Quota

In his seventies, he was sorry that a good friend of his died. He was wondering if it was possible to make new friends at an advanced age. As if  a long life requires to keep a minimum number of friends.

Cast

Cast a comic eye on life, on death,  horseman, pass by.

Since i started stand up vomedy i  view things from a new peespective. But it is not from a saddle.

Romantic ruin

 The architectural preservation movement clearly has its roots in the Romantic era, when ruins were a subject of contemplation and inspiration. But the preservation effort is going well beyond that—they want to preserve everything down to the grandmother's grange. But who actually wants to live in these decrepit and uncomfortable places? Who wants to live in these picturesque, old Italian downtowns?

My own father's house, built around 1880, was landmarked in Romania. It has just one toilet on the second floor, where two families live. It was badly damaged during an earthquake. It does not have any artistic features on the street facade.

So preservationists, spend an evening looking at these, write a poem, and demolish them!

Losing my voice

Lately i had AI check my posts. Of course the language and clarity is improved, but this is not me, I am never clear in my thoughts and or speech. And this is a totally personal blog.

Here is the Ai version:

Lately, I’ve been letting AI check my blog posts. Sure, the language is smoother and it sounds way clearer—but honestly? It just doesn’t feel like me. I’m the kind of person whose thoughts and speech are always a bit scattered and messy. Since this is a completely personal blog, I want it to sound like me, not some perfectly polished robot

on line

 Today, I canceled my home delivery of The New York Times. Adieu  old companions.-- physical newspapers. For fifty or sixty years, I read newspapers everywhere—at home, on subways, and in parks. I have read Scînteia, L'Unità, Le Monde, and The New York Times.  I want my news now. Now!

optics

In her late seventies my mother was a cashier at the beauty salon. She was counting the money very very slow and again and counting again.  I did not understand and was quite annoyed by how slow she was.  Now I understand.

Cussing

 The usual American cuss is too simple or elementary to be satisfying." F... you" was probably used by horseman rushing West. No time to stop. Words said fast while moving. It works well for car drivers. A finger and two words...

Cast a cold eye
On life, on death.
Horseman, pass by

Where I am coming from the cuss is a poem. People driving ox carts have time..to indicate the type of sexual act, the person subjected, part of the body, number of times. day of the week...It allows to be a personalized cuss...The pleasure given by the invention is therapeutic.

The Happy Prince

 My father used to read me the story by Oscar Wilde. I was five or six. The prince gives away everything to make other people happy.  Even his eyes. His statue is taken down by the city's administration. did my father identified himself with the prince? Was he trying to educate me. He did. I always felt like a prince.

...never happy

Naval language

 

Each sail has its name, each knot has a purpose. I once sailed myself but would not remember the names. I cannot imagine how much space for  this big boat to  turns in the Hudson.

FIFA ...pfi!

 Every Sunday my father took me to the circus. I was four or five years old. I knew all the clowns and all the elephants. Around eight or nine, he took me to the theater. I think I saw The Cid five or six times. We went to the matinee in the upper tier, where it was cheap. My father climbed the stairs slowly, slowly, with a watch in his hand, just as the doctor had taught him after his heart attack. At fourteen or fifteen, he began to take me to burlesque. We both liked the dancers. As a child, I didn’t see a single  soccer match in a stadium.

Anche io sono

Thank you Rafael.

 

Cape Verde

  Cape Verde held Argentina soccer team to a tie to the last minute. An island of 500,000 people known only for Miss Perfumado, if at all. It is the era of drones and Davids.  

And this applies to US politics, where incumbents...

250 years ending with a circus

Starting with kings in Rome and ending with emperors in Constantinople, the Roman state lasted about 2,000 years. It reached its peak power under the the late Republic and the first Caesars. Did they celebrate its 250th anniversary? Or its 1,000th? 

I was listening to the conversation Lex Fridman had with Anthony Kaldellis—the state survived through changes of capitals, languages, and religions. What seems to have been constant was the legal system. Emperors were appointed, inherited the crown from their fathers, or seized power by military force, but ordinary citizens could still expect the justice system to function.

According to Kardellis the emperors drew their legitimacy through competence.

Was pane et circenses or justice?

Turns out Rome celebrated its 1,000 anniversary. Usual circus.

According to Wiki the Ludi saeculares emperor was Philip the Arab who might have been the first Christian emperor. He also made peace with Persia. the expenses of the celebration led to his fall.

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Syco

 From Sycophancy - What I hate most is false praise. Like Gemini finding me funny. Like Grok finding me funny. Like all others bots genuflecting. Obsequiousness.

What I learned from a WSJ article is that the bots imitate you way of talking, your conversation style. Howl do they do this with my bad and unorthographical English? Luckily they do not hear my accent on top of my sentence structure...They generally come from a word use meaning follower. turns out sycophant comes from Greek where it meant showing the fig. the is made by putting the thumb between two fingers or into the mouth, with the intended effect of the modern gesture of "flipping the bird"

Robert Escarpit

 After I wrote the previous post I decided to look for his bio. Quite amazing - he was an editor of the Canard Enchaine - my favorite publication. I also wanted to be capable  to write using cultural references and calembours. [ I spent several hours in a car with a French young lady. I told her that in my youth I dreamt to write for a  French paper and asked her to guess which. - she immediately said Le Canard Enchaine] So Escarpit was a communist, he wrote on humor and on communication. 

Les êtres vivants sont ainsi faits que leurs accouplements sont rarement esthétiques.

L'humour est un art d'exister

.

Bien vivre, c'est avoir de la mémoire.

La lecture est la forme la plus haute de la paresse.

L'érotisme est une pornographie de classe.

Perdre son temps avec soi-même est aussi une manière de s'aimer.

Rage...daily

 I have this colleague who publishes a post every day on his engineering blog. I like the person, and we have a friendly, professional relationship. However, I admire and totally hate his capacity to share something new, special, or meaningful every single day. It drives me crazy! When I was a teenager, I admired Robert Escarpit, who had one or two short paragraphs on politics every day in Le Monde. These were called billets. This is what I wanted to be able to do. I find impossible to have something meaningful to say every day. I just rage

Beauty?

What kind of beauty is this without tattoos? Doesn't she feel naked? 

 

Itch

 Itch is a serious annoyance, but I could not find any significant discussion about it. Will check, and if Shakespeare did not write a drama about it, I will.

As far i have ever went

SPORTS BAR

HONKY TONK

NASHILLE

To the stone people...

Every summer i take a bike ride to see how my stone people are doing. Not very well, I am afraid. Nobody cares to restore past glory. Well it is mid June. Let us hope. The view might attract....