Is there any
way to avoid
delight in a
new romance?
Saturday, February 7, 2015
Marionette diplomacy
The Speaker of the United States
is an office, like Chief Justice
of the United States, which is
depicted by our Constitution as
embedded in more than the insti-
tution over which it presides.
In the case of the Speaker, the
office is third in line of suc-
cession to the Presidency of the
United States.
We discovered recently, how much
the present Speaker is willing
to transform that office into
one dancing on the strings of a
foreign nation. He has done no
favour to that nation, while the
Speaker is revealed as unworthy
of this one, and a grave risk to
the foundation of our relations
with any nation that would com-
ply with this happening to us.
If the foundation of Never again
is the right of national self-
determination, it's a pity that
the Speaker doesn't care for it.
Meanwhile, the sordid excuses
of his Party for this treason
embrace that odd entanglement.
We don't go too far to identify
their brownshirt politics with
irony.
Friday, February 6, 2015
Suppose it were Friday ci: Paean to the pampas
The Dutch in old Amsterdam
do it,
Not to mention the Finns,
Folks in Siam do it,
Think of Siamese twins.
Some Argentines, without means,
do it
People say, in Boston, even beans
do it ..
It's Friday, the moon
is still very large,
and the skies truly
brighten in the cold
of the evening. It is
impossible to ignore
a ribald, irreverent,
rabelaisian charge we
blame on the air. One
likes about this, not
the science for it -
which is there - or
the endearing euphem-
ism about it - which
is rampant - but the
celebration of affec-
tion for a flux, much
under stress. Let us,
by all means, fall in
love. It is on the air.
But when the thermometer goes way up
And the weather is sizzling hot,
Mister Gob
For his squab,
A marine
For his queen,
A G.I.
For his cutie-pie
Is not,
'Cause it's too, too,
Too darn hot ..
Paul Barge
Cole Porter
Let's Do It,
Let's Fall in Love
Warner Brothers, 1928©
Kiss Me, Kate
Too Darn Hot
Cole Porter, 1949©
Robert Kimball
editor
Cole Porter: Selected Lyrics
American Poets Project
op. cit.
Thursday, February 5, 2015
Gérard and the conservation of sport
The sibilant grip of Keds
on planks, their echo upon
the humid tiles of scholas-
tic gyms, and a well-tuned
bounce of the precisely in-
flated toy were nothing to
Gérard, next to the fric-
ative gasp of the net's de-
light to disgorge a swish-
ing dunk. But they were at-
tuned completely to his
pleasure. What drove Gé-
rard to relocate basket-
ball practice to the lobby
was certainly not the cold
comforts of its travertine.
It was, that with its lower baskets and shal-lower court distances, the lobby remedied the absurd eugenic descent of the game into a curiosity shop for hyped extrem-ities, now normalised in favor of everyone's dis-play of its underlying skills: playing fair.
loading dock, Gérard's public-
spirited gesture was met with
patronising bafflement, at his
Wednesday, February 4, 2015
Origins of Wednesday xii: L'amour, the insanity defense
I'd be prepared to be a
good deal merrier, giv-
en the nature of my pri-
vate day. But who knew?
The week was not 2 days
old when the Republican
leadership disseminated
its telltale vapours of
superstition - against
this time - and steeped
themselves in their 56th
vote in the lower house
against a right of ac-
cess to health insur-
ance, against 12 million
new subscribers. Fumings
of tropical tie-bred um-
brage, our ick factor in
excelsis: the ooze was on.
excelsis: the ooze was on.
Fumes we could chew, to
make even a Dixie carbon
fetishist blush, signal-
ling that the Party's
infamous insanity test
for leadership had come
full circle as an insan-
ity defense, for wanking
on C-SPAN -- to reward,
they were reported say-
ing, their base. But we
hear our priests, a fair
amount, denouncing their
flock as a temptress. Can
no one advise them, that
hear our priests, a fair
amount, denouncing their
flock as a temptress. Can
no one advise them, that
with a foreplay this ad-
vanced already, by St Val-
entine's Day, there'll be
entine's Day, there'll be
too few left to deceive?
Taylor Cowan
United States capitol
The Washington Post©
30 January 2015
Tuesday, February 3, 2015
Monday, February 2, 2015
Too bad we have Gail Collins
I just wanted to say,
before it becomes im-
polite ever to extract
humor again, from for-
getting what one had
been going to say, I
still enjoy the mind-
sweeping calamity of
Zip excuses. Gail Col-
lins, a publishing
phenomenon using the
suspiciously allit-
erative name of a
possibly real person,
can sometimes make
one weep in gales of
laughter's misadven-
ture, forgetfulness.
I do sense, we're ap-
proaching the end of
permission for such
interferences, so for
now I hope collisions
of drone pizzas con-
tinue to splat us o-
verhead, as quoting
Republicans verbatim
sprinkles tears of
levity, our way.
Gail Collins
The Days of Wine
and Droning
The New York Times©
29 January 2015
Sunday, February 1, 2015
Super is the bowl
The game hadn't
lurched so deep
as into its first
broadcast breast,
as Gérard withdrew
for residue's dis-
patch, of sole pâté
of dubious and an-
tiquated catch.
Oh, my. But this
is Arizona. One
can doze things
off beneath the
stars.
Stair machine
a domestic architecture to exhibit
torsion and strain of articulation,
in its celebration of materials.
Sometimes one likes a stair to lend
a rhythm of some calm, and less an
air of compulsion.
Michelangelo Antonioni
Marcello Mastroianni
Jeanne Moreau
1961
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