Monday, March 31, 2008

Three Photoshops of Dave Hokit and Jack Brummet

I found this photo of me and Dave Hokit last night, and as often happens with photos, I got busy busy with Photoshop:



click to enlarge


click to enlarge


click to enlarge -- I love the long arm!
---o0o---

An update on Michael Toubbeh (the Toxic Doctor)


An update on Michael Toubbeh (the Toxic Doctor)

by Pablo Fanque, All This Is That national affairs editor

Normally, Jack would handle writing about this topic. But he has been a little "freaked" by some of the reactions to his posts. Originally, Jack Brummet wrote three articles about Michael Toubbeh. One here, one here. and one here. And then Jack received a visit--at his work!--from someone close to the Doctor who begged Jack to remove the posts, since she loved him, and didn't want her children to see the articles. Jack had a heart and removed most of the material. It was all available elsewhere, and he didn't really want anymore in-person visits from the Doctor's emissaries.

Jack told me "None of this makes a lick of sense, Friendo, not even Bizarro sense. I mean, all of a sudden people are fighting little comments wars on ATIT. . .and yet, the guy apologized in public! On someone's blog, where it would be cached forever (forever being relative of course)."

He wrote when he pulled the material:


The editors of All This Is That have deleted all 13 comments from this thread, as well as the stories that engendered all the comments. The whole thing has become a tilt-a-whirl ride of people pretending to be other people; people attacking other people who were pretending to be other people; people posting with aliases stating only who they were not; and a raft of accusations and cross-accusations; moves and countermoves; posing, posturing, lies, and delusion.

You probably know I don't place a high premium on The Truth, or more accurately, what often passes for The Truth, because The Truth is usually not all it's cracked up to be.If you know me "in real life," you know that truth may now and then take backstage to a knee-slapper or a twisted, 98% fictional, and often libelous, side-trip. There are some things better than the truth. No. 1?: The music of human laughter.

This whole Michael Toubbeh trip suddenly became a karmic burden, and the vibes were beginning to stink the place up. Once I start editing comments and removing stories, well. . .then, it's no longer All This Is That, but a blog for everyone who agrees with me, where those victims of parody, or targets of stories, can't respond. Democracy is for everyone, and I'm just not ready to change the name of the blog to Some Of This Is Sort Of That Sometimes. I don't mind if someone lobs charges at someone as long as that someone has the chance to respond. Which they do. I don't mind debate. This is still America, isn't it? Free speech, while wounded, still lives.

But recently there has been a flurry of activity in the comments section of these articles..both from the apparently small pro-Toubbeh camp, and also from the seemingly vast anti-Toubbeh camp. And "what really fried my ass," Jack told me, "was that now the pro-Toubbeh has been commenting, dropping these morality bombs, and even (the f*****ng pieces of s***) threatening me with libel and mentioning my liability." You can read Jack's response to that in the comments sections for the above articles.

Interestingly, virtually everything Jack originally wrote and posted is available elsewhere on the internet, usually in several places. A blogspot blog, Michael Toubbeh, the Toxic Doctor seems to include nearly everything that was deleted from this blog. In addition, the same material is included in several of the internet and blog archiving sites--including the wayback machine and others.

As I researched this piece, I also found online, an original posting from another blog (or website) "From He's Dead Jim,} that included a photo, and the text of a letter of apology that Toubbeh wrote.

"Above is the letter sent to me by Dr. Toubbeh. It applies to all of those he has been involved with. I am allowed to post this for one week. Thanks to all of those who have assisted with this. Below is the text of the letter":

'Dear Claudette, I write to apologize to you and the other women with whom I have had relationships. The postings on your site and its aftermath have caused me to reflect on the past years of my life, and I did not like what I saw.
I now understand that my conduct has hurt a great many people and I understand clearly that both my actions and their consequences were wrong. I am deeply sorry for the things I have done during this period in my life and for the hurt and pain I have caused. I know you may not believe this, and I have given you good reason not to, but I did not set out with the intent to cause harm. Obviously, however, I have done so and have no one to blame but myself.
Seeing the pain I have caused has made me understand that this was of my own doing and that I must take responsibility and ensure that I do not repeat my actions of the past. I know that you and others may not put much faith in these words or my intention to change. I hope that it will provide at least some help for you to know that I am taking steps with the assistance of others towards a change not only in behavior but in belief and attitude.

I sincerely wish you the best,
(signed)

Michael Toubbeh.'
---o0o---

Sunday, March 30, 2008

10Eastern - Found photos


...click the airborne baby to enlarge....

I feel the need to periodically bring up 10Eastern, one of my very favorite web sites. 10Eastern posts found photos. They only publish new ones maybe once a month, but it's always worth the wait. If you are a newb to 10Eastern, you can go back through their 130-something sets of photos they've published to date.

One thing I have noticed over the years is the large number of band photos that make their way into the galleries. People take a lot of band photos! And a fair number of them are hilarious. This is not all that surprising. I know at my work, there are at leas five bands. And if you include the other locations outside Seattle, the number rises to about 15. In any case, 10Eastern is well worth the trouble to put in your links that you check once in a while. And every once in a while, they produce a new set...and at least a couple will be worth the wait.
---o0o---

Video: John Auer and Ken Stringfellow/The Posies play Solar Sister at the 1994 Phoenix Festival - and they f***ing rock!!!!l

This is a great video of The Posies at one of their peaks, in their big hair phase, playing the s*** out of Solar Sister. Jon and Ken sound great, look great and the drumming is that characteristic thundering up front.


---o0o---

Saturday, March 29, 2008

Chelsea Clinton: She'll be a better President than Bill Clinton




Speaking at Lehigh Valley Hospital in Pennsylvania yesterday, Chelsea Clinton was asked by a man in the audience whether her mother would be a better president than her father.

Chelsea Clinton said "yes."





"His question is, ‘Do I think my mother will be a better president than my father?"

“Well, again, I don’t take anything for granted, but hopefully with Pennsylvania’s help, she will be our next president, and yes, I do think she’ll be a better president.”

Unbelievable. Now they're even willing to throw Bill Clinton under the bus.
---o0o---

Poem: The riptide beneath my feet




1
Standing by the sea
The riptide sucks the sand
From beneath my heels

2
Every time it happens
I feel just a hemidemisemiquaver
Of panic that the holes will open up

And a succubus will grab my ankles
Or the holes will open up and I'll fall
Straight down to China

3
I've felt that same panicked moment
In Greece in Malibu and the O.C.
On San Francisco Bay

In North Africa and in Kalaloch
At Tatoosh and La Push and Big Sur
In Spain on Crete and at Montauk

4
It's all part of the seven seas
Which aren't seven seas at all
But one big ocean circling the earth

And if you are 75% of anything
You get to do pretty much
What you want where and when you want

We can pollute it bridge it and tunnel under it
But the ocean has always had and always will
Have a mind of its own.

---o0o---

Friday, March 28, 2008

Throw in the towel, Senator



It isn't her fanciful imagination about sniper fire, or any of the other piddling mistakes and misstatements she and her henchmen have made. It isn't her gender; in fact I'd prefer a female President. But it is her supporters, it is the large number of backhanded racial slurs that have emanated from her camp (although usually not directly), and whipping her potential supporters, but most of all the right wing, into an Anti-Obama frenzy. I think Obama is indeed pretty special. Do I think he walks on water like most of the Obamanites? Not so much. But he is the real deal.

In recent polls, John McCain taking on either Obama or Clinton gives them a serious ass-whuppin'. I am even sick of seeing Bill Clinton, a person I have *mostly* always admired. And even Chelsea was disgusting last night.

Give it up Hillary. The people may not have spoken with the deafening roar we'd hoped, but they have spoken. Do you want to be VP? Great. Otherwise, as they say, lead, follow, or get out of the way (preferably the latter). Sure you could hope for a great procedural dogfight at the convention, and maybe you could win the nomination. In the end, that will only leave us with a McCan presidency.

It's me and Barack from here on in. It's time. "Hurry up please, it's time."


---o0o---

Thursday, March 27, 2008

All This Is That Reheated: Woody Guthrie's transit and eclipse--"I been in the red all my life"


click Woody to enlarge

I have been listening to Woody Guthrie a lot lately, and thinking a lot about his monolithic influence on folk music, but especially on rock and roll. Along the same lines, I have been re-listening to the masterful Billy Bragg/Wilco collaborations on his music. Who would have ever thought a quirky Brit folkie and an alt country (and also quirky) American band would produce a fine tribute to Guthrie that also challenges the folk community? In any case, I wrote a long piece a couple of years ago about Woody, and I am reprinting it today...

I been in the red all my life

Woody Guthrie was a great man, and a great writer. Yeah, I didn't say great singer, but I like his singing. Any fool can get all Frenchified and rococo. It takes a genius to get simple. This genius fled Dust Bowl Oklahoma in the 30’s and became famous a few years later for his songs Dust Bowl Ballads. For most of the rest of his life he would be a roamer and a troubadour. He is one of the great American songwriters, right up there in the pantheon with Stephen Foster, Gershwin, Bob Dylan, Cole Porter, Johnny Mercer, Duke Ellington, Irving Berlin and others. He may be at the top of the rockpile. . .in my booklet, at least.

Woody Guthrie loved America as deeply as anyone ever has. He thrived on the people and the idiom. We remember him mainly for his songs, but he was also a wonderful writer. You may have heard his songs like So Long It’s Been Good To Know You, I Ain’t Got No Home In This World Anymore, Dust Can’t Kill Me, Union Maid, Reuben James, Planewreck At Los Gatos, and over a thousand more songs.


click to enlarge

He hit 46 of these United States, usually with just his guitar and a toothbrush. One of the songs inspired by a trip, This Land Is Your Land, should probably be the national anthem. Woody’s influence has been monolithic, although most of us have only experienced Woody absorbed and filtered through Bob Dylan, Ramblin' Jack Elliott, Phil Ochs, Allen Ginsberg, Joan Baez, or Wilco, among hundreds of others. His work has been passed down through cultural osmosis.

When the notorious House Unamerican Activities Committee (HUAC) began collecting names and driving the blacklisting, Woody was not afraid. He had nothing to hide, and the committee, like the dust, couldn’t kill him.

Some people considered The B.P.A. and the Grand Coulee Dam tributes to an "experiment in American socialism." These huge public works projects were "a revolutionary slap at the private enterprise system." Guthrie’s Columbia River songs reflect his optimism the dam would bring an increased standard of living to the people. One of Guthrie’s most famous songs, Pastures of Plenty, presents an idealist's vision of public irrigation and electrification:

I think of the dust and the days that are gone,
And the day that’s to come on a farm of our own;
One turn of the wheel and the waters will flow
‘Cross the green growing field, down the hot thirsty row.

Look down in the canyon and there you will see
The Grand Coulee shower her blessings on me;
The lights for the city for factory, and mill,
Green Pastures of Plenty from dry barren hills.


Woody was profoundly shocked by what happened to the poor Okies who left the Dust Bowl for California, by how they were killed, beaten and starved out by the State Police and farm owners. Something had gone very wrong with this great country. His song about Pretty Boy Floyd summed up his feelings:

Now as through this world I ramble
I’ve seen lots of funny men.
Some will rob you with a six-gun
And some with a fountain pen.
But as through this life you travel
And as through this life you roam,

You’ll never see an outlaw
Drive a family from its home.

Woody believed the Great Depression and dust bowl were caused by the Big Boss Man and King Coal. He wasn’t singing anymore about lost love; he was pointing fingers.

One night, on a radio show, he hit it on the head: "A policeman will just stand there and let a banker rob a farmer or a financier rob a working man. But if a farmer robs a banker, you would have a whole army of cops out shooting at him. Robbery is a chapter of etiquette.”

Woody Guthrie was a patriot, but he was no Democrat. As he said in that same radio broadcast: “I ain’t a communist necessarily, but I been in the red all my life.”

By 1947, Woody was working on his second marriage, to Marjorie. Between his travel and performances, he lived with her and his daughter Cathy Ann in Brooklyn. Woody nicknamed her Stackabones, and wrote his famous children’s songs for (and with) her:

Why can’t a dish break a hammer?
Why, or why, oh why?
Because a hammer’s
got a pretty hard head.
Goodbye goodbye goodbye.

Why can’t a bird
break an elephant?
Why, oh why, oh why?
Because an elephant’s got a
pretty hard skin.
Goodbye goodbye goodbye.

He published stories about Stackabones. Cathy Ann was very much like Woody, singing, rhyming, and always playing with words. One day her dress caught on fire and she was badly burned. She was singing when Woody got to the hospital, but she died that night.

Woody sat down and wrote: “And the things you fear most shall surely come upon you.” It seemed like everyone he ever loved was doomed to go up in flames. There were fires in his childhood. The brand new family house had burned down. His sister Nora died when her dress caught fire. Just she and her mother were at home. She was singing when Woody saw her in the hospital too. There were many rumors about her death. There were other fires. And there was his mother’s problem. After her daughter died, she became more and more nervous and remote until finally she spent all her days wandering through town like she was lost. No one knew what to do.

There was another fire. Woody’s mother was holding a kerosene lamp and when his father woke up, he was on fire.

When Woody came home the next day after a visit with relatives, a neighbor told him his father was in the hospital and his mother had been put in an insane asylum. In his wonderful book Bound For Glory, he compared his own restlessness and nervousness to his mother’s condition.

After the death of Stackabones, Woody lost his spark. He and Marjorie soon had other children (including Arlo), but he never took the same interest. He had become unpredictable. He still wrote hundreds of pages each week, and always had new songs in the works. But they weren’t like the old ones. He just couldn’t concentrate anymore.


A painting of Woody at the Columbia dam,
about which he wrote some of his greatest
songs


Marjorie forced him to move out when he attacked their son Arlo one day. Woody went into the hospital to cure himself of alcoholism, and a young doctor figured out his problem. He asked Woody questions about his parents and grandparents, and diagnosed him with Huntington’s Chorea, called chorea because of the violent dance-like movements of its victims (the root of the word choreography). Huntington’s Chorea is an inherited degenerative disease and a victim’s offspring stand a fifty-fifty chance of getting the disease. The course of the illness is long and savage.

The changes in Woody occurred so slowly that few of his friends really noticed. Almost everyone chalked it up to drink, or said “Well, that’s just Woody. That’s the way he walks and talks." Some people avoided him now. He slurred his words and staggered and was becoming less and less capable of working at all.


Bob Dylan's copy of Woody's Book
Bound For Glory

When Woody was trying to concentrate, he wrote his name everywhere. . .on walls, on people’s books, on pieces of paper. Woody Guthrie. Woody Guthrie. It was almost as if he was trying to convince himself he really DID exist.

One day he was lighting a fire and the gas can exploded. His arm could no longer hold a guitar very well.

Woody checked into the State Hospital in Queens, and with the exception of visits with friends on weekends, he lived there the rest of his life.

His son, the musician Arlo Guthrie talked about him to Rolling Stone magazine:

“I remember him coming home from the hospital and taking me out to the backyard, just him and me, and teaching me the last verses to This Land Is Your Land because he thinks if I don’t learn them no one will remember. He can barely strum a guitar now and—can you imagine?—his friends think he’s crazy or drunk and they stick him in a green room with all these crazy people…”

“All of a sudden everyone is singing his songs. Kids are singing This Land Is Your Land in school and people are talking about making it the national anthem. Bob Dylan and the others are copying him. And he can’t react to it. Here’s the guy who had all these words and now that he’s really big, he can’t say anything.”

Only Shakespeare could write something that terrible. Woodrow Wilson Guthrie died in 1967, in his fifties. Some experts believe the disease may have enhanced his rhyminess and wordplay, and acted as a creative spur like alcohol and drugs have worked on others.

As the cells died in his brain, it rewired itself, forcing new and wonderful pathways between the nerve synapses. This also led to the not-so-wonderful behavior his family and friends saw. Just like his mother. Starved from all that work, his nerves short-circuited.

Woody and the disease are so bound up together, it’s hard to know where it started and Woody began. No one really knows if the disease starts when you are 14, or in your later years. It cannot be cured. It cannot be predicted in advance. Research is ongoing now, mainly because of what happened to Woody.

Most importantly, of course, is not the disease, but his music and his books. When we sing his most famous song, we sing the first verses. The last verses he tried to teach Arlo are probably politically pink at best, and they were the ones Woody hoped would survive:

In the squares of the city by the shadow of the steeple,
Near the relief office I saw my people
And some were stumbling and some were wondering if
This land was made for you and me.

As I went rambling that dusty highway
I saw a sign that said Private Property
But on the other side it didn’t say nothing.
That side was made for you and me.


Some of the photographs and images of Woody are copyrighted and unlicensed. However, the individual who uploaded this work to Wikipedia, and first used it in an article, as well as subsequent persons who place it into articles, asserts that this use qualifies as fair use of the material under United States copyright law. All This Is That is using the photo under the Fair Use provisions of the copyright act as well, as those provisions apply to scholarly work.
---o0o---

Originally posted in February, 2006

Saddam Hussein paid for my Congressman—Jim McDermott—to visit Iraq


Saddam Paid for Lawmakers' Iraq Trip -
That's my congressman on the right

Saddam Hussein's intelligence agency secretly footed the bill for a trip to Iraq for three congressmen during the run-up to the U.S.-led invasion, federal prosecutors said Wednesday. Jim McDermott of Washington, David Bonior of Michigan and Mike Thompson of California were not named in the indictment, but the trio did ineeed travel to Iraq in 2002.

An indictment unsealed in Detroit accuses Muthanna Al-Hanooti, a member of a Michigan nonprofit group, of arranging for three members of Congress to travel to Iraq in October 2002 at the behest of Saddam's regime.

Justice Department spokesman Dean Boyd said investigators "have no information whatsoever" any of them knew the trip was underwritten by Saddam. One investigator said McDermott was invited to go to Iraq by a Seattle church group and was unaware of any other funding for the trip. I mean even a pinko like McDermott would have turned down that funding!
---o0o---

Tuesday, March 25, 2008

Four Thousand - 4,000 - MMMM dead and counting in Iraq "War"/Country Joe McDonald Performs Feel Like I'm Fixin' To Die Rag (with lyrics)

Country Joe McDonald performs "Feel Like I'm Fixin' To Die Rag




I FEEL LIKE I'M FIXIN' TO DIE
by Country Joe McDonald

Yeah, come on all of you, big strong men,
Uncle Sam needs your help again.
He's got himself in a terrible jam
Way down yonder in Vietnam
So put down your books and pick up a gun,
We're gonna have a whole lotta fun.
And it's one, two, three,
What are we fighting for ?
Don't ask me, I don't give a damn,
Next stop is Vietnam;
And it's five, six, seven,
Open up the pearly gates,
Well there ain't no time to wonder why,
Whoopee! we're all gonna die.
Well, come on generals, let's move fast;
Your big chance has come at last.
Gotta go out and get those reds —
The only good commie is the one who's dead
And you know that peace can only be won
When we've blown 'em all to kingdom come.
And it's one, two, three,
What are we fighting for ?
Don't ask me, I don't give a damn,
Next stop is Vietnam;
And it's five, six, seven,
Open up the pearly gates,
Well there ain't no time to wonder why
Whoopee! we're all gonna die.
Huh!
Well, come on Wall Street, don't move slow,
Why man, this is war au-go-go.
There's plenty good money to be made
By supplying the Army with the tools of the trade,
Just hope and pray that if they drop the bomb,
They drop it on the Viet Cong.
And it's one, two, three,
What are we fighting for ?
Don't ask me, I don't give a damn,
Next stop is Vietnam.
And it's five, six, seven,
Open up the pearly gates,
Well there ain't no time to wonder why
Whoopee! we're all gonna die.
Well, come on mothers throughout the land,
Pack your boys off to Vietnam.
Come on fathers, don't hesitate,
Send 'em off before it's too late.
Be the first one on your block
To have your boy come home in a box.
And it's one, two, three
What are we fighting for ?
Don't ask me, I don't give a damn,
Next stop is Vietnam.
And it's five, six, seven,
Open up the pearly gates,
Well there ain't no time to wonder why,
Whoopee! we're all gonna die.

---o0o---

President Bush discusses long term affair with plushie "Heather"

President Bush discusses long term affair with the plushie "Heather"

By Pablo Fanque, All This Is That national affairs editor

In a stunning admission to reporters
Saturday following the White House Easter Egg Roll, President Bush discussed a long-term relationship with a plushie Bunny named Heather [1]. The President acknowledged that while he was a devout Christian, he considers his relationship with Heather to be something that "transcends the teachings of Jesus, and even the temporal plane in which my deep relationship with Laura flourishes. " The President went on to detail why he believes his relations with Heather do not breach his matrimonial bonds with Laura Bush.

Skeptical reporters asked for scriptural proofs, and inquired as to whether the First Lady knew of the relationship. One reporter, who was immediately escorted from the briefing room asked is this is "a three-way relationship?"

[1] What is a Plushophile, or Plushie, or Furry? A plushophile is someone who loves plushies. This can be for any reason and ranges anywhere from those who love to collect them to those who like to cuddle, sleep with or who become sexually involved with their plushies. Many, probably most, plushophiles are also furries. It is never safe to assume that particular plushophiles are sexually active with plushies, nor that they are inactive with people because of their plushophilia.
---o0o---

Monday, March 24, 2008

Barack Obama's version of gutter politics/Senior adviser invoked Monica Lewinsky's blue dress


Only hours after Governor Richardson ripped into the Clinton campaign and James Carville, for practising gutter politics, one of Obama's advisors took it into the gutter just about as deep as you can go. Gordon Fischer a former director of the Iowa Democrats and an adviser on Indiana, wrote in his blog:
"When Joe McCarthy questioned others' patriotism, McCarthy actually believed, at least aparently (sic), the questions were genuine, and he did so in order to build up, not tear down, his own party, the GOP. Bill Clinton cannot possibly seriously believe Obama is not a patriot, and cannot possibly be said to be helping -- instead he is hurting -- his own party. B. Clinton should never be forgiven. Period. This is a stain on his legacy, much worse, much deeper, than the one on Monica's blue dress."

Uh, is this what Senator Obama meant when he promised to focus on policy differences instead of personal attacks? Those remarks have since been removed from the blog, and Obama's camp has gone to some trouble to distance themselves from both the remarks and the author of those remarks. . .acknowledging by implication that the Clinton camp has no control over James Carville either. Or did they just reverse positions and decide to fight fire with fire?
---o0o---

Aviophobia: Pilot's gun discharges on US Airways flight



This little news item really hit home, since I just flew on U.S. Airways a week ago. From the WCNC (Charlotte) news:

Pilot's gun discharges on US Airways flight
by Diana Rugg

"A US Airways pilot’s gun accidentally discharged during a flight from Denver to Charlotte Saturday, according to as statement released by the airline. The statement said the discharge happened on Flight 1536, which left Denver at approximately 6:45am and arrived in Charlotte at approximately 11:51am.



"The Airbus A319 plane landed safely and none of the flight’s 124 passengers or five crew members was injured, according to the statement. It was a full flight. And airline spokeswoman said the plane has been taken out of service to make sure it is safe to return to flight.



A Transportation Safety Administration spokeswoman reached by WCNC Sunday said the pilot is part of TSA’s Federal Flight Deck Officer (FFDO) program, which trains pilots to carry guns on flights. Andrea McCauley said the gun discharged in the cockpit, but she could not release how the gun was being transported at the time. She did not release the pilot’s name, but said he was authorized to carry the weapon and was last requalified in the FFDO program last November.



A statement from TSA said the airplane was never in danger, and the TSA and the Federal Air Marshals Service are investigating the incident. WCNC reporter Diana Rugg is following up on this story. If you or someone you know were on that flight, please e-mail her at drugg@wcnc.com.

---o0o---

Sunday, March 23, 2008

Hymn No. 322: Up from the grave He arose




We used to sing this every Easter in the Baptist Church.

No. 322. Up from the Grave He Arose (Low in the Grave He Lay)
Text: Robert Lowry, 1826-1899 Music: Robert Lowry, 1826-1899




Up from the Grave He Arose

1. Low in the grave he lay, Jesus my Savior,
waiting the coming day, Jesus my Lord!




Refrain:
Up from the grave he arose;
with a mighty triumph o'er his foes;
he arose a victor from the dark domain,
and he lives forever, with his saints to reign.
He arose! He arose! Hallelujah! Christ arose!

2. Vainly they watch his bed, Jesus my Savior,
vainly they seal the dead, Jesus my Lord!



(Refrain)

3. Death cannot keep its prey, Jesus my Savior;
he tore the bars away, Jesus my Lord!



(Refrain)

---o0o---

Bill Richardson's slap in the face/another rat slips off the sinking ship HMS Clinton



After their shameless open courting of their old pal and cabinet member, Bill Richardson; after the two Bills most publicly drank beer, ate ribs, and watched the Superbowl together last month, and after promising to not endorse Obama, the Governor of New Mexico endorsed Barak Obama for President Friday in Portland, Oregon.

"Your candidacy is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for our country, and you are a once-in-a-lifetime leader," said Richardson, the nation's only Hispanic governor, before a roaring crowd of 12,000 in Portland's Memorial Coliseum. "You will make every American proud to be an American."

Richardson broke the news to Clinton late Thursday. "We've had better conversations," he said.

In his speech, Richardson said "It is time for Democrats to stop fighting amongst ourselves and to prepare for the tough fight we have against John McCain," the Republican nominee. Or, in short, "get out of the race Hillary."

The Clinton camp, naturally, tried to brush off the endorsement, saying it was largely symbolic, and not likely to turn any votes around (well, if you don't count the superdelegates!). To find out what the Clintons are really thinking, perhaps it's best to look at their longtime loose cannon rolling around on the deck:

James Carville told the New York Times that Richardson, a former member of Bill Clinton's Cabinet, had committed "an act of betrayal." "Right around the anniversary of the day when Judas sold out [Jesus] for 30 pieces of silver, so I think the timing is appropriate, if ironic."

Now things are heating up. In response, Governor Richardson said this morning on a talk show:

"I'm not going to get in the gutter like that," Richardson said on "Fox News Sunday." "That's typical of many of the people around Senator Clinton. They think they have a sense of entitlement to the presidency."

"I am very loyal to the Clintons," said Richardson, but he said he wanted something beyond "Bush, Clinton, Bush, Clinton." "You know, what about the rest of us?" he asked.
---o0o---

A novel by Stephen Clarke-Willson: Nano-plasm—a large nano-tech project goes astray



Stephen Clarke-Willson has written a novel titled Nano-Plasm" in which "a major nano-technology product roll-out goes horribly wrong." He has published a trade-paperback edition, which you can (and should!) buy at Lulu.com. They sell the paperback for $13.08. You can download it for $6.25. Or, you can read it free on the Nano-plasm blog, one chapter at a time. There is even a 'bot that will email you the new chapters when you've caught up. They're up to Chapter 18 right now. He's got it covered—put it on your electronic reading device or smart phone for half-price, read it on line free and get the rest emailed to you. If you're a greybeard, or just like books, you can actually just buy it!

I used to work with Dr. Clarke-Willson, and I remember when he started this novel on a business trip. He wrote the first chapter in the air, in transit, on a Palm Pilot. I read the first chapters years ago...he released a chunk of the novel early on, and then went back and finished it.

"But it was going to take more than a forensic expert to figure out how Smythe’s brain and eyes and a portion of his spinal column had been removed from his head intact, and placed two feet away on the floor."

---o0o---

Saturday, March 22, 2008

Easter Weekend: free cut out Easter greeting cards, by an unknown prankster/artist

I don't know who created these cut-out Easter cards of Jesus and the bunny [1]. I've had them since before JPG became the primary image format. These were originally BMPs or TIFFs.


click to enlarge another image/photo by an unknown artist. This
sepia rendering of Golgotha [2] does capture something of the bleakness
that muist have been in the air Good Friday. You have to wonder
about the clouds, 'though. . .it's 90 in Jerusalem today, it will be
95 tomorrow. . .and it always has been!


click to enlarge



click to enlarge
[1] Seeing this image reminds me that I need to write about the underground dinner Daryle, Claire, Keelin, and I attended...a "one pot dinner" where one of the courses was rabbit, which I like. Rabbit just seems to be one off from most people's comfort zone; one small stop beyond the familiar...like Buffalo, or Venison, Sweetbreads or Tripe, Pigeon, Boar, Smelt, or Sea Urchin. On the whole, I probably prefer chicken...rabbit's fine, but for the price, you can pick up an organic, free range, "heriloom" chicken with incredible flavor. Of "odd" food I've eaten, I'd probably put jellyfish and grilled fishheads on the top of the rockpile, although they each have certain charms. Not necessarily charms I'd repeat, if I had the option, but on the other hand, I've had worse. . .have you ever eaten at Denny's, Sambo's (yeah, they closed the last one years ago), Howard Johnson's, Marie Callendar's, etc.? I am reminded of the rumors that dogged Frank Zappa for years, alleging that he munched on a Brown Bomber at a show.
As Frank Zappa said: For the records, folks: I never took a shit on stage, and the closest I ever came to eating shit anywhere was at a Holiday Inn buffet in Fayetteville, North Carolina, in 1973.
[2] Calvary is the English-language name given to Golgotha, outside of Ancient Jerusalem, where Christ was assassinated, The exact location is handed down from antiquity. Although the significance of the name is lost to modernity, Calvariae Locus in Latin, Κρανιου Τοπος (Kraniou Topos) in Greek, and Gûlgaltâ in Aramaic all denote 'place of [the] skull.'
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Onion Video: A Rough Day in the White House Press Room

Thanks to Dean Ericksen of Almost There In No Time (ATINT) for sending this clip along to All This Is That (ATIT).


White House Press Secretary Spins Wife's Tragic Death As A Positive
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Video: The "come and get it" demo by The Beatles

Paul Macca gave this song to Badfinger after The Beatles had signed Badfinger to Apple records. They needed a single--a radio-worthy song. The Beatles did this demo of the tune. You wonder how it would have turned out had they actually gone into full production on the tune. As it is, Badfinger performed a totally respectable version, and most casual fans don't even know it was a song intended for and written by The Beatles.


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Friday, March 21, 2008

Obama's Speech: Moral equivalence and white guilt


...click Obama to enlarge...

There is a fascinating editorial in today's Washington Post: "The Speech: A Brilliant Fraud." "His defense rests on two central propositions: (a) moral equivalence and (b) white guilt. " Charles Krauthammer makes a pretty interesting case for Barack Obama being just another politician of expediency.

I felt like it was a great speech. But was my white guilt merely played like a Stradivarius? A great speech may not be noble, but accomplishes what it set out to do. The polls seem to indicate Obama got a bump from the speech in certain sectors, while he lost ground with the independents. I don't think we'll know for a while because it's not over yet.

Was this the first sign of the cynical, manipulative politician that had to emerge sooner or later? And how will all the new young and African-American voters view that? Does Obama, as a singularly historic figure, get to play by a different set of rules?
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Thursday, March 20, 2008

Boston Dynamics' Spooky Gas-powered, Concrete Robot, Big Dog...



It's loud, it looks like a gigantic insect scrambling over the hill, and it lives! This is by far the spookiest thing I've seen this year. "Big Dog" is a robot that can carry 350 pounds, walk through brush, bombed out buildings, and even on ice. This was created by Boston Dynamics on a grant from "The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency." We're so screwed!

Earlier this year I read How To Survive a Robot Uprising: Tips on Defending Yourself Against the Coming Rebellion by Daniel H. Wilson. . .Wilson drops robotics history trivia nuggets and descriptions of current robot research into this scary and funny guide to surviving the inevitable robot apocalypse. And seeing Big Dog, it feels like we're just a little bit closer to that Robot-Homo Sapien meet-up.
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Timothy! The best song ever about cannibalism



On a side note, I saw The Buoys 35 years ago at The Satstop River Rock Festival. Also on the bill: Delaney and Bonnie (with the now bandless Eric Clapton), The Youngbloods, Wishbone Ash, Albert Collins, Eric Burdon, Jimmy Witherspoon. All I remember about the Buoys' performance is the notorious Timothy, and an incredible cover of Suite: Judy Blue Eyes.

I was just trying to look up information about the Satsop Festival...and an article on All This Is That is the first hit...when I am looking for real information this is not where I'd start the search for anything!

This infamous 1971 song is about two trapped miners who eat a third one. It is still remembered and written about in rock histories. Here is the song, with atypical You Tube photo montage.




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Happy 1,437th Birthday to the Prophet Muhammad!


Abu l-Qasim Muhammad, Mohammed, Muhammed, Mahomet, whatever you want to call Him, celebrates his 1,437th birthday today.

He is considered by Muslims to be the final messenger and prophet of God a/k/a الله‎ Allāh. Muslims consider him the restorer of the uncorrupted faith ( a/k/a islām) of Adam, Abraham and others. He is the last (and they say greatest) in a line of prophets of Islam. Most of what we know about him comes straight from the Qur'an (a/k/a Koran),

He seems to be a pretty cool guy like Jesus, or Buddha, and like Jesus and Buddha, he took the heat for a lot of zealous followers who went overboard and took it to the extreme.
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Wednesday, March 19, 2008

Photo: Vicki Lenti on the Staten Island Ferry with Our Lady Of The Harbor A/K/A The Statue Of Liberty In The Distance


Click Victoria Lenti to enlarge

One thing we often did when we lived in New York City was hop on the Staten Island Ferry and go back and forth across the harbor to the forgotten borough. The ferry was especially great on those 95 degree 99% humidity days. In 1979, when this picture was taken [I think], the Staten Island Ferry still cost ten cents, and for that dime, you could ride back and forth all day long.
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Tuesday, March 18, 2008

The Tally as it stands today: 105 delegates separate Hillary and Barack



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Spitzer's replacement David Paterson admits hot affair and MILF Michelle 'fesses up to being rodgered outside the connubial confines of marriage





By Pablo Fanque
All This Is That National Affairs Editor
03-18-2008 12:00 AM PDT


The very same day he took over for horndog Elliott Spitzer, New York Governor David Paterson, told the Daily News that he and his wife have had extramarital affairs. Both Paterson, 53, and his tasty wife, Michelle, 46, acknowledged in an interview they each had intimate relationships with others several years ago.



Paterson said he had a relationship for two or three years with "a woman other than my wife," beginning in 1999.

Asked if he had stayed with anyone else since 2001 at the same West Side hotel, Paterson said, "From time to time I used to take Michelle to that hotel."


The First Couple agreed to speak publicly about their—what was once called open—marriage after an outbreak of rumors about Paterson's personal life began circulating among the press corps in the last week.

No one can really get up in arms about The Governor sneaking around, or the wronged wife this time. He maintains some sort of cred despite the affair. . .because he was getting it for free, and she was working her own angle. In a curious side-note, Paterson is legally blind, which seems not to preclude an eye for the ladies.



What's the deal these last few years with statehouse sex scandals in New York and New Jersey? It's King Midas In Reverse all over again.
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Sunday, March 16, 2008

The Dusty 45's perform at Chop Suey in Seattle

I saw the Dusty 45's again last night at King Cobra, a new (and fantastic) rock club in Seattle. Why these guys didn't explode nationally is a mystery to me. They're skilled, their music is infectious, and they're masters of fusing rock with alt country, rockabilly, pop, and good old fashioned western swing. With a touch of surf music ala The Ventures (other local heroes) and a little bit of that wacky mariachi trumpet. Here is a YouTube vid of their performance at Chop Suey.



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Saturday, March 15, 2008

The ides of March: It was 2,052 years ago today that Caesar was assassinated

click to enlarge the scene on the Ides of March

2,052 years ago today, on March 15th, 44 B.C., a plot of 60 conspirators led by Marcus Junius Brutus and Gaius Cassius Longinus, succeeded in killing the Emperor Julius Caesar.

The sixty conspirators came to a meeting in the Forum Romanum with daggers hidden in their togas. They stabbed Caesar at least 23 times as he stood at the base of Pompey's statue.

E tu Brute? - Legend has it that Caesar said in Greek to Brutus, “You, too, my child?” The Senators all fled after the deed, and three slaves carried his body home to Calpurnia hours later.


A bust believed to be of Julius Caesar, uncovered at Thera

The unwitting conspirators had no long-range plan beyond killing Caesar, and, in a major F***-up, they did not also assassinate Mark Antony. Brutus apparently went soft. The assassins had only a small band of gladiators to back them up. Marc Antony (whom we usually call Mark Anthony in English), however, had a whole legion, the keys to the privy purse, and Caesar's will.

Eventually a peace was brokered, and the 60 assassins were let off the hook.
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Friday, March 14, 2008

Blown by the TSA again/Aviophobia once again


The Bombardier 200, the 36 passenger turbo-prop used
on the runs between Seattle and Eugene and Portland, OR

I'm back from two nights, three days, four flights, and five cities (SF, Emeryville, Oakland, Eugene, Portland) on the road. Since I get frisked on every flight, I received the goosing four times this trip. And in San Francisco, I was once again blown by the TSA. They put you in a booth and jets of wind swirl around you for five seconds and stop. Then a red light comes on as the machine analyzes your scent for explosives, and allegedly, drugs, and maybe even the anarchist scent. I particularly resent being blown by the TSA, because it's clearly done by profiling. Being frisked, I am more sanguine about. Yeah, I have a large stainless steel femur and it sets off alarms. Fine. But when they put me in the blowjob booth, it's not because of my prosthetic hip but because I am not apparently a businessman.

I am a Vice President of something or other, but they have no way of knowing that. It doesn't cut any ice if you don't fit the traditional mold. Since I dress in Salvation army couture (aka northwest grunge/boho), have shaggy hair and a beard, and carry a pack instead of one of those tacky rolling suitcases, I get singled out. I resent the blowbooth and everything it stands for. The TSA would tell you they're doing a great job of profiling people, because nary a plane has been hijacked since September 2001. Au Contraire. They've been lucky. At least once I've accidentally carried a very sharp Gerber mini-magnum onto a plane undetected...even though I was singled out at the metal detector and frisked. But leave your computer or a bottle of water in your luggage, and the entire TSA cadre harangues you and points you out as an example to the other hapless security line goobs.

There were about seven or eight girls ahead of me in line, traveling together. I don't think most of them had ever flown before. The TSA was merciless because they hadn't taken their belts off, removed their shoes, placed their gels, liquids in a plastic bag in which none of the liquieds ir gels could exceed 3.4 ounces, removed their laptops and placed them in a bin separate from the bin for their shoes, belt, and liquids. Naturally, they also fluffed the "remove your coat, warm up jacket, sports coat, jacket and any other outer garments" and didn't finesse whether hooded sweatshirts were kosher or trefe. They seemed like sweet kids and it was a comedy of errors that became amusing to watch. They all kept apologizing. I helped the last two sort their gear in accordance with the latest protocols and we finally go through "security."

The flight from Eugene to Portland, although it is only about 30 minutes, was harrowing this time. We encountered King Hell turbulence ten minutes into the trip, just about as we hit 10,000 feet. The plane, probably ten times, dropped 100 feet or so, and at one point both dropped 100 feet and tilted almost sideways. Naturally, they cancelled the Horizon free wine and beer cart immediately--just when you needed it most!
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Thursday, March 13, 2008

Poem: The Outlet




The water gathers in a lake
Without flowing out, but always

Finds an outlet when the lake is full,
And so it with us.

We're just like the water
And when we've had it up to here,

We shoot up our former workplace
Or do a slow burn with pills and bottles,

And some of us just resign--
Not ending it,

But re-arranging it
And starting over.
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Photos of Elliott Spitzer and call girl


The four photographs of what appears to be Governor
Elliott Spitzer and a hooker prostitute call girl escort.

Click to enlarge.


By Pablo Fanque
All This Is That National Affairs Editor
Copyright 2008

This afternoon, someone—from a newly created gmail account—emailed four photos of two adults having sex to the national affairs desk. One of the lucky participants is unquestionably former New York Governor Elliott Spitzer. Because All This Is That is a family-friendly website, we have obscured some of the details.

Alexandra Dupre, the woman upon whom now Ex -governor Elliott Spitzer spent many many thousands of dollars is, like most modern young folks, plugged in. Actually her only posts on MySpace seem to be when she created it, and uploaded her song and biography, one entry is from Aug. 30, 2007, and one undated, inspirational message. She has a lot of fan letters from the last few days too.

Click here to hear her sing. Click here to see her profile. Click here to read her biography.
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Tuesday, March 11, 2008

Poem: Into the wind



I watch three herring gulls
Fly South into the wind
And they're losing ground,

Tumbling and righting themselves
In the shifting currents
Scouring the air.

It's not that they want
To migrate South
So much as not go North.

Something in the gull's hearts
Tells them to stay clear
Of Ketchikan, Skagway, and Nome.
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It wasn't the babes, it was the bucks: Spitzer brings down yet another prostitution ring



It wasn't the babes, it was the bucks, according to Brian Ross on the ABC News website. And get this: they're thinking of prosecuting him under an obscure law for "structuring," which is more or less money laundering to cover up the source of cash (which is just what he did). Curiously, this is the third prostitution ring the former Attorney General of New York brought down. . .this one by accident.

"The federal investigation of a New York prostitution ring was triggered by Gov. Eliot Spitzer's suspicious money transfers, initially leading agents to believe Spitzer was hiding bribes, according to federal officials. "

They didn't start out investigating the hookers prostitutes call girls escorts. It was Spitzer they were onto after his bank notified the feds of suspicious financial activity. The FBI uncovered his emails and wiretapped his phones. It seems Elliott didn't follow his own advice:

"Never talk when you can nod, and never nod when you can wink, and never write an e-mail because it's death. You're giving prosecutors all the evidence we need," Spitzer told ABC News two years ago.

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Oh! What a beautiful morning!



As you know, I am a fan of folk lore and folk music. Do you remember singing this song in the 3rd grade, or has it slipped from the canon? Sometimes it gets old doing internet research. . .so, I am pretty sure this was a folk song that was later appropriated by Rodgers and Hammerstein for the opening of their musical Oklahoma! Their lyrics are different anyhow, and somehow I prefer this version that I remember singing in Mrs. Raschkow's classroom.


Oh, What A Beautiful Morning



(Traditional—later appropriated by Rodgers and Hammerstein?)

Oh! What a beautiful morning
Oh! What a beautiful day
I've got a beautiful feeling
Everything's going my way

There's a bright, golden haze on the meadow
There's a bright, golden haze on the meadow
The corn is as high as an elephant's eye
And it looks like it's climbing
Clear up to the sky

Oh! What a beautiful morning
Oh! What a beautiful day
I've got a beautiful feeling
Everything's going my way
Everything's going my way
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Monday, March 10, 2008

Dumb-ass of the week: Client No. 9 Governor Spitzer


Silda Spizter stands besides Client No. 9 at a press
conference this morning

With the stunning news this morning that New York Governor Eliot Spitzer has been implicated in a prostitution ring, we can now call him "Client Number 9." Spitzer was one of the johns described in a recently unsealed FBI affidavit detailing the operation of the Emperors Club, a call girl ring. The affidavit describes hooker interactions with ten johns, including one client who paid cash for a February 13 sex session at a Washington, D.C. hotel.

The New York Times identifies the 48-year-old politician as Client-9. Client-9 (clearly a repeat customer) apparently went to great lengths to arrange the illicit Washington encounter, choosing to mail money in advance to the ring, instead of using a credit card. Client-9, whose conversations were recorded by an FBI wiretap, would not do "traditional wire transferring," the FBI affidavit quotes one Emperors Club.

One of the call-girls spoke with a Emperors Club scheduler, who said that she had been told that Client-9 "would ask you to do things that, like, you might not think were safe..." "Kristen" responded saying that she could handle guys like that, like the soon to be Ex-Governor.

Spitzer, was often called Elliott Ness when he was attorney general. He was a corruption fighter--and had several high profile tussles with Wall Street while serving as attorney. He also prosecuted at least one prostitution ring in his tenure. But the corruption he routed out apparently didn't extend to his own conduct.

The Emperors Club VIP web site shows a range of hourly rates, for the women who are ranked on a one diamond to 7 diamond scale. A seven-diamond gal would have set the Governor back $5,500 an hour.

Of course, Spitzer's wife stood by him at the press conference. Most people expect he will resign sometime today or tonight. I wonder what Senator Clinton would say? She can't win either way--she has to really hope this goes away fast!
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Brit Thru-Vision develops T5000 camera that sees through clothing from 80 feet away, allegedly without showing the "naughty bits"



ICU2! According to Reuters, a British company has developed a camera that detects weapons, drugs or explosives hidden under people's clothes from up to 25 meters away in what could be a breakthrough for the security industry. Of course, the company ThruVision claims the camera does not reveal physical body details

The T5000 camera uses a "passive imaging technology" to identify objects by the natural electromagnetic rays -- known as Terahertz or T-rays -- that they emit.



The camera detects hidden objects from up to 80 feet away and is effective even when people are moving. And, of course, "the screening is harmless."

The technology could be used in airports and other large public gathering places, and will be unveiled at a scientific development exhibition sponsored by Britain's Home Office this week.
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The Dusty 45's perform Buddy Holly's "Oh Boy"

Seattle's Duty 45's perform Buddy Holly's classic Oh Boy. I saw the Dusty 45's at The Hideout Thursday night, and had a ball. I regret that I didn't know about them sooner, because I've missed a lot of great shows. For my money, they are one of the most interesting and tuneful bands playing in Seattle today. They are playing this Friday in Seattle, about which, more later.


Sunday, March 09, 2008

Alien Lore. No.125 : The Wow Signal

Thanks to Jeff Clinton for pointing this one out. I'd heard of the Wow signal, but never read about it.






The Wow! signal was a narrowband (and surprisingly robust) radio signal detected by Dr. Jerry R. Ehman on August 15, 1977 while working on a SETI project at the Big Ear radio telescope of Ohio State University. The signal bore expected hallmarks of potential non-terrestrial and non-solar system origin. It lasted for 72 seconds.

The Wow signal has often been considered the most promising, or the most likely, signal SETI has studied to date.

Dr. Ehman circled the signal on the computer printout and wrote the comment "Wow!" on its side. . .ergo the name by which it is still known.
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Long video of some good moments from the film Idiocracy

Here are some YouTube video clips from one of my favorite movies of the last couple of years: Idiocracy.



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Friday, March 07, 2008

Obama camp: Hillary Clinton is a monster!



In what can only be a moment of madness during an interview with The Scotsman, Samantha Power, Obama's normally extremely bright key foreign policy aide, let slip the camp's true feelings about the former First Lady.

Her comments came as Sen. Obama, whose ass-whuppin' in Texas and Ohio were being blamed on the negative attacks on him, vowed to turn up the heat on Sen. Clinton over her claims to be the more experienced candidate, e.g., the person you want answering The Red Phone At 3:00 A.M.

Ms Power told The Scotsman Clinton would stop at nothing to seize the lead from Obama.

"We f***** up in Ohio," she admitted. "In Ohio, they are obsessed and Hillary is going to town on it, because she knows Ohio's the only place they can win. "

"She is a monster, too – that is off the record – she is stooping to anything," Ms Power said, hastily trying to withdraw her remark.

The bogtrotter Powers has really stepped in it this time. Click here to read the entire article in The Scotsman.
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Thursday, March 06, 2008

TSA Gangstaz

Thanks to Doc., who posted this video on his Random Blts blog.

As someone who has been male-assisted and patted down 86 times by the TSA in the last 14 months, I can relate to this vid.


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Namasté, all this is that readers! I bow to you.



When I wrote a long compendium of gestures and signs last year, many of them were pejorative or downright vulgar. The finger, the wanker, the cuckoo sign, the choke sign, rock horns, the shaka sign, and many more did not include such a beautiful and sweet sign as Namasté. It is pronounced, I think, Nahmus Tay.

Namasté in both word and gesture denotes deep respect and is used in Nepal and India by Hindus, Sikhs, Jains and Buddhists. Many emigrants still use the words and gesture, wherever they end up. And why shouldn't they? What a sweet thought, and gesture.

In Indian and Nepali culture, the word is spoken at the beginning of written or verbal communication. However, the same hands folded gesture is made wordlessly upon departure. The word comes from the Sanskrit (namas): to bow, and (te): "to you."

When spoken to another person, it is commonly accompanied by a slight bow made with hands pressed together, palms touching and fingers pointed upwards, in front of the chest. The gesture alone has the same meaning. I guess if you say it as well, you're giving them a double dose.

You have to admit this sure beats the averted eyes walking down the hall in your Office Space or CubeLand, or the quick nod, a microsecond pupil lock-on and the word "hey." Give someone a Namasté today!
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