Month: June 2012

Not a thingNot a thing

“There is nothing to which the hearts of men and women cannot be driven by love.” – Virgil, Aeneid (trans. Humphries)

Illusions of IdentityIllusions of Identity

“Since we live in the heads of those who remember us, we lose control of our lives and become who they want us to be.” – David Eagleman, “Metamorphosis” (from Sum: Forty Tales from the Afterlives)

Only the young die goodOnly the young die good

“The world breaks every one and afterward many are strong at the broken places.  But those that will not break it kills.  It kills the very good and the very gentle and the very brave impartially.  If you are none of these you can be sure it will kill you too but there will be no special hurry.” – Ernest Hemingway, A Farewell to Arms

Capital depletionCapital depletion

“We never get anything.  We are born with all we have and we never learn.  We never get anything new.  We all start complete.” – Ernest Hemingway, A Farewell to Arms

A manageable approachA manageable approach

“Life isn’t hard to manage when you’ve nothing to lose.” – Ernest Hemingway, A Farewell to Arms

Pitchin’ the fantodPitchin’ the fantod

I gotta get rant-a-rific here for a few.  I just got off the phone with a major American airline which I won’t embarrass by naming outright, but if you like, you could say its name rhymes with benighted.  I was on the phone with them for a fucking hour trying to correct, or verify the correction of, a $75 mistake they made.  And when I say I was on the phone for an hour, that means I was on hold for most of that time, listening to an endless loop of Rhapsody in Blue, except for the two times early on when the menu selections I made failed because those parts of this Dinosaur Corp.’s phone system no longer work, and the few minutes toward the end of this when I finally got to speak to a person (who was actually in the United States, which pleases me, atavistic chauvinist that I sometimes am (an effect of growing older, methinks)).

A fucking hour.  It’s like I was dealing with an obscure bureau in some third-world country, address 1984 Kafka Avenue in Downtown Chaotica.  An hour!  A major airline!  Now, I’m an old but I’m not ancient.  I’m well over a decade away from retirement, should I in fact be able to retire.  I well remember a time when in this country–in this country, boys and girls–that simply never would have happened.  Americans had more pride than to pretend to run a business where people were kept waiting on the phone for an hour.  I like to think we still do, but here I am dancing the Whiskey Tango Foxtrot to a tune I don’t recall having any part in calling, and it’s a whistling past the graveyard for anyone to think it doesn’t matter that major businesses are run that way.  Look around.  See all the crumbling?  Yeah, we sure as shittin’ all do.  Anyone care to dance?

And at the end of it all, the poor soul who tried to help me, bless her heart, couldn’t provide any sort of verification that the problem had actually been solved, even though she said she’s pretty sure it was.  But that’s not acceptable.  It’s not acceptable to run a business like that, or a government like that, or a school like that, where there’s no one on duty, no one who can assist, no one who knows what’s going on, no one to take responsibility, no one who is willing and able to get to the bottom of things, no one to step up and say, We can fix this–we are better than this.  It’s time to clear away the rot.

No hidden agendaNo hidden agenda

“Everything is on such a clear financial basis in France.  It is the simplest country to live in.  No one makes things complicated by becoming your friend for any obscure reason.  If you want people to like you you have only to spend a little money.” – Ernest Hemingway, The Sun Also Rises

And yes, never is a very long timeAnd yes, never is a very long time

“Never take counsel of your fears.” – Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson

Further, tooFurther, too

“The difference between constructing a short story and constructing a novel is like the difference between building a rowboat and building a yacht: They both have to float, but one is bigger and grander and meant to carry more people farther.  Just as the yacht is not simply a bigger rowboat, the novel is not a bigger short story; knowledge of one doesn’t necessarily translate into knowledge of the other.” – John Stazinski, “A Novel Approach”

Pragmatic knowledgePragmatic knowledge

“Enjoying living was learning to get your money’s worth and knowing when you had it.” – Ernest Hemingway, The Sun Also Rises

Mount up!Mount up!

“Caffeine puts a man on her horse and a woman in his grave.” – Ernest Hemingway, The Sun Also Rises

A call for blessingsA call for blessings

“May the corn-stalks grow as long as my stretches, and may the will of the Holder of the Roads of Life shelter me from dangers as he sheltered his children in the days of the ancients.” – “The Maiden the Sun Made Love to, and Her Boys,” Zuñi Folk Tales, Frank Cushing

Let that be a lessonLet that be a lesson

“Perhaps had men been more grateful and wiser, the Sun-father had smiled and dropped everywhere the treasures we long for, and not hidden them deep in the earth and buried them in the shores of the sea.  And perhaps, moreover, all men would have smiled upon one another and never enlarged their voices nor strengthened their arms in anger toward one another.” – “The Maiden the Sun Made Love to, and Her Boys,” Zuñi Folk Tales, Frank Cushing

Form a line on the rightForm a line on the right

“Doing right keeps right; doing wrong makes wrong, which, to make right, one must even pay.” –  “The Cock and the Mouse,” Zuñi Folk Tales, Frank Cushing

But we do it anywayBut we do it anyway

“Remember that war is always a far worse muddle than anything you can produce in peace.” – Sir A. P. Wavell (quoted in Robert K. Krick’s Conquering the Valley)

I do not knowI do not know

“Is it not well that even for a little time the light of life shine—though it shine through fear and sadness—than be cut off altogether?  For who knows where the trails tend that lead through the darkness of the night of death?” – “Atahsaia, the Cannibal Demon,” Zuñi Folk Tales, Frank Cushing

And at other times besidesAnd at other times besides

“You have to live with yourself to live by yourself.” – Eugene Marten, In the Blind

Getting their priorities straightGetting their priorities straight

“Pretty girls care very little how their husbands look, being pretty enough themselves for both.  But they like to have them able to think and guess at a way of getting along occasionally.” – “How the Corn-Pests Were Ensnared,” Zuñi Folk Tales, Frank Cushing

Tail wagging or between his legs?Tail wagging or between his legs?

“There are two kinds of laugh with women.  One of them is a very good sort of thing, and makes young men feel happy and conceited.  The other kind is somewhat heartier, and makes young men feel depressed and very humble.” – “How the Corn-Pests Were Ensnared,” Zuñi Folk Tales, Frank Cushing

More sugar!More sugar!

“A color-coded map of American personal indebtedness could be laid on top of the Centers for Disease Control’s color-coded map that illustrates the fantastic rise in rates of obesity across the United States since 1985 without disturbing the general pattern.  The boom in trading activity in individual stock portfolios; the spread of legalized gambling; the rise of drug and alcohol addiction; it is all of a piece.  Everywhere you turn you see Americans sacrifice their long-term interests for a short-term reward.” – Michael Lewis, Boomerang

We export this stuff, tooWe export this stuff, too

“It isn’t a problem with government; it’s a problem with the entire society.  It’s what happened on Wall Street in the run-up to the subprime crisis.  It’s a problem of people taking what they can, just because they can, without regard to the larger social consequences.  It’s not just a coincidence that the debts of cities and states spun out of control at the same time as the debts of individual Americans.  Alone in a dark room with a pile of money, Americans knew exactly what they wanted to do, from the top of the society to the bottom.  They’d been conditioned to grab as much as they could, without thinking about the long-term consequences.” – Michael Lewis, Boomerang

A long position on short storiesA long position on short stories

“There is no such thing as a riskless asset.  The reason an asset pays a return is that it carries risk.” – Michael Lewis, Boomerang

Good cause, one would hopeGood cause, one would hope

“Once—as was the case with many, if not all, of the animals—the Rattlesnakes were a people, and a splendid people too.  Therefore we kill them not needlessly, nor waste the lives even of the other animals without cause.” – “How the Rattlesnakes Came To Be What They Are,” Zuñi Folk Tales, Frank Cushing

It’s also known as “hallucinating”It’s also known as “hallucinating”

“When you borrow a lot of money to create a false prosperity, you import the future into the present.  It isn’t the actual future so much as some grotesque silicone version of it.  Leverage buys you a glimpse of a prosperity you haven’t really earned.” — Michael Lewis, Boomerang

This has not changed (would you like to buy some Facebook shares?)This has not changed (would you like to buy some Facebook shares?)

“One of the hidden causes of the current global financial crisis is that the people who saw it coming had more to gain from it by taking short positions than they did by trying to publicize the problem.” — Michael Lewis, Boomerang

Can’t hardly cross the street with all the trafficCan’t hardly cross the street with all the traffic

“It is hard to live above time.  The church bell sounds the hours and the neighborhood streets are trafficked with our pasts.” — Christine Schutt, “Winterreise”

Venus was her nameVenus was her name

What that mote in Ol’ Sol’s eye?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WXCHehlDpgw

Then we saw its faceThen we saw its face

“A banking system is an act of faith: it survives only for as long as people believe it will.” – Michael Lewis, Boomerang

Well, you know, we all wanna change the worldWell, you know, we all wanna change the world

“Revolutions develop the high qualities of the good and the great, but they cannot change the nature of the vicious and the selfish.” – Jefferson Davis, 1862 (quoted in Shelby Foote’s The Civil War: A Narrative)

Slut for sleep, wakeful and to no availSlut for sleep, wakeful and to no avail

“One does not go to sleep, you had to let sleep come to you, you had to bescatter its path with samples of yourself, maybe just pellets from your thinking, and not be afraid to be a whore for it.” — Gary Lutz, “Womanesque”