Emily Dickinson (1830-1886)

I died for beauty, but was scarce
Adjusted in the tomb,
When one who died for truth was lain
In an adjoining room.
He questioned softly why I failed?
"For beauty," I replied.

"And I for truth, -the two are one;
We brethren are," he said.
And so, as kinsmen met a night,
We talked between the rooms,
Until the moss had reached our lips,
And covered up our names.

Favorite Pictures

WalMart and AC/DC

There are many reasons not to like WalMart, they take over small towns, they force suppliers to slash prices to a level lower than the cost of production, they help to fill the world's landfills with more junk...and so on and so forth.

The main reason I won't shop at WalMart is due to unfair labor practices. A large percentage of WalMart employees are given less than 30 hours a week of work. Typically an employee needs to work 32 hours a week or more to qualify for health insurance. This means that WalMart doesn't need to provide insurance to a fair number of employees. It means that employees are then insured by the state, so the taxpayers get to subsidize health insurance for the world's largest retailer. The other unfair practice is keeping employees working near 30 hours a week, making it more difficult to secure a second job to close the gap in hours.

People can tell me that WalMart is now doing all of these environmentally helpful things. This is, in my opinion, a last ditch effort in their losing efforts to compete with Target and is too little, too late.


Now what does this have to do with AC/DC? This is a band that is too "principled" to put their music on iTunes, yet they partner with WalMart making them the only retailer to sell their new album. I have tickets to an upcoming AC/DC concert in my area. I would love to hear the new album, I won't go to WalMart to get it. In fact, until I see some leading changes in the areas of environmental, social, and economic concern, I won't go to WalMart to get anything.

Book Review

I just got done reading this book and really can't say enough good things about it. Upon first glance the title did make me laugh, the book is really not funny though. This book goes to the heart of the issue regarding the working poor in this country. The author is from a working poor family and this is his demographic. I believe what he says to be true, this is a class of people who believes in hard work (even though it gets them nowhere), guns and hunting (if your from the city you don't like guns because your a lily livered wimp), church (God will save you from your sins and deliver you to a better life, sure as hell better than the one that most folks are livin' here on earth), and right wing politics (going to Harvard or any other Ivy League school is suspect, elitist, and not to be trusted).

The best part of this book was the chapter on guns. It got me thinking about this issue. The author was pretty black and white in terms of statistics. In home robberies, homeowners accidentally shoot a non-criminal 2% of the time compared with the police, 11% of the time. He also talked about how statistically most gun related crimes are due to drugs and then guns and if drugs were gone the crime rates would drop. It is just easier for most politicians to focus on the gun issue because the drug issue is so much more challenging to address. Women who face a dangerous commute are less likely to be raped if they are carrying a gun. Also, showing an intruder a gun and yelling, "Get the fuck out of my house" works in most cases. He also talked about how easy it is to be against guns when you don't have to do things like commute by bus late at night to a bad part of town, protect your children in a drug infested neighborhood, or walk through crime ridden streets to go to and from the laundromat to wash your work uniform.

If you want to understand our political machine today, this is a great read. No, this guy doesn't have all of the answers. He is a self-proclaimed socialist and that has often been enough to alienate him from some of his home folk, including family. This book stated things that I had thought about in a way that I couldn't have stated them myself.

Burn After Reading

After much hoopla and not much forethought, I saw the new Coen brothers movie, "Burn After Reading." Let me start by talking about what this movie was about...uh I don't really know. I could summarize, a bunch of people who don't go together at the beginning of the movie are all together in some shape or form at the end after a lot of blackmail, adultery, boozing, working out, fighting, internet dating, stealing, divorcing, and murdering. I guess that about sums it up. The Coen brothers were able to work their typical magic of having you laugh one minute, then having your laughter abruptly interrupted by interspersing scenes of raw violence. Thankfully it lacked sappy tears and emotion, predictable and boring romance, and unrealistic love and expectations in relationships. This movie had all of the elements that I look for when I want to be entertained by the big screen.

Morning People

The world is dedicated to morning people. I am not a morning person. Over the years I have had to force myself to adopt to the routine of morning people. They are, after all, the ones that are in charge. If I don't adapt, I am called "lazy." Yes, I am lazy in the mornings. I am also cranky in the mornings. My hatred of mornings has fueled my caffeine addiction in order to make me more tolerable.

What would be wrong with a different sort of world? The world in two shifts. One for the early risers and one for the later risers. Both groups could enjoy success on their own time frames. I write this as I am recovering from one of the many colds I am sure that I will contract this season. I am not being a pessimist, but in my middle age it is a known fact that I get sick, sicker, and sickest when the school year starts and I am once again forced to adapt to the time frame of those PEOPLE.

The world would be a better place for me if I could work until nine or ten, come home and unwind, and start again the next day at the crack of nine or ten. It would be ideal if there were no social consequences for this. I would be happier and consistently healthier. I would be willing to bet that I would not be the only one. With the world working in shifts, most stores could afford to be open 24hours. The economy would probably do better, not worse if night owls were given there place in it.

Until utopia is deposited by magic on my doorstep, I will nurse my cold and sludge through my cranky AM demeanor with healthy doses of caffeine and blame those damn morning people through all of my scowling.

Poem, from Fear of Flying, by Erica Jong

The man under the bed
The man who has been there for years waiting
The man who waits for my floating bare foot
The man who is silent as dustballs riding the
darkness
The man whose breath is the breathing of small
white butterflies
The man whose breathing I hear when I pick up
the phone
The man in the mirror whose breath blackens
silver
The boneman in closets who rattles the mothballs
The man at the end of the line
I met him tonight I always meet him
He stands in the amber air of a bar
When the shrimp curl like beckoning fingers
& ride through the air on their toothpick skewers
When the ice cracks & I am about to fall through
he arranges his face around its hollows
he opens his pupilless eyes at me
For years he has waited to drag me down
& now he tells me
he has only waited to take me home
We waltz through the street like death & the
maiden
We float through the wall of the wall of my room

If he's my dream he will fold back into my body
His breath writes letters of mist on the glass of
my cheeks
I wrap myself around him like darkness
I breathe into his mouth
& make him real