Books and Watermelon

Summery Book Blogs

Ken Kielty
Talking About Things That Matter

Matthew Arnold & Alfred, Lord Tennyson
Forgotten Mermen

Greg Pizzoli
Books With Ellie

@Kitti's List

American Specialties

Animated Cards by Jacquie Lawson

Pets on Parade

&

Patriotic Pastry

If all else fails, bake a cake!

Or, as D. H. Lawrence wrote in 1923,
fix the plumbing!

Listen to the States asserting: "The hour has struck! Americans shall be American. The U.S.A. is now grown up artistically. It is time we ceased to hang on to the skirts of Europe, or to behave like schoolboys let loose from European schoolmasters—"

All right, Americans, let's see you set about it. Go on then . . . Where is this new bird called the true American?

. . . Heaven knows what we mean by reality. Telephone, tinned meat, Charlie Chaplin, water-taps, and World-Salvation, presumably. Some insisting on the plumbing, and some on saving the world: these being the two great American specialties. Why not?

from Studies in Classic American Literature

P.S.
We're also good at Currier & Ives!
"The Star Spangled Banner"
Color lithograph, c. 1860
by Currier and Ives
active 1857 - 1907

Thanks to my artistic & literary friends:
Etta for the lithograph
and Jim for the D. H. Lawrence essay

The Freedom Capital of the World

"How selfish to risk everything and for what?
'Freedom?' she almost screamed to herself. 'Freedom!'
Her mind raced as the word crossed her mind repeatedly.
She was in the freedom capital of the world"
-- New York, New York! (432)

Kenneth M. Kielty
from his 2011 novel
Visiting Brooklyn (432)

Photo: Christmas 2015
MetLife, Chrysler Bldg., and Grand Central Station

See also Facebook,
KL & Facebook

~ The Freedom Capital of the World ~
May it always remain so.
Happy Independence Day Eve!


Sinclair Lewis warned his readers -- 90 years ago --
to be careful -- because freedom can be lost . . .

“Why, America’s, the only free nation on earth.
Besides! Country’s too big for a revolution.
No, no! Couldn’t happen here!”

Sinclair Lewis (1885 - 1951)
It Can't Happen Here (1935)


William O. Douglas advises further . . .

Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas
(1898 - 1980)

“Since when have we Americans been expected to bow submissively to authority and speak with awe and reverence to those who represent us? The constitutional theory is that we the people are the sovereigns, the state and federal officials only our agents. We who have the final word can speak softly or angrily. We can seek to challenge and annoy, as we need not stay docile and quiet. . . .[A]t the constitutional level, speech need not be a sedative; it can be disruptive . . . [A] function of free speech under our system of government is to invite dispute. It may indeed best serve its high purpose when it induces a condition of unrest, creates dissatisfaction with conditions as they are, or even stirs people to anger.”

Living With Dementia

The MoCA Test
[Montreal Cognitive Assessment Test]

Steve Benen: "We’re talking about an exam that’s used to identify evidence of dementia, mental deterioration and neurodegenerative diseases. . . . Trump somehow convinced himself, however, that it was akin to a Mensa exam and that his ability to get a perfect score was proof of his genius. It was not."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

American writers continue to express concern
that our current president is living with dementia:
News anchor Lawrence O'Donnell: “If we grow weary of making the point of how singularly stupid and possibly clinically demented Donald Trump’s statements are, then we will become part of the normalization process of those statements, which most of the American news media has unwittingly participated in and 14 year olds in this country will think it’s perfectly normal for a president to say those things.” (MSNBC ~ 18 June)

Historian Heather Cox Richardson: "It seems to me long past time to question the 79-year-old president’s mental health."

Columnist Rex Huppke: "Is Trump in mental decline? He sounds far worse than Biden ever did. . . . If Biden's 'mental decline' was concerning, Trump's should be alarming."

I share their dismay. We cannot normalize political inanity.
So here is Batch Four of my awareness - raising
"living with dementia" reminders
[Also posted on The Fortnightly Kitti Carriker]

These perception - checkers may be non - ceremonious, non - likeable, non - literary, devoid of charm -- but not without irony. I have tried to pick examples that emphasize the irony of the pot calling the kettle black -- or the old calling the old old. How ironic that one candidate living with dementia was eliminated, only to be replaced by another candidate living with dementia. We need upward age limits for President, Senate, Congress, and Supreme Court. It is not only embarrassing but also dangerous and wrong to see the world being so badly run by elders way past their prime.

1.

Living with dementia, compounded by sheer cruelty:

Q: Have you called the governor yet or been able to speak to any of them?

A: Um, I think the governor of Minnesota is so whacked out, I'm not calling him. Why would I call him? I could call him. Say, "Hi, how you doing?" Uh the guy doesn't have a clue so, he's a mess. So you know, I could be nice and call him but, why waste time?

2.

Thinks he's a hero but really a bully, living with dementia:

"The UK is very well protected.
You know why, because I like them, that's why.
That's their ultimate protection."

3.

Living with dementia & The Dunning-Kruger Effect:

"It's a shame, this guy -- I have a guy -- do you ever have a guy that's not a smart person and you're dealing with him and he's not a smart guy."

Yeah, we have that guy.
He is frighteningly unfit to lead the U.S.A.
But there he is, up on Mount Stupid.

4.

A strategy when living with dementia:

"I like to make the final decision
one second before it’s due . . .

5.

Living with dementia and prone to warfare:

" . . . a very bloody war.
They're all bloody,
but this was a really bloody one."

6.

Living with dementia and losing distinction
between the Revolutionary War & the Civil War:

"A lot of wars there was no reason for. You look right up there. I don't know. See the Declaration of Independence. And I say I wonder if you, you know the Civil War always seemed to me maybe that could have been solved without losing 600,000 plus people."

7.

Living with dementia, right down there
at the bottom of the logical reasoning pyramid:

"Stupid AOC, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
one of the ‘dumbest’ people in Congress"

8.

Living with dementia and commenting
inappropriately on people's appearance:

"I actually had breakfast today with a king and a queen
who were beautiful, beautiful people,
central casting I must say, very nice."

9.

Living with dementia and leering:

"I will never say good looking waitress because looks don't matter anymore. You know, in our modern society. She happened to be beautiful, but I won't say that. I won't mention that, but nevertheless a waitress came over. . . . So I want to thank that young, beautiful waitress."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Click here for FIRST batch:
"I Didn't Even Know Anything"
QK & FN

SECOND batch:
"A Very Much Different Country"
QK & FN

THIRD batch:
No Kings Day
QK & FN

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Like Butterscotch

Melting our way through the Heat Dome!

“And the light poured in like butterscotch
And stuck to all my senses
Oh, won't you stay?
We'll put on the day
And we'll talk in present tenses . . . ”

~ Joni Mitchell ~

Photos by Jay Beets

A Shadowy Lie?

Commonly Misattributed
to Rabindranath Tagore (1861 – 1941),
Kahlil Gibran (1883 - 1931), Mother Theresa (1910 - 1997)--
all of whom were born not only after the birth,
but also after the death of the original author,
American poet Ellen Sturgis Hooper

Duty

I slept and dreamed that life was Beauty:
I woke and found that life was Duty:
Was then thy dream a shadowy lie?
Toil on, sad heart, courageously,
And thou shalt find thy dream to be
A noonday light and truth to thee

Ellen Sturgis Hooper (1812 - 1848)

Hooper's poem & more
@The Fortnightly Kitti Carriker

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Could it be a coincidence across cultures?

“I slept and dreamt that life was joy.
I awoke and saw that life was service.
I acted and behold, service was joy.”

Apparently not the first time that Tagore
"inadvertently plagiarised" another poet's work.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

More misattributions:

Do not stand at my grave and weep

Dinah Craik vs George Eliot

Sit in the Sun and Listen

Disco Ball at High Noon
on the Summer Solstice!

The Word

Down near the bottom
of the crossed-out list
of things you have to do today,

between "green thread"
and "broccoli," you find
that you have penciled "sunlight."

Resting on the page, the word
is beautiful. It touches you
as if you had a friend

and sunlight were a present
he had sent from someplace distant
as this morning—to cheer you up,

and to remind you that,
among your duties, pleasure
is a thing

that also needs accomplishing.
Do you remember?
that time and light are kinds

of love, and love
is no less practical
than a coffee grinder

or a safe spare tire?
Tomorrow you may be utterly
without a clue,

but today you get a telegram
from the heart in exile
proclaiming that the kingdom

still exists,
the king and queen alive,
still speaking to their children,
—to any one among them
who can find the time
to sit out in the sun and listen.

Tony Hoagland (1953 – 2018)
[see also]

Hoagland's poem & more
@The Fortnightly Kitti Carriker

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Related inspiration:

"We refuse to be sad
It's too easy
It's too stupid
It's too convenient
We are given the chance too often
It's not smart
Everybody is sad
We refuse to be sad any longer"

~ Blaise Cendrars (1887 – 1961) ~
from "South American Women"

"Sorrow everywhere. . . .
But we enjoy our lives because that’s what God wants.
Otherwise the mornings before summer dawn would not
be made so fine. . . ."

~ Jack Gilbert (1925 - 2012) ~
from "A Brief for the Defense"

Juneteenth

Booker Taliaferro Washington 
(April 5, 1856 - November 14, 1915)

Remember when Martin Luther King, Jr.
(January 15, 1929 – April 4, 1968)
said:
"Let no man pull you so low as to hate him."

Similarly, Booker T. Washington said:

Previous MLK Posts

No Kings Day

Living with dementia and craving to be king:

"I don't feel like a king.
I have to go through hell to get stuff approved.
A king would say I'm not going to get this.
I -- a king would have never had the California
mandate to even be talking to him.
He wouldn't have to call up Mike Johnson and Thune
and say, fellas, you got to pull this off
and after years we get it done.
No, no, we're not a king. We're not a king at all."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

WE???
Has someone been talking to Queen Victoria?

Here's a THIRD batch of embarrassing drivel,
just in time for No Kings Day
[Also posted on The Fortnightly Kitti Carriker]

FIRST batch:
"I Didn't Even Know Anything"
QK & FN

SECOND batch:
"A Very Much Different Country"
QK & FN

1.

Drone technology,
as described by someone living with dementia:

"I think you're gonna find that it's a very different, uh, warfare out there today. Now, they've introduced a thing called drone. A drone is a little bit different. It makes -- You have to go back and learn a whole new form of warfare, and you're gonna do it better than anybody else." [Photo: Beginner Drone Set]

2.

God's Plan,
as described by someone living with dementia:

"We're gonna have a big, big celebration, as you know, 250 years. In some ways I'm glad I missed that second term where it was because -- I wouldn't be your president for that. Most important of all, in addition, we have the World Cup and we have the Olympics. Can you imagine? I missed that four years and now look what I have, I have everything. Amazing the way things work out. God did that, I believe that too. God did it."

3.

Unbelievable!
-- to someone living with dementia:

"But we've found things that are unbelievably stupid and unbelievably bad with the Department of Government Efficiency. . . . DOGE has installed geniuses with an engineering mindset and unbelievably talented people and computers. I actually asked Elon one time, what's their primary thing, and they have a lot of primary things, all having to do with being smart."

4.

Member of the U.S. Senate Joni Ernst in 2016
standing alongside presidential nominee living with dementia:

Ernest speaks sarcastically of Jesus, right along with the tooth fairy: “I made an incorrect assumption that everyone in the auditorium understood that, yes, we are all going to perish from this earth,” she said. “So I apologize, and I’m really, really glad that I did not have to bring up the subject of the tooth fairy as well. For those that would like to see eternal and everlasting life, I encourage you to embrace my Lord and savior Jesus Christ.”

5.

Living with dementia
and a fourth grade vocabulary,
so that everything is "big and beautiful"
or "mean and nasty" or "REALLY BAD":

“What Vladimir Putin doesn’t realize is that if it weren’t for me, lots of really bad things would have already happened to Russia, and I mean REALLY BAD. He’s playing with fire!”

6.

Is America ready for a president living with dementia?
7.

Meeting agenda
for a person living with dementia:

"We're going up to Camp David. We have meetings with various people about very major subjects."

8.

Living with dementia and delusions of grandeur:

"The U.S could survive without almost anybody
. . . . Except me."

Heather Cox Richardson:
“There is also no doubt Trump continues to demonstrate
that he is more committed to fantasy than reality.”
[emphasis added]

9.

"Political correctness" as misunderstood
by someone living with dementia:

"I watched it very closely and it was amazing the job that the National Guard did. And by the way, the police were working very hard also. But the police are given instructions to be politically correct. I said, no, no, you don't have to be politically correct, you have to do the job."

10.

2024 was a Landslide...for 'Did Not Vote'

Just a reminder: one half of the country
did not vote for the current Republican administration
-- only about one third. Not the same thing.

"Mandate," as misconstrued
by a person, living with dementia:

"I won the election by a landslide. I mean, we have a crack -- and we have a big mandate because of that."

11.

Living with dementia and tilting at windmills:

"The windmills are killing our country, by the way. . . . Even if they're white ones, a beigey white, ones a darker white, ones a lighter white. And then they start to rust after four or five years. And then they start to wear out and nobody takes them . . . Windmills, all over the place, tall ones, short ones, dead ones, they're all dead."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Click here for FIRST batch:
"I Didn't Even Know Anything"
QK & FN

And SECOND batch:
"A Very Much Different Country"
QK & FN

My Favorite No Kings Day Sign!

The Truth Shall Set You Free

Photo Source

Ken Jennings really stands up for America
and speaks out in his recent NYT guest essay.
If you haven't read it yet, read it now:

Trivia and ‘Jeopardy!’ Could Save Our Republic

Alternative Facts "But trust in authority is not exactly at an all-time high, as you’ve probably heard. It’s been more than eight years since Kellyanne Conway’s coinage of the phrase “alternative facts” on “Meet the Press,” an Orwellian way to soft-pedal the outright falsehoods being told by powerful institutions. You don’t hear much about alternative facts anymore, but only because so many of them are no longer the alternative to anything. They have moved to the mainstream."
[Thanks Ken Jennings]

Which hearkens back to Stephen Colbert's term --
Truthiness: "Truthiness is the belief or assertion that a particular statement is true based on the intuition or perceptions of some individual or individuals, without regard to evidence, logic, intellectual examination, or facts.[1][2] Truthiness can range from ignorant assertions of falsehoods to deliberate duplicity or propaganda intended to sway opinions.

"The concept of truthiness has emerged as a major subject of discussion surrounding U.S. politics during the late 20th and early 21st centuries because of the perception among some observers of a rise in propaganda and a growing hostility toward factual reporting and fact-based discussion."
[Thanks Wikipedia]

More on Jeopardy!
Running list of boo-boos
Purdue
Shakespeare
Olden days
Insomnia

"I’ve always hated the fact that 'trivia,'
really our only word in English for general-knowledge
facts and games, is the same word we use to mean
'things of no importance.' So unfair!"
~ Ken Jennings

I Had Been Missed

The House at Rueil (1882)
by Édouard Manet (1832 - 1883)

Someday, I would like to go home. The exact location of this place, I don't know, but someday I would like to go. There would be a pleasing feeling of familiarity and a sense of welcome in everything I saw. People would greet me warmly. They would remind me of the length of my absence and the thousands of miles I had travelled in those restless years, but mostly, they would tell me that I had been missed, and that things were better now I had returned. Autumn would come to this place of welcome, this place I would know to be home. Autumn would come and the air would grow cool, dry and magic, as it does that time of the year. At night, I would walk the streets but not feel lonely, for these are the streets of my home town. These are the streets that I had thought about while far away, and now I was back, and all was as it should be. The trees and the falling leaves would welcome me. I would look up at the moon, and remember seeing it in countries all over the world as I had restlessly journeyed for decades, never remembering it looking the same as when viewed from my hometown."
[emphasis added]

Henry Rollins (b 1961)
American singer and writer

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Some music for the restless journey:

1. Bach ~ Cello Suite No. 1 in G Major, Prelude
Two versions: Yo-Yo Ma & Mstislav Rostropovich
The entire Suite: Pablo Casals

2. Handel ~ Suite No 4 in D Minor, HWV 437, Sarabande
& Vivaldi, as heard in the movie Barry Lyndon

3. Tell Me It's Not True
from Blood Brothers

4. Thanks to Sam for sharing
No Hard Feelings

RFK

Rest in Peace RFK
November 20, 1925 – June 6, 1968

American politician and lawyer
United States Attorney General and Senator
Assassinated after giving a speech in Los Angeles,
when running for the Democratic presidential nomination.

“Each time someone stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, they send forth a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring those ripples build a current which can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance.”

Robert Francis Kennedy
from a speech given in
Cape Town, South Africa
exactly 2 years before his death
June 6, 1966

As far back as I can remember, my grandparents had a picture of JFK and RFK, just like the one above, hanging on their living room wall. According to family lore, my youngest brother thought that the Kennedy brothers were our uncles, because their picture was right next to the framed photograph of Uncle Rudy, my dad's handsome brother who died in WWII.

Rest in Peace Uncle Rudy

TSgt Raymond R. Carriker
b. June 3, 1921 - d. April 1, 1944
93rd Bombardment Group
Stationed at RAF Hardwick, Norfolk, UK
Killed in action, over Reims, France

Sadly, a number of my elders (evangelical Protestants) were prejudeced against Catholics -- and against the Kennedys for that reason. But not Grandma and Grandpa Carriker (RLDS). I'm glad I had them as role models for knowing that the Democrats (no matter what their religion) had better hearts than the Republicans. I think it may be the memory of their example that inspires me, election after election, to vote a straight Democratic ticket (eliminating any traitors to party policy, but NOT taking on any Republicans unless they have actually changed parties).


Ted Kennedy’s Eulogy
For his brother Robert Kennedy
"We loved him as a brother, and as a father, and as a son. From his parents and from his older brothers and sisters, Joe and Kathleen and Jack, he received an inspiration which he passed on to all of us. He gave us strength in time of trouble, wisdom in time of uncertainty, and sharing in time of happiness. He will always be by our side.

"Love is not an easy feeling to put into words, nor is loyalty, or trust, or joy. But he was all of these. He loved life completely and he lived it intensely. . . .

My brother need not be idealized or enlarged in death beyond what he was in life, to be remembered simply as a good and decent man who saw wrong and tried to right it, saw suffering and tried to heal it, saw war and tried to stop it.

Those of us who loved him and who take him to his rest today, pray that what he was to us and what he wished for others will some day come to pass for all the world. As he said many times, in many parts of this nation, to those he touched and who sought to touch him:

'Some see things as they are and say why.
I dream things that never were and say why not.' "

P.S.
"Anybody here seen my old friend Bobby?"
& Hope of a Nation

Body Image, Again and Still

"Mirror, mirror on the wall . . . "
Photo Credit

Now at last I have come to see what life is,
Nothing is ever ended, everything only begun,
And the brave victories that seem so splendid
Are never really won.*
~ Sarah Teasdale ~

Shall we never be done fighting the body image fight? Or is it going to be forever popping up like a whack-a-mole for the rest of our lives? That's how it seems, if current events are any indication. Just take a look into the fun mirror of popular culture and medical media for a barrage of images and messages to make you feel bad about your appearance.

Thank goodness for counter messages such as these, that keep offering a healthier alternative:

1. This video: "48 Things Women Hear"
posted by my niece Chantel

Sad but true -- every single one. But one weird thing about "no guy wants to have sex with a virgin" -- I was taught the exact opposite: "Guys only want to have sex with virgins." Catch 22: so you better never have sex or you won't be a virgin and no one will want to have sex with you. I guess for every hateful message, there's an equally hateful counter-message. So you can never win."

2.This photo essay: Mermaid or Whale
posted by my friend Jean

Speaking of weight, I was irritated at the endocrinologist’s office recently to hear the nurse advise me that if I had carried more weight over the years my bones would probably be stronger and denser now — while simultaneously giving me a personal fitness handout stating that I need to lose weight!

So the message is, okay, you may have a scrawny little compromised worthless skeleton, but you’re still too fat! What??? Which one is it? How small does a woman have to be around here for people to stop telling her that she is too big? Sometimes I think the right answer is "When she disappears. That's when she'll be small enough."

I hope she never loses
this optimistic energy & self-image

Once again, here's my long ago
Letter to Editor

and

Tribute to Bette Midler

The Wide Missouri

Sunrise, looking east
from St. Charles toward St. Louis

"Oh, Shenandoah! I hear you calling!
Away, you rolling river!
Yes, far away I hear you calling,
Ha, Ha! I'm bound away across the wide Missouri."

Additional renditions by
Chanticleer & Springsteen

Some listeners like to pretend that this is a song about the Shenandoah Valley and the Shenandoah River, but no! It is a song about the Wide Missouri!

Mid-day from our hotel room . . .

when the hailstorm came . . .

For further thoughts on
The Wide Missouri & The Gulf of Mexico
see my recent post

The Gulf of Mexico and Beyond

@The Fortnightly Kitti Carriker
A literary blog of connection & coincidence;
custom & ceremony

~ More river pics ~
The Misouri
The Mississippi & The Wabash

Outdoor Rocks

A thoughtful activity for Memorial Day:
go on a nature walk or to the cemetery, find some rocks,
and assemble a cairn, like this impressive stack of stones,
gathered and balanced in our neighbor's backyard.

More cairns on my blog.
Also called ebenezers.

The Cairn

When I think of the little children learning
In all the schools of the world,
Learning in Danish, learning in Japanese
That two and two are four, and where the rivers of the world
Rise, and the names of the mountains and the principal cities,
My heart breaks.
Come up, children! Toss your little stones gaily
On the great cairn of Knowledge!
(Where lies what Euclid knew, a little grey stone,
What Plato, what Pascal, what Galileo:
Little grey stones, little grey stones on a cairn.)
Tell me, what is the name of the highest mountain?
Name me a crater of fire! a peak of snow!
Name me the mountains on the moon!
But the name of the mountain that you climb all day,
Ask not your teacher that.

by Edna St. Vincent Millay (1892 - 1950)
More poems: QK & FN & KL

Another fun & mystical idea:
Design a Stone Cat!

In contrast to Outdoor Rocks,
check out my recent Fortnightly Blog:

Indoor Rocks

Ellie & Aidan's treasure stash
(one of many)
containing numerous indoor rocks.