The Gulf of Mexico and Beyond

THE GULF OF MEXICO
~ ACCUSTOMED, CEREMONIOUS ~

"I vote we go to the Gulf of Mexico
You and me by the sea
Palm trees call me, oh, that's the place I want to be
Down where the southern breezes blow
On the Gulf of Mexico" (1990)

Song by Alabama
Photo: Florida Keys

Slow Sequence

From Chautauqua and Cattaraugus Counties of upper
New York State rise the Ischua and Tunnungwani [Tunungwant]
Creeks; which, passing the Cornplanter Indian
Reservation, form the headwaters of the Allegheny
River; which winds down through Pennsylvania and
at Pittsburgh runs into the Monongahela and forms
the Ohio; Big O, pushing, moving, moving down,
Cincinnati, Louisville, and Cairo, Illinois,
where it joins the Old Man, the Mississippi;
already wide as the length of an airport, at
St. Louis the Mississippi picks up the Missouri,

Sunrise Across the Wide Missouri

doubles its size, and starts its long slide
down the continent, one thousand miles, past
Memphis, Vicksburg, Natchez, Baton Rouge and
New Orleans, as heavy as pregnancy itself, come
all the long way down, rooted from Idaho to New
York, and now, laden with ships, set sunken in
its vast swampy delta ninety miles south of New
Orleans, canopied with mosquitos, enters the
greasy shallow mud-puddle of the Gulf, rushing
and roiling and dissipating, spreading outward,
washing and swirling around the pillars and the legs
of the ravening multitude of clustered oil rigs.

2 / 3 / 68

by Dan Propper (1937 - 2003)
[See also Samurai & UN]

Did somebody say Gulf of Mexico?

Arbitrary name change,
as described by someone living with dementia:

"We named the Gulf of Mexico into the Gulf of America."

Wait, there's more, there's always more.

Here's a SECOND batch of nonsense,
[Also posted on The Quotidian Kit]
just as inappropriate and cringeworthy as before!
1.

Can you say Stepford Wives?
In thrall to someone living with dementia.

2.

Headgear fashion faux pas
by someone living with dementia.

3.

A Cartoon for Fun

Recent urban construction,
as described by someone living with dementia:

"Majestic skyscrapers, the towers that I see . . . and all of the different [unintelligible] I’ve seen a lot of different towers. I didn’t think there’s any version of a tower that I haven’t seen in one form or another."

4.

Insomnia,
as described by someone living with dementia,
completely misunderstanding that
tossing and turning = guilty conscience:

"Mohammad, do you sleep at night? How do you sleep? Huh? Just thinking. What a job. He tosses and turns like some of us, tosses and turns all night, how do I make it even better, all night. It’s the ones that don’t toss and turn, they’re the ones that will never take you to the promised land. Won’t they? But you have done some job. True."

5.

Who's hot & who's not,
as described by someone living with dementia:

"The United States is the hottest country — with the exception of your country, I have to say, right? I’m not going to take that on. No, Mohammed, I’m not going to take that on. Wouldn’t that be a terrible thing if I made that full statement? But I will not do it. You’re hotter. At least as long as I’m up here, you’re hotter" [in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, May 13, 2025] . . . "Has anyone noticed that, since I said 'I HATE TAYLOR SWIFT,' she's no longer 'HOT?' ” [online Friday, May 16].

6.

“…a top of the line, uhh, timberman like...
Like... You know who? Sean... Duffy,”
as described by someone living with dementia:

“He's a great Sean though, I have to tell you but Sean Duffy was the world champion for five years climbing trees and down, up and down, world champion! So that's what you call a serious a lumberjack."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Click here for FIRST batch:
"I Didn't Even Know Anything"
QK & FN

CREDITS
I think we can count
on a steady stream of material for this project.
Above comments taken from:

Occupy Democrats

Speech in Riyadh

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Next Fortnightly Post
Friday, June 14th

Between now and then, read
THE QUOTIDIAN KIT
my shorter, almost daily blogs
www.dailykitticarriker.blogspot.com

Looking for a good book? Try
KITTI'S LIST
my running list of recent reading
www.kittislist.blogsppot.com

I Didn't Even Know Anything

SPEAKING NONSENSE
~ UNCEREMONIOUS, UNACCUSTOMED ~

No! You may not have the rainbow,
not 3 dozen, not 1 dozen -- only 5!

Scarcity vs Plenty,
as described by someone living with dementia:

"I’m just saying they don’t need to have 30 dolls.
They can have three.
They don’t need to have 250 pencils. They can have five."

“In our age there is no such thing as ‘keeping out of politics.’
All issues are political issues,
and politics itself is a mass of lies,
evasions, folly, hatred, and schizophrenia.”

George Orwell (1903 -1950)
Politics and the English Language (1946)
I have started a new series of facebook posts, referred to by my friend Tom as my "Wish this was satire, but it's actually the President of The United States quoted verbatim" column! I started brooding about this idea on Easter Sunday, when a facebook friend posted Trump's latest skreed and asked in dismay, "How is the author of this the President of the United States?"

Responses from her readers:

1. "I don’t understand why he being allowed to remain president after an outburst like this. He is obviously psychologically compromised.

2. "Beyond being POTUS, the greatest danger we confront as a nation is the tens of millions who support him. History has now vindicated Hilary Clinton who gave us a sober, mild and respectful definition of who they are."

After reading the entire thread of very thoughtful responses, I started wondering, what is a "sober, mild and respectful" way to call out these repeated disrespectful and totally demented outbursts that so clearly signal "psychological compromise."

I settled on "living with dementia." That's respectful, right? Nicer than "totally demented." And I wouldn't even have to say his name. Everyone knows. Also, in case anyone wants to make a comparison, even on Biden's worst day, he never sounded this disconnected from reality!

Of course, my loyal reader Tom totally gets this approach of publishing verbatim statements that are so absurd in the original that without even so much as an Op-Ed comment, they come off as effective political satire. However, I do worry that no matter how asinine those comments may sound to many, they might sound completely normal to those who support the current administration -- or worse yet, those who might read them and say, "Oh cool. Good idea!" I certainly don't want to do them any favors by posting their nonsense or accidentally colluding in heightening their visibility!

Nevertheless, here is the first batch.
[Also posted on The Quotidian Kit]
May they inform and entertain and outrage:

What it means to be popular,
as described by someone living with dementia:

"If you look at some of these internet people, I know so many of them. Elon is so terrific, but I know now all of them, you know they all hated me in my first term and now they're kissing my ass. You know [mumbling] it's true. All of them. It's true. It's amazing. It's nicer this way."

Inappropriate gossip about "trophy wives,"
from someone living with dementia:

"He retired and he led a beautiful life. He had a wife, I must tell you, it was his second wife. It was a trophy wife. What can I say? I don't like telling you everything, but we're all friends, right? Can we talk? We're all friends. He had a trophy wife."

Change and resistance,
as described by someone living with dementia:

"Change is never easy. And the closer you get to success, the more ferociously those with a interested interest in the past will resist you."

Majoring in journalism,
as described by someone living with dementia:

"You're available. It's a good time to be available. There are some times when it's not so good to be available, but this is a great time. . . . To the journalism majors, of which I've had a lot of problems with, I must be honest. I'm not sure I like them. No, I do. I do. But you're really leading of everything because we need a great and free press."

Bird Flu and Easter Eggs,
as described by someone living with dementia:

"And when I took over, you remember the big thing with eggs? They hit me the first week, 'Eggs, eggs, eggs,' like it was my fault. I said, 'I didn't cause this problem. This problem was caused by Biden. What's the problem with eggs?' And they said, 'They've doubled it,' Well, eggs are down 87% since I got involved. . . . And by the way -- and there were plenty of eggs for Easter, which we just went through. There were plenty of eggs for Easter. They were saying, 'You won't have enough eggs for Easter.' We ended -- our sec -- my secretary did a fantastic job on eggs."

~ A helpful book for children ~

The Declaration of Independence
as described by someone living with dementia:

"Well, it means exactly what it says, it's a declaration. A declaration of unity and love and respect, and it means a lot. And it's something very special to our country."

~ Alcatraz as seen in "Eh, the movies." ~

Alcatraz Prison,
as described by someone living with dementia:

"Well, I guess I was supposed to be a movie maker. We're talking—we started with the movie making and will end. I mean, it—it represents something very strong, very powerful in terms of law and order. Our country needs law and order. Alcatraz is, uh, I would say, the ultimate, right? Alcatraz. Sing Sing and Alcatraz. Eh, the movies. But, uh, it's right now a museum, believe it or not, a lot of people go there. It housed the, uh, most violent criminals in the world, and nobody ever escaped. One person almost got there. But they, as you know the story, they found his clothing rather badly ripped up. And, uh, it was a lot of shark bites, lot of, a lot of problems. Nobody's ever escaped from Alcatraz. And just represented something, uh, strong having to do with law and order. We need law and order in this country. And so we're going to, uh, look at it. Some of the people up here are going to be working very hard on that. And, uh, we had a little conversation. I think it's going to be very interesting. We'll see if we can, uh, bring it back in large form, add a lot. But I think it represents something. Right now it's, uh, a big hunk that's sitting there rusting and rotting, uh, very, uh, you look at it, it's sort of a [?]. You saw that picture that was put out. It's sort of amazing. But it sort of represents something that's both horrible and beautiful and strong and miserable. Weak. It's got a lot of, it's got a lot of qualities that are interesting. And I think they, they make a point. Okay."

CREDITS
I think we can count
on a steady stream of material for this project.
Above comments taken from:

Interview with Kristen Welker~ NBC

Interview with Terry Moran ~ ABC

Commencement Address
at the University of Alabama

My favorite line in one of the above interviews:

"I didn’t even know anything about
what you — we were talking about."

You can say that again!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Next Fortnightly Post
Yet Another Batch of Nonsense
The Gulf of Mexico and Beyond
Wednesday, May 28th
Between now and then, read
THE QUOTIDIAN KIT
my shorter, almost daily blogs
www.dailykitticarriker.blogspot.com

Looking for a good book? Try
KITTI'S LIST
my running list of recent reading
www.kittislist.blogsppot.com