seduction

Figured out how he seduced the cleaning woman in two minutes. Spoke French to her.
This one didn't like his accent.

Ron Paul and le Cid

Do republicans have a heart? Suspect that Ron Paul alone ... would not be embarassed to have one.

Rodrigue, as-tu du coeur? in fact means - Do you the guts, Rodrigue
from Le Cid. (spanish hero who fought the maurs or whatever immigrants...)

revolutionaries in Latin America

Saw Ariel Dorfman, an unrepentant revolutionary, kissing Mika Brzenski's hand.. Did Trotsky bow and kiss  senoras' hands when he was in Mexico ?

Just the wrinkles

Some people look so much more interesting with sun  glasses on. Is it because their eyes have nothing to say. Or because the sun glasses hide what these eyes say?

Russian Ballet

Look how beautiful democracy operates in Russia. The most loved politician gets to become president. Again.
The second most trusted politician gets to be prime minister. A strong leader he fired his  minister of economics on the spot. The left leaning press does not matter. The billionaires create jobs. The country is doing well. Like Texas.

Snooping on culture

What surprised me visiting people in the States was that they did not have any books on display in living rooms or anyplace else. Wondered - was it a use and dispose books culture?  Then  noticed the coffee table book style. Was it the people I was in contact with? When I  searched for a room share on the Harvard campus noticed the exhibition of LP covers piles.  Audio culture?
 Later I built my entire library from books sold for a buck at St Agnes NYPL branch fairs.
They all make a library of books that I would love to have read. ...
As to titles of songs on my iPod? These are the tangos I would have danced.
and of course  If I only had time

Location, location, location

Got depressed when found out the sailing maps store on Duane St,. closed. Felt like I needed a scone or something. Went to Starbucks but clung to my diet and bought just a coffee. Needed something sweet and got four bananas for a buck from an Arab street vendor who was greeting a client with salamalekum. Crossed the street and saw a short line. A neighborhood Cuban store was giving free empanadas. Oh god had heard me. Next block by the subway stop got a free train ride from Nucky Thomson of Boardwalk Empire.
Only in America or should I say Only in New York.

starvation

 No last meal in Texas.
Don't think the intent is to stop crime. To stop immigration.

Dying hungry in Texas

Tradition on death row. No more "last meal" in Texas. So what is this? Cutting spending to be able to afford more executions? Effects of low taxation? During WWII, the Nazis moved from shooting Jews to hanging them. The Jews saw it as a good sign. "They are running out of bullets."

Dear Friends and Colleagues

This is how Ahmadinejad started his speech at the UN. Understand the friends part, but who are the colleagues? Colleague is defined as
A person with whom one works, esp. in a profession or business.
What common profession (politician?) or business (atomic bomb) ? Or was he aiming for collegiality.

qui quinnipiac

Back to the polling. So what if they in fact got thru to me? What box do I fit in?  What's my tag? Not with any party. Can one be an independent if not even  registered?  So who is eske? An outlier.
A square that does not fit in any box.

apps for everything and every-man

Paul Krugman qualified iPads (and Steve Jobs) as a frilly diversion for the current semi-depression. Maybe. But imagine sailing without an ipad. In fact I am sure that there is already an app for solving the deficit problem.

politically correct

Pool locker room. This dad telling his six year son: I like frogs. They have personality.

One in a million

Quinnipiac called. Not the university with parking lot full of BMWs. Their polling institute. On my cell. Finally I was going to count. Finally was going to give my opinion. Except I was driving and asked them to call me back. As they say -when the ugly girl got invited to dance the orchestra took a break to pee.

The classics, Carville, the classics

Una Salus Victis Nullam Sperare Salutem they said. But panic?

Obama, take it from the French

 Malraux to De Gaulle ( or to himself as De Gaulle) on Politics And History. (Their exchanges were always in capital letters):

  Rational analyses are fragile.

Obama show a little craziness. For your own good....

 

orthodoxy

When visiting catholic churches keep feeling surprised  that the mass is not in Latin. And when I meet Russians wonder how come they don't know Dostoevsky. Or Marxist dialectic....

Ahead of the Times

This blog.
Could not figure out how my post on Saint Simon got  noticed. It turns out Jakie O was recommending his memoirs to her husband.
As to my Sunday post on smiling, See this on laughter.
Correction - Snobs do not smile,  they sneaker-.

Coffee-shop proper behavior

OH! To kill time in a coffee shop. So many ideas! So many words! Note them fast on a napkin. Throw it immediately in the waste basket.

To smile

A woman? Never to smile? She is crazy.

9-11

Why are innocent victims honored more than those who died as volunteers? Soldiers. Firemen. Explorers.
Probably people identify more with...

moved

Flags. We are conditioned to honor, salute, burn, follow...whatever.  Was walking aimless and suddenly saw this. It moved me.

Symbols of History.

Bastille was this terrifying stone tower.Few prisoners but a symbol of tyranny. So the people of Paris took it. The demolition contractor thought of a way of making money. He started to advertise the taking of the Bastille. Sent  troupes of actors around France to reenact the event.14 Julliet became famous  and the contractor became rich selling the stones from the demolition. Sold stone by stone, Never-mind these details. The French Revolution had been a real thing..
The Berlin Wall was a real thing as were the twin towers...

wtc

Bridge between the sky and the mound.

wtc

Z  A band of sunlight

the Internationale in vernacular.

I am going to jog today. And sing the Internationale. In the local version. Or is it the wrong date? The wrong beach? The wrong air?.

the loneliness of the long distance runner

There was this movie. Consider my case. I share my swim lane with a blind man. Play bridge with random partners. Golf alone. Fancy elitist activities. I'm bad at each. Everything I try  turns into another proof that I hare no talent or basic skill. I have no gift or deep knowledge.. Even this blog with my poor English is another addition. Whatever I try is  a failure or at best a mediocrity.

Earthquake, hurricane, tornado...

And nobody to blame ...Strange week.
Did I call my previous post Cherry Season?

Cherry Season

This year the cherry season seems without end. And I eat by the pound...
 When I was a kid the season lasted two weeks at most. We could afford to buy only once, rarely twice a year. Many years I would even miss entirely. This left a craving ...
Had also a craving for bananas.  By twenty six,  I had eaten not more than five bananas. Maybe fewer.  The first day in Paris I ate left overs from the plane food and the cake brought from home. The following day, with my ten francs I went shopping for food and noticed how cheap the bananas were. Spent all my money on bananas. Got serious stomach troubles as I did not realize they were raw. Since then....And still don't know how to peel one.
Had to wait till now for cherries...and yes I enjoy them although I know this season is a fabrication...
Mais ou sont les dames du temps de cerises

Homo sum...., latest version

The NOTAX dogma is evolving. New addition  - corporations are people. Yes, people without shame, compassion or ethics. This is the  republican man.
If one drills deep one can see that in  Romney's view the people are not as important as the corporations. Of course, his support does not come from the people but from corporations.
Interesting note-  the sacred? man, homo sacer, is nobody, it can be killed by anyone.

hee haw vs see saw

 The other day Obama in a major speech used "play the market". Lapsus linguae , suddenly the professor seemed  tongue twisted. Or did he mean it? ..
See Saw market. How do you know if you are in see or in saw.
Hee Haw was clearer  - gloom , dispair and agony. 
At the end the saw will cut you down.

Summer Stock Production

The fall of the market is entertaining. Like Rome set aflame by Nero. S&P downgrades the US debt and the money flows into the US bonds. S&P is probably unhappy with  the government spending tons of money to correct the mess created by the S&P failure to properly rate all the companies holding bad mortgages.

Daughter got married

Have a good life. Did not get drunk.

Out of step with no change

The deal on debt produced nothing. So why did the market tank? I understand when the market goes up following some unexpected good news. The news had been bad for a while. All these bright guys moving the markets did they really  expect major things? Why was the market high in first place? And now the debt rating of the US is lower. Nothing changed and nothing is surprising. Why was it not lowered a month ago?
Is it true that  the market is run by bots?
Hey bots, tell us the truth.

The vision thing

 The debate was about respecting the US contractual obligations. It also marks the moment when the country understood  it will need to contract. economically   Contract like in  no more ....

Cui prodest

Nobody liked this deal. Is this a rational criteria? So everybody can revel in the opponent's discomfort.Lose-lose strategy where the driving force is the hate of the other. A meeting of minds on the periphery of rationality.

Deadline, debtline

Deadlines are good. They force you to do things. But are these accomplishments? One does so many  foolish things because of deadlines.
This guy runs and catches the bus at the stop. He yells. Done This is it. Go.
 The conductor angrily shouts back: Why do you say done, when it is not yet done. Only when I say done, it is done.
Done'

a day at the races,nation's trifecta

Politics and democracy in action, totally enjoyable. All this theater, with hourly winners and losers. Falling stars in american politics. Or stars in falling America. Is this the culmination of the democracy  sold around the world. Here and there, the  extremists are the winners. Freedom for  the religious zealots, the haters, the elephants in must running toward each other.

Face Lift

At the National Press Club., Bachman was asked what political issue conflicts with her religion. Smiling and shrugging , she said 'Taxation". Was it humor? or simple honesty? Or just simple. Face lift to God or just face lift?

drop debt

beautiful NY Post headline. Reminiscent of the Daily News' in 1975
Not sure though, to whom it was addressed. The reader?

politics as a profession

he said, she said
No DEAL
Politicians cannot get a deal? US politicians? Striking dubious deals is their profession. They pledged? Come on? Since when a pledge matters? In a two party system you need to eat your principles, swallow your philosophy. Integrity is not expected.  Only extremists have integrity.

Negotiating CircUSA

owners and players, republicans and democrats.  Do they keep in mind that the show must go on? Two rings circus show.
And do they know that if everything fails one can always serve Pinot Noir?

20th century mustaches

Hitler  wins. After recount. It is interesting that Stalin killed more people on nationalistic than political grounds. What about Mao? Didn't have a mustache.

bellies no more

Pork bellies future trading is finished. No more. Why? Frozen bellies are out of favor. Well, we are left with gold...

de-fox-ication

maybe, maybe we will  clean our sheets. our very dirty sheets from being in bed with all these politicians. Why do I say WE? feel also guilty because I enjoy the NY Post everyday with my lunch. Or maybe this is because they just raised the price by a full quarter....

My blog

Why do people save their own pictures? Roi ne puis, prince ne daigne. Eske je suis...

Ukraina & me(mories)

My first woman was Ukrainian. She was pure and just wanted love. Much too much, of course. She was an Old Believer and spoke a language only few could understand.

circUSA

All this political dancing around cutting the deficit is a circus show. Circus show where the gladiators do not die at the end.  The spectators do. Thumbs up means death.  (Fox News would argue that thumbs down means death, just to establish a fair balance.)

Democracy of ideas

Truth is an idea well advertised.
Those who do the advertising become the experts in the matter.

Dense