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December 28, 2004
go steelers
Williamsburg was beautiful with snow, but the peril proved too much for one driver at our golf-course resort, who lost control of his car, slid across the manicured grass, and tapped the sign at the gate. I didn't notice until Christmas Eve morning, when I returned from buying tin foil.
The man at the checkout had been perplexed at me, or so it seemed. "Will this be all?" He asked over my lonely 37.5 square foot roll of Renolds' Wrap. Conscious of my fellow shoppers, their carts piled high with last-minute Christmas food and preparations, I nodded in the affirmative. "Yep, that's it."
"Do you have a Savers' Club Card?" he asked. I thought of the little credit-card-sized slip of paper with its bar-code that had been included with the information packet left in our room by the resort staff. "No, sorry, forgot mine."
"Here, he can use mine." I turned to see a thirty-something mother with two of her boys starting to unload her cart behind the plastic divider which separated her glazed ham and Michelob from my tin foil. I thanked her as she handed her card to the cashier over the plastic divider which, besides keeping the peace between us, also advertised cigarrettes. "You're welcome," she said, "but now you have to root for the Steelers."
Having no idea whom the Steelers were set to oppose, I grinned, nodded, and said, "It's a deal." She saved me 65 cents, and I do hope the Steelers won. Go Steelers.
Posted by joel at 10:16 PM | Comments (5) | TrackBack
December 08, 2004
here i am
Here I am,
Hungry, strong and restless,
Unemployed and feckless.
My ship's come in in a bottle;
My hand uneasy on the throttle;
I'm reckless under sail
I cross a barrier reef of jacket flap bio hooks
To lagoons of dusty nooks
Where I read my mail.
Here I am,
Vision of charity,
Verifiable fan of verity.
Certifiable fanatic;
Chronic chronicler of the frenetic.
I advanced my case to the panacea,
An alarming throwback;
Odd fish
On an odd tack;
Too small to keep,
Too big to throw back.
Posted by joel at 11:02 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
December 02, 2004
this is why we can't have nice things
This morning over breakfast my son hit me with an interesting idea. I am often amazed at how children come up with things out of the blue. He said, "Dad, I've noticed that whenever mankind creates something new, he destroys something. I said, "hmmm, that's interesting. Give me an example." He said, well, back in the stone age, when they wanted to make spears, they first had to cut down trees to get the wood. Also, when they made their spearheads and axes out of flint, they had to chop away at it."
I mused for a second, and thought about the fact that, yes, whenever we create something, we must disturb, destroy and remove some natural resource to use as tools or as raw material. The stones of the great pyramids had to be quarried up out of the earth. We create arable land by damming and diverting rivers.
Everybody destroys. This goes for capitalists wearing alligator skin boots, and vegans who hold up their hemp pants with vinyl belts. Whether you're growing soy beans or poppies, you've got to first clear the land of trees and stones, and then break up the soil with a tiller. Whether you get your electricity from a coal-burning power plant, or you burn candles made from wax you pillaged from some bees, you've got to destroy, break, disrupt, and confiscate to make it happen. We can't have nice things until we destroy some stuff.
Have a nice day.
Posted by joel at 11:35 AM | Comments (4) | TrackBack