Category Archives: Obsessions

Race obsession’s malarkey

Posted on February 9, 2013 | Comments Off on Race obsession’s malarkey

I don’t really care whether Queen Michelle has (or hasn’t) a fat butt. It’s interesting, however, that getting caught saying so can get you suspended without pay (though the conjoined anti-gay diatribe probably was the decider in that case). There’s a double racial standard here. Saying Mrs. Bush-the-elder has a fat fanny likely wouldn’t garner more than a laugh.

I recently encountered this double standard in an Amazon book review I wrote. Call King Putz our first black (half-black, actually) president and his supporters glow with satisfaction. Refer to his racial makeup in calling him a thief, as I did in the review, and they pile on, insisting that I am a racist.

But, getting back to Queen Michelle, there is this further professorial nonsense to consider: supposedly referring to her fat ass is “a code to racialize Michelle Obama and remind people that she’s black.”

Remind them? You mean they would otherwise doubt the truth of their lying eyes? What malarkey our race-obsessed academic loonies purvey.

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Posted in Blogosphere, Obamalot, Obsessions

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Rule 5: Hillary Fisher

Posted on February 7, 2013 | Comments Off on Rule 5: Hillary Fisher

Ahem. Back to the real Rule 5. Something ones musts do from time to time. Like the heart-shaped undergarment? It is close to Valentine’s you know.

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Posted in Obsessions, Rule 5

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Punxsutawney Pfft

Posted on February 2, 2013 | Comments Off on Punxsutawney Pfft

Groundhog Day. Heh. I always figured the rodent Pennsylvanian Phil was no more than a publicity stunt for tourism, etc. Not to mention a media obsession that helped lazy journalists avoid another day of work.

Comes WeatherBell meteorologist Joseph D’Aleo to confirm it: “According to StormFax Weather Almanac, Phil has been right 39 percent of the time since 1887.” Pfft.

Early spring? More likely six more weeks of winter in the NE. Here in Centex, rodent or no rodent, our winter is almost over. As always.

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Posted in Obsessions, Scribbles, Weather/Climate

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Your House Is On Fire, Your Children All Gone

Posted on January 29, 2013 | Comments Off on Your House Is On Fire, Your Children All Gone

Scott at The Fat Guy recently asked me for some book recomendations. He was more interested in scifi than anything else, and I gave him a bunch of those, but this small-town horror tale by Stefan Kiesbye also is a winner.

I picked up on it from PJMedia’s Andrew Klaven and decided to give it a try through the Kindle sample at Amazon. I was immediately hooked by the seemingly-effortless writing style and the surprise of a character literally peeing on a grave after a funeral.

It’s a coming-of-age tale about a post-WWII German village’s adolescents whose parents and peers brutalize each other so casually that none of it rings false. Sounds awful? All of that sneaks up on you, actually, and by the time it makes its appearance you’re already invested in the story and the characters. It is far less violent than many other novels these days, thanks to Kiesbye’s clever choice of words.

It helps if you know German so you realize the English meaning of some of the place names, but it’s not strictly necessary. Haunting, Klaven calls it, and I agree. I’m still thinking about it, three books later.

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Posted in Blogosphere, Library, Obsessions

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Broken Lance

Posted on January 23, 2013 | Comments Off on Broken Lance

The media has always obsessed on so-called heroes and role models. Now they bemoan that the athlete-hero Lance Armstrong has proved to be another hollow man who lied and cheated to get his way.

Actually he proved that for me a long time ago when he left his wife, Kristin Richards, and their three children to cavort with rocker Sheryl Crow. The media, hypocritical as always, ignored his treachery to his own. So did the Austin pols who touted him—for their own fame and money, of course.

I didn’t grow up with any heroes or role models that I recall, other than my father whose work ethic on our behalf and loyalty to my mother inspired me. Too few children nowadays have a father. They’d be a lot better off with a father than imitating selfish fame- and money-whores like Armstrong.

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Posted in Obsessions, Texana

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Fiddle tyranny

Posted on January 6, 2013 | Comments Off on Fiddle tyranny

The ever-present conundrum of learning a musical instrument: do you play what you want, i.e. favorite pieces and new additions to your repertoire?

Or must you (as you hear over and over again that you absolutely must) play scales, whole tones, double-stops, chords, etc. in order to keep fiddle fit?

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Posted in Music, Obsessions, Rancho Roly Poly

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Lingering obsessions

Posted on January 4, 2013 | Comments Off on Lingering obsessions

So I was shelling a boiled egg under the tap water before getting on to practicing scales, whole tones and double-stops. And a name, a face and a moment snapped into mind: Lani Irwin, 1964, on a train ride to Naples, Italy. Strange how the mind works—especially the aging mind. The past, always the past.

We were students at the University of Maryland in Munich and she and I and half a dozen others were sharing a train compartment on a holiday trip to Italy, close to Easter. I was quite taken with her, even obsessed, but she paid me no mind at all.

I did, however, join a few of the others in staying at her Navy family’s villa above the harbor for a few nights before some of us continued on to Rome. In June I went back to the States and lost track of her forever.

And so this little memoir would end, with just another strange obsession called to mind on its own accord, but for the Web and Google. I was surprised and delighted to find Lani is now a rather famous artist. Most modern art irritates me; her enigmatic paintings do not, for they are of people, seemingly real and striking women mostly, in surreal settings.

I’m glad for her success, and longevity. Some other old obsessions played out via the Internet have led to unhappier findings. Will this one now expire? I expect so. It certainly has changed.

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Posted in Music, Obsessions

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