Wtf?

The Shirtless Horseman

Vladimir Putin sings "Blueberry Hill" in English at a children's cancer charity event in St. Petersburg in mid-December, 2010, according to ABC News, CBS News, NPR and just about everybody, but I missed it for a few days shy of 5 years.


Hi, Goldie and Kurt. Hi, Sharon. Nice peace sign, girl. Hey there, Kevin. Did you build this, 'cause people really did come? Hi, Mickey.

Wassup guys?

Here Comes the GOP Pride Parade!

A few important facts:

The right is having a moment of moral pride.

Some blame France for the attacks on Paris for its having allowed Syrian refugees into France in the first place and for EVER having had an open border.

Some blame the persons of the refugees themselves, forgetting or ignorant of the obvious truth tweeted by Dan Holloway: "To people blaming refugees for attacks in Paris tonight. Do you not realise these are the people the refugees are trying to run away from..?"

Some have been really sarcastic I-told-you-so-a-holes, like Rep. Jeff Duncan, of South Carolina, who said, “How’s that Syrian refugee resettlement look now? How about that mass migration into Europe?" Can't you just feel the memory bounce around in your brain of Sarah Palin's pre-mature gloat: "How's that hopey changey thing workin' out for you?"

Some have pounced upon the tragedy of the deaths or real human beings, people in France who loved their moms and dads, their kids, their pets, and were among those having a clearer recognition of the good and beautiful and a greater knowledge of how to create it than anywhere on earth. Republicans have appropriated this horror to use as ammunition in a PRO-GUN, MORE-GUNS America. The Donald tweeted "Isn't it interesting that the tragedy in Paris took place in one of the toughest gun control places in the world?" And Newt tweeted on Friday, "Imagine a theater with 10 or 15 citizens with concealed carry permits. We live in an age when evil men have to be killed by good people."

All this is prologue. The real business is about keeping refugees OUT of AMERICA. Forget the words on the Statue of Liberty. Anyway, who gave us that thing? FRANCE! Probably wanting to lay down a predicate when they might need our friendship and support. Don't laugh. These things happen. Don't forget how Stanley Ann Dunham Obama had a baby boy in Kenya, yet got the Honolulu newspapers to print his birth notice as an Hawaiian birth, stuck it in there with all the other local birth announcements, and she got the state of Hawaii, only in its second year as a state, to issue an Hawaiian birth certificate for that baby. She was laying down the predicate of citizenship because she knew that her little Kenyan boy would grow up to be President of the United States, but only if she did her part.

And you think violent terrorists are bad people. Hey, so do I. So what do you suggest we do with this embarrassing steaming pile someone's off-leash Rottweiler left at your front door - I refer to the Mississippi man, no, person, no, entity, entity will have to do - this Mississippi entity who bombed a Walmart to protest that business's no longer selling the flag of a country that fought against the United States, a government built by traitors to the United States, that sacrificed the lives of hundreds of thousands of young men to hold up an economy that was totally dependent on slave labor and on the sacrifice of hundreds of thousands of slave lives?

More Pride in Mississippi!
(please click)

Pope Francis! Why?

It dropped so low -- in my Regard --

I heard it hit the Ground --
And go to pieces on the Stones
At bottom of my Mind --

Yet blamed the Fate that flung it -- less
Than I denounced Myself,
For entertaining Plated Wares
Upon My Silver Shelf -- 

Emily Dickinson

The Pope knew he'd need to sneak around like a cheating lover in order to meet with KIM DAVIS. His spokesman said that Francis "thought it best not to detract" from his broader message and he didn't want to overwhelmed by questions about Kim Davis. See!! He knew he shouldn't do it, but he did it anyway, grabbing that clandestine moment to offer encouragement a most unChrist-like creature.

DETRACT? Dear Pope Francis, you have done way more that DETRACT from the message of Christ that you came to bring us, you know - that message that Christian, Hindu, Buddhist, Jew, and even atheist can follow to find an inner peace like no other. This peace comes from totally accepting, believing, WELCOMING the fact the you are responsible for each and every human being and for the earth we all live in. 

But you have NEGATED that. We are divided again. Believers vs. atheist. Rainbow vs. Rainbow Haters. Christian vs. Jew. Protestant vs. Catholic. Muslim vs. Infidel. Baptist (immersion) from sensible people who sprinkle. 

My God, can you imagine what life would be like, what the health of the planet would be like if more and more of us accepted this responsibility? We could be be for any religion or no religion, but we would work together to bring about that "Peace on Earth" that is at this point all talk and no action only at Christmas time.

But unlike Emily Dickinson, I sit here in the quiet and I DO denounce myself.

After all, the Pope is NOT Christ. He is a human being just like me, just like Kim Davis,

one who has made mistakes. I'm trying so hard.

But oh my. How I wish he had not done this. Or even that I just never knew.

First Pete, then Doc, now Jean.

Jean Ritchie with her dulcimer and her beautiful red hair
1922-2015

I loved Jean Ritchie. I "discovered" her and her mountain dulcimer in the seventies. Just as Pete Seeger inspired me to purchase a guitar, Jean Ritchie inspired me to make a dulcimer my own. You do not have to go through the bloody finger stage with the dulcimer because the strings are pressed with a "noter," for which some true Appalachians used many things, even a clothes pin. Usually, one string plays the same note, called a "drone," throughout a song, much like the droning sound always present in bagpipes. The cultural appeal of Ms. Ritchie and her music captured my heart and soul and never gave it back. 

Traditional Mountain Dulcimer

Jean Ritchie lived in Berea, Kentucky, home of the wonderful and unique Berea College. My first tenure-track job was at Eastern Kentucky University at Richmond, twenty miles or so north of the village of Berea. You could find me in Berea every week, always making a stop at the workshop where stunningly beautiful mountain dulcimers were made. You could watch the craftsmen at work. Ms. Ritchie graduated Phi Beta Kappa from the University of Kentucky in Lexington. She lived in New York for a time, and her husband made and sold dulcimers in his shop beneath the Williamsburg Bridge in Brooklyn. She was at her home in Berea when she passed away yesterday. 

Carnegie Hall, Royal Albert Hall, and the Newport Folk Festival were among her venues, and Doc Watson and Pete Seeger among the artists with whom she performed. I was blessed to see her at the very special Prism Coffeehouse in Charlottesville, Virginia, several times in the seventies and eighties. She literally changed my life, as I am sure she did for many others seeking to know Appalachia or seeking to know their mountain or Gaelic roots.

Jean Ritchie, savior of traditional Appalachian music, and her family could teach the world a thing or two not only about music, but also about the errors of folks' stereotypes about mountain cultures. 

Jean Ritchie 1922-2015. Rest in Peace. You are already missed. We loved you.

Jean Ritchie "Careless Love" 

The New York Times, June 2, 2015The New York Times, June 2, 2015, on the passing of Jean Ritchie June 1

A wonderful, loving story from the New York Times. After all, Ms Ritchie and her husband lived in New York for many years.

Jean and Doc Watson 

This year's special Pi day

It's 3/14/15 Wow! Happy Pi day of the century and it's a bit early for alcohol so I'm having a special latte at 9: 26: 53 am. This date/time will give us ten digits of pi: 
3.141592653 

Joseph Stromberg of Vox wrote: 

"Savor this moment. Appreciate it. Think of circles. It won't happen again until 2115, when you'll probably be dead." 

Pi is universal. It is the ratio of every single circle's circumference to its diameter, every circle past, present, real or imagined. 

Pi i infinite Pi literally never ends. We stop somewhere in math class arbitrarily, but that creates a false dead attitude toward the infinity of Pi in our children. They do not get enough infinity.

As Joseph said, "For the briefest of moments, pi will fill the gap in your soul."

Gene Wilder as the Fox in The Little Prince

The sweetest, most beautiful moments of the 1974 musical film of Antoine de Saint-Exupery's classic The Little Prince. Wilder has the sweetest, most beautiful face, perfect for playing The Fox, who gets to say the most important sentence in the book: It is only with the heart that one can see clearly; what is essential is invisible to the eye.



The little prince realizes on his own that now that he has tamed the fox, he feels responsible for him. Someone tamed me in the 1980's, but never felt responsible in any way. He will never know what he still costs me every day of my life.