Update on NOTEFLIX’s “Troubles in the Garden”: (Attn. New readers: You do not have to know what has gone before in this story – as the past is not important anymore.) See here the GAZE-BOWL. If you looked into it from the front, you could see into the Future. If you looked into it from behind you could see into the Past. The problem is no one knows what is front and what is behind. It turns out the GAZE-BOWL can ask questions. Today’s question to our cast was “What do you think of “CHANGE”? 1) Our loving couple Mamzelle Pinkie (on the left) and the Bluebird of Happiness want nothing to CHANGE. They don’t like CHANGE at all. 2) The Frog wants to CHANGE into a Prince. 3) Mortimer, the whatever he is, thinks CHANGE is not enough money to do anything with. 4) Bork the Angry Purple Slug can’t wait for things to CHANGE for the worse. 5) Ezmiralda, the Qween of the Land of Stuffed Animals likes her power and will not permit any CHANGE at all.
——————————————————————
CHANGE IS CONSTANTLY SPEEDING UP
- CRAZY MAKING: Friedrich Nietzsche, the Existentialist philosopher, thought about the Abyss, the ‘Dark Pit’, and concluded it was ok to look into it; but “Do not stare!” – because it will stare back. One of the things that ‘stared back’ at him was described in his “Information Diet”, written 150 years ago. He was troubled by the “Speed of life” in his time, and worried that society’s and the individual’s minds could not keep up with it. It is estimated by those who think about such matters that “Life” was 300 x’s slower in Nietzsche’s day than it is in yours presently. Good luck to both of us. Whatever you do – do not buy a gun; buying a gun will not slow things down.
- BRIEF CHANGE OF FORMAT: (I had a germ of a thought the other day, though some may say it was just a ‘germ’ after reading this part of the Blog.) It deals with a poem, so beware: Remember Emma Lazarus’s Poem at the bottom of the Statue of Liberty? “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!” …Well, I think this poem is meaningless with today’s American frame of mind. Things have changed. More representative would be something like: “Give me your Rich and your Huddling Super Elites, Your Upper Classes, yearning for more and more. Send me those with High-Tech Skills, and from the Executive Suites. Give me these, and the Golden Door Will be closed for evermore.” (-by Neo-Lazarus) They could also swap out the Statue of Liberty for a more updated version of what we truly want – maybe some big guy wearing a suit and red tie…better than looking at that tired green gown Liberty wears. He could be smiling a lot and maybe even holding a golf club in his hand. We could put the new poem on the pedestal.
- REMEMBER? “Water, Water everywhere and all the boards did shrink. Water, Water everywhere and not a drop to drink.” (Coleridge, “The Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner). Well, here is an update on that thought: Inspired by Netflix’s having made over 500 movies last year. “Movies, Movies everywhere and on my nightly screen. Movies movies everywhere and nothing to be seen.” ..Maybe it’s just a mood I’m in. Or, maybe the ‘Screen’ is the ‘Pit” and I have stared into it too long.
- A TEST, SHOULD YOU WANT TO TAKE IT: Satoshi Nakamoto is: 1)…the name of the new “All the Rage” hot sauce at sushi bars in San Francisco. The sauce was really formulated by a short order cook in Cleveland, Ohio 2)…the female Ambassador from Taiwan who is asking the U.S. for more weapons for defensive purposes from possible Chinese aggression 3)…the name of the person, who is suspected of creating Bitcoin’ in 2009. Hardly anybody knows anything about Satoshi. Everybody wants to know how much he is worth 4)… the digital artist whose Metaversal “NOMAD” sold at Sotheby’s last week in New York for over $300,000,000 and and was paid for in Bitcoins 5)…The name of the Asian American film director who won the “Palm D’Or” in Cannes this year for his “I Need A Break” – a ‘Bio-pic’ movie costing only $20,000 to produce. …and entirely made in the director’s garage. (See bottom of post for correct answer.)
- A FEW QUICK ONES: *The Weekend date for Memorial Day was selected because it is assumed the last weekend in May produces the most flowers…flowers, which are needed to be placed on soldiers tombstones. *Speaking of Tombstones, I am sad to report Billie Joe Shaver, the guy who wrote the song “I’m going to Live Forever” died two years ago. * There are more AirBnb listings in Manhattan than there are apartments for rent. This is a big deal and an example of the fact that not all change is good.
—————————————————————————
And now a few words from our Resident Rodent & Guest Columnist MATHUZALA:
MATHUZALA SPEAKS: “I do not know how to advise you humans anymore. You never listen and you will not change your ways. I would even quit writing this column, if I could; but I signed a long term contract with this Site – and I cannot get Management to change the terms of our agreement. I’m dreaming of taking my Chumpers Movement out of the U.S. and finding a better world for all of my true followers.”‘
-Ed note: If you want to know more about our Reluctant Leader – and the Chumpers – please go to Amazon or Barnes & Noble and buy “THE RAT PAPERS” and take in good advice.
NOTES FROM TUSCANY:
Unlike MATHUZALA, some of us can move around. And we have. Currently we are in a small town, Greve, in the heart of Tuscany. Here, in our Piazza, every fourth Sunday they have a little ‘market’ for crafts, arts and sauces. For a change, we thought you would like to see a typical stand. The picture below is of a toy stand – all the goods handmade and unique…sort of a throwback to a yesteryear that maybe never was:
And now for a few quotes:
- “Change before you have to.” -Jack Welch. You know that’s right.
- “Change in all things is sweet.” -Aristotle. I beg to disagree. That might have been true back in the day; but things have changed since then.
- “Most problems are caused by solutions.” -Eric Sevareid. So, What is to do?
- “The more things change, the more things remain the same.” -Blaise Pascal. (He may not be the first to have said this; but he was the first to say it in French.)
————————————————————————
That’s all there is folks…and a fond “Hello” to Ruby – wherever you are.
(You were correct if you selected #3 on the TEST.)
Number one