Saturday, November 28, 2020

One of Vermont's Flying Monkeys, atop the Burlington Train Station

 

33 comments:

  1. Around this time last year, Wil asked our now 13 year old grand if she might be studying Shakespeare in school. She replied “No, but I know who Shakespeare is. He wrote Romeo & Juliet, and The Wizard of Oz.”
    “The Wizard of Oz?” questioned Grandad Wil.
    “Well, maybe not The Wizard of Oz,” she replied..

    “Well, maybe!” thought Grandad Wil.

    He then spent a whole year creating a rendition of Frank Baum’s original book, as if it were written by William Shakespeare...!

    It is done...lifting nothing from the movie, as it has copyrights. So the slippers are the original silver, and the story is much more interesting and full than the movie, yet without the dated trappings in the book. I finally understand the magic in the story and what happened to the Tin Man and the others once Dorothy went home, etc. Best of all, he endnoted all the Shakespeare quotes!

    Since he has sent for a Library of Congress registration, I thought I’d mention it. I got my very talented DIL to paint a ceramic Christmas ornament with a flying monkey!

    🦁🐯🐻💚

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    1. Quite the family project! Last night I happened across Buster Keaton's last silent film--a Canadian travelogue made for the Film Board of Canada:
      The Railrodder [Click]
      You have my permission to share it with your grand. BTW, I think I saw there is now a colorized version of Keaton's "The General."

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    2. Very impressive, Listener. So you're married to Will the Quill, eh?

      /duck and run/

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    3. I call him Wil here.
      His full name is Wilfred.
      Many call him Bill, though.

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    4. Will the Quill is an irreverent nickname for William Shakespeare.

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    5. Does Will intend to publish the book? I've been looking into some of the options for my own book.

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    6. He really ought to. It’s truly that good. But these days, unless one self publishes, one needs either to find a publisher who will accept a manuscript from a first time author, or find an agent. We’ll see.

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    7. Self publishing is now worlds easier than it used to be.

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  2. Another mostly quiet night and day so far. Things have settled down to a routine. From now on, I'll only report if something unusual or interesting happens.

    Need to write notes to several people. I'm finally catching up on my sleep, but still tired. Why should that be? Sis and Dad are the ones working their fingers to the bone. I have no reason to be tired, exhausted even. It's another thing for me to feel guilty about.

    The sun just came out and is now shining brightly. That always helps.

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    1. Stress makes one tired, quite aside from anything else.

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    2. Yes, stress...and continuously holding up your Mom and family in your heart, hoping for the best outcome. It’s called prayer, and it exhausts monks too. ❤️

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  3. OHIO; COVID cases 406,703 and 6,378 deaths.*

    *Again, incomplete data.

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  4. Last night I happened across a YouTube video about why Saudi Arabia imports sand (desert sand doesn't work for concrete--too smooth). And once again (I just recently learned this) it was light brown in color. Where I grew up sand was mostly gray, with black sand in places, so of course I always thought that was normal. But the coastal mountains of central and northern California are made of mostly gray rock scraped off the bottom of the Pacific ocean by the North American Plate and metamorphised.

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    1. The sand in Prince Edward Island has high iron content, so it is “red” - literally as red as an Irish lassie’s red braids. The dirt roads are the same red. Beautiful with the lush green countryside and the deep blue ocean.

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  5. 19 Million Could Lose Homes as Eviction Limits Expire [Click] Please remind me of how well “the economy” is doing.

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  6. David Brooks: The Rotting of the Republican Mind [Click] He argues that precarity and unhappiness are the fertile field for delusion which the GOP cultivates, and that fixing it is the work of a generation.

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    1. And she is a "New Keynesian." We could use a horse pill sized dose of Kenyesian economic policy. IMO.

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  8. Today alone I have gotten 3 emails from Warnock asking for money and 6 for Ossoff, same thing.

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    1. I figure I've done about enough outside agitatin' in Georgia for this year.

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    2. I've contributed to both runoff campaigns, but figure that one contribution is enough.

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  9. With all eyes on Georgia, RNC chair tries to convince Republicans to vote in runoff elections [Click] “(CNN)At a Saturday campaign stop in Marietta, Georgia, Republican National Committee Chair Ronna McDaniel attempted to persuade Republicans to vote in the Georgia Senate runoff elections, even as voters expressed ambivalence about exp[e]nding ‘money and work when it's already decided.’” Oh, don’t you fret, Ronna.

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  10. Mariannette Miller-Meeks (R) remains atop Iowa’s 2nd District congressional race despite a Saturday recount in Clinton County that eroded her already single-digit lead to just six votes, the Iowa City Press-Citizen reports.

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  11. Washington Post: “The 20 days between the election on Nov. 3 and the greenlighting of Biden’s transition exemplified some of the hallmarks of life in Trump’s White House: a government paralyzed by the president’s fragile emotional state; advisers nourishing his fables; expletive-laden feuds between factions of aides and advisers; and a pernicious blurring of truth and fantasy.” [emphasis added]

    “This account of one of the final chapters in Trump’s presidency is based on interviews with 32 senior administration officials, campaign aides and other advisers to the president, as well as other key figures in his legal fight, many of whom spoke on the condition of anonymity to share details about private discussions and to candidly assess the situation.”

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    1. I particularly like the "fragile emotional state" part. I just can't see Trump attending Biden's inauguration--he wouldn't be able to bear it. And by that time his airplane ought to be making its landing approach to Abu Dhabi International Airport.

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    2. trump cannot stand to be *behind* anyone. Remember in 2017 when he shoved that Montenegrin Prime Minister out of his way so he could get to the front of the photo? He is such a pig. He can't go far enough away to suit me.

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    3. I maintain that it was a big mistake for him to pull out of Trump Tower Baku; that could have been a satisfactory bolt hole all around.

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  12. VT cases: 4033-4005=28
    1492active cases
    67deaths(2days)
    Recovered 2474 (+35)
    Hospital 16(-2) ICU 2(0)
    Tests 221,939 (+500)

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  13. Cindy McCain Is Reportedly Biden’s Top Pick To Be Ambassador To The U.K. [Click] If true, I thinkthat speaks volumes about the decline in importance of the UK.

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