I am in a doldrums.
I don’t write unless a spark ignites the fires of my imagination.
Is this inflammatory language?
You can see by what I have just written that it is one of those days.
I’m trying to be funny to substitute for a paucity of substance.
You’re right, I could have written “for a lack of substance” instead of “for a paucity of substance”.
I use larger words or clever ones to compensate for not having much to say.
Hmmm…this reminds me of what politicians do.
If the “spirit” moves me, then I can get my body to move.
(I thank God every day that it still moves)
I will, however, in a motley manner write about a few things, just, I suppose, to have something to write about today.
I will try to be brief like a candle…or a sneeze.
These are some things that I have read or heard recently….and in no logical order of importance.
Argentina now relies very little upon petroleum products and insecticides when it comes to its agriculture.
Its cattle industry is thriving.
Cows eat the grass for three years---
Do a lot of pooping and peeing---
Then the land on which they have grazed and mooed is used to grow other crops.
The nitrogen-rich soil is perfect to raise these other crops.
Argentina has some of the best beef in the world.
Talk about going...
Green!
We gringos ought to go there.
I have always wondered why I or anyone else would (stoop so low?) as to believe that we descended (or ascended?) from apes.
I am teaching 11th grade English, and I pondered this thought while reading about Puritanism, Rationalism (Classicism), and Romanticism.
I have always put my money on the dolphin as my more proximate ancestor, instead of the ape.
Then, yesterday, I read about the aquatic ape hypothesis.
Wikipedia will tell you about it.
This AAH might be called the “sink or swim” theory of evolution.
It definitely has me “Aahing”.
I am about to hear Robert F. Kennedy Jr. tell us how this election may have more voter fraud than the first selELECTION.
(Sell...election?)
There's a commercial.
I’m going to the refrigerator to get some ambrosia fruit salad and Dutch apple pie.
I’ll summarize what I hear when I return.
Here it is.
Thirteen words (and then a few others):
VOTER SUPPRESSION.
WHOLESALE PURGING OF VOTES.
KICKING PEOPLE OFF OF THE VOTER ROLLS.
(Read “Block The Vote” in the current Rolling Stone magazine.)
Can this election be stolen?
In one word:
YES.
Alien Hand Syndrome.
This was one of the most fascinating news reports that I have ever read.
Too bad that I spilled coffee all over the article.
But I strongly recommend that you find out what it is.
Then think about the eerie similarities between the George W. Bush presidency and the Alien Hand Syndrome.
Oregon:
The West coast taint.
It taint Washington.
It taint California.
(Thank you Stephen Colbert)
O WORD, WORD wherefore art thou WORD?
I wrote this with the Bard’s help.
I love words and I enjoy writing.
Here are a few words that recently had me asking wherefore:
1. HOLY MOLY
On the moly part:
In mythology, an herb of magic powers like in Homer’s Odyssey; or a wild, garlic-like plant (Alium moly) of the lily family.”
On the holy part:
Holy from Old English halig, meaning: “dedicated to a religious purpose, spiritually revered.”
Holy moly was an exclamation of the character ‘Captain Marvel,’ from comic books first written by Bill Parker and C. C. Beck in 1940.
Holy moly is a rhyming compound (cf. killer-diller, legal eagle, etc.), and is maybe an euphemism for holy Moses that's used as an oath.
2. BARF
To vomit or retch.
1960.
American English slang.
Possibly Onomatopoeic.
And speaking of euphemisms, how about this one:
Barf bag: air sickness pouch.
1966.
How appropriate.
This was the year that I graduated from high school.
[When I visited Japan, I learned that snow in Japanese is barf = (日本語; n.-嘔吐)
And I have just learned that barf also means snow in Persian برف (Tajik and Uzbek).
I’m not giving you a barf job.
3. SLEAZY
Sleazy.
1644.
Hairy, fuzzy.
Later "flimsy, unsubstantial"
(of unknown origin).
1670.
One theory traces it to Silesian (of the eastern German province of Silesia) (Ger. Schleisen), where fine linen or cotton fabric was made (Silesia in ref. to cloth is attested in England from 1674.)
Sense of "sordid" is from 1941.
Sleaze (n.) as condition of squalor.
1967.
Meaning "person of low moral standards” both as an adjective and noun.
1976.
Finally, here are two more news items that caught my eyes:
October 21, 2008:
Congress has canceled Pentagon plans to buy and launch two commercial imagery satellites to fill out its network of classified spy craft, according to military and space industry officials. They also wiped out the remaining 2008 funds.
THE EXACT AMOUNT
IS…
CLASSIFIED!
October 21, 2008:
The government has approved the first noninvasive brain stimulator to treat depression---
A device that beams magnetic pulses through the skull.
The woodpecker-like pulses trigger small electrical charges that spark brain cells to fire.
(Like what happens when I’m not writing stuff such as this.)
It’s Transcranial magnetic stimulation or TMS.
(Like TM…Transcendental Meditation…but it has a lot more STIMULATION!)
FIN
IT'S THE OIL STUPID!
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