[Anonymous selections from recent correspondence]
A real-fish fish. Hey, with reference to James Knudsen's most recent "Loneliest Liberal" column—about his August 1975 trip to the Sierra Nevadas with his father and another father and son that involved fishing—we found that other fish photo referred to in some of the comments:
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However, I'm not sure how you should caption it:
"It takes a lot of fish to cover Jim's rod"?
"It doesn't take very big fish"?
"I could have sworn he was wearing boots"?
We don't quite follow how killing a few hundred of something that is already endangered somehow helps the situation, but that is what the government plans to do with up to 1,400 desert tortoises.
If you ever wanted to actually take an action, any action, instead of just thinking about it, this is a good place to start. Call someone. Write someone. Hell, threaten someone. "Logic" like this from ineffectual bureaucrats makes us wonder if the mentally and physically exhausted and injured U.S. military personnel eager to finally come home from Iraq and Afghanistan would be safer staying where they are.
It's ironic that the sheriff was so rough in his comments about dog fighters. Back when we were busting some fighting rings, the backwoods sheriffs and their deputies were usually involved in putting on the fights and protecting the people who attended from outsiders, like us. It was good to see that the ASPCA was apparently actually involved on the front lines in last week's raids—for a change. All they usually do is show up and take credit after everyone else does the dirty work. Times do change...sometimes for the better.
In the meantime, the article about what's happening in Goma can serve as a reminder—when people get all worked up about the UN doing nothing when 100K are killed in Iraq or Syria—that the UN also did nothing when 800K were killed in Rwanda, and did nothing when 5,000K (five million) were killed in Congo.
The Washington Post's Mensa Invitational once again invited readers to take any word from the dictionary, alter it by adding, subtracting, or changing one letter, and supply a new definition. My favorite from among the winners:
Reintarnation: Coming back to life as a hillbilly.
Another sign that makes you wonder:
Limerick of the Week:
You may like the last, the forthright cannot-fix-it sign,
but the fishy-chip one is the favored one of mine.
If you like neither,
or need a breather,
there are some more for you to see beneath this line:
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Copyright © 2013 by Morris Dean
| Please comment |
Re: that last photo... I thought it was a vertical smile.
ReplyDeleteAfter the first two photos of your "fish themed" Fish it was a relief to see a tortoise in your third photo.
ReplyDeleteThe fish didn't start out seriously today, did they?...Or end seriously...except for some of our comments....
DeleteI regretted having no Moral Monday snippets to choose from, but I see this morning in an article in Wednesday's Indy Week about Hillsborough writer Alan Gurganus that he has "been to Moral Mondays and carried ridiculous signs and tried to be a clown and tried to get somebody's attention if only to preach to the choir." And he quotes "a great line from Lenny Bruce: 'A liberal is somebody who can understand anybody but the ones who can't understand the liberals.'"
ReplyDeleteAnd: "We have to imagine the religious cultural personalities who are...outlawing abortion and limiting voting rights, and try to imagine what it is that they think they can achieve....
"As much as I admire Rev. Barber, I just wish Jesus and God could be dropped out one week because I think Jesus and God is what got us in this trouble in the first place with the far Right...."
More about Allan (two ells) Gurganus, who is, as I understand it, generally regarded as one of the South's currently foremost fiction writers. The article mentioned above ("Hillsborough novelist Allan Gurganus on Moral Mondays and Local Souls, his first book in more than a decade") is mostly about the forthcoming publication of Gurganus's collection of three novellas, Local Souls.
DeleteI didn't know this before, but, according to the article:
"...Gurganus's first major publication was a story called 'Minor Heroism' in a 1974 issue of The New Yorker [when he was 27]. He didn't send them the story—[John] Cheever did, on the sly." [Gurganus was "one of John Cheever's prize students at the Iowa Writers Workshop."]
The article ends with a statement by Gurganus extolling fiction about everyday lives. I'd like to share it with Moristotle & Co.'s readers, especially now that we have three days devoted to fiction (third Saturdays, and fifth Saturdays and Mondays—including this month's fifth Saturday, tomorrow).
Anyway, here's what Gurganus has to say:
"If you can break through the codes of the middle class, and get the passwords, and get inside how people live their lives every day, you find that it's as dramatic as the people who are climbing Everest or going in bathyspheres three miles down into the ocean.
"Sometimes, to me, waiting in line to pick your kids up from school can be as awesome and inspiring or exhausting as anything else in the world. That's sort of where I've pitched my tent. And it's a nearly inexhaustible source of fascination."
Since you mentioned Moral Mondays: How about asking someone from that group to write a Moristotle post article explaining what that was all about? While many of us applaud their willingness to carry "ridiculous signs" as writer Alan Gurganus put it, we would like to know if there was ever a plan to actually accomplish something? Was this protest with a purpose, or just performance art?
ReplyDeleteChanging topics: in the Southeast that second Fish photo would inevitably be accompanied by a soundtrack of guys playing banjos, is there a West Coast equivalent?
I hope that Jim or James will enlighten us as to appropriate soundtrack.
DeleteBy the way, LOOK FORWARD to the next "Second Monday Music" column, which will feature Jim's article on Rock 'n Roll. Note the initial capitals.
Paul, I know a very articulate person who might be willing to write up an explanation or "defense" of Moral Monday protests, and I am about to send a query about their writing it, even in time for Tuesday, if possible (for the "Tuesday Voice" column).
DeletePersonally, I don't look on Moral Monday so critically as you do. I think the protests have at least the value of demonstrating widespread discontent with the current North Carolina State government, which calls the current administration into "moral account" at least and challenges them to try to defend themselves, which, in the case of the Governor's dismissing Madison Kimrey's request to talk as "ridiculous," has rather diminished what little image he had to begin with. It is GOOD to provide opportunities for the "emperor" to demonstrate that he has no clothes, don't you think?
I mean, imagine if the protesters had sat on their hands rather than going over to Raleigh (and other cities now) every Monday to demonstrate their opposition. The silence would seem to have spoken acceptance or even assent of the atrocities going on over there in Raleigh.
I may be wrong, but I think that you yourself have argued that very value on behalf of 60's protests against Vietnam, for example. Argued it against Brother Ed, if I'm not remembering wrong.
Morris, the '60s protests were a bit before my teenage years and subsequent activism, but as I recall those protests were designed to pressure the U.S. government to get out of the military atrocity business in general, and out of Vietnam in particular. There were many different groups involved, but they had a clear goal and managed to combine efforts to achieve it.
DeleteAs far as I know, the Moral Monday protests have been orchestrated by one group, yet despite trying to follow their efforts I still am not sure what their goal was or if they had any plan for actually achieving it. And I can say that is the opinion of 80-90% of the people I have talked with when they come into our shop or when the topic comes up at social events.
Normally I would agree with you that it is good to at least try to do something. However, if the effort is poorly planned and ineffective, and leads those in power to think they can just ignore those in disagreement, then maybe it is better for the inept protesters to stay home and sit on their hands.
Your earlier mention of the topic referred to "preaching to the choir" and I fear that the average North Carolina voter sees this as "liberal" activists patting each other on the back and ineffectively attempting to force their agenda, after their candidates lost. Which means the protests may not only be encouraging the current governor and his henchmen, but may be setting up a voter backlash against liberal candidates in the next election.
Paul, what you say may actually be true, but I did want to at least try to sketch a possible defense, if only to assure the person I asked to write an article about Moral Monday that we weren't all, here at Moristotle & Co., just lying in wait to gang up after we publish the article....
DeleteA good tack to take, should we be so lucky as to receive such an article, might be to try to think constructively with its author to come up with a set of concrete objectives and a plan for reaching them?
Morris, yes, I am all for CONSTRUCTIVE measures and CONCRETE objectives. As you know, I am not a fan of wasted time or effort, and hopefully anyone who has read any of my comments the past year or so knows I am no fan of duplicitous conservatives - so I am not looking for a reason to undermine those who claim to be liberals. That said, I am unwilling to make excuses for incompetence or dishonesty on either side of the aisle, and so far this year that is about all I have seen - from the national capitol to our state capitol.
DeleteA few funnies along with my coffee. That picture of James on his fishing trip, was disturbing however. I would have thought he would have been in much better shape.
ReplyDeleteSpeaking of turtles. Not long ago, we had an activist shot and killed on the way to the area where his group was protecting Leather-backs. Turtle eggs fetch a pretty penny on the open market along with shark fins and gator meat.
Ed, the picture you refer to is of JIM, not of JAMES.
Deletekono, was that the incident in which four female volunteers, three of them from the U.S. and one from Spain, were kidnapped at gunpoint? Last I knew there was a sizable reward offered for information about the killing, but government officials in Costa Rica had made minimal effort to find the killers: Any updates?
DeleteThey have added more police to the area, but that is about all they can do. The locals aren't going to turn in their family or friends. Where the turtles lay their eggs is also a drug running area. So the police are not sure how the killing is related. Drugs or eggs, the guy is still dead.
Deletekono, times must have changed in Costa Rica. I can remember a day when the government would have squelched a situation like this long before it had a chance to blow up, because they were so concerned about building tourism and attracting more ex-pat Americans. It is interesting that the killers were savvy enough not to kill the Americans or the Spaniard. Sounds like they knew what kind of hole they would be digging.
DeleteSorry James, it looked like the picture belonged with your fishing story. The face is hidden in shadow also. But one must wonder what kind of a trip that was were they are taking nude photos of each other in the woods(laughing)
ReplyDeleteEd, I suggest that you go back and check out James's column again. It has a couple of photos of James as a boy, along with Jim's son (Leland), who is approximately the same age as James. One of the two photos shows all four on the trip, including James's father, Morris (who was a teacher of Jim and me in high school), and Leland's father, Jim....
DeleteMy, we have managed to really confuse you, haven't we!
Someone once said, if you find yourself in a hole, it maybe time to stop digging.
DeleteA new caption for the fish:
ReplyDelete"Now THAT's a codpiece!)
You been hitting that Boone's Farm again, haven't you, Chuck
ReplyDeleteToo expensive. Red Mountain Burgandy is where it's at.
Delete