Anniversary

At about this time five years ago today, I was waking up to a day as beatiful as this one, also slightly chilly, but by then, a whole lot of people had already died, and it pulsed a shock wave through the entire country, around the globe. This brough with it a shroud of numbness and pain and disbelief, which, for many, still hasn't completely lifted, and may never. Five years; I don't konw it that feels like a long time or not. Although the politicization of the 9.11, false yet frightening nationalism, and multitudes of trite linguistic treatments serve only to nauseate, they do not deny or negate the weight of the event. It's simply impossible to forget, and entirely deserving of memorial, in whatever form that may take for each and every one of us.

Missed Opportunities

So, the Mr. and Mrs. Greenpoint competition ended just hours earlier. Lord only knows the outcome; I didn't compete, as was my aspiration. Too many sissy gigs and late-nite beer swills over the last month, not enough Eye Of The Tiger. Oh well, maybe next year. But, as the Indians used to say, you don't have to win to be on the poster.

NPR Can Be Funny Sometimes Too

Maybe some of you were listening to All Things Considered on Tuesday around 5:50, and will be able to instantly relate to the following. If not, I highly recommend following the links and checking it out.

Robert Siegel interviewed John Hodgman about his new book, The Areas Of My Expertise, and nearly fell apart on several occasions throughout. I have never heard of Hodgman specifically before this, but have heard him unknowingly on This American Life, and those of you who own televisions which feed off of co-ax instead of antennae have probably seen him on The Daily Show now and then. He has a wonderfully dry humor which resonates strongly with my own in its steadfast belief in the sanctity of nonsense, and I, too, was in pieces for the majority of the bit. The book is described as "...an almanac of random, fascinating and utterly unreliable information," and on the show, Hodgman discusses one of his featured topics at length, that of "Hobo Matters." Here's what he has to say about the end of the hobo legacy:

Pearl Harbor happened and the hobos disappeared directly thereafter. No one knows what happened to them. Some say they joined the United States against the common enemy of Europe, others say that they went to the stars or to another dimension, others say they're still out there traveling the rails, singing bad songs from their rotted lungs. But most experts agree that they went to the stars.

He also gives credit to Hobo Joe Junkpan, underappreciated Secretary of the Treasury during the Great Depression, for such innovations as the repeal of the Overcoat Tax, as well as the tax on lakes of whiskey and stew.

But check out the audio. It's on the site, and you'll enjoy it. Also worth a peep is his short video on NPR. It's all there.

Yeah, I'll probably get the book. Nice to know that the insidious NPR promotional machine is doing its job.

And I don't apologize in the least bit for the lapse in posting. Sometimes it flows from my brain like sap from a freshly-tapped maple tree in late autumn, and at other times it's more like expecting to get sap out of a large piece of cheese. Lately, I fear, my blog brain has been that large piece of cheese.