Smooth operators . . .
Friday, January 16, 2026 Smooth operators . . . It's Freya's (Frigg's) day . . . Roller-coaster weather is in the forecasts for TulseyTown's weekend. Starting today, moderate to strong Northerlies are indicated bringing a cold front to the area. Mainly clear conditions while temperatures vary in the extreme: Today 50's, hard freeze tonight, blustery fridged Saturday, harder cold Sunday morning but a milder day, followed by another cold Monday. The week following settles down into freezing mornings and afternoon 50's. Winter in Okieland.
A scholar tries to learn something every day; a student of Buddhism tries to unlearn something daily. – Alan Watts
Aphrodite … seems less the goddess of human lovemaking, and more the goddess of the symbiotic fusions between species that create biological novelty. Aphrodite presides over a romance that transcends anthropocentrism. Or perhaps predates it. – Sophie Strand, “Aphrodite: Saint of Symbiogenesis,” in Make Me Good Soil, 1.16.26
What you can do to stop ICE's mayhem, outlined by Robert Reich, online, 1.06.26
Don't take the bait. – Joyce Vance, in Civil Discourse, 1.16.26
Don Quixote was published on this date in 1605. The novel by Miguel de Cervantes is considered to be the first modern novel.
Novelist, essayist, and cultural critic Susan Sontag was born on this day in 1933 New York City.
The poet and memoirist Mary Karr is 71 today. The author of The Liars' Club was born in 1955 Groves, Texas.
Sade is 69 today. The Nigerian-born British singer and songwriter was born in 1959 Ibadanin Nigeria . . .
. . . and, way ahead of Trump and Epstein.
The wind has no name. . .
Thursday, January 15, 2026 . It's Thor's day . . . The Winter roller-coaster continues in the forecasts for TulseyTown. Southerlies return with sunny skies and mid 50's ahead of another cold front and a deep freeze this weekend. As I write in this morning hour, it's nighttime in Jakarta, Indonesia where another of my besties lives. Mid 70's and thunder storms are forecasted for them after their sunrise.
Meditation is not about “getting control of your mind.” It's about letting go of the compulsion to control.
Martin Luther King Jr., was born on this day in 1929 Atlanta, Georgia.
The coronation of Queen Elizabeth I took place on this date in 1559.
The British Museum opened today in 1759.
Yesterday, a Federal panel in Los Angeles upheld California’s New Congressional Maps, siding with Gov. Gavin Newsom in a decision that will help Democrats counter Republican gerrymandering in Texas. Republicans are expected to appeal.
What you can do, beyond party politics. – Robert Reich, Mobilizing America, online 1.15.26
Winter Haiku
Creation whispers.
Winter rustles in last leaves.
I call it the wind.
– jab
The ordinarily rare . . .
Wednesday, January 14, 2026. It's Odin's day . . . Strong, gusty Northerlies are in the forecasts for TulseyTown today, bringing clouds, sunshine, and low 50's. Wind chill in the 40's is indicated until late afternoon. A hard freeze in the low 20's tonight. My besties in Panama are anticipating thunderstorms today.
May you embrace this day, not just as any old day, but as this day. Your day. Held in trust by you, in a singular place, this place called now. – Carrie Newcomer
What we call “meditation” was natural to us during our evolution, as we sat around a fire in the quiet darkness, or lay on the ground looking up into the stars, or tried to make ourselves disappear so an animal would come near. Notice that everything you usually take yourself to be is an object that can be observed. You can describe your body, your feelings, your thoughts, and your memories. If they can be known, they cannot be your true self, because their very existence implies a subject that knows them.
What is it that knows? What is doing this watching of the self?
Yesterday, the Clintons refused to testify in the House’s Epstein investigation, escalating a monthslong battle and effectively daring Kentucky Republican James Comer to follow through on his threats to hold them in contempt of Congress.
Today is the birthdate of Albert Schweitzer. The Nobel Prize laureate was born in 1875, Kaysersberg, Upper Alsace, Ger. (now in France).
Today is also the birthday of Osip Emilievich Mandelstam. The Russian poet was born in 1891 Warsaw and raised in the imperial capital of St. Petersburg.
Just For Joy
In the dense forest of life fear cannot be overcome.
Only kisses are left for us.
– Mandelstam, “Just For Joy.” composed in 1913 in a collection “Trista” and included in The Complete Poems (translated), University of New York Press, 1973
What we think is rare is not really so; what’s rare is our being open to it, right in the midst of the ordinary.