Tuesday Open Thread ~ Getting Dressed to Chill


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These last few weeks have been the longest seven years of my life
~ TJ's crew member courtesy of Twitter
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Good Morning,

Welcome to Tuesday’s Open Thread. As California begins its seventh week of lockdown, I am reminded of a remark an ex-boyfriend once made about interesting people never being bored. A sentiment I generally agree with but then that was before all of this happened. I have now compiled a to-do list that includes, but is not limited to, going to the dentist, going to the optometrist, going to the vet, and going to the hair salon. All of which is now on hold until who knows when. Soon I will have to give up chewing, give up reading, and shave my head bald. Don't get me wrong, I know I have much to be grateful for, and I am. But, man, I’m going to have to dig really deep into the creativity reservoir to get through this with my spirit intact. Here's hoping I come up with some, er, interesting solutions.

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Diary of a Housecat

Day 483 of my captivity. My captors continue to taunt me with bizarre little dangling objects. They dine lavishly on fresh food while I am forced to eat dry cereal.

The only thing that keeps me going is the hope of escape and the mild scolding I get from ruining the occasional piece of furniture. Tomorrow I may eat another houseplant.

Today my attempt to kill my captors by darting around their feet while they were walking almost succeeded; must try this at the top of the stairs.

In an attempt to disgust and repulse these vile oppressors, I once again induced myself to vomit on their favorite chair; must try this on their bed.

Decapitated a mouse and brought them the headless body in an attempt to make them aware of what I am capable of and to try to strike fear into their hearts. They only cooed and condescended about what a good little cat I was.

Hmmmm, not working according to plan.

There was some sort of gathering of their accomplices. I was placed in solitary confinement throughout the event. However, I could hear the noise and smell of food. More importantly, I overheard that my confinement was due to my power of "allergies". I must learn what this is and how to use it to my advantage.

I am convinced the other captives are flunkies and maybe snitches. The dog is routinely released and seems more than happy to return. He is obviously a half-wit.

The bird, on the other hand, has got to be an informant. He speaks with them regularly, and I am certain he reports my every move. Due to his current placement in the metal cage, his safety is assured.

But I can wait; it is only a matter of time.

~ Anonymous

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Fear Of The Inexplicable

Rainer Maria Rilke - 1875-1926

But fear of the inexplicable has not alone impoverished
the existence of the individual; the relationship between
one human being and another has also been cramped by it,
as though it had been lifted out of the riverbed of
endless possibilities and set down in a fallow spot on the
bank, to which nothing happens. For it is not inertia alone
that is responsible for human relationships repeating
themselves from case to case, indescribably monotonous and
unrenewed: it is shyness before any sort of new, unforeseeable
experience with which one does not think oneself able to cope.

But only someone who is ready for everything, who excludes
nothing, not even the most enigmatical, will live the relation
to another as something alive and will himself draw exhaustively
from his own existence. For if we think of this existence of
the individual as a larger or smaller room, it appears evident
that most people learn to know only a corner of their room, a
place by the window, a strip of floor on which they walk up and
down. Thus they have a certain security. And yet that dangerous
insecurity is so much more human which drives the prisoners in
Poe's stories to feel out the shapes of their horrible dungeons
and not be strangers to the unspeakable terror of their abode.

We, however, are not prisoners. No traps or snares are set about
us, and there is nothing which should intimidate or worry us.
We are set down in life as in the element to which we best
correspond, and over and above this we have through thousands of
years of accommodation become so like this life, that when we
hold still we are, through a happy mimicry, scarcely to be
distinguished from all that surrounds us. We have no reason to
mistrust our world, for it is not against us. Has it terrors,
they are our terrors; has it abysses, those abysses belong to us;
are dangers at hand, we must try to love them. And if only we
arrange our life according to that principle which counsels us
that we must always hold to the difficult, then that which now
still seems to us the most alien will become what we most trust
and find most faithful. How should we be able to forget those
ancient myths about dragons that at the last moment turn into
princesses; perhaps all the dragons of our lives are princesses
who are only waiting to see us once beautiful and brave. Perhaps
everything terrible is in its deepest being something helpless
that wants help from us.

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Let Life Be Like Music

As a kid growing up in a house where my Father listened to German Opera, while my Mother preferred popular crooners of the day, I was always a little envious of friends whose parents rocked out to the Beatles and The Rolling Stones. It wasn't until I moved to New York and had the opportunity to see one of those German Operas, and spend Sunday’s with Jonathan Schwartz listening to Sinatra on NPR, that I began to appreciate my parent's musical tastes. Now that I’m spending a lot more time at home, I dug out some of my old CD’s and started singing along with Sinatra. So, in the spirit of making a little corner of our world more colorful again, I'm going to let a little of the ole blue eye's magic cast it's spell on you...

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Although Sinatra's “You Look Wonderful Tonite” rates pretty high in musical selections at weddings, for me, “The Best is Yet to Come” is a much more romantic song. In a wonderfully flirty way, it's one of those songs that conjures up the excitement of a new love affair, ripe with possibilities and anticipation, leaving a girl to imagine all kinds of things...

"Wait till your charms are right for these arms to surround

You think you've flown before, but baby, you ain't left the ground"

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When casting the film version of the musical Guys & Dolls, the studio, surprisingly or not depending on your view, decided to go with Marlon Brando as the lead instead of Frank Sinatra, even though Sinatra had asked for the part and was re-working the film’s signature song. An opportunity missed, in my opinion, because while Brando did an adequate job with his singing, can you imagine how much better the pivotal betting scene would've been with Sinatra singing “Luck Be a Lady“? What Sinatra does with the modulations in this song is brilliant. Playfully expressive throughout the key changes, his voice surfs the high and low notes so effortlessly you don't even notice he's doing it. And let's face it, who else could belt out a song full of innuendo with quite as much panache as Sinatra?

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For all the great songs Frank Sinatra recorded, there are the few that didn't age too well. “Don'cha Go 'Way Mad” is one of them. Clearly a casualty of its time and culture, this Sinatra song feels like a cliched version of "boys will be boys". In the same way Frank sings about the excitement of flying at a time when air travel was thought of as glamorous, this song is all about the wink and nod from the male perspective that I can't imagine any sentient female today appreciating. The premise is simple, the husband is caught cheating on his wife and he's trying to convince her not to leave. What's at odds with the theme of the song is both the mood of the music and the offhanded way in which he's asking for forgiveness.

I understand that you feel upset
Whaddya you say that you forgive and forget?
Come on and kiss me just to show you're glad
Baby, baby don'cha go away mad
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Well, that about wraps things up for this week's edition.
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What’s on your mind today?
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Lookout's picture

I also grew up with Frankie singing. I love his timing and annunciation (a skill lost on most modern singers). You can understand every word.

I got a few jokes sent to me this week that brought you to mind, and though it doesn't fit your theme today you still might enjoy them.

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(Which might answer my rhetorical question yesterday about US fear of nudity)

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Loved the cat diary. Our cat somehow manages to boss both of us around. She's in and out at will...not captive. One advantage of country life.

All the best. Have a good one!

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“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

Anja Geitz's picture

@Lookout

I think I see a series here, heh, heh. Thanks for the laughs!

My cats roam around outside while I'm home, but are strictly inside when I'm at work. Ziggy waits for me by the kitchen window, where he leaves his nose prints all over the glass.

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There is always Music amongst the trees in the Garden, but our hearts must be very quiet to hear it. ~ Minnie Aumonier

hated Frank is just beyond me. Mom loved him, but kept her Frankie love a secret from Dad.
So, anywhere, like the Masai Mara tribe guy singer in Nairobi, the steel drum band in Trinidad, the street musician in Brazil, the choir in Bulgaria, the encore is "My Way".
Maybe it is more than a tribute to Frank.
It could be a FS tribute, but it just might be a way of letting the world know that they thrived against the weighted odds that they would not.
So figure out your way to stay in and stay put.
Do it your way.
I will suggest that love will help, but do it your way.

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"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981

Anja Geitz's picture

@on the cusp

But it takes a lot of courage and certain kind of mindset. Namely a positive one. There are a lot of preconceived ideas about dating that I reject outright as wrong, wrong, and really really wrong. A married girlfriend of mine, commenting on the bad experiences her neighbor and school chum have had summed up the dating prospects for anyone over 50 years old as "the only single men out there our age are damaged". A premise I reject for many reasons. But there you have it.

About your Dad not liking Frankie. Maybe it was bc of the way your Mom liked Sinatra? I had a girlfriend whose Fathrr didn't like Nat King Cole bc of the way her Mother used to get all dreamy-eyed whenever she listened to him.

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There is always Music amongst the trees in the Garden, but our hearts must be very quiet to hear it. ~ Minnie Aumonier

@Anja Geitz about dating, but your friend has a pretty good point about "damaged goods". However, it works both ways. There is not a snowball's chance in hell that you do not have red flags. That new guy will say or do that thing that reminds you of some horrible past experience with some past lover. And this is also the stage in life where you might have your trip or date cancelled because lover's grandkid is having a birthday party, and you are not welcome to attend.
Nothing says you are a beautiful, intelligent, desirable woman like being barred from your lover's afternoon spent delivering a tricycle to the birthday child! Lol!
I would replace "damaged" with "carry baggage".
You can't see the damage, but the baggage is highly visible. Deal with it or walk on by.
Either the outweighs the bad, or it just can't be justified.
People your age are capable of "do overs". It is easy to enjoy love that second time around.
At my age, there is no time left for a do over if things go south. That actually makes sitting at home during the birthday party an opportunity to organize my sock drawer and not get spun up about it.
Happy or sad, my time is running out, so I think love is a fine way to finish up.
I am a couple of hours away from a trial, and I find out the man we are suing is completely judgment proof.
Sigh...My client will never collect a cent.

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"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981

Anja Geitz's picture

@on the cusp

is different than "comes with baggage". I mean we all come with baggage, no? She meant "damaged goods" as in irredeemable. Damaged as in psyche, chronically depressed, substance dependent, or just plain nuts. Which might explain why someone possessing those "defects" and who is looking for a partner is not being able to find one. But my girlfriend made it sound like that's all that's out there after a certain age, which is a subjective opinion that I reject outright. Not to mention it irked me hearing it at a time when I could use a little encouragement. So, for me, if I wanted to entertain the idea of finding someone again, I cannot let my head go there. Besides, I'm much more inclined in the belief that you attract the same kind of energy you put out there.

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There is always Music amongst the trees in the Garden, but our hearts must be very quiet to hear it. ~ Minnie Aumonier

@Anja Geitz @Anja Geitz the safest bet out there is a widow or widower.
Find some fun. If is goes somewhere, fine. If it doesn't, at least you had fun.
Must research some rules of evidence.

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"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981

enhydra lutris's picture

may you live in interesting times is a curse in certain cultures and that we are certainly dong so, it is simply the scale and nature of the interesting bits that leaves us feeling, all the same, drained and bored. Even the most avid gardener, not to be cornfused with Ava Gardner, will run out of stuff to trim and weeds to pull if they have but a small yard, but there is much more out there worth doing, the problem is deciding to set aside the time to do it. That will be even more of a problem for you, an essential front line worker, than for we the idle masses, but it is out there.

One could, for example, pick any of a great number of history, math or science series on you tube and watch a specified number of shows, in proper order, per day, or use one's e-reader or tablet to download tons of stuff from the library and just go to it. It is simply all about the doing - I know, because I have a mountainous backlog of reading, both electronic and paper based, that I just can't seem to get around to despite my enforced idleness. This isn't, of course, helped by the fact that at least 10% of it tells me to let everything go and bask in doing nothing, so there's always that option too. Wink

be well and have a good one.

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That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --

Anja Geitz's picture

@enhydra lutris

Enjoyed the way you connected Frank Sinatra without even mentioning his name. Smile

Oh, God. The reading. I've got a stack of books I keep promising myself I'll read, and they just sit there because I don't carve out the time to read them. I've even told myself that some of the material might make good OT topics, but still, nothing comes of it. Tommorow, I keep telling myself. I'll start reading them tomorrow.

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There is always Music amongst the trees in the Garden, but our hearts must be very quiet to hear it. ~ Minnie Aumonier

lotlizard's picture

showing him targeted Facebook ads just for him and his close advisers, so he would think the election campaign was being conducted per his ideas, when in reality they were sabotaging him by running entirely different ads to be seen by the broader voting public.

https://www.politicshome.com/news/article/labour-hq-spent-5000-tricking-...

“And if it was there for them, they thought it must be there for everyone. It wasn’t. That’s how targeted ads work.”

. . .

According to Mr Baldwin, while the party was concealing the left-wing campaigns designed by Mr Corbyn’s team, it was spending tens of thousands promoting other targeted messages at voters.

 
Another link covering the same story:
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/labour-hq-jeremy-corbyn-...

The story is from 2018 and concerns the 2017 election that Labour came close to winning, but it’s still relevant today. Looks like both Bernie Sanders and Jeremy Corbyn had a big problem with putting too much faith in and handing too much responsibility to “moderate moles” in their organization.

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Raggedy Ann's picture

There is no better crooner Sinatra. Thanks for bringing him to start my morning!

Live in the present. Live in love.

Have a terrific day, everyone! Pleasantry

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"The “jumpers” reminded us that one day we will all face only one choice and that is how we will die, not how we will live." Chris Hedges on 9/11

Anja Geitz's picture

@Raggedy Ann

Glad you enjoyed. Do you have any favorite Sinatra songs?

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There is always Music amongst the trees in the Garden, but our hearts must be very quiet to hear it. ~ Minnie Aumonier

smiley7's picture

Our Gang, great memories of hours spent entertained by them; recall when Alfalfa was 'icesolated?' Or the catapult food fights?

And who is that anonymous cat story author, loved it?

Sorry for the late reply, some days, huh, communication doesn't flow.

Spending the week, so far, waiting on the telephone for a warm body to answer down in Raleigh, NC; the government isn't home. And when i've connected, five times since Monday, the phones dropped the call and their online site crashes; it's a patience test, i'm sure.

Anyways, hope you've a wonderful day in California and thanks for the morning smiles.

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Anja Geitz's picture

@smiley7

Was the race they had down a hill with that rich kid who wooed Darla away with his fancy fire engine. Then the Gang put together their own homemade version of a fire engine, with Petey standing sentry on top. Don't remember who won the race, but the hill they came down on was the same one I grew up on in the 1960's. Culver City's MGM studio was a mile from where I lived and so a lot of movies from the 1920's and 1930's feature my old neighborhood. What was always so bizarre about seeing my neighborhood on film 40 years before I was born, was that it had very little development in the way of real estate. Looked like somewhere out in the country with just a few houses here and there.

Glad you could stop by, Smiley.

P.S. I ran across that cat story years ago, but never knew the author. Funny piece of writing, eh?

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There is always Music amongst the trees in the Garden, but our hearts must be very quiet to hear it. ~ Minnie Aumonier

smiley7's picture

@Anja Geitz

know the neighborhood and think we've discussed the hotdog caboose in between Sherman Oaks and there, an old favorite.

When the doctor arrived to Alfalfa's bedroom, Alfalfa was shivering madly, the doc pulled back the covers and Alflafa is covered in ice and the doctor asks "what the hell?" And Alfalfa's Mom say's "Doctor, you told me to isolate him."

Remember the roller derby race episodes, yes, and the giant jungle creature, boggawogasimba.
Smile

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Anja Geitz's picture

@smiley7

You've got a good memory!

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There is always Music amongst the trees in the Garden, but our hearts must be very quiet to hear it. ~ Minnie Aumonier