rare bird

TELLER: Reason for unemployment? OEDIPUS: I’m disabled. T: Please state the reason for the disability. O: Blindness. T: (looks up) Oh, I see. I’m sorry. Were you born with this condition? O: No… T: Are you claiming worker’s compensation? O: No. I gouged my own eyes out. T: OMG! Why did you do that?! O: Well - I killed my father and married my mother. T: WTF?! O: I didn’t do it on purpose! T: Still! Ugh! … Here’s an AD&D form. Next please!

Me from junior high school: I need to pick a foreign language. I can do French, German, or Spanish. my maternal grandfather is German. Think I’ll try to learn that. Me at German camp: wow, that girl is hot. I definitely made the right choice. Her friends: Btw, she’s a lesbian. Oh...well, that’s all good... Me from college: I need to pass this exam to graduate. ugh, / konjunctiv / II! ... I’m going to study abroad in England. Me in grad school: wow, this woman is hot. She likes me. We should get married. She speaks Russian, but that’s all good. Me now: my paternal grandfather was Norwegian. why couldn’t junior high school have had that as a choice?!

Late March 2018, anticipating Bolton. Those killed in a nuclear war would haunt the survivors forever, much as Holocaust victims still haunt us. The world would be filled with ghosts and memoirs of suffering and death, /danse macabre/, not seen since the middle ages. There would be mourning, sackcloth and ashes; weeping and gnashing of teeth, as the prophets foretold. It would feel like the end of the world, even if it was not. It would have a devastating effect on culture as well as our physical lives, and pessimist and existentialist critiques would return. It would shatter our notions of progress for a generation. Actually, even a world war, fought only conventionally, is capable of doing this. It’s happened already. We would face another lost generation.

I guess you get anxious ... and we all know what that’s like. But I think that “ yakhal ” (Hebrew) or " elpis " (Greek) does not preclude the possibility of action - whether it’s writing about the situation, or something more (and don't underestimate the power of journaling!) Indeed, you don't think of prophets or apostles as the kind of people to sit around just waiting for something to happen. They act, but their action is tempered by the realization that things don’t look too good at the moment (otherwise why would the issue even be coming up?) So they act and wait at the same time, knowing that the fruits of their action are ultimately dependent on the Lord. And of course the Lord is known to have us do things for a while before any kind of clear result is made known. Like planting, and then watering, and then waiting, for a seed to turn into a plant. Farmers probably understand waiting a lot better than we do. They think in seasons and years, not months or we...

MC: “KILLING SPREE!” DIRECTOR: No, no, no! For the last time, it’s “Cooking Spray!” Got it? “Cooking Spray!” OK, try it again. MC: “KILLING SPR-AY!” DIRECTOR: No, “cooking spray.” Cooking. OK? Cooking. Not killing. All right, again. MC: “COOKING SPR-EE!” DIRECTOR: Sigh. It’s “Cooking Sp- “ you know what, everyone? Let’s take five.

Dads Against Daughters Dating. http://daddclub.com Story idea: A series of boyfriend statements that start with “My car, it...” that “explain” why his car is always at your place. Like, “My car, it broke down and needs to be repaired.” /Why are you always late?/ “My car, it’s really slow.” /Why can’t you help me rake the leaves?/ “My car, it’s really been acting up lately.” /What did you do in school today?/ “My car, (giggle) it stalled in front of school, man.” /What are you going to do with your life?/ “My car, it’s a bitch.” I didn’t ask you about your car… /What are you doing here in the middle of the night?/ “My car … dude, it drove here all by itself! Freaky, right?” Freaky. Yeah, it’s freaky, all right.

[United States Holocaust Memorial Museum : Some Were Neighbors]( http://somewereneighbors.ushmm.org /) “Millions of ordinary people witnessed the crimes of the Holocaust—in the countryside and city squares, in stores and schools, in homes and workplaces. Across Europe, the Nazis found countless willing helpers who collaborated or were complicit in their crimes. What motives and pressures led so many individuals to abandon their fellow human beings? Why did others make the choice to help?” 1 - While true, the statement about [innocent] bystanders is problematic. What should have been the reaction of civilian Germans to the Nazis' rise? Should they all have endured persecution and/or death, or all have taken up arms against the regime? Would it have been martyrdom? 2 - And, as we have seen in other regimes and today in Syria, taking up arms is no guarantee of success; dictators can hold a country hostage with an ethnic minority just by controlling the armed forces. So we need to...

The airline announcement then goes on to tout the portable video player they have for rent. It plays TV shows and movies. Hmm? Why not a little book collection for borrowing? Could even be a special “airplane” size for portability. Also known as a paperback.

Really. No more subsidies. No more pork. No more special interests for either side. Would civilization collapse? Would the poor be hopelessly left behind? Have we ever had a genuinely free market?

“Bonjour, madame. Breakfast...” (From The Return of the Pink Panther , 1975) “Breakfast?” That’s not how you say “breakfast” in French. Pink Panther, my ass. Does Bond know French? I’ve never heard him speak it. Who...? Bourne. Bourne knows French. Yeah, Bourne is the shit. We’re so pathetic. I bet you could count on one hand the number of secret agents in Hollywood that speak foreign languages. To be fair to Sir Charles Litton, he’s not a secret agent. He’s just a really good thief.

If the occupants of a space-time continuum have no choice when they are born, is it morally superior to be modern?  Can we really say honestly that we are superior to those who lived before us (or after us) if they, no less than we, sought to live by their best lights?  How am I morally superior to the pre-information man, or the pre-industrial man, except in the technology I take for granted?  You cannot find the truth by the clock, or calendar.  (Post)Modern does not mean true.  Likewise, Historical should not automatically mean true, either; but every person in every age should be judged for themselves, on their own merits.  The passion for the contemporary arises from the need to conform and be accepted, not from the desire for truth.  There is truth in all ages and all times - neither the present nor the past should be idolized. Seeking this truth does not lend itself well to magazines, newspapers, or blogs.  SF/F is like religion, in that ...

Tribes and princes. Swords and shields. Horse riding. A ranger, a woman, and a youth. Sometimes the woman writes on a typewriter, which she got from somewhere :) A scene. The ranger has a secret document of some kind. He goes to his locker and hides it in his coat. The leadership of the tribe is suspicious of him, and searches his locker. They find nothing. He realizes he has to leave. Another scene. The three are journeying through the woods, when they are surrounded by a prince and his small retinue. The ranger and his companions are superior, beheading one of the guards, and disarming (literally) another one. Archery is used as well as swordplay. The remaining guards stand down. One of the guards has an iron shield, which saves his life. The ranger hasn't seen such a shield before. The ranger threatens the prince, sword tip under his chin. The prince is defiant: "You savage. Do you not know there are towers that touch the sky from which we once ruled?" The ranger...