Lost In Translation

"This is a goodbye kiss from the Iraqi people, dog. This is from the widows, the orphans and those who were killed in Iraq."
-Muntazer al-Zaidi, Iraqi reporter, while hurling his shoes at President Bush.






Bush on the shoe thrower, "I don't know what his beef is, but whatever it is, I'm sure someone will hear it."

What we have done to Iraq will haunt us for a long time.

"Photograph Of Jesus" by Laurie Hill

In association with the Getty Images Short & Sweet Film Challenge.


(via Sharp Sand)

FULL MOON

One night as Dick lay fast asleep,
Into his drowsy eyes
A great still light began to creep
From out the silent skies.
It was the lovely moon's, for when
He raised his dreamy head,
Her surge of silver filled the pane
And streamed across his bed.
So, for a while, each gazed at each--
Dick and the solemn moon--
Till, climbing slowly on her way,
She vanished, and was gone.
by Walter de la Mare

Garfield? Garfield, Who?

I have never been a fan of the comic strip Garfield but I am a fan of this strip. The genius of some people astounds me.

You can also find an article about the creator of Garfield Without Garfield and info about the strip here.

Cue The Music From "The Birds"

There were at least 200 Starlings in my yard about 17 minutes ago. They were on the ground picking at the dirt, sitting on the fence, in my ornamental pear trees, at the bird feeder, and in the birdbath. By the time I got my camera they had spooked and flown up into the larger trees growing in my neighbors yards. I managed to take this photo of about 50 of them in one of the trees before they all flew off.



I've never see anything like it before.

And Now For Something Completely Different

Nine songs for your listening pleasure. Heard about this site over at Texas Trifles and decided to give it a try.

If You're Happy And You Know It Pass It On

Happiness is contagious.

The Weather Outside Is Kind Of Frightful

But the fire is so delightful. I don't really have a fireplace but I do have a copy of Radiant Fireplace in my DVD player. (Note: the quality of the DVD is much better than that on the website.) Not as good as a real fire but almost with the sound of crackling wood and the glow and flicker of flames. Besides, when it is snowing outside how can I not have a fire on the TV to help get me into a "Christmas is coming" mood?

This is going to be a short post since I am still fighting that virus I caught while in Denver last week. Yesterday I thought I was doing better, which I was, but that turned out to be the calm before the storm. Yesterday afternoon it came roaring back and put me down for the rest of the day. This morning I woke up with my head and ears stuffed with cotton and I feel woozy when I walk around.

Oh, and did I mention it is snowing? I'm going hunker down on the couch in front of the fire and enjoy it.

Beware Of The Man Of One Book.

-Anonymous

I came home with a virus that I picked up from my niece while I was in Denver last week and spent all day Sunday reading. I had started The Secret Of The Hardy Boys before I left and found it slow going. When the Northwest Kansas Library System van came last week I picked up a few more books including Forever Young: My Friendship With John F. Kennedy Jr. and But Darling, I'm Your Auntie Mame!.

On Sunday I took all three books with me down to the basement and lay down on the futon and started reading. I began with the Hardy Boys book but just could not get into it. It is about the life of the man who ghostwrote the first Hardy Boys books and was at times very dry. Leslie McFarlane's life was not that interesting to me. I put it down and picked up the Kennedy book. The Kennedy book was an easy read even though I did not believe everything the author wrote. It is a "and then we did this" kind of book and has had no real insight into the kind of man Kennedy had been. I finished it in a couple of hours.

Then I started the Auntie Mame book and quickly became very disappointed by it. It is supposedly a history of the play, musical and the two movies made from Patrick Dennis' novel but only provides basic information about the various productions. It is more of an overview than an in depth report on each project. It is also repetitive with the same bits of information repeated many times. It is as if the author had written each chapter without reading the chapters before it first. It got so bad I started skipping pages.

Now I only had the Hardy Boys book left. I picked it up and started reading again. It was almost torture. Then I realized I could read this book the same way I had the Auntie Mame book. The parts of the book I found interesting were the sections about the Stratemeyer Syndicate (creators of the Hardy Boys series along with Tom Swift, Bobbsey Twins, and the Nancy Drew series) and the writing of the books so I skipped over anything about McFarlane's life and concentrated on the passages about the syndicate and the books. Sped up my reading immensely and proved an enjoyable read.

These books show that I was not thinking about P. J. O'Rouke's quote about reading when I picked them. He once said, "Always read something that will make you look good if you die in the middle of it."

Of course if you do this you will miss out on all the good bad books out there. You know, the fun stuff.

Giving Thanks on Thanksgiving

In past years giving thanks at Thanksgiving time has never been that heartfelt for me . I could always think of things to be thankful for but at the same time I felt the holiday was kind of superficial as were my expression of thanks.

This year was different. On the Saturday before Thanksgiving the news reported this story about a farm in Colorado opening their fields to anyone who wanted to pick the potatoes, leeks and carrots left over from this year's harvest. The owners expected no more the 5,00 people but over 40,000 showed up.

The day before Thanksgiving news that a terrorist attack in India had killed and wounded many. By the time this incident ended on Friday up to 150 people were dead in the city of Mumbai and over twice that number injured.

On Thanksgiving day a family of seven were killed when the driver of the SUV they were traveling in lost control, careened off an overpass on Interstate 25, slammed into a concrete embankment, and exploded into flames.

Then, the day after Thanksgiving, news that a Wal-Mart employee at a Long Island Wal-Mart store was trampled to dead by a mob of shoppers.

Two of these events opened my eyes to a couple of things that I have taken for granted in the past; my family's safety and the fact that that we all have enough food to eat. This year I am deeply grateful for both.

Now, It may not seem so but I usually think about a post for awhile before I blog it. This morning as I mulled over what I was going to write I read the comics in the Denver Post. One of the strips I read is Sally Forth and in today's episode Sally and her husband are in their car with their GPS unit stuck in "Existential Mode." The GPS is saying the following:

"You are lost, you have rejected any and all philosophies and faiths and so are adrift and alienated in a world you alone define but cannot comprehend."

Reading that made me thankful that I was not one of the people in that Wal-Mart crowd nor so spiritually bankrupt that I would gladly die in order to kill defenseless people. My soul is neither so empty that I think material things can fill the void nor so full of hatred that the only way I can express myself is by killing. For this I am also grateful.

Right now the words to Marvin Gaye's song What's Going On? are playing in my head:

Mother, mother
There's too many of you crying
Brother, brother, brother
There's far too many of you dying
You know we've got to find a way
To bring some lovin' here today...
Oh, what's going on?
What's going on?

What is going on people? In the world, in our society, in our heads, in our hearts, and in our souls. Somebody please tell me, what's going on?