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Sunday, January 6, 2019
Tuesday, September 26, 2017
I've moved my blog ...
Just in case you stumbled on this blog, or have read it before and would like to read more, I've migrated the best of the old posts to my new Wordpress® site, and now it's cooking with gas!
100% fake-news-free. I promise!
100% fake-news-free. I promise!
Tuesday, March 19, 2013
Capital Punishment
Many years ago I read a book about a family in France that were hereditary executioners from time immemorial. Everyone in the family belonged to the business. Once in a while someone would move away, change their name, and try to open a quiet shop somewhere in anonymity. Once their their actual identity got out, however, they would be shunned and ultimately had to return to the family business. The last execution in France (sometime if I remember correctly in the 1940's), by guillotine, was carried out by one of their descendants.
One of the many many horrific anecdotes in the book was about an aristocrat who knocked on the first door he could find in a drenching rainstorm. As it sank in whose home he was in, he began to poke around with horror-tinged fascination. Hanging on one wall was a massive, heavy sword that could easily lop a head off in a single swipe, compared to many situations where people were hacked on like logs. He said that if he ever was sentenced to death, he wanted them to use that sword on him.
Oh well sure enough he was condemned some years later, and the family sought to honor his wish. Except that the only two people in town that day were an eight-year-old boy and a frail, elderly man. So the fellow put his neck on the block, and the kid lifted the unwieldy monster of a sword and lopped off the guy's jaw. After a couple more similar swipes, the old man leapt onto the platform, bursting with adrenaline, chopped the head off in a single smooth blow, and dropped down dead.
Totally. No shit.
One of the many many horrific anecdotes in the book was about an aristocrat who knocked on the first door he could find in a drenching rainstorm. As it sank in whose home he was in, he began to poke around with horror-tinged fascination. Hanging on one wall was a massive, heavy sword that could easily lop a head off in a single swipe, compared to many situations where people were hacked on like logs. He said that if he ever was sentenced to death, he wanted them to use that sword on him.
Oh well sure enough he was condemned some years later, and the family sought to honor his wish. Except that the only two people in town that day were an eight-year-old boy and a frail, elderly man. So the fellow put his neck on the block, and the kid lifted the unwieldy monster of a sword and lopped off the guy's jaw. After a couple more similar swipes, the old man leapt onto the platform, bursting with adrenaline, chopped the head off in a single smooth blow, and dropped down dead.
Totally. No shit.
Wednesday, December 23, 2009
My Last Holiday Supper
So
You're all through learning when to say “Shit,” and when “Hell,”
schooled in the ins and outs of polite society.
And then you have another problem: Dinner.
Your education in theology could help.
GOD'S HEAD PUDDING
1 part Easter snagged in a rabbit-proof fence.
2 parts Good Friday nailed to a god-proof cross.
Sever.
Marinate one week in holy water.
Cook on high until it all boils down to this:
Eternal Godhead on a platter—
and one god damned slab of meat—
You're all through learning when to say “Shit,” and when “Hell,”
schooled in the ins and outs of polite society.
And then you have another problem: Dinner.
Your education in theology could help.
GOD'S HEAD PUDDING
1 part Easter snagged in a rabbit-proof fence.
2 parts Good Friday nailed to a god-proof cross.
Sever.
Marinate one week in holy water.
Cook on high until it all boils down to this:
Eternal Godhead on a platter—
and one god damned slab of meat—
Monday, September 28, 2009
Saturday, September 19, 2009
Yale University Library Digital Archives
Here are some Gurdjieff-related pictures in an archive at the Yale University Library, in their amazing digital collection:
Raw links to selected items of interest:
- 1071676.jpg
- 1071678.jpg
- 1071680.jpg
- 1071689.jpg
- 1072439.jpg
- 1072441.jpg
- 1072443.jpg
- 1072445.jpg
- 1162486.jpg
- 1162489.jpg
- 1162493.jpg
- 1162487.jpg (Funeral)
- 1162496.jpg (Funeral)
- 1162498.jpg (Funeral)
- 1080767.jpg (Jane Heap)
Oh, and one more document you might like to see, just for fun.
Thursday, September 17, 2009
Health Care Reform
We need a total reorganization of the way people pay for health care services in our country. I mean, we need to come together to find a way to get the millions of uninsured & underinsured people the security they need. But it's dangerous ground. We've all seen it time and time again. People get together to help one another—all pitch in to clean up after a hurricane—and the first thing that happens, over and over, right out of the box—they start killing each others' grandparents. Just like clockwork.
We need a total reorganization of the way people pay for health care services in our country. I mean, we need to come together to find a way to get the millions of uninsured & underinsured people the security they need. But it's dangerous ground. We've all seen it time and time again. People get together to help one another—all pitch in to clean up after a hurricane—and the first thing that happens, over and over, right out of the box—they start killing each others' grandparents. Just like clockwork.
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