Mickey Z
Cool Observer
Sunday, December 25, 2005
I come to tease Santa...but praise my Almanac
Good morning and Good Wishes to you and Michele,
Good Expendable wishes to all.
I know that the Golden Mean is a beautiful thing to behold;
http://tinyurl.com/7ttk8
“yet”, without conciousness, it’s easily overlooked.Posted by Amelopsis on from Canada 12/25 at 09:47 AMHappy Day to all you Expendables, lurkers, NSA case officers and Wikipedia defenders:
Thanks, Emelopsis, for the good wishes and thought-provoking link. You mentioned a warm-weather trend in Canada where you are—same here on the Front Range of Colorado. Sixty degrees today, sunny and calm. A good day to kick around the house with Mrs. Hawk and Tessie, the crazy dog we’re taking care of for our housemate’s girlfriend.
What’s on the menu today, Mudge?
Sorry to have been absent for the last few days. Been fighting a vicious cold and not feeling very sociable. Woke up this morning with throat intact, and a sense that perhaps I’m over the hump with this thing. Hopefully it’s true.
Good tidings to you and Michele, Mickey—and thanks for yet another great post. May the Koufax Award envelope Cool Observer in the attention it deserves.
Posted by Hawk on from Boulder, CO 12/25 at 10:47 AMThat’s “Amelopsis,” not “Emelopsis.” Oy. Take a couple days off and see what happens....
Posted by Hawk on from Boulder, CO 12/25 at 10:47 AMGood morning, Amelopsis...thanks for the cool link and warm wishes.
Good morning, Hawk...glad to hear you’re feeling better. You were missed.
Mellow day here. Michele and I don’t exactly celebrate so with everyone wrapped up in the holidays (and our gym closed), we’re able (forced?) to sloooowwwww down in a major way.
It’s damp and threatening rain today but after our spring-like Xmas Eve, we can’t complain.
Posted by Mickey Z. on from Astoria 12/25 at 11:10 AMMerry Beautiful Sunday! It’s so springlike today, I decided to see what death, doom and destruction was goin’ around here in the Cool Observer parlor.
Mary Roach was a perfect companion for the last day or so...the book Spook is a wonderful, funny, informative read.
I came home last night from a delicious dinner at my sister’s place, a superb prime rib and riced potatoes and roasted acorn squash and broccoli in Swiss cheese sauce, a spring-greens salad, and as many calorific dessert cookies as I could stuff down my throat.
And I contemplated, that whole time, how much good it would have done for how many people if we’d just foregone the prime rib ($121 for 12lbs to feed 9 people) and donated that money to the Food Bank.
Boxes and packages and envelopes full of money from grandmas under and on the tree...and not one donation made in someone’s name to support literacy outreach efforts.
On a brighter note, there were 8 copies of 50AR, one for each person who didn’t have one, as I requested...these were stocking gifts. The grandma contingent was more interested than the kid contingent (kids hah, the youngest is in college, one’s a professional chef with his own restaurant and one’s in school to be a mortician and she’s married to a mechanic).
Solidly middle-class stuff. Only thing is, it takes a fat six-figure salary to support this lifestyle. These are folks in the top 1% of taxpayers. I am chagrined at the unreachableness of this comfy Gemutlichkeit (did I get that one right, Helga? I can’t spell German words too well) for 99% of Americans, and 99.99999% of the rest of the six billion-plus living humans. The whole world should have prime rib for Christmas Eve supper! Even vegans should be forced to eat it once a year! (Oh dear, there comes my authoritarian streak out of hiding, stop laughing, MZ, it is too in hiding most of the time!)
And will that stop me from going over there again to eat as much as I can pund down, and then have a digestivo as a treat afterwards? Nope. No slef-abnegating martyr me. Off I march for tonight’s pork tenderloin! Smiling and drooling the whole way!
Posted by Mudge on from Dear, dead Austin 12/25 at 12:45 PMKendrick, from yesterday:
“...I do believe that there is some connection between these sort of “dichotomies"--between Democrat and Republican, middle-class and poor--make it harder to talk in useful ways about who is “guilty” of standing side-by-side with the stormtroopers of Western hegemony. “Dichotomies are the oldest and best tool in the kit of “divide and conquer” politics and propaganda. (I put the religious uses of this tool under “propaganda.") When one dichotomizes the world, one is better able to stigmatize the “enemy” as evil and not like us. Why else invent Satan (the image of Rupert sucking any cock is hilarious and cheered me mightily, Michael) and Hell in Christianity? Syncretism gone mad and bad, that religion.
A sincere and heartfelt welcome, Kendrick...my dead son’s name, so especially nice to see someone so sensible and good-hearted with it!
Posted by Mudge on from Dear, dead Austin 12/25 at 12:55 PMHawk: Glad to hear you’re feeling better today. Now I’m curious to find out if an “Emelopsis” exists in the world. ;)
MZ, Mudge: We also don’t really celebrate either but I do usually make all the dinner without the turkey (no low carb options allowed), it’s all about the stuffing for me...chestnuts & apples and a nice cranberry orange sauce and a medley of roasted vegetables. A few small gifts for family (only one managed to be of the charitable sort) are distributed over the course of the week, but seldom on the day itself. I like the slow pace; seems much more natural to me.
Kendrick: Mudge expresses my thoughts much more eloquently than I could myself, a very thoughtful post - and very well said. Welcome.
Mudge: Gemuetlichkeit only add the e because there should be an umlaut on the u, but I’m being fussy.
Posted by Amelopsis on from the country where the Porcupine Caribou herd winte 12/25 at 01:21 PMI know I like lurking here everyday.
Have a very Merry Expendable Xmas Everyone!
Peace, joy, and love,
Luna
Posted by Luna_C on from Canada-land 12/25 at 01:47 PMHello Luna and Mudge. Amelopsis, dinner sounds delicious. It’s pouring in Astoria. We were planning to eat at a new Tibetan place nearby...but not sure if we wanna get soaked. Ah, such tough decisions, huh?
Mudge: Any feedback on those 8 copies of 50AR?
Posted by Mickey Z. on from Astoria 12/25 at 03:59 PMHi Mickey, Mr. Mudge, Amelopsis, Hawk, Luna, and, welcome, Kendrick -
Amelopsis, I used to trade the Future’s Markets. There are trading “systems” based upon the Fibonacci sequence. I don’t know if they work, but I’m sure you’ll be pleased to learn that mathematical structures based on nature’s beauty extend even into Capitalism’s most Elite Forums. ( Yet, some say that Capitalism is hostile toward nature… Sheesh! )
Kendrick, I too very much enjoyed your posts from yesterday. It’s only by observing the ways in which we are relentlessly divided that we see ways to come “together” again. I employ quotation marks for the word “together,” because the divisions are conceptual, illusory, really. We are already one, and the divisions are strange, relatively fragile constructions used to conceal or distract…
When a little kid sees an Asian person or a Black person or White person or Indonesian person or Latin person or Native American person… he or she sees a person. Period. And, methinks, so do we - during that fraction of a second before our hypnotized consciousness kicks in to tell us the story of why we should be frightened or angry or anxious or mistrustful…
The moment the volume on these strange, implanted tape players is dimmed somewhat, it seems clear that we are, each and every one of us, brothers and sisters.By the way -
I’ve been reading, of late, of the big WTO meetings in Hong Kong.
It appears to be a Seattle-East sort of affair. Some writers are even referring to it as “The Battle of Hong Kong.”
Encouraging news…Mickey - do people sit on the floor in Tibetan restaurants? I’ve had several meals in a Tibetan monastery in San Francisco - it was great food, and a really strange, fascinating experience to be in such a place… it was, in many ways, a truly “alien” setting.
Posted by joe on from Oregon 12/25 at 05:12 PMWelcome, Joe from Oregon. We’re running out right now to brave the rain for Tibetan food and if they make us sit on the floor, I’m going Dalai Lama on their asses (whatever that might mean).
But seriously folks, they have chairs at this one.
Captcha sez “peace.”
Posted by Mickey Z. on from Astoria 12/25 at 05:17 PMMZ, I’d like to hear about the Tibetan menu - that’s one ethnicity of food that I don’t think I’ve had the pleasure of trying yet.
I think that if you wanted to forgo the chairs you could go Dalai Lama on their asses & talk them into it my means of a very loftily based argument that would appeal to the pragmatist nature of the restaurant management. Think of the savings...no more chairs to purchase & maintain while simultaneously people will be forced to address their own challenge and overcome it to enjoy the meal...but a little less car salesman like.Joe that whole fibonacci sequence and the stock market is both interesting in the sense that fundamentally Nature really IS part of All Things; and also disturbing, as in I wish that capitalism could at least be fair if we are to have to live with it at all.
Have you ever seen the movie ‘Pi’? http://tinyurl.com/9qk7vI think I’ll update myself on the HK story a little later it sounds like an expectedly predictable situation of unfortunate proportions - right now I think I prefer to remain preoccupied with a festively fussy meal and all the goodies that go with it.
Posted by Amelopsis on from Canada 12/25 at 05:59 PMHi there everyone and can I wish you all a peaceful, placid day.
MZ’s main post mentions his Almanac of facts, and indeed these are fascinating things. However, it was in a book (Reefer Madness by Eric Schlosser - sic?) that I discovered this little nugget yesterday. The lethal dose for marijauana - smoking 100 lbs per minute for fifteen consecutive minutes. So, if anyone talks to you about the dangers of pot, well, there’s another detail to be trotted out!
Mudge, please could you tell me what “syncretism” means? Also, hope you are feeling better after yesterday’s sad anniversary.
Amelopsis, words like umlaut fall into that category in my mind of “I have no idea!” The word “gerund” is one of these, even though the two are totally different and apparently neither that complicated, it’s just the impression of the word.
MZ, going “Dalai Lama on their asses”? Is this macho Buddhism breaking out, or will you just get really in their faces as you impart knowledge of mindfulness and sacrifice? Ah, the wonders of New York ...
Love, light and peace to everyone.
Posted by Chris Wood on from Jersey 12/25 at 06:15 PMMZ, home to feed my puppies...kids ywaned at 50AR, grandmas though it was interesting, sibs haven’t slowed down long enough to look at it.
I got a hilarious bumper sticker: “I love cats! Wanna share recipes?”
Mmmmffmmmmffffchrksssnnsss
Posted by Mudge on from Dear, dead Austin 12/25 at 06:19 PMChris: Syncretism, n. Attempted union of parties or principles irreconcilably at variance with each other, esp. the doctrines of certain religionists. [Webster’s Twentieth Century Dictionary(Unabridged), NY 1939]
Accurate, no?
Bye all, going back for Yule feasting.
Posted by Mudge on from Dear, dead Austin 12/25 at 06:26 PMMudge: thanks, & yes it does sound accurate! I think I will remember that by thinking of “syncronised cretins” - esp. in a religious sense.
Posted by Chris Wood on from Jersey 12/25 at 06:54 PMIndeed!
Amelopsis, joe reports he’s NOT see Pi, but is now quite tempted to do so.
Isn’t an unlaut this : but placed horizontally, over a particular letter?
joe is giving me a hard time.
I’m going to go “me” on his ass…Transcendentally yours,
Big D.
Posted by Dali Lama on from Oregon, hangin' with joe 12/25 at 07:05 PMMy captcha word is “table,” so that’s just perfect because we walked in, told them we knew Richard Gere and Uma Thurman’s father, and not only did we get seats...they gave us cushions, too.
Hello everyone. Welcome, Chris.
Mudge: No matter what the 50AR reaction was/is, the reaction from me is immense gratitude.
Amelopsis: I’m not particularly savvy about Tibetan food but this place specializes in dumplings (a.k.a. “momos") so we got two large plates of those and we each got our own mini-pot of green tea. As we were the only customers there on a rainy Xmas, we had a nice conversation with the owner, to top it off.
I did see <style more than the movie (although I did enjoy the movie). His next movie, <i>Requiem for a Dream</i>, was much better...in my not-so-humble opinion.
Home early now (7:13 in NYC) for a mellow night together. Maybe we’ll smoke several hundred pounds of cannabis...then again, maybe not.
Posted by Mickey Z. on from Astoria 12/25 at 07:14 PMNice to see the Dalai Lama here again ... reminds me, where the hell’s the pope gone? He went out for some cigarettes & beer half an hour ago and the fucker hasn’t been back ... honestly, some people.
BTW, did anyone check out that EditorMom thing I mentioned yesterday? Her yearly overview of Bush really was superb - strongly recommended.
MZ, not sure several hundred lbs of weed is such a great idea, but then it does illustrate how much you could use without posing serious threat to yourself!
Here’s another intriguing fact, or at least one I certainly didn’t know - the first US marijuana legislation required everyone in Virginia to grow it! Seems to have gone from one extreme to another.
My captcha word is “art”, but I’m not going to let it go to my head unless it starts putting things like “great ass” or “have you been working out?”
Posted by Chris Wood on from Jersey 12/25 at 07:30 PMSorry, Chris, forgot to mention that yes, I did check out Editor Mom (http://editor-mom.blogspot.com). In fact, I’ve added her blog to my links list. She’s very cool. Plus, she’s “from” NY.
Posted by Mickey Z. on from Astoria 12/25 at 07:57 PM
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