A Temporary Impasse

     

Tucson Weather Today

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A good bookshop is just a genteel Black Hole that knows how to read.
--Terry Pratchett

Charles Wright

The New U.S. Poet Laureate

Rivers and mountains glide through my blood.
Cold pillow, bittersweet years.
In the near distance, a plane’s drone
rattles the windows.
Clear night. Wind like a predator
in the sharp grass of the past.
--Charles Wright

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One of the reasons for this blog's on-again off-again hiatus is because I am involving myself deeply in writing a new, highly experimental piece of fiction.

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Did You Know . . .?

The largest hotel suite in the world is located 22 stories under the surface in the Grand Canyon Caverns. One night for two people in this 65 million year old cave is $700.

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HISTORICAL EVENT

On this day in 1967 President Lyndon Johnson appointed U.S. Court of Appeals Judge Thurgood Marshall to fill the seat of retiring Supreme Court Associate Justice Tom C. Clark.

On August 30, after a heated debate, the Senate confirmed Marshall's nomination by a vote of 69 to 11. Two days later, he was sworn in by Chief Justice Earl Warren, making him the first African American in history to sit on America's highest court.

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WORD FOR TODAY

genteel
adjective
1.  belonging or suited to polite society.
2.  well-bred or refined; polite; elegant; stylish.
3.  affectedly or pretentiously polite, delicate.

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CELEBRITY BIRTHDAYS

Timothy Alan Dick

(born June 13, 1953)

Tim Allen is an American comedian and actor. He is known for his role in the sitcom Home Improvement. He is also known for his starring roles in several popular films, including the Toy Story film series, The Santa Clause film series, and Galaxy Quest. Since 2011, he has starred as Mike Baxter in the ABC sitcom Last Man Standing.

Mary-Kate Olsen and Ashley Fuller Olsen

(born June 13, 1986)

The Olsen Twins collectively, are American actresses. The twins made their acting debut as infants playing Michelle Tanner on the television series Full House.

Richard Earl Thomas

(born June 13, 1951)

Richard Thomas is an American actor, best known for his leading role as budding author John-Boy Walton in the CBS drama The Waltons.

Alexandra Elizabeth "Ally" Sheedy

(born June 13, 1962)

Ally Sheedy is an American film actress and author of two books. Following her film debut in 1983's Bad Boys, she became known as one of the Brat Pack group of actors in the films The Breakfast Club and St. Elmo's Fire. She is also known for her roles in WarGames, Short Circuit and High Art.

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Genteel women suppose that those things do not really exist about which it is impossible to talk in polite company.
--Friedrich Nietzsche


NASA TV

This Is Who I Am

   

Miscellany . . .

While walking along the desert sand and rocks of a narrow path through the scrub I spied on the ground a... well, I stared at it for at least ten seconds before my brain registered what my eyes were seeing...it seemed so out of place on that path... it was a somewhat weathered and sun-faded ten dollar bill.. no kidding. As hard as it is to believe, I had actually found some money.

Since it was free, I decided to spend it foolishly, so when I got to Circle-K I bought five dollars worth of PowerBall tickets. Couldn't bring myself to blow the whole ten.

I'll post the result (if I win) after the drawing. Unless it's the grand prize of mega-millions, that is.

(I thought of taking a picture of the ten-spot but then opined that most readers know what a ten-dollar bill looks like)

But then, I wondered how many people can say, without looking, whose picture is on the ten-dollar bill.

Can you?

. . .

Last night Mike and JoAnn arrived back home from their vacation trip to London. And they came bearing gifts. I am now the proud owner of a box of GUYLIAN Finest Belgian Chocolate Sea Shells, a package of Marx & Spencer Orchard Mix (a delicious mix of soft and juicy dried fruit) and a box of Twinings Green Tea.

What a thoughtful couple of kids they are.

Thank you guys.

. . .

I finally managed to snap a picture of Eva doing her dream-time leg stretches while napping on the carpet. She cracks me up when she dreams. Sometimes, lying there on the carpet, her legs do tiny swimming motions, or running motions as if chasing some prey, and often she growls most menacingly deep down in her throat.

Eva stretching her legs and growling while asleep

. . .

I read an interesting and thought-provoking factoid this morning:

Amiri Baraka was the poet laureate of New Jersey during the September 11 attacks, and a year later, he read his poem "Somebody Blew Up America" at a poetry festival. In it, he suggested that Israel knew about the attack beforehand; the poem was labeled anti-Semitic and caused a huge controversy. The governor of New Jersey tried to fire Baraka, but discovered that it wasn't legally possible to fire a poet laureate. So the state passed a bill that dissolved the position, and since then, there has not been a poet laureate of New Jersey.

As I said, it's merely an interesting (and thought-provoking) factoid.

But I'll write nothing more about it... at this time.

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"We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit."
--Aristotle