Jane Lynch: King of the Road

Just bought the Jane Lynch Christmas album!

You've Still Got a Place In My Heart (George Jones, 1984)

From "Daffodils" (Ted Hughes)

...Our lives were still a raid on our own good luck.
We knew we'd live for ever. We had not learned
What a fleeting glance of the everlasting
Daffodils are. Never identified
The nuptial flight of the rarest ephemera--
Our own days!

We thought they were a windfall.
Never guessed they were a last blessing.

Octopus's Garden (The Beatles: 1969)

Austin: 2020

 From my apartment complex's weekly mail:

"Hi i lost a package with a octopus skirt. If you have it please knock on [apt number]."

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





I lost a package with a octopus skirt
Eight arms to hold me, but no desert
Misplaced the article, but it can't hurt...

If you have it, please knock, and I'll let you in
The octopus knows where we've been...

Murdered

I have one friend that I used to be psychically close to. I predicted the death of her mother, and her pregnancy. (The death of her mother in the late '80s: I dreamt I was looking at a September calendar, with the dates "30" and "31" circled. There is no "September 31." Her mother died on September 30. The pregnancy in the mid-'90s: I'd dreamt she was pregnant and told her about it during a phone conversation; she laughed it off. The next month: She was pregnant.)

I haven't talked to her in years, but: Early this Sunday morning, I dreamt that this friend and I had gone to an Irish bar in New Jersey. I had left early and gone back to a hotel to sleep. I woke up with my friend not lying beside me. I then went back to the bar that morning to find out where she was. Police were there; her throat had been slashed. (Side-dream-crime-note: A former work friend of mine had also been at the same bar and had attempted to get away in her car; the murderer had caught her also and slashed HER throat. Quite a scene!)

I haven't been in touch with this friend for over 10 years. And I certainly don't wish her ill, so I don't think it was my own psyche at work. (Same with the addendum work friend who also got murdered in the dream----sorry, y'all!)

Posting it here as a psychic record, just in case.

Smoking

Yes, smoking is bad for you. I've been told for decades. But it's only now that the warnings are making sense.

Because of the Wuhan virus, I've been working from home since late March.

Normally at a job, my habit was to smoke two cigs in the morning before work, then one at lunch, then one in the afternoon, then one on my way home in the car (then a bunch once I got home if I was working on my Joan website that evening). A total of 15 to 20 cigarettes per day.

While working from home, though, I've been smoking like a proverbial chimney. About 15 cigarettes during work hours, then another 15 or more after-hours.

Waking up the next day coughing terribly, with great shortness of breath. This hacking has gone on for weeks now. It's embarrassing. One thing about me is my vanity: I'm embarrassed to be coughing and hacking like an old, decrepit woman.

This past Friday, I tried limiting myself: One cigarette only at the top of every hour. That lasted successfully during the day, and up until about 7pm... when the post-work beer kicked in and I also couldn't stop lighting a new cigarette at the very end of the last one. Woke up the next day again coughing terribly.

I've been chain-smoking for hours as I write this on a Sunday evening... But I KNOW I have to do something to curb the habit, or I'm going to come down with something terrible.

I'm in my 50s now, and my immune system isn't what it once was. People die from stuff in their 50s. I'm not quite sure what to do. I think the Friday plan was good---one cigarette per hour. But how to sustain that goal once you're drinking and feeling "high"?

Kate Bush: Wuthering Heights (1978)

Out on the wiley, windy moors
We'd roll and fall in dream
You had a temper like my jealousy
Too hard, too greedy
How could you leave me
When I needed to possess you?
I hated you. I loved you, too

Bad dreams in the night
They told me I was going to lose the fight
Leave behind my wuthering, wuthering
Wuthering Heights

Heathcliff, it's me, your Cathy
I've come home. I'm so cold
Let me into your window

Ooh, it gets dark! It gets lonely
On the other side from you
I pine a lot. I find the lot
Falls through without you
I'm coming back, love
Cruel Heathcliff, my one dream
My only master

Too long I roam in the night
I'm coming back to his side, to put it right
I'm coming home to wuthering, wuthering
Wuthering Heights

Heathcliff, it's me, your Cathy
I've come home. I'm so cold
Let me into your window

George Jones: You Must Have Walked Across My Mind Again (1983)

George Jones: "Hello Trouble" (1983)

Thomas Hardy Kick

A poll I saw a couple of months ago asked why people kept on living. "Learning New Things" was at the bottom of the list (but at the top of mine).

My latest interest is Thomas Hardy. In the past month have read "Jude the Obscure" and "The Mayor of Casterbridge." Am currently re-reading "Tess of the D'Urbervilles." ("Far From the Madding Crowd" next.) And just received bios and poems and a "Wessex" history.

Sad to say, I've never met anyone who wants to go on literary/historical tours of Britain or Russia or Germany with me. I'm OK by myself for the most part, but... I think when I die, I'll be most sorry that I never had anyone to travel with.

From "The Mayor of Casterbridge":

The pain she experienced from the almost absolute obliviousness to her existence that was shown by the pair of them became at times half dissipated by her sense of its humorousness. When Lucetta had pricked her finger they were as deeply concerned as if she were dying; when she herself had been seriously sick or in danger they uttered a conventional word of sympathy at the news, and forgot all about it immediately.

She had learnt the lesson of renunciation, and was as familiar with the wreck of each day's wishes as with the diurnal setting of the sun.

Bubba and The Noose

https://garyfouse.blogspot.com/2020/06/bubba-wallace-and-noose.html

Bubba and The Noose. Oh wait. As it turns out, the "NASCAR Noose Drama" was all invented. The "noose" was a handle to pull down the garage door. And it had been in the same garage before Bubba was assigned to it.

Dear Jussie, er, Bubba: If you want to drive with the big boys, then stop crying "racism" at the drop of a...non-noose. Shut up and drive. Just like the white guys do.

Chicago Homicides 2020

https://graphics.suntimes.com/homicides/

290 homicides in Chicago in 2020. How many just this past weekend, when a couple of 3-year-olds were shot? How many of these 290 were blacks killed by police? How many were blacks killed by other blacks?

Where are the marches, and looting, in memory of the black children murdered by young black men? There will never be peace until the Black Community acknowledges its own sociopathy.

Swinging Statues

If it were up to Leftists, the only statues allowed in America would be those of MLK, Barbara Jordan, Cesar Chavez, and Barack Obama. (Oh, but wait: In the '90s, Congresswoman Jordan recommended that legal immigration to the US be limited... Tear THAT statue down, too!)

My Heart Belongs to Hennessy

From: The Mayor of Casterbridge (Thomas Hardy, 1886)

And thus Henchard found himself again on the precise standing which he had occupied a quarter of a century before. Externally there was nothing to hinder his making another start on the upward slope, and by his new lights achieving higher things than his soul in its half-formed state had been able to accomplish. But the ingenious machinery contrived by the Gods for reducing human possibilities of amelioration to a minimum---which arranges that wisdom to do shall come pari passu [at an equal pace] with the departure of zest for doing---stood in the way of all that. He had no wish to make an arena a second time of a world that had become a mere painted scene to him.

Ilhan Omar: 1995 immigrant

Omar was a Somalian immigrant to the US in 1995. You'd think she'd be grateful, and awestruck at how in the world she ever got elected to the US Congress. According to Omar, the US is evil and racist. Yet... how did a 1995 African immigrant get elected to Congress if the country is so horrible? She doesn't at all understand or appreciate the open concept of our country. Which she is now taking advantage of in order to condemn the very system that allowed her rise. She is truly sick.

p.s. On a negative, but truthful, note: Wherever Somalians have been allowed into a country, whether the US or Britain, they've brought crime and chaos. Is that "racism" or is that "crime statistics"?

https://townhall.com/tipsheet/

This Wanting You (George Jones, 1999)

I almost wish that I could lose my mind sometimes
Then maybe I'd be free of memories you left behind
With every single thought I hate to face the truth
It's never ending, always there this wanting you.

Well, I go through my life with only one desire
Other arms have held me close but they can't kill the fire
This flame inside my heart has never burned so blue
It's never ending always there this wanting you.

You're in my mind all the time how long will it last?
Why can't I leave our love in peace, it's buried in the past
You let go so long ago but I still can't turn loose
Oh, it's never ending, it's always there this wanting you.

You Never Know Just How Good You've Got It (George Jones, 1999)

Last Call for Pier 1 Candles!

I've been buying Pier 1's lavendar and Asian spice candles (with the occasional rainbow or citrus or musk) for probably 20 years now. Now that the company's stores are closing, today stood in line outside the store to get in at noon to buy the last 11 lavendar/Asian spice candles they had, to tide me over for the next year, I guess. But after that?! (OMG! First-world problems! Hey---I've had plenty o' years when I couldn't afford ANY candles, so I'm glad to have finally earned the right to "first-world problems," thanks.)

Why is GWTW so threatening to fascists?

After writing my "Fascism 2020" post a couple of days ago re Confederate monuments being knocked down and "Gone with the Wind" being banned by HBO, I wondered afterward if I was being overdramatic or hysterical. I had a feeling that something was very wrong in the destruction/banning that was going on, but...was I overreacting by calling the perpetrators "fascists"?

Just tonight, though, happened upon an American Masters program on PBS about Margaret Mitchell, which included, of course, GWTW info. Turns out that the book was banned by both Nazi Germany and Stalinist Russia. And now the movie is banned by an American media giant like HBO. Hmmm... What about the book and/or movie is so threatening to certain powers-that-be?

Our Bed of Roses -- George Jones (1999)

The morning we moved in this house you said
Let's make a bed of roses
So hand in hand we found that special place
And I broke the ground
I wiped that delta dirt from your face
As you knelt there to sow them
Oh, I'd give anything a mortal man could give
If you could see them now

Through the kitchen window pane,
I can see the roses
The ones we planted that first spring are blooming
Like they did when you were here
Someone's always left behind
When the door of this life closes
So I sit alone and watch it rain on our bed of roses

Some days I sit for hours at a time,
Just staring at those roses
They seem so young and full of life,
But soon they'll face the winter chill
I don't know how long I can survive,
But one thing that I know is
Come spring time the roses will return,
But you never will

Through the kitchen window pane,
Lord, I can see the roses
The ones we planted that first spring are blooming
Like they did when you were here
Someone's always left behind
When the door of this life closes
So I sit alone and watch it rain on our bed of roses...

Fascism 2020

They came first for the Confederate statues of men who had built the state and University, and I only wrote a mild letter of protest to the President of UT. Then, nationally, they came for statues of Columbus and Jefferson, and I didn't speak up because I didn't live in those cities. Then they came for shops and streets in every city in America and looted them, and I didn't speak up because my own apartment complex and neighborhood happened to be untouched. Then they infiltrated the national media and banned TV shows featuring the police, along with the showing of films like "Gone With the Wind," because they did not correspond with current leftist propaganda... 

The US is in the middle of a left-wing fascist takeover. In the name of Orwell or God, somebody please do something. (Trump? Anyone?)


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

Martin Niemoller (1946):
"They came first for the Communists, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Communist. Then they came for the Jews, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Jew. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a trade unionist. Then they came for the Catholics, and I didn't speak up because I was a Protestant. Then they came for me, and by that time no one was left to speak up."

George Jones - When The Last Curtain Falls (1999)

The last song on George Jones's 1999 album "Cold Hard Truth." 

His third wife Tammy Wynette had died a year earlier, in 1998, after years of prescription drug addiction.

They had divorced in 1975, although Jones continued to obsess about her for years.

Is this about her? I don't know. Jones didn't write his own material (but I assume top singers got their pick of material). The educated sentimentalist in me says (but doesn't quite know for sure) that this, and several other songs on the album, if not the whole album, are in memory of Tammy.

Even though I still sting from the words that you threw at me
There's no pleasure at all from watching you fall to your knees
'Cause the tables have turned and I'm finally learning to live
And forgive and let go, there's no sweet revenge
At love's angry end and we all need to know

When the last curtain falls with a final goodbye
And the bitter cold darkness of night floods the days of our lives
With a silence so loud we can't feel at all
There's no reason or cause to cheer or applaud when the last curtain falls

The irony is that you're wearing the look I once wore
And in truth I've longed for this moment to settle the score
But it's not all that clear, now that I'm hearin' you echo
The thoughts of my soul, the justice of time
Is not really mine and I want you to know

When the last curtain falls with a final goodbye
And the bitter cold darkness of night floods the days of our lives
With a silence so loud we can't feel at all
There's no reason or cause to cheer or applaud when the last curtain falls
There's no reason or cause to cheer or applaud when the last curtain falls

I'm the Editor, dammit!

Everybody seems to hate, and to have always hated, my personality, so it was with great amazement and gratitude that I accepted some praise today at my work-from-home workplace!

There are 10 of us, plus our boss, all working from home. About 6 of the 11 were there before Wuhan; the rest of us were hired in April or later.

Today, one of the regulars asked me, via e-mail, a question about capitalization of a term and CC'd others on the team. I wrote back, and CC'd, with examples of what the answer should be and why. The regular then offhandedly dismissed what I'd suggested. I kind of expected such and just held my tongue/keyboard fingers (I'm still new; give me time).

But then...Three other people on the team e-mailed the group and completely supported what I'd suggested! One even saying, "Since that's what the Editor says, and she backs it up, then I'll go with that." !! Jesus----when was the last time anyone supported anything I had to say?? :)

The original regular who dismissed me, after reading what the others sent, ended the conversation with: "What do I care? I'm not the editor."

From: The Mayor of Casterbridge (1886 by Thomas Hardy)

The pain she experienced from the almost absolute obliviousness to her existence that was shown by the pair of them became at times half dissipated by her sense of its humorousness. When Lucetta had pricked her finger they were as deeply concerned as if she were dying; when she herself had been seriously sick or in danger they uttered a conventional word of sympathy at the news, and forgot all about it immediately.

She had learnt the lesson of renunciation, and was as familiar with the wreck of each day's wishes as with the diurnal setting of the sun.

Midnight Special (1973): George Jones and Tammy Wynette

Crawdad Song: George and Tammy (1973)

Apologizing for White Privilege

A perfect example of how weak white leftists have been brainwashed by the current media/academic communists----who have made this kind of horrible "apology thing" seem "OK." (p.s. I'm white, from a working-class background. Neither of my parents went to college or had money. I was smart, so I got into the University of Texas, with maybe $1500 in scholarships that lasted one semester. I'm currently still paying off more than $50,000 in student loans for both undergrad and grad school.)

Other examples of "White Privilege": I didn't get hired for a job a few years ago at UT, after 3 months of temping at the same job, because the Hispanic boss had only hired Hispanic assistants for the past 10 years. I once had a black woman chase after me as I headed to a dumpster in my neighborhood; I was throwing out recyclables such as old phone books, but they were in Budweiser boxes. The black woman chased after me to yell something about me corrupting her children and the neighborhood with my beer. (How she had such eagle-eyes to see the logos on the boxes, I do not know.) Same neighborhood, back when I didn't have a car: I could rarely stand at a bus-stop or ride the bus without some drug-addled black or white homeless guy up in my face. Usually harmless, but on three or four occasions when things got rough, it was a black man threatening me, and I was "saved" by a bus driver.

In short: How DARE you idiot leftists say that I have "White Privilege"? And: How DARE someone approach this woman in the video asking her to apologize? And, most importantly, how DARE this idiotic leftist woman kneel on the ground and apologize? If you kneel, you are complicit in your own subjugation. This terribly, terribly weak white woman may be willing to do so, but I'll be goddamned if I will ever do so. Don't push me. This creepily passive woman inspires me to buy a gun and shoot you in the face if you ever ask me to apologize for being white (oh, sorry: European-American).

Trump walks street to St John's Church | Nine News Australia

Australian coverage more accurate/fair than the communist CNN and MSNBC. What's happened to the US media?