Loose Leaf Notes

1. As a writer, I’m like a crossword puzzle solver who can finish a People Magazine puzzle but never The New York Times.

2. I’m never going to own a gun or cut my hair short.

3. Last week my son Josh wrote from Laos: THIS bamboo bridge only exists for half the year. It is destroyed during the rainy season and rebuilt in the dry. It costs 60 cents to walk across.

4. The next day he posted pictures from Angkor Wat in Cambodia, a 500 acre site with more than 1,000 ancient temples built in the 9th to 13th century, including the one used in Raiders of the Lost Ark and Tomb Raider with Angelina Jolie.  You can follow his blog HERE and check out THESE fantastic photos of Angkor Wat.

5. My fabric artist sister Kathy (who recently died of cancer) hooked a rug up until the last few of days of her life.  Native American poet John Trudell (who also recently died of cancer) wrote poetry, and David Bowie (who died of cancer on Sunday), released a new record, Blackstar, with songs about his own death.  It was a carefully planned finale for his fans, his producer confirmed, saying, “His death was no different than his life – a work of art,” he said.  Watch Bowie’s video Lazarus HERE.

6. The best eulogy I’ve ever read is THIS one by Mona Simpson, the namesake of Homer Simpson’s mother and the biological sister of Steve Jobs.

7. Lego is an abbreviation of the two Danish words “leg godi,” which means “play well.”  Today the Danish company – founded in 1932 with wooden toys and expanded to making the colorful interlocking plastic bricks in 1947 – is considered the Apple of toys.

8. “I want to share this award with all the first nation’s people represented in this film and all the indigenous communities around the world. It is time that we recognize your history and that we protect your indigenous lands from corporate interests and people that are out there to exploit them.  It is time that we heard your voice and protect this planet for future generations.”   -Leonardo DiCaprio’s Golden Globe acceptance speech for Best Actor in the movie Revenant.

9. I clapped for the above while watching the Golden Globes and clapped for this line by Obama while watching his State of the Union address: “Food stamp recipients didn’t cause the financial crisis, Wall Street did.”

10. I’ve been leery of getting too excited about progressive presidential candidates after seeing so many of them be shot down and shut out in the past.  Remember Howard Dean and Dennis Kucinich?  In 1992, I was a delegate for presidential candidate Jerry Brown (past and present popular Governor of California). I put a lot of energy into it and was sure people would see the good sense he could bring to our country.   Brown, who was the Bernie Sanders of the day with a similar message and a low budget campaign supported by We the People, was an active candidate with lots of delegates till the end.  In an unconventional move he gave a speech at the Democratic National Convention and did not endorse Clinton, the chosen nominee.  His speech still fits today.  Listen HERE. 

11. I think Donald Trump is what happens when you let corporations become people and make college too expensive for people to get an education.

12. “He’s my old character with 10 billion dollars. He’s one of the reasons I can’t do my character anymore because he’s doing it better than I ever could because he’s willing to drink his own Kool-Aid and manufacture and distribute it.  If money is speech, he’s got a $10 billion mouth and doesn’t have to spend any of it because everyone will point a camera at him.”   – Steven Colbert on Donald Trump

13. Awesome is for narcissists / and fine is for china / Today I ordered a hat pin from Amazon / and googled “psychopaths that don’t murder” – Read In Answer to ‘How Are You?’ in its entirety HERE. 

_______Thirteen Thursday