In Case at a Party Someone Romanticizes about Nixon:

In case you have low blood pressure, this oughta push it up the scale. Good thing Nixon liked technology. Leaves nothing to revisionism either way.

In Which I Become the Editor in Chief of My Internet Use

Lately I've been craving a simpler life: in a typical week I'd go to work, spend time with friends enjoying conversation, music, go home at the end of a day and create or read or simply unwind – take life slow...

I was swimming in the ocean last week on a lovely summer day. I floated beyond the breakers where the call of electronics couldn't reach and like the slap of a wavelet to the side of my head it hit me: I do have this simple a life. So why do I feel so insistently edged in by preponderances of information constantly bombarding?

It's the internet!

As soon as I open the browser, and as fast as I can twitch my finger I can attach my attention to any sudden impulses that grab me. It's a contest/no-contest: my preconceived attention against the splashes and flashes vying to win me away from myself.

As I read the newspaper (on actual paper) this morning, it occurred to me to write a letter to the editor of the internet, “Dear Ed., My internet experience offers inconsistent content, too many snippets, and not enough focus!”

Newspapers are edited strategically by teams of professionals who have respect for story, history, social context, and a knack for fitting salient elements on the page (while leaving room for the ads). But left to my own devices, I'm all over the place! I need an *Editor in Chief!

I can’t just “**surf the web” anymore. I can't concern myself with every issue or take on every argument. I need to swim, dive, find treasures, come up for air and check my landmarks.

On the larger social level, the internet creates its own plea that we support education which includes emphasis on critical thinking skills. Case in point, those - and I hate to mention this odd phenomenon as I've been actively shunning it - but take the tea party people (please!). They react to snips and snatches of phrases (and spend lots of time making elaborate posters) but they lack understanding of history - as evidenced by their misunderstood eponymy.

A joy the internet brings is the gems I find without seeking and it's fun, but how can I use the richest information source humanity has known so far without getting waylaid? I don't need to know how many friends Ashton Kucher has or read the details of a study that says too much manure left in a pile will spontaneously combust! 1) I don't care; 2) it's so obvious! 2a) and fascinating! But I did like finding out Dan Piraro has a blog, to take some of the load off Ze Frank and my brother . (Don't even get me started on that blasted facebook).

Before opening the browser I must call an editorial meeting with myself and simply ask, "What is the purpose of this search?"

So I wrote my Letter to the Editor on a post-it and stuck it to my monitor so I can read it next time I go check my email.

Ah yes! Now I remember! That's why I went online tonight.

*For the sake of this piece I’m keeping the focus to the newspaper versus internet. Offer a publishing deal and I may do a book on the greater picture.

**2009: I read a Yahoo! news piece that said that expression is archaic already.

Ask Danielle and Jean

Danielle answers Javier's questions about military fashion. Jean looks on.

Loud Talkers of the Future

It's going to be a noisy world in the next few years, and in about thirty, all the old folks around the towns are going to be talking loudly. What is now considered a reasonable speaking volume will increase by about two thirds. Why? Earbuds, earphones, headphones, call 'em what you will. Up close, constant, insistent: the cilia can't rest.

An audiology specialist I know says two factory workers can work side by side for thirty years, one goes deaf, the other doesn't. Science isn't sure why. So, some people will keep their hearing no matter how bombarded their cochlei, but others? The half who maintain their hearing will still have to raise their voices for the ones who haven't.

How can I be so sure of this? It's already happening. How do I know? I hear them:

I hear them behind me at the store
I hear them in the restroom stalls
I hear them across the plaza square
I hear their echoes throughout the halls
Soft responses bring a wince of query
for what they sense but can't quite heary.

A Touch of Green

Javier, Shanta, Danielle and I bring you things that are green. Thank you John Ryan for playing piano!

Jacob Bronowski: Ascent of Man

I saw this first when Ze Frank posted it on his blog a couple of days ago. I like it so much I've put it on mine:

Heavily with Flight

Jetway cruisers now offline now are aware of the tempting asphalt the sun softening tarmac repudiating individuality for gravel into one heaping mass of on and on and on and as the jet lands scorching polynylon rubberized tire black streaking on the runway then up slightly for balance and again down to roll and thrusters reversing turbines slow to spin alternate to their prior forward heaving weight and momentum against gravity rush and pull to come to a complete stop before debarking the plane and the suitcases below and the satchels above still in place the passengers open the compartments, wait patiently and sometimes not so much but waiting nonetheless to pass the attendant some thanking the captain walking those hollow sounding steps through the portable tunnel the jetway now online now unaware of the past massive technological marvel so much as the next destination which may be business, pleasure, table or bed. But: they just actually flew.

"A Paddy Just Like Us"

Aha! Muhammad Ali is part Irish! Aha!

Here's the story on ESPN online There's even an O'Sullivan in this story.

Dan Harris Bill Maher

I'm watching the TV news more lately because of the fires, and I keep seeing this newscaster who reminds me of someone. Dan Harris. Looks like... sounds a little like... who is it... who does he remind me of?

Oh, Bill Maher. Does anyone else get the same impression? (Yes, they do position their hands differently in relation to their heads).

Who Needs a Printing Press when We Have Computers?

Did you know thousands of great literary works are in the public domain? And did you further know you can download them for free - and then read them?

Well they are, and you can, and you can. It's called "Project Gutenberg".

The Value of "Each"

Check it out! You get eleven sandwiches and five salads - that's like, a few bags of food, and all you have to pay for all that stuff is $3.65! That's not just an every day value, it's practically a miracle - especially at Whole Foods! That place is pricey!

This ad was posted as-is on a website in August, 2009. I have not doctored it.

Drivers' Licenses for Obese Babies!

The brains of obese individuals appear to be sixteen years older than the brains of lean people.

Appendix: Safe Harbor for Healthy Bacteria

...among other helpful functions

I knew it! Turns out the Appendix is not extraneous!

It's like this realization: Early astronomers with brand new telescopes saw little blotches between the stars and planets in the night sky. The blotches were catalogued by Messier as "nebulous" meaning "clouds" as in "just nothing." He was looking for comets and these smudges were catalogued as, "What not to bother looking at."

Later, astronomers with better telescopes said, "We have a correction. Those blotches are galaxies."

In an infinite *universe, **conclusion is not absolute.

Of course the Appendix has a purpose. Otherwise, it wouldn't be there. Duh!

*As to the concept of the "multiverses", as "infinite" includes everything, so batches of verses are included in the edgeless everything.

**Yes, I know, neither is that one (or this) <--- or that! (ad infinitum).

Engineering Gluttony

I'm enjoying this book, The End of Overeating: Taking Control of the Insatiable American Appetite by David Kessler.

It's not a diet book, it's more about the neurology of our food desires and the food industry's engineering of our culture's gluttony. It is a good book (especially with a little ranch dressing...) If you follow this link to Amazon you will also find a four minute video of the author. It's inedible!

Sampling from Ironic Times

This from Ironic Times.

U.S. Tops 153 Other Countries in Health Care

Only France, Italy, San Marino, Andorra, Malta, Singapore, Spain, Oman, Austria, Japan, Norway, Portugal, Monaco, Greece, Iceland, Luxembourg, Netherlands, United Kingdom, Ireland, Switzerland, Belgium, Colombia, Sweden, Cyprus, Germany, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Israel, Morocco, Canada, Finland, Australia, Chile, Denmark, Dominica, Costa Rica rate higher.

Ironic Times is written & edited by Larry Arnstein, Matt Neuman and Lane Sarasohn. Many funny notions in your head may well have been generated by these guys - the quiet comedy writers who gesticulate effectively though not necessarily wildly.

Of Course! Dan Piraro!

Why didn't I ever look for Dan Piraro's blog before now? He's my second favorite cartoonist!

Visiting My Stuff (While Revisiting Father Junipero Serra)

My stuff is in storage and I felt the need to visit it, so I did. This is my journey and reflections along the way, about stuff, peace, toys, traffic, and gratitude. (The statement written on tile near the end of this video is at the Serra Retreat in the hills above Malibu.)



This is wide screen so it plays better if you doubleclick on the youtube link and play it from the youtube page.

"...*Could* Face Decline" ... ya THINK?!?

Enh, higher education just makes people ask too many questions anyway. LA Times: 07/31/09 California's Higher Education System Could Face Decline.

Higher education should never be only for the wealthy. California had a beautiful promise of affordable higher education for all who wanted it, and it has been whittled away by apathy. Note to the lovely citizens of this state: better to build schools, saves money on prisons.

Sand Cinema from Ukraine

Creativity like this restores my faith in humanity.

How Taxes are Good

People have come to equate "taxes" with "evil". The fact is without taxes we would not have roads, schools, prisons, a legal system that, at least in theory, is unbiased; killer-catchers, fire- fighters, parks, public beaches, air quality control, health inspectors for restaurants, running water, sewer systems, flood channels that keep the city from flooding every storm season, or someone to rescue you when you have perpetrated the terrible sin of making a nearly fatal mistake of any kind.

And if you are so unfortunate as to die for any reason, it's tax money that carries your body to a nice cool place where it won't rot on the street and disturb the neighbors. Taxes are good if well spent. Life is expensive. Payment should be fair, and there is much debate about the definition of fairness, but next time someone dismisses taxes as simply wrong or bad, consider providing ballast.