Your Lexicon (REDUX)

11.3.2016  (first published this week 2000)

I looked up the word "paradox" in the dictionary. I know what the word means but sometimes it's nice to see an official definition. Clears up any ambiguities. www.dictionary.com (a very cool resource) defines "paradox" as:

1. A seemingly contradictory statement that may nonetheless be true: the paradox that standing is more tiring than walking.

2. One exhibiting inexplicable or contradictory aspects: "You have the paradox of a Celt being the smooth Oxonian" (Anthony Burgess).

3. An assertion that is essentially self-contradictory, though based on a valid deduction from acceptable premises.

4. A statement contrary to received opinion. I like the number two definition.

At a Cubs / Giants game a couple years back my lovely sister wore a Giants cap and a Cubs jersey. I pointed a finger at her and said, "yer a damn paradox there, sister." (Anybody know what an Oxonian is? Look that sucker up.) It is, however, the number three definition that clearly conveys the paradoxical feeling I had the other day. I was being bad, but at the same time it was really good. I ain't gonna tell you details. (I don't want to tip my hand to the Sherrif's Department, if you know what I mean.) But there's yer paradox: Bad is good. Self-contradiction. Weird how that works out. I just wanted to share one of my favorite words with you. Tonight we trade favorite words and drink here:


The Homestead (a port of sanity in a sea of madness)
**NOTE** last official meeting of November.  Came quick, no?

One fella new to the list: Don. Hi Don. Really nice turnout at Latin American Club last week. Might as well make tonight's meeting, too.

TONIGHT'S CONTEST: Limbo.

TONIGHT'S DRAMATIC REENACTMENT: The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald. Players: Tama plays the Edmund Fitzgerald, "The Pride of the American Flag." ("The ship was the pride of the American side / comin' back from some mill in Wisconsin "); Moss plays iron ore. ("With a load of iron ore 26,000 tons more / than the Edmund Fitzgerald weighed empty"); Jerry plays Lake Superior ("The lake it is said never gives up her dead / when the skies of November turn gloomy"); (nameless) and Dee play the northeast winds and the wily northwest winds, respectively ("and late that night when the ship' bell rang / could it be the north wind they'd bin feelin'); Spark plays the waves breaking over the side ("The captain wired in he had water comin' in / and the good ship and crew was in peril"); and Clova plays the wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald ("and later that night when 'is lights went out of sight / came the wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald"). (You might guess that them lyrics are from that famous song. The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald; Lyrics by Gordon Lightfoot, Moose Music Ltd.)


Anybody see that lady sitting in her car in the parking lot yesterday? She was crying really hard. Weeping. I wonder if she's all right.

Another of my fav. words is "pariah." Haul your behinds to the 'Stead fer a shot. Bring yer pals. As always, I will. See you there! bye-ee!

whrr ... clik!

Bedtime for Democracy (REDUX)

11.2.2016 (first published this week 2004)

You ever get that "board-upside-the-head" feeling? For example, mebbe you live in a country you love and you respect your countrymen and have confidence they are pragmatic, intellegent people only to have the fact that the vast majority of them are ... um ... "not?" That is the "hit-by-board" feeling. Yeh, well I sure had that feeling, just the other day. I had me an idea about something and all of a sudden - BANG! - right upside the head. Here's the tale:

Not too many weeks ago I heard a news radio report that there was a DRAMATIC shortage of pole workers in the US. I thought: How horrible! I also thought: "Workers?" Pole "workers?" Since when did they call themselves "workers?" Perhaps they formed a national alliance of sorts, much like the strippers did in SF when they "Unionized." (I wondered if, in their unionization, the strippers considered a name-change too, something like, "Suggestive Erotic Clothing Sheddists (SECS)" or "Onstage Lingere Peelers.")

Union or not, the country seemed to be in a bad way for professional pole workers and report after report went across the radiowaves explaining the fact. I heard one report that ladies as old as 70 or 80 were coming out of retirement to answer the call. I thought: Good for them! Then I shook my head and thought: Ye Gods! An 80-year-old pole worker? One, I bet the tips won't be pouring in, and two, she better be careful up there or she could fall and break a hip!

The radio reports continued to say that, while the volunteership had helped, there was still a great shortage and some communities would suffer. I though it sad. Communities SHOULD be supported by enough pole workers.

THEN! and here's where the 2-by-4 comes into the story, then I switch on the torture of Election Day coverage on the TV this time (not the radio) and lo, there's a report about the pole workers. Only this time it's not POLE workers, it's POLL workers. WHAMMMM-O! Right in the bean. Then I thought: Fucking homonyms.

Tonight - Club Deluxe (by request)
Little Minsky's Burlesque and Variety Show - $7 cover / show at 10pm


bye-ee!
whrr ... clik!

A Century in the Making

11.1.2016  (first posted this week 1908)

CUBS WIN !!!
CUBS WIN !!!
CUBS WIN !!!

Tonight - The Wooden Nickel
Come taste victory. 


bye-ee!
whrr ... clik!