Open thread 5/19/23
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Mailing Address for the Blue Planet
Your Say
My Back Pages
Search American Digest’s Back Pages
Real World Address for Donations, Mash Notes and Hate Mail
Who Am I? by Carl Sandburg
My head knocks against the stars.
My feet are on the hilltops.
My finger-tips are in the valleys and shores of
universal life.
Down in the sounding foam of primal things I
reach my hands and play with pebbles of
destiny.
I have been to hell and back many times.
I know all about heaven, for I have talked with God.
I dabble in the blood and guts of the terrible.
I know the passionate seizure of beauty
And the marvelous rebellion of man at all signs
reading “Keep Off.”
My name is Truth and I am the most elusive captive
in the universe.
Duty, Beauty, Liberty, Country, Honor, Family, Faith — Plus a few simple easy to follow rules for guys
The Vault
Take It Where You Find It
Men saw the stars at the edge of the sea
They thought great thoughts about liberty
Poets wrote down words that did fit
Writers wrote books
Thinkers thought about it
Take it where you find it
Can’t leave it alone
You will find a purpose
To carry it on
Mainly when you find it
Your heart will be strong
About it
Many’s the road I have walked upon
Many’s the hour between dusk and dawn
Many’s the time
Many’s the mile
I see it all now
Through the eyes of a child
Take it where you find it
Can’t leave it alone
You will find a purpose
To carry it on
Mainly when you find it
Your heart will be strong
About it
[Chorus]
Lost dreams and found dreams
In America
In America
In America
Lost dreams and found dreams
In America
In America
In America
And close your eyes
Leave it all for a while
Leave the world
And your worries behind
You will build on whatever is real
And wake up each day
To a new waking dream
Take it where you find it
Can’t leave it alone
You will find a purpose
To carry it on
Mainly when you find it
Your heart will be strong
About it
[Chorus]
Change, change come over
Change come over
Talkin’ about a change
Change, change
Change come over, now
Change, change, change come over
I’m gonna walk down the street
Until I see
My shining light
I’m gonna walk down the street
Until I see
My shining light
I’m gonna walk down the street
Until I see
My shining light
I’m gonna walk down the street
Until I see
My shining light
I see my light
See my light
See my shining light
I see my light
See my light
See my shining light
Comments on this entry are closed.
The laser eye that can explode heads and melt minds.
knife should be spelled nyf
I mean seriously. TWO silent letters?
I know, I know. The e makes the i long, but if y is substituted as it should be no e is necessary, not that it ever was in the first place. Surely you’re not suggesting that in the absence of the e the word would be pronounced niff, are you? Of course not.
Starting from this moment forth I am boycotting all silent letters.
Yes, I am going to make all silent letters truly silent, as in, gone. Outta here.
Think about it.
You don’t have to use silent letters when speak words, but you have to use them when you write them? Isn’t there some sort of disconnect there? And how about consistency, doesn’t that matter?
The way words sound is how they should be spelled. Just think how much easier life would have been in your early years when you were trying to stumble through all these reading and writing and speaking rules. Write it one way, read it another way, and speak another way. jeez…..
When you read stuff you kinda speak it in your head. And when you do both you don’t use the silent letters. Do you? Do you sound out the silent e when you read? Course not. Nor should you when writing it. It’s like reading and writing two different words, at the same time! No wonder modern people don’t read. It’ll wear you out with all the rules. Ludicrous!
Well, y’know- Back in the good old days it was like that. Words were spelled how they sounded, and nobody saw any sense in using a letter that didn’t need using. Then the Inkmakers all got together with the printing press dudes. They came up with this scam to stick stupid, useless letters into words whether the words needed them or not. They sold the idea as sort of an affirmative action for underprivileged letters. People fell for the sad stories of poor unused letters turning to crime because of letterism. Being a letterist became as bad as… well, it was bad. It turned out to be nothing more than a sneaky way to sell more ink, and more paper, and make more work for printers. Like everything else, these days- It’s a freakin’ conspiracy.
JWM
Shur enuf; to gud comentz abuv.
Phonetic poetry – takes a bit of getting used to it,
E.E. Cummings poem:
poem II in ViVa,
Oil tel duh woil doi sez:
oil tel duh woil doi sez
dooyuh unnurs tanmih essez pullih nizmus tash,oi
dough un giv uh shid oi sez. Tom
oidoughwuntuh doot,butoiguttuh
braikyooz,datswut eesez tuhmih. (Nowoi askyuh
woodundat maik yurarstoin
green? Oilsaisough.)—Hool
spairruh luckih? Thangzkeed. Mairsee.
Muh jax awl gawn. Fur Croi saik
ainnoughbudih gutnutntuhplai?
HAI
yoozwidduhpoimnuntwaiv un duhyookuhsumpnruddur
givusuhtoonunduhphugnting
Translated:
I’ll tell the world I says
do you understand me as he’s pulling his moustache,I
don’t give a shit I says. Tom
I don’t want to do it, but I got to
break youse,that’s what he says to me. (Now I ask you
wouldn’t that make your arse turn
green? I’ll say so.)—Who’ll
spare a Lucky? Thanks kid. Merci.
My jack’s all gone. For Christ sake
ain’tnobody gotnothin’toplay?
HEY
yousewiththepermanentwave and theukeorsomethingorother
giveusatuneonthefuckin’thing
If you are going to post EE Cummings it must be the one about the car !
Take it from someone who has taught more than a few classes of English – the “silent” e is a signal to the reader that the vowel sound ahead of it in the work is pronounced “long” as ghostsniper observes. What’s going to happen with “bit” and “bite”? What about “sit” and “site”? Maybe I’m wrong…
bit and byt
sit and syt
kit and kyt
dik and dyk
etc.
“dik and dyk” – a fine way to begin Saturday. May laughter rule the day.
Was wondering who’d pick up on that.
Now I know. lol
Up on the Squamish Chief Wall, in BC, there is a fine climbing route called the Lesbian Dyke. It’s a bit of geological humor that may be actually gone from the guides nowadays.
Among my favorite short routes in Washington is the enjoyable: “Groping for Oprah’s Navel.” You clip several fixed bolts and pad your way up dark rock, get a bit run-out, and just as you fear a long whipper, there is a marvelous big hueco, or round version of a chickenhead feature, that you grab and sigh a thank God sigh. One must wear sticky shoes for this kind of climbing.
What? These are rock climbing terms. Wash your dirty mind out if you were thinking otherwise.
BTW, it’s an innie. Just sayin’!
Some 50 years ago I got a phone call telling me a good friend I had served with in Germany – Bob Shepard – had fallen off a Mexican volcano he was ascending. His funeral was to be in West Texas, so I drove all night. He was an only child. Some things that make the adrenalin rush appealing, wind up devastating those left behind. I won’t even climb onto the flat portion of my roof, and the slope of my driveway is becoming a challenge. But don’t get me wrong; I admire those of you who go there, and come home.
I survived but have a handful of friends who died in the mountains, and I mourn them. A few others who I knew as acquaintances, who also carved their names in mountaineering history but did not die abed.
I suppose if you don’t go up there you can never understand why we went, but my pride wont let me say things to make you think I’m right. it’s existential shit, for sure. Selfish, maybe, but your friends and climbing partners are closer than anyone else except maybe your siblings, your spouse, and your army buddies. Also, at the level where you’re climbing technical climbs, you have to adopt it as a lifestyle or else don’t go.
If you compress the problems with the US gov’t down to one small thing, this is it.
Nothing can survive when elements like this are part of it’s make up.
This cannot be repaired.
It can only be destroyed.
ALL of it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_pq6kenJwNY&t=1s
Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you the United States Senate – the “greatest deliberative body in the world”.