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Text of the page (random words):
re than a few words in a social media stream especially since one can t address a keyboard with all your fingers in play i ve seen people who ve mastered the thumb technique and can type words almost as fast as i can on a traditional keyboard is touch typing a thing of the past will traditional qwerty keyboards someday become obsolete what s the next plateau of communication going to look like we can now call people send recorded messages instant e mails and group posts on forums will the next generation begin to conduct communications with robots my primary gripe against all this low content exchange is that it encourages people to think primarily in abbreviation as if the only thoughts or opinions that mattered were those that could be summarized in 50 words or less our new president elect donald trump is a child of our age who uses twitter to make statements and comment on the affairs of the day one senses a connection between the triviality of his grasp of current affairs and the media limitations that have grown up around us we ve created a generation of people who think that all the world s problems and issues can be addressed peremptorily with little research also that understanding the meaning and significance of complex matters doesn t require careful considered research and consideration that we can form coherent thought and make progress solving involved disputes and difficult situations simply by making momentary pronouncements we re being told that the new president elect is a new kind of politician one who lunges and lurches from distraction to preoccupation unpredictably and irrationally blurting out sudden statements and tweets impulsively without thinking before hand what the consequences might be we ve come to think that social media which allows people to cohere briefly around a certain point of view has a political meaning and impact that far outweighs its actual meaningful content just because a high office holder can issue a momentary verbal salvo into hyperspace doesn t suggest that his views are any more informed or considered than anyone else s it used to be that holders of high political office had superior access to information that their offices were clearing houses of data and exchange that enabled them to form policy and position the rest of us couldn t in the case of trump it s as if he no longer thinks he needs to consider the background or history of a problem that an impulsive reaction has as much legitimacy as decisions tempered by advice and research it s not just that trump seems unable to understand the world he actually seems to think it doesn t matter that action even on the national and international level can be conducted by amateurs that power itself somehow legitimates bold impulsive decision making uninformed by facts or information this is an entirely new stage in the development of political life it s as if democratic office holders now feel they have the freedom once relegated to dictatorship that of acting without ordinary curbs and checks like a child moving little lead soldiers on a battlefield board table it s unsettling to think that our new president may feel he can decide to go to war one morning by simply announcing his decision on twitter leaving his beleaguered subordinates to work out the details by lunchtime most astonishing of all it may be that people now accept that as a given means of action and communication that american presidents can conduct business in full view of the world without prior restraints or inhibitions a sort of wizard of tweet tinkering with the future of the planet as if it were a board game posted by curtis faville at 10 16 am no comments thursday december 8 2016 bottoms up classic of the genre oh my another cocktail blog this is surely going to ruin my reputation as a serious blogger since no one in his or her right mind would consider drinking alcoholic beverages a sophisticated endeavor it wasn t always so once upon a time cocktails and the opportunity to indulge in them were considered something mostly confined to people who afford them access to a well stocked bar isn t an universal privilege booze has always been expensive and concocting different combinations or mixes requires a variety of goods and ingredients and then there was the imputation of naughtiness which alcohol has always had recently in my travels as a book scout i came across a copy of one of the classic texts ted saucier s bottoms up with illustrations by twelve of america s most distinguished artists decorations by russell patterson cover design by al dorne new york greystone press 1951 visually it feels very much like esquire magazine s look and style with a few tasteful distaff illustrations of ladies in compromising poses which i suspect were included not just for atmosphere but to sell more copies of the book back in those days there were few legit places men could see pictures of nudes and any excuse to acquire them added to the interest of the product the idea that drinking might improve your romantic opportunities has always been an adman s short hand and since its author ted saucier was in the public relations advertising business the connection fits saucier was identified with the waldorf astoria hotel in new york which still survives today and puts out its own proprietary bar book he knew how to eat and drink and he collected recipes from all over the place many of them associated with celebrities and bon vivants which are named for or linked to them to judge from the reach and range of the batch he gathers here you d think he must have spent half his life bar hopping around the world sampling signature drinks it contains as one would expect a good number of the usual suspects famous and reliable which every bartender is expected to know from memory the more complex the mixture the more different ways there are to vary it so for those who like to experiment and discover a typical gin martini is pretty vanilla cocktail mixing books will give you the rudiments of how recipes are created but once you re familiar they aren t really necessary any bartender worth his salt is going to experiment and discover new combinations that s what i do i ve probably tried over a thousand different combinations guessing how one or another ingredient will taste when put with another the best mixology books bring something else besides just recipes they can give a different spin on the world their authors inhabit or imagine thank goodness i don t live in a muslim country where drinking is officially forbidden thank goodness for the sexual revolution which freed my generation and those that followed from some of the hang ups that beset our elders i can t quite figure out what s supposed to be happening in the illustration above is it an open air circus performer in london up and down back and forth as those odd little figures in seats watch the traffic go by are they priests i tried one drink from the book the bullfrog courtesy embassy club the windsor montreal juice 1 2 lime 1 1 4 oz canadian rye 3 4 oz apricot brandy shaken and served up with a cherry as garnish very nice the windsor hotel was quite an establishment in its day opening in 1878 it survived until 1981 pictures of the place in its heyday are below i couldn t find any of the bar but i ll bet it was elegant the world it represented is long gone never to return but we can still sample the drinks they enjoyed there posted by curtis faville at 6 39 am no comments monday december 5 2016 the tale of dan de lion part the second this is the second part of a blog about tom disch s poem the tale of dan de lion is this propaganda you bet your life it is is it saved from being propaganda framed as innocent clever rhymes not at all we don t really need to be reminded that juvenile literature contains as much violence jeopardy sadness hatred and remorse as grown up literature do we most juvenile literature falls flat and there s mountains and mountains of the stuff because it fails to engage with and confront life s fiercest challenges and difficulties and contradictions when it becomes an escape from reality a magic world into which the self retreats instead of returning us to the truths of actual life it becomes ultimately irrelevant the personification of good and evil expressed in horticultural terms becomes a short hand for a larger point about nature versus civilization environmental husbandry and ethics dan s descent into the symbolic underworld where death gets all confused with birth takes us into the philosophical arena where important questions about mortality rejuvenation and endurance are worked out in the poem s cosmology earth becomes a source of refuge renewal and life is butterworth the evil witch she seems to be in this story should we regard her merely as a sophisticated hybrid of the kind who clubs up in ladies and garden groups striving to out flower each other with superior specimens so if it s revolution you want then cheer for the upstart weeds whose determination and pluck have overcome attempts to wipe them out even thwaite the slave to belinda s selfish aims deserts her and so endeth the lesson copyright page tom disch older posted by curtis faville at 9 25 am no comments the tale of dan de lion part the first tom disch 1940 2008 was a gifted poet critic and science fiction writer in a fit of depression he shot himself in the head 68 isn t young but you d have to believe he could have gone on to write more novels and poems if he d lived longer for a complete account visit his wiki page here he began as a poet but his sci fi novels were his his most popular work disch didn t write the kind of poetry that i find satisfying but he was clever and could make delightful metaphors and narratives though i ve never been a big fan of juvenile literature occasionally i can be diverted by a book that seems to transcend the gulf we ordinarily associate with the separation between childhood and adulthood disch s book the tale of dan de lion is one such typically i m not a big fan of cute when it comes to poetry but i ve read a fair amount of light verse in my time specialists like ogden nash or phyllis mcginley manage to sound witty while they re being inventive light verse is one of the mainstays of juvenile literature a fact that sometimes dismays me since i believe that it prejudices young minds towards the frivolous aspect of poetry and forever taints their understanding and appreciation of more serious work the other side of that coin is so called religious poetry a steady diet of which tends to inculcate readers with the idea that poetry is nothing more than a vehicle for devout thinking what s the excuse for light verse aside from ease of apprehension and the mild negligent attitude towards existence it implies poems as jokes poems as innocent fun poems as a kind of parlor game of rhyme and rhythm no more edifying than square dancing cartoons pantomime quizzes or cross word puzzles but occasionally someone comes up with a valid pretext for a nonchalant indulgence in silly verse traditionally juvenile or light verse works well in tetrameter or lines with a four beat measure think of lewis carroll s jabberwocky twas brillig and the slithy toves did gyre and gimble in the wabe all mimsy were the borogoves and the mome raths outgrabe beware the jabberwock my son the jaws that bite the claws that catch beware the jubjub bird and shun the frumious bandersnatch he took his vorpal sword in hand long time the manxome foe he sought so rested he by the tumtum tree and stood awhile in thought and as in uffish thought he stood the jabberwock with eyes of flame came whiffling through the tulgey wood and burbled as it came one two one two and through and through the vorpal blade went snicker snack he left it dead and with its head he went galumphing back and hast thou slain the jabberwock come to my arms my beamish boy o frabjous day callooh callay he chortled in his joy twas brillig and the slithy toves did gyre and gimble in the wabe all mimsy were the borogoves and the mome raths outgrabe which is not to say of course that serious poems can t written in this measure the tale of dan de lion was published by coffee house press in 1986 coffee house press was started in minneapolis by my old late friend allan kornblum after he closed down his letterpress operation toothpaste press outside of iowa city when i knew allan we both lived in iowa city during the early 1970 s allan had a good eye for charming alternative literature though i wouldn t have known it then the tale of dan de lion is the sort of contrary dystopian fable that appeals to smart children and may be as attractive and intriguing to adults as well i ve reproduced the whole book here rather than just refer to it obliquely it s out of print now so i doubt that anyone will be offended by my appropriation dan de lion is a subversive little story about the competition between wild and domesticated plants in this case between dandelions and domestic cultivated roses the story imagines the garden as a scene of conflict in which the natural flora ignored and despised by sophisticated and well heeled gardeners compete for space and air and water and nutrients with the pampered flowers of miss belinda butterworth dan de lion is a weed a despised outlaw and invader of the tended bed an enemy of butterworth and her prized rose plants the obvious political and social implications of this relationship feel not in the least obtrusive presented in these terms with clever stylish cartoon illustrations ___________________________ posted by curtis faville at 8 51 am no comments newer posts older posts home subscribe to posts atom archives may 1 october 1 march 1 february 1 december 2 october 1 august 1 july 4 june 1 may 3 april 1 march 3 february 3 january 1 december 3 november 1 september 1 august 1 july 1 may 2 march 1 january 1 december 1 november 2 october 1 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