there are 47 percent of the people
who will vote for the president no matter
there are 47 percent who are with him
who are dependent upon government
who believe that they are victims
who believe that government has a responsibility
to care for them
who believe that they are entitled to health care
to food to housing to you name it
my role is not to worry about those people
--Mitt Romney
There's an interview with me in the new October issue of The Writer.
Rainbow at the beach this evenng on my walk.
The first issue of Real South is up. Get it here. Joe Lansdale, Lewis Nordan, Harry Crews, William Gay. Food, music, and much more. Stories by Stacy Barton, Kim Bradley, Robert Busby, Susan Hubbard, and David Norman.
Bulkhead. An outside sloping cellar entrance with nearly horizontal doors under which is the upright door leading directly into the cellar.
A poster I found among my hoarded memorabilia. The late and great Mosswood Bookshop in Lakeland. George Garrett! Fred Chapell! A lively literary spring at Florida Southern.
I think it’s rather peculiar
it’s not in keeping with
our founding documents
our founding vision
I’d guess you’d have to ask
the Obama administration
why they purged all this language
from their platform
why they did all this
these purges of God
--Paul Ryan
Mokeys are visiting and eating the unripe lemons.
Bulkie
A bulkie (not "bulkie roll" as outlanders might say, and pronounced bull-key) is a large white bread roll (not a hard roll) with a somewhat crispy crust and a somewhat chewy inside. They come plain or with poppy seeds. (See flossing.) Some people use them for sandwiches, but in Worcester they are most often bought on Sunday mornings on Water Street (the old Jewish commercial district) and are always eaten with cream cheese--real cream cheese also from Water Street, not the Philadelphia brand.
Bubbler
What some people call a water fountain. We pronounce it "bub-la" or "bub-a-la,"depending on our verbal sophistication. The water in the bubbler at Elm Park is wicked cold. DARE notes that the word has also been heard in Appleton and Madison, Wisconsin, and in Canton and Cincinnati, Ohio.
Hear that lonesome whippoorwill
He sounds too blue to fly
The midnight train is whining low
I'm so lonesome I could cry
I've never seen a night so long
When time goes crawling by
The moon just went behind the clouds
To hide its face and cry
Did you ever see a robin weep
When leaves began to die?
Like me he's lost the will to live
I'm so lonesome I could cry
The silence of a falling star
Lights up a purple sky
And as I wonder where you are
I'm so lonesome I could cry
--Hank Williams
We’ve got a Muslim
for a President
who hates cowboys
hates cowgirls
hates fishing
hates farming
loves gays
and we hate him
--Hank Williams Jr.
I'm not sure if men really understand this
but I don't think there's a woman in America
who really expects her life to be easy
And that's fine
we don't want easy
We're too smart to know
there aren't easy answers
And that is where this boy I met
at a high school dance comes in
I could tell you why I fell in love with him
he was tall
laughed a lot
was nervous
girls like that
it shows the guy's a little intimidated
and he was nice to my parents
but he was really glad
when my parents weren't around
That's a good thing
and he made me laugh
--Ann Romney
Having a piece of cake is just like
having asparagus, as far as I’m concerned,
so I’m, well, eat the asparagus then
Good chicken, good chicken, free people
exercising their free speech rights
I really like asparagus.
Part of it is how much I like asparagus
and how much I don’t like cake
I don’t eat cake
--Paul Ryan
May have gone out of business, it looks like, since I stayed there:
I recognize the hand of providence in selecting this place.
I'm told in a Sunday school class I attended —
my son Tagg was teaching the class. He’s not here.
I look around to see. Of course he’s not here. He was in London.
He taught a class in which he was describing the concern
on the part of some of the Jews that left Egypt
to come to the promised land, that in the promised land
was down the River Nile, which would provide
the essential water they had enjoyed in Egypt.
They came here recognizing they must be relied upon,
themselves and the arm of God to provide rain from the sky.
--Mitt Romney
Our friend Steve Street, fiction writer, essayist, and activist, passed away on Friday after a long struggle with cancer. The Chronicle of Higher Education paid tribute to Steve here. The New Faculty Majority Blog did so here. And they link here to more of Steve. You can read some of his essays at the Chronicle. And here are some links to his other writing: His story "Skin," which appeared in the Missouri Review. "Balloon Theater" appeared in the Cimmaron Review. "Foreigners" also appeared in Cimmaron this summer, but you'll have to buy that issue. I have mine autographed by Steve. Here's "Do You Think?" in wordriver. In Posse Review published an excerpt from The Murther of Blick Mangoosh. Here's a book review and here a movie review. And here a few of us are back in Fayetteville at Mark Osing's apartment, long ago:
Pam, Steve, Bev, me, Cindy, and Mark in front.
On a trip to Rochester this summer, we were able to rendezvous with Steve in East Aurora. The next day he was leaving for a holiday in Mexico. He was feeling good, had just gotten tests done and was awaiting the results. Here's an excerpt from his last e-mail to me on July 11:
Vallarta was fine: my Spanish returned in surprising ways and was excellent, according to the shopkeepers, so I bought many trinkets along w/wading in the Pacific and on a boat trip to a remote cove, after just one weak piña colada I joined my first conga line. Vacation city, no mutilated bodies in sight.
Nice to see you both too. Meant to ask after Tristan and whether the grant means you'll be off next year. If so come on back in the winter: otherwise you haven't really seen Buffalo or Rochester either. Test results weren't great, but as the zany British comic said, I'm not quit dead yet.
cheers,
Steve
We're sure going to miss Steve. I still remember his story "The Orange Caroline" from Bill Harrison's fiction workshop, way back when.
(to those who must go to work)
We can be poor in spirit
and I don’t even consider myself wealthy
which is an interesting thing
I love the fact that there are women
out there who don’t have a choice
and they must go to work and they
still have to raise the kids
thank goodness
we value those people too
and sometimes life isn’t easy for any of us
Everybody has problems
everyone has issues
everyone in life has their challenges
mine have not been financial
--Ann Romney
Corporations are people, my friend,
of course they are.
Everything corporations earn
ultimately goes to the people.
Where do you think it goes?
Whose pockets?
Whose pockets?
People's pockets.
Human beings, my friend.
--Mitt Romney
The theater is in our blood. (thanks to jose in queso)
