Sunday, January 24, 2016

Beloved, Men in Thick Green Coats Came Crunching Through the Snow, the Insignia on Their Shoulders of Uncertain Origin



  • This bullet and the next would have published this morning at nine had we lost power overnight. It seemed like a safe bet. Lights were flickering on and off as the power wire tossed in the branches of our crepe myrtle last night just after we had to dig out our furnace exhaust vent; buried under an eight foot snow drift, the snow covering the vent kept the furnace from engaging - it would turn on then stall every thirty seconds. It took us 45 minutes to get the fifteen feet from our door then dig out the drift. 
  • I hate fucking snow.
  • Though without the snow - without being housebound - Earthgirl would not have found the bobblehead Olive she made for for Giftmas then forgot. I love it. I still hate fucking snow.
  • Canon fodder: institutionalized.
  • Fashion, turn to the left.
  • Hillary laughs. Yes, I posted it yesterday.
  • A point of clarification: Inevitability is, was, and will be solely about winning the Motherfucking Democratic Nomination, not about winning POTUS.
  • I once thought it likely she'd be POTUS - and still do - but less and less daily.
  • On circular firing squads.
  • Criminal oligarchy.
  • Right now in Vollmann's The Dying Grass, General O.O Howard is under-pressure to kill all the Nez Perce as soon as possible as his troops are needed in St Louis, Chicago, and Pittsburgh to kill all the striking railroad workers.
  • Speaking of yesterday: it was an average Saturday, visitor-wise, so I assume you clicked the ghost towns I listed, and just as if it was 2008 none of the mayors clicked through to see who bumped him or her.
  • Maggie's weekly links.
  • { feuilleton }'s weekly links.
  • More new Tindersticks!





THE LETTER

Mary Ruefle

Beloved, men in thick green coats came crunching
through the snow, the insignia on their shoulders
of uncertain origin, a country I could not be sure of,
a salute so terrifying I heard myself lying to avoid
arrest, and was arrested along with Jocko, whose tear
had snapped off, a tiny icicle he put in his mouth.
We were taken to the ice prison, a palace encrusted
with hoarfrost, its dome lit from within, Jocko admired
the wiring, he kicked the walls to test the strength
of his new boots.  A television stood in a block of ice,
its blue image still moving like a liquid center.
You asked for my innermost thoughts.  I wonder will I
ever see a grape again?  When I think of the vineyard
where we met in October—when you dropped a cluster
custom insisted you be kissed by a stranger—how after
the harvest we plunged into a stream so icy our palms
turned pink.  It seemed our future was sealed.  Everyone
said so.  It is quiet here.  Not closing our ranks
weakens us hugely.  The snowflakes fall in a featureless
bath.  I am the stranger who kissed you.  On sunny days
each tree is a glittering chandelier.  The power of
mindless beauty!  Jocko told a joke and has been dead
since May.  A bullethole in his forehead the officers
call a third eye.  For a month I milked a barnful of
cows.  It is a lot like cleansing a chandelier.  Wipe
and polish, wipe and polish, round and round you go.
I have lost my spectacles.  Is the book I was reading
still open by the side of our bed?  Treat it as a bookmark
saving my place in our story.
(here the letter breaks off)



2 comments:

  1. hillary clinton's laugh expresses the contempt she feels for us, the little people

    the daily mail has run a couple of stories that have, for me, the ring of truth about hillary's character, both based on books about her

    one article, published aug. 25, 2015, summarizes Hillary Clinton on the Couch, a book by psychoanalyst alma h. bond, ph.d.

    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3209152/Hillary-lonely-trouble-expressing-feelings-yearns-intimate-relationship-powerful-woman-claims-noted-shrink-puts-presidential-hopeful-couch.html

    it is a speculative analysis of how hillary's early life shaped her - the daily mail's bullet points are

    Dr. Alma Bond says Hillary's oppressive upbringing by her father Hugh Rodham made her ambivalent towards men

    It also caused her to be tolerant of her cheating husband, claims Dr. Bond in a new book

    When Hillary's mom threatened to leave her father the broad-shouldered man bellowed: 'Don't let the doorknob hit you in the a** on your way out.'

    Author suggests that Rodham's stinginess and anxiety about money contributed to Hillary's need to accumulate great wealth

    Hillary accepts that her loneliness is the price she has to pay to be at the top

    Huma Abedin does not fill the intimacy vacuum in Hillary's life


    dr. bond puts hillary "on the couch" metaphorically - that is, she imagines what hillary might say, based on what she has learned about her from a distance

    a fuller picture of hillary can be seen by including the account of marla crider, a rival for bill's affections at a time prior to hillary and bill's marriage - from the daily mail of 19 january 2016

    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3396589/Anonymous-phone-calls-fears-stalking-veiled-threats-power-hungry-Hillary-torpedoed-torrid-affair-Bill-Clinton-21-year-old-campaign-worker-threatened-destroy-master-plan-president.html

    EXCLUSIVE: Anonymous phone calls, fears of stalking and veiled threats: How power-hungry Hillary torpedoed the torrid affair between Bill Clinton and 21-year-old campaign worker that threatened to destroy her master plan to become president

    Long before the 'bimbo eruptions' and Monica Lewinsky, Bill Clinton cheated on Hillary with university student Marla Crider

    Crider worked on Bill's first political campaign in 1974 and they fell hard for each other

    In an explosive interview, she told author Jerry Oppenheimer: 'Hillary was like a cat, marking her territory'

    Bill was crazy about Crider, but told her '[Hillary] gets me started, kicks my butt, and makes me do the things I've got to do'

    When Hillary learned of their affair things turned ugly

    Crider saw a letter Hillary wrote to Bill saying: 'I know all your little girls are around there…if that's what it is, you will outgrow this'

    Hillary and Bill had a 'secret pact' for their future that one day he, and later she, would be elected president



    neither of these articles shows us a hillary beyond human sympathy - rather the reverse, i personally feel - but in my view she should not be president

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I would remind you that these articles fall under the auspices of the vast right-wing conspiracy that candidate Clinton referred to back in 1998. And she oughta know: As such, her very political existence is a right-wing conspiracy, if considerably more vast in scope.

      Delete