Dosvidaniya, Ivan Ivanovitch
by Jack Brummet
Dosvidaniya, Ivan Ivanovitch, [1]
Living your life like it could never last.
Each day feeling the marrow diminish
And each week gone by is a week too fast
From which there is no turning back.
So you cinch it tight and leave no slack
To slip through those pearly towering gates,
Relieved from duty in these United States,
Where you were born but never quite fit.
As the powers that be coil and spit
And the venomed fangs are bare,
You want to abandon ship, but never dare
And you pace and try to raise the nerve,
Hoping and wishing this isn’t Last Call
Before stumbling into that blind curve.
It never comes and now you sit and wait,
And swear this time you'll play it straight,
Hovering in circles until you stall.
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[1] Ivan Ivanovich, the Russian equivalent for 'John Doe' was the name given to a mannequin used in testing the Russian Vostok spacecraft in preparation for its manned missions. Ivan Ivanovich was made to look as lifelike as possible, with eyes, eyebrows, eyelashes and a mouth. He was dressed in a cosmonaut suit, with a sign reading "MAKET" (Russian for ‘‘dummy)’’ placed under his visor, so that anyone who found him after his missions would not think he was a dead cosmonaut or an alien.
Ivan Ivanovitch would also be my name in Russia, since I am John, son of John.
Sunday, July 24, 2011
Saturday, July 23, 2011
On My Plate reprints Jack's rendition of Pete Clemenza's spaghetti sauce from The Godfather
By Mona Goldwater, Domestic Arts Editor
On My Plate--James Kiester's food blog--today reprinted Jack's reconstruction of Pete Clemenza's spaghetti sauce (from The Godfather) in a post titled "Big Movies & Big Food." The article is here.
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Friday, July 22, 2011
One Big Error, or, is only seeing believing?
Maybe the one big error we all make is to not believe what we haven't seen; this runs from the mites that live on our eyelashes all the way up to old God himself (and everything in between). But seeing is not everything. We do--many of us, anyway--believe in things we can't see...like love.
Sure, we've seen these mites in photographs, but that's quite different from, say, anytime you blink, seeing a herd of cooties skittering from eyelash to eyelash. Photographic evidence of God is quite scarce.One bit of good news on the eyelash front is that mites are so efficient that they eat but have no "exit system" or, in short, they are not dropping a deuce in your eye.
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Thursday, July 21, 2011
Wednesday, July 20, 2011
Tuesday, July 19, 2011
From Nothing Is Cool -- Hitler's take on carmageddon
From NothingIsCoolMovie (http://www.nothingiscoolmovie.com/), using that great warhorse Downfall, Hitler ponders the impact of the I-405 closure (a/k/a carmageddon).
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Monday, July 18, 2011
Sunday, July 17, 2011
Faces No. 229 - Six faces in the night
By Jack Brummet
All This Is That Late Night Editor
All This Is That Late Night Editor
click to enlarge
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Saturday, July 16, 2011
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