Saturday, July 30, 2016

Do you see what I see?; The chairs that no one sits in; Give me the Willys you; Five Points spider; Blueberries good for you; Ah foun' mah THREE-ill



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Common sight in Waukesha
(Raccoons)










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The Chairs That No One Sits In
by Billy Collins

Listen Online

You see them on porches and on lawns
down by the lakeside,
usually arranged in pairs implying a couple
who might sit there and look out
at the water or the big shade trees.
The trouble is you never see anyone
sitting in these forlorn chairs
though at one time it must have seemed
a good place to stop and do nothing for a while.
Sometimes there is a little table
between the chairs where no one
is resting a glass or placing a book facedown.
It may not be any of my business,
but let us suppose one day
that everyone who placed those vacant chairs
on a veranda or a dock sat down in them
if only for the sake of remembering
what it was they thought deserved
to be viewed from two chairs,
side by side with a table in between.
The clouds are high and massive on that day.
The woman looks up from her book.
The man takes a sip of his drink.
Then there is only the sound of their looking,
the lapping of lake water, and a call of one bird
then another, cries of joy or warning—
it passes the time to wonder which.

"The Chairs That No One Sits In" by Billy Collins from Aimless Love. © Random House, 2013.


^,^


Willys

I have 'owned'





Willys Jeepster
owned in high school
high maintenance



Willys steel wagon
owned in the 1970s
higher maintenance



Woody boxers currently worn and worn again and again
were given to me by former fellow Yellow Cab driver 206
now of Albany CA







Maintenance much less for these
a few coins in the washing machine
good to go
more than likely I'll later be in 'em.





^,^


Spider
Beside me




Studying a spider
in my retirement

Right there it is presently
next to the hanging flower pot

Appearing first in June
and now going into eventual fall

still, relentless
spinning, repairing -
spinning, repairing
mostly

working in early and evening hours
clinging or descending on its jiggly strands
a high-wire walker seemingly

not caring what is up
or what is down

would once not noticed
but now I do

this spanner of our high glass
outside the window 
 waits, and I do too

Inspecting and discarding
dandelion fluff.

[dzd 2016]





Currently at work at the Odd Fellows Waukesha



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Saturday, July 23, 2016

Liberators; Adventures of Zepata instalment II; The general's toast from Babette's Feast


Liberators








Hell, I (I)  can play better than that with two fingers!



^,^







ZEPATA AND EL DAYO
Instalment 2

Zepata dismounts El Dayo
at two on the day of
 coming home
to his sanctuary and
real woman

The sun so hot it beats tremors
through Dayo's hide
Zepata's left hand resting on Dayo
feels the ripples
the only signs Dayo gives
and they are involuntary
that the steady horse requires surcease
from the relentless sun

The shells in the crossed bandoliers
need to be pulled into the shade of
Zepata's chest out of the sun like turning meat
on a spit
their heat searing through leather and denim
weltering Zepata's lash-scarred back
'Law-key they not 'splode'
Murmurs Zepata



Zepata says easy boy
and swings his studded
boot over and down to the ground
and pulls the cartridge-bulging
saddle bags off the horse's back

Dayo knows
it is for siesta he does this
needed  if they are
to make it to their real women
Yes Dayo has a woman too
Stallion El Dayo

Zepata takes his canteen
swishes it around to read
 its contents
smiles and pours a long stream
of water into Dayo's sand-crusted
spittle-dried sneering  snorting
determined maw

The stallion stops drinking before
he is sated for he is the
saviour's mount and
El Dayo has a duty to
the master
How can but a mere horse know this?

Zepata swings the canteen
above his gaping mouth
and waters himself long
the water swilling over his dusty
 whisker-rasped
weather-beaten face
as well as flowing down Zepata's
parched throat

But he stops short of emptying
the canteen
Stops because the last draught
Is saved for El Dayo
who must insure arrival
on this last leg of their pilgrimage
A promise to Real Woman Irena:
Zepata will return

The journey to the safety of the hideaway
and the strong compelling scent
of his real woman
and Dayo's mare in season
The fleeing man and horse
will make it by nightfall
if they rest now

They will need the rest
for homecoming
oh yes oh yes
they will need the rest
for homecoming

When the sun is past its apogee
Zepata and Dayo
emerge from the shade of
the rocks
two similarly stinking creatures
Two more hours
and they'll be home

By now the grade is so steep
that the stones loosened from their
tentative resting places by Dayo's
driving hooves
clatter down the mountainside
 musically like a xylophone

Zepata surveys the Mexican panorama
From this high up he sees far
the land of his ancestors
 who were Indians
 their blood pounding up the mountain
for Zepata and his horse

Blood flowing upstream
Against gravity
Up Zepata's pulsing carotids
 refreshing reminding rekindling
love of freedom
love of land
love of woman


Zepata leans forward and rests
his chest on Dayo's neck
the rider's arms encircle the horse
and he beats out a slow ancient rhythm
on Dayo's breastbone
It encourages his mount

Ah Dayo Dayo Dayo
I loving you my goot friend
We have covered territory together
They have tried to shoot us down
As they kill our women and children
but they never succeed
We take their boolets
like we take shots at the saloon
or at the Jesuit clinic

We take zem and we dissolve them
in Mexican blood
and we piss them out like so much water
Eh, my friend?
Forking A, amigo
Forking A, my hoe-worse

Zepata sleeps again
While Dayo picks a careful way
up the ever-ensteepening incline
weaving switchbacks
like the flight of a nectar-seeking
half-ton butterfly


They come into the clearing
 and the hasty home
made of boards and rudimentary  amenities
 taken to this place
by faithful revolutionaries
who fight at Zepata's side
so much do they love and protect
Zepata

No one reaches Zepata's aerie
No one they vow as they wait
In their encampment far below
And they know Zepata needs to be
With Irena

Real woman and mare make a confluent
whinnying sound at the sight of their men
Manes toss
Six long and lithe legs rush
 to their long-awaited merger

Dayo's breath comes quickly
and Zepata warrior bold
sits up rampant in the soon to be
uncinched slung-down saddle
a rampancy like never before
One last attention atop Dayo

No plumb line has length
Sufficient to the measure of his
cavernous thirsts
Irena shall bathe Zepata
The mare shall care for Dayo
Dayo faithful servant
To May Hee Ko's hero:
Vive Zepata

[5-19-98]







^,^
  

In Jutland

For the 1958 short story by Karen Blixen, see Babette's Feast (short story).
Babette's Feast
Babettesgæstebudposter.jpg
Theatrical release poster
Directed byGabriel Axel
Produced byJust Betzer
Bo Christensen
Benni Korzen
Pernille Siesbye
Screenplay byGabriel Axel
Story byKaren Blixen
StarringStephane Audran
Birgitte Federspiel
Bodil Kjer
Narrated byGhita Nørby
Music byPer Nørgård
CinematographyHenning Kristiansen
Edited byFinn Henriksen
Production
company
Release dates
  • 28 August 1987
Running time
102 minutes
CountryDenmark
LanguageDanish
Swedish
French
Box office$4.4 million (US)[1]
Babette's Feast (DanishBabettes gæstebud) is a 1987 Danish drama film directed by Gabriel Axel. The film's screenplay was written by Axel based on the story by Isak Dinesen (Karen Blixen). Produced by Just BetzerBo Christensen, and Benni Korzen with funding from the Danish Film InstituteBabette's Feast was the first Danish cinema film of a Blixen story. It was also the first Danish film to win the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.[2] The film premiered in the Un Certain Regard section of the 1987 Cannes Film Festival.[3




from Babette’s Feast


"Babette, master chef, had the ability to transform a dinner into a kind of love affair, a love affair that made no distinction between bodily appetite and spiritual appetite. General Galliffet said that in the past he had fought a duel for the love of a beautiful woman. But now there was no woman in Paris for whom he would shed his blood—except this chef."

 We looked up Babette's Feast + Karen Blixen again and the passage we referred to follows below:


General Loewenhielm (speaking of the first time he had Cailles en Sarcophage):

"One day in Paris, after I had won a riding competition, my French fellow officers invited me out to dine at one of the finest restaurants, the Cafe Anglais. The chef, surprisingly enough, was a woman. We were served Cailles en Sarcophage, a dish of her own creation. General Galliffet, who was our host for the evening, explained that this woman, the head chef, was considered the greatest culinary genius. What we are now eating is nothing less than Cailles en Sarcophage.”






The General’s Toast:

Mercy and truth have met together. Righteousness and bliss shall kiss one another. Man, in his weakness and shortsightness, believes he must make choices in this life. He trembles at the risks he takes. We do know fear. But no. Our choice is of no importance. There comes a time when your eyes are opened. And we come to realize that  mercy is infinite. We need only await it with confidence, and receive it with gratitude. Mercy imposes no conditions. And, lo! Everything we have chosen has been granted to us, and everything have rejected has also been granted. Yes, we even get back what we rejected. For mercy and truth are met together; and righteousness and bliss shall kiss one another.”

                                                                           -  Karen Blixen -




^,^
  

PS:

Just in (late last night)
from Dr. Tom Bentz
again of Whitefish Bay, WI


Dear Remaining Survivors of the Trump Unreality Show:
I must go
now
in dread
to bed
then head
from Amerika 
to Canada 
to Antarctica
or wherever Tsar Trump
cannot get, gag and garrote me.
After the fear-and-hate-mongering and cleaving-of-Clinton in Cleveland,
heaving and leaving the Dingaling Don Who Would Be King
(according to today's poll)
an even odds choice to preside over the disintegration of this nation,
I turn in for the night
mares ...
Dead Bentz Talking







Saturday, July 16, 2016

And what else? - The YIBAWEan Society - son becomes member of; YIBAWEan history; Lee does his walk in Japan


ON JULY 3, 2016
SON LEE INFORMED US THAT HE WANTED TO PRESENT ME
WITH A BELATED FATHER'S DAY GIFT.
IN MY PRESENCE, HE DID THIS WITH A SMILE.

It was just after we got back from Erin and Ben's wedding
in Rochester WI, a day of gladness all around.

Lee wanted his head shaved Yibawean style.
Tired  of arranging his remaining follicles just so,
he came to the conclusion that he would throw hair and caution to the winds
and have the family barber, Mother Denise, take the clippers
and razor to his nicely-shaped skull.

The deed was accomplished after applause from his father
for his deciding on his own to take this large step.  He requested of me 
not to ballyhoo this news about it until Erin's day had been had.

In other words give it a week before putting it in the Raccoon.
This has been honored.

There were plenty of witnesses who smilingly joined Lee
in his act.  We know and he is now further-finding-out back in NYC
how freeing up this hair style becomes.
His little kids at his school, Harlem Village Academies,
are in for a big surprise when they first spy their teacher 'Mr. D'.

The witnesses were from far and wide present here at the Odd Fellows hall  -
 Dee's sister Donna and her husband Jeff; brother John; niece Emily; 
Dee's mother 'Gramaw' Jeanie Means;
and Lee's girl friend Zoe Middleton who actually took a hand in the operation.

The events were as follows:



























Some Yibawean history

The Society was from its inception a rib.
















^,^


Re: Yes I'm Bald And What Else

- The truth - :

In the 1970s I was given to listening
to the lectures of Prof. Leo Buscaglia
on public radio.

He was known then as Dr. Love. He died in 1998.

Many insights were gained from Dr. Buscaglia
He is defined in this Wiki link:






:)



and by this lucky example I found:


Buscaglia lectured that it is wrong to pigeon-hole a new acqaintance.
Always look for the And What Else's!


You will find some of the And What Else? in this for sure.
And thus what this YIBAWE thing has been all about.
It is not what you may have thought.




^,^

Leland does his walk in Japan


























Saturday, July 9, 2016

Woo and hoo and a veiled cow, too; Young and old

A wedding at a library
Rochester WI   7-3-16




The marriage of Erin Dix and Ben Willard
happened here at the Rochester public library.
A fitting locus as they are both Lawrence University, Appleton WI workers -
Erin as Univ. Archivist, Ben as tech specialist.


The original building, a red brick school house
was established around the turn of the 19th century.
The facility outgrown and made into a library was enlarged in 1954.

Some Raccoon readers herald 1954,
 the year they graduated from Waukesha High School.









'Grandmaw' Means - Dee's mother -
took her first air trip ever from Maryland to get to a wedding
she did not want to miss.

Also a small contingent of other Pleasant Valley Marylanders -  Dee's sister Donna,
brother in law Jeff Geiman, Dee's brother John (hidden)
and Dee's niece Emily made the flight with Gramaw.






Dee,  Bob and Jane Willard talk in the library before the outdoor service.
It was a perfect day.




The wedding was officiated over by Ben's sister Hannah.





Dee delivers her piece

Bob Willard, Ben's father offered poems by a relative
not obtained by press-time.  They were poignant.




Dee hand-wrote and delivered this observance



Ben and Erin




Left unknown; right, Ben's Dad



Cousin Edwin, regional hobbyist historian and co-owner of the Ela orchard;
an unknown to us bachelor uncle we will get to know in future days.








Dee; her sister Donna Geiman; brother John Means Jr.; Gramaw Jeannie Means;  niece Emily Means













Zoe Middleton; co-ceremony officiant, Erin's brother Lee





The Wisconsin dairy cow aerial greeter at the desk
wears a wedding veil partially hiding her face.





These are the photos shot by the Raccoon photog on assignment.

For Ben's family and friends' so-far bulk accumulated pictures

go to:


Bear in mind, this advanced format is part of what Ben does.




^,^

















Young and Old
by Charles Kingsley

Listen Online

When all the world is young, lad,
And all the trees are green;
And every goose a swan, lad,
And every lass a queen;
Then hey for boot and horse, lad,
And round the world away;
Young blood must have its course, lad,
And every dog his day.
When all the world is old, lad,
And all the trees are brown;
And all the sport is stale, lad,
And all the wheels run down;
Creep home, and take your place there,
The spent and maimed among:
God grant you find one face there,
You loved when all was young.

"Young and Old" by Charles Kingsley