Loose Leaf Notes

1. The Elephant in the Room: “No one sees the elephant in the room for good reason. The elephant is no more. Effective 2018, Barnum and Bailey have announced that their circus will be elephant-free. The lovable Babars will go the way of the eight-track tape.    I’m not certain why this is bothersome. Three, four, or five rings under a big tent do not appeal to me. I never went to the circus as a child. It’s not on my bucket list. I didn’t take my children to the circus. Animal rights activists applaud the decision. They make a persuasive argument against animal abuse. Yet, it gnaws. Trapeze artists, jugglers, clowns, and elephants define a circus. It’s like banning cherries from ice cream sundaes.”  – From the spring 2016 issue of Front Porch Review, an online literary magazine.

2. My poem, The Girl Next Door, also appears in the issue.  It’s a poem I really like because I think it captures my essence.  Read it HERE.

3. So THAT Explains It:  “Humans may be hard-wired to feel at peace in the countryside and confused in cities – even if they were born and raised in an urban area. According to preliminary results of a study by scientists at Exeter University, an area of the brain associated with being in a calm, meditative state lit up when people were shown pictures of rural settings. But images of urban environments resulted in a significant delay in reaction, before a part of the brain involved in processing visual complexity swung into action as the viewer tried to work out what they were seeing.”

4. Makes Sense to Me: Another study found that people over 40 are most mentally sharp working 3 day weeks and not much more or less.

5. Liam (5) to nana:  I love you because you borned my dad.  I love you because you make me dinner, because you play games with me and sometimes you pick me up.”

6. When I showed Liam the picture (above) of him making science lab potions at my kitchen table, he said, “Let’s take a picture of it so we can always remember it.”

7. And sometimes I have to learn things about Floyd from the Roanoke Times. A new clothing and home décor shop is about to open in Floyd,  joining the growing number of boutiques downtown.  More HERE. 

8. The Next Big Game Changer:  3D printers that print prosthetics, cars, organs, glass, emergency shelters and living organs are all much closer that you may realize.  See HERE.

9. The older George Clooney gets the more he looks like Clark Gable and Tom Hanks is starting to look like Walter Matthau.

10. Joe and I just saw the movie “Youth,” a movie about aging that stars Michael Caine and Harvey Keitel and is set at a vacation spa in the Alps.   It’s been described as “an emotionally rich contemplation of life’s wisdom gained, lost and remembered,” “life and death as seen from the luxury of a hot tub,” a “eruo buddy film” and a meditation.  It did have an altering effect on me and was like an art gallery of scenes that at times had me unsure if the rich people in it were on vacation of were inmates.

11. THESE ducks are going to work.

12. THIS is my kind of street art.

13. Facebook update from my Dharmacratic poet friend Will: Dear America, when a top contender for the position of our president announces he has decided not to ban dildos if elected, we are already screwed.  – More HERE. 

_______Thirteen Thursday