Kid Kryptonite

Herald of the setting sun

I am having a hard time writing, if you can believe it. And you know I am not the kind of guy who normally suffers from writer's block. I just hate to trod the same old ground and I'm not feeling anything fresh at the moment.

And I hate continually inveighing against the latest dumb from Washington. It is like the country is embroiled in a weird fetishist role play experiment. Quick, somebody utter the safe word so we can wake up from this national nightmare.

I actually tried to write some poetry yesterday, that was abominably bad and self indulgent, thinking that a little free verse would free my fractured brain. No such luck.

So I'm just going to let it fly here and see what happens. See if I can prime the pump with some loosely associated scribbling.

I had a couple come in the other day that I hadn't seen in years. Thought that they had moved away. I was open Saturday, first day in a long while, actually.

And I had always thought that they were fairly moderate people, looked quite normal but it turns out that they are very conservative and want to join the growing numbers of conservative white Californians moving to Prescott or St. George. "People in California are crybabies," she said and I instantly understood that she was referring to the last election and the animosity of a large number of Golden State residents regarding the Donald.

I pivoted quick, no sense losing a potential sale. "St. George is great, yada, yada, yada." The country is bitterly divided and there is no longer a middle ground. No sense creating a new enemy. But if you have to leave, don't let the door hit you in  the ass.

A Gorsuch filibuster is not going to help things but I guess the dems will do what they think they have to do, St. Merrick's name be praised. Perhaps Gorsuch will do a little soul searching after being called out for being such a supposed prick, but he's forty nine and most of us are incapable of modifying our behavior after the age of seven. Probably just another dour shmegeg like Alito. Someone who can be counted on to reliably deliver one for the big corporations or state and shtup the little guy every time.

It is amazing how the Chaffetz and Gowdy's of this world went after the folks in the Obama Administration so fiercely but are like meek little lambs in excusing so many ethical lapses and indiscretions from Trump and Co..

View of the Little Colorado

Appreciate Nikki Haley standing up to Russian intervention in elections at the United Nations yesterday. Her boss is not going to be happy.

If I was Marco Rubio and found out that the Russian Bot Army helped tank my election chances, I would be pissed too.

I actually applaud Rex Tillerson chiding the Europeans on stepping up and paying a larger share of NATO money. I just wouldn't look him in the eye and tell him.

Isn't it embarrassing to have a leader who doesn't read and would rather listen to what the folks at Fox News are telling him than his own intelligence services? Well, enough of that.

Crayola got rid of the color dandelion today. I know that I speak for all of you when I say she will be sorely missed.

One day we will have professional baseball again in San Diego, I just know it.

Mark Ziegler at the Union Tribune is one of the best sportswriters in the entire country, day in and day out. Incredibly knowledgable, good scribe. Canepa ain't bad either.

Law of the jungle

I was not real thrilled with how Obama treated Israel but Netanyahu is the same old disingenuous and lying prick he ever was. His post Obama settlement policy shows how much he really acquiesced to the two state solution he pretended to agree to.

Gaza will blow up again as will Palestinian anger in the West Bank and Netanyahu will share a large share of the blame, for being content with the status quo and Israel's role as a perpetual occupier.

Even more nauseating is the U.S. cozying up to Assad, the man who uses chemical weapons against his own citizens.

And we had a friendly Egyptian dictator over at the White House today, no worse than Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood, I suppose.

Unnamed bend, Canyonlands

I spent the weekend with a book by my favorite writer, the late Roger Zelazny, a man I was lucky enough to meet several times and interview. I had not read Isle of the Dead in at least twenty years. It was nominated for a Nebula in 1969.

I got a bunch of old science fiction paperbacks from Doug before he left our shores. This one was falling apart out of its binding and it went in the trash when I was finished. Not close to being one of his best, that is more Lord of Light, Amber, Light and Darkness territory but a decent read.

The interesting thing about my favorite writer is that he kept writing the same book, like a composer pens the same song, over and over again until he got it right. Refining. Many of his protagonists are in the process of becoming gods, or playing them as the case may be. But he was never afraid to revisit an idea.

Some day I hope to write fiction and if I can ever turn a phrase worthy of Roger Zelazny I know that I will have achieved something!

Need to read his entire output again, starting with Jack of Shadows.

I am a big Humphrey Bogart fan, just watched Huston's Beat the Devil with Bogart and Lorre, written by Truman Capote. As an art dealer you would think that I would know that Bogie's mom was the illustrator Maud Humphrey but I never did. She used to use him as a model.