Wednesday, May 23, 2007

A Four & Two Noughts

An old joke.....

"How can you tell when your wife's dead?"

"The sex is about the same - but the dirty dishes start stacking up."


(I first encountered this joke in 1994, at an open-air concert in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park. The very cool, black leader of a local jazz-funk outfit called Zero [at least, I thought that was their name, but I can't find any trace of them online] told it during a lull brought about by a temporary equipment failure. There was a beat or two of shocked silence from the thoroughly PC audience; but then they thought to themselves, "Hey, he's black, he's ultra-cool, he's a musician, he's a local boy - we love him. And it is a pretty funny joke." There was a collective exhalation - the sound of inhibitions being gratefully abandoned - and then..... one of the longest, heartiest laughs I can recall hearing.)

I thought of this today because....well....

"How can you tell when your life's in a rut?"

"The despair is about the same - but the blog posts start stacking up."


400 today??!!

You call it being prolific; I call it being incontinent. Must..... cut..... down......

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hey, You've almost made it to the end of the month without going over your self-imposed limit of 40 to 50 posts.

Just 7 days to go! Even if you do one a day, you'll only be over the "50" mark for May by a measly 2 posts.

You went a little over-bored today with FOUR posts... so try and take it easy... amuse yourself elsewhere.

So, far, Top 10 Best Picks for Month of May:

May 1, April Showers
Because of how it made me remember the joy of playing in the rain.

May 5, Another gem from Ivor Cutler
I know, it's not one of yours, but you know how to pick 'em!

Sunday, May 6, Singularity
Just, Singularity, not all of Time stands still. I normally like your background info, but in this instance, I enjoyed the poem better without reading the prelude.

Wednesday May 9, Awareness of Space
Normally, I might enjoy/relate to China Rants for a moment, but generally I don't consider them literature. And, your writing is new to this genre. Watching it develop outside the shroud of mystery that you gave it under "Where in the World Am I?" has been interesting. I think, before you announced your location, your rants were almost literature. But now that you have announced where you are, the explanations are sometimes not as literary-thorough as the "Where in the World Am I?" Posts. But, i think you're getting your literary zing back for Rants in this piece.

May 11, A Runner's Haiku
I know you don't consider Haiku's for these "best of" lists, but I do. Well done.

May 12, China Rage not just a Foreigner Phenomenon
I like this one because you almost convinced me to go check out another blog -- you almost sold it to me. In the end, i just didn't have the time to check it out. But your writing has to be good to sell me into blog hopping.

May 14, But is it Art?
I like the pic

May 14, A Bon Mot on Lawyers
Already explained my reason for liking this one in the comments.

May 23, It's Alive, it's alive
I like your attempt to keep it going - the determination, the lazarus comparison.

and ALL TIME MAY 2007 FAVORITE......

FRIDAY, MAY 18:
The weekly haiku

Exquisite torture
Of unrealised daydreams -
The imagined kiss.


how could I not love this one?

EARTHLING said...

Is tulsa for real or is she your own other voice commenting on your own blogs?
I'm begining to wonder!

Anonymous said...

Earthling:

LOL... last i checked, I was for real.

Anonymous said...

Earthling: By the way, did I identify myself as "she"? or maybe froog did somewhere along the way? or are you just assuming?

EARTHLING said...

Ms Tulsa

I think I've read about you being a lady from America who brought Froog a certain movie last you went home to the states. Unless that was some other lady.

Sorry about the comment, it's just that you are the first one and sometimes the only one commenting on the posts here. And some of your comments are long and detailed.
And also the fact that your name shows up as black and not blue, indicating there is no blog behind the name, so I just assumed...
Hope both you and Froog can forgive my little "thought".

Anonymous said...

I can't speak for Froog, but I've not taken any offense to the "little thought."

I think I explained how I came upon Froog's blog in some comments a while back and more recently, again, on comments over on the Bar Prop, when Froog asked me, again.
The short version is that I'm an avid reader with a literary studies background. So I am quite fond of/used to reading and critiquing. So, when I came across Froog's early posts, which were laced with literary references, and found that he, himself was quite a good writer, and it was all in this interactive blogger format... well, I was hooked.

How much have you read? Have you followed up with the comments? How did you come across Froog?

EARTHLING said...

I haven't read all of the posts and actually only began reading around 2 months ago I think. I don't read all the posts -but I would have if I were a fast reader. I got an e-mail when Froog started his blogs long time ago, but had not been in the habbit of reading blogs. However, I started writing my own blog -inspired by Froog's blogwriting initiative.
And I am in not form or shape "a literary trained person", so all the references are wasted on me.
Hence my request for more pictures. :)

Anonymous said...

I like pictures. I often have a "I wish I had my camera with me" moment.

I like that Froog is putting up more pics in honor of your regular visits. It makes your company in this intimate salon all the more welcome!

so you're a pre-blog acquaintance of froog?

EARTHLING said...

Ms Tulsa

I have never met Froog. But I think you should ask him where and how he knows me from and he is free to tell you any story he likes.

Anonymous said...

Froog? care to join the comments?

EARTHLING said...

let me know how it turns out. I keep coming back here just to see what's new..... so (plz) drop me a line. Thanks

Froog said...

Well, if Earthling is really not shy about revealing the awful truth.... she got in touch with me via an Internet dating website, and we became intermittent penpals.

I believe I have mentioned this 'dark secret' of mine before, in comments at least, over on the Barstool. It was my old comrade-in-arms The Bookseller who cajoled me into trying out Internet dating, just so that he could have someone to compare notes with, and to stiffen his resolve when he was tempted to chicken out. It ultimately worked out pretty nicely for him, since he met the girl he married last September through the site. Of course, there was 4 or 5 years of "frog-kissing" frustration first!

We both signed up to a site at just about the time I was planning to move to China, so I only used it to search for possible social introductions (both male and female) here - didn't really find any. I've never actively pursued anyone from the site. However, I have acquired perhaps 15 or 20 interesting penpals from around the world, when ladies wrote to me. And the few ladies from the site that I've actually in person met have become very close friends.

EARTHLING said...

OH, so you have met people from there...

I so want to know what your Bookseller friend looks like; to find out if I have seen his picture or not.

My personal experience of the online dating "incident" will become a book before the end of this decade -if I can keep my own personal deadline.