Barackillary
At least the chickens are coming home to roost in Europe.

You can't tell a Yuppie by their clothes.
There is a couple at church who I often happen to sit next to. Always fashionably dressed and mannered. (The kind you sit up straighter around) I often feel intimidated by people who look really well put together. Maybe inadequate is the word, but that's my problem and not anyone else's.
The point is one Sunday I was sitting next to these people with their unfortunate name and stylish things and I needed to use the restroom.
I always have to use the restroom. It's a problem.
I made a sign as if to notify my fellow parishioners and hope maybe they move slightly to make my exit quick and the wife did something I did not expect. She moved over with a look in her eyes containing no malice or annoyance. The husband followed with a smile and similar niceness. They couldn't care less if they had to move because I needed to.
How do you feel small around people who don't feel themselves to be big. The short answer is that you don't. In the list that I carry around in my head and with which I classify all I come in contact with, I moved them from Yuppie to Classy. Corny to be sure, but just because someone looks nice doesn't mean that are full of themselves or don't act nice also.
We are often warned not to be prejudiced, but let us remember not to be biased on either end of the spectrum.
I identify with ...What?
I had a horrid realization the other night. Of all the books and columns I've read I can say only three people think the way I do. As a contemporary Pat Robertson has always articulated my views to a T, but if that wasn't bad enough there are two fictional characters with whom I also identify.
While reading Orwell's 1984 and Deliverance I found myself consistantly feeling as if the protagonists of both books were taken directly from my inner conscience. Their thoughts and actions were so similar to what my own that I felt a comfort and familiarity with both characters. Yes you heard me: Deliverance and 1984. Something is deeply wrong upstairs. I've always known I thought differently, but this takes the cake.
There are two great examples of how numbingly boring my point is. One is when the character Ed Gentry observed the precise moment when the suburbs of Atlanta stopped and became rural. Oh if the man could see sprawling capital of the New South Atlanta now! Another moment of revelation whas when Ed stood in his office and thought about how often men before stood the same way when making decisions. I liked Ed.
1984 was love at first sight, the opening line is "It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen". Little did I know there was a Clifford about to run into trouble in London, the capital of Airstrip 1.
Anyways this is my creepy little inner conscience.
Liberty's Soul
Youtube has a video of Pentecostal singer Mickey Mangun singing Battle Hymn of the Republic and I strongly recommend anyone to view it. It is taped during the Library dedication of President Clinton. Clinton has frequented the Pentecostals of Alexandria and has mentioned them in his latest book. Anyway hearing the Battle Hymn and watching the jet fly by made me feel patriotic in a way I haven't for a long time. This nation is not always about money. It has a soul and maintains a wonderful religious ferver. Remember that righteousness exhalteth a nation Anytime I see an address finished with USA or see a large flag flying in the wind my heart swells for the country that allows such precious freedom to flourish. God Bless America
Old English Cognates With Latin
Origins of English
It is funny how small the world can seem. Two of my intrests have collided in an unusual way. One of my favorite things to do is to read old books, many of which are written in the British English of the 17th and 18th centuries. Another interest is to learn Spanish. While reading these books I keep coming across obscure words that quite easily translate into Latin and Spanish. With so many cognates (words that have a common origin) it is a shame I'm not fluent in Spanish yet.
English Latin Spanish Synonym
felicity feleciter feliz happyness
rudd rubor rojo reddness
facile facile facil easy
translucent lucere lucir clear
It's true what they say, " English is a German language with a Latin vocabulary".
Class is not going well
On Thursday evenings from 6:30 till 7:50 I attend a class on Anatomy and Physiology at the local junior college. The teacher had fooled around for the first few classes and now he had three classes of material to cover in one night. While approaching the third hour of lecture with only one five minute break I noticed everyone was either rubbing their face or stabbing theirselves with the blunt end of their pens.
It reminded me of an episode of Seinfeld that brought this subject up.
Excerpt from Episode 45 "The Wallet"
JERRY: It's a tell. You gotta tell.
ELAINE: What tell? What's a tell?
JERRY: When you ask someone about their relationship and they touch their face you know it's not going too well. Go ahead ask me how it's going with somebody.
ELAINE: Um, uh, who's it going with, uh, Alice?
JERRY: Good, going good (scratches chin) And the higher up on the face you go the worse the relationship is getting. You know it is like - pretty good - not bad - I gotta get out.
ELAINE: How high did I go?
GEORGE: You almost did the nose.
Yeah, Class is definitely not going well.
Grrr... Snowbirds
I know this is insignificant, but I was speaking with a snowbird this week. He was complaining about a floater in his vision. I winked at him and said I hoped people wouldn't think he was crazy for swatting air so much. "No they won't" he says, "they'll just think its because of all the mosquitos here in Florida."It felt like he just just another person here to use this State solely for it's warmth and sterile, planned communities. Many of these people that come for the winter are also begging for the portability exemption for their condo taxes. You know what? I think that if you don't even know that there won't be any mosquitos until March, then you don't deserve the tax break given to the locals who put up with the mosquitos in July.
Another person I just love is my neighbor that lives two doors down in my condo building. Every January he leaves to go back to Michigan and boards up his windows like he is living in Warsaw during the German bombings. He is kind enough to take them back down when he returns every late December.
I feel like my home is a Hotel
Why Population Figures Matter
The Result of Social Planning
To the Torches of Freedom
The Colossus of Rhodes
To you, o Sun, the people of Dorian Rhodes set up this bronze statue reaching to Olympus, when they had pacified the waves of war and crowned their city with the spoils taken from the enemy. Not only over the seas but also on land did they kindle the lovely torch of freedom and independence. For to the descendants of Herakles belongs dominion over sea and land.
Dedicatory inscription of the Colossus 290 BC
The New Colossus
With conquering limbs astride from land to land
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame
"Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she
With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"
Emma Lazarus, 1883









