George Mails a Letter

While George was putting on his jammies, John told him a story.
"This is a story from when George was a little bit older than he is right now.  George was writing a letter to his Grandma Dorothy.  He told her about what he was studying in school, and about friends he was making this year.  He told her about some new toys he had received recently.  He asked her some questions about how she was doing.  He folded up the letter and put it in an envelope, and he went to where John and Kathe kept stamps and also their address book.
"He copied down Grandma Dorothy's address very carefully, and wrote his own address in the corner.  He put a stamp on the envelope, but then he got worried about whether it was too heavy to mail, so he clipped the envelope to the postage scale that Kathe had shown him how to use.  He saw that his letter weighed a little bit too much for one stamp, and would need a second stamp -- but there weren't any more!
"George went to Kathe and said he was going to the Post Office to buy a stamp for his letter.  Kathe asked him if he would be willing to wait until she went out next, and she would promise to bring stamps home this time.  She said she was sorry she hadn't already bought some.  George said he would rather go right away, because he once wrote a letter and forgot about it, and when he found it months later he had felt very bad about it.  Kathe said she understood how he felt.
"Kathe got a twenty dollar bill from her purse and gave it to George.
"'Please go buy a book of stamps for me, and use one to mail your letter, and bring the stamps and the change back, okay?'  George nodded and took off.
"At the Post Office, George waited in line, and when it got to be his turn, he asked for a book of stamps and then reached into his pocket and -- there was no money in it!  The clerk looked down at George sadly as George's eyes filled with tears.
"'Calm down,' the clerk said.  'Check your pockets carefully before you panic.'
"George put his hand into his left front pocket and felt again, but there was no bill there.  He felt his left back pocket and his right back pocket and then his right front pock-- and there it was!
"George bought a book of stamps and took the stamps and his change, peeled a stamp from the book and stuck it onto his letter, and dropped it through the slot.  Now it was mail, and soon it would be delivered to Grandma Dorothy.
"George walked home and--"
"And on the way home, it rained twenty dollar bills! And George picked up a thousand of them!"
"Okay.  At first George stuffed the bills into his pockets, but soon they were bulging and could not hold any more.  Then he started stuffing them into the neck of his shirt.  By the time he got home, he looked like the Scarecrow of Oz."
"Ha -- haha -- haha!"
"And when he got home, John and Kathe were both amazed, and George was laughing like crazy when he reached into his shirt and pulled out a fistful of twenty dollar bills and said, 'I didn't forget your change!'
"There, how's that for a George story?"
"Good!"
"Okay, well, good night, George."
"Good night, Dad."

//The Magic Eight-Ball says, "These things could sell."\\

The Organ Plays

Kathe and I went to a recital of early (15th-16th Century) organ music today at the First United Methodist Church.

http://corvallisfumc.org/

As we looked around the interior, we made a note to bring the seven-year-old when we had him next, so he could admire the architecture and the windows.  I was reminded of a line from C.S. Lewis, something along the lines of, "She was about to make a disparaging reference to 'stained-glass saints' until she remembered what stained glass looks like".

We enjoyed the sacred and secular music, particularly the Agincourt Hymn, which we agreed was a ripsnortin' martial piece.  We wondered what it would sound like with a chorus, and searched YouTube without really having our curiosity satisfied.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IdmwH_I21xY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QU7kGaDLW9U
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fLqQG7v4ujA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rdvFfO-6vro

//The Magic Eight-Ball says, "Music is powerful, especially if it's any damned good at all."\\ 

There Goes The Plum Tree

Our plum tree, which has dropped excessively-juicy plums onto the grass and sidewalk near the corner of 10th and Jefferson for far longer than I have lived here, is speeding up its decades-long process of falling over.  Its roots are tearing out of the ground, and its branches are touching the grass.

We will get plenty of big blue handle-carefully-they're-soft plums this year, but I think that will be it until one of the suckers coming up from its roots starts bearing.

//The Magic Eight-Ball says, "To everything there is a season."\\

Review: "The Initiates", by Etienne Davodeau

This is my review of The Initiates, as seen also at Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/880110337

There are obvious parallels between making graphic novels (writing, drawing, printing and distributing to readers) and making wine (raising, fermenting, bottling and distributing to drinkers): Each is a job that can be easily misunderstood.  Each is a form of art which many people fail to recognize as art.  Each is practiced by an assortment of masters, mediocrities and eccentrics not even their peers can understand.  Each has its own arcane practices and occult jargon, incomprehensible to the uninitiated.
There are obvious parallels between reading graphic novels and drinking wine: Some people enjoy them in prudent moderation, while others become obsessives who allow something meant to enrich their lives to take over their lives.  Some people despise anyone who has anything to do with them (using, respectively, the slurs "subliterate" and "drunkard").
Etienne Davodeau and Richard Leroy don't really "exchange jobs", as the subtitle claims.  Rather, they exchange insights into their jobs: Etienne shows Richard his drafting tools and takes him to the editorial offices and the printing press where his unique art is turned into a mass product.  Richard puts Etienne to work pruning vines and draws samples from his barrels to show him how fermenting wine progresses towards the form in which it will be bottled.
Richard offers Etienne tastes of Poulsards and Chardonnays, while Etienne showers Richard with Art Spiegelman and Alan Moore.
I'm amused by the fact that the English title, "The Initiates" stands opposite to the original French title, "Les Ignorants", but at the same time, the underlying principle is the same.  Rather the way that the English word "mammal" compares with its German equivalent, Säugetier.  The one means "milk-producer", while the other means "milk-drinker".  Etienne and Richard both nourish, and they both are nourished.  Reading this book, you will be nourished.

//The Magic Eight-Ball says, "It will be up to you to nourish others with your own talent and labor."\\

A Bit Late, But . . .

I have decided to give up Facebook for Lent.  I will make a sincere effort not to go onto Facebook until Easter Sunday, an occasion I will otherwise not observe.
Persons who are genuinely interested in our current situation, especially Kathe's health, may visit this blog, or e-mail me at john_m_burt@hotmail.com

//The Magic Eight-Ball says, "Outlook is good."\\

Death -- What a Concept

I ran into an interesting post at Susie Bright's blog, about Ariel Gore and the memoir she allowed herself to write after her mother died:

 http://susiebright.blogs.com/susie_brights_journal_/2014/03/lung-cancer-noir-ariel-gores-masterpiece.html#tpe-action-posted-6a00d8341c5e4053ef01a3fcce7c30970b

It inspired me to make this comment:

I had appalling dreams after my father died, and dream logic followed me into waking life.  I discovered that not only could I not confront the reality that my father was dead, I could not even deal with the reality of death, period, for anyone.  I would find myself imagining corpses living still, drawn-out lives in drawers and back bedrooms, and saying things like, "Oh, yes, she's dead -- but how dead is dead, really?"  It was over a year before I stopped skidding over the concept of death and could say, "Dead is dead.  My father is dead."

Now that my father is definitively dead, though, I can feel his presence more than I could when death didn't exist in my world.  The other day, I saw a joke that involved Marxist jargon and a horrid pun, and I immediately sent it out to the family:

"Q: Why is it that when you flush the toilet at Karl Marx's place, you can hear the sound of stringed instruments?
"A: Because of the violins inherent in the cistern.
"This has been a George S. Burt Memorial E-Mail."

//The Magic Eight-Ball says, "Yes, he would have liked that one."\\

Uncertainty Principle

A man once hired a private detective to find out if his wife were cheating on him.

The detective returned in just three days with a video which showed the view through his best friend's bedroom window.  The man saw his wife enter with his best friend, passionately kissing.  The video showed them stripping naked, his wife and his best friend climbing onto the bed, and then turning out the light.

The man stared at the screen, now showing only a darkened window, then turned to the detective and said, tears in his eyes, "That's the worst part of it -- the sheer Hell of never knowing for certain!"

This dirty joke is dedicated to the people who say, "So you're saying only 97% of climatologists think human activity is causing the derangement of the climate . . . ?"

//The Magic Eight-Ball says, "Not to decide is to decide."\\

Godzilla

Recently the subject of the many Godzilla movies came up elsewhere on the 'net, and it got me thinking about them.

I do like Godzilla.  I have not seen every single Godzilla movie, but I think I would like to:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Godzilla_%28franchise%29

I looked for trailers for those movies:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VKrj1ymJzmo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ll8H4bpZgTw

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7PBbK8tkTE8

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UsP_vCffBe4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vC4rMWD7MXw

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=esLZFPL3dDE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SpbaeNbCM_w

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fx5_3__XIP8

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r_rWm_u2oQQ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OTd0HAMA50U

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LVOR-463obk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DyOVKYabImw

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=REMsbJMtN0Y

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_L5Fz-vDXOg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fotSbx0D1A0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ePtjMbETOI
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9aKtjGBtf9s

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QSmLbhifByc

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6E6t37NRfN8

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-5zw6PrBp7g

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kQuWkSDjNME

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-MLvi8pp-uc

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xxeZUbKLNlI

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7CDU21yKliM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z4iXgZkdGS8

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SaZ3iR-wo-I

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UnVajjMrqd0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j5lXP2NMo8U

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D5ASNlqnrhM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CkJ_n9ygZRw

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1b2CtgkwJQA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_D2c34KDbEk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oGOX_FdEccc

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4_oiHWXLIFI

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mBwsUD7jYCI

I was delighted to learn that I could find all of them on YouTube.

But my number one kaiju fantasy is of recutting Frankenstein Conquers the World
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wu6waDbmPNU

and War of the Gargantuas
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=swC1wZAJ5lU
into a recreation of the original planned sequel, The Frankenstein Brothers.

//The Magic Eight-Ball says, "GRONK!  GREEE-OOOO-OOONK!"\\

Pete Seeger, 1919-2014

http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/music/chi-pete-seeger-dead-20140127,0,3986283.story

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HlSpc87Jfr0

Ninety-four years, none of them wasted.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Y7P4n2uT0w

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pete_Seeger

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mt9jWoXmrLw

An American hero.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AvyvBRfJuIE

http://peteseeger.net/wp/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RXKJ1jPuaoI

//The Magic Eight-Ball says, "To everything there is a season."\\

Martin Luther King Speaks

A bit late, but here is a quote worth quoting:

“Call it democracy, or call it democratic socialism, but there must be a better distribution of wealth within this country for all God’s children.” -- May 1965 speech to the Negro American Labor Council

//The Magic Eight-Ball says, "A cornered mouse will bite a cat.  This does not make the mouse a predator or make the cat into prey."\\