It's about time . . .
Wednesday, January 21, 2026
It's Odin's day . . . forecasts for TulseyTown indicate moderate Northerlies and a mild afternoon in the 50's. A Winter storm watch goes into effect beginning at Friday Noon extending into Sunday morning.
Lots of birthday notices in the mailbox this morning . . .
Yesterday: Film director and screenwriter David Lynch was born 1946, Missoula, Montana. He died this past week. Another film director/screenwriter, Federico Fellini, was born in 1920, Rimini, Italy; and Astronaut Buzz Aldrin turned 96, born in 1930 Montclair, New Jersey.
Born on today’s date...
Plácido Domingo is 85 today. The Spanish-born singer, conductor, and opera administrator was born 1941 Madrid, Spain.
The French designer Christian Dior was born in 1905, Granville, France.
And, blues singer and songwriter Huddie “Lead Belly” Ledbetter was born on or around this day in 1888 Mooringsport, Louisiana.
Researchers at Harvard University and the University of Virginia have answered a perplexing question: Why do most people reflexively reach for their phones during any moment of downtime? Turns out they can't abide being alone with their thoughts. Some, mainly men, would rather give themselves electric shocks. – Science.
( Understatement: Those who can't stand being alone with their thoughts probably are not readers of this blog. )
Has time always been a line? Turns out: Not always. – Emily Thomas (Professor of Philosophy at Durham University, UK), writing in Aeon.
The Thing About Time
Time is a word, a symbol
standing in the place of an experience
at best ephemeral.
The same holds for the place name,
for that of “space.” Yet we insist
our illusions constitute a quality
we have named “thing.”
“Aye,” there's Hamlet's rub:
naming.
Naming fixes the named with status.
Manana is not the same “thing” as
10:45 a.m. tomorrow, yet
for millions of peoples and years
was a quite adequate name for time,
as was and were the experiences
of sunrise, sunset, and phases of the moon
and seasons, all independent of their names
some with no referent for yesterday,
nor tomorrow. This morning I sent
birthday anniversary greetings to my
long-time friend Sallie. A return email
“thanks” noted I was a whole 7-day week
early and it acknowledged “James...we've never been
tied to linear time.”
Her sign was followed by
an x and an o.
Twice. -- jab
Hurdy-gurdy chaos . . .
Tuesday, January 20, 2026. It's Tiw's day . . . Moderate Southerlies return to TulseyTown. . Forecasts indicate a much warmer day that yesterday as the Winter roller-coaster continues. Sunshine and 50's in the afternoons until the freezing returns Friday.
We are watching one of the wildest things a nation-state has ever done. A superpower is [dying by] suicide because the [Republican] Congress is too cowardly to stand up to the Mad King. This is one of the wildest moments in all of geopolitics ever....In just a year since his second inauguration, Trump has torn apart the work that took almost a century of struggle and painstaking negotiations from the world’s best diplomats to build. – Heather Cox Richardson, in Letters From An American, for 1.20.26.
The Davos conference of the world's richest is devolving into crisis mode over Trump and Greenland. – WAPO, 1.20.26
Monty Python would have a field-day. – Robert Reich, Greenland? 1.19.26
Bull Connor's ghost. – Joyce Vance, in Civil Discourse, 1.20.26
Concertina for Broken Banjo and Hurdy Gurdy
I am not a part of a circle. I have no 'gang' to blame
or hit up for lunch money. But, in the fog-mist-
emotional-fringe of a town that celebrates honky-tonk
while struggling as a wannabe-a-city in the middle of nowhere,
frightened of its possibilities,
I am not alone.
Chaos brings the best out of a few of us
who, nonetheless, have no idea
where any of us live.
And
maybe
don’t care.
– jab
Extraordinary heroes . . .
Monday, January 19, 2026. It's the Moon's day . . . and it is a new moon as the earth is hiding the sun's light. One might think the sun is hiding from TulseyTown today as Winter takes hold. Forecasts indicate a cloudy day with moderate to strong Northerlies holding temperatures to near freezing all the long day, with a slight chance for some snow. Milder conditions return tomorrow. Snow is forecast likely for Friday and Saturday.
People are wrong to say that we have no heroes left. Just as they have always been, they are all around us, choosing to do the right thing, no matter what. As a reminder, today is Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. – Heather Cox Richardson, in Letters From An American, 1.19.26..
This week could become an extraordinary moment in American history....Trump seems to be on course to become the first President to direct the use of U.S. military forces against American citizens during peacetime. – Joyce Vance, The Week Ahead, in Civil Discourse, 1.19.26.
Today is the birthdate of Paul Cézanne. Born in 1839, Aix-en-Provence, France, he challenged all the conventional values of painting in the 19th century
Dolly Parton is 80 today. She was born in 1946, Locust Ridge, Tennessee.
Janis Joplin, another singer/songwriter from outside the box, was born on this day in 1943, Port Arthur, Texas, as well, a home town for me for a few years during my teaching years. In her short time, she was often called the original queen of rock and roll.
And, the poet Edgar Allan Poe was born on this day in 1809, Boston, Massachusetts.
A correct view of human nature must be rooted in a recognition of our ongoing relationship with the anima mundi, of how fully our lives are entangled with one another, with the stand of oaks, the night herons, the marginalized, the brokenhearted. – Francis Weller, Notes On Living Through Uncertainty, in The Marginalian.
All My Heroes
All my heroes slain by a culture
they dared occupy as a truly
free person in love with everyone.
My culture demands everything
and everyone fit into a compartment –
a defined box not to be stepped beyond.
Artists, poets, musicians, painters,
seers, prophets calling for justice
from a platform of love
even when sounding like rage
have never been beyond those
with eyes to see, ears to hear.
We can get beyond where we are now
but we cannot prescribe nor predict
what lies beyond the horizon.
We could act from the Truth of Love
with the awareness of the risk implied
by trusting one another.
That day will come. But the price
will be high and we are still arguing
about who will pay the greater share.
The real heroes live now among us
and will not be recognized
until they've left us.
That's how frightened we are
inside the boxes we continue to build
for everyone, including ourselves.
– jab
That said, there will come a light on a clear blue morning.