June Words of Wisdom

To be good, and to do good, is the whole duty of man comprised in a few words. (Abigail Adams) 

 

The life of the nation is secure only while the nation is honest, truthful, and virtuous. (Frederick Douglass)

 

Being hated by idiots is the price you pay for not being one of them. (Jean Cocteau) 

 

Nothing but this gaunt quiet. (H.G. Wells, The War of the Worlds)

 

I like being at home. My life is very simple. I read a lot of books. I watch a lot of movies, listen to a lot of music, walk the dog. Cook with my family. I am boring. (Cillian Murphy) (Note: Sounds like a good time to me!) 

 

 

Utterly joyful

I needed a palate cleanser after the Kimmel post and here it is: A German soccer fan has been live-tweeting his reaction to visiting the USA and it's some of the best stuff on the internet right now.

 

It really is. Freddy and his friends not only did a bang-up job of planning their trip, but his reaction to everything from Taco Bell, Wendy's, Waffle House, Buc-ee's, stadium rituals, the beauty of the rural south, public transportation, and America and Americans in general is not only adorable, but also eye-opening. 

 

 

You can follow Freddy's adventures here. 

May Words of Wisdom

When I die, sprinkle my ashes over the 80's. (David Lee Roth) 

 

I want a book to take me to the place I want to be. (James McBride) 

 

It is not enough to have a good mind. The main thing is to use it well. (Rene Descartes)

 

It's amazing how many people think that they can answer an argument by attributing bad motives to those who disagree with them. (Thomas Sowell) 

 

When exposing a crime is treated as committing a crime, you are being ruled by criminals. (Edward Snowden) 

 

We must have ideals and try to live up to them, even if we never quite succeed. Life would be a sorry business without them. (Lucy Maud Montgomery)

 

I could not live in any of the worlds offered to me...I had to create a world of my own, like a climate, a country, an atmosphere in which I could breathe, reign, and recreate myself when destroyed by living. That, I believe, is the reason for every work of art. (Anais Nin) 

 

Even when I feel nothing, I feel it completely. (Sylvia Plath) 

 

March Words of Wisdom

The wisdom, its numbers are dwindling... 

 

But oh my, this is a noisy world. (Mr. Fred Rogers) 

 

We're developing a new citizenry. One that will be very selective about cereals and automobiles, but won't be able to think. (Rod Serling)

 

Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored. (Aldous Huxley) 

 

Common sense is not a gift, it's a punishment because you have to deal with everyone who doesn't have it. (George Bernard Shaw) 

NOTE: I love this one because my Dad once told me some of the best advice he'd ever been given (by a teacher) was that, "You'd be surprise how uncommon common sense is." Yup.

 

Ask me to show you poetry in motion and I will show you a horse. (Unknown)  

 

Solid Gold

HUGE congratulations to the men's and women's USA hockey teams on their gold medals at Milano Cortina! Hard earned and well-deserved. And because Blogger in their infinite wisdom has apparently just made it impossible to choose a video on YouTube to link to and now we have to choose from their suggestions (which, oddly, don't even begin to match up with what I'm looking for) I can't post the vids I want. So here are some lame links to the awesome game winners. 

 

First up - da ladeez: Megan Keller's game-winning goal.

 

And the gents: Jack Hughes pots it for the win. 

 

Props to Keller and Hughes for the winning goals we'll all be watching for years to come. 

 

Also kudos to the inclusion of Johnny Hockey and his kids. He probably would have been on the ice as a member of the team.

 

And because Blogger made this post boringly image-free, here's a thing of beauty to pretty things up:

 

Team USA, heading to the ice.

 CUE FREE BIRD!!!

November Words of Wisdom

Traditions are answers that have been discovered to enduring questions. 

--Roger Scruton

 

Women need solitude in order to find again the true essence of themselves. 

--Anne Morrow Lindbergh

 

To the degree you approach the truth, your solitude will increase...Keep going. Don't be afraid. --Michel Houellebecq

 

Nobody realizes that some people expend tremendous energy merely to be normal. --Albert Camus 

 

Fill your paper with the breathings of your heart. --William Wordsworth 

 

Is politics nothing other than the art of deliberately lying? --Voltaire

 

How quickly we turn from damsel to dragon when we decide we've had enough of their shit. --Ann Marie Eleazer 

 

 

 

October Words of Wisdom

When the tyrant dies his rule is over. When the martyr dies, his rule has just begun. --Soren Kierkegaard

 

Is it better to out-monster the monster or to be quietly devoured? --Friedrich Nietzsche 

 

Find a secret place and be unreachable! And then, in the silence of solitude, the things you can not reach in the clouds will meet you there. --Mehmet Murat Ildan

 

No Kings! Bad Kings!

Seriously, will this team ever be good again? Just look at this abysmal start:

Click on the image to biggify and see how awful the Kings have been so far this season. And it probably isn't going to get any better on Saturday because that game is against the Carolina Hurricanes, a team that actually knows how to hockey:

Also, seriously:

 

 

Although I do think we have some career politicians, at both national and more local levels, that definitely think it's their divine right to lord it over us little people. 

 

Given the way the Kings are playing, it's too bad Saturday really isn't a "no Kings" day. In fact, if the Canes play to their ability it will be like the Kings don't exist, so same thing really. 

 

As for me I will be spending Saturday avoiding Los Angeles freeways and any other places where mostly peaceful protests are likely to occur, as I've seen enough of these to know how ugly they can get. 

 

Have a great weekend! Unless you're a Kings fan, and in that case best of luck to you.

Update: Called it.

 

Tied it up in the third only to lose in OT. That's so Kings.

 

This is going to be a sad but true season.

 

We have...no Kings.

 

Updated 11/16/25: A month later I'm eating these words. The Kings are currently on a brutally scheduled but so far undefeated road trip. They are 7-2-1 in their last ten games and have won four in a row. The result? First place in the division:

 

 

Not only that, they have one of the best records in the NHL all of a sudden. Only four teams have more points: Colorado (29), Dallas (27), New Jersey (27), and Carolina (25). Crazyness. But of course the Kings can't have good news without bad: Drew Doughty was injured in the latest win (ankle) and is probably out as much as six weeks.

 

September Words of Wisdom

Rough month.

Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent. --Isaac Asimov

You can kill a man but you can't kill an idea. --Sophocles

When a hero stumbles, well, the cowards rejoice. Nothing feels better to a coward than to watch a brave guy fall. These cowards rejoice, for they don't know what greatness looks like. --Dave Chappelle

You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you mad. --Aldous Huxley

 

It's not what happens to you, but how you react to it that matters. --Epictetus

 

Life did its best to break you, now didn't it? But all it did was awaken a beast it should have left sleeping. --Lisa M. Lilith 

 

Nope...not today. No one is fucking with her positive vibes. She's vibrating on a higher frequency. --Rosalyn (Her Soul Unraveled on FB) 

  

Never forget

Twenty-four years.

Pics snicked from around the nets. Let me know if I need to give credit where credit is due.

June Words of Wisdom

Solitude is dangerous. It's very addictive. It becomes a habit after you realize how peaceful and calm it is. It's like you don't want to deal with people anymore because they drain your energy. (Jim Carrey)

The poison was never forced - it was offered gently, until you forgot it was poison at all. (Mark Twain)

 

And the wise Queens went on with their business, having no time for fools, fakes, and fuckery. (Ann Marie Eleazer)

 

If you want to know where your heart is, look to where your mind goes when it wanders. (Walt Whitman)

 

So I therefore dedicate myself to my art, my sleep, my dreams, my labours, my sufferances, my loneliness, my unique madness, my endless absorption and hunger because I cannot dedicate myself to any fellow being. (Jack Kerouac)

 

It's hell writing and it's hell not writing. The only tolerable state is having just written. (Robert Haas)

A non-writing writer is a monster courting insanity. (Franz Kafka)

Feeling different, feeling alienated, feeling persecuted, feeling that the only way to deal with the world is to laugh - because if you don't laugh you're going to cry and never stop crying - that's probably what's responsible for the Jews having developed such a great sense of humor. The people who had the greatest reason to weep, learned more than anyone else how to laugh. (Mel Brooks, who celebrated his 99th birthday on Saturday. What a gift to the world he has been.)

May Words of Wisdom

The longer I live, the more convinced I am that this planet is used by other planets as a lunatic asylum. --George Bernard Shaw (I know I've posted this one before, but it bears repeating, so...)

 

Life can be much broader once you discover one simple fact: Everything in life was made up by people that were no smarter than you. --Steve Jobs

 

I began to understand that suffering and disappointment and melancholy are there not to vex us or cheapen us or deprive us of our dignity but to mature and transfigure us. --Herman Hesse

 

The high-minded man must care more for the truth than for what people think. --Aristotle

 

If you are ruled by mind, you are a king; if by body, a slave. --Cato the Elder 

 

Mercy to the guilty is cruelty to the innocent. --Adam Smith

 

 

Some gave all

Thank you for your sacrifice.

Typical politicians

Do as we say, not as we do. Also, billionaires are evil (not us, the other ones). 

 

Jerks.

 

I can't believe people actually fall for this.

In honor of Veteran's Day

Really, there aren't any sufficient words to describe how to honor those who served and especially those who gave their lives to protect our freedom and our country. They are true heroes, and they get one day out of the year to be officially recognized. One day.

All I can think to say is thank you. Thank you so much.

Old school rescue story

I went to North Carolina several times in the 2010's (Writers' Police Academy in the Piedmont Triad area and Bouchercon Raleigh). It's a beautiful place with wonderful, down-to-earth people. When I was there California was still in a drought and I was blown away by how green everything was in NC. Trees everywhere. I just fell in love with the place.

 

Guilford Technical Community College, Jamestown NC. Former home of Writers' Police Academy.

 

So seeing the horrifying images of the destruction of Western NC and the decimated small mountain communities in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene has been heartbreaking. It's Katrina-esque. I remember seeing pictures of New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina and wondering how you even begin to recover from that. NOLA did it and hopefully North Carolina can too, but I'm hearing a lot of unpleasant stories online about the lack of government response to Western NC so far.

But it's like the story told by Fred Rogers - when he was a child and there was a catastrophic event, his mother would tell him to look for and focus on "the helpers". There would always be people stepping up to help. And it's still true. A number of non-governmental organizations immediately stepped up to help out.

In addition to the always dependable Cajun Navy (you can help them out here) a unique group is helping bring supplies to remote areas that have been cut off due to the destruction of the few roads leading in and out of their communities: Mountain Mule Packer Ranch is delivering relief the old-fashioned way.

I've seen a lot of stories of people trying to reach victims cut off from assistance due to the storm, but this one just blew me away. Pack mules. In 2024. Political leaders are nowhere to be seen, but these guys show up with their mules and get the job done. This part of the article especially got to me:

Sarah Haynie had fled her home in Swannanoa to reach her parents in Black Mountain. She was outside with her family, surrounded by downed limbs and debris, when a member of the Cajun Navy 2016 approached. “They walked up through the trees that had fallen over our driveway and asked if we needed food or water. And then they saw my two boys,” Haynie says. The volunteers returned with a chainsaw to start clearing the downed trees, and stuffed bears for each child.

 

“My boys lost all of their toys in the flood, we lost everything,” Haynie says. “The only thing they have are the clothes that they left in.” The volunteers handed Haynie $40 in cash, bottled water, and bags of food. “He told me he noticed our spot up on Ruth Street because his grandmother’s name was Ruth. As he was leaving, he had tears in his eyes and said, ‘This one’s for grandma.’”

 

Forget politicians. They don't care about the common man. But our fellow common men...they're the ones who show up when needed, and they don't do it for votes or photo ops. As appalled as I am about some of the things I'm hearing about lack of official action, I am heartened by the non-official action.

 

It's that time of the year again

Twenty-three years ago this morning. 😢

The Portland "Pie Guy". And the more I think about it, the more (evil) genius it is.

Genius or rip-off artist? Given what the economy is like these days, I'm gonna add survivor to the list of possibilities.

 

 The full thread is here.

Buying in bulk.

Spray painted sign = artisan street cred, apparently.

Another satisfied customer?

So yeah, this guy goes to his local store, buys a bunch of mass-produced pies, labels them as "artisan", then sells them at his local farmer's market for $10 per slice. And apparently, people buy into it, no pun intended.

Let's do the math:

At my local Ralphs, their "bakery fresh" pies go for $5-$6 each. We're talking the usual, apple, peach, pumpkin. Some of the fancier ones are in the $10 range. Say you get six slices from each pie and sell them for $10 each, you've made a profit of roughly $55 per cheap pie, $50 per fancier pie. For argument's sake let's say he takes ten pies and sells all 60 slices. That means (not factoring in the cost of the space, plates, and plastic forks) he would make about $600 in one day. If he only does one market per week that's $2,400 per month, more if he does additional markets. Not too shabby.

Not to mention, it's probably all cash. I wonder if he has a business license or needs one to rent a space at the market. I don't know how these things work, but there seems to be a lot of untraceable, tax-free potential there.

Not gonna lie there's a certain genius to this, although in a way it's a bit unfair to the actual small bakeries at the market. Also, I live in L.A. and I think $10 per slice is a lot, but like one of the commenters said, the pie is worth what people are willing to pay. But even if you sold the pies for $5 per slice, if nothing else that's a nice supplemental income with no actual work/baking involved. 

There's a small-biz bakery where I live and they sell their actual artisan pies for $62 for a full-sized pie, $13.25 for a mini-pie, and $9.25 per individual slice, and I think those prices are astronomical. And they have the cost of a physical location, employees, and a baking facility. Mr. Portland Pie Guy seems like he would have little overhead. Probably a one-man operation.

If the economy and job market were booming, I would say this guy is a slick con artist, but given how expensive and tough everything is these days, I have to laud him for finding a way to make a living. So, I personally am going to give him a pass. Plus, I have to admit that I kind of wish I'd thought of it first.

 

Happy Birthday, America!

 

 

Hope everyone has a great fireworks day! And now, the LOLZ!

 

June Words of Wisdom

Keep close to Nature's heart...and break clear away, once in awhile, climb a mountain or spend a week in the woods. Wash your spirit clean. --John Muir

I have come to the conclusion that buying books and reading them are actually two entirely different hobbies. --Unknown

Skepticism is thus a resting place for human reason, where it can reflect upon its dogmatic wanderings. --Immanuel Kant

You don't need to ban books to destroy a culture. Just get people to stop reading them. --Ray Bradbury 

The further a society drifts from the truth, the more it will hate those who speak it. --Selwyn Duke

Reality cannot be ignored except at a price, and the longer the ignorance is persisted in, the higher and more terrible becomes the price that must be paid. --Aldous Huxley

Stand for something. Always have class, and be humble. --John Madden