The Book of the Irish Bulls – On Sale Now
On Raymond Chandler
Have been thinking of a Chandler line a lot lately. I had a Chandler novel phase when much younger but don’t really recall the plots well.
But he had a line in one novel that has always stuck in my head: something to the’ effect of, “if you can get your thoughts out of your brain.”,
Whether through meditation, prayer, conversation, or reading/writing, we often need t;o get thoughts out.
Just a brief poem
“Climate” by yours truly
The climate can be so strange here.
Today just some white sunlight over the foothills
And light blue sky above with no clouds.
Mid-day heat even in late October.
No wind today.
Still beautiful.
Three joke/poems and a joke
“Wheel” by yours truly
Wheel of Caution
The new TV game show brought to you by Paranoid Productions LLC.
Enjoy, but lock your door.
They’re out to get you.
“TV” by yours truly
TV dinner
Not a winner.
Everyone’s a sinner.
Empty chair.
Buyer beware.
“Soy” by yours truly
The soy sauce is now gone,
And I feel quite wan.
Now all I have is pun,
And may soon be done.
A joke
“What do you think of the scandal at Camp LeJeune?”
“Camp is still young… at least at heart. He takes lots of fish oil pills.”
On drawing
Had two facial drawings done of myself when living in Asheville, NC, by a street artist using a marker. He was good.
But the strange thing is I look almost East Asian
in my eyes . I guess because of squinting from sun.
I used to sketch a lot, almost compulsively, as a teenager but stopped because I could only seem to draw men, and that made me feel a bit homosexual.
–
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On creative writing part 2
One of the problems with creative witting is telling “big” from “small,” public from personal.
Trying to write a short novel about federal politics.
It would be both about politics and the personal life of the married couple involved in it.
On a saying
I don’t frankly remember most of the many school classes I have had, but I have been thiniking lately of a phrase used in class by a high school history teacher I liked.
“No, no,, no. A thousand times: no !”
It expresses how I feel about much of the world today. Sometimes you must resist evil influence and authority.
A poem
“Cynicism” by yours truly
On social media, a woman asked,
“What do you mean when you say you have
Recently been cynical?”
“Tired of everything, pessimistic.
A writer in’ England said something to the effect of:
‘The man who i’s tired of London is tired of life.’
And ‘The sun’ll come out tomorrow.’
Sometimes I prefer dark.”
Cynicism is a kind of quitting.
.
‘
On Jonathan Yardley
He was one of the main fictions ‘critics at ITe Washingtom/ Post until its Book World section shut down a few years ago. Oddly he said in a pretty recent comment that he would no longer read fiction.
He wrote an iinteresting book called Second Reading pretty recently which is a collection of brief essays in which he reconsiders fiction he liked in the past.
How often does it happen we reconsider whether we still like art or even people that/whom we liked at first?
When I mentioned Yardley’s book to a grad school classmate, she said she no longer tiked the short story “The Most Dangerous Game.” I still do.
“Complexity” by yours truly
Beautiful foothills and soft white clouds.
A big field of tall grass neighbors my. apartment building.
But some slightly ugly apartment budlings block
Some of my sight of the hills.
Sometimes I sympathize with radical environmentalists building
And liiving in a treehouse ort tent
And let the tall grass grow.
A silly poem and a comment on art
“Indoor Hiker”by yours truly
Hike from bedroom to bathroom
(Iit has at least about half room)
A;nd from study to kitchen.
Sometimes to an outdoor taxi.
Or sit 15-30 minute on a padded porrch chair
To get some air.
Or a mailbox or laundry room.
Edema.
On today’s Mass: It was about parables in thw New Testament., especially about the prodigal son. Parables are like fiction: some like them, and some hate them. I don’t think them unbearable and have obviously put out fiction myself.