© Adaptive Curmudgeon. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author is prohibited. Also it's lame.
Ozymandias
I met a traveller from an antique land
Who said: “Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert . . . Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed:
And on the pedestal these words appear:
‘My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!’
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.”
“Coimhéad fearg fhear na foighde”
Beware of the anger of a patient man.
I never saw a wild thing sorry for itself. A small bird will drop frozen dead from a bough without ever having felt sorry for itself.
In a room where people unanimously maintain a conspiracy of silence, one word of truth sounds like a pistol shot.
Considering the usual intellectual level of someone asking about the eclipse, I think the answer is too complicated.
I turned on the TV the morning of the eclipse to check cloud conditions and almost passed out at their stupidity. The bimbo on the weather report was trying to explain how orbits interact to create an eclipse and it was like watching a monkey explain the transmission of a Mack truck. Much worse than any kid in a 4th grade science fair. On another channel some other woman was explaining how they’d spent two months preparing for this emergency event. Depending on where she was, that’s one day’s preparation per second of eclipse darkness. Collectively we’re medieval peasants about to burn a witch because the sky God is angry. Individually the family and I had a fabulous time and it was well worth it.
“Collectively we’re medieval peasants” I think you’re giving your fellow ‘Mericans too much credit.
I half expected some of the neighbors to come outside and fire guns at the sun to scare away the dragon eating Mr Sun. I fully expected to see a few of them staring with naked eyeballs at Mr Sun. Alas, my little group were the only ones outside- everyone else was inside immersed in playing video games, texting, et stupid cetera. Sigh.
I’m glad y’all had a good time.
Everything I experienced during the eclipse was awesome; except the media. What a bunch of drooling idiots! As human mannequins who barely comprehend the heliocentric model, they were painfully out of their element. Whenever I hear a “journalist” open their mouth all I hear is “I didn’t study STEM and I’m trying to cover my ignorance with feelz”. (I have the same reaction every four years when the same nitwits, who understand statistics like they know astrophysics, try to ponder the electoral college.) The local radio station thought playing Bonnie Tyler’s “Total Eclipse of the Heart” was a fabulous pun; it’s not. And before I could kill the TV I was accidentally exposed to someone on some channel talking about FEMA’s two months of preparation. (Two months?!?!)
Having gotten a rant out of the way, the people at “the totality” were universally the very best of America! I was (as planned) in a fairly remote location. Into this unremarkable spot came a random assortment of people who arrived in everything from Harleys to minivans, assorted freely and openly, chatted, passed around cameras, joked about their bored grandkids, ate picnic lunches, lounged in lawn chairs, and were nothing but happy. Everybody was happy to see the show. There was no talk about class, race, oppression, global warming, gluten free bagels, recycling, Russia, taxes, or why Trump is the anti-Christ. As if by miracle, nobody (myself included) had anything even remotely political on their minds. It reminded me how completely misinformed the chattering classes, who think we’re at each other’s throats constantly, really are. We all enjoyed each other’s company and then were awestruck by a brief glimpse of the eternal. Then, within minutes of the amazing event, everyone split. I’ll never see them again but I was glad of their company for a happy moment. If I weren’t so lazy I’d have written a blog post reveling in the simple joy of commonality.
Also, there was meatloaf. Everything is better when there’s meatloaf.
“If I weren’t so lazy I’d have written a blog post reveling in the simple joy of commonality. Also, there was meatloaf. Everything is better when there’s meatloaf.”
AC: seriously, you have to write posts on those two subjects. Perhaps a third on how meatloaf enhances human commonality. Really.
How meatloaf enhances human commonality? Seems self evident to me. 🙂
They had eclipse glasses at the test stand. It was neat to watch. I’m blissfully oblivious of what goes on on TV.
In a comedy of errors (not unlike Gift of the Magi) both I and Mrs. Curmudgeon had purchased viewing glasses. I handed out a few of our spares at the site of the totality and was glad to have the chance to do it.
“Also, there was meatloaf. Everything is better when there’s meatloaf.”
Tut tut! Such slovenly reporting. I’m now wondering if you mean Meatloaf the group (Bat out of Hell and all that) or Meatloaf the food.
These details are important to get right.
I’ll give my scheduling staff a stern talking to. Likely resulting in a post sooner or later… or not.
If you want to get the Media REALLY drooling, help get this across the line:
https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/declare-george-soros-terrorist-and-seize-all-his-related-organizations-assets-under-rico-and-ndaa-law
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