I used to be annoyed by Ted Nugent in the '70s...

 But OK, if you want to come to a street-corner of Austin in 2025 and do all this... Congrats, Man.

Marco Rubio on Defending Western Civilization

John Lennon: Gimme Some Truth (1972)

While John Lennon was a radical leftist during this brief period from 1972 to 1973 when he wrote this, I relate the below to what I personally felt during the years after 2016, when Communist politicians (and their online cohorts) in the US were telling me I was "racist" because I was white, and forcing me to get a vaccine. And calling Trump "evil" just because he wanted to restrict the border invasion.

Lennon wrote this on behalf of his Commie friends in 1972, but I also relate it to what I felt in 2016, right up until today in 2026, when it comes to Communist politicians lying about the massive illegal immigration influx and lying about the DEI inability to run any type of government, even on the local level. 

And I related to the lyrics when I was an angry teenager, when I first discovered Lennon's music. (It's great for an angry, stupid teenager, a la me and Lennon; not so much for actual policy.)

I'm sick and tired of hearing things
From uptight, short-sighted, narrow-minded hypocritics
All I want is the truth
Just give me some truth

I've had enough of reading things
By neurotic, psychotic, pig-headed politicians
All I want is the truth
Just give me some truth

No short-haired, yellow-bellied son of Tricky Dicky
Is going to Mother Hubbard soft soap me
With just a pocketful of hope
Money for dope
Money for rope
Ooh oh

No short-haired, yellow-bellied son of Tricky Dicky
Is going to Mother Hubbard soft soap me
With just a pocketful of soap
Money for dope
Money for rope

I'm sick to death of seeing things
From tight-lipped, condescending, mama's little chauvinists
All I want is the truth
Just give me some truth, now

I've had enough of watching scenes
With schizophrenic, egocentric, paranoiac, prima donnas
All I want is the truth, now-now
Just give me some truth

No short-haired, yellow-bellied son of Tricky Dicky
Is going to Mother Hubbard soft soap me
With just a pocketful of soap
Money for dope
Money for rope

Ah, I'm sick to death of hearing things
From uptight, short-sighted, narrow-minded hypocrites
All I want is the truth, now
Just give me some truth now

I've had enough of reading things
By neurotic, psychotic, pig-headed politicians
All I want is the truth, now
Just give me some truth, now

All I want is the truth, now
Just give me some truth, now
All I want is the truth
Just give me some truth
All I want is the truth
Just give me some truth
All I want is the truth

The Beatles "Help!" (Blackpool Night Out, 1965)

Happy Birthday John Lennon, October 9

The time stamp has switched over to Oct 10, as I write this. 
But I'm remembering John on his October 9 birthday.

Hemingway Then and Now

I read most of Hemingway back in high school and college (1980s/1990s). Here's the "Hemingway portion" of my bookshelf up until earlier this month (sandwiched between Dawn Powell and Harry Crosby---I'm interested in that period; but I now think Hemingway deserves a shelf all to himself, as Fitzgerald currently has).

PBS did a 3-part doc on Hem (2021), which I did not see at the time, but just watched last month (in 2026). Which led me to my recent splurge of Hemingway used-book-buying:

I'm currently in the middle of last-wife-Mary's "How It Was." (Which is a mighty, 600-pg tome. She's a true reporter, with lots of WWII info; she doesn't meet Hem until nearly 200 pages in.)

NOT YET READ:

 
The Hadley bio is from 1992, so I'm guessing this will still be relatively not-political. (Though the reviews on Amazon are primarily from book-club members who have just recently read the 2011 novel "The Paris Wife." Same for reviews of "A Moveable Feast"---almost all are from "Paris Wife" readers.)

The Pauline bio is from 2012. (Still not in the realm of the Communist dogma phase that took over American media after 2016.)

Son Gregory bio: From 1976. Cross-dresser Gregory is currently known on Wikipedia as "Gloria." (And heaven forbid you try to correct that site!) I'm curious as to how much of his fetish he reveals in 1976.

Grandson John bio: 2019. Gregory's son. I highly doubt that anything interesting will appear here, unless he reveals creepy things about his father's fetish.

-------------------------------------

After this latest buying binge, I think I'm pretty much all caught up with Hemingway!
Note that I'm not all that interested in Martha Gellhorn and her career.
I thought that I might be---being an independent women, etc.
But: Her writing career wasn't that interesting to me at all, nor were her very brief years with Hemingway. RE the latter: At one point I read that she tried to avoid him in bed. 
OK... But why? Don't make nasty comments if you are not willing to explain yourself.

Dolly Parton: Save the Last Dance For Me (1984)

 

"RETURN TO SENDER: DECEASED"

I sell various items online, including a "Memento Mori / Memento Vivere" coin. Which translates from Latin as "Remember you must die" / "Remember to live."



Just yesterday, a coin I had sold to a man in Georgia in late August was returned to me with a yellow USPS label on the package: RETURN TO SENDER: DECEASED.

It's almost always men who buy this particular coin, and usually older men (with an older sense of honor, and a sense of their own mortality---one man even wrote to me that he was dying, but that this coin's motto was helping him through his last days). 

I immediately checked my orders to confirm the name and the address of who I had sent it to, and then looked him up on LinkedIn: It was a younger man, aged 34. From his buyer's profile, he was into Star Wars, and gaming, and various gaming paraphernalia. ("Memento Mori" is a "cool" concept in the online gaming world. A concept.) From his LinkedIn profile, he'd attended a local college for one year, then worked at a Dollar General store for 2 years, until 2015. After that, no job info online.

He ordered this coin on August 21. I mailed it out on August 26. 

On the morning of August 26, the house he lived in blew up:
https://hoodline.com/2026/08/rockmart-man-dies-as-explosions-rip-through-home-trapping-him-inside/

Various explosions were reported by neighbors on this morning, prior to 6am, before the house ultimately burned to the ground. (The fire department arrived within 10 mins, according to sources, but were unable to save the structure. They later found the body of one man, whose identity has still not been officially announced. And, as of October 2, I've been unable to find an obituary for this young man.)

Was it a gas leak? Was the house a crack/meth den? Why is there no online obit for him? Since the 8/28 online announcement of the explosion/fire at his exact address, there has been NOTHING to clarify what exactly happened there, or to identify the name of the man who died there. Why the lack of info?

What were this guy's hopes and dreams? In real life, he once worked at a Dollar Store years ago. He then began to gain a false sense of power through his online gaming identity, and perhaps his online purchases of "manly" coins. Well, OK: Many of us try to feel good through our various activities.

But what in the hell BLEW UP HIS WHOLE HOUSE?!

Surprise Surprise (John Lennon, 1974)

Sweet as the smell of success
Her body's warm and wet
She gets me through this God-awful loneliness
A natural high butterfly
Oh I, I need, need, need her
Just like a willow tree
A breath of spring you see
And, oh boy, you don't know what she do to me
She makes me sweat and forget who I am
I need, need, need, need, need her
Well, I was wonderin' how long this could go on, on and on?
Well, I thought, I could never be surprised
But could it be that I bit my own tongue?
Oh yeah, it's so hard to swallow when you're wrong
A bird of paradise
The sunrise in her eyes
God only knows such a sweet surprise
I was blind, she blew my mind
Think that I, I love, love, love, love, love her
I love her, I love her, I love her, I love her, I love her...

John Lennon: Going Down on Love (1974)

The first John Lennon solo song I ever heard. 
Age 15, in 1980, upon buying the 1974 "Walls and Bridges" album.

Got to get down, down on my knees
Got to get down, down on my knees
Doo-doo-doo-doo, doo-doo-doo-doo
Going down on love
Going down on love
Going down, going down, going down

When the real thing goes wrong
And you can't get it on
And your love, she has gone
And you got to carry on
And you shoot out the light
Ain't coming home for the night
You know you got to, got to, got to pay the price

Somebody please, please help me
You know I'm drowning in the sea of hatred

I got to get down, down on my knees
I got to get down, down on my knees
Doo-doo-doo-doo, doo-doo-doo-doo
Going down on love
Going down on love
Going down, going down, going down

Something precious and rare
Disappears in thin air
And it seems so unfair
Nothing doing nowhere
Well, you burn all your boats
And you sow your wild oats
Well, you know, you know, you know the price is right

Got to get down, down on my knees
Got to get down, down on my knees
Got to get down, down on my knees
Got to get down, down on my knees

Eyes Wide Shut (Kubrick's last film, 1999)

Up until a couple of weeks ago, I could have SWORN that I saw "Eyes Wide Shut" at the theater when it first came out back in 1999. 

Because: Back then, I used to see movies at the theater every week, because I like that sort of psycho-sexual theme, because it was Kubrick and his last film before he died. And because I had a memory of having seen it, and of being bored by Cruise and Kidman trying way too hard to act sexually decadent!

So when the film came on TCM recently, I was doing something else, but then tuned in about an hour into it. And I did not remember a friggin' thing about any of what I then was seeing! This time, I came in right when the Cruise character first went home with the hooker, then his wife calls, then he leaves the hooker out of guilt but still doesn't want to go home, so he goes to see his old friend play in a jazz club, then cadges the password to an exclusive decadent sex gathering and gets in way over his head...

I was watching in awe at what might be going to happen next!

And... If I HAD seen this movie in the theater, then why in the world would I not remember what actually happened?! It has nothing to do with "famous-couple" Cruise and Kidman trying unsuccessfully to be sexual together on film. Rather, it's a lot more psychologically interesting: Cruise and Kidman are married and bored with each other. (She actually pees in front of him; he doesn't notice her dress, etc.) During a generic high-end society party that they both attend, she dances suggestively with a stranger, and he is seduced by a couple of attractive women who want to lead him into a liaison...

Once home: When the Wife confesses to the Husband that she has often fantasized about other men (that night, and earlier) fucking her, Husband Cruise goes off on a true bender, all across New York!

How did I ever think I had seen this before?? My god, I would have remembered! 

(While viewing the 2nd half, I remembered to DVR the whole thing, and so got to see the beginning later on and then watch the whole thing in its entirety. WOW. And, yes, then went on Amazon and bought the collected stories of the Austrian author Arthur Schnitzler----his 1926 "Traumnovelle" based in Vienna was the impetus for this film.)

It's Only Love (Beatles/Lennon 1965)

I think this song, and John Lennon, were my first love.
This song came out in 1965, on the Beatles' "Rubber Soul" album.
I was born in 1965 and first heard this song in 1980.

I used to think John was so subtly sensitive.
He was---pre-Yoko's left-wing politics, and then while separated from her.

I get high when I see you go by,
My oh my,
When you sigh, my, my inside just flies,
Butterflies,
Why am I so shy when I'm beside you?
It's only love and that is all,
Why should I feel the way I do?
It's only love and that is all,
But it's so hard loving you.
Is it right that you and I should fight
Every night?
Just the sight of you makes night-time bright,
Very bright.
Haven't I the right to make it up, girl?
It's only love and that is all,
Why should I feel the way I do?
It's only love and that is all,
But it's so hard loving you.
Yes, it's so hard loving you...

21 vs 61

Back when I was 21, I had no lover. One Friday night, alone, I sat on my bed, looking up the Zodiac birthday signs of various poets in the anthology that I'd been reading. (I don't now remember what the prevalent sign was----probably Water or Air.)

40 years later, at 61, I again have no lover. One Friday night, alone, I sit before my computer...

Aw shucks...

Back in July, a French TV producer e-mailed me to see if I was willing to be interviewed for a documentary to be shown on the French/Euro TV channel Canal+ in May 2027, on the topic of "Why Joan Crawford Remains Relevant Even 50 Years After Her Death."

I readily agreed! 

I then had two choices: Either be interviewed in LA in July or NYC in October.  I chose NYC in October. (Aside from looking forward to talking about Joan for a TV program, I'd also lived in NYC from 2007 thru 2010, and was looking forward to seeing it again after 16 years.)

Alas, when the producer finally confirmed the October 9-10 interview dates earlier today, he also told me that his production company could not afford to pay for my airfare or hotel stay! 

Sigh.

I looked up round-trip airfare for Austin-NYC, and looked up low-level-but-decent NYC hotels. I would have been paying about $2000 for plane/hotel/Uber/etc over 3 or 4 days there.

Ya know----I'd love to be filmed talking about Joan Crawford for a Euro TV program that might be streamed later. But I also think that any reputable production company could afford to pay @ $2000 to fly in/house an interviewee. 

Only a couple of years ago, a local play director in San Francisco offered me a free ticket to his small Joan Crawford play. I flew out there (on my own dime) to see the play, because I hadn't been to San Francisco since my graduate-school days there in the mid-1990s and was looking forward to seeing the city again, and because I hadn't been ANYWHERE in years! It was a fun thing to do.

So I was thinking to myself about this current opportunity, once I knew that the producer didn't want to pay for it: OK, it's "only" $2000 or so... That's $2000 for a lifetime of memories and talking points: "When I Got Interviewed in NYC for a Joan Crawford Documentary"!  

But still... Any production company should be able to pay the basic airfare/hotel rooms for its interviewees. Being over the age of 40, I went with my logic.

So, alas, I won't be a part of this upcoming documentary on Joan. But I look forward to seeing it!

Lesbian Bar Finally Ditches Masks, Gets Grief from the Violent Sickly

 https://nypost.com/2026/09/22/us-news/massachusetts-lesbian-bar-nearly-bullied-out-of-town-after-lifting-mask-mandate-for-one-night/

A lesbian bar in Massachusetts just now, in 2026, finally got rid of its COVID mask policy. And immediately caught fire from some of its patrons:

“I hope your venue gets firebombed for robbing my fellow immunocompromised people of their Saturday plans just to scrape extra revenue from ablists [sic],” one commenter wrote on the western Massachusetts bar’s post announcing the change, the Boston Globe reported.

“People like you kill disabled people in the name of your own leisure and convenience,” wrote another, while a third said, “Just say you’re being complicit in a mass disabling event and get it over with.”

-------------

I'm old now and don't go out to bars any more like I used to, but... 

If I remember correctly, the whole point of going out to bars---yes, even to lesbian bars---as a younger person was (1) to dress up and look cute and try to meet people. And (2) to try to find a sense of community.

Gay bars were never a place for "immunocompromised people" and their "Saturday plans." If you're THAT "immunocompromised," shouldn't you be staying home in a safe environment rather than going out to city bars, which are surely the most "germy" places you can possibly find? 
No bar owner is trying to KILL you! (ha!) Bar owners are trying to make money by hosting a fun place for ABLEIST people to gather. The world is not about you DIS-abled.

The sky is falling! The sky is falling!

 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henny_Penny

Given the recent AI hysteria in the media, I was reminded of many other mass hysterias (all propagated by left-wingers) that I've experienced in my lifetime:

Nuclear Destruction. After the constant media "bomb scares" from the 1950s thru the 1980s, there is STILL a "Doomsday Clock" published by Communist academics today, saying how close we all are to death: https://thebulletin.org/doomsday-clock/

Y2K. Back in 1999, every media outlet claimed that all of our computer systems were about to be totally shut down once we reached the year 2000! OMG! (Nothing happened.)

Climate Change:  In 2019, Communist politicians like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (and many others like her) claimed that "the world will end in 12 years" because of climate change. https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/426353-ocasio-cortez-the-world-will-end-in-12-years-if-we-dont-address/  Wow---In 2026, we're only 5 years away!

AI:  As I've just been hearing everywhere on TV and online in the past week: AI is going to end human civilization within the next 10 years! OMG!  https://www.newsweek.com/will-ai-cause-human-extinction-10-years-asked-ai-12419575

Question: Why is it that the Communists among us (and their Media buddies) are always proclaiming the End of Civilization? Could it be that such Hysterics are historically mentally ill and should not be in charge of anything?

Hemingway Brain-Damaged Interview in Havana (1954)

The Ken Burns 3-part PBS documentary on Hemingway came out in 2021, but I only watched it just now (only the 2nd and 3rd parts; the 1st part not yet available via DVR).

The below is a 1954 NBC interview with Hemingway in his home in Havana, re his upcoming Nobel Prize award.

This breaks my heart. He's only 55, but has completely lost his ability to speak naturally.

Prior to this interview, he'd recently suffered two serious concussions in only two days while in Africa. I had not realized from reading any bios (only when I saw this video) how those injuries had affected him. I knew that he was incapacitated mentally in his last couple of years ('60 and '61), but watching this, I realized he wasn't himself after about 1954.

(He granted this 1954 interview with the caveat that he knew the questions ahead of time. But even with that: He was not even mentally sound enough to avoid saying "period" and "comma" as he read his text.)

Hemingway shot himself to death in 1961, but he was already dead here in 1954.