Spinning fairy tales . . .
Friday, February 28, 2025. It's Freya's (Frigg's) day . . . and the Spring rollercoaster continues here in TulseyTown with an almost Summer day near 80º with moderate to strong Westerlies and lot's o'sunshine. Tomorrow? Colder, of course.
For half a year the alphabet blinded me to beauty. – Jim Harrison, In Search of Small Gods. Copper Canyon Press, 2009
No surprise: Der Trumpenfurher crowd moving to strip women of power. – Amanda Marcotte, online at Salon 26 February 2025.
Ordering coffee? Stir up a Canadiano next time, toss the other one.
Speaking of Canada, the Canadian American architect and designer, Frank Gehry. is celebrating his 96th birthday today. The creator of some of the most original, sculptural, often – to some – audacious work was born in 1929, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
And, the Irish American novelist Colum McCann turns 60 today. The international award winner for Let the Great World Spin was born in 1965 Dublin, Ireland.
Some day you will be wise enough to start reading fairy tales again. – C.S. Lewis
Old cats and imperishable greed . . .
Thursday, February 27, 2025. It's Thor's day … and the forecasts for TulseyTown indicate clear, sunny skies with upper 60's, with easy Northerlies becoming Westerly later. The mailbox this morning was overflowing with flotsam and jetsam reminders of calendar events.
A rare 7-planet parade is moving in the night sky tonight across TulseyTown.
And, it's a New Moon in sync with Losar (Tibetan New Year) which begins today. It's the beginning of the Year of the Wood Snake, which represents a time of wisdom, reflection, and personal transformation. The resourceful Wood Snake empowers us to shed the skin of our past, embrace new beginnings, and pursue long-term goals with patience and diligence. May you embody the characteristics of this powerful symbol and enter the new year with clarity and courage.
Trump and the Republicans have a math problem. Parallel metaphor: they're swimming against the stream. – Heather Cox Richardson, in Letters From An American.
Trump went full Napoleon Bonaparte when he crowned himself king. After the predictable uproar that followed, it was passed off as a joke . It wasn't, and there is no pass for such a real threat. – Joyce Vance, Civil Discourse.
In this environment, [journalists] trading soft coverage for better access is going to fail not just our various audiences, but American democracy itself. – S.V. Date at Huffpost.
Before Trump took office, the number of people employed by the U.S. government was at about the same level it was 50 years ago, although the U.S. population has increased by about two thirds. What has increased dramatically is spending on private contractors, who take profits from their taxpayer-funded contracts. Project 2025 is fully under way. – Heather Cox Richardson, in Letters From An American, 2.26.25
I don’t think it is possible to contribute to the present moment in any meaningful way while being wholly engulfed by it. It is only by stepping out of it, by taking a telescopic perspective, that we can then dip back in and do the work which our time asks of us. – Maria Popova, “The Consolations of the Telescopic Perspective in Disorienting Times,” in The Marginalian, 26 February 2025,( reposted from 12/21/2017).
...they are coming for the judges. And not just the judges. Already they have come for federal employees, transgender people, immigrants, lawyers, the press, epidemiologists, scientists, and more. The time for all of us to speak up and join forces to protect each other is now, before it is too late.
We’re in this together – Joyce Vance, Civil Discourse,
Calendars
...another year has passed, or so they say, but
calendars lie...I learned to jump off the calendar
but I kept getting drawn back on for reasons
of greed and my imperishable stupidity...
I had to become the moving water I already am,
falling back into the human shape in order
not to frighten my children, grandchildren, dogs and friends.
Our old cat doesn't care. He laps the water
where my face used to be.
– Jim Harrison, “Calendars” in In Search of Small Gods. Copper Canyon Press, 2009.
Ripples without pebbles . . .
Wednesday, February 26, 2025. It's Odin's day and the roller-coaster Spring heads toward March here in TulseyTown.
...after a brief honeymoon period for Mr. Trump and Republicans at the start of their governing trifecta, voters beginning to digest the effects of their agenda may be starting to sour on it. – Robert Jimson, The New York Times, 2.25.25
From the in-case-you-didn't-know mail:
Elon Musk’s business empire is built on $38 billion in government funding...Nearly two-thirds of the $38 billion in funds have been promised to Musk’s businesses in the past five years.
Speaking of bad boys... one of the bad boys of the Renaissance, playwright Christopher Marlowe was baptized in Canterbury, England, on this date in 1564.
Today is the birth date of Victor Hugo. The author of The Hunchback of Notre Dame and Les Misérables was born in 1802 Besançon, France.
Today is also Johnny Cash's birthdate. He was born in 1932, Kingsland, Arkansas.
And The rock'n'roll pioneer Fats Domino was born on this day in1928, New Orleans, Louisiana.
Lots of popular culture songs mirror spirit behind images of secular love affairs.
Anne Lamott has a new book just published: "Somehow" ... in it she shares that her favorite song -- sung at her wedding and requested for whenever her funeral is held -- is "Ripple" by The Greatful Dead. Mirrors much about The Dead, Anne, me, us, even the ripples on The Watercourse Way.