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More on media and word choice

The media should stop describing what is planned and/or wanted in Ukraine as only a “no-fly zone”; it would be an air war, if the Ukrainians or their allies shot down invading Russian planes.

One The Washington Post military reporter described the “no-fly zone” over Iraq throughout the 1990s as an air war, and in my opinion he was correct, and that air war may have contributed to the 9/11/2001 terrorist attacks on the U.S.

The media should strive for clarity in its language. People are dying in the war in Ukraine. Re-read George Orwell’s essay “Politics and the English Language.”

Just about the writing process today

Even people who enjoy writing as a hobby or job can  have different techniques with it. In  my past journalism work, some could write very smoothly and smartly in their first draft extemporaneously. I guess they had prepared well for their subject matter. I was more of a tinkerer, needing to refine and revise.

I still feel that way while writing novels. I see small errors in my first draft and add some things. It feels like  being a sculptor patching  up and smoothing a statue.

My publisher asked me in an e-mail what my inspiration for the latest novel was, I said it was being haunted by the past, but the novel is about second chance , has a positive ending, and no horror, just some regret about youthful error.

Still busy with a novel work-in progress, so just a few jokes on the State of the Union speech

Thus spake the president:

“The pun-demic has been quite pun-ishing. And we need to cut the price of prescription hugs. I am not talking about legalizing prostitution or regulating dating website fees. The sites deserve to earn their money.”

…

“Take more Covid-19 tests, as many as possible because we all liked taking tests in school.”

…

“In Ukraine, we are trying to help but will not Put-in U.S. military there.”

…

“As for the inflation issue, people, stop eating so many donuts, and you won’t inflate their prices so much. Be responsible!”

Just a few more brief poems and/or jokes as I am trying to finish a novel now

“Hitch” by yours truly

Have a scratch? Itch.

(Life’s a b—-.)

Got a nervous twitch.

With me she would not hitch.

May have been a witch.

“Personality” by yours truly

Personality,

Your reality,

Find normality.

I would stay with thee,

Whether windward or lee(ward).

Offshore. Don’t be a bore.

No man is an island.

“Explicit” by yours truly

Have been complicit

In the explicit.

I admit it.

Did it.

Two poems

“Stasis” by yours truly

Stasis,

Don’t disgrace us,

Or with with mace we’ll spray your face, us.

And the spraying won’t be wee or free.

“Quivering” by yours truly

Quivering mess,

Have to confess.

Quiver of arrows,

And now it narrows.

Life has become less.

What’s next you may guess.

On jamming technology and two original poems

I have trouble now with jamming technology: a sketchy online movie service, wifi cable TV, and CDs, and DVDs that don’t always work smoothly. What did The Police say in one song? “When the world is running down, you make the best of what’s still around.” Indeed.

The joke a librarian told me was, “we call that copying machine the ‘Bob Marley’ because it is always jamming.”

Poems

“Don’t” by yours truly

Don’ t look too long.

What the heck? And,

You will be reckoned.

Give me a second.

Just get back to work,

Like a quirky turkey.

And try not to be smirky.

“Harvest” by yours truly

A single star, a lonely  bar.

How close, how far?

Multi-colored sky over winter foothills.

Peoples’ strong wills.

Angers and ills.

On Keats, a movie, and a comment on the war in Ukraine

John Keats, the English Romantic, wrote a brief poem about regret over having laughed too hard the night before. The pop singer/songwriter Roger Waters wrote about “laughing too loud at the rest of the world with the boys in the  crowd.”

i have started watching No Time to Die, the latest James Bond movie. So far, so good. Apparently, this is Daniel Craig’s last Bond film. I think he has been good as the character in a gritty, serious way. I read Henry Cavil, who played Superman in movies, will be the next movie Bond.

I clerked in an office one summer in college where one of the secretaries had a small sign on her desk saying something like, “I don’t have time to be depressed.” The title of this Bond film reminded me of that sign.

A brief comment on the current war in Ukraine. I have made a few short jokes about the conflict, don’t really know what started the war, and realize it is really serious.

My opinion is Putin is a bit off kilter. bearing a dangerous grudge from the disintegration of the U.S.S.R. Ideally, the  United Nations or some other global organization should require that its member countries not allow their leaders to hold senior positions for more than ten years. I think the U.S. was right about that with the eight-year limit on presidential service.

 

 

 

Some thoughts on fiction writing, a poem, and a joke

In the midst of writing a short novel. I think some writers can use their imagination almost entirely for fictions (maybe especially if on heavy drugs), while others need to rely on a lot of lightly fictionalized versions of their own life experiences. I am the latter type.

Of course, semi-auto-biographical fiction still requires post facto, superimposed organization on a past that seemed more chaotic in the moment and what R.B. Sheridan called in the comedic play The Rivals “delusions to the past.”

How can you ever be sure you are remembering totally accurately? I have read some have perfect memory, but I think most don’t.

Poems/jokes

“Empty” by yours truly

Another empty mail box.

(Letter never sent?)

Re-set the clocks.

Find the keys for the locks.

(Recall  touching her locks.)

Cash out your stocks.

CDs are safer at your age.

“Certificates of deposit or musical compact discs?”

So the box was empty.

Don’t be a simp-(ty).

Or drink so much you  go limp-(ty).

Anyway the bottle is empty.

(Disclaimer: I am not trying to make light of the invasion of Ukraine, only the absurdity of language).

“Party” by yours truly

I hear Kyiv is having a Molotov cocktail party tonight. Let’s go!

 

A few jokes

1. I can now declare that I have lost my joy of tex(t messaging). Am getting rather old and should probably step off the stage anyway. I shall use my phone now only to call taxis and receive sales calls from Asian con artists regarding auto-insurance deals when I haven’t had a car in several years.
2. “What do you think of sanctions on Russia?’ “Well, I do not agree with many Russian policies, but it should neither entirely be sank nor shun in the long run.”
3. “The sin is mightier than the word.” –thus spake John-Jacob Jingleheimer Schmidt.

Regarding a new novel, I have penned, or typed, one called Shaking and Steady: but not Stirred, a brief novel, that should be available on Amazon.com.

It is a kind of postmodern paperback story about addiction, terrorism,  and art. I think it will only be about $10 on Amazon initially, maybe less later. Amazon seems to cut prices sharply on books if they aren’t selling well.

Just a poem today

“Whirring” by yours truly

The nearly violent whirring of winds at night,

Coming off the foothills surrounding,

Resounding.

Compounding.

Do you believe in ghosts? I do.

Screaming, swirling air: old nightmare.

Do you know? Do you care?

Worrying.