Wow.... Taking heat on your excess or lack of political contrariness...because you're about as non-political as is imaginable. That should be some sort of measurement of social discord, like a barometer. The GK Index.
Can I say “That’s funny” without an emoticon and will the viewer still believe I thought it was funny? Or, absent said emoticon, will they think I’m being a sarcastic prick? The interweb complicates everything.
I have been selecting and collecting poems from TWA since 2003. No rhyme or reason to the selections; just what I find charming, or funny, or profound, or in some other way pleasing to me. The total is now 476. They would make a wonderfully eclectic book, I'm sure.
I admire your ambition. We used to have a staff of patient workers who gathered up the necessary permissions from poets, wrote the checks, put the whole thing together, and those workers have gone off to lucrative careers as investment counselors, psychologist therapists, and stockcar drivers. Nobody's left except me and the Executive President. Good luck.
Lee De Liberal - I'm guessing you must be "Very Young" - which, to someone approaching 80, could mean someone less than half my age.
I was a "mature student" at fortyish when i took a required seminar at graduate school. We were discussing whether public libraries should have censored books such as "Lady Chatterly's Lover" on the shelves. "Margaret", aged twenty or so, was fiercely in favor of "Free Speech", including "blue" books. As a fortyish parent with two school-age daughters, I imagined going to my local PTA meeting and having a similar topic come up. While I have no problems personally with D. H. Lawrence, I realized that I lived in this particular community, and that these were the people I'd meet in the grocery store or at the park. Their children and my children could be friends. To take a truly unpopular stand in "The Birthplace of Richard M. Nixon" - their school was on the Richard M. Nixon Memorial Library site - their school bore his name - would be "out of step" with our social environment. So, Liberal or not, I found my forty-year-old self arguing for caution against this twenty-year-old "Bleeding Liberal" stand-in for me at her age.
My point is that with age comes experience. And experience can breed increased caution. Personally, I admire Our Host for being true to himself as he passes through the byways of life. He's giving us a fine example of thoughtful maturity and the freedom to revise viewpoints in the light of wider life experience. Three cheers for this cheerful and wise Octogenarian who is responding to us, his avid readers, Today! Hurray, Hurray, Hurray!
Wow.... Taking heat on your excess or lack of political contrariness...because you're about as non-political as is imaginable. That should be some sort of measurement of social discord, like a barometer. The GK Index.
People will call it the Geek Index and it'll be a measure of cluelessness, otherworldliness. Not considered a compliment in the broader world.
I don’t live in the broader world.
By broader world, I mean Nebraska.
That’s funny.
Can I say “That’s funny” without an emoticon and will the viewer still believe I thought it was funny? Or, absent said emoticon, will they think I’m being a sarcastic prick? The interweb complicates everything.
I have a Post-It-Note on my bathroom mirror (among many other notes) that pretty much summarizes my outlook on life:
"I speak my mind because it hurts to bite my tongue"
Pat
You're young, you should be speaking up. I'm older and it's my duty to get out of the way.
Thinking about right-wing versus left-wing dominance in our national politics, I offer --
Wingless Eagle, Anyone?:
https://thebickerstaffblog.blogspot.com/2021/09/wingless-eagle-anyone.html
Good to see a man venturing into rhymed verse and hitting the target.
RE: Book of Poems
I have been selecting and collecting poems from TWA since 2003. No rhyme or reason to the selections; just what I find charming, or funny, or profound, or in some other way pleasing to me. The total is now 476. They would make a wonderfully eclectic book, I'm sure.
I admire your ambition. We used to have a staff of patient workers who gathered up the necessary permissions from poets, wrote the checks, put the whole thing together, and those workers have gone off to lucrative careers as investment counselors, psychologist therapists, and stockcar drivers. Nobody's left except me and the Executive President. Good luck.
Lee De Liberal - I'm guessing you must be "Very Young" - which, to someone approaching 80, could mean someone less than half my age.
I was a "mature student" at fortyish when i took a required seminar at graduate school. We were discussing whether public libraries should have censored books such as "Lady Chatterly's Lover" on the shelves. "Margaret", aged twenty or so, was fiercely in favor of "Free Speech", including "blue" books. As a fortyish parent with two school-age daughters, I imagined going to my local PTA meeting and having a similar topic come up. While I have no problems personally with D. H. Lawrence, I realized that I lived in this particular community, and that these were the people I'd meet in the grocery store or at the park. Their children and my children could be friends. To take a truly unpopular stand in "The Birthplace of Richard M. Nixon" - their school was on the Richard M. Nixon Memorial Library site - their school bore his name - would be "out of step" with our social environment. So, Liberal or not, I found my forty-year-old self arguing for caution against this twenty-year-old "Bleeding Liberal" stand-in for me at her age.
My point is that with age comes experience. And experience can breed increased caution. Personally, I admire Our Host for being true to himself as he passes through the byways of life. He's giving us a fine example of thoughtful maturity and the freedom to revise viewpoints in the light of wider life experience. Three cheers for this cheerful and wise Octogenarian who is responding to us, his avid readers, Today! Hurray, Hurray, Hurray!