Word of the Day: wamble

wamble (v)

To move in a wobbling or weaving manner; to rumble (as from an upset stomach)

"'Fancy her white hands getting redder every day, and her tongue losing its pretty up-country curl in talking, and her bounding walk becoming the regular Hintock shail and wamble!'
"'She may shail, but she'll never wamble," replied his wife, decisively.'"
--Thomas Hardy, The Woodlanders ("shail" means to walk sideways)

I haven't seen my (male) neighbor who wears a wig and a dress -- a miniskirt, in fact -- and wambles down the street in high heels since the other day. Or maybe I have and I just didn't recognize him out of drag. To each his/her own. Still, it's curious and not something I expected to see in this working-class district.

Random Acts of Poetry

After Hard Rain

A puddle
makes a sad mirror,

another plane
of shadows.

Here a sky,
there a darkling

stain,
any fool can say

what's true.
At peace,

your thoughts paint
quietly

a slow river.

Fish Food for Thought

More clip-art philosophy by me (and Bernard Meltzer). Click here to catch the big one.

Quote of the Day

"We all die. The goal isn't to live forever, the goal is to create something that will."
--Chuck Palahniuk

"The person who experiences greatness must have a feeling for the myth he is in. He must reflect what is projected upon him. And he must have a strong sense of the sardonic. This is what uncouples him from belief in his own pretensions. The sardonic is all that permits him to move within himself. Without this quality, even occasional greatness will destroy a man."
--Frank Herbert, Dune

I think the governor of South Carolina is feeling very relieved today.

Sign of the Times?

I just noticed today that one of my favorite Jersey City signs (above), a Journal Square touchstone of sorts, has been replaced by a "modern" version, a tawdry plastic slab. I won't drink to that.

(That's a picture I snapped of the sign a couple of years ago. Click it for the full glory.)

The Search Continues

Recent Google searches that have brought people to this site:

Derrida for idiots

"In philosophy, you have to reckon with the implicit level of an accumulated reserve, and thus with a very great number of relays, with the shared responsibility of these relays." Idiots should just forget about Jacques, I think.

scenester hipster

If you're googling this, you are a hipster. Admit it. Go here: http://pitchfork.com/

Fay Wray nude

I get this one a lot. I must have blogged about King Kong at some point. I think there was a (censored) "nude" scene in that movie, but Kong's index finger covered up the naughty bits. Sorry, pervs.

spacesuited women

I get this one from time to time. Odd fetish, I must say. Ever made love to a woman in a spacesuit? You might also enjoy taking a shower while wearing a raincoat.

Rastafarian proctologist

Oh, this person needs help -- mental AND physical. Pokemon!

Word of the Day: rowel

rowel (n)

A small wheel with star-like points at the end of a cowboy's spur.

"The 'long-pointed rowel' was also looked upon with disfavor. The 'goose-neck' with the 'Texas-star rowel' was a popular spur, as was the 'flower rowel,' a large spur with many points set close together and giving the minimum of punishment."
--Ramon Frederick Adams, Cowboy Lingo

I've only ridden a horse twice, but I didn't wear spurs! It was an odd feeling being on top of a swaying animal (although not as weird -- or as swaying -- as the time I rode an elephant). I don't know what to compare it to. The horse was hard to steer I remember. It was sort of like driving a car that doesn't have power steering.

The Magick of James Bond?

Hmmm. This review of The Bond Code by Philip Gardiner points out the numerous examples of esoteric codes and references to occult, gnostic and alchemical topics in Ian Fleming's James Bond novels, such as the odd character names:

Auric Goldfinger (alchemy)
Le Chiffre ("the cipher, or code")
Sir Hugo Drax ("the Dragon")
etc., etc.

"...touchstones to the esoteric appear in many places in Fleming's writings. There is a Bill Templar in Diamonds Are Forever, alluding to the Knights Templar. The Ourobourous (the alchemical symbol of a serpent eating its own tail) is part of the name of the Ourobouros Worm and Bait Company in Live and Let Die....Gardiner points out the resemblance in the novel Casino Royale of the first Bond villain, Le Chiffre, to the occultist Aleister Crowley."

And Fleming apparently corresponded with Crowley, had an intense interest in Jung, knew of an esoteric meaning behind the number 007, and so on.

Interesting. Still, I don't think the character "Pussy Galore" was intended as a reference to the ancient Egyptians' worship of felines.

Micro Fiction: 'Número incorrecto'

Ivan looked down and there it was, on the sidewalk just outside the pet store: a small, folded piece of green and gray paper on the sidewalk, with the number 20 printed on one corner. The Victorian font made it look like a twenty-dollar bill, but he doubted it. Probably a coupon or an advertisement for some 900-number phone-sex scam, he thought, picking it up, just in case. He unfolded it, and there he was: Andrew Jackson with his shock of wind-swept hair, looking more like a mad scientist than a 19th-century president.

So, a real twenty -- or was it? He held it up to the sun, half expecting it to be counterfeit. The ghostly little hologram of Jackson's face appeared. Genuine. What luck! Right away, as he stuffed it into his pocket, he began to feel guilty. Who had dropped it? Probably some cash-strapped single mom with a squalling baby to feed. He thought about spending it, saving it, donating it to charity, or even dropping it. Surely someone more deserving would find it, someone who regularly stooped to pick up all the lost pennies Ivan was too lazy to retrieve from the sidewalk.

Or he could spend it on fish. He was at the pet store to buy some tropical fish, some neon tetras, for his aquarium. He stuffed the 20 into his pocket and walked into the store. Birds twittered, parrots squawked, puppies barked, and somewhere, down one of the aisles, a child was crying.

Over all the noise, Ivan heard his cell phone jangling. He fished it out of his pocket, already half suspecting who it was. "Hello," he said. "Maria!" the woman's voice demanded. "Quiero Maria!" It was the same woman who had been calling him all week, constantly asking for someone he didn't know. "Wrong number," Ivan said, trying again to remember how to say it in Spanish. "Qué? Uh? Uh?" the woman said. "Sorry," Ivan said. "No habla. There's no Maria here." "Uh?" the women repeated. He shut the phone and put it back in his pocket.

The fish tanks glowed and bubbled at the back of the shop, past the cages of parakeets, lizards and furry little rodents. A mother and her wailing child, a little girl of about three or four, were blocking the aisle. The girl apparently wanted a guinea pig. She kept pointing to one of the cages and pleading, "Please, Mommy." "No, not today," her mother said. "I'm out of money."

Ivan waited for them to move, so he could get by, but it wasn't happening. The girl wouldn't let her mother pull her away. She kept pointing to the guinea pig and screeching "I want it!" While he waited, Ivan thought about what he could spend the 20-dollar bill on. He could buy five new fish, or enough fish food for months, or one of those faux driftwood thingies to decorate his tank. He couldn't decide.

His phone rang again. "Maria!" the woman screeched when he answered. "Maria! Maria!" "There's no Maria!" Ivan shouted. The mother and the little girl looked up at him quizzically. Then he suddenly remembered how to say it: "número incorrecto!" he said. The woman on the phone moaned with disgust and hung up. Ivan was relieved. No more wrong numbers now, he thought. Now all he had to do was decide how to spend his 20-dollar windfall.

"I'm sorry," the mother said to her child. The girl stopped crying at last and turned away from the guinea pig's cage, looking forlorn and defeated. She had the face of a weeping angel. Ivan suddenly felt sad for her.

"I'm sorry," her mother said again. "I'm sorry, Maria."

The Complete Idiot's Guide to the Way I Feel

Rain, rain and more rain. I didn't know New Jersey had a monsoon season..... Discovered a leak in my aquarium! Replaced it with a new one (just $15) after much "fishing" with a net, siphoning and bucketing. Surprised at how serene a new box of water makes me feel.... The free AM New York rag has an article today about how cool the JC is: "The culture and the whole feel of Jersey City is unmatched....The arts scene is well-supported and the level of community development is incredible." Amazed and pleased to learn I am living in such a nirvana.... Saw a woman wobbling down the sidewalk on high heels yesterday. Thought for sure she would fall over. But then she turned and entered her yard. Got a quick glance at her face and noticed five-o'clock shadow. Felt confused. For a moment....

'Fox Bat Strategy'

David Lynch and the Thought Gang band (I think that's their name) are about to release an album at the end of this month: Fox Bat Strategy. There's a stream of one of the songs, "Shoot the Works", at the Entertainment Weekly site here. Retro surreal.

Brain Dump

Take a rain check your coat at the door of opportunity slips away the mice will play fast and loose ends. Still waters run deep blue sea of red ink well I'll be a monkey's uncle Tom's cabin fever in the morning, fever all through the night and day late and a dollar short and sweet nothings. A fine kettle of fish out of water under the bridge when we get to it or leave it takes all kinds of people on the street of broken dreams. Like a bat out of hell out of Dodge ball game plan of attack the problem child of nature calls. Mmmm kay?