About Two Islands of Malta (3)

Image from
“Black Mountain – Part 3”

More Hiking…
before Our Problem Escaping

By James T. Carney
Photos by
Detmar Straub

We resumed our hiking the third day, over a field in whose stone we could see ruts that some believe to have been worn by prehistoric carts.

About Two Islands of Malta (1)

Image from
“Black Mountain – Part 3”

Getting to Malta

By James T. Carney
Photos by 

Detmar Straub

Malta – or rather the Maltese islands of Malta, Gozo, and Comino – lie in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea about half way between Sicily and Tunisia. It has been held by Phoenicians and Carthaginians, Romans, Greeks, Arabs, Normans, Aragonese, Knights of St. John, French, and British, among others, given its strategic importance in what the Romans called mare nostrum (our sea) and its excellent harbors.

Acting Citizen: Some Challenges of Acting Guys and Dolls

By James Knudsen

Last month’s column ended with a cliff-hanger of sorts – would the show go on? To recap, a production of “Guys and Dolls,” which I am working on, was originally scheduled to open on January 13, 2022, but due to the ongoing pandemic, and positive cases among the cast, opening was postponed until January 22. Have things gone on without incident?

At Random: Tonga and the Gaia Hypothesis

By Paul Clark
(aka motomynd)

Listening to a BBC radio newscast about Tonga this morning, it occurred to me that maybe there is something to the Gaia Hypothesis after all, and its forces might be in play.
    While the rest of the world has been plagued by the pandemic for more than two years, Tonga has so far had only one Covid case. Isolation obviously has its advantages. Tonga’s luck ran out on another front, however. A massive volcanic eruption [“2022 Hunga Tonga eruption and tsunami”], described as a blast larger than an atomic bomb, spawned a tsunami that created great destruction. The extent of the damage is not yet fully known because of a damaged undersea cable, but relief efforts were launched.

Acting Citizen: Will the show go on?

By James Knudsen

The other day, a student, sighing, said, “Two years. This pandemic’s been goin’ for two years.” Many people still cling to the idea – some actually promote or create ideas, meme, tropes, fairy-tales, op-eds, “news” – that the pandemic isn’t real. I’ve never suffered from any delusion, illusion, malocclusion (actually I might have that one): I have known it was real ever since March of 2020, when Andra and I stocked up on liquor hours before California went on lockdown. And recently I observed irrefutable proof that COVID-19 is real. Like so many things, this came to me via the theatre.

Correspondence: Sacrosanct ideas

And other questionable things

Edited by Moristotle

[Items of correspondence are not attributed; they remain anonymous. They have been chosen for their inherent interest as journalism, story, or provocative opinion, which may or may not be shared by the editor or other members of the staff of Moristotle & Co.]

You must read this – the obituary “John Shelby Spong, 90, Dies; Sought to Open Up the Episcopal Church” [NYT, September 19]. It says that “Spong called on Christians to reject sacrosanct ideas like Jesus’ virgin birth and the existence of heaven and hell.” Excerpts:

Through more than 25 books, as well as…Bishop Spong urged his church to reconcile with modernity, even if that meant setting aside supernatural ideas like Jesus’ resurrection….
    Bishop Spong became a national celebrity in the mid-1980s, when he began calling on the church to reconsider its position on gay rights. He urged his colleagues not only to accept openly gay clergy, but also to welcome openly gay and lesbian worshipers into their congregations and to bless same-sex unions....
    ...He taught that the Gospels should be considered artistic interpretations of Jesus’ life, not literal accounts of it, and he called on Christians to reject ideas, like original sin, that could not be explained by science....
    As a white progressive minister in the South during the civil rights era, he often found himself at odds with his community, especially when he insisted on preaching to Black congregations. He and his family faced regular threats and harassment, and he later claimed that the Ku Klux Klan of eastern North Carolina had labeled him their No. 1 enemy.

Well, if you ask me (and you didn’t), here are my two cents on the President’s speech last night [September 9]: 

    It was a hell of a good speech and about time. The funny thing is, right after the speech came the World News on ABC. David Muir covered the speech but added his own interpretation. He kept saying that Biden ordered most of this and most of that. 

    Biden never used the word “most.” He said flat out that if you wanted to work for the government you will get a shot or you will not work for the government. That includes anyone that gets money from Medicare; like hospitals and nursing homes.
    I don’t know how you feel about it, but the virus has cost me a year of life and now these [people, expletive deleted] that will not take a shot are costing me another. We have very few years to lose, and these two we’ll never get back. The schools in Desoto Co. [Mississippi] are opened back up for the 3rd time, still no mask mandate, so it will not be long till they close again. Stupidest [expletive deleted] people in this world.

Until now I hoped I was the only person with a Trumpist neighbor actually crazy enough to threaten to kill someone because they supported Biden. But I’m not: “Texas Man Arrested After Allegedly Killing Woman, Shooting Her Husband Because They Voted for Biden” [Ally Mauch, People Magazine, September 13]. Excerpt:

On Sept. 8, the El Paso Police Department SWAT team and detectives arrested Joseph Angel Alvarez — nearly a year after Georgette Kauffmann was killed and her husband Daniel Kaufmann’s was shot, police said in a press release issued last week. Alvarez, 38, is currently incarcerated at a county detention facility after his bail was set at $2 million for the murder of Georgette and $500,000 for the aggravated assault of Daniel.
    The couple was attacked in their El Paso home on Nov. 14 last year, one week after Biden was declared the winner over incumbent President Donald Trump in the 2020 presidential election.

This salute was posted on Nextdoor, a local site for lost animals and the like:

HATS OFF TO OFFICER BENNY. High speed chase this morning and he threw spike stripes out. Very Dangerous but to see officers in action is emotional for me. They try very hard and so many get a bad rap. I just want to thank all of our Southaven Police Officers!

The saluter forgot to add that the car ran into a pole after its tires blew: “Man charged after fleeing from officers with 6-year-old daughter in car, deputies say” [Newsbreak, September 15]. Thankfully no one was hurt. Excerpt:

Tuesday around 8:30 a.m., DeSoto County Sheriff’s Deputies said they attempted to stop a white Infiniti SUV on Church Road near Highway 51 in Southaven, Miss., for a traffic violation. The driver refused to stop and continued east on Church Road to Getwell. DCSD said the vehicle was known to flee from law enforcement and had done so several times recently.
    Southaven Police Officers put down stop sticks and blocked traffic to help keep the public safe. [They] used a tactical vehicle intervention to stop the SUV...the suspect’s vehicle caught fire...[They] rescued the suspect’s six-year-old daughter, who was in the vehicle during the pursuit.

Stupid people are everywhere apparently, not just where I live. Amazing that more people aren’t killed when idiots try to drive away from the police and ignite high-speed chases.
    With all the trackers and electronics on vehicles that show how it was being driven over a period of days, where it has been, etc, why isn’t there a remote, computer controlled kill switch? That way police could make a phone call, enter a code, and ZAP! the vehicle would be shut down. No heroics necessary, no innocent victims injured or killed.

Public health measures
to prevent the spread
of COVID-19 have
decreased RSV activity

Just when you think you can go back into the swimming pool, a turd floats pass: “A Deadly Virus Is Spiking In Mississippi, And It’s Not Covid” [Matt Lillywhite, Newsbreak, September 18]. Excerpt:

The CDC has issued a serious warning about a virus in Mississippi with similar symptoms to COVID-19. It’s known as the Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV), and luckily, hospitals in Mississippi are well-prepared to fight it.
    RSV, like Covid-19, is primarily spread by respiratory droplets caused by coughing or sneezing and direct contact with a contaminated surface. It’s also the leading cause of bronchiolitis and pneumonia in children under the age of one in Mississippi and several other states.
    RSV infections are most frequent in the United States during the autumn and winter. However, due to the deployment of public health measures to prevent the spread of COVID-19, RSV activity decreased substantially in 2020.

Grateful for correspondence, Moristotle

Goines On: Mask down!

Click image for more vignettes

Goines came home from shopping in a giddy mood. He had carelessly splashed gasoline on his pants because he pulled the nozzle out before clicking it off. How stupid or inattentive can a man be who has put gasoline into a car – what, a million times?
    But, he told his wife, though neither Walmart nor Walgreens had had the throat lozenges she required for her dry throat, he had been told at Walgreens that they were still requiring masks even though the governor was going along with the president and the CDC about vaccinated people no longer being advised to wear masks.

From “The Scratching Post”: Interview with a gadfly

By Ken Marks

[Originally posted on The Scratching Post, May 13, 2021. Republished here by permission of the author.]

It’s been a long time since this blog hosted an exclusive interview. The Covid pandemic probably has had a lot to do with that, as it has a knack for shutting things down. But now interviews are back, and coincidentally enough, the topic of this one is the Covid pandemic. The interviewee is a highly placed official in the CDC who insists on concealing his identity. He acceptance letter was signed “M. A. Gadfly,” a whimsical pseudonym.

Covid: Horrific Random Killer, or Focused Societal Upgrade?

By Paul Clark
(aka motomynd)

Killing more than 550,000 people in the U.S., Covid-19 has been a national disaster. Lost in that huge number are individual stories of immense personal tragedy, along with some wry moments that almost make Covid-19 seem like a thinking killer with a dark sense of humor.
    Donald Trump mocked Covid in general, and people who wore masks in particular; UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson did the same. Covid struck both, not hard enough to kill them, but hard enough to destroy Trump’s first term as president and any chance he had at a second; Johnson’s experience with Covid seemed to affect him enough to make him sound almost civil for the first time in his political career. In between were the countless examples of preachers and churchgoers – mostly across the South – who confidently stated “God is greater than Covid-19” and refused to wear a mask or take social-distancing precautions – and wound up dead from Covid. Tragedy, tinged with irony.

Penny for Her Thoughts: Where, Oh Where?Part 3 [Final]

Kim & Tom

From There to Here

By Penelope Griffiths

Fast-forward five more years, when, with two kids in tow, I made my escape.
    Divorce is never pretty, but I just wanted out. My lawyer told me that if I left the marital home, I’d lose everything, but all I could think of was, if I didn’t leave, I’d be miserable and probably do something I’d regret – possibly with a heavy, blunt instrument. So, I left, but only after I’d made arrangements for my mother, who was living with us, to get an assisted-living house, and an agreement from my soon-to-be-ex-husband for me to have some of the furniture, along with our dog, Cindy.

Penny for Her Thoughts: Where, Oh Where? Part 1 [of 3]

To an Alternative Reality?

By Penelope Griffiths

I’ve only lived in the USA for three years, but I visited this country multiple times after the 1980s. The shortest visit was just for five days but most of my visits were for from three weeks to the full permitted twelve weeks.
    I’ve travelled east to west, north to south, taking in the sights and sounds from city to mountain to rural and back again. From the beginning, as much as I love the US, I have always felt the undercurrent of racism and homophobia in varying degrees, wherever I went.

All Over the Place: I Just Want to See How the Drunks on Ash Street Are Doing

By Michael H. Brownstein

When my county became a red zone in the wake of the pandemic, I already knew the answer. Of course, this is my personal opinion. I live in the entertainment zone of my town. This means bars and restaurants with bars. It does not mean theater or dance or creativity. It simply means places for people to drink and get drunk. One of the managers of one of the businesses came down with Covid-19. He was driven to the hospital by another employee – neither wore a mask. He stayed home a couple of days and then he began going outside. He even entered the bar where he works. Even now he does not look that healthy.

From “The Scratching Post”: 2020: Story of the year

By Ken Marks

[Originally posted on The Scratching Post, December 22. Republished here by permission of the author.]

This year has been a tale of two climaxes: one in the virulence of the Covid virus, the other in the seditious antics of Donald J. Trump. Both have been ruinous — Covid to physical wellbeing, Trump to national wellbeing. The two are, of course, intertwined. Trump’s blustery and idiotic style of governing is music to the ears of his minions, who are charmed by bluster and idiocy. Their gullibility gave the virus its greatest impetus as they became its most pitiful victims.

Penny for Her Thoughts: Life with Hair

By Penelope Griffiths

So let me start by saying I am not a vain woman! However, I do have standards, but the last seven months have taught me that they’re not that high!
    I have had many hairstyles and hair lengths through my life. As a child my mother would cut my hair “bowl” shape. From small child to teen, I was mid brown colour but going blondish through the summer. At several points through my early days my mother would perm my hair; I had an “afro” before they became fashionable!

Who identifies with fake stories, fake lives?

By Paul Clark (aka motomynd)

[Publisher’s Note: Paul Clark’s reflections below were prompted by a conversation that developed after he remarked, “This virus has a wicked sense of humor – the preacher who proclaimed ‘God is greater than Covid-19,’ only to be killed within 30 days by Covid-19, and the ‘virus doubters’ who have been afflicted, like Boris Johnson and Trump. This virus is like that serial killer character you admire, not just killing to kill, but to have impact, to express wit – who was that character, the man who walked safely among hogs instead of being eaten by them?”

Goines On: Stand by for Halloween

Click image for more vignettes

Goines’ went to sleep Thursday night with some lines of limerick about the end of Trump bouncing around in his head. Once or twice, while peeing, he toyed with the wording, but nothing was clicking.
    He was heartened, then, upon arising on Friday, when Mrs. Goines rushed back into the bedroom with her iPhone raised. “Look at this! Trump has contracted Covid-19!”
    Goines’ first thought was that he could comment on Moristotle’s “Four Years Ago Today” column – another malady:

Penny for Her Thoughts: Lock down...Day 123....

By Penelope Griffiths

The struggle is real. My whole body aches with longing to get out of this pandemic prison I’m locked in…Who am I kidding? – it’s a blast!
    So, the coronavirus continues to spread and devastate everywhere. Wear a mask, don’t wear a mask, stay three feet away – no, stay six feet away! Don’t socialize or, if you do, be responsible. Think of others, don’t be selfish – this and even more advice is given, but many people are ignoring it.

Goines On: Pushing up

Click image for more vignettes

One morning, Goines had a pronounced feeling that death was drawing close. He felt this so strongly that on his walk that morning he did 60 pushups at one go when he reached the electrical box off which he routinely did them.
    He may have felt death’s closer approach even the day before, because he had told Mrs. Goines about managing 50 pushups that morning and felt he might be ready to go for 60. He believed he had actually done 51 on a recent walk, the most he had ever done at one go. And even as a vigorous younger man, he had never, so far as he could remember, done more than 30 at one go. But now, this year, he had often done 40 at one go and sometimes done two or three sets, a couple of times doing more than 100 in a day.

Memes to minds as viruses to bodies

By Sharon Stoner

meme noun
1: an idea, behavior, style, or usage that spreads from person to person within a culture

Memes (discrete units of knowledge, gossip, jokes and so on) are to culture what genes are to life. Just as biological evolution is driven by the survival of the fittest genes in the gene pool, cultural evolution may be driven by the most successful memes.

—Richard Dawkins

—Merriam-Webster Dictionary

Some believe in Trump so badly they can’t comprehend the mistake they made in voting for him. They literally soak up his pronouncements into the sponges of their minds, devouring any memes that seem to justify their support for him and whatever else he wants them to believe.

Fiction: The Virus

By Ed Rogers

Most people think the virus started in the city of Wuhan, China, sometime around December of 2019. Scientists from around the world have scrambled to find the origin of the virus. Most have settled on the stalls of live wild animals being sold in the open market within the city. However, they still haven’t explained how two different viruses mated within these animals to come up with a wholly never-before-seen virus.