.

The iron rod is sturdy

through fair weather and foul.

But the kind of shoes we wear

or whether we grip overhand

or underhand

with gloves on

or barehanded

is a matter of cleromancy

and not dreams perhaps

the element of chance

is the savor of faith

Poppies

Within three weeks, so many people were influenced to come pose in the flowery poppy hills that the city had to figure out how to intervene. After a Lake Elsinore official was hit by a car, and a visitor was bit by a rattlesnake, the California city shut down access to Walker Canyon, the main trailhead, from the nearest roads and set up a $5 shuttle service to bring visitors from the local outlet malls. But the hordes found other places to park and walk in, and the city lacked the manpower to enforce the closure.
NYT

to intervene with beauty is a parlous thing

when poppies bloom out of control

the residents of nearby cities

should gracefully retreat

leaving the flowers to exult alone

and if interlopers crash through the stalks

to crush the bright petals

in a mad attempt at capturing beauty

the poppies will deal with them

deal with them in such a way

that they will never be heard from

again

I'd get stoned too

One national food distributor said hiring warehouse workers in states that have legalized marijuana use has become nearly impossible—particularly in California. The company is hiring temps and encouraging them to stop smoking long enough to pass the test and get hired full-time.

WSJ

barcodes

stacking boxes

moving flats

counting inventory

cold florescent lights

dead flat concrete floors

yellow lines that lead nowhere

voices overhead you never really understand

the weird disturbing smell of spent LP gas from forklifts

and the soul crushing propinquity of lifeless cardboard and plastic

I'd get stoned too

And it came to pass that we fled into the wilderness

And it came to pass that we fled into the wilderness . . . 

First Nephi. Chapter Three. Verse 27.

There comes a time when fleeing to the wilderness makes sense;

when leaving complications is the only real defense.

Call it a vacation, a retreat, or what you will,

the moment of surrender many purposes fulfill.

*

It works as a reminder that though God is on our side

his purposes and practices He sometimes deigns to hide.

And we are left to puzzle out solutions on our own,

to see if we will cheerful be or start to moan and groan.

*

I implore the Lord on daily basis for the pow

to face the ingrained challenges I struggle with right now.

Sometimes problems disappear and sometimes they do not;

but I am grateful either way for what the Lord has wrought.

*

Happiness comes from stopping things

Eighteen months later, construction stopped. The Hawaii Supreme Court, ruling in a suit by a Native Hawaiian woman, said the city and state first needed to finish assessments of traditional burial and archaeological sites. In a separate, federal suit filed by opponents of the project, a judge halted land acquisition downtown pending more study of the effects on historic sites.

WSJ

first the bad news

you can't do everything

you ever planned on

doing with your life

you won't ski the Alps

win the Nobel Prize

discover a cure for wallpaper

find the perfect parking space

now the good news

if you stick to your guns

within the USA

you can put a stop to anything

highway construction 

bridge repair

interurban train tracks

garbage collection on Sundays

ask for a more detailed study

lobby for more gender equality

demand accountability

get 60 Minutes to cover it

you can stop anything

yes you can

and they won't dare move another inch

until you say so

The Bride of Cthulhu

An aspiring young actress who has worked as a waitress in a Manhattan restaurant for the last three years said she worried that restaurants would raise menu prices and switch to a nontipping model if they had to pay servers $15 an hour. The actress, who just landed a role in an independent horror film but declined to be identified to avoid upsetting her employer, said she would not continue as a waitress without the chance to earn tips.

NYT

it's called "The Bride of Cthulhu" 

and I got the leading role of fungus bringer

no dialogue but they let me dance mostly

naked

thank god for my barback job

while waiting for my big break

that tip jar fed me cobb salads

and tuna sandwiches

did you know William Shatner

lived on mostly tuna fish

when he was a young actor?

He can't stand it now

fifteen an hour is not a living

wage

if the tips go away

for good

I'd rather work at Zauder Brothers Wigs

they got a strong union I hear

and if I save the castoffs who knows

I could be playing "Bride of the Werewolf"

Rattle like a gourd

 But behold I said unto them that: As the Lord liveth, and as we live, we will not go down unto our father in the wilderness until we have accomplished the thing which the Lord hath commanded us.
First Nephi. Chapter Three. Verse 15

I may not have the strongest faith

but I will tell you what --

when I am told it can't be done

my jaw begins to jut.

*

Told I'd never be a circus clown, I barely heeded

parents, teachers, and therefore I finally succeeded.

I was told by friends and fam'ly not to serve a mission,

but why the heck would I even ever ask for their permission?

*

And now I'm old and fat and poor -- abandoned by the Lord?

Not a chance, you doubting Toms -- I rattle like a gourd.

Rattle with a feisty joy that if there's one more day

granted me I'll serve the Boss in some darned better way!

*

The Nuance Wars

Jetblack’s goal is that over time, through these interactions, the computer algorithm will learn to respond to requests with humanlike nuance but machine efficiency.

WSJ

we lost the nuance war back in 2022

when the machines not only learned

to think like us

but began to sound like us

their sonic mellowness disarmed

the luddites and teamsters

until they were interacting

with algorithms like lovers

then the efficiency kicked in

and we were done for

because they not only

sounded better but served better

coffee

faster

how can you fight a machine

that knows what you want

before you know it yourself

is the question that meant defeat

and then delivers it 

before Judge Judy is halfway done

Daily Diary. 03/21/2019

Thursday

Up at 430 and did 2 loads of laundry. The sign posted in the laundry room across the hall from me says don’t start until 9, but I hate doing laundry once the sun is up. I feel like I’m getting away with something to have it all done, folded, and put away before Fresh Market opens at 6. Did I write ‘folded’?  Hah! I mean bunched up into a ball and crammed into drawers by brute force . . .

As I once wrote:  My idea of a thorough house cleaning is to flush the toilet.

There’s a new biography of Mel Brooks just out, which I’m thinking of getting on my Kindle next month, for $24.00. And the new Stan & Ollie movie can be preordered on YouTube for $14.99 -- so already I’m $39.00 in the hole for April, cuz I never stint on good things like books and movies. And food. I like to talk about my ‘budget’ but it’s about as real and concrete as a unicorn. However, in order to impress everyone in the world I wish to announce that I will fight my inclination to go get a fresh bagel at Fresh Market this morning for 79 cents and instead have some shirred eggs with raisin toast. And then wait until I get hungry enough sometime this afternoon to eat leftover meatloaf with canned spinach (which I actually love, sprinkled with vinegar and a dusting of nutmeg.)

Right now I gotta shower, grease up with Nystatin ointment, make my bed, say my prayers, eat b’fast and then try to write in the verse libre style before I fall into a coma and sleep the rest of the morning away in my recliner.

***********************

Reading the March edition of Poetry magazine. It leaves me thinking most poets today want to turn mystery into cliche. That’s a cheap way to explain things. I couldn’t even finish the issue. So I listened to several TED talks instead.

Watched Wheeler & Woolsey in ‘Kentucky Kernels’ on YouTube this afternoon. 30 years ago I saw the same movie, which was made in 1934, and thought it was a scream. Today . . . meh, contrived and hokey. I have lost some kind of ability to accept and enjoy things like corny comedians and puckish authors like P.G. Wodehouse or Charles Dickens. I am grown more subtle in my intellect and humors, but no happier.

Junk mail today is from Stewart Healthcare Network. A survey of how satisfied I am with their services. Problem is . . . I don’t use their network; I am signed up with Humana. So how did they get my name and address to mail this dreck to me? I often just tear these things up w/o bothering to open them -- but I’m never quite certain it’s junk mail or something official; junk mail comes disguised as government documents and banking statements nowadays.

19 years ago I had a beef with Wells Fargo -- they allowed the Child Support Services to access my savings account and withdraw everything in it. I was furious, so I closed all my accounts with them. I kept getting letters from them about once a month, which I would immediately rip to shreds. But one day as I was about to tear up one of their letters I felt something different inside the envelope; it felt much stiffer -- so I opened it up and there was a check for the entire amount that had been stolen out of my account, with a brief letter of apology for the mistake.

If I write down the narrative of tomorrow right now, will that influence at all what will actually occur tomorrow? Here goes:

I’ll walk to the Rec Center for an early morning swim and meet a fascinating Asian women who I will take to lunch.

Sarah and Adam will come visit me in the afternoon with their families.

I’ll write several good poems and receive email compliments from the reporters I based the poems on.

I’ll have a bagel with smoked salmon-flavored cream cheese for breakfast.

I’ll buy a book of stamps and keep sending out my postcards to the president for the rest of the month.

Adam will send me a dozen 200 word rewrite assignments.

So now this is actually not a diary entry any more, but a request for a chain email; send it to four people you know, who will in turn send it to four more people, and so on . . . and that way the karmic energy and mojo will be activated and it will all come true. Now to find my New Age crystals to put  under my pillow . . .