Sunday, May 1, 2011

Nobody # 864

Nobody Asked Me But:

In times of war, the law falls silent. – Cicero

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.(Note: It would probably be better if the lines my verses were closer to being uniform in length, but I believe that would place limits on the stories I tell, and I am unwilling to do that. As it is, each verse has its own rhythm and to find it is to get the most out of my efforts.)

The people of St Loo praised God almighty

No one was killed in savage storm last week

But what of those elsewhere

No answer to their prayer

It seems God left them up that well-known creek

Now “Wallie” was surely part Nazi

She loved them in more ways than one

But she ruled a king

Made Edward’s bell ring

Made lover than king much more fun

There’ll be no Labor PM’s at the wedding

The Queen and crew just do not care to slum

And if one tries to crash

The Prince’s wedding bash

Queen Liz, herself, outside will throw the bum

The Rev. Billy’s son may endorse Donald

Said Franklin Graham the man just pleases me

That’s not so very odd

He’s a man who loves his God

Of course to Trump his God is clearly HE

A Tennessee law will tell teachers

Before the ninth grade don’t say gay

No excitement for a while

So another Monkey Trial

Our claim to dumb is still alive today

So 4 in 10 Republicans are birthers

They all still think that Obama is a plot

Hatched in foreign place

Or perhaps in outer space

These birthers, too brainy they are not

This idea I saw in the paper

And I pass it to you all for free

‘Cause they’re often filled with slime

And are prime wastes of time

Bad movies should cost less to see

There’s a story about a Texas politician

So afraid that a gay guy he might meet

About AIDS was so worried

That while in the shower he hurried

And wore a bathing cap on his feet

Haley Barbour was all prepared to run

He thought he was a cinch to win top spot

He said I’m really in

Like the proverbial Mr. Flynn

But Haley’s wife said, no man, you are not

Atlas took a dive at the box office

The producer looked just like he had been mugged

It’s not viewers fault

If they don’t like Johnny Galt

In the end it was the audience that shrugged

Conservatives are going to war with welfare

The money used for it makes their blood boil

Subsidies on them grate

They hate the nanny state

Unless the bucks are used to help big oil

Frank McCourt whined at his presser

I’m keeping my team is his vow

I know I’ve been bad

An SOB cad

But I’ll be a good boy now

Of all the strange revelations

Who would have believed it, not I

Pasadena’s famed lady

Lived a life that was shady

Julia Childs was a spy

Now they’re questioning his entrance into Harvard

The birthers have a new line of attack

He must have had free ride

He could not have qualified

That’s obvious to us because he’s black

To show that little has changed over the years, here’s a paragraph from Nobody # 5, which I wrote on April 28, 1996

I just watched "This Week With David Brinkley" for the first time in several years. Never again - at least the first part where the politicians are interviewed. It was (1) a waste of time and (2) an exercise in futility that made me want to throw up. Everyone, Democrat and Republican was a lying, evading, self-serving hypocrite - and those were their good qualities. It is no wonder that Americans have so little respect for their politicians. The last twenty minutes when the reporters discussed the issues was much better. Here is where I part company from many of my fellow Americans. I have great respect for the legitimate, as opposed to the entertaining, press. At least they have intelligence!

Nobody 863

Sunday, April 24, 2011

Nobody # 863

Nobody Asked Me But:

In times of war, the law falls silent. – Cicero

As time goes by - The picture is of Ryan at his prom last week.

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. (Note: It would probably be better if the lines in my verses were closer to being uniform in length, but I believe this would place limits on the stories I tell, and I am unwilling to do that. As it is, each verse has its own rhythm and to find it is to get the most out of my efforts.)


Frank McCourt is losing the Dodgers

A team that he bought on the cheap
Then bled it dry
Paid his sons on the sly
Thank God we are rid of the creep

McCourt wants to know why Bud did it

Said I did everything by the book
Course my book leaves no doubt
That ethics are out
But what does that make me – a crook

Soboroff, McCourt’s new flunky, says it’s all been preordained
This is a plot to push my boss around
It’s just a baseball whim
Why should they pick on him
Just because with team’s great rep he did abscond

The GOP’s pushing their budget
Their mode is an all-out attack

But who says they are greedy
They’re hard on the needy
‘cause the needy’s too weak to fight back

Sarah says popular culture
Needs to turn back home to the right
But rather than bore you
She’ll spell it out for you
On her Twitter or Face Book web site

The groans could be heard round the country

When last week came the day that we pay
So many protest
But I’m one of the rest
It’s our price for a civilized way

But those who would scoff at this privilege
The law of the jungle adores
If they don’t have enough

Of the wonderful stuff
They’ll hit with a club and take yours

There’s a new book ‘bout fungus in Ceylon
All coffee beans killed on a spree
And, no, I’m not joke’n
I haven’t misspoken
That’s the reason the British drink tea
Our Medicare is way, way too expensive
We have no choice except to privatize

The rich will move right toward it
And if the poor folk can’t afford it
Well, after all, everybody dies

And here’s the latest story from the UK
A study shows that swearing cuts down pain
Gosh darn won’t cut it
So you might as well slut it
And say f and damn, then f and damn again

More people are crossing the border
To buy gas that’s cheaper is nice
But with so many guns
If you get shot in the buns
You wish you had paid higher price

The party goes to court to fight gay marriage
Republicans by this would like to state
To be loving and be gay

Is not the American way
So the homo thing is not up for debate

I left the movie Hanna in the middle
That’s unusual for me and fairly bold
As I walked right out the door
I wasn’t really sure

If the film was just too young, or me too old

Ann Coulter’s new book is coming out soon
She touches on themes economic
Her ideas feed
Those who barely can read
And wish she would publish in comic

Alabama’s two large football factories

Have earned an intensive new look
It is Tiger pride
Against Crimson Tide
As to which is the bigger crook

A study shows rich parent’s children
Will have to survive on their own
Said parents, we plan

To spend all we can
Let the kids read the will and then moan

There’s a mantra in the book I am reading
I can recite it by chapter and verse
It is not decay
Good's not fading away
Things are just different not worse

Let’s cut corporate tax said the big guys
Who cares if they are all-time low
As both parties said
We’re in the same bed
While paying a debt that we owe

Phil Taylor is best in profession
Which he says is not science but art
His value is clear
He earns one mil per year
And he gets it for throwing a dart

The poll shows that members still lack passion
There is no one who excites the Repub crowd
They hunger every day
For someone to show the way
But all they get are mouths who talk too loud

Only Romney was approved in double figures
The others were nowhere on the scene
He led all the rest
His percentage was best
But he finished with a not-so-sweet sixteen

Tyler Perry told Spike to go to hell
He’s tired of his racial baiting tricks

But Lee says, hell, I’m there
Every time I fill that chair
On the sideline for my awful New York Knicks

They’d rather be famous than wealthy
The poll showed kids want ‘fore they’re done
But here is the deal
It’s time to get real
Chances are they will end neither one

The Uncoupling by Meg Wolitzer

A new drama teacher comes to Eleanor Roosevelt High School in Stellar Plains, New Jersey. She announces that she is going to put on a production of Lysistrata, Aristophanes’ play in which, in an effort to halt the Peloponnesian War, the women go on a sex strike. Almost immediately, a strange cold wind sweeps through Stellar Plains and the women and girls no longer want sex with their men, or even much touching.

Wolitzer uses her device to make the point that too many lives become stuck in sameness and familiarity and stagnate. Sometimes they dissolveinto unhappiness and sometimes merely descend into boring familiarity. It is only after being shaken, not stirred, that relationships become alive again.

I really enjoyed this book.

Nobody 862

Sunday, April 17, 2011

Nobody # 862

Nobody Asked Me But:

In times of war, the law falls silent. - Cicero

Seeing Stonehenge is one of my great travel experiences. The picture above was taken and rendered by Barbara's brother, Tom.

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.

Once more LA Times prints their value-add list

Of teachers who don’t make the grade

Since they know public shame

Goes along with the name

Any good by the bad is outweighed

The new stamp has not the real Statue

And the story behind it’s not pretty

A demented dork

Skipped the gal from New York

In her place put the one from Sin City

The Tea Party is holding its convention

The circus has come to town

Since Trump gave the keynote

It’s ok if we note

They’ve already sent in the clown

More states are restricting abortions

They think that their fight’s nearly won

They play fetal cop

Say abortions must stop

Unless their dear daughter needs one

Strong women all over the telly

From standard cop shows to cool thrillers

And for clearly the best

Far ahead of the rest

Check AMC’s great show The Killers

Please say it’s not so Bobby Dylan

You could not have sold out for the cash

You who rights wrongs

Let them censor your songs

When you played at that Chinese red bash

I’m not religious but still I do wish

That the President would use power more fully

Where sometimes he skates

He would win more debates

If he would just use his pulpit that’s bully

They say that to live to one hundred

To bounce back from stress is the deal

If that word is sound

It turns history around

Hello again Norm Vincent Peale

I used to enjoy going driving

If I say I still do it’s a lie

What I pay at the pump

Turns me into a grump

Gas prices are higher than sky

To Ashland I’ve been many times

And I’ll go back again though it’s far

For Shakespearian Fair

And something more rare

Their firemen give pets CPR

Montreal was in conflict last Thursday

Elections v. Stanley Cup vice

There was a federal debate

But they said that can wait

‘Till the Habs put the Bruins on ice

The polls show that Brits want Prince William

To be their new king very soon

Looking past wedding cake

He’s a monarch who’ll make

The British Isle ladies all swoon

Then what is to happen to Charles

His love life still makes the Brits wince

He may have been rude

A royal crude dude

But he will forever be Camilla’s prince

Of the greatest young arms in the majors

The Dodgers have one of the best

Bats bow down in awe

To Clayton Kershaw

Who’s on a Cy Young Award quest

In the Holland they have to learn Dutch

In France they can’t wear a veil

The immigrant’s new lot

Happy it’s not

In Arizona they’re all put in jail

Atlas Shrugged is a very long tome

It’s truly a book for the ages

Fast, Rand is not

When advancing her plot

One speech takes fifty-two pages

Ayn Rand says it is caring for others

That has us all living in tatters

What’s all the big fuss

There is never an us

It’s only just me really matters

Boob bracelets are out in their classrooms

To wear them, said no is the answer

This Penn. school crackdown

Earned the judge’s deep frown

These kids are just fighting breast cancer

Occasionally the media hits sport’s dark side hard

And comes out with a great expose’

That’s only fitting

But between the hard hitting

They ignore the dirt day after day

Pres candidates must prove they were born

If to be on our ballot they seek

We are not joke’n

Arizona has spoken

This is our dumb law for this week

Don Sterling’s the worst of all owners

Here’s one out of hundreds of reasons

The Clipps seldom soar

They’ve lost 50 or more

In 22 of their last 30 seasons

And finally, on the percentage of Planned Parenthood work that results in abortions:

Senator Jon Kyle claimed it ninety percent

While three percent is the actual

When asked ’bout gaffe

Kyle just laughed

“I was certainly not trying to be factual”

The Informationist by Taylor Stevens

Taylor Stevens, who survived a harrowing childhood in a cult, has written an excellent debut novel. There are a few places where her inexperience shows through – but only a few.

Vanessa Michael Monroe has quite a bit in common with Lisbeth Sallander – she is young, damaged, brilliant and very tough. Her specialty is gathering information. Her skills, honed by a long period of torture and training in Africa, are deadly. Vanessa is hired by the billionaire owner of an oil company to find his daughter, missing for over four years in a small African country. Before Vanessa is finished, she will have been betrayed and almost being killed twice.

MOVIE REVIEW – ATLAS SHRUGGED

Peter Travers (Rolling Stone): "Ayn Rand's monumental 1,168-page, 1957 novel gets the low-budget, no-talent treatment and sits there flapping on screen like a bludgeoned seal."

It will be nice to be in Nice on my birthday

And have a glass of vin extraordinaire

We will walk along Med’s beach

Our few troubles out of reach

And dine on escargot if we dare