It must have happened two dozen times or more.  We're working late  on some "critical" project with a fast approaching deadline, and while I rarely pushed past 10 pm, Frank would stick around  keeping everyone's energy up with take out Chinese food or pizza while calming frazzled nerves and lifting sagging spirits with his perpetual "what me worry" good humor. Invariably, the next morning I'd pop in and ask him how late he stayed the night before.  And his answer was usually "Round midnight"--even if it was closer to 2 am.   So this one's for Frank...who I know would've appreciated the taste and simplicity in the way this was shot.   




Note: Aside from the beauty of the tune and the sensitive interplay between all members of the group, what really grabs me is Wes' technique.  Single notes, octaves, chords and all with just his thumb.  Story is that before playing professionally (he only started playing six string guitar at the age of 20!)  he practiced late in the evenings at home after working all day as a machinist.  So he used his thumb to keep the sound softer so as not to wake up his wife.

I is for:
inaniloquent	Speaking foolishly or saying silly things
interfenestration	The space between two windows

Remember the Triolet?

If not, here's G.K. Chesterton to remind you...

 I wish I were a jellyfish

That cannot fall downstairs;

Of all the things I wish to wish

I wish I were a jellyfish

That hasn't any cares

And doesn't even have to wish

'I wish I were a jellyfish

That cannot fall downstairs.'

I consider the above the gold standard, and not surprised it came from GK.  Back in Post from March 29, I took a crack at a few and I'm still hacking away at this tricky but addictive form.

It isn't good this victimhood

It pains my soul and psyche

What became of brotherhood?

It isn't good this victimhood

 Oprah, Limbaugh, Jesus Crike!

Where's Mr. Rogers’ neighborhood?

It isn't good this victimhood

It pains my soul and psyche

Six strings two octaves E to E

And almost two in Frets

A world to hear but all you see

Six strings two octaves E to E

chromatic coloring sets

 Sound of thunder, tranquil sea

Six strings two octaves E to E

And almost two in Frets

Ma Nature says a day of toil

And then the entertainment

Songs to follow hands in soil

Ma Nature says a day of toil

By rights to every claimant

Dance and revel, passions roil

Ma Nature says a day of toil

And then the entertainment

I wish I saved a dollar bill

Each time I heard it said

You’d  find a fortune in my will

I wish I saved a dollar bill

For when I’m finally dead

My coffers of “Whatevers” fill

I wish I saved a dollar bill

Each time I heard it said.

I always like to think of my readers as smarter than average.  

Now I have
confirmation.

Once again, against my better judgement I watched the debate.  Glad it was the last one too. Among the annoyances:

Romney talking about how he'll balance the budget.   Wouldn't he be more persuasive if he told us that balancing the budget is unnecessary if you know how to leverage debt?  Which is something he actually does know how to do--in fact he made a fortune doing it.

Obama leaning over and looking earnestly interested when Romney spoke.  To me it came across as mildly mocking.  I love Barack, but he's lost much of his cool over the years, and I guess he'd have to be super-human to have been able to keep it. 

Had the impression throughout that Obama was in his comfort zone and Mitt was dancing as fast as he could.  At the end I scored it a decisive Obama win.  Then on came the pundits to inform me that Mitt did great and Barack may have put his foot in his mouth on more than one occasion.  Silly me for thinking I could judge for myself. 

H is for:
hadeharia	Constantly using the word "Hell" in speaking
hamartithia	Being likely to make a mistake
hippopotomonstrosesquipe	Pertaining to extremely long words
*honorificabilitudinitatibus	Worthy of honor

*can also be defined as "the state of being able to achieve honours". It is mentioned by the character Costard in Act V, Scene I of William Shakespeare's Love's Labour's Lost.^[ It is also the longest word in the English language featuring alternating consonants and vowels.^[2]

Reading and writing and editing so much at work these days, last thing I feel like doing with my blogging time is more of it.  So thought I'd let you visit my gallery of "musicians"   I've got dozens more, but I think I'll save some for another wordless rainy day.

I like it despite the Lefty string players and upside down tooter.   

More lefties and cross handers.   Guess it's a visual balance thing. 

Herbie and Wayne gettin clap happy. 

G is for:
gambrinous	Being full of beer
gargalesis	Heavy tickling
gargalesthesia	The sensation caused by tickling
ginglyform	Hinge-shaped
gongoozler	An idle spectator
gossypiboma	A surgical sponge accidently left inside a patient's body
gowpen	A double handful
grapholagnia	The urge to stare at obscene pictures
gymnophoria	The sensation that someone is mentally undressing you

 England: The price of an annual Oxford-to-London season commuter train ticket is set to break the £5,000 barrier at the start of the new year.

 The Phillippines:  The stock market breaches 5,000 mark, sets all time record.

 Houston Texas: Arian Foster becomes the third-fastest player in NFL history to reach 5,000 yards from scrimmage.

 New York:  After over a year in existence, Adrift on Driftwood (31driftwood.blogspot.com) records its 5000^th pageview.

Congrats to all.

When I began this blog, I promised myself to avoid too much personal stuff and try to fill this space with info and topics of more universal appeal.  What follows is proof that I can't always keep that promise. 

Cally likes me, but not my camera.  

When we're in The Springs, Cally  hops in the car just after each day's dawn and eagerly (to say the least) accompanies me as I first stop at the local market to pick up the paper and a coffee before heading over to Maidstone Beach where I shuffle along sand and scrub as she gallops and sniffs and pees and poops and chases every living organism within sight and scent. 

Maidstone Beach on Gardiner's Bay.  

In the event that rain dampens my desire to follow her every twist and turn, I just take shelter here and check out the sports section while yelling her name periodically to keep her in sight--and on some occasions I reward her prompt responsiveness with a small treat that I so thoughtfully remembered to bring along to insure her happiness while reinforcing her homing instinct. 

 Alex M., Our fearless Men's book group leader (and distinguished man of medicine and  philanthropy)  managed to  convince author Peter De Jonge to join us for dinner and a discussion about his outstanding novel (reviewed in earlier post) Buried on Avenue B.  During the course of our conversation Peter cited this J.M. Coetzee book as a model of what he considers great fiction.  I had read 2 Coetzee books years ago and was impressed but not enthusiastic  to read more.  But I thank Peter (and Alex --for making this our next assignment) cause this one was outstanding. A slim volume that carries  a lot of weight with amazing grace. The author has something of a blind spot when it comes to the protagonist's delusional romanticism, but that may be  deliberate and it certainly doesn't dilute the power of the tale.   Can't figure out how it managed to win The Booker Prize though.  The judges must have suffered a momentary lapse of elitist snobbery. 


My blogging Mentor: TeddyVegas.blogspot.com had a typically clever notion:  in his own words--

 About 2 years ago, when I finally became convinced that Lance Armstrong was a defiant liar, arrogant fraud and bullying cheat, I thought it would be cool to rebrand the whole Livestrong phenomenon through the elimination of a single letter.  My friend Harris Silver (who may have had the same idea, I honestly cannot remember...and honesty is important in this context!) did me the favor of creating the prototype.  

We are thinking of trying to sell them now--in the wake of the recent damning revelations.  Along with my efforts at turning Trump into T-Rump, this represents one of the finest vengeful rebranding concepts I've ever had the pleasure of being involved with!

Oh, one more thing:  I was on performance enhancing drugs when I came up with the idea.  

And with five down and only 21 to go....

F is for
farctate	The state of being stuffed with food (overeating)
filipendulous	Suspended by a single thread
floccinaucinihilipilification	The categorising of something that is useless or trivial
fuscoferuginous	Having a dark rusty colour

How come...?

...I sit watching the debate saying " I can't watch this shit anymore" and then I do?

...Obama keeps interrupting Mitt's interruptions when Mitt's interruptions are doing him more damage than Obama's interruptions of his interruptions? 

...They call it a Town Hall Meeting?  Carefully Pre-screened Citizens reading aloud carefully pre-screened questions to two men who proceed to recite pre-arranged scripts can probably be called something, but I don't think it's "Town Hall Meeting."  

Seems to me...

That after four years as President, you are so compromised, so frustrated and so reduced by the slings and arrows of outrageous misfortune that it's virtually impossible to even feign the audacity of hope. 

LINK FROM T.V. BY WAY OF A.G....CHECK IT OUT.  http://www.romneytaxplan.com/

In my quiet solitude within the seedy confines of this roadside rest home for the Flushing faithful, I sit watching the Bronx Bombers (a term that is beginning to take on new meaning now that nothing of the literal sort has detonated for them throughout the playoffs) mostly in honor of my departed boss, mentor, and friend Frank P. 

And beginning to consider every moment of their chronic incapacities a karmically just (tho woefully inadequate) reward for the city of Detroit --whose citizens have borne more than their  share of pain during what has been (and still is) for them, a great depression. 


Keeping it short again today...and will leave you with this from Simi Stone. 
Music guy I've known for long time is producing ( and co-composing and playing all instruments on this track) her first solo album and I couldn't say no to his request for support--so now I'm one of many backers rooting her on . It's got this 50-60's girl group vibe that I always kinda dug-She's also an accomplished violinist. Hope you like. This is homemade video doin a demo in the studio, but there's  more from her online. 

Oh, yeah, almost forgot...

E is for: 

eccedentesiast	One who fakes a smile, as on television
emunction	The act of removing obstructions from or cleaning bodily passages
estrapade	A horses's attempt to remove its rider
exsibilation	The collective hisses of a disapproving audience

The Gift

Difference between Surfers and Stand Up Paddlers:
You never heard a surfer say: "I'll just stay out there till my shorts dry"

Dear friend (thanks Sue!) gave me early B'day present of a wet suit (but it was a size too small for the ever expanding Drifter, so she's exchanging it) but I went out Friday, Saturday and Sunday in shorts and long sleeve shirt despite frigid waters.  Kinda choppy and gusty, but managed to stay dry on all trips.  Only problem was cold feet.  But gonna solve that with some thermal booties to go with the wet suit.

The waters I paddle just West of Gardiner's Island (in aerial photo) are the same that Frank frequented in his fishing boat out of Sag Harbor.  Spent a good deal of my time out there this weekend thinking of him and feeling somehow honored to be cruising along on his sea.  I think I'll always think of him when I'm out there, and raise my paddle high in salute.

Also watching Yankees in the playoffs as a kind of Hat Tip to Frank.  He was a true scholar of the game and knew a great deal of its history.  And a helluva whiffle ball pitcher. But my Mets loyalty is forcing me to suppress an inner satisfaction at the Bronx Bombers futility of the last two games.  And as for that blown call at 2nd with Cano and Infante on Sunday--yes, the call was wrong, but how many viewers thought so before the slow mo replay?  In real time it looked bang bang to me...and none of the announcers sounded surprised either till the telling details  revealed themselves only in digital review.

NY TIME'S SUNDAY CROSSWORD WAS TOO EASY.  WAS STILL ON MY FIRST CUP OF COFFEE WHEN ELLEN AND I FINISHED IT UP.  LAME THEME TOO (cause no challenge involved)

''[An] Indonesian Muslim turned welfare thug.''

—Mark Williams, national spokesman for the Tea Party Express, on President Obama

''He has no place in any station of government and we need to realize that he is an enemy of humanity.''

—Rep. Trent Franks (R-AZ), 

Can you imagine something like this being said about any other president? ...so please don't tell me that racism doesn't play a big role in all the Obama bashing.  

got nothing else today, so I'll continue to make my way through the alphabet and leave you with: 

D IS FOR:

dactylion	The tip of the middle finger
dactylonomy	Counting using one's fingers
decubitis	The act or attitude of lying down
defenestrate	To throw out of a window
dehisce	To burst open, as the pod of a plant
dentiloquent	Talking  through one's teeth
dephlogisticate	To make something fireproof
digamy	A second marriage after the death or divorce of a previous spouse
dippoldism	The act of beating or whipping school children
dompteuse	A woman who trains animals

A leftover post left un-posted when Frank died.  Haven't had the inclination to do anything since then so here it is.  Longest break I've taken since I started this over a year ago, and hope to get back into the swing soon...

You want to build a house?  

You know nothing about construction.  So you shop for contractors.  You meet them and talk to them.  They tell you what they can do for the money you have.  You listen.   You look into their eyes for clues.  You decide that one is (or looks or sounds) more credible than another.  You're impressed by the enthusiasm of one and put off by the laconic gloominess of another.   Ultimately, you make a decision and pick one.  Now it's all out of your hands.   Then you watch as some promises are kept and others broken.  You pay for things you never thought you would have to pay for and though work gets done and progress is made and you end up with a house-- not quite what you had imagined or expected, but what did you know?

That's what I was thinking while watching the Obama/Romney economy debate.  Unless you've studied the issues in depth, you have no idea if any of their ideas and numbers make sense and no way of judging the feasibility or advisability of any of the proposals.

The Think Progress Website the next day cited some 27 instances in which Romney made a statement that was either factually incorrect or blatantly untrue.

LINK: http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2012/10/04/958801/at-last-nights-debate-romney-told-27-myths-in-38-minutes/

A while back I suggested the idea that someone (Comedy Central? Jon Stewart?) cover the debates with a team of fact checkers on hand who would (in real time) check the candidate's statements for veracity. Would be helluva lot more enlightening that watching  the spinning sessions following the debate (even the one on PBS) cause that's all about performance.  It's  pundits keeping score while we're left to ponder the probability  of players corking their bats, juicing or throwing spitters.

LINK: http://www.politifact.com/

"Politics is universally debasing" as Bill Buckley (of all people) said, and yet, as Molly Ivins said, "...you can't dismiss it cause it really matters."  Which is even more reason to keep laughing about it and at it--cause the more serious it gets, the more you need a sense of humor to endure it.

And Hendrik Hertzberg in New Yorker was as usual, cogent, clear and concise on the matter: http://www.newyorker.com/talk/comment/2012/10/15/121015taco_talk_hertzberg

C is for: 

cachinnation	Loud or hysterical laughter
cacoethes	A bad habit or insatiable urge
cagamosis	An unhappy marriage
callipygean	Having well-shaped buttocks
cancatervate	To heap up into a pile
capernoited	Slightly intoxicated or tipsy
cataglottism	Kissing using the tongue, French kissing
causeuse	A sofa built for two people
charientism	An artfully veiled insult
cheiloproclitic	Being attracted to a person's lips
chirotonsor	An alternate title for a barber
cleptobiosis	The act of plundering food
clithridiate	Key-hole-shaped
colposinquanonia	Estimating a woman's beauty based on her chest
concilliabule	A secret meeting of people who are hatching a plot
cruciverbalist	One who loves doing crossword puzzles