Motus Mentis

13 Comments

1. Charles says

   OK, I just have to ask… why do you always apologize to us for not posting? Do you get hate mail when you go two days without saying anything?

   Posted May 31, 2008 at 9:17 am | Permalink
2. Malcolm says

   Hi Charles,

   That’s a good question; I do realize I am not cutting off anybody’s air supply when I fail to post for a day or two.

   It’s that I always do aim to write something every day, and I know there are by now quite a few people who drop by every day to see what’s new. To skip a day, or as occasionally happens, two, feels like a laxity of discipline to me. So I am apologizing to myself, in a way, as much as anyone else.

   It’s also a bit like those pages marked “intentionally left blank” on legal forms.

   On further reflection, it could also, I suppose, be akin to those “ums” and “likes” and “you knows” that people plug the gaps in their speech with in order to hold the listener’s attention.

   If you readers think I am being obsessive to make these service-outage posts, perhaps I should reconsider. I can see where it might seem a tad self-centered to announce to all that one has nothing to say.

   Posted May 31, 2008 at 10:24 am | Permalink
3. Pat Goldsmith says

   No comment

   Posted May 31, 2008 at 11:56 am | Permalink
4. Pat Goldsmith says

   well I do have something to add after all-

   which may be of interest here- there is an interesting side note how both Oliver Sacks and C.O. Butts believe MUSIC to be of great use to us…

   http://www.worldsciencefestival.com/

   Posted May 31, 2008 at 12:29 pm | Permalink
5. bob koepp says

   Malcolm – Well, then… shame on you! Or not.

   Posted May 31, 2008 at 8:06 pm | Permalink
6. JK says

   Well Malcolm,

   Next time you do a “Service Notice” and you feel guilty for not having something to put up, you can ruminate on the Global Warming crisis. From today’s Drudge (6/5/08).

   http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/2076607/Sheep-flatulence-inoculation-developed.html

   Posted June 5, 2008 at 3:33 pm | Permalink
7. JK says

   Ever faithful. Now don’t even think of suing me for breach of contract:

   http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/06/10/europe/virgin.php

   Posted June 11, 2008 at 5:13 am | Permalink
8. Malcolm says

   Yup, JK, was just reading this on the train to work. It might call for a post.

   Posted June 11, 2008 at 10:25 am | Permalink
9. JK says

   I’ve been watching, keeping up with your weather Malcolm. It looks rather less oh, in the Ozarks we’d call it “tolable.” I take it gas prices deserve the same descriptive?

   I took Comp II in ’77 and had (sort of) to repeat it last semester. My final paper coincidentally was on cosmetic vaginal surgery which while even though a doctors’ son, had no idea that American teenagers were opting for this rather than the old fashioned “boob job” for graduation gifts. High school that is. I still have my paper and research notes should you require anything.

   Just an aside, my Professor projected my paper onto the white screen (I’d substituted the word “lotus” for vagina except for the opening paragraph in order not to sound like a dirty old guy in front of my much younger classmates) he “critiqued” my paper then uncharacteristically queried the rest of the class to figure out my subject.

   I do so wish you could have seen the looks on the faces of the Baptists, the Methodists, the Church of Christians and the Jehovahs’ Witnessians when the subject was revealed. Interestingly, two young women, quite surprisingly young, asked me for the name of a clinic. Away from class however.

   I almost did, but then I thought better, you wrote, “dog chasing cat, were walking.” Another Ozarks gem, “Hotter’n a whore on nickel night.” I do pray (hope) not too many people bother to read your old posts.

   Posted June 11, 2008 at 8:17 pm | Permalink
10. JK says

    The problem with pushing Democracy in the Mid-East. From The Christian Science Monitor

    http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/0618/p01s07-wome.html

    Posted June 17, 2008 at 5:37 pm | Permalink
11. Malcolm says

    Thanks, JK. I can only hope that there will be enough people who, having seen what the world outside of fundamentalist Islam is like, will refuse to jump back into the 7th century. As Tony Soprano said, “you can’t put the shit back in the donkey”.

    Posted June 17, 2008 at 10:12 pm | Permalink
12. JK says

    I’ve got a serious kinda question first but then a well (hopefully) no one really reads your old posts. The serious question has to do with NPR, the site I mean. I’ve got a playlist developed on it that when I however manage to get to my playlist repeats.

    The problem? I can’t repeat my path by the same route, day to day, to hear the same music. I do have “Tangled Up In Blue” bookmarked. And Chryssie Hyndie-did I spell that correctly? ( only because she’s “kinda” from Ohio and was Ray Davies but it’s mainly, How the hell do I get to my NPR playlist on a regular basis?

    The other thing has to do with the more recent. I do hope no one reads your older columns. I can’t recall however which of your more recent columns led me to relate such a story but Granddaddy is dead so I reckon it doesn’t matter.

    Grandaddy (G1) used to plow the garden with a mule. When I was very young and my cousin Pete was pretty young G1 would go into the cellar when his wife (G2) walked to the mailbox. One time G2 must’ve had a bunch of mail and G1 never made it back to me and Pete. The mule did cooperate for a time but then became resolute. Pete found this animal which I later came to realize was a mole.

    The mule was resolute until the mole was introduced to the mule in what I would now describe as a “California Marriage.” I must admit to some degree of thinking that this was a “Medal of Honor” mule for both the degree with which he stood resolute in his traces, hooked to the plow and for the time the mole was getting to know the aforesaid mule.

    All was well for sometime while cousin Pete and I searched for crawdads from the creek which G1&2 (visiting kin and dignataries) utilized for various purposes. Pete noticed first that the mule was lying down, which neither Pete nor “Little Young Me” had ever witnessed. Pete ran to the cellar but apparently Grandaddy was afflicted by the same condition. (Grandaddy recovered). G1 did die about 4 years later hence:

    Am I asking or relating? Doesn’t matter, I figure I’m older than the mule ever was.

    Posted June 19, 2008 at 9:04 am | Permalink
13. Malcolm says

    Hi JK,

    Well, I think that in fact folks sometimes do visit these old posts, but you never know.

    I have no idea about the NPR playlist, but I will say that I am a Chryssie Hynde fan too.

    That’s quite a story, of males, moles and mules. Thanks for sharing it with us.

    Posted June 19, 2008 at 10:20 am | Permalink