Nobody 859

Sunday, March 27, 2011

Nobody # 859

Nobody Asked Me But:

That Was The Week That Was – As always, each of these short verses is based on a news event that happened during the past week.

America joined in the fight last week

It’s a matter of national pride

By the rockets red glare

Let tyrants beware

Especially if they’re not on our side

The Pres says we fight for humanity

Whatever he tells us we’ll buy

But here is the deal

He must make it real

And not just another Bush-lie

Obama’s critics in Congress

Say he’s acted too slow or too fast

Before all this fuss

He should have asked us

Though our responses are always half-assed

Was Barack’s decision the right one

Many in Congress say nope

But this headline shouts out

That’s he’s right there’s no doubt

“Libyans trade fear for hope”

From India to Israel with Palin

This journey could settle her fate

Should Hillary quit

Would she be a fit

Will Barack make Sarah Sec. State

Trump will again screw Gaddafi

He’ll treat him like someone he’s hired

If The Donald’s elected

Says he can be expected

To tell Muammar, “Man you are fired”

Tiger’s new girlfriend is a blonde 22

Let’s hope she has someone to warn her

Despite all the fun

His real number one

Is the club to get round Amen Corner

Virgil Peck wants to shoot all illegals

In Kansas let’s take out a gun

Says in his state

Boring can grate

So that’s how we’ll have us some fun

They are planning a Dick Cheney series

It seems they will name it Dark Side

But if pleased he’s not

Here comes the buckshot

They’d better have someplace to hide

They’re cracking down hard on the players

But coaches don’t have the same fate

They must commit vice

While standing on ice

Because almost all of them skate

Oh magic mirror on the wall

Of all who was the fairest one

Elizabeth it was by far

Taylor made to be a star

For beauty, peers she had none

Even as a child co-staring with a dog

Liz Taylor was totally nifty

$100 a week per

Was given to her

But Lassie was paid $250

The majority still puts down health law

For the Demos this cuts to the quick

So Obama beware

Don’t show that you care

Some people are better off sick

Jen Zuniga was caught on the video

Urging her son on to fight

Smash him, she cried

Where is your pride

If you win I’ll cook dinner tonight

It was 100-years ago today (March 25)

At the shirtwaist fire trap

Where very many women died

And afterwards pro-business cried

New regs will wipe us right off the map

The Arizona Senate just passed a new law

No college group must accept others

So I’ll eat lunch

With my neo-Nazi bunch

But we don’t want any gays, Jews or brothers

Barry Bonds was using steroids, please

You all my illusions wreck

I thought it chance

A genetic dance

That Barry has almost no neck

He had few peers as a basketball coach

Yet much good was offset by his sins

But Bobby Knight

Sure got this one right

Dumb looses more games than smart wins

There once was a land marked for greatness

Where human rights was the goal

But some very sad day

Along the way

Israel lost its soul

Get it right! In one of the LA Times tributes to Elizabeth Taylor the author writing about “A Place In The Sun,” said that in the film, Montgomery Clift drowned his pregnant mistress, Shelly Winters, so he could marry Taylor. That didn’t happen. Clift took Winters out in a row boat with that intention only to have her panic and fall overboard.

he was wrongly convicted of murder and in a moving scene just prior to his execution, he asks a priest if he was guilty. The priest answered, (wrongly) “If you had murder in your heart son, then you are guilty.” I saw APITS as a teen and was moved and disturbed by that scene.

BOOK REVIEW: The Tiger’s Wife by Tea Obreht - When I read that this book moved between current reality and something between fable and mystic realism, I assumed I would like the reality parts best. It turned out to be just the opposite. The stories, the tiger’s wife and the deathless man were both fascinating and moving while the current reality parts, about a post civil war Balkan country moved rather slowly. However, ignore the latter. The two stories are unforgettable.

Barbara and I were watching a PBS special on the Weavers and I heard a song that I had long forgotten. Here is the chorus, which, I suspect, was written with me in mind:

How do I know my youth is all spent?

My get up and go has got up and went

In spite of it all, I’m able to grin

When I think of all the places my get up has been

Nobody 858

Sunday, March 20, 2011
Nobody # 858

Nobody Asked Me But:

That Was The Week That Was – As always, each of these short verses is based on a news event that happened during the past week.

Things in Japan are so awful
I can’t even rhyme them in fun
But soon comes a day
When again they will say
We’re the Land of the Rising Sun

Glen’s not saying God caused it
In his recent story so hot
Beck won’t go that far
It might tarnish his star
But he also won’t say God did not

Chu says that our nuc power is safer
He knows that it can’t happen here
If we just chant om
Means no China Syndrome
So it’s time to meltdown our fear

I sit here alone and am frowning
As I ponder from bracket to bracket
I don’t know too much
About Morehead and such
But I must see how well I can hack it

Poor Buffalos not tourney bound
Their fate really seems unfair
At their record a glance
Shows their right to dance
But the NCAA selectors don’t care

Romar and Roy are recruiters
Save for Cal they haven’t a peer
But when game time rolls round
Their decisions aren’t sound
So most often it’s wait ‘til next year

When all the early rounds are over
You can hear the losers cry while winners soar
Buckeyes and Devils Blue
Boilermakers, Panthers too
These, my friends, will be the Final Four

64 was more than just a number
It helped March Madness climb up to the top
But adding four’s a mess
Just shows that more makes less
‘cause every game turned out to be a flop

Money’s real tight in states everywhere
Means large budget cuts for the olders
To confront senior’s plight
Pols step to the right
And offer them naught but cold shoulders

Gun limit talk in the desert
In a state still stained by its tears
The Pres tries to reason
Common sense has no season
His remarks all fell on deaf ears

It’s so hard to convince the gun toters
They listen to nothing that’s said
They seem to care not
That since Gabby was shot
2,000 more were shot dead

And did you know Monday was Pi day
But for those who find math out of reach
When you ask about pi
Their likely reply
I’ll have two slices of peach

Newt says the past is behind him
Yes, a ladies man he might have been
When he sees one now
He remembers his vow
And prays it won’t happen again

Then Newt took a shot at Obama’s escape
To basketball he’s giving attention
Says what I did when stressed
Helped a girl get undressed
Then we did things too indecent to mention

Hugo likes breasts that are natural
Chavez says no implants allowed
So what if they’re small
Doesn’t matter at all
Your own should make you real proud

The word from Arizona’s business bunch is
Immigrant bashing’s not funny
It’s gone on too long
It clearly is wrong
And besides it is costing us money

Charlie Sheen’s tour is drawing large crowds
Despite the nut who stars in it
Each sellout night
Proves Barnum’s right
There really is one born each minute

The Nazis rallied yesterday in Claremont
It’s said their words won’t hurt like stones and sticks
But since they’re spewing hate
Wouldn’t it be great
If our response was a ton of real bricks

According to nuclear science
If in radiation zone you get stuck
Don’t be a dork
Just pull the cork
On a life-saving bottle of two-buck Chuck

BOOK REVIEW

I’d Know You Anywhere by Laura Lippman - “Life isn’t a timed event. The clock’s not on you. Take your time.” If I am lucky, I can take an extra treasure from things I read, something I can use to make my life better. The above is such a treasure.

Here’s Lippman’s story: When Elizabeth was 15, she was kidnapped by Walter, a spree killer. Only, for some reason, Walter didn’t kill her. Now it is 22 years later, Elizabeth, Eliza now, is a happily married mother of two, and Walter is the longest-surviving prisoner on Virginia’s death row. His time is almost up when he manages to contact Eliza, (“I’d know you anywhere”) hoping to use her to avoid his execution.

This was one of those books that, while reading it, I was thinking, “I like this, but don’t love it.” Wrong. The ending was so right and so moving that it changed my perspective on the novel as a whole.

So, in conclusion:

I’ve always felt life’s clock IS running
With living-life’s speed at hell-bent
But as I near December
It helps to remember
Life isn’t a timed event

Nobody 857

Sunday, March 13, 2011

Nobody # 857

Nobody Asked Me But:

In all of its terrible wonder

Nature wreaked havoc last week

Huge quake hit Japan

Showed man’s puny plan

Like reactor had sprung a bad leak

That Was The Week That Was – As always, each of these short verses is based on a news event that happened during the past week.

Congress convened on the Muslims

As if all were a motley crew

If they’ve time for play

Why not check KKK

And the White Supremacists too

Pastor Rob Bell has written a tome

Where he takes a provocative look

At heaven and hell

And he hopes it will sell

Later this month on the Nook

At 60 degrees in the Quinniplac Poll

Michelle is the warmest this season

Nobody’s hot

Plenty are not

And Nancy Pelosi is freezin’

We’re democracy’s friend, said POTUS last week

We want folks to have their say

But we’ll not abort

Our dictator support

If their say doesn’t go our way

W B finally fired Charlie

Who claimed he was still in his prime

Most common folk

Thought the whole thing a joke

And a horrible waste of their time

Not the brightest nor bravest was this guy

Who thought house breaking was fun

But the owner most scary

Made the intruder so wary

It was the breaker who called 911

Micky-D’s catering weddings

In Hong Kong, believe it or not

After groom gets his kiss

Time for reception bliss

Where super-sized fries hits the spot

We don’t want hurt feelings, the PAC said

So for all-stars we’ll always pick ten

A basketball team

Has a 5-player scheme

But we never learned when to say when

Don’t blame us said the companies

Gas prices are driven by need

But the public cried liar

Put their feet in the fire

We think the reason is greed

The Tea Party’s all white, racist xenos

Some found Schiller’s words most uncouth

But let’s not be dense

In his defense

He can always plead telling the truth

Repubs are back on attack

Unions they say are a curse

Sometimes they’re right

But it’s not black and white

Not having them would be much worse

What next for Wisconsin’s Scott

Is it true that there is more to his scheme

To expand his urge

Force the Packers to purge

And kick union members right off their team

The NFL owners are adamant

At the union they cast dirty looks

The future may bust us

And you’ll have to trust us

Because we are not opening our books

Mass animal deaths are back

Is nature this far out of whack

On the beach dead sardines

What all of this means

There will be fewer in tin cans to pack

The Pres drags his fleet on “no fly”

Sometimes he can’t tell wrong from right

Wrong wears away

At one’s conscience each day

While right helps you sleep through the night

The heat’s on the Heat from Miami

Is this super team’s feet made of clay

They were hard to assemble

And they don’t resemble

The team thought to win going away

Mike Tyson on telly last week

Said, “Look, I’m the Michigan man”

Uh, that’s Michelin, Mike

I know they sound ‘like

But learning the difference you can

David Stern went after Van Gundy

For you who may think that was odd

This Comish discourse

Is par for the course

The man really thinks that he’s God

REVIEWS AND OTHER THOUGHTS

As we move solidly into March Madness, I look back on a season with its usual oddities. Perhaps the oddest of all was that in their early season loss to Notre Dame, the California Bears scored only 5 points in the first half.

As for the most boring game of the year so far, how about Penn State’s win over Wisconsin Friday by the score of 36-33?<<<

The Adjustment Bureau – Mat Damon has become one of my favorite – dare I say actors, rather than action stars? Yes, after his performance in True Grit, I dare. He delivers his usual excellent job in this odd combination of science fiction/love story. In the film, free will is pretty much an allusion. An Adjustment Bureau led by the man from upstairs, downstairs, somewhere, guides humans in the correct direction. For Damon, it is towards the Senate and then, eventually, the presidency. But Mat has other ideas. He wants the free choice to give it all up for love. Good story, good acting, profound choices. This is my kind of movie.

And finally, this movie tribute:

When I consider great small films

I often think of Fargo

I cannot deny

On my list it is high

But it’s still way behind to Key Largo

Nobody 856

Sunday, March 6, 2011
Nobody # 856

Nobody Asked Me But:

Read this and tell me there is justice in the world. I dare you! Barb and I were trying on clothes this past week with the intent of giving some away. One evening she tried on a vest that she had not worn in at least a dozen years, felt something in the pocket, investigated and pulled out $194. The next morning I also discovered money in the pocket of a sweat outfit - 45 cents.<<<

That Was The Week That Was – As always, each of these short verses is based on a news event that happened during the past week.

Some people might think it is rude
To be counseled by someone who’s nude
But for this psyche chick
Being naked’s her shtick
We hope that her license’s renewed

Medi-share is a Christian-based plan
Give you health care woes to the Lord
Just don’t get sick
Or they’ll drop you real quick ‘Cause compassion the Lord can’t afford

And speaking of God, will the world end real soon
Is May two-one really the day
If that is true I don’t know about you
I’m heading to Hawaii to play

The story’s not new, we’ve known it for years
But it still cuts conscience to quick
How some people died
Because our country lied
And deliberately made them all sick

The Duke of Flatbush out on strikes
“The Outlaw” girl’s gone away
Both earned great fame
Yet good was their game
Let’s give each our loudest hooray

I’m happy the king lost his stutter
To his problem I never was cold
So gladly I’ll hail
This monarch’s great tale
But he shouldn’t have taken the gold

Long live the King for coming in first
But happy is not now his look
He said I don’t care
But it’s really not fair
To be banned for my life from Face Book

A piece of advice for the Social Net bunch
Accept your loss and don’t panic
This Hollywood crew
Rarely knows what to do
They once gave BP to Titanic

Westboro creeps have freedom of speech
The Supreme Court ruled that was fair
Which means they’re allowed
To hate as a crowd
So families of dead vets beware

B Davis was kicked from their basketball team
He broke code was what BYU said
We Mormons agree
Neither coffee nor tea
And, especially, no girls in your bed

The Newter is courting Right Christians
He wants to get down in their pew
An occasional affair
A divorce here and there
Doesn’t mean I’m not one of you

As for the groups Newt is courting
Some are willing to swallow their pride
As long as he wins
They don’t care about sins
And they surely don’t mind if he lied

“They love me, they love me,” Kadafi still cries
“So why should I cut and run
The mobs don’t alarm me
Their bullets won’t harm me
They’re only shooting for fun”

But who’s really winning in Libya
Who’s ahead in the war
Kadafi says me
The rebels say we
Man it is hard keeping score

Mom proms sweeping the country
They are proving to be a great hit
It’s not just the dance
It gives moms a chance
To see if those dresses still fit

No union money for politics
We don’t want our reps to be bossed
But corporate is great
Let’s fill up our plate
And tell all the Dems to get lost

Boehner says he’ll fight gay marriage
On advice from the Big Gal above
Says marriage was made
For man and his maid
And has little to do with love

New Bible version drops booty
Says spoils was what the Lord meant
Shake your spoils seems quite strange
Even slightly deranged
Are they sure that was really God’s intent

If you think nullification a thing of the past
That went with Calhoun to his grave
Man, I don’t jive
It’s still alive
In ‘Zona it’s the latest rave

Sirhan Sirhan was up for parole
Once again he asked to go free
But the board said, to hell!
Put him back in his cell
And forever throw away the key

There’s a new group debating the budget
Their standard is Jesus, they say
What would He cut
What doors would He shut
Would tax cuts for rich be in play

Who gets the blame for a shutdown
The Repubs and Obama are tied
But the POTUS won’t lead
In word or in deed
He’d be way out in front if he’d tried

REVIEWS

I went to a private showing of “Unknown” a few days ago. Private because I was the only one in the theater – well, at least until the movie was about half over, when three ladies wandered in and sat close to the screen. The movie itself was very good for type, although there were a few huge holes in the plot. It was what I have always called a summer film – adventure and interesting Berlin scenery.

While listening to “Colonel,” the third volume of Edmund Morris’s excellent biography of Teddy Roosevelt and was struck by this contradiction. TR, who was probably the closest we ever had to a king and was a great man in many ways, fell far short in others. For example, he preached the virtues of civilization and of taking it to the heathens, but he loved war - one of man’s least civil acts.

Run, don’t walk to your nearest book store, (if you can find one) and buy Faithful Place by Tana French. It is very much an Irish Mystic River, where the investigation of a crime moves a story about love, pain and family. It is comparable to Mystic River in quality as well as theme, and I don’t write that about many books.

And finally - I love the Internet, but I am alarmed that it is the place where crazies meet crazies to breed.