They Say A Writer Writes

     

Tucson Weather Today

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The recent well-intentioned three or four day hiatus from my longtime daily blog commentary has revealed (to me) a new and disturbing discovery -- I can no longer sit myself down before my keyboard and, without an outline or any other form of planning, start tap, tap, tapping the keys and write a lucid first draft of a fiction story.

I suppose this has come about over time through inaction and lack of practice, through sheer laziness and adoption of a who cares? attitude. And a bit of mental deterioration brought on by aging.

Does this mean that I am no longer a writer even though I still think of myself as such? Oh God, no. Can't be.

Can it?

(hiatus: a pause or gap in a sequence, series, or process)

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Did You Know . . .

The cost of raising a medium-size dog to the age of eleven is $6,400.

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HISTORICAL EVENT

On October 1, 1946, 12 high-ranking Nazis were sentenced to death by the International War Crimes Tribunal in Nuremberg. Among those condemned to death by hanging were Joachim von Ribbentrop, Nazi minister of foreign affairs; Hermann Goering, founder of the Gestapo and chief of the German air force; and Wilhelm Frick, minister of the interior. Seven others, including Rudolf Hess, Adolf Hitler's former deputy, were given prison sentences ranging from 10 years to life. Three others were acquitted.

The trial, which had lasted nearly 10 months, was conducted by an international tribunal made up of representatives from the United States, the USSR, France, and Great Britain. It was the first trial of its kind in history, and the defendants faced charges ranging from crimes against peace to crimes of war and crimes against humanity. On October 16, 10 of the architects of Nazi policy were hanged one by one.

Hermann Goering, who at sentencing was called the "leading war aggressor and creator of the oppressive program against the Jews," committed suicide by poison on the eve of his scheduled execution. Nazi Party leader Martin Bormann was condemned to death in absentia; he is now known to have died in Berlin at the end of the war.

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WORD FOR TODAY

titular  [TIT'-yuh-luhr]
adjective
1. Relating to, having the nature of, or constituting a title.
2.
a. Existing in name only; nominal: the titular head of the family.
b. Bearing the title of a church or monastery that is no longer active.
3. Bearing a title: titular dignitaries.
4. Derived from a title: the titular role in a play.
noun
One who holds a title.

According to Wikipedia: "Titular means existing in title only."

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CELEBRITY BIRTHDAYS

Randall Rudy "Randy" Quaid

(born October 1, 1950)

Randy Quaid is an American actor nominated for a Golden Globe, BAFTA and an Academy Award for his role in The Last Detail. Quaid also won a Golden Globe Award and was nominated for an Emmy for his portrayal of U.S. President Lyndon Johnson in LBJ: The Early Years. Quaid is well known for his roles in the National Lampoon's Vacation movies, Brokeback Mountain and Independence Day.

He is the older brother of actor Dennis Quaid and the uncle of Jack Quaid, and half brother, Buddy John Quaid. He is a third cousin of cowboy movie star Gene Autry.

Julie Elizabeth Andrews

(born October 1, 1935)

Julie Andrews is an English film and stage actress, singer, author, theatre director, and dancer. Andrews is a former child actress and singer who appeared on the West End in 1948, and made her Broadway debut in a 1954 production of The Boy Friend, and rose to prominence starring in musicals such as My Fair Lady and Camelot. In 1957, she appeared on television with the title role in Cinderella, which was seen by over 100 million viewers.

Andrews made her feature film debut in Mary Poppins (1964), for which she won the Academy Award for Best Actress. She received her second Academy Award nomination for The Sound of Music (1965). Between 1964 and 1967, Andrews had other box office successes with The Americanization of Emily, Hawaii, Alfred Hitchcock's Torn Curtain, and Thoroughly Modern Millie, making her the most successful film star in the world at that time.

Thomas Edward "Tom" Bosley

(Oct 1, 1927 - Oct 19, 2010)

Tom Bosley was an American actor. Bosley is best known for portraying Howard Cunningham on the long-running ABC sitcom Happy Days, and the titular character on the NBC/ABC series Father Dowling Mysteries. He also was featured in a recurring role on Murder, She Wrote.

Walter Matthau

(Oct 1, 1920 - July 1, 2000)

Walter Matthau was an American actor best known for his role as Oscar Madison in The Odd Couple and his frequent collaborations with Odd Couple star Jack Lemmon, as well as his role as Coach Buttermaker in the 1976 comedy The Bad News Bears. He won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in the 1966 Billy Wilder film The Fortune Cookie.

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"Make the lie big, make it simple, keep saying it, and eventually they will believe it."
--Adolph Hitler

"I think when you spread the wealth around, it's good for everybody."
--Barack Obama

NASA TV

This Is Who I Am

   

I Came Upon A Friable Rock

Tucson Weather Today

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The attempt at serious writing in a new journal is not proceeding well. When I was young, flocks of serious thoughts flitted into (and out of) my conscious mind faster than I could hope to handle them. But now that I (an old man) have the leisure to examine them, not a single serious thought lingers long enough to be analyzed... not a thought that has not been tackled time and time again by both thinkers and writers of sizable celebrity.

Who am I?

I intend to persevere, but I realize, with some sadness, that it might take me a bit longer to get started than I expected. For I find myself, at an unexpectedly advanced age, treading cautiously on exceedingly friable ground.

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friable
(adj.)
easily crumbled or reduced to powder; crumbly: friable rock.

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Life, it appears, is quite friable.

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I would write ads for deodorants or labels for catsup bottles if I had to.
--John Updike
(From a 1967 Paris Review interview)

Thoughts And More Thoughts

Tucson Weather Today

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Fry's Supermarket provides two wood-slat benches outside the building for the convenience of customers and store employees who wish to smoke during their rest and lunch breaks. A huge pot filled with sand sits chained between the two benches, and it fills rather quickly with cigarette stubs of varying lengths. Since this area is located roughly half the distance of my daily two-mile walk, I take advantage of the benches to sit and rest for a few minutes before heading back down the return leg of my walk.

While seated there yesterday, I watched as an old lady approached and sat down close to the gigantic ashtray, upon which she latched her attention, carefully examining each discarded butt and putting in her apron pocket all of the bent and broken stubs of a size seemingly satisfactory for later re-lighting.


Not being particularly reticent in my old age, I struck up a lengthy conversation and told her that I had once been a cigarette smoker but had quit the habit in 1985. She said she knew she should quit but she was 47 years old and didn't have the will power to stop. Now, that surprised me greatly, as I had thought, because of her heavily lined and wrinkled face and her overall elderly appearance, that she was at least 70.

She told me that she had started smoking at age 12 but cigarettes have now become so expensive that she could not afford to buy them very often on her SSI (welfare) check (that was almost a hundred dollars more than my Social Security benefit.) I told her that back when I'd stopped smoking 26 years ago they had cost $1.00 a pack. She said that now the cheapest ones were more than $7 a pack, and that's why she came over to the store several times a day to salvage the butts.

One can learn a lot simply by observing and listening to people.

Don't know how much value to put on some of that information, though.

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Neuroscience Challenges Old Ideas about Free Will is the title of an intriguing article in Scientific American wherein celebrated neuroscientist Michael S. Gazzaniga explains the new science behind an ancient philosophical question.

At one point in the interview is the statement: ". . . neuroscientific experiments indicate that human decisions for action are made before the individual is consciously aware of them."

That was a difficult idea for me to understand and prompted me to read the entire piece, and I am glad that I did.

Again, here is the link.


Another interesting bit I recently read:

No matter what the Occupy Wall Street seems to have now become, the New Yorker has an article about how it all began. Arts & Letters Daily introduces the article thusly: "How a Canadian in a bathtub, together with transgender radicals, and a 'mystical anarchist' organized a revolution on Wall Street..."

Read about it here.

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The trouble with this country is that there are too many politicians who believe, with a conviction based on experience, that you can fool all of the people all of the time.

--Franklin P. Adams, columnist (1881-1960)