Weekend Puzzle Answer

Weekend Puzzle Answer

Here are several groups of things. In each group one of them does not belong. Guess what I want you to do.

1. apple, cumquat, lime, persimmon, tomato
Tomato comes from a vine, the rest grow on trees.

2. Christmas, Halloween, Independence Day, Labor Day, Thanksgiving
Halloween, the only one that isn't a legal holiday

3. Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Venezuela
Brazil - they speak Portuguese, the others speak Spanish

4. mackerel, salmon, shark, tuna, whale
Whale - it's a mammal, the others are fish

5. Ibsen, Marlowe, Shakespeare, Shaw Sheridan
Ibsen in Norwegian, the others are British

6. cranium, femur, iliac, trapezium, ulna
The Trapezium is a muscle, the others are bones.

Now Val got three of those and then came up with some interesting alternatives.
She found a trapezium bone, so chose iliac which has some none bone material about it.
Colombia for geographic reasons, and
she thought Marlowe wasn't a playwright.

Thank you Val.
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Trick Or Treat

Don't forget that no matter how elegant and sophisticated the wood pile may be there is probably always a snake in it.

Bate - The Vagabond
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This is a true story.

I was working as the stage manager for a small theatre in New England. One night a couple of days before we opened a show, it was very late, everyone else had left after a long day's work and I was the last one to lock up and go home. But since I had to be there first thing in the morning and since my home was a good half hour walk away and I was exhausted, I decided to spend the night in the theatre. That was a mistake.

I made sure all the doors were locked, put down a bedroll in the lighting booth which was small but big enough to stretch out in, turned off all the lights and lay down for a well earned night's sleep.

But in a few moments I heard a strange noise. It was a high pitched squealing, scraping noise, as if small pieces of metal were being scraped together. Scrape, scrape. Scrape. It went on at irregular intervals.

I knew I wouldn't get to sleep until I found whatever it was and stopped the noise. So I turned on the work lights, left the booth and went out onto the stage. The audience area almost surrounded the stage and I could see all the seats. They were all empty. I checked between the rows thinking that maybe a lighting instrument had been left and was responsible somehow for the scraping noise. I found nothing.

I went into the lobby and turned on the lights. There were windows along one side. I thought maybe a window was open and blowing in the wind. But they were all closed up tight. The lobby door was closed and locked.

Then I heard it again. Scrape, scrape. Scrape, scrape. It was coming from another part of the building. So I left the lobby and went down the hall behind the audience area, checking through everything as I went.

Then I heard it again. Scrape. It was coming from another corner of the building and sounded as if it was from the costume area. I climbed the flight to that room and went carefully through all the clothes that were hanging there, made sure the sewing machines were turned off and the iron. Everything was as it should be.

Then I heard it again, louder now. Scrape, scrape. Scrape, scrape. Scrape, scrape. It seemed to be coming from below me.

By now I was beginning to get frightened. I went cautiously back down the stairs. To my left was the lighting booth I had originally come from. Off of it was the stage door and a lounge room for the actors. I went in there and flicked on the light. I was startled by how bright the light was. The whole room was flooded with bright light. I stood still for a moment as my eyes became adjusted to it. But at last I looked all around the room. People had left some personal items there but there was nothing that would account for the scraping noise I heard.

Then I heard the sound almost directly behind me. SCRAPE! I quickly shut off the light, turned and stepped to the stage door which was closed and locked. I opened it to see if it was making noise on it's hinges. It wasn't. Near the door was a desk with a swivel chair behind it, There was nothing on the desk but a telephone and a basket. Across from the desk was a coat rack with metal hangers on it. I moved some of them back and forth trying to recreate the sound, but they were not the source.

Perplexed, I went and sat down at the desk. There was no one in the theatre but me, I had made sure of that, but I still could not discover the source of that scraping noise. Exhausted I leaned back in the chair and right under me was the sound. SCRAPE!!. It was the springs on the bottom of the swivel chair scraping together.

That sound could not be made except if someone sat in that chair and leaned back. But I was the only one in the building. I knew that. I quickly stood up, letting one more scrape happen as the chair righted itself, left the theatre, letting the stage door close and lock behind me and walked home.

All theatres have ghosts, they say, if you believe in ghosts, As for me, I never again spent a night or a day alone in that building.

Dana Bate
********************
Happy Halloween
********************
Weekend Puzzle

Here are several groups of things. In each group one of them does not belong. Guess what I want you to do.

1. apple, cumquat, lime, persimmon, tomato

2. Christmas, Halloween, Independence Day, Labor Day, Thanksgiving

3. Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Venezuela

4. mackerel, salmon, shark, tuna, whale

5. Ibsen, Marlowe, Shakespeare, Shaw Sheridan

6. cranium, femur, iliac, trapezium, ulna

Good luck
DB
************************

Fear Not

Philosophy is the tool with which to seek and discover religion.

Friedrich Von Schlegel
**********************
I am amazed at otherwise intelligent, rational people who can sacrifice all reason when they enter a church or other religious institution. People will listen with no comment and with some undeserved degree of respect and belief to the ignorant, egregious and often belligerent interpretation of their sacred writings. One religionist is praying for the failure and death of our president, another is advocating burning the books of a different religion, another is molesting children, one is claiming the divine right to turn people out of their homes, another is calling for homosexuals to be hung to death, and another is ordering a woman to be stoned to death for adultery. What madness!

Extreme religious fundamentalism is the scourge of the world and it has become rabid, a pandemic. All religious texts call for love, compassion, charity, forgiveness and brotherliness. But instead of hands of help the brotherhoods and sisterhoods of the earth are holding out sharp claws.

Margaret Thatcher wrote "Europe was created by history. America was created by philosophy." I know for a fact that there are many intelligent Christians in this country and elsewhere. Some of the most important philosophers of the past and present have been Christians. They are hardly being heeded today. Instead there is a large group of professing Christians who are buried in a mental tunnel which leads nowhere. They will vehemently claim that this is a Christina nation. Well, it is. It is also a Jewish nation, a Muslim nation, a Buddhist nation and a nation of Atheists. Only a non thinker can't understand and accept that.

Ordinary people who can express themselves on their opinions about things back off into the tunnel when the subject of their religion comes up. Well, the Bible says so and so. My Pastor says such and such. I want to ask, "Yes, but what do YOU say?" One doesn't have to throw out one's Bible in order to think for oneself.

Now we are confronted with a silly argument about why the founding fathers never meant there to be a separation between religion and government. Here's the First Amendment to the Constitution
"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."

How can that be interpreted to mean that Congress is obliged to recognize one particular faith or set of beliefs as the official set for the country any more than it obliges it to allow only a certain set of speeches to be made? Many times I hear someone citing what the founding fathers really meant by the Constitution. An interpretation that is merely an opinion. Here's what Thomas Jefferson, the American philosopher and statesman who wrote that amendment, had to say: "Question with boldness even the existence of a God; because, if there be one, he must more approve of the homage of reason than that of blindfolded fear."

Fear. Fear of the unknown. Fear of the unexplainable. Fear of difference. Fear of others who are not like us. The unconscious, unacknowledged fear that maybe our faith is not right no matter how many words have been written about it. The deep down hidden fear of offending a God we do not understand. It is safer to hide in the mental tunnel of belief than to face the fears and "question with boldness" the reason for our faith.

Dana Bate - The Vagabond

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Pay Attention

The essence of intelligence is skill in extracting meaning from everyday experience.

Unknown
******************
I was never a perfect actor. Who is? But I was very good. Some people even thought I was excellent. One critic wrote "His versatility is awe inspiring." But one of my flaws was missing the scenery along the way as I charged down the road to learning the role. I believed, and still do, that I needed to know the speeches perfectly before I did anything else. An actor can't accurately play a role if he has to exert the effort to remember what he is supposed to say once the performances begin.

Some actors I knew would take their time and not worry so much about memorizing. Thus they were able to know things about the play and articulate them even with the script still in their hands. I eventually caught up with them and they with me. If the playwright sets the scene in 1942 it's important for the actor to know what was going on in his character's life in 1942. It creates a background of reality that wouldn't be there if it was ignored.

I soon learned the value of that kind of awareness in my everyday life. I began to learn how many things impacted my daily experiences. Here are two examples.

I once worked for a chef. One day during a slow period we all sat down to have lunch. The chef ladled out a bowl of soup for himself. Then he took a slice of bread out of a package in the refrigerator. He normally baked bread in the morning but for lunch he would use store bought bread. I watched him as he carefully studied that slice, turning it over in his hands a few times. Finally he broke it and put it in the bowl.

I asked him if he thought there was something wrong with the bread. He said there was nothing wrong with it, and then he talked about American farmers, wheat fields, the big machinery that harvested the wheat and left it in windrows to be picked up, put into a truck and taken to where it was processed into flour. He told about how the flour would be poured into large cloth or hardy paper sacks, loaded onto trucks and delivered to consumers. He reminded us that one of those trucks delivered the slice he was about to enjoy. That really make me think. I imagined all those people, all that equipment and all that skilled labor from the farmer to the truck driver. I remembered that example because I just made myself a sandwich. I haven't forgotten.

I used to own a manual can opener that was plainly labeled "MADE IN ENGLAND." One day, as it was skillfully exposing the contents of a can of beans, I remembered reading about how English people were hard pressed for food when the Germans were bombing their farms and factories during the war, and that they survived partly on the convoys from North America which managed to elude the Wolf Pack of German U-boats sent to destroy them. Food was brought to Britain in reprocessed tin cans and thus a can opener was an essential survival tool in an English household, and I, the American, owned one, straight from the British factory that made it, across the ocean on the ship that carried it and brought by truck into the shop where I bought it.

I confess I am one of those men who if you ask me what time it is will give you a history of the watch. Young folks have no patience with that sort of intellectual plodding. But that's only because they're young folks. As a wise person once said, youth is a condition that improves daily.

So many things in life have a deep well of meaning attached to them. And we have the right and the joy to discover them if we pay attention and not let them pass us by on our headlong rush into somewhere else.

DB - the Vagabond
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AUTUMN QUESTION

(This is not a contest.)

At what event of the past do you wish you could be present? Why?

5 responses so far.

dbdacoba@aol.com

Thank you.
DB
************************

High Tide

To myself I am only a child playing on the beach, while vast oceans of truth lie undiscovered before me.

Isaac Newton
*****************
It matters very little where the vast oceans are. It is a state of quiet satisfaction to me to know that I am not the same person today that I was yesterday nor will I be the same person tomorrow. How can that be? After having stared at life "through a glass darkly" I have discovered something which is virtually inconceivable to me today, but will be part of my certain knowledge tomorrow or the next day, or the next.

I am finding myself indissolubly linked to the four corners of the earth and the universe. The glass though which I look darkly is a window and a mirror. Is the truth I seek in the vast oceans around me? Are those vast oceans already in myself? Am I so connected to the vast oceans that we coexist? Or am I and the vast oceans the same thing, the true phenomenon of reality? I think all of those questions are answered by "Yes."

The great adventure of life is to accept the changing nature of ourselves and the progressive movement of our lives. The frightening part is to think what may be discovered in the dark depths of the sea. But the gradual realization of what it is and that I put it there myself gives me the courage to haul it up onto the beach and understand it.

Although I live alone I am not alone. I tread the beaches that others of fame and obscurity have marked with their feet, and occasionally I meet one of them on our mutual journey. And, if we wish, we can stop and share the joy and knowledge of our findings in the vastness. And in sharing we are one. And when we part we are both changed.

The ebb and flow of mentality is comforting to me. The truth must retreat in order to resurge. When the tide comes in it brings me more of itself and wakes up some mystery from the deep. I am secure in knowing it will happen because it always has, even if for years I didn't notice it.

It is at those holy times when I embrace the vastness of the unknown and am embraced by the ocean as I embrace myself.

I look forward to the spinning of the earth, from light to dark to light again. I look forward to the moonlight, the soft whisper of retiring tide and the thunder and crash of the high tide when a new idea. a greater understanding, comes rolling onto the beach with a giant "YES."

DB - Vagabond Journeys
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AUTUMN QUESTION

(This is not a contest.)

At what event of the past do you wish you could be present? Why?

5 responses so far.

dbdacoba@aol.com

Thank you.
DB
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Judge Not

Most men make little use of their speech than to give evidence against their own understanding.

George Savile
********************
I hope there are no judges reading this journal entry. If so be patient with my rant and consider yourself exempt from blame, (if you are).

While living in New York I frequently served on jury duty and it was, almost without exception, an unpleasant and insulting experience. One could hardly get through the door before the trouble started. When you showed up to answer the call the people who ran the jury room were dedicatedly rude and insulting. "Shut up." "Sit down," "Get away from the door." "Put your hand down." Some bitch was always barking orders at people who thought they were coming to fulfill their civic duty and would be appreciated for it therefore. No, the juror was to be treated like a criminl or a brand new recruit at boot camp.

For that reason and a few others the average New Yorker was finding very imaginative ways to stay out of jury duty. As a result it was difficult to find an acceptable jury of intelligent people. So the state legislature passed a law allowing lawyers and judges to be called up to serve. And, lo and behold, the first time a judge showed up without his robe, to be a juror and received that sort of treatment, heads rolled right down the polished marble hallways of the courthouse and there were some changes made. It never became altogether civilized but the edges were gone.

Now once inside the court room a whole other set of absurd experiences awaited us. All of the cases I served on were in criminal court and they were all low level drug cases, hardly worth anyone's time or trouble, but I guess they kept people employed.

I sat on four cases and two of them were ridiculous charges and in both cases we, the jury, found them not guilty. I wondered how those cases ever got to trial since the offense was so minimal and unthreatening to anyone's liberty or close to breaking any recognizable law or ethical principle.

In one of the others, when we were being instructed by the attorneys and when the witnesses were being questioned, the judge was paying no attention but was typing away at her computer. During a recess the two lawyers got together and issued a censure to the judge asking her to pay attention to the proceedings, where upon she shut off the computer and started writing in her note book. She would occasionally interrupt to ask a question which had nothing to do with the case. As a result, a mistrial was finally declared and we all went home.

In the other case the judge fancied himself a great entertainer. He had to open the trial by giving us a lecture on the American judicial system and what an honor it was for us to be a part of it. He went over and held the American flag in front of him and waved it at us (I thought for a moment he was going to do a dance). He instructed us to be fair and unbiased in our deliberations and to start out with a clear understanding that the accused was innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable shadow of a doubt, then he defined what a shadow of a doubt meant and he proclaimed a few other things about fairness and justice that I forgot about. Everyone in that jury had been through this many times before and some of the judges were better entertainers than this fellow was.

Then when the trial began he was relentlessly unfair to the attorneys. It soon became clear to any of us on the jury who had been through trial proceedings before that this msn didn't know what he was doing. He must have gotten his job through some questionable means because he was unprepared to preside over a criminal trial or any other trial. He would interrupt the attorneys when they were questioning a witness and say they couldn't ask some question even though it was just his opinion, not a rule. I watched the two attorneys getting more and more frustrated as the day went by, looking at each other with dismay. They were both young. I think they were probably fresh out of law school and never before had to deal with a moron on the bench. Sure enough, when we showed up for the second day, the judge was gone and the trial had been adjourned for a few weeks, which meant a new jury, so again we all went home.

I've know quite a few lawyers and have seen some judges in action. The best ones sit, keep their mouths shut and pay attention. The American judicial system is flawed, but it's probably the best one in the world and those who are on trial deserve to have a judge who isn't a blabber mouth or who's writing the great American novel while the trial is going on. And jurors have the right to be treated with respect as the conscientious citizens they are.

DB - The Vagabond
*******************
AUTUMN QUESTION

(This is not a contest.)

At what event of the past do you wish you could be present? Why?

5 responses so far.

dbdacoba@aol.com

Thank you.
DB
************************

Don't Let Go

It's all about finding the right note at the right place and knowing when to leave well enough alone. And that's a lifelong quest.

David Sanborn
********************
I used to say I reinvent the art of acting with each new role I get. It wasn't strictly true but it often felt that way. In any art form there is always a frequent return to the basics: the line, the tone , the word , the step. And every time that return happens the adventure begins again, or rather a new adventure begins.

The Bible says "A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in pictures of silver." One could say the same for any simple element in the artists hands. A beautiful piece of pottery begins with a lump of clay. A beautiful painting may begin with the mud pie of colors on the artist's palette. The creative process for humans is about turning chaos into order. It can't be done with a to do list or a template of practices. Originality is the only rule that works.

Art does not imitate life, it imitates the essence of life. It is not a reproduction of nature, it's an expression of nature itself. "Pots are fashioned from clay but it's the hollow that makes the pot work" said Lao-Tzu. A careful poet searches for the right word. An almost right word points out the door to understanding, while a right word eliminates the door. It seems to be a magical, mysterious moment when the right word is found, when the right tone is found and applied.

I knew an art student who told me this event about a day with her teacher. She was working on an abstract painting and everything on the canvas seemed to be a mess. The teacher came to look at it, took a pen from his pocket and drew a single line on the canvas then walked on. She looked and saw her whole painting come into focus. The teacher had placed a golden apple in her silver picture.

How did Mozart know to use precisely the right notes? A great piece o music not only plays but also listens. Paul Hindemith wrote a book on musical composition in which he discusses cocreation, the participation in the music by the listener. When the music is great you know it is because the right notes are heard, the logical tones, the one's you expect. The music has told you what it is and so you can go along with it making it happen as you go. A great novel unfolds in the same way.

Why does this happen? Because the creative act is germane to our human experience. We cannot survive without art any more than we can without air and water. Pathetically, there are many people who don't understand that and so suffer and make others suffer.

President Obama spoke recently about the need to improve our education facilities, especially in the fields of science, math and technology. He is absolutely right about that. But our education shouldn't stop there. It needs to include art and philosophy, two most important ingredients for understanding who we are and where we are going.

One says "I need to get through school and get into the job market, fast. I don't have time for philosophy and maybe, some day, when I've made it, I'll think about art." And so he finds himself knee deep in muddy water and doesn't know how he got there. This nation was formed by philosophy, not by religion or economics. Even Margaret Thatcher noted that about the USA. If we forget that, if we stop listening and cocreating, if we give up the lifelong quest and let go of our grasp on the ideas which make civilization, as we seem to be doing, there's only one way down.

DB - The Vagabond
*********************
AUTUMN QUESTION

(This is not a contest.)

At what event of the past do you wish you could be present? Why?

5 responses so far.

dbdacoba@aol.com

Thank you.
DB
************************

False Friends

The building blocks of civilization are cemented together by friendship.

Dana Bate
**********************
I swear I think I would rather sit here, by myself, in my attic sanctuary, and have no friends at all than to have false friends.

Why does so-called friendship have to extend to only one way giving? Why does it depend on giving at all. A person can not buy my friendship with their generosity. They can buy it with character and love. As a matter of fact I can be very grateful for someone's charity and help and find that it comes with some strings. A person's behavior toward me is worth more than anything else.

We give what we can to help others, but we must not withdraw our good thoughts about those people. If we think enough of them to do something for them then the good deeds should be done without conditions. That's friendship.

I'm sorry to find and report that I have a long list of used-to-bes, and I wonder why. I am not fooling myself that I ever did something really dreadful to some people on that list and have forgotten it. It merely seems that I turned out to be not the man they thought I was, or, more likely, the friendship, in spite of the indications, was not a genuine friendship to begin with.

Who knows what it is that makes people turn their backs on others they have known for a long time. It has been my experience that people who do that don't talk about it, hence one never knows what caused it. If personal problems arise and someone is in trouble that's when a friend is so important. Otherwise it's a matter of unsolvable dispute and disagreement. In which case it should be discussed not walked away from.

In a few cases I think I know why I am being ignored, unfriended. But I'm just guessing. If the one who has done that won't talk about it, then I drop the issue.

In my recent decades of history I broke off one friendship of 20 years. It was a result of some very persistent bad behavior toward me which embittered me and when I ended the friendship I wrote a letter explaining exactly why. Nothing can interfere with my love, but the friendship is over

Things like that can make me suspicious of the friends I have, which is a terrible state of mind to be in. If the cement chips away and the building blocks fall into ruin, how is civilization going to survive?

I look at this list of former, so-called friends and search myself to make sure if a friend calls I may not have the answer but he has my response. When the terrors threaten someone has to watch your back.

DB - The Vagabond
*******************
AUTUMN QUESTION

(This is not a contest.)

At what event of the past do you wish you could be present? Why?

5 responses so far.

dbdacoba@aol.com

Thank you.
DB
************************

Weekend Puzzle Answer

Weekend Puzzle Answer

Here we go.

M APBH FHJ MX SFH YGJMDSMOH

TXL M APBH FHJ MX SFH ETAA

NIS ATYS XMDFS PX SFH NTKY GPJKF

M APBHL FHJ NHYS PE TAA.
------------------------------------------
There was one winner, Val, of the Blogspot Tigers, who go it precisely right.
---------------------------------------
I love her in the springtime
and I love her in the fall
but last night on the back porch
I loved her best of all.
-----------------------------
Good going Val.

Rule Book

Renunciation is incompatible with man's nature, to remove all liberty from his will is to remove all morality from his acts.

Jean-Jaques Rousseau
**********************
The author and humorist Isaac Bashevis Singer was once asked if he believed in free will. He answered "We have to believe in free will. We have no choice."

When I was a youngster I got a hold of some published play scripts. There are two publishers who print working scripts of plays that have been produced on Broadway. In those scripts I found diagrams of the sets and often photographs of them, a list of the props and costumes and all the movements of the actors around the stage accompanying the dialogue. It said things like "Enter L X DC" (Enter from stage left and cross to down center). Or "(Pointing his finger at her.)"

In my youthful innocence I thought how nifty. If one built the scenery to look like that and followed all those direction one could easily do the play. Then later I came to realize that what was in the published script was the stage managers copy. It showed how the director staged the play and some idea of how the actors performed their physical actions. But in order to produce the play one had to start from just the dialogue and the authors original text and invent a brand new production. One could not simply hop scotch through someone else's production. Years later I had the privilege of working for a great director, Charlie Hensley, who came into rehearsal on the first day with a button which read "There are no rules."

The philosophical study of Ethics is about what we ought to do under any circumstance. It is a complex study. To attempt to design or discover a book of rules for living is a disastrous activity. For one thing no rule is going to apply to every circumstance, adaptations must be made. But even more importantly a book of rules for ethical behavior will, in fact, deprive us of our morality. Once we abandon or repudiated our right to freedom of choice we have also renounced our right to lead moral lives.

The freedom to make choices is our only guarantee of morality. To make a wrong choice and suffer as a result may not teach us what the right choice is but it will certainly teach us what the wrong one is. But bungling along, stubbing our toes and bumping our heads, checking out someone else's rule book, getting the advice of wiser wayfarers and, above all, reasoning things through, thinking for ourselves, may not bring a completely benign and happy life, but it will lead us to a better one. The choices we make determine the choices we get to make.

In the end the only certainty of a knowledge of right and wrong is one you have earned for yourself.

DB - The Vagabond
*********************

Weekend Puzzle

Here we go.

M APBH FHJ MX SFH YGJMDSMOH

TXL M APBH FHJ MX SFH ETAA

NIS ATYS XMDFS PX SFH NTKY GPJKF

M APBHL FHJ NHYS PE TAA.

(Sit down to do this one.)
DB

Which Side?

We are so accustomed to disguise ourselves too often that in the end we become disguised to ourselves.

Francois de La Rochfaucauld
*****************************
There was a broadcaster I knew years ago. One day he came into my studio and saw me reading a book on psychology. He wanted to know if I was interested in psychology. I told him I was trying to get in touch with my sinister side, to understand it and come to terms with it.

Here was a man who had no background or experience in broadcasting, who gave a lot of wrong information about himself to get his job, who stole other people's ideas and passed them off as his own, who aired a program in which he claimed to have gone out and interviewed a lot of people which he hadn't done, who made fun of the professionals around him, who easily took credit for things he didn't do, who made mistakes in his work but never admitted them or tried to correct them, who attempted to exert power over people he had no right to, who lied and gave false information about other people, who eavesdropped on private conversations and spread rumors and who assumed control and exercised it over the whole station.

In my studio that day he said to me with an absolutely straight face "I have no sinister side" and walked out. I didn't say anything to him but inside I laughed. It seemed to me that he was a walking poster boy for the sinister a card carrying member of the club of the underhanded, conniving and devious.

The real problem was that he really believed it. "Sinister" to him meant left handed and his understanding stopped at that point. I wonder how long it will take him to wake up to himself. He has walked around with a self designed disguise for so long any awakening is liable to be a terrible shock and he may go looking for a book on psychology to help him figure it out.

It's a great danger to sanity and well being to parade in a guise that we believe because we've held it for so long. It's a certain obstacle for understanding ourselves. I'ts something to be avoided, or to be faced and dealt with.

I haven't seen the fellow for years. All I know is that he eventually lost that job, finessed his way into another job and lost that one also. He never fooled anyone but himself.

DB - The Vagabond
***********************
Weekend Puzzle

Here we go.

M APBH FHJ MX SFH YGJMDSMOH

TXL M APBH FHJ MX SFH ETAA

NIS ATYS XMDFS PX SFH NTKY GPJKF

M APBHL FHJ NHYS PE TAA.

(Sit down to do this one.)
DB

Country Living

Is life worth living?
Aye, with the best of us,
Heights of us, depths of us
Life is the test of us!

Corinne Robinson
****************
It's about a half mile down a dusty road called Kanck's Crossing. It's just past Blander's brook. If you turn right at the Holiday Inn you'll find it. Keep going, as I said, about half a mile.

There's a front porch with a couple of chairs. There's an old nail barrel they use for a table now. There used to be a Coca Cola machine until the distributor came and took it away. Inside the shelves are still there but they're mostly empty now, Oh, there might be a few cans of beans or cranberry sauce. But most of it is gone. Sold or discarded. They use to sell worms to the fishermen and candy to the kids. There's an old upright piano. It hasn't been tuned for, oh, I don't know, ten years maybe. The Paradise Glee Club used to come and sing there on Friday nights. I guess Marty still plays it some. There are some wicker chairs stacked up against the wall.

They used to be pretty busy until the state put through a highway about 3 miles to the east of Krank's. So the traffic to Paradise don't come through there any more. Pity. Jack, their eldest, wanted them to move. But Bob didn't want to give up the place, he'd put so much time and effort into it.

Every once in a while someone would stop by to use the rest room and Marty would fix up a pot of coffee and they'd sit and chat. They'd talk about the war, the gossip in town, the river pollution or how the high school basketball team was doing. Their kids didn't come to visit. Bob says he's used to it. Marty isn't.

Their pick up is parked at the side. They don't use it much except they get dressed up and go to church Sunday mornings. There isn't much else to do.

I don't know how they get by but I guess they got some money, cause they eat. Yup, they raised two boys there, Jack and Stan. Jack got a scholarship and went off to State College. Stan joined the Navy. So Bob and Marty live alone now. If you met them you'd say "Here's a happy couple."

Bob says "I could never leave her. She knows everything there is no know about me."
Martha says "He's the very best man I ever met."

Over the porch there's sign that reads "PARADISE COUNTRY STORE"

********************
DB
********************
AUTUMN QUESTION

(This is not a contest.)

At what event of the past do you wish you could be present? Why?

5 responses so far.

dbdacoba@aol.com

Thank you.
DB
************************

The Best Song

Music is only love looking for words.

Lawrence Durrell
*******************
Ah. love! That mysterious, invisible, indescribable madness that afflicts human beings and makes them lose sleep, collect things, forget things and risk their lives. It is the malady with no remedy, the race that has no finish line, the space that can't be measured. It makes us want everything, give up everything and fantasize everything. We don't know what it is until we feel it or sense it when it comes into the room.

Her knitting, his shoes, a young face poised to hear the real. A phone number scribbled on the edge of a newspaper, plans made for lunch, buying her that poinsettia even if you miss your train. Learning the right guitar fingering from one who knows, discussing what vegetables to buy, forgiving yesterdays. Showing off, watching the ball game, sitting in the waiting room.On the road to nowhere together, being there for her first dance recital, extra frosting. Finding his watch for him, loosening the binding cords of fear, feeding the cat. Magnolia, mantra, maple tree and milk. The pathos, the puppy, the pajamas and the pearls. The great adventure, the simple sharing.

All music is either a song or a dance and sometimes both. Almost all of the songs ever written or sung are love songs. Many of those songs are without words. That's not strange. When music tells the story love has found its words.

DB - The Vagabond
*****************
AUTUMN QUESTION

(This is not a contest.)

At what event of the past do you wish you could be present? Why?

5 responses so far.

dbdacoba@aol.com

Thank you.
DB
************************

On The Beach

I have measured out my life in coffee spoons.

T. S. Eliot
**************************
A few days ago I went to the market and bought two peaches. I brought them home and put them in the refrigerator. Yesterday I ate one. It has been many years since I ate a peach. I don't remember how many. I don't mean a can of peach halves or peach slices, but a peach. A soft fuzzy peach. It was delicious. It went to my stomach like a kiss.

After the peach I had a coffee. I know about coffee. I'm a coffee addict. If I had a dollar for every time I spooned some coffee into a mug for myself I would be writing this from my villa overlooking the ocean, where the mermaids play.

A coffee spoon doesn't hold very much, but it's enough for the mug and enough to hold the pieces of my life to be seen and heard, to be imbibed and digested one by one.

In my seventh decade I do as many older people do. I sometimes think back over some of those spoonfuls and wonder. How much of the time did I spend in the mundane tasks of measuring and how much in the ethereal tasks of the poet, the artist. I have watched for the flickering wings of the angels during the magnificent sunset as they vacated they day and left the world to the angels of night. I have listened for the songs of the mermaids as they combed the rising tide. I have walked along ocean beaches and wondered. And can I do that and not eat a peach?

I grow old … I grow old …
I shall wear the bottoms of my trousers rolled.

Shall I part my hair behind? Do I dare to eat a peach?
I shall wear white flannel trousers, and walk upon the beach.
I have heard the mermaids singing, each to each.

I do not think that they will sing to me.
(T. S. Eliot)


It is enough if I hear them singing. It is enough for me if I can see the angels flying. If I can only measure it in a coffee spoon, it is enough.

Dana Bate
The Vagabond
*****************
AUTUMN QUESTION

(This is not a contest.)

At what event of the past do you wish you could be present? Why?

5 responses so far.

dbdacoba@aol.com

Thank you.
DB
************************

What's So Funny?

Like all young men I set out to be a genius, but mercifully laughter intervened.

Lawrence Durrell
*********************
What constitutes being a genius? What are the qualifications? You can take a Mensa test and pass it. You can have your IQ measured. You can out think and out talk your friends. You can flash your Phi Beta Kappa key across the over stuffed vest of your three piece suit. And you can brag to yourself about how intelligent you are. But do any of those things qualify you as a genius? On the other hand if you can make a healthy patch of squash grow where no one else could you may have the right to the title.

Einstein said he wasn't a genius but that he was just very curious. And he had a good sense of humor.

It took me many years before I was able to look at myself with a comedian's eye. I got offended when friends laughed at the things I said and did which I considered important and serious. They told me I was too sensitive. They were being kind, although I didn't realize it. But eventually the subjective gave way to the objective and I was able to see the clown's nose on my face. Then I was on the door step of seeing how humorous the world is and particularly the human race. We can smirk at the antics of babies and some animals but to really get that down in the rib cage laugh we have to see an adult human acting like an idiot. Things we do are worthy of a good French farce or a Neil Simon comedy, and that's why they've been written.

In theatre, one of the definitions of farce is " a passion carried to a ridiculous extreme." Even after the awakening to my own foolishness I would sometimes get caught up in such a passion. I could say to myself "Come one, DB, you're being ridiculous." But I knew the farce had to play itself out and that one day the "comedia" would be "finite" and I could then laugh at myself for it.

Now I get to laugh at the self-important antics of our politicians and TV personalities. Who's wearing the clown's nose today and at whom is she or he thumbing it? It's very entertaining. I once queried if the Congress was ever going to be comprised of grown ups. But the fact is they are all grown ups. That's what makes them so funny. Are there any geniuses in the group? It's hard to tell considering the muddy playing field they're on. But mud wrestling has always been an amusement for some.

So what constitutes a genius? I don't know, but a very curious, intelligent person with a sense of humor gets my vote.

DB - The Vagabond
**********************
AUTUMN QUESTION

(This is not a contest.)

At what event of the past do you wish you could be present? Why?

5 responses so far.

dbdacoba@aol.com

Thank you.
DB
************************

PT And Me

The great and invigorating influence in American life has been the unorthodox.

Justice William Douglas
*************************
Years ago, in my late teens, I made a brief pass through the world of higher education known as Tufts University in Medford/Somerville, Massachusetts. Tufts is essentially a very good school but it was definitely not for me. I was never intended by my creator to be a well rounded orthodox Bachelor of Liberal Arts. I only went there because my brother had ten years previously.

A few of the teachers were charismatic and fascinating. One could learn from them without taking a note or reading a book, and I did. Others were humiliating and verbally abusive, and some were boring and uninterested even in the subjects they taught. Even though I wasn't a Drama major, the only thing I enjoyed was performing plays in the college theatre. There I learned a lot of things because I had to.

I lasted one year at Tufts. And then one early summer day after that first year I was sitting in my apartment in Somerville minding my own business when the phone rang. It was the Charles Theatre in Boston offering me a part in "A View From The Bridge" by Arthur Miller. My life had not only changed but, even though I didn't realize it at the time, had also established what I was going to do with it. I left Tufts and never looked back.

One of the most important benefactors of Tufts was P. T. Barnum who donated funds in the 19th Century for the Barnum Museum of Natural History. In the front of the building was a taxidermists rendering of "Jumbo" the famous Barnum circus elephant.

One year some students researched Barnum's early life and education and submitted it, under a fictitious name, to the Admissions Dean in a request to attend the college. His request was denied. It seems Barnum also did not qualify as a well rounded orthodox liberal arts scholar. Barnum and I were both misfits. Okay by me. Good company.

Not only that but Barnum was a showman, a master entertainer. I was walking in the shadow of one of the great and invigorating influences of .American life. I was unorthodox. I was an entertainer. I have no regrets.

Since then I have seen the damage done by the cookie cutter philosophy of so much education. It is worthless to expect a young person to walk the well established tread mill of life, to be what others are because it's safe, to follow the pattern of sameness, to keep the vigil of protection from the extraordinary, to bar the door against the original and outlandish. It wasn't for the unorthodox Barnum. It's not for me. And it must not be the practice for anyone who is capable of stirring up the vigor of life whatever stage they may be on.

Dana Bate
The Vagabond
******************
AUTUMN QUESTION

(This is not a contest.)

At what event of the past do you wish you could be present? Why?

5 responses so far.

dbdacoba@aol.com

Thank you.
DB
************************

Weekend Contest Answers

Weekend Contest Answers

There are two correct, first place, answers to this week's contest and both very different from each other.

Pacifica took her cue from the blue hat reference and gave me the Secretaries General of the United Nations:

TL – Trygve Lie

DH – Dag Hammarskjold

UT – U Thant

KW – Kurt Waldheim

JP – Javier Perez de Cuellar

BB – Boutros Boutros-Ghali

KA – Kofi Annan

BK – Ban Ki Moon

----------------------------------

While Val found some well known painters

TL Thomas Lawrence

DH Damien Hirst

UT Utagawa Toyokuni

KW Karl Walser

JP Józef Pankiewicz

BB Basil Blackshaw

KA Knud Agger

BK Boris Kobe
---------------------------
Good going gang.
DB

To Valhalla We Go

People always throw rocks at things they don't understand.

Eliza Dushku
*****************
If you're an opera lover or even if you are indifferent to opera you may find this post interesting. If you hate opera you have my permission to cut to the bottom, but don't miss the Weekend Contest. There's only one right answer so far.

I was so busy yesterday with my problems (my printer) and other people's problems that I didn't settle down to write until 9:30 p.m. at which point I decided I had to do something nice for myself so I put on a recording of Wagner's "Die Walkyre."

Now some people don't like Wagner, in fact they hate it. There are even some dedicated opera lovers who will put many city blocks between themselves and a performance of a Wagnerian opera. Whenever I hear one of those claim his hatred of Wagner I always want to say facetiously "I'll pray for you."

But it's alright, I'll let them go their way. What really disturbs me is the tendency to make fun of opera and other classical music by people who don't understand it. It's like laughing at a bowl of Chinese food if you don't know what's in it. I'm aware that much of the ridicule come from the fact that people don't know what their hearing, but that's because they don't listen to it. I wouldn't be a Wagner lover today if I hadn't listened to it way back in the early days when I couldn't understand it. So on this trek along the city blocks to get away from good music they don't listen to it, and because they don't listen to it they don't hear it, and because they don't hear it they don't understand it. Okay, so far they're on level ground. But here comes the pot hole. Since they can't explain why they don't understand it and are embarrassed that they can't, they have to put it down by making fun of it. The music doesn't care that it's laughed at. But the musicians do and so does this music lover.

It is understandable that some Jews shun Wagner since he was Hitler's favorite composer, but Wagner lived in the 19th Century and they never met. It is certain that Wagner would have had nothing to do with Hitler if they did.

Opera was invented in the early 17th Century by a group of Italian composers, notably a genius name Claudio Monteverdi, (not to be confused with Giuseppe Verdi, who came along much later) and their purpose was to attempt to recreate ancient Greek drama, about which they knew very little except that it was probably sung.

Wagnerian operas are very long, some of them stretching into 4 hours, even though Friedrich Nietzsche called Wagner "our first miniaturist." It's because his operas are comprised of short themes that represent some idea or emotion and they are strung together like pearls. They reoccur all throughout the opera joined with different ones each time creating an unfolding of the drama even in the orchestra which is sometimes more important than the singing. What you hear in a Wagner opera you've probably heard before ad most certainly will hear again. But to a true Wagner lover there is nothing boring or repetitive about that.

One of the ways people make fun of Wagner is to depict a zaftig woman wearing a helmet with horns on it. I have been to a great many Wagnerian opera performances and I have never seen a helmet with horns on anyone. That sort of joke just belittles the work and the person who thinks it's funny.

If you want to be lifted and carried through a masterpiece of music drama go to a Wagner opera, wear comfortable shoes and be prepared to sit for a long time. But listen. Listen carefully and hear what's going on.

If you want to hear singers sing beautiful songs in French and Italian don't go to hear Wagner.

If you don't like opera or classical music at all then put as many city blocks as you need to between yourself and the opera house or concert hall. But keep your jokes to yourself.

DB - The Vagabond
**********************

Weekend Contest

1 correct answer so far

Who are these important people?

TL
DH
UT
KW
JP
BB
KA
BK
************
Good luck.
First place winner gets a blue hat.

DB
***************

Another Phoenix

Never get too far from your trousers and boots.

Unknown
********************
Ever since I heard this proverb I've been careful about how I keep the things I want around me. I never have to go looking for clothes to wear when I wake up. I know where my important papers are and the books I want to keep. I'm not compulsively organized about it but several times in my vagabond life I have had to pick up in a great hurry and move on, leaving behind some precious things, so I have some experience.

Down the street from me is a big old building, much like many other buildings in this old town. It's an apartment building which housed four tenants. The other day it was set on fire by someone and burned out. All the tenants escaped and no one was hurt but now the building is not able to be lived in.

One of those tenants is someone I know. Colleen is an artist and an excellent photographer. She had a successful sole-employee business in publicity and promotion. She escaped from the fire with her purse and the clothes she was wearing. She lost all of her art work, her photographs, her negatives, her cameras, her equipment, her computer and all of her personal possessions.

I'm sure she has tenants insurance, but her business is wiped out and she has no place to live. She's staying temporarily with a kind friend. She can afford a month's rent but not the double rent and security that so many of the landlords are expecting in this part of the country. In other words she's homeless. I would point to her whenever I hear some ignorant, sarcastic bigot say that people are homeless because they refuse to work.

Colleen wall pull herself together, in spite of the terrible tragedy, and reestablish her business because she has more spirit and energy in her than a room full of girl scouts. And fortunately she has friends who will help out as best they can along the way.

I don't know all the details but the fire was started by a woman who was evidently trying to kill her ex. Now she's in serious trouble for arson and attempted homicide, plus a string of other charges. That doesn't help Colleen and the other uprooted tenants. But at least no one was injured.

There is a lesson and warning in this story. No matter how well organized and careful Colleen was, how could she ever have protected all her "boots and trousers" from such an unexpected attack. It makes me look around my apartment and take stock. I'm not far from my trousers, but what about some other things.

Colleen is a member of the same artists group that I am, the Artists of Bristol. She was one of the most important promoters and organizers of it. Now she's out of business. Please send you good thoughts to my friend Colleen.

DB - The Vagabond
*******************

Weekend Contest

Who are these important people?

TL
DH
UT
KW
JP
BB
KA
BK
************
Good luck.
First place winner gets a blue hat.

DB
***************

Speak Out

One of the lessons of history is that nothing is often a good thing to do and always a clever thing to say.

Will Durant
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Over the years I have repeatedly embarrassed myself by offering comments I thought were very astute and witty at the time but which turned out to be really inane and stupid. After offending whatever company I was with long enough by my idiotic remarks I vowed to find a way to discipline myself away from that juvenile habit and establish a regimen for making sure that what I had to say was intelligent and important.

As a result I discovered a great secret which I pass along to you. I call it;
My Six Rules Of Intelligent Speaking.

Rule 1. First, keep your mouth shut.

Rule 2. Then carefully research the great minds of the past and present who have expressed themselves on the topic you wish to address. Use the library, look into encyclopedias and dictionaries, search the Internet.

Rule 3. Consult with other people, your family, your friends and neighbors and anyone who is willing to express themselves on the subject Get as wide a diversity of opinions as you can.

Rule 4. Sit down with paper and pen and write out exactly what you want to say, making sure you have the idea clear and with the vocabulary and verbiage you want. Proofread it making whatever edits you think are appropriate. When you have it the way you want it, then read it over carefully several times.

Rule 5. Think about what you're going to say. Put all your notes together, all your research and what you have gleaned from the different opinions. Say it over to yourself and imagine the silver tones of your statement coming from your lips into the ears and minds of your eager listeners. Then when you are ready to speak,

Rule 6. Keep your mouth shut.

You're welcome.

DB - The Vagabond
""""""""""""""""""""""
AUTUMN QUESTION

(This is not a contest.)

At what event of the past do you wish you could be present? Why?

5 responses so far.

dbdacoba@aol.com

Thank you.
DB
************************

Stupid Questions

Sometimes you just have to pay respect to your own simpleness.

Sean Paul
**************
I don't need to read the instructions. I know how to put this barbeque together.
-------------------
Okay, hand me the instructions.

I don't need to ask directions. I can find my way.
-------------------------
Okay. I'm lost.

No, I don't need gloves. It'll only take me a few minutes to shovel the snow off the walk.
------------------
Okay, where are those gloves.

I quit smoking. That was my last cigarette.
---------------------------------
All right, I lied.

It takes some people a long timer to learn that sometimes it's okay to be a simple minded fool if you are facing a problem you don't understand. There's a Chinese proverb that reads "He who asks is a fool for five minutes, but he who does not ask remains a fool forever."

I must confess I was one of those who refused to ask. The habit developed in my childhood when the answer to almost every questions I asked was prefaced by "You don't know that? What's the matter with you? Where have you been?" It made me wary of asking questions. So I got lost and made a mess with the barbeque.

One should treat genuine simpletons with patience and compassion. But what's wrong with appearing to be a simpleton in someone else's eyes if it means finding out what you need to know? Nothing.

I know a well educated man who says there are no stupid questions, only stupid answers.

I finally learned my lesson by observing other people and how they deal with things. Now if I ask a question and am treated with scorn because I ask it, I smile patiently and wait for the answer, and if I don't get it I'll ask someone else. And, what's even more important, if someone asks me what I consider a foolish question I give an honest answer.

I may risk losing a chance for a little humor, but it's worth it to help make a peaceful world.

DB - The Vagabond
***********************
AUTUMN QUESTION

(This is not a contest.)

At what event of the past do you wish you could be present? Why?

4 responses so far.

dbdacoba@aol.com

Thank you.
DB
************************

From The Deep

Life's most urgent question is: What are you doing for others?

Martin Luther King, Jr.
************************
A most astonishing thing in my opinion is the rescue of the Chilean minors from their
sepulcher deep in the desert. There is really something amazing about it. Today there are engineers, technicians, doctors, reporters from all over the world focused on this possibility. And the wives and relatives are there, waiting and not moving, on top of the San Jose Mine. San Jose, Saint Joseph, the patron saint of laborers and families.

The men are trapped in a gold and copper mine. They speak Spanish. Hundreds of years ago the Spanish government sent explorers and missionaries to western South America to convert the natives and mine the copper. This is ancient history.

The first important event in this story was the news that they are all alive. 33 men are alive in their tomb. Then communication was improved and supplies were sent down to them to keep them alive, messages were sent back up and delivered to family members. Now there is a tube with an escape capsule. By the time you read this it is expected that some or all of the men will have been plucked from hell into the land of the living.

I have been trying to follow this story as well as I can considering the location and lack of communication as far as radio and TV goes. But the majesty of the story involves the human spirit, not only of the trapped miners, but of the rescuers. People said if it is possible to make a miracle happen let's do it.

What is it that fascinates the world so much about this story? The rescue of the Pakistanis from their awful flood is a much bigger story. The ongoing dialogue between Israel and Palestine has global significance. And yet the world is focused on a small town in Chile and a hole in the ground from which 33 men who have been imprisoned in an earth bound dungeon for over two months are to emerge, one by one. And each one of them carries with him the reality of a resurrection, the overcoming of death. And for the men and women on top, in Camp Hope, there is no question of ought we or can we, the answer is, we must. King's question is being definitively answered by action.

In my mind this is a story that goes beyond, ingenuity, desire, optimism and courage. It's a not so simple matter of what one group of humans can do for another group of humans, with no further questions asked. It's apocalyptic.

DB - The Vagabond
*********************
AUTUMN QUESTION

(This is not a contest.)

At what event of the past do you wish you could be present? Why?

4 responses so far.

dbdacoba@aol.com

Thank you.
DB
************************

Buddy, can you spare a dime?

It is wise to remember that you are one of those who can be fooled some of the time.

Lawrence Peter
*****************
I had a wretched morning. I woke up with my mind flipping through the encyclopedia of all the things I did wrong, mistakes I made, regrets I have and some of the many times I was fooled. Being stung, burned and bitten are not the best ways to learn one's lessons, but sometimes they seem to be the only way.

The only antidote to such suffering is a sense of humor, to be able to laugh at the stupidity and deal with life as it is, not as it was. I am good enough at forgiving the wrongs done to me and so poor at forgetting the wrongs I did to others either accidentally or ignorantly. I want to round up all the people I hurt and give them each a dozen eggs to throw at me. Hard boiled, if necessary.

Will that help? Only if I have learned the techniques I use to fool myself or allow myself to be fooled. The great lesson, of course is to think before you... step, leap, jump, speak, write, decide, buy, sell, sign, confirm, pledge, swear, think, ad infinitum.

We have minds with which to reason and imagine. Why don't we use them? Life is risky business at best, but it is rendered less risky if we think about what we are doing in the process of living it, where we are about to place our foot in the grand waltz of life. Sometimes a misstep can send us down a dark road with no easy way back.

One night I was driving back to New York City from New England. I had heard on the news that there was a major protest by the gas stations in New York State against the oil companies I think, and that all the gas stations in the state had closed. So I stopped in Connecticut and filled up the tank. After I crossed the state line into Westchester County on the highway I saw a guy at a dark gas station desperately trying to open a closed and locked gas pump. It was a futile effort. He didn't have enough gas to get where he was going and he knew it.

Another night in New York I was taking a friend out for dinner. It was in the early days of the ATMs and I had a bank card. We went to one of the machines and it didn't work. So we went to another one of the same bank and that didn't work. At the third try I realized that the bank's main computer was out and that none of the machines would work. So I made other arrangements, but coming away from the third machine I saw a cab pull up and the passenger get out and run into where the ATM was. In a moment he came out perplexed and I told him the master computer was evidently down and none of the machines were working. Here he was desperately trying to find cash while the cab's meter was running and he didn't have enough money to pay the cab.

I don't know what happened to those two guys but their plights were both good lessons in not fooling yourself by making assumptions.

Has nothing that dumb ever happened to me? Of course it has. One of the most graphic examples in my life was when one night at 11 o'clock I found myself on a street corner in Los Angeles with all my belongings in a suitcase, a dime in my pocket amd mo place to go. Finally I found a late night diner, used the dime to call someone I knew (it was in the early 60's when a phone call cost a dime). My friend came and got me. I don't remember how I got into that fix but I still recall it now as a good example of what can happen if I fool myself and don't use my head.

Tell me your story if you want to. I'll have compassion.

DB - The Vagabond
******************
AUTUMN QUESTION

(This is not a contest.)

At what event of the past do you wish you could be present? Why?

4 responses so far.

dbdacoba@aol.com

Thank you.
DB
************************

Weekend Contest Answers

Weekend Contest Answers
Below are the names of three fictitious law firms. Read them carefully and then come up with your own example. You may enter more than once but the decision of the irascible judge is final.

Chase & Sewer
Huchlein & Sincker
Locke, Stock & Beryl

It was very difficult to choose a winner. There were many good entries. But after consulting with the gypsy coffee ground reader next door, the Tarot, the I Ching, the entrails and the bones I have arrived at the answer.

First prize of a genuine plastic gavel goes to Pacifica for Grinn & Barrett. Second place goes to Sue for Bicker & Leach. With an honorable mention to Krissy for Burke & Stock.

Other great entries are:

douche', baggery and shillz

Argew and Splitt

Aitken & Payne

Little, Wiley & Fox

Bacon, Berger & Frye

Guten, Nacht & Morgan

Knight & Daye


------------------------

Thank you all for your great wit.

DB

On Geezer's Lap

To what childishness does man descend in his ripe old age, when he allows himself to be held by the leash of sensuousness.

Immanuel Kant
********************
Growing older is not for the squeamish. It is filled with surprises, unexpected changes, adaptations and reevaluations. And there are things that must be left behind, and one of them is childhood, that which Shakespeare referred to as "second childishness." To be perpetually young at heart is a very good and useful thing, but though childhood may not end when you're 20, it had better have ended by the time you're 80.

I always get a chuckle when I see a photograph of a skinny old geezer flashing thousands of dollars of false teeth, with a young buxom blonde in big hair sitting on his lap, his wife. What's going on? Is he trying to recapture his adolescents? Or to get the youth he never had because he was too busy making his fortune? Is he trying to tell us that in spite of his age and lack of hair and teeth he's still a virile young man? Or is he simply saying "Look what I have" thinking he's roped in a beauty with his money and has her on his leash.? The fact is she's the one holding the leash and either he doesn't know it or he doesn't care.

Don't get me wrong. I'm not against loving relationships between people of different ages. In the long run age should have nothing to do with it. It's true that young people usually want someone who has the same amount of energy as they do. And it's advantageous for older folks to have someone around with some life experience. "The sadder but wiser girl for me" Meredith Wilson wrote. But I've seen many examples where it works out well if people come together from different ages.

I knew a broadcaster, an excellent one and a senior citizen, whose wife was a couple of decades younger than he. They were completely dedicated to each other. And in the theatre I knew a stage manager whose husband was much younger than she was. I saw them once at a party and it was obvious they were very much in love with each other.

So if an old coot wants a young wife that's fine with me. Just let the reasons for it be about love and a shared life, not about money or power. If you ever see me at 90. all skin and bones, smiling like a fool, with a Dolly Parton wannabe sitting on my lap, shoot me.

DB - The Vagabond
-------------------------
Weekend Contest
Below are the name of three fictitious law firms. Read them carefully and then come up with your own example. You may enter more than once but the decision of the irascible judge is final.

Chase & Sewer
Huchlein & Sincker
Locke, Stock & Beryl

4 entries so far.
Good luck
DB
****************

Food Stuffs

Kiss the earth and love it with an unceasing, consuming love.

Feodore Dostoyevsky
********************
He who owns the earth owns the world. That may seem like a redundancy. But think about food. Or rather think about cities and towns with buildings, schools, institutions, where business is conducted every day, stocks are bought and sold, deals are made, manufacturing takes place, technicians and scientists are at work designing and testing things, students are studying and leaning new skills and new ideas, committees are meeting and discussing issues, pilots are flying planes ad drivers are driving buses, artists are painting, singers are singing, street sweepers are cleaning the streets and lawnmowers are mowing the lawns, politicians are arguing and ball players are playing ball.

Think about all or some of those things and then think about food. None of those things could happen if there was no food. If we did not eat we would die. We take food for granted. It's our natural right to have lunch. We don't question it. Where does it come from? From the supermarket, the cafeteria, the kitchen, the fridge.

Everything in our lives that we use, the metal. wood and stone we build with, the paper that we use to sue people with, the water we drink and waste on our fancy cars, the asphalt we drive them on too fast, the potatoes, carrots, beef and eggs, apples and chestnuts and the garbage we make from them all come from the earth, the ground, the dirt.

Imagine what life would be like if there were no miners, fishers, farmers or ranchers. Imagine what it would be like if we had to forage and hunt in order to survive. How much of the other stuff listed above would get done?

Or imagine a cartel of excellent hunters and gatherers who have more than they need and are willing to let us have some of what they have pulled out of the forest and seas and hoarded. For a price, of course. And since they have a monopoly on fruit and meat it's going to be a steep one.

Imagine building more highways over more potential farm land until there isn't enough earth left to grow what we need. No problem. Another country will be glad to clear as much arable land as is necessary to feed the world's hungry and busy populations. And if they don't have enough within their own borders they will take the profits from selling us our food to buy up some of our land in order to keep producing. Of course, they may have to tear up a few highways and level a few buildings to keep fulfilling the needs of a growing world population. Those who can afford it, that is.
Then when they own all the crops and fuel the earth can produce what do they own?
They own the world.

DB - The Vagabond
******************
Weekend Contest
Below are the name of three fictitious law firms. Read them carefully and then come up with your own example. You may enter more than once but the decision of the irascible judge is final.

Chase & Sewer
Huchlein & Sincker
Locke, Stock & Beryl

Good luck
DB
****************

Mum.

Look wise, say nothing and grunt. Speech was given to conceal thought.

William Osler
********************
DB, keep you're big mouth shut.

That's my entry.
********************
********************

Check List

Never be unmindful of your own dignity.

John Brown
++++++++++++++++++++++
To be a good citizen of your nation and the world. To obey the just laws and challenge the unjust ones. To be courageous in the face of danger. To be compassionate in the face of trouble.

To support and take care of your family. To be respectful of your neighbors. To avoid excessive noise and ugliness. To amicably confront your neighbors about theirs. To forgive people for their wrong choices. To visit sick or imprisoned friends. To look out for the children of the world and to respect the elders.

To support organizations that are doing good things for people, animals and the environment. To be grateful for the ground you walk on, the air you breathe and the light and rain over your head.

To be aware and sensitive to other people's needs. To avoid anger and aggression. To let reason and intelligence guide your activities. To let love grow in your thoughts.

To be conscientious and expert at you labors. To do more than is required of you. To seek out ways to do things better.

To heal hurts, to patch up wounds, to settle disputes and to soothe pains. To find answers. To fix the broken things. To be brave. To be gentle.

To get out of debt and stay there. To do favors and return those you receive. To live frugally and smartly. To be generous. To provide food, clothes, shelter, rides, equipment, advice, encouragement to those who need them without expecting any returns.

To set reasonable standards for yourself and live by them. To form appropriate goals and pursue them without quitting. To forgive yourself for your failures and humbly accept your successes.

To weigh and measure everything carefully in terms of its relative value to you, your family, your community and the world. To not settle for the mediocre, substandard, insufficient or inadequate.

To build a strong foundation of faith in yourself. To daily fuel your hopes for a happier life. To imagine a better world and work to help make it so.

To ignore the downward pulling effect of pain, grief and depression, but to declare and announce your right to the freedom of your existence.

To approach every day and every hour with dignity, gladness, the expectation of good and a sense of humor.

DB - The Vagabond
++++++++++++++++++++++++
AUTUMN QUESTION

(This is not a contest.)

At what event of the past do you wish you could be present? Why?

2 responses so far.

dbdacoba@aol.com

Thank you.
DB
************************

On The High Ground

Since when was genius found respectable?

Elizabeth Barrett Browning
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
There are no easy steps along the rocks of the high mountain pass where few or none have been before and those who tread that rarified and lofty atmosphere may be envied by those below but they are seldom trusted.

If you would be accepted, respected and embraced by the hum drum, predictable opinions of the even, unruffled society you see around you then don't be original, innovative, experimental and adventuresome. And heaven forbid you should sprout wings and fly. If they catch you airborne the rifles will quickly come off the shoulders and take aim. And after you've gone to "the undiscovered country" they will make a trophy of you, admire you, posthumously publish your works and erect a memorial to you n the park.

Those who step out on the dangerous promontories of art, science and philosophy can only survive if they have a sense of humor. Horatio Nelson said "I could not tread these perilous paths in safety, if I did not keep a saving sense of humor." When Auguste Rodin created his statue of Balzac he would have known he was breaking all sorts of rules. He must have had a big smile on his face.

I have always admired my, and more profoundly, other people's unorthodox ways of doing things. I was the principle player in a musical one year and had a solo dance. I'm not much of a dancer but the choreographer was notably uninterested in helping me. She just wanted to stage the ensemble numbers and didn't think my dance was important even though it was the only solo dance in the show. She had given me a few basic steps and I tried to expand them into something interesting but was having a hard time with it. In musical theatre there is someone known as the Dance Captain. That person is like the shop steward for the corps dancers. Since I was a principle I didn't come under his jurisdiction. But he had seen me struggling with my dance.

We had a few preview performances after which the choreographer left. I went to the Dance Captain and asked him if he could help me. He said "Sure." We had a tape of the music, played it and he began. Taking the steps the choreographer had given me and starting me out on what I thought was the wrong foot, he untied the knot I had made for myself and redesigned the dance. In five minutes I had a dance that was colorful, vigorous, authentic, fit what the orchestra did and which I enjoyed doing. I said "Sam, you're a genius." He didn't reply, he just grinned.

I had to go to court on a stupid matter and after several appearances in front of several judges nothing was decided. I needed an attorney but couldn't afford one. A friend recommended a lawyer who was willing to take the case for a pittance. We went in to court where he came up with a totally unorthodox solution which no one had thought of but which pleased everybody and I walked out of there with a decision in my favor. I said "Herb, you're a genius." He said "You think that was good? You should see me with a jury." I never did, unfortunately. I'll bet he was brilliant.

I've known a sparse few geniuses in my life, I wish I knew more. I would find them respectable even if they aren't.

DB - The Vagabond
*********************
AUTUMN QUESTION

(This is not a contest.)

At what event of the past do you wish you could be present? Why?

2 responses so far.

dbdacoba@aol.com

Thank you.
DB
************************

Win The Case

You can't help growing older, but you don't have to grow old.

George Burns.
******************
We are all on trial for our lives. The prosecuting attorney has gradually been stacking up all kinds of evidence against us and we have no defense attorney but ourselves.

The District Attorney presents his case. You can't remember people's names, that's a sign your slipping into oblivion. You occasionally do stupid things which proves that you're losing a grip on reality. You have aches and pains all over you so you must be in terrible physical shape. You're overweight therefore you have no control over yourself. There are certain foods you can't digest properly because your stomach has lost it's strength. You can't walk down the street without getting tired. There are so many things you used to be able to do that you can't do anymore. Certain items in your body don't function properly and need to be replaced. You don't sleep well. You need all kinds of medicine to keep going and stay alive. You're a problem for your family and a drain on society. The only conclusion one can draw is that you are old and headed for the mortuary. The DA rests his case.

Now it's your turn. You can't remember certain people's names and other facts because your mind is filled with information and you can remember the important things. (I knew an older woman who got the giggles when she couldn't remember names. She simply was not going to take it seriously.) Everyone occasionally does stupid things no matter what their age. Aches and pains all over you doesn't mean you are a physical wreck. It means you have more aches and pains than you used to have. You've been meaning to go on a diet so you can look more like your neighbor down the street but you haven't gotten around to it yet. There are certain foods you can't digest properly because your body doesn't want them. (My grandmother lost her taste for certain foods. She simply didn't like them any more.) You can't walk down the street without getting tired because you're not an athletic person as you used to be. (You don't have to be a marathon runner to prove you're in shape.) There are many things you used to be able to do that you can't do any more maybe because you don't want to do them. Certain parts of your body don't function properly and need to be replaced. So what? You don't sleep well. People who are older and less active require less sleep. You need all kinds of medicine to keep going and stay alive. Since when is medicine prescribed only for the older folks around. You're not a problem for your family if they love you and you love them. You're an asset because you're older and wiser. You're not a drain on society if you don't think you are. You are simply older and headed for another year of life (and maybe a vacation instead of a coffin.) You argue for energy, for curiosity, for adventure, for a changed and adapted life style, not doom. You rest your case.

All the advertisements about this disease or that disease, this cure or that cure, all the talk that goes on between people, the difficult experiences with doctors and hospitals, expecting and looking for problems and interpreting them in dire terms, the remembrance of past problems, the comparisons with other people's stories and the prophecies of doom are all part of the prosecutor's false evidence. It doesn't prove anything.

I used to know an actor my age who when he turned 40 began to show signs of physical wear and tear. He told me all the awful things I would soon start to experience and all the facilities and faculties I would soon lose. I went away and argued against every one of them. There was no reason, I thought, for any of those things to happen to me just because he believed they would and seemed to be happening to him. I soon realized that he had talked himself into illness which I could easily reason myself away from. That was 30 years ago and I didn't contract with any of his phantoms.

Recently a "friend" told me I had only 10 good years left and that if I didn't do this and that I would be bedridden in 6 months. That was over 4 months ago. Check back with me in December.

It is important for you to take care of yourself and to deal with problems as they occur. My point is not to interpret those problems as evidence of your extrinsic demise into mental and physical decrepitude. You are not fast approaching the moment when you'll be finished unless you accept the evidence. But you have the right to argue for enthusiasm, for a future, for life. George Burns lived to be 100 and worked as an entertainer right up till his final year. You're not old. You're just older.

DB - The Vagabond
********************
AUTUMN QUESTION

(This is not a contest.)

At what event of the past do you wish you could be present? Why?

2 responses so far.

dbdacoba@aol.com

Thank you.
DB
************************

Drawing It Out

What we play is life?

Louis Armstrong
********************
I have a book on learning how to draw by Robert Beverly Hale, "Anatomy Lessons from the Great Masters." In a very active and full career as an artist, writer and lecturer, Hale also was an instructor in drawing at the Art Students League in New York City. I was blessed to be able to take his last 12 classes before he retired back up to New England. He had an infectious joy in art, an amazingly perceptive eye for the best in his students' works and a sense of humor.

Is music notes in a score correctly played? Is poetry a proper string of words depicting an image?. Is painting expertly made brush stokes? Is drawing the human figure accurate lines on a piece of paper? What did the old masters know that we need to know?

One evening at the Cafe Carlyle in New York I saw Mabel Mercer sing "Both Sides Now" and when she sang "I really don't know love at all" my heart burst and tears came. I thought if Mabel Mercer, in her long and magical life, didn't know love than no one did.

Right now I'm listening to Nathan Milstein play the Bach Chaconne for solo violin. It is an amazing 14 minute journey through human experiences and when I hear it I feel privileged to be a part of Bach's and Milstein's life.

If it's great art it's not just tones, words, colors and lines, it's not just melodies, poems and pictures. Look behind those things, look beyond them to what is really there. The dancer is dancing it, the musician is playing it, the author is writing it, the actor is acting it, the painter is painting it.

There comes a point in the study of life drawing when you stop drawing a human figure and start drawing a human being. You start drawing life.

Dana Bate
The Vagabond
******************
AUTUMN QUESTION

(This is not a contest.)

At what event of the past do you wish you could be present? Why?

2 responses so far.

dbdacoba@aol.com

Thank you.
DB
************************

Weekend Puzzle Answer

WEEKEND PUZZLE ANSWER
*******************
A'S UBAW' MB IXCWUO SG ZCG BR NAKAW'
AR MXCM CAWM OWBYUX
MXOW A'NN IXCWUO MXO ZCG
MXCM A DMVYM SG DMYRR.
'ICTDO WPFPLG ZCWMD GPY
ZXOW GPY'VO BNL CWL UVCG
MXOVO'NN FO DBSO IXCWUOD SCLO MBLCG.

I'm goin' to change my way of livin' if that ain't enough,
Then I'll change the way that I strut my stuff,
'cause nobody wants you when you're old and gray
There'll be some change made today.


First prize goes to Bill of the Blodgspot Tigers
DB

*****************

Chase The Dream

If one scheme of happiness fails, human nature turns to another.

Jane Austin
*****************
There's gold at the end of the rainbow of the tried and true, the old story, the good old song. It has been said over and over that important things in life really depend on what we think, and how we think.

To establish a goal of happiness, a standard of living that ensures joy and fulfillment is everyone's right. There are as many pathways to achieving goals as there are people who are trying to. In fact there are more. But there is a danger along the path, a fierce hungry lion is in the way, the lion of discouragement.

An actor working on a role will determine what the overall objective is for his character. Then he will discover all the ways the character tries to achieve that objective. That leads him to be able to identify all the obstacles in his way. In overcoming the obstacles the character will make certain adjustments to his pursuit. Whether the character succeeds in his quest is up to the playwright. But the actor will play the role as if the outcome is inevitably in his favor.

That principle of the actor's craft is metaphorical for all our lives except that we are our own playwrights. The goal may be clear in our minds but the script is yet to be written as we face the obstacles and make the adaptations. That's when the trouble starts.

The projected path we have chosen and laid out for ourselves may be deceptive, it may be blocked by too many obstacles, too many lions, and we have to turn back. That's the point at which a lot of people give up. "I tried it. It didn't work. So I stopped trying."

It seems foolish to keep trying something that doesn't work. And it is. But what happened to the goal, the objective, the end result we fell in love with and wanted to make ours? To turn back from one trail up the mountain does not take away the mountain. The summit is still there. The rewards of life are still there waiting.

To go far and have to turn back is a deeply depressing and discouraging thing. And in that pit of unhappiness the temptation is to forget the goal. That's the danger. That's what the lion feeds on. "Oh, well, I didn't really want that anyway."

Nonsense. It is merely time to revise the script. The overall objective remains the same, the pathway to get there changes. But the vision of happiness that we started out with must remain fixed in our thoughts all the time or we'll never get there and will wander in pathways that go nowhere hoping that we stumble upon joy unexpectedly. But if we really want what we want in life then it's worth striving for no matter how many trails we have to take to get there.

"Chase the dream." Or as Shakespeare wrote "My project may deceive me, but my intents are fix'd and will not leave me."

DB - The Vagabond
********************

WEEKEND PUZZLE
*******************
A'S UBAW' MB IXCWUO SG ZCG BR NAKAW'
AR MXCM CAWM OWBYUX
MXOW A'NN IXCWUO MXO ZCG
MXCM A DMVYM SG DMYRR.
'ICTDO WPFPLG ZCWMD GPY
ZXOW GPY'VO BNL CWL UVCG
MXOVO'NN FO DBSO IXCWUOD SCLO MBLCG.

Good luck
DB

*****************

Let Freedom Ring

No price is too high for the privilege of owning yourself.

Friedrich Nietzsche
**********************
Many people have paid a hefty price for that privilege. Most of us are still paying.

There have been amazing stories of skilled and enterprising slaves who were blessed with an opportunity to make enough to buy their own freedom, in a real sense to buy themselves. Others, not given the skills or opportunities, have paid the dangerous price of escape, often without success.

Feeling free is not the same thing as freedom. A false sense of security is more dangerous than insecurity. Back in the 40's and 50's, when I was growing up, a major ethic, in that post depression era, was to have a job. If you had a job you were secure. It was expected that you would stay at that job, working for that company the rest of your life until yu retired and it was assumed that your job was secure. There was a lifetime commitment between the employer and the employee. With the rise of organized labor a man's salary, security and working conditions improved to the point where he could think about settling down to raise a family and maybe even owning a home.

It all seemed like the American dream working itself out as the philosophers of 20th Century ideas had envisioned it. America was, after all, the land of the free. But the fact was freedom under those conditions was not attainable. An employer owned your job and therefore he owned a major part of your life. It was a false sense of security which seemed better than the desperate insecurity that had beleaguered the early 20th Century.

The 60's came and things began to unravel. Employers started replacing workers and workers started changing jobs. The work place was no longer the arena of freedom. Also, along came the skyrocketing cost of things like health care which meant that the simple job a man had was no long capable of taking care of the family he had begun. The husband's salary was not enough so the wife had to go to work also meaning that holding the family together became an improvised affair. As the expenses and responsibilities piled up something was slowly disappearing from the mental environment. It was the sense of freedom. We were tied down to jobs, debts, family obligations and physical limitations.

We go looking for things to give us a ssense of freedom. Vacations are a usual choice. Depending on a man's income he could take the family skiing in the Alps, or to a cottege on the beach or he could sit around in the living room, spending time with the kids, watching TV, resting and playing games. But wherever he went the vacation ended and he went back to the servitude of the job he never left.

He could be inventive, enterprising and manipulative, and rise in the ranks of wage earners, but whatever his specialty, profession or career he was still tethered to it.

Then comes retirement when he thinks at last he'll be free. But what he finds is a whole new set of responsibilities and a life of commitments, because he is used to it.
At some point, after all the slavery he's been through or put himself through he may realize that freedom is something that exists only in his thoughts. He's paid a heavy price for that realization, but at last he can begin to do the amazing thing of taking possession of himself. He's had the right all along to claim ownership. It doesn't matter who he works for or what he does, how big his family is or where he lives, who his friends and neighbors are or how much money he has. None of those things define him. He is a single entity, a unique idea in the vast universe of existence with total authority for being there. It took a long time, many struggles and a hefty price to find out that he has always been free.

DB
Vagabond Journeys
*********************

WEEKEND PUZZLE
*******************
A'S UBAW' MB IXCWUO SG ZCG BR NAKAW'
AR MXCM CAWM OWBYUX
MXOW A'NN IXCWUO MXO ZCG
MXCM A DMVYM SG DMYRR.
'ICTDO WPFPLG ZCWMD GPY
ZXOW GPY'VO BNL CWL UVCG
MXOVO'NN FO DBSO IXCWUOD SCLO MBLCG.

Good luck
DB

*****************

Follow The Music

Art occurs at the point where a form is sincerely honored by awakened spirit.

Lawrence Durrell
***********************
Years ago I did a South African play. It was a true story about a young white doctor who had been arrested for political reasons, tortured and eventually executed. I was told he was the only white man to be executed by the South African government. I played the boy's father. He was a farmer/rancher who had moved from Kenya to South Africa.

The producer of the play had acquired a brief film of the real parents at their son's funeral. Thousand s of people of all races had shown up for the funeral and the parents were amazed. In the film clip they stand there for a few moments, then turn and walk away. The director wanted the actress and I to stand in front of the film and move when the two parents did, tricky business because we couldn't see the film.

Besides the producer, director and assistant director there were a number of African actors in the show. To my knowledge I had never worked with Africans before. They were impressive. I was particularly struck by the fact that the while Africans considered themselves Africans and not anything else. They were not transplanted Englishmen. Other than a shared language and empire they had no connection with Britain or The Netherlands or the culture of any other European nation. They were born and brought up in Africa. They were Africans, first and last.

I was also impressed by the music. It's very distinctive. African music is not Western Rock, it's folk music is not like American folk music. It has a very individual and unmistakable sound. Once you know African music you will immediately recognize it as such. Africans love their music.

Pondering the problem of how to find the cue for the movement away from the film we sat and watched it over again a few times. During the scene in which the film clip occurred there was no dialogue but there was a recording of a sad folk song sung by a group in a native language. After a few times through viewing the film I realized the song ran concurrently with the visual. It was exactly the same every time. Once more and I caught the exact phrase in the song where the movement came and said "I can take it from the music." "No. You can't do that" the director said. "It's too repetitive." "Let me try" I said. So the actress and I stood up while they ran the film and at the precise moment in the song I turned and we walked off just as the two peopl on the film did. The director was impressed.

DB - The Vagabond
*************************

WEEKEND PUZZLE
*******************
A'S UBAW' MB IXCWUO SG ZCG BR NAKAW'
AR MXCM CAWM OWBYUX
MXOW A'NN IXCWUO MXO ZCG
MXCM A DMVYM SG DMYRR.
'ICTDO WPFPLG ZCWMD GPY
ZXOW GPY'VO BNL CWL UVCG
MXOVO'NN FO DBSO IXCWUOD SCLO MBLCG.

Good luck
DB

*****************
Reprinted from May 13, 2010
In old age we are like a batch of letters someone has sent. We are no longer in the past, we have arrived.

Knut Hamsun
*******************
I'm a mad man. No, there's no doubt about it, I'm completely cracked; stark, shivering crazy. I've lost it.

Shakespeare calls old age "second chilishness." It is a theory that all babies are born insane and gradually grow into sanity and wisdom as they mature. I don't remember much about my babyhood but I'm of the opinion that it might be the other way around. I think it's possible that all babies are born completely sane and knowing everything which they can't articulate except to other babies and that they gradually grow to lose it in the carriages and play pens of the world. Imagine how frustrating it must be for a baby not being able to tell anyone what you know. It's enough to make you wet yur diaper and wake up in the middle of the night crying for no apparent reason.

Not having lived a normal life has taught me that there is no such thing. Being a wanderer has taught me that the only place anyone really lives is in his own head. And being an artist has taught me to gracefully let go of the ball and chain which is generally known to the world at large as common sense.

But being mad is a good healthy way to be as far as I can determine. I do illogical things. If I am on my way to the market I stop and feel the leaves of a tree or a bush. If I pass the kitchen sink I squeeze a little soap into the sponge and wash three dishes instead of the whole sink full. If anyone lived with me they would become exasperated at my behavior or else go mad themselves.

I say things no one understands. I know that, because every time I make a statement of pure, simplified wisdom it's met with a blank, uncomprehending stare. There's a small tree in front of the house. When I refer to it as "yonder wood" no one cares to know why.

When I find conservative nonsense and liberal grunting humorous people don't get it. But when I become fascinated by some obscure news item that doesn't make the papers or the TV news every day they just think I'm off the beaten path of life. Well, I am. I'm the crazy old loon who lives by himself in the attic, harmless in his madness. He listens to Wagner operas and reads philosophy. He's a total fruitcake.

The letters have been sent and read and the attempt to summarize the contents has taught me that there are no summations (which it also says in my Profile).

So what's left for an old crackpot to do? To what have I arrived? A certain benign orneriness, acceptance and refusal, an abiding sense of humor, willingness to face the fog and walk into it. I can now change my own diapers, if I wake up in the middle of the night the only thing I want to know is what time it is. I accept the fact that I will never have all the things in my playpen that I want. I refuse to get angry at any one but myself. I refuse to do today what I can put off to tomorrow. I don't follow the Phillies. I refuse to accept everything any authority tells me. I will think for myself and not worry about it if the thoughts come from the mind of a lunatic.

I refuse to be afraid of death. If you go to England you can visit the grave of Charles Dickens, but Dickens isn't there, he's still alive. If I could live my life all over again I would change almost everything. But would I then have something to summarize? I doubt it.

Being an actor has taught me that the world is a stage and the roles keep changing, but they are all masquerades. So I will set Sir Percival spinning, wash my hands and face in the words of some other old maniac's sink, play in my pen and enjoy, as much as possible, the role in which I have somehow cast myself.

DB - The Vagabond