Flea season opens today

Thank goodness flea season opens today. Now I can spray the carpet with flea killer without getting fined. My license is renewed for the year and I have the ammunition, so look out, you little fuckers, it’s death time on Broadway. Dottie is not happy about this, however, because I also have the ammo that one uses on pets to murder fleas and I have used it liberally on her. She keeps looking at me like I’ve tainted her beautiful cow-hide coat which she will not lick now because it has icky stuff all over it.

Luckily for us, the sun came out just in time for me to open the windows and air out the apartment. Flea destroying spray smells bad and is probably not too safe to inhale (doesn’t get you high anyway). We went for a long walk and returned to a less stinky living space on its way to being free of the flea cycle.

This flea spray stuff usually works well. Only problem is it takes a few treatments. Only other problem is it is probably toxic. Only other problem is, the natural stuff doesn’t work.

Kill Kill Kill, Kill the fleas.

This dog looks suspiciously like Dottie. I think she posed for this image and is using to proceeds to bribe my friends to take her to Dutch Brothers so she can score cookies from them while I am at work. We will have to have a conversation about this.

Satter Day

And my only day off this week. I have a lot of little things I need to do that involve basic maintenance, but can wait. So I think I will go thrift-shopping for a couple of things I want, then relax in the apartment, cook for the week and ponder the delights in my life. They are many right now even though I find myself stretched thin with some of them.

I have been working so hard partly because of the public health importance of getting H1N1 vaccine to those in the highest priority groups. I cried when I read about the 22-year old at Lewis and Clark who died from complications of H1N1. Kid was otherwise healthy. Now he is dead. If I can help to prevent a loss of  life in this mess I will work as many hours as necessary to do so.

I’m going home for Thanksgiving. It has been a while since I’ve gone to Pedro and I am excited to visit, eat at my favorite Vietnamese restaurant and neighborhood diner. Be with people I love and love the people I am with. Thanks, I feel like giving.

I am traveling in Europe in December with someone I love. I’ve never been there and I cannot even begin to express how thrilled I am. I almost don’t believe that we are actually going! The tickets are bought and a loose plan has been made for European adventures beginning and ending in Paris. My french sucks, but I’m not too worried about it. I can order coffee and food and ask where the museum is!

What else? Dottie is happy and healthy and so is my son. Living is good from where I am sitting.

Happy Saturday.

Happy Holy Evening

The Celtic festival Samhain (pronounced sow-in and meaning November) celebrated the Celtic New Year. It was a celebration of the end of summer and harvest (pumpkins being one of the last of the season) and a marker of the beginning of the season of death (winter). On this night the world of the living and the world of the dead cross paths and all of the ghosts come back to the realm of the living wreaking havoc and making predictions of the future a little easier for the druids.

Huge bonfires were made and animals and crops were thrown in as offerings to the Celtic deities. The whacky Celts were costumed in animal skins and heads. Not pirate costumes or princess tiaras. Real animal skins and heads.

Of course, the Romans got a hold of it and changed it into a Christian holiday celebrating all of the Roman Christian Saints.

Either way, Happy Samhain.

Happy Rumble in the Jungle Day, Muhammed Ali

Kinshasa, Zaire, October 30, 1974— Muhammad Ali Knocks Out George Forman to Reclaim World Heavyweight Boxing Championship.

On October 30th, 1974 at the Mai 20 Stadium in Kinshasa, Zaire (Republic of the Congo) , Mohammed Ali and George Foreman (famous for his grills) duked it out over the Heavyweight championship, which Foreman was holding and Ali wanted back.

Promoted by Don King for $5 million of the boxers’ pay, King had to find a sponsor. Zaire’s boxing-loving president Mobutu Sésé Seko wanted the publicity for Zaire, so he asked to host the fight in his country. King agreed. King also got Risnelia Investment in Panama, John Daly and David Hemming’s British Hemdale Film Corporation, Video Techniques Inc. in New York and Don King Productions.

From Wikipedia:

The fight

Ali started the first round attacking Foreman with the unconventional (and provocative) ‘right-hand leads’. This was notable, as Ali was famed for his speed and technical skills, while Foreman’s raw power was his greatest strength; close range fighting would, it seemed, inevitably favour Foreman and leave too great a chance that Ali would be stunned by one or more of Foreman’s powerful haymakers. Ali made use of the right-hand lead punch (striking with the right hand without setting up with the left) in a further effort to disorient Foreman. However, while this aggressive tactic may have surprised Foreman and it did allow Ali to hit him solidly a number of times, it failed to significantly hurt him. Before the end of the first round, Foreman caught up to Ali and began landing a few punches of his own. Foreman had also been trained to cut off the ring, preventing escape. Ali realized that he would tire if Foreman could keep making one step to Ali’s two, so he changed tactics.

Ali had told his trainer, Angelo Dundee, and his fans that he had a secret plan for Foreman. Almost right away in the second round, Ali started lying on the ropes and letting Foreman punch him, without any attempt to attack Foreman himself (a strategy Ali later dubbed the rope-a-dope).

As a result Foreman spent all his energy throwing punches (in oven-like heat), that either did not hit Ali or were deflected in a way that made it difficult for Foreman to hit Ali’s head, while sapping Foreman’s strength due to the large number of punches thrown by the champion. This loss of energy was the key to Ali’s “rope-a-dope” technique.

Ali seemed to do little to resist, except to occasionally shoot straight punches to the face of Foreman. (This quickly began taking a toll on Foreman’s face and it was soon visibly puffy.) When the two fighters were locked in clinches, however, Ali consistently outwrestled Foreman, using tactics such as leaning on Foreman to make Foreman support Ali’s weight, or holding down Foreman’s head by pushing on his neck. The latter move is disorienting and can heighten the effect of punches, since it causes a greater snap in the neck when a fighter is hit in the head and therefore increases the chances of a knockout. Ali also constantly taunted Foreman in these clinches, telling Foreman to throw more and harder punches, and an enraged Foreman responded by doing just that.

After several rounds, this caused Foreman to begin tiring. As Foreman’s face became increasingly damaged by the occasional hard and fast jabs and crosses that Ali threw, his stamina looked to be draining from him. The effects were increasingly visible as Foreman was staggered by an Ali combination at the start of the fourth round and again several times near the end of the fifth, after Foreman had seemed to dominate much of that round. Although he would keep throwing punches and coming forward, after the fifth round Foreman was very tired and he looked increasingly worn out. Ali continued to taunt him by saying “they told me you could punch, George!” and “they told me you could punch as hard as Joe Louis.”

Finally in the eighth round, Ali landed the final combination, a left hook that brought Foreman’s head up into position so Ali could smash him with a hard right straight to the face. Foreman staggered, then twirled across half the ring before landing on his back; he finally managed to get up, but it was too late.

Some argue this to have been among the greatest demonstrations of strategic planning and actual execution ever displayed in a heavyweight fight. Ali came into the fight with a tactical plan, executed it and achieved a great triumph.

The fight made clear just how great Ali was at taking a punch and also highlights the different, perhaps dangerous, change that Ali had made in his fighting style, by adopting the rope-a-dope, instead of his former style that emphasized movement. While the style change may have been necessitated due to Ali’s age and ring inactivity in the late 1960’s, film of the Zaire fight shows Foreman striking Ali with hundreds of thunderous blows, many blocked but some getting through, mostly to the sides and kidney region. Foreman managed to land a couple also to the head, but seemingly with no effect.

This fight has since become one of the most famous fights of all time because it resulted in Ali, against the odds, regaining the title against a younger and stronger Foreman. It is shown several times annually on the ESPN Classic network. After this fight Ali once again told the world he was the greatest.

KO:

Fall colors

Portland weekend

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Drive to the coast

Something about Super Heros and Luche Libre

They never knew what hit them so
bandaged well and well bandaged
be well the end is nigh
a seed planted
a stamen born no end
in sight

yummmy

Yam Kesorn Chompoo (Spicy Rose Apple Stamen Salad) ยำเกสรชมพู่

Recipe from: HRH Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn, printed in the Bangkok Post, 02 Mar 2008

4 cups of rose apple stamen (Acharn Angkab’s tip is to gently shake the rose apple tree to make the stamen fall.)
1 cup of thin, 2cm long, about ¾ inch, slices of boiled pork
1 cup of sliced or roughly ground boiled shrimp
fried shallot and fried garlic to taste
1 large dried chile, sliced
¾ cup of a mixture of fish sauce and sugar (simmer fish sauce and sugar at a 1:2 ratio until thick and rich)
chopped peanuts (ground peanuts are not good for this dish)
lime

Pour the rose apple stamen into a big bowl and toss through the pork, shrimp, shallots, garlic and peanuts. Season to taste with the fish sauce reduction and lime then sprinkle with chile and serve.

Part 9/9

For C:

Turridu
Mamma, mamma!

(Lucia enters)

This wine is terribly strong,
and I know I drank too much of it.
I’m going out for some air.
But first, I beg you, bless me
as you did when I left for the army.
And also, Mamma, listen–
if I don’t return
you must be a mother to Santa,
whom I have sworn to marry.

Lucia
Why do you speak like that, my son?

Turridu
I don’t know–it must be the wine.
Pray to God for me, pray to God for me!
Give me a kiss, Mamma!
Another kiss–goodbye!
If I don’t return, be a mother to Santa.
A kiss, Mamma, goodbye!

(Runs off in despair)

Lucia
Turridu! What are tou trying to say?
Turridu! Ah!

(Enter Santuzza)

Santuzza!

Santuzza
Oh! Mamma Lucia!

(Throws her arms around her neck)

(The stage fills with people. Agitation is seen on the faces of all. A confused murmer is heard in the distance. A woman enters, crying)

Woman
Turridu has been killed!

(A confused sound of voices approaching. All rush upon the scene, uttering a cry. Santuzza falls in a swoon. Lucia faints and is lifted by the women of the chorus. All are stricken dumb with terror.)

CURTAIN

Cavelleria Rusticana pt. 8

For C:

(Alfio enters)
Greetings to you all!

Chorus
Greetings, Alfio!

Turridu
It’s good to see you. You must drink
with us.
Here’s a glass for you.

Alfio
Thank you, but I will not accept wine
from you.
It might be poisoned.

Turridu (spoken)
Suit yourself.

Lola
I’m afraid of what will happen!
(Some of the women consult together,
and then approach Lola)

Women
Come on Lola, we’d better leave.
(Lola and the women leave)

Turridu
Have you something to say to me?

Alfio
I? No!

Turridu
Then I am at your service.

Alfio
Now?

Turridu
Now!
(They embrace. Turridu gives Alfio’s right ear a vicious bite)

Alfio
Your challenge is accepted.
I think we understand each other
perfectly!

Turridu
Alfio, I know it’s all my fault,
and I know very well
that I deserve to die
like a dog…
But if I die,
(with grief)
poor Santa will be abandoned,
poor Santa, who gave herself to me!
(impetuously)
I’ll plant my dagger in your heart!

Alfio (coldly)
My friend, put all your affairs in order;
I’ll wait for you outside behind the garden.
(Exits)

Wally the Salamander

Swim follow me
Greetings underwater flow love
Won’t lose gills need
new habitat

to breathe

Hide under action figure
Plastic Japanese landscape for new life, ya!
new skin
“hello”, air
cause that’s all that’s left
full of particulate matter

of me

Part 7 Cavalleria Rusticana

For C:

Men
Let’s go home, friends, let’s go home.
Our wives are waiting for us.
Work is over, it’s time for pleasure.
Hurry, let’s not delay.

Women
Let’s go home, friends, let’s go home.
Our husbands are waiting for us.
Work is over, it’s time for pleasure.
Hurry, let’s not delay.

(Lola and Turridu enter from the church)

Turridu
Lola, are you leaving without
a word of greeting?

Lola
I’m going home.
I haven’t seen Alfio yet.

Turridu
Don’t worry, he’ll be in the square.
(turning to the chorus)
Come here, my friends,
let’s have a glass of wine.
(All approach the bar of the inn and take up wine cups.)
Here’s to the foaming wine
that brightens our holiday,
that bubbles in the glasses
like the smiles of love!
Here’s to sparkling wine
that chases all our troubles,
that lightens our hearts
in sweet intoxication.
(to Lola)
To those you love!

Lola (to Turridu)
To your good fortune!

Turridu
Let’s drink!

Chorus
Yes! Let’s drink! Fill up the glasses!
Here’s to the foaming wine
etc.