Cacian
Grahame Greene used to write down his dreams as soon as he woke. I do it also and sometimes try and incorporate them in my stories. Unfortunately, they are not as erotic as those of Sancho. Mine are wierd. Most recent one this month was an air line steward taking my pulse in the same room I was sleeping in. So realistic that I began to question whether one's guardian angels are now cabin crew.
The Software doesn´t permit direct quotes anymore so:
@ cacian: Tks for joining!
@Sancho- Good idea to put the story of the barber also in the short story section.
and @ Manichaean, I hope for sequels of your Corona novella.
"I seemed to have sensed also from an early age that some of my experiences as a reader would change me more as a person than would many an event in the world where I sat and read. "
Gerald Murnane, Tamarisk Row
Ah fond memories of happy endings, eh?
Unfortunately it wasn’t one of those dreams. I keep hoping for that sort of thing, but mine always wind up more like Bugs and Elmer in “The Rabbit Of Seville” :
https://dai.ly/x301k1t
At any rate, one thing that’s been reassuring during a time of covid is watching the way some businesses roll with the punches. A local distillery for instance pivoted and started bottling hand sanitizer - and selling it for twice what they sell their rock-gut for. Well done, mon frere.
And speaking of the Vietnamese, Manichaean there’s a hole-in-the-wall Pho restaurant near where I live. Three generations of the same family run the place. They’re in what used to be a barbecue joint, so the ambiance is strange combination of Southeast Asian sensibility and Cowboy kitsch:
You order your food at the counter. Then you head over to the chuck wagon where they have an orderly array of napkins, forks, spoons, knives, chopsticks, and condiments. Then you find a seat in one of the many booths, most of which have duck-taped vinyl seat cushions. If you want to wash your hands before the meal, the “‘Lil Cowpokes’s” room is right under a panoramic poster of the Da Nang shoreline.
Oh yes and the food is fantastic.
Anyway Washington State underwent a lockdown sooner than most states, and while other local restaurants wasted time whining about the restrictions, ranting about government overreach, and lobbying for a bailout, the Pho/BBQ joint moved at lightning speed. They streamlined their menu, ratcheted up their online ordering system, repurposed their outdoor dining area (aka the parking lot) into a drive through pickup area, and they’ve been killing it ever since. Killing it! There’s always a line on cars out front.
Good old American ingenuity, Vietnamese style.
Uhhhh...
Sancho
I keep in touch with a lot of friends in Vietnam still and one cannot but be impressed by the level of State control in this pandemic. Hence the low number of cases. If someone in a village tests positive, all roads in and out are closed down with police check points. Towns also if need be as in Da Nang. Don't even think of arguing about individual rights or freedom of expression in not wearing a mask. Its not democracy, but by Harry its effective.
No doubt about it. We can’t even seem to do the simple stuff, like wearing a mask.
Plato’s allegory about a ship of fools may be an appropriate literary tie-in for what’s happened in the U.S. of A. (Also a pretty good tune by the Grateful Dead)
Anyway, I think the people who refuse to mask up because it’s a violation of their personal freedom are missing pretty important caveat to how personal freedom works in a democracy:
You are free to do as you please — SO LONG AS YOU HARM NO ONE ELSE.
The jury’s no longer out on masks. Clearly not wearing a mask violates the above rule. And that brings me back to Plato’s allegory, or at least the first line of the Garcia/Hunter version of it:
Went to see the captain, strangest I could find...
Not to mix metaphors or anything, but our captain over here has totally left the reservation.
Uhhhh...
Hi Sancho
Perhaps I'm being simplistic in thinking that the response of different nations to the pandemic reflects their national stereotypical characteristics: the "frontier" American individualist, or the phlegmatic Brit; the latter only taking it seriously when his back is against the wall.
The reference to Plato's dysfunctional crew in "The Republic" is a good one, and the circumstances are reflected this side of the Pond as well with our bronze star in mortality rates.
Perhaps Sisyphus rolling his boulder up the mountain, only to see it roll down again would be appropriate too.
Have you read Camus's "The Plague" lately?
All good references, M.
Boris certainly had his back against the wall. How much do think his experience with Covid changed the citizenry’s attitude towards it? Our guy got it too, but after a short stay at Walter Reed Army Medical Center he used it to score political points. So I’m thinking “frontier individualism” may be a charitable way of putting it. I’d go with “bone headedness”.
I read “The Plague” back in school and then again in ‘02 as we were getting involved in our Middle Eastern adventures. So I suppose I was reading it as plague being an allegory for war or political ideology. I could probably stand to read it again; I remember Camus had some excellent descriptions of how the towns people interacted with each other as the disease moved through Oran.
The book I’ve been thinking about lately is Joseph Heller’s comic novel, “Catch-22”. This one I read in high school (mid 70s). It’s about an Army Air Corps Bomber Wing in the North African Campaign of WWII. If plague can stand in for war, then the converse should work as well. But in particular what I was thinking of is how information, misinformation, rumors, and conspiracy theories travel at times like these. It seems that good, solid, peer reviewed scientific information oozes, but crazy conspiracy theories go at the speed of fart stink.
Anyway, in the book the Wing has been volunteered for a risky mission to Bologna. One of the pilots, Capt Yossarian, drunkenly starts the rumor that the Germans have a new anti-aircraft gun — the 344mm Lepage Glue Gun. It can glue together a whole formation of bombers in midair. In a very short time the rumor has come full circle and another officer informs Yossarian something like - You guys are screwed. Have you heard of the German’s Lepage gun?
- The virus can live on a door knob for two full weeks
- People in NYC are getting it through the building ventilation system
- My uncle got it from eating Chinese food
Uhhhh...
Ever yearn for a Patrician society? The City State had it in Ancient Greece, but on a small scale. Rome had it in its early stages too.
Whats the saying, "History is the youth of the World?" If so, where are we now? Middle age, or in our dotage? There was initial sympathy for Boris when he was in intensive care, but many easily led, now recognise a con job: oven ready deal for Brexit, world beating track & trace for the virus, a cordon thrown around care homes etc etc. All spin, no substance.
When I look at Trump I remember the story of Howard Hughes in his recluse years, surrounded by some religious sect minders. He was ill. Grew his nails to an extreme, stored his **** for posterity ( literally). Nobody close enough, or strong enough to say, "Boss you need treatment."
"Catch 22." The funniest book i ever read right from Page 1 Yossarian having that conversation with the guy wrapped in bandages. I must have read it 5-6 times. And Major Major Major!!! What a character. And everyone has a share.
Alright, I gotta go do battle with the spiders and dig that book out of a box in my basement. Surfed around the web a bit for quotes. This one cracked me up. Things haven’t changed much:
“Major Major's father was a sober God-fearing man whose idea of a good joke was to lie about his age. He was a long-limbed farmer, a God-fearing, freedom-loving, law-abiding rugged individualist who held that federal aid to anyone but farmers was creeping socialism. He advocated thrift and hard work and disapproved of loose women who turned him down. His specialty was alfalfa, and he made a good thing out of not growing any. The government paid him well for every bushel of alfalfa he did not grow. The more alfalfa he did not grow, the more money the government gave him, and he spent every penny he didn't earn on new land to increase the amount of alfalfa he did not produce. Major Major's father worked without rest at not growing alfalfa. On long winter evenings he remained indoors and did not mend harness, and he sprang out of bed at the crack of noon every day just to make certain that the chores would not be done. He invested in land wisely and soon was not growing more alfalfa than any other man in the county. Neighbors sought him out for advice on all subjects, for he had made much money and was therefore wise. “As ye sow, so shall ye reap,” he counseled one and all, and everyone said, “Amen.”
As for a patrician society, I guess I’ve always associated it with the slave-holding planters of the pre-20th century American South rather than with the ancient Greeks or Romans. So I’ve got a reflexively low opinion of that idea. Also, it seems to me, whenever blood rather that merit determines status, every few generations a recessive gene pops up and you wind up with a mad king (or massa’). The irony of that position of course is not lost on me given the nature of the popularly elected leaders of both our countries.
Uhhhh...
Today was the initial rollout of the vaccination programme in the UK. First in line was a 90 year old lady who turns 91 next week. The name of the second person to take the jab; "William Shakespeare !!!!!"
Haha
I’ll bet Isaac Newton is pretty close to the front of the line too.
Uhhhh...
Sure. He belongs to the over 90 group. Mrs. Margaret Keenan and said William Shakespeare went into History today,Shakespeare for the second time.
Congrats UK!
"I seemed to have sensed also from an early age that some of my experiences as a reader would change me more as a person than would many an event in the world where I sat and read. "
Gerald Murnane, Tamarisk Row
Here in Sweet Albion it looks like; that to the problems sustained by Covid, we now have added the potential adverse consequences of a Brexit No Deal.
Boris last evening dashed off to Brussels for a dinner with Ursula, but the portents are not good.
Risk assessments to date include a potential 40% rise in the price of French cheeses. We will revert to our traditional Cheddar. And the French will suffer from a dearth of Dover Sole, as we take back our fishing rights in the Channel.
This weekend will witness the unedifying & unexplainable emptying of toilet rolls from the shelves as well no doubt.
Last edited by MANICHAEAN; 12-10-2020 at 11:00 AM.
12.14.2020- Congrats US!
"I seemed to have sensed also from an early age that some of my experiences as a reader would change me more as a person than would many an event in the world where I sat and read. "
Gerald Murnane, Tamarisk Row
I echo that. Over 3,000 deaths a day is horrendous.
Perhaps the beginning of the end.
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