the way it's going

I could not be more grateful to the most excellent Seattle Tammy and Seattle Dan aka Bookem & Dano, proprieters of Jackson Street Books for the gift they included in my Christmas shipment - an autographed copy of "The Financial Lives of The Poets" - a novel of considerable excellence and humor. However, I may not have picked the most auspicious time to be reading it as it rings a little too close to home at times, what with having only another week left at work before plunging into the abyss and all that.
I had a moment of head-meets-table this morning when picking it up over my steaming morning cup of maple syrup and turning to the new chapter to find this bit of poesy from author Jess Walter:

Chapter 7

The Last Days of the 

Newspaper Business

I dreamed  I was on my bike, delivering the last paper

to the final porch and I tossed that rag at least a mile --

last dream of a democratic process -- and the end of the papers 

fell like a snowflake on the faded wood planks

of my old man's porch, and came out in slippers, 

picked it up, slipped off the rubber band -- and the thing

exploded with fresh despairs: new Vietnams and 

Watergates, Mansons and Patty Hearsts, not to mention

Andy Capp and Hi and Lois, horoscopes, a Crossword puzzle,

box scores -- even the obit of my poor mother. And

my old man told me not to cry, that even good things die, 

son, and he folded that paper back up and tucked

the only good thing I ever did under his arm, easing back 

into the warm house of my dead childhood to take 

his morning shit. 

Go buy this most excellent book. 

further excellence

Would you believe, Superheroes in rehab?  No, really -- a great monthly video series.

Reformatories: throwing away the key on Canadian kids

Attention must be paid to what Willy Loman said about the asinine changes in the works for the Young Offenders Act.

Prosecutors will now have to justify why they are not trying a 14 year old as an adult in a serious offense, not the other way around.

Hell, that's nothing, just wait until Harper get his majority and they get that whole "presumed guilty until proven innocent" thing in place as an efficiency measure.

Logically locking up our youngest offenders instead of focussing on their rehabilitation, while there is still time and better chance for rehabilitation will more likely produce hardened young adults who will have better chance of becoming professional criminals as soon as they are back on the streets, than productive members of society. But that is just too logical.
Unfortunately facts and logic do not exist for the Harper reformatories or if realized, they are just ignored. The main purpose of these draconian changes to our societal laws is to satisfy a rabid narrow base of bible bangers, living in privileged, sheltered rural based cities

In the meantime, you might be interested in this old post of mine.  Plus ca change, eh?

Excellence

Apparently, the Iraq war is over and the good guys won, or something.

Y'know, whenever I start to fancy myself a wordsmith, I need only read whatever the latest post on Fafblog or Driftglass is and that pretty much kicks the chair out from under that notion.

God hates tract-pedaling busybodies

This week I had another visit from the Jehovah's Witnesses. And they had the temerity to come to my door the morning after the big farewell party at the office. Which of course brings this story to mind and requires that I once again post this marvelous little movie.

On a personal note...

After nine years in the same job, I'm about to get the financial debriefing lecture that comes before my "early retirement" at the tender age of 43. I've been obsessively rereading the complete works of the greatest author of the 20th century all weekend and listening to a lot of Warren Zevon, who is in my not so humble or unschooled opinion, a goddamn genius.