Poetics and Ruminations

Campaign Donations

          During his run for the Presidency I made the mistake (though I couldn’t have known at the time that it was an error) of donating a small sum to Barack Obama’s campaign. Ever since then I have been dunned by all sorts of campaigns all over the country for governors, senators, congressmen from everywhere and anywhere — even for recall drives in places where I have never lived, and I am weary of it all. Today I received another one; I replied to it thus, as I have done several times recently:

Dear Juliana Smoot,

          Please stop asking me for money. If President Obama needs even more for his campaign than the enormous amount he has already raised, let him get it from the banks he bailed out that are now sitting on the excessive capital they have earned since he saved them — they don't plan to lend it to anyone until he is out of office. He won't be getting anything from me, although I will vote for his re-election because I am a Democrat. I wish he were one as well rather than the closet conservative he turned out to be.

Lewis Putnam Turco

 

 

Iowa Caucuses 2012: The Field of Midgets

THE FIELD OF MIDGETS

 

You can stick a nail in Sarah Palin:

She and her kayak went out wailin’.

 

He’s everywhere, like Forrest Gump,

But now The Donald’s in the sump.

Let’s hope we’ve heard the final Trump.

 

Herman’s mammy mis-raised Cain.

He took his marriage vows in vain;

His misused wife still feels the pain,

And we won’t hear from him again.

 

Diogenes listened to Michele O’Bachman —

When she opens her mouth he shoves a sock in.

 

Rick Perry’s lost his cherry

And he’s not feeling very merry —

He feels a bit like Swift-Boat Kerry.

 

Chris Christy is feeling misty

For he said, “No,” but in his sleep

He dreams in vain that he’ll be Veep.

 

Rick Santorum can’t find a quorum —

He can hardly find a forum.

 

Newt Gingrich learned how to pitch,

But he learned better how to switch

And how to make himself as rich

As Midas was. All of which

Did nothing to control his itch

To be something more than a….

 

Like Caesar, old man Paul

Divided up his hoard of gall —

Now Ron’s waiting to wear his pall.

 

Mitt Romney’s a

Case of insomnia,

But every clown

Is going down.

 

Did anyone vote for Jon Huntsman?

Nobody, not even once, man,

But he’s the only one with a brain —

The rest of these midgets are inane.

 

Who Goes There?

 

Charles Osgood, Herb Coursen, and Lew Turco at the New England Poetry Conference at Harvard

 

An essay by the poet H. R. Coursen reprinted from the Brunswick, Maine, Times Record

         In 1937, a photograph appeared of an infant, crying and alone amid the destruction of a Shanghai railway station the Japanese had bombed.

         “Surely someone picked her up,” I said to my mother.

         “I’m sure someone did,” she said.

         I had made several assumptions, of course. One, that the child was a girl. Two, that my mother would know the answer to my question. Three, that I would have been picked up had I somehow been thus abandoned, and four, that people recognized other people in need, particularly children, and would help them when necessary.

         I wonder how many people, at age five, would have made the third assumption. How many would have made the fourth? 1937 was not a good year to be betting on the belief shared by Platonists and French rationalists in mankind’s inherent goodness. It was, though, two years after Social Security, designed by Maine’s Frances Perkins, came into being.

         I wonder now whether our national character has ever embraced the in-built optimism of its citizens, or the belief that our fellow men are helpful beings. We can read Thoreau’s anti-Irish sentiments in Walden. We can recall a recent history in which lynch-law was in force in many states. We hear that our new governor has, with breathtaking meanness of spirit, injected the non-issue of the immigration status of welfare applicants into the process. Is the “American Dream” a construct of those who reap the benefits of having others believe in it and mouth its cliches? So-called “elite” education, after all, is primarily designed to give its beneficiaries the rhetoric with which to justify their lofty positions in the hierarchy.

         But the pompous self-congratulation of, for example, lawyers who went to law school to learn how to break the law successfully is the least of our worries. Lately, we have heard a candidate for the U. S. Senate, Sharron Angle, call for “Second Amendment Remedies.” We find a prominent presidential candidate publishing a map with bullseyes over specific Congressional districts, including Gabrielle Gifford’s. “Reload!” the Republican front-runner exhorts us. Fortunately, the Tucson assailant was subdued before he could put another augmented magazine into his Glock 9 mm. We hear right-wing favorite, Michelle Bachman, tell her constituents to walk around “armed and dangerous.” Such slogans are typical of the ranting of the right-wing media demagogues. Whether the Tucson assassin was affected by such rhetoric is irrelevant. That kind of talk cuts off any rational debate on any issue. It makes those who may disagree with any given point of view an enemy. We demonize our enemies. They are “gooks” or “liberals,” and therefore in need of being killed.

         Incitements to violence are – or should be – condemned, not applauded, by the pseudo-macho among us. Equally troubling, though, is the way politicians pick up and replicate the absolute worst of their constituencies. Among too many examples, I cite Lamar Smith (R-Tex), incoming Chair of the House Judiciary Committee and Senator Tom Coburn of Ok. Recently, a bill to help 9/11 first responders with their medical expenses finally passed, over solid right-wing opposition. We forget that only one week after the air around Ground Zero had been filled with pulverized asbestos, concrete, lead, and glass, the EPA declared it safe. (It’s where Wall Street is). To agree that those who went into that air suffered damage from the toxic atmosphere would be to admit that the Bush administration was premature in its assurances. It might also be to agree that some people in our society need help with their medical expenses. Smith called the bill a “slush fund,” an example of “abuse, fraud and waste” Coburn, an MD, called it “an expensive new health care entitlement program.”

         To be fair, the problem does not rest wholly with the vicious right-wing of our body politic. The centrist Obama traded an extension of unemployment benefits for the millions who have lost their jobs during the recent recession for a continuation of tax cuts for the few who grew wealthier from it. Compromise is sometimes necessary. Sometimes, though, it amounts to surrender. And surrender cedes the narrative to the victors.

          Some may recall FDR’s “Four Freedoms” speech of January, 1941, later incorporated within UN Resolution 217A (1947), after a war dedicated, on our side at least, to ensuring those freedoms. Freedom of speech and of worship. Freedom from want and from fear. The latter two are, of course, non-Constitutional. Nowadays, they would likely be un-Constitutional.

         Would you have picked up that child in Shanghai? Of course. Would you have been picked up? Perhaps. But what of the many more out of camera range who also cry for help?

 

H R Coursen’s latest work of fiction, And She a Shade, has just been published. He lives in Brunswick.

 

The Edgar Flynn File

My old classmate from Meriden High back in the early ‘fifties, Edgar Flynn, sent this to me and a bunch of other people:

"Fathom the odd hypocrisy that the government wants every citizen to prove they are insured, but people don't have to prove they are citizens."

I replied, “Where is the quotation from, Edgar? Shouldn't you give a source for a quotation? I always made my students do it. I would like to know who (besides you) said it because it doesn't make any sense to me. There are many occasions when people must prove they are citizens.”

I began to receive replies from various people:

Francis Orlawski wrote, “I don't care who said it, but it should be said [It has already been said, Mr. Orlawski. I’m sorry to hear you don’t care who says what. I’m also sorry to know that you weren’t taught how to back an argument by whatever teachers you once had, perhaps such as Ed Flynn who was a teacher and knows that one is supposed to back an argument with facts and citations, not just by unbacked assertions. Unfortunately, Ed seems to be willing to ignore what he learned and perhaps once taught]. I think the so-called ‘Obamacare Bill’ has a lot to do with it, if we ever find out what's covered in that monstrosity.” [A lot to do with what? I don’t know what the antecedent of “it” is. Does “it” refer to the quotation? If so, what is the connection? I don’t see one.]

Mr. Orlawski casts a slur with the epithet “Obamacare” and with the nasty characterization as a “monstrosity” of something he has not bothered to read. He, and anyone else who wishes to do so, may find out on-line exactly what is in

[PDF] HR 3962 Affordable Health Care for America Act.

This act has been available for months. Apparently Mr. Orlawski and those whose minds are as atrophied as his are able to use email but not Google.

Ann Morse sent these:

“From Jonathan Quick, Analyst:

“’Fathom the odd hypocrisy that Obama wants every citizen to prove that they are insured, but people don’t have to prove they are citizens.’ ~ Ben Stein [I’m glad to know that Ben Stein, a stand-up comedian who is also a Wall Street speculator, is the author of the quotation. Thanks for that, Ann. It was more than Ed could do, apparently.]

“’I find the odd hypocrisy of the left to be even greater, that everyman should concern himself with everyone else's ‘health care’ when millions care so little about their own health that they:

‘1. Shoot heroin take methamphetamines and crack cocaine into their bloodstreams, [clearly, drug addicts should not be covered] or

‘2. Smoke one or more packs of cigarettes a day, [nor should smokers be covered]; or

‘3. Get stumblebum drunk often, [nor should drinkers be covered] or

‘4. Never exercise, [nor should people who aren’t athletes or belong to a gym be covered; or

‘5. Don't concern themselves with their weight, [nor people who are obese]; or

‘6. Don't care if they eat fattening food that is very bad for them, [nor people who don’t eat organic food and count calories], or

‘7. Don't read anything much less DO anything that might contribute to their good health and longevity’” [This is the one I like best – people who don’t read books and get an education in the health service fields]. Is this a continuation of the quotation? I assume so because no other attribution given, unless it happens to be the Jonathan Quick who is, according to Google, a “goaltender for the Los Angeles Kings” hockey team. This position certainly gives Mr. Quick all the expertise anyone requires in order to learn all about politics in America.

Let’s recapitulate: People who misuse drugs, tobacco, alcohol and food, who don’t exercise regularly or use a calorie counter, and all those who don’t at all times carry proof of their citizenship should not be covered by the health care law. EVERYONE WHO QUALIFIES FOR HEALTH CARE COVERAGE UNDER THESE CIRCUMSTANCES PLEASE RAISE YOUR HAND!

“’As an American I am not so shocked that Obama was given the Nobel Peace Prize without any accomplishments to his name, but that America gave him the White House based on the same credentials. ~ Newt Gingrich’” [who, when he was in Congress, managed to bring the government to a standstill, his greatest accomplishment to date, other than dissing his own Lesbian sister because she is gay and divorcing his dying wife.]

President Obama has not accomplished anything since he graduated from Harvard Law School except become a professor of Constitutional Law at the University of Chicago, get himself elected to the United States Senate, get himself elected to the Presidency of the United States, wind down the war in Iraq and bring home thousands of troops, begin to reverse the recession brought on by the Bush administration which managed not only to spend the huge surplus left by the Clinton administration but to give away the treasury of 98% of American taxpayers’ to the richest 2% of Americans who pay little or no tax at all, and, recently, to pass a health care law of the type that covers ALL of the other developed countries in the world.

And this was from Linda Manthay: 

“Personally, Ed, I love that quotation!!  Doesn't matter to me who said it or if it was made up. The illegals don't have to prove they are citizens unless they commit a crime in some states or get caught doing something they shouldn't be doing. Even our recent President doesn't feel like he has to prove he is a citizen to the rest of us who have questioned it. What does it take to settle it for everyone? That quote really hit home.  :-) Thanks for sending it.” [Like Mr. Orlawski, Ms. Manthay doesn’t care who says what, even if it’s “made up,” that is, fiction, just as long as it gets said, even though it doesn’t make sense or, apparently, it may be a lie.]

Meanwhile, the rest of us American citizens prove every day that we are citizens by showing everyone with whom we come into contact our birth certificates, unlike President Obama whose birth certificate facts may also be checked on-line, for those who are able to use Google, as apparently Ms. Manthay cannot do, at FactCheck.org: Born in the U.S.A.

It’s my guess that all these people are “Tea Party” members or sympathizers. If I may, I’d like to point out that the original Boston Tea Party was carried out by British Citizens living in North America who were protesting the fact that the Tea Tax was leveled on them by a Parliament to which they were not allowed to elect representatives like their fellow citizens living in Britain. Their slogan was, “No taxation without representation.” However, American citizens DO have representation in Congress, so the premise of the “Tea Party” is without foundation. Which was proven this past fall when the “Tea Party” managed to elect many people to political office. Now all we have to do is sit back and watch to see how well they manage to participate in the Government. My guess is that all they’re going to do is continue to protest, as they just did with their ridiculous attempt to repeal the Health Care Law…which, by the way, is now supported by about two-thirds of the American populace according to the latest polls. GOOD LUCK, TEA PARTIERS!

Oh, and I almost forgot to mention that President Obama’s approval rating is back up to around 50%, which is better than Ronald Reagan did two years into his first term as President. PLEASE FEEL FREE TO CHECK MY FACTS ON-LINE or anywhere else you like, except, of course, on that exceedingly “fair and balanced” venue called Fox News (which would probably not report actual news like that).

 

 Lew,

I understand your point. I found it amusing. It was an email I received. Do not know original source. Someone attributes the quote to Ben Stein. If I knew this before, I would have given credit.

Hope all is well,

Edgar

 

Ed,

Don’t you mean, “If I had known this before…?” Do you generally distribute quotations the sources of which you do not know or, perhaps, care to know? Do you especially like quotations that don’t make sense?

Your nephew Michael loves you anyway (see below). I think you’re okay, too, but I love an argument, especially about politics and religion. I grew up in a household where such discussions were everyday affairs. 

Lew

 

On 1/22/2011 2:50 AM, Michael Flynn wrote:

Lewis.  

It seems to me that you are an angry, unhappy, contentious man with many axes to grind. That's just my observation from reading your posts on your website. Your comments are so condescending in tone that you severely weaken any point you're trying to make. You mention that you are/were a teacher. Do/did you take this tone with your students? For their sake, and yours, I truly hope not.  

I encourage you to get some help. Life can be so much more enjoyable with an attitude of helping others rather than criticizing them. 

Did Edgar beat you up when you were in high school? Are you upset because he was a better athlete? Had a better looking girl friend? Sure seems like you're lashing out at him for some reason. Disagree with him all you want, but do you really think your vitriolic attack is reflective of your superior intellect? It's not. It is merely the ramblings of, as I mention above, an angry, unhappy, contentious man. 

It's never too late to change your attitude, Lewis. Consider: "There is little difference in people, but that little difference makes a big difference. The little difference is attitude. The big difference is whether it is positive or negative."  

Oh, by the way, the above quote was penned by W. Clement Stone. 

Have a nice day. 

Michael Flynn 

P. S. Yes, I'm related to Edgar. He's my uncle. And I'm glad.

 

Michael, I agree with you 100%!!!!!!! I love Ed and Janet.   

Linda Manthay

 

Michael,

Thanks for your reply. You call me “an angry, unhappy, contentious man with many axes to grind.”  However, it was your uncle Edgar who sent me an unsolicited email message that clearly was angry, contentious, and had an axe to grind. All I did was to reply, offering a logical (if rather sarcastic – sarcasm is not anger, it’s a form of humor) reply to an illogical slogan.

If you’d like to find out about the kind of teacher I was, ask some of my former students, one of whom is Paul Austin (who is not related to me) who offers a reply on my blog today to your uncle’s vapid quotation from one of the great intellects you apparently admire. Many of my students write to me often and have done so over a period of almost fifty years. Besides Paul Austin in the batch of emails today I heard from one, Georgia Popoff, who sent me news about a book she is publishing.

If you’d like to know what my life in junior high school and high school in Meriden, CT, was like, feel free to go to your local library and find a copy of my recollections from those days, titled Fantaseers: A Book of Memories. No, your uncle Ed and I never in those days had any sort of disagreement that I can recall, nor much of anything to do with one another. As to his prowess as an athlete: I don’t remember it.

From whom do you recommend that I “get some help”? What sort of help do you feel I need? Do I need help in logical thinking? Here’s a little help I have for you in that regard, which I have taken from another book I wrote titled The Book of Literary Terms (I’ll save you and your uncle and all the other folks who have so much trouble conducting an intelligible argument by reproducing the section here):

rhetorical fallacies. Logical fallacies are those that stem from faulty reasoning; material fallacies are errors that are caused by flaws in the subject matter; psychological fallacies appeal to the biases and emotions of the audience.  Argumentative fallacies include the ad hominem, which attempts to transfer the burden of the argument away from the issue in question to an attack on the person opposing the speaker or writer: "It's all very well for Newt Gingrich to espouse 'family values,' but wasn't he raised by a single mother?  Didn't he divorce his wife when she became ill?  And why does he deplore the Lesbian life style — is it not his sister's?"  In the appeal to authority (a church authority proclaiming a doctrine does so ex cathedra, "from the pulpit"), the essayist cites a person with an impressive reputation in the field; ipse dixit is a forceful assertion that an authority has said a particular thing and that it is therefore so, without offering proof. The appeal to force threatens the audience with dire consequences. The appeal to humor is a diversionary tactic that directs the attention away from the question in hand.  The appeal to ignorance avers that the argument must be true because the opponent cannot prove it is false.  The appeal to pity attempts to enlist the sympathy of the audience at the expense of reason: "Yes, it is true that this young woman at the age of fourteen bludgeoned her mother to death with a hammer, but though she is still young, she has paid her debt to society and deserves an education.  Why did Harvard revoke her application when it discovered she had committed matricide?"

The pathetic fallacy is absurd or overstated personification (prosopopœia); that is, the endowment of objects or animals with human qualities  (anthropomorphism), often through cues (“motherhood,” “Old Glory,” “apple pie”) which are meant to induce automatic sentimental responses in the reader.

                  The appeal to tradition plays to conservative feelings.  The bandwagon fallacy is the argument that the audience ought to do as others have done. The either / or fallacy is a reductio ad absurdum, reducing a complicated thesis to only two choices: "Either all women are feeling creatures, or they are not.  If they are not, they are not women." Equivocation utilizes the same term in two different ways: "Walter is the lover of Jennifer, but Jennifer is a lover of clothes."

                  The faulty cause is the post hoc ergo propter hoc fallacy — “after this, therefore because of this”: “In the twelve years since Mario Cuomo took office as Governor of New York State the ability of students to read has plummeted throughout the nation." The faulty hidden generalization has a false missing premise in the enthymeme: "He displays the American flag, so he must be patriotic."

                  Name calling uses cues and stereotypes to impugn an opponent.  A non sequitur is a conclusion that does not follow from the premise or proposition on which an argument is based, as in the catachretic syllogism discussed above. The red herring is a deliberate and irrelevant distraction from the true subject or argument.  The rigged question is a verbal trap that requires a conclusion of guilt no matter how it is answered: "Do you beat your wife, or do you merely abuse her by shouting at her?" A straw man is a setup, something erected so as to be easily destroyed, such as an argument so preposterous as to be refuted seemingly without effort: “My opponent believes that all people are created equal, which is an easy thing for a person born into wealth to argue.  What about those of us who are born into poverty?”

I won’t spend more time attempting to give you the education you obviously missed in your younger years, but perhaps you have enough acumen to go through this list and determine how many of these fallacies you fell into in your ad hominem attack on me (I’ve helped you out a bit by bold-facing some of them).

Oh, and thanks for giving me the source of your quotation from W. Clement Stone who, I note, is the author of such outstanding examples of literature as self-help books. Just the sort of author I would expect you to be acquainted with.

Lewis Turco

 

Ah. The same old Lewis. 

Michael

Chase down your passion like it's the last bus of the night.

 

I didn’t know we’ve known each other for so long, Michael,

As a matter of fact, I didn’t know we knew each other at all!  Two things about your new quotation: you forgot to put it into quotation marks to indicate that it is not your own (that's called plagiarism -- I hope you don't mind my continuing to attempt to educate you); and you didn’t cite your source (must be a family habit, eh?).

“Chase down your passion like it's the last bus of the night” is by Terri Guillemets, a “U.S. quotation anthologist, creator of The Quote Garden” who also wrote, “Been collecting quotes / since nineteen eighty-seven / Be collecting them 'til / the day I go to Heaven. / And if by chance / it's to the contrary, / Here's hoping Hell / has a great library!”

Obviously, Michael, it’s the kind of undying literature you most enjoy, and the type of book you have in your vast collection. May I point out that it’s a non-sequitur? That means, “It does not follow” what went before (which in this case is our previous correspondence).

Now here’s my response to your new email message; let’s see if you can identify the great man whose wit is so admired by political conservatives. It begins with a chuckle (which you’ll have to imagine, I’m afraid), and it continues: “There ya go again!”

Lewis

 

Fantaseers, A Book of Memories by Lewis Turco, www.StarCloudPress.com, 2005. ISBN 1932842152, quality paperback, $14.95, 140 pages. ORDER FROM AMAZON. 

The Book of Literary Terms: The Genres of Fiction, Drama, Nonfiction, Literary Criticism and Scholarship by Lewis Turco, www.UPNE.com, ISBN 0874519551, quality paperback, $24.95, 224 pages. A Choice  “Outstanding academic title” for 2000. A companion volume to The Book of Dialogue and The Book of Forms. ORDER FROM AMAZON

Lew,

By now I should no longer be amazed but still I am: my fellow citizens endlessly complain about taxes while continuing to use roads, send their children to school, visit parks and historical sites, get clean water delivered to their house,  their trash removed, their communities policed, their waste piped away, and the streets plowed in winter. Are they the same people that complain about Facebook having ads and wanting to use their "personal information"  - that rich vein of information like their age, address, and phone number -  that they willingly gave when they joined for the service? Are the "black helicopters" flying over us again? The communists flouridating our water? It's akin to bitching about the existence of farms while eating corn and using ethanol. It's like griping about the evils of science and technology while buying a wide-screen television and game console on your last bit of credit (another topic I would love to rail on about). Where the hell do we think the stuff comes from?

We need to connect the dots and understand that "taxes are the price we pay for a civilized society" (Benjamin Franklin), and that there is no great evil in caring for our fellow man. It is, I believe, a tenet of the Christian faith, which the majority of Americans claim to be.

We pay less in taxes than a great deal of other modern democracies - by far - and we get a pretty good deal out of it.

Otherwise, I offer this to the Randroids (Ayn Rand lovers): go ahead, go on strike, as in "Atlas Shrugged." See who comes to take out the garbage. Call me when the odor gets to you. That is a Utopian vision very befitting of the name.

Thank you, also, for the reminder of why the Tea Party is inappropriately named. I heard a history professor from Mt. Holyoke explain the same thing, adding that the current Tea Party is more akin to Shay's Rebellion or the Whiskey Rebellion, only you do not see Federal government riding out with the army to put down their insurrection. I would not advocate that we need that, either.

Paul Austin

 

Lew,

Excellent, me laddy. Ah, but did you hear that Keith Olbermann quit tonight? And his agreement doesn't allow him to take a gig on another big network for a while.  The news thing I read from the Washington Post did not specify how long he'd be out of a job. However, in 2008 he signed a 4-yr, $30 million contract, so he'll probably rest for a while in Paris or some such. But — he is what we had on our side, and he's gone for now.

John Herrmann

 

John,

CNN last night said he’d been fired.

Lew

 

Lewis,

After giving the ongoing commentary about Edgar Flynn [some thought?], I've come to two conclusions. You're an egocentric old coot trying to appear as one of the erudite of your generation, or, you're like a couple of teachers I've had in the past. They were very clever in their methods to make us think, getting us angry so that we would really study just to sort of get even. But at this time of your lives, your's and Ed's, why.

"Obamacare" seems to be accepted by the media as a version of Obama's Health Care Law.

Not that it matters, but, you misspelled my name. However, being a retired engineer and not an expert in grammar and/or spelling, it doesn't really bother me. I just consider the source.

Francis Orlawski

 

Dear Mr. Orlawski,

I can’t find anyplace that I misspelled your name, and I have searched my blog twice. The comma before the “but” in your last sentence is correct, but none should follow the word. Also, there seems to be something missing in your first sentence, and clearly you’ve come to no conclusion if you can’t decide what I am.

You don’t mean “your’s,” you just mean “yours,” no apostrophe. You don’t have to be a grammatical expert to discover that, all you have to do is proofread what you’ve written and see whether the writing program you’re using has underlined in red the mistakes you make. I would have thought that an engineer would know that, even one who is retired. I’m a retired professor of English myself, but I’ve been using a computer to write since 1982, and that’s one of the first things I learned.

As to your contention that "’Obamacare’ seems to be accepted by the media as a version of Obama's Health Care Law,” the only media I know that use the expression are those that are right wing. In the first place, President Obama didn’t write or pass that law, the Congress did, so it isn’t his personally; the law he wanted was far from this one, which is a political compromise. I gave you the correct name of the law and told you where to look it up on-line. If you’re not being deliberately disrespectful (which you are), don’t use the expression.

If you can’t decide whether I’m either an “egocentric old coot” or the kind of teacher you describe, you could just try Googling my name and see which works best for you.

Lewis

 

On to a new message by Linda Manthay sent to me:

"A liberal is a person who loves liberal ideas, but only if the liberal ideas of another person agrees with that liberal person's idea of what is correct."

In other words, a liberal is really not liberal at all. Most liberals I know are very intolerant and narrow minded. They are also usually known by their cock-eyed ideas and spend way too much time blogging and doing silly web pages about nothing. Please visit my web page:

Linda's Place

Linda Manthay

 

Dear Ms. Manthay,

In your message to me the things that don’t agree with one another are your verb, “agrees,” which is singular, and your noun, “ideas,” which is plural. Further, you don’t have to put quotation marks around your own words because they are your words, not someone else’s.

Your ideas of what liberals are like are not liberal, and I doubt you know many, if any, because if you did you would not tolerate them nor they you, and they would certainly think your cockeyed (no hyphen in this word) ideas were the ideas that are cockeyed.

Thank you for directing me to your web page. It is by far the silliest and most saccharin web page I have ever visited, so I think you ought to take your own advice.

Lewis Turco

 

Lewis,

There you go nitpicking again!! Or is it nit picking? Someone who is as intelligent as you apparently think you are should really spend your time doing better things than worrying about people's spelling and punctuation and where a quote might originate from. Quit picking on Ed and Michael. Ed and Janet are very good friends of mine and they don't deserve to be treated the way you are treating them right now. You are being ridiculous!! I'm defending them. I really don't have a lot of tolerance for liberal people because they really aren't liberal in the true sense of the word.

Linda

 

“Dear” Linda,

Given your web page, it’s probably “knit picking.” As for my worrying about people’s writing, spelling, and punctuation: that’s how I made my living for thirty-six years, and I still practice my craft and vocation because writing is thinking and I enjoy the life of the mind. If one cannot write, one cannot think: you’re a case in point. I like to help people think, but I’m not having much luck with you, sadly.

For example: You accuse me of “picking on” Ed. I didn’t start this argument, if you’ll THINK back, Ed did. Ed saw the humor in my reply (take a look at his response), but none of the rest of you did, and you began to “defend” him. Did Ed need to be defended, or did you just get angry because of what I replied to Ed’s message? And be so good as to point to the spot where I “picked on” his wife, Janet. She has never been part of this argument. Did anybody ask you to “defend” Ed, or are you simply a busybody sticking your nose into what was no concern of yours?

You hit the nail on the head when you say, “I really don't have a lot of tolerance for liberal people because they really aren't liberal in the true sense of the word.” Okay, what is the “true sense of the word”? Don’t answer that because you have NO tolerance that I can discover and I’ve wasted enough time on this exchange. I’ve had more intelligent conversations with my cat.

Lewis

 

STOP sending me this e-mail topic!  I have received OVER 10 e-mails on the same subject.  ENOUGH 

G. Zeil

 

Lewis. 

It appears that you take great joy in putting down others. Does that really work? Do you feel better when you pick apart others? Your little slurs and innuendos remind me of a a saying. I'm not sure who said it first. Don't really care. This isn't being published in the NYT. It's just an email between a bunch of people, most of whom I've never met. You included.

Blowing out other people's candles will not make yours burn any brighter.

I didn't put it in quotes. Didn't say where it came from. I just wrote it from memory. It's possible that I didn't get it just right. Doesn't matter.

You seem like an interesting guy, Lewis. Albeit an irritating one. One who puts himself on a pedestal and flaunts his own ego. One who finds pleasure in poking holes in others' work. It would be interesting to know if you have a family. Children. If so, do you pick them apart as well? Perhaps you take a more gentle tone with them. Perhaps when love is inserted into the equation your tone takes on a different tune. I hope so.

Learn to love a little more. Change your tune. It's in a minor key.

Michael

 

Michael,

Your uncle started all this by sending out a piece of right-wing propaganda to me and a bunch of others, many of whom apparently think it's just great to disrespect the President of our country for no reason other than that a bunch of media morons say it's okay to do that because he's "black" and they can't stand the idea of a liberal black running the country.

Michael, you’ve called me a bunch of names, so I’m just going to ask you if you know you’re a pompous ass. Do you? No, you don’t, and you're right -- I shouldn't put down people like you. You have no insight into why you do and say the things you do, and you don't realize how prejudiced you are. You appear to be and do all the things you accuse me of being and doing. Look in a mirror and read your email to yourself.

Lewis

P. S. I'm not sending this out broadside, only to you. Everybody's sick of this correspondence, even your uncle, and especially me.

 

Uncle Wesli’s Daily Epitaph for Sunday, February 16, 2011

R. I. P. GOVERNOR PAUL LE PAGE OF MAINE

The minority executive who said the N.A.A.C.P. can

“kiss my butt!“ on Martin Luther King’s birthday.

 

Here lies “Kiss My Butt” Le Page —

The Right Wing thinks he’s all the rage,

But should he analyze a poll

It’s certain he would lose the whole.

 

REMARKS

Lew,

I read about LePage on Huffington:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/01/14/paul-lepage-naacp-kiss-my-butt-video_n_809234.html

Extraordinary! I thought earlier you were satirizing (or at least exaggerating) the situation, but it's true?! Of course, it's certain that he would "lose the whole," as you say --- everyone is forgetting he got only 38% of the vote. (Here in Vermont 50% plus one vote is necessary to be the winner.)

Thanks for all your work to further Poetry---it is invaluable.

Marta Finch

 

Marta,

I think you may be missing the puns in the epitaph — they all depend on how you pronounce "analyzing." I'm not exaggerating the situation, but I sure hope I'm satirizing it.

Lew

 

Dear Uncle Wesi,

You're a lucky man! For satirists "Half an oaf is better than none," and here you have a whole one!

Bill C.

 

Well, as someone said, we do have a "representative" democracy that reflects the people. 

I still blame it on the Maine Democrats who elected Libby as their candidate, and the Democrats 

who were bamboozled by Eliot Cutler. 

Peter W.

 

Maine Governor Tells N.A.A.C.P. to “Kiss My Butt!”

14 January 2011. Special to the Dresden Mills Gazette. By Wesli Court, Special Correspondent. Paul Le Page, recently elected the first Republican Governor of Maine in many years, today told the N.A.A.C.P. to, and we quote, “Kiss my butt.” When asked if he didn’t think that was an asinine remark for a chief executive to make, Le Page replied with a question.

“Asinine? What’s that supposed to mean? Are you making fun of me?”

This correspondent immediately backed down. “Governor, I don’t know squat,” I said. All I’m asking is whether you stand by your statement after having turned it over for a while.

“Of course I stand by it,” the Governor said. “I don’t turn over for anybody.”

“Some Democrats have said that it doesn’t appear that your butt is all it’s cracked up to be.”

“Name the s.o.b.,” Le Page growled. “I’ll take care of him.”

“Others have suggested that you take a poll and analyze it.”

“Take a poll and what? How did you pronounce that word?”

“The N.A.A.C.P. says that you are the only person injecting race into the discussion. All they did was invite you to a breakfast and a dinner, and you told them to kiss your butt. Do you stand by that remark?”

“You bet! No iffs, annds, or butts about it.”

“Will you do as the Bible says and turn the other cheek?”

“Sure, if it would make it easier for them to kiss it.

“How long do you expect to remain Governor?

“Long enough for you to kiss it too, buddy.”

“Are you going to sell “Kiss My Butt” bumper stickers at your Marden’s stores?

“Hey, what a great idea! Thanks, buddy. It’ll be a big seller. It’ll fit right in with the rest of my stock.”

“Will I be getting a commission for your using my idea?”

“Yeah, right. Soon as I fall on my belly and kiss your shoes.”

“You mean you’re going to prostrate yourself at my feet?”

“Hell, no. There’s not a prostrate gland in my body.”

I agreed, but I didn’t say so. I had better scents, so I decided to butt out and file my story.

 

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR OF THE DRESDEN MILLS GAZETTE

OMG! This is so funny I am laughing hysterically and it's only 5 a.m.! LOL.....thanx for sharing! Be well, stay warm and don't shovel too hard!

Terri P

 

Dear Lew,

Your new governor is doing his best, I see, to continue the tradition of Maine politicians and their absurdities. It's almost too bad that his predecessors already sold off all the state's assets because it might have been amusing to see how old Kiss-My-Butt would have done it.

Meanwhile, I liked your poems in Flea, verses in the best tradition of Wyatt and Surrey, Donne and Raleigh. Huzzahs.

Pax et Poesis,

Bob B.

 

Thanks, Bob,

But Paul Le Page is not my governor as I continue to be only a part-time resident of Maine, although I spend more time here than I used to when I taught at SUNY Oswego. My governor is thus Andrew Cuomo, thank Karma.

Lew

 

Dear Lew,
     Gadzooks, with all the "conversation" and all your blogging, where/when do you find the time to do any reading?
     As to governors, Andrew Cuomo is probably the head of the class. And his old man wasn't too shabby either, as I recall.
     Pax et Poesis,
                                   Bob

Lew,

Shall we suggest to him “HE might be a smart ASS?” We could contribute to his vocabulary/communication…perhaps “tush,” “bottom, buttocks,” etc. Clarification: the “tush,” etc., is referring to the Gov’s attitude…this is our governor?

Dee Cummins

 

 

 

A Suggestion by a Korean War Veteran on Veteran's Day 2010

The USS Hornet (CVA12)

President Obama has announced that South Korea has decided not to cooperate with the U. S. in opening its markets to U. S. businesses. I have a suggestion: President Obama ought to inform South Korea that we will begin immediately to withdraw American troops stationed in South Korea in order to reduce our national debt.

In fact, the U. S. ought to begin to withdraw its troops and close our overseas bases world-wide. Now that there is a European Economic Community of governments, these bases, especially in Europe, are useless. All they are is a subsidy of Europe. President George W. Bush said that he was going to close U. S. overseas bases, and it was the only good idea he ever had, but nothing ever happened in this regard. No doubt the U. S. War Machine objected strenuously. President Obama needs to do something positive. America does not need to be the world’s police force any longer.

 

You're right, Lew.

Miller

 

I second the motion!

Phil A.

(U.S. army air corps, 1944-45)

 

EXCELLENT PLAN--

Ruth

 

Great idea, Lew!  How do we get this plan passed in our dysfunctional congress?

Pierre

 

There's a lot to what you say, Lew. Of course, we have to be sure first that

such a step doesn't leave our nationals at risk in any of those countries.

Happy Veterans' Day.

Rhina

 

Good idea, Lew,

I remember Bush saying this. Obama followed through on the bailout; he should be able to see his way on following through on this one, too.

Tom

 

Lew,

What a great suggestion! With such wisdom from a poet, let's put him in charge and should we have a 4-star general direct the NEA?

Best to you & to Wesli Court too —

Dan

[WWII veteran]

 

 

Uncle Wesli’s Daily Epitaph for Wednesday, June 2, 2010

 

R.I.P. JOHN GODFREY SAXE

June 2, 1816 – March 31, 1887

 

Laws are much like sausages —

The more we know of how they’re made,

The more we are their hostages,

He wrote, and feel they’re retrograde.

 

 
 

R.I.P.  THOMAS HARDY

June 2, 1840 - January 11, 1928

 

He always wished to be a poet

And ever wished that he could show it

To the world, but the word was tardy

For the novelist Thomas Hardy.

 

Published originally in Per Contra Spring 2009 Light Verse Supplement at www.percontra.net/14lightverseentry.htm

Uncle Wesli’s Daily Epitaph for Tuesday, May 11th, 2010

 

R.I.P. IRVING BERLIN

May 11, 1888 – September 22, 1989

 

His “Alexander’s Ragtime Band”

Were Berlin’s first words come to hand,

And when he died at 101

Irving felt he wasn’t done.

 

Here’s to Your Health!

 

  

When I was a senior at Meriden High School, Meriden, Connecticut, back in the early ‘fifties, it was my belief that every citizen of the United States had the right to decent health care. When I graduated from high school in 1952 and joined the Navy in order to qualify for the G. I. Bill, I discovered that only members of the military, and other government agencies, had access to comprehensive and affordable health care.

Fifty-eight years later, during which most of the rest of the Western world has instituted national health care systems, including our neighbor to the North, Canada, America has at last been decent enough to enact health care for all its citizens. Now that we have joined the civilized world at last, I wish to offer this toast to us all:

 

HERE’S TO YOUR HEALTH AMERICA, AT LAST!

Lewis Putnam Turco

Damming The River Of Time

By Robert Chute

 

In this issue of The New York Review

a picture of the Ku Klux Klan parading,

September, Nineteen  Twenty-six, filling

the avenue, capital dome for background,

lots of American flags were fluttering.

I was seven months old so don’t blame me.

 

Yesterday, March 22, Two Thousand-ten,

at the capital protesting the health reform bill,

men shouted “nigger” at a black congressman

and spat on another. Someone it seems

has dammed up the river of time again.

 

It’s harder to recognize the Klan in jeans

or leisure suits. The heart of their protest may

still be the color of their president’s skin.