LOVE'S LABOR'S LOST

THE LOVERS by René Magritte

I'm reading John Steinbeck's THE LOG FROM THE SEA OF CORTEZ again.

It finally dawned on me that the word log in the title does not refer to a tree.

*

Steinbeck mentioned the port of Loreto.

It made me remember a girl I had met.

Her name was Loretta.

Mine would become shame.

*

I was working at the time as an assistant in the produce department at Safeway. I don't know if I was really called an assistant, but I wasn't the manager, so I guess it is accurate to say that I assisted the manager.

(I'll return to Loretta in a moment, but I want to mention a date I had with one of the bakery ladies.)

*

I forget her name, but she was older than me by at least a dozen years.

I was seventeen.

The same age when I encountered Loretta.

*

I took the bakery lady to Red Rocks to hear the London Symphony Orchestra.

I remember when the orchestra played Shubert's Unfinished Symphony.

I still remember how it did sound quite unfinished.

It was an apt title.

*

My date with the bakery lady ended by having a meal at the shiny, silver, Airstream-shaped hot dog restaurant not far from Red Rocks on West Colfax.

Our date was quite uneventful.

Neither I nor she made any moves.

Regretfully.

*

Loretta was a sexy Latina before I had ever heard the word Latina.

I didn't think of her as anything but sexy.

Full lips.

Beautiful eyes.

Long, dark brown hair.

A body that was out of this world.

It was during this first encounter in the produce department that we set a date to go out.

She was wearing bright yellow clothes.

She glowed brighter than her clothes.

It was a quest of lust, not love.

At least it was for me.

*

I was excited.

I guess not excited enough, however, because I forgot to pick her up at the scheduled time.

I called her.

She immediately said, “Nobody stands me up!”

Then there was a deafening loud click.

I never saw Loretta again, but I dreamed about her.

IT'S ABOUT RENEWABLE RESOURCES AND DATES

EARS

I've been thinking about ears.

Diogenes said this about ears:

We have two ears and one tongue so that we would listen more and talk less.

Gertrude Stein wrote:

A writer should write with his eyes and a painter paint with his ears.

(Stein should have been a painter. I know my ears have gotten colorful over the years.)

Zsa Zsa Gabor was not ambiguous when she said:

One of my theories is that men love with their eyes; women love with their ears.

A poet, Billy Collins, wrote:

I learned snails don't have ears. They live in silence. They go slowly. Slowly, slowly in silence.

I like this simple yet profound message:

My son, give attention to my 

wisdom, Incline your ear to 

my understanding.

Proverbs 5:1

Here are some other “eary” 

quotes.

I got an earful.

Give me your ears.

.

Do you have beans

 in your ears?

I'm all ears

.

Can I bend your ear?

I'm in it up to my ears.

He's still green behind the 

ears.

Intelligent people have large 

ears.

Maybe they hear more than 

people with smaller ears.

IT'S ABOUT RENEWABLE 

RESOURCES AND EARS

SLEEPLESSNESS READING AND KIDNEY STONES

 "SLEEPING FIGURE" by Henry Moore

I spent about 3 weeks in the hospital, and I think it gave me a blood clot in one leg from being supine for so long.

I've never lost so much sleep in my life.

I'm gradually catching up on the shuteye.

I went into the hospital after I fell on my butt three different times in two days.

I lost power in both legs.

Twice while getting off of my large, useless king-size bed that has since been thrown onto the ash heap of forty winks.

The other time I fell down while getting up from the toilet.

The mystery weakness in my legs was never explained, but I found out that the pain I felt in my lower right back was from a kidney stone.

This one kidney stone didn't want to be left alone.

During the ensuing weeks my left kidney “had” one.

Maybe my kidneys are really oysters.

My bedroom was renovated while I was “vacationing” in the hospital.

It was painted.

Nearly all of the detritus and debris was removed.

Also removed were the stacked books that I had read or not read.

They were put into large plastic tubs.

They're being stored in the garage.

I probably won't see them for a long time.

Out of sight, out of mind.

Books include nearly all of Dean Koontz and James Patterson.

Maybe my granddaughters 
will want to read them someday.

IT'S ABOUT RENEWABLE RESOURCES READING AND KIDNEY STONES

STATE OF THE UNION

President Trump:

“The State of the Onion is big and strong.

It is an Onion that is white, yellow, red...any color you want...with many layers.

The Southern Border is also a big Onion.

But it is dangerous.

It is a threat to you and me, your dog, your cat...everyone on the planet.

The Onion needs my wall...my great, powerful, beautiful wall.

Walls are old just like wheels, but they don't turn.

They sit and protect us from those who have wheels.

If our Onion is to remain strong, and continue to bring us to tears, we must have a wall.

Now!

Thank you,

The Commander and Chef

IT'S ABOUT RENEWABLE RESOURCES AND THE ONION

ROMAINE LETTUCE AND CAPITALIST PIGS

“no copyright infringement is intended”

It will soon be Thanksgiving Day.

People who want to shop quickly and efficiently on Black Friday should go easy on the turkey.

In fact, don't eat a thing.

Power to the people who are the fittist.

And especially don't eat any Romaine lettuce.

It could be a killer before you are injured or killed at the gathering of frenzied hordes on Black Friday.

*

I am probably too critical when I write CAPITALIST PIGS.

Most of us are capitalists, but not pigs.

But when I see images of people knocking each other over to be first to grab something that they probably don't need but want to buy, I believe capitalist and pig should then be conjoined.

(I just looked at my back yard. The pigeons are as big as turkeys.)

IT'S ABOUT RENEWABLE RESOURCES ROMAINE LETTUCE AND CAPITALIST PIGS

YOU'RE NOT A NEANDERTHAL SIT UP STRAIGHT

The March of Progress (pictured) is a now discredited theory that said humans (far right) evolved from chimps (far left). The image gives an illustrative view of different stages in the evolution of hominids. Modern-day humans have many extinct cousin species that share a common ancestor. These include: Homo heidelbergensis, Neanderthals and Homo erectus

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-6333443/3D-reconstruction-60-000-year-old-rib-cage-reveals-Neanderthals-stood-straight.html

Mother:

Sit up straight. You're hunching again.

Son:

But mom, I'm not a neanderthal.

*

Neanderthals again.

This time it's about their skeletal structure and posture.

Neanderthals may have walked more upright than modern humans.

They also may have had stronger lungs than us.

Neanderthals in marathon runs would have wiped our butts (but not literally).

IT'S ABOUT RENEWABLE RESOURCES AND NEANDERTHALS

SPEAK CLEARLY

News commentators need to speak more clearly... and

SLOW DOWN!

They're speaking so fast that words and pronunciations are left in the dust.

Maybe if they chewed gum it would slow down their speaking and help stick their words together.

And it isn't just the big cable news channels.

The garbling and mumbling occurs on the local news.

Just now I heard one well-known newsman say language, but it sounded like langage.

He said victory, and it sounded like vicory.

This bothers me.

I start yelling or change the channel.

IT'S ABOUT RENEWABLE RESOURCES AND SPEAKING CLEARLY

A COLD NIGHT AT INNISFREE

One frosty and freezing December night in 1973 Joan Bliss and I zipped ourselves into a sleeping bag.

 Inside the sleeping bag we were as tight as sardines in a can (and by tight I don't mean intoxicated).

She and I did not become amorous, but I do recall some sparks igniting when our two bodies touched.

Neither of us made any moves to do anything.

We had gotten into our snug and warm cocoon simply to avoid death by freezing.

We decided not to go outside to look at the comet Kohoutek, and we would need to wait another 75,000 years before it passed by again; but the comet was a dud anyway. President Nixon summed up the event when he was asked what he thought of the comet: He replied, “No comment.”
Or maybe he said, "No comet."

My visit to Innisfree occurred when I was footloose and free.

It was after Woodstock, but before the end of the Vietnam war.

It was a time of brown rice, vegetables, and yogurt.

Innisfree was a large, two-story farmhouse, with no central heating. I think there was a fireplace in the living room.

I remember walking to Innisfree, but I also recall that my newly bought 1964 Ford Esquire was parked there.

I remember that I was wearing layered clothing, and had on a sleeveless beaver fur vest that I had gotten out of a “free” box in the city.

A local Doberman pinscher must have thought that I was a two-legged beaver, and proceeded to chase me. I ran away in fright, but then remembered I shouldn't, so I slowed down, and so did the dog, and then I continued walking to Innisfree.

I only stayed at Innisfree for one night, and that was enough.

I don't recall where I went after that, but it was probably back to the Bohemian apartment where I had stayed off and on for a number of years.

Joan Bliss and I walked in the mountains one afternoon, but I can't remember if it was before or after our stay at Innisfree. After that, she went her way, and I went mine...strangers on ships passing in the night.

IT'S ABOUT RENEWABLE RESOURCES!

Ships that pass in the night, and speak each other in passing, only a signal shown, and a distant voice in the darkness; So on the ocean of life, we pass and speak one another, only a look and a voice, then darkness again and a silence.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

THE LAKE ISLE OF INNISFREE

By William Butler Yeats

I will arise and go now, and go to Innisfree, 

And a small cabin build there, of clay and wattles made; 

Nine bean rows will I have there, a hive for the honeybee, 

And live alone in the bee-loud glade.

And I shall have some peace there, for peace comes dropping slow, 

Dropping from the veils of the morning to where the cricket sings; 

There midnight's all a-glimmer, and noon a purple glow, 

And evening full of the linnet's wings.

I will arise and go now, for always night and day 

I hear lake water lapping with low sounds by the shore; 

While I stand on the roadway, or on the pavements gray, 

I hear it in the deep heart's core.

1892

THE DRUNKEN APE

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-6295785/Our-love-bonding-booze-comes-ancient-APES.html

Getting tipsy meant these apes lost their inhibitions and learned to trust each other, which was a key evolutionary advantage. 

Throughout history, the consumption of alcohol may have helped people become more creative, advancing the development of language, art and religion.

This is because alcohol lowers inhibitions and makes people feel more spiritual.

Apes were drinking beer before Brett Kavanaugh got plastered.

Before Jesus was born our simian brethren were imbibing suds.

Before Hemingway or Steinbeck became inebriated and wrote their prose, apes were swigging beer, or at least a fermented liquid that preceded Coors and Budweiser.

But apes were not sufficiently evolved to create Art; they drank beer to get closer to each other.

Beer bonded them.

Beer triggered their brains to produce endorphins.

And

Voila!

Baby apes!

IT'S ABOUT RENEWABLE RESOURCES AND BEER

El Paso Rain September 20, 2018

The

sky's

tears

are

falling

down

my

window

pane

With

joy

or

sorrow

I am

not

sure.

IT'S ABOUT RENEWABLE RESOURCES AND THE FALLING RAIN