Famous First Words: Lolita, light of my life... Vladimir Nabokov Lolita
It is officially Bad Poetry Day! Scary poems come from Poe-trees. / Poetic license can be obtained from the DMV, Department of Metrical Verse.
..........It was told in fire, yes, it was told in ice.........Richie Havens …..The Minstrel From Gault
When it comes to my rights as an American citizen, and yours, I am a triumphalist and an absolutist. Anything less is an insult. --James Meredith
It is an amazing 62°F on this cool Friday morning. The sky is without clouds or texture. There is very little wind to move the tree branches; even the willow is only slowly rocking now and again in a gust. Bird song began early with a high, monotone squeet, squeet. But has evolved into rich and varied sounds coming from every direction. I love it that the world is still green – lawns and bushes, trees and flowers – still green and fresh in the morning sun. I bite into a blueberry muffin and let the sweetened tartness fill my mouth. Decaf, steaming in my cup, clears my sinuses and fills my head with the roasted aroma of plantations on the side of the mountains of Columbia and Kenya. I raise my cup to the last day of lovely weather again until fall begins to insinuate itself into the world.
Ah, ePistliers, shall I compare thine weekend to a summer's day?
First Funniest Thing I Read of the Week: Going on a reverse mission trip...headed to Utah to teach the people the joys of sinning. --Submitted by MMS
How poets say good-bye: I'd like to linger a little longer but it's getting aliter-ate. / What's a metaphor? Fer grazin' yer cattle.
..........Bringing in a couple of keys.........Arlo Guthrie …..Coming Into Los Angeles
Trivia Questions: HUAC (House Un-American Activities Committee) ~~And a big thank you to all those people who stood up to them. Anti HUAC quotes
- ^ Do you know when and or why the committee was created?
- ^^ What previous House committees served the same function as HUAC?
- ^^^ When did HUAC become a permanent standing committee?
- ^^^^ What was the relationship between HUAC and the KKK?
- ^^^^^ When was HUAC finally dissolved?
Big Hello: Hei – Kven (Norway) https://www.omniglot.com/language/phrases/hello.htm
Second Funniest Thing I Read of the Week: It's not a witch hunt. It's more like a rattlesnake roundup. --Submitted by 98%
Image of the Week: Paradise on fire. Maui, Hawaii
Fake Library Statistics of the Week: It takes, on average, 14 spreadsheets before a librarian can make an informed decision. https://www.facebook.com/FakeLibStats/?fref=ts
Remember, a simile is like a metaphor. / Poets hate writing commercial jingles because jingles are ad-verse.
..........We shall live in peace, someday.........Joan Baez …..We Shall Overcome
Moonbeam: I think women are too valuable to be in combat. --Caspar Weinberger
Question of the Week: Is there a spell to become a mermaid that actually works?
Puzzle of the Week: From Michael Schwartz, of Florence, OR. Name something found on a map of England. Two words. The last two letters of the first word are the same as the first two letters of the last. If you go to England, you can't see this place. You can see it only on a map. What was it? NPR Puzzle Sunday 8/13/23
Next Funniest Thing I Read of the Week: If it looks like a chicken, clucks like a chicken, and runs like a chicken, then it's probably Josh Hawley. --Submitted by ss of kc
Cowboys write poetry because they are inspired by their moos. / The highest honor among cowboy poets is Poet Lariat.
..........Don't ask me, I don't give a damn, next stop is Vietnam.........Country Joe & the Fish …..Feel Like I'm Fixin to Die Rag
^ HUAC was created in 1938 to investigate alleged disloyalty and rebel activities on the part of private citizens, public employees, and organizations suspected of having Communist ties.
Almanac: It is Friday, August 18, 2023. The moon was new on Wednesday (8/16) and is in Virgo. It is Bad Poetry Day, Birth Control Pills Day, Mail Order Catalog Day, Serendipity Day, International Pinot Noir Day, National Badge Ribbon Day, and National Fajita Day. Hawaii celebrates Admission Day (1959), Because it is the third Friday, it is also Men's Grooming Day and National Day of Action Against Bullying and Violence.
Among those born on this day were Virginia Dare (1587), Brook Taylor (1685), Antonio Salieri (1750), Marshall Field (1834), Max Factor, Jr. (1904), Casper Weinberger (1917), Rosalynn Carter (1927), Robert Redford (1937), and Martin Mull (1943).
On August eighteenth Mt, Vesuvius erupted (1834), the Bureau of Immigration was created (1894), the Golf Writers Association of America was formed (1946), Peter Seeger testified before the House Un-American Activities Committee (1955), Nabokov published Lolita (1958), construction of the Berlin Wall began (1961), James Meredith became the first black student to graduate from Ole Miss (1963), and Woodstock Music Festival ended (1969).
Night Sky, 8/`18: look for the peak of the κ-Cygnid meteor shower at a rate of roughly 3 meteors per hour. This meteor shower is not as bombastic as the Perseids a few days earlier, and the Moon will still be about 50% illuminated on this night. http://www.skyandtelescope.com/observing/sky-at-a-glance/
Fraternal Picture of the Week: Eastbound and down, loaded up and truckin'
This Week: Saturday, August 19 – Chef Appreciation Day & National Honey Bee Day & Talk Like Jar Jar Day
Sunday, August 20 – National Radio Day & World Mosquito Day
Monday, August 21 – International Day of Remembrance and Tribute to the Victims of Terrorism & Poet's Day
Tuesday, August 22 – National Tooth Fairy Day & Never Bean Better Day
Night Sky, 8/22: The planet Mercury reaches greatest western elongation of 17.9 degrees from the Sun. This is the best time to view Mercury since it will be at its highest point above the horizon in the morning sky. Look for the planet low in the eastern sky just before sunrise. http://www.seasky.org/astronomy/astronomy-calendar-2023.html
Wednesday, August 23 – Cuban Sandwich Day & Ride The Wind Day & Valentino Day
Night Sky,8/23: After dusk the distinctive constellation of Scorpius, the Scorpion, reaches its peak elevation over the southern horizon. The constellation's brightest star is orange-tinted Antares, the "Rival of Mars". Several medium-bright, white stars arranged in a roughly vertical line to the west of Antares mark the creature's claws on modern sky charts; however, the major stars of neighboring Libra used to perform that role. The rest of the scorpion extends to the south, curling eastward into the Milky Way, and terminating with the bright double star Shaula, which marks its poisonous stinger. Observers above mid-northern latitudes might not be able to see the southernmost stars of the constellation. https://www.space.com/16149-night-sky.html
Thursday, August 24 – Pluto Demotion Day & Knife Day & International Strange Music Day
What's big and gray and writes poetry? T S Elephant. / When I crossed Robert Frost and James Bond I got The Road Not Shaken.
..........You've got me runnin' and hidin' all over town.........Santana …..Evil Ways
^^ The 1933 the McCormack-Dickstein Committee was set up, ostensibly, to investigate Nazi propaganda. It became part of HUAC in 1938. In 1969 HUAC changed its name to the Internal Security Committee.
Preantepenultimate Funniest Thing I Read of the Week: Florida schools will begin using Clarence Thomas as an example of a black man who developed great wealth and social standing as a result of being owned by rich white men. --Submitted by jm of ks
Moonbeam: We know how to treat depression, we know how to treat mental illness, and we have not had the political will in our country to make it happen. --Rosalynn Carter
Video of the Week: The Band singing Robbie Robertson's song The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jREUrbGGrgM (4:15)
Not So Late Night Snacks of the Week: Photos of the universe. This week NASA released its first images of the universe from the James Webb telescope. Everyone who saw the images was awestruck...It's enough to make you cry, if you have the eight years of graduate school required to understand it. To me it looked like what I see when I'm driving at night. ..Democrats were excited by the victory of science and Republicans were excited that those galaxies 13 billion light years away are the closest legal abortion for someone living in Texas. --Tom Papa Wait Wait Don't Tell Me date unknown
What I did at Ole Miss had nothing to do with going to classes. My objective was to destroy the system of white supremacy. --James Meredith
Little Known Fact: Poets sneeze Haiku. / Poets are always poor because rhyme doesn't pay.
..........Baby, don't you wanna go.........Canned Heat …..Going Up The Country
^^^ In 1946 HUAC became a permanent House committee, charged with investigating subversion in the United States. In 1947 and 1951 it investigated alleged Communist Party influence in Hollywood and the motion picture industry.
Antepenultimate Funniest Thing I Read of the Week: A meeting without coffee should be an email.
Oft Repeated, Repeated Again of the Week: One of the scariest things about getting a degree in English is the realization that this bumbling batch of bad poetry writers (aka graduate students) were going to decide what is good poetry and what is bad poetry for the next generation. Not even all of us together, us being the reading public, buying several copies of every poetry book we love will sell enough books to stand up against a novel of young literature professors. Sigh.
Weird Word of the Week: Snaccident (snac-ci-dent) Eating an entire bag of chips by mistake. --Submitted by INRITH
Dragon of the Week: Custard the Dragon from the poem by Ogden Nash
Books of poetry, like OJ Simpson's testimony, are not bought by anyone. / I dug, you dug, he dug, she dug, we all dug. It's not a great poem but it's deep.
...........Big wheel keep on turnin'..........Creedence Clearwater Revival …..Proud Mary
^^^^ HUCA originally investigated both left-wing and right wing political groups. Some called for the leaders of the Ku Klux Klan to be interrogated by the HUAC. Chairman, Martin Dies, however, was a supporter of the Klan and had spoken at several of its rallies. Other members of the HUAC such as John Rankin and John S Wood were also Klan sympathizers. Wood defended the Klan by arguing that: "The threats and intimidations of the Klan are an old American custom, like illegal whisky-making." Eventually Ernest Adamson, the HUAC's chief counsel, announced that: "The committee has decided that it lacks sufficient data on which to base a probe." Rankin added: After all, the KKK is an old American institution." Instead, the HUAC concentrated on investigating the possibility that the American Communist Party had infiltrated the Federal Writers Project and other New Deal projects.
Penultimate Funniest Thing I Read of the Week: It's arraigny night in Georgia. --Submitted by ma of va
Science Fiction Convention of the Week: Foolscap 2023 (19th, Auburn, WA) It's Alive! https://www.foolscap.org/
Actual Science Conference of the Week: XXIV URSI General Assembly and Scientific Symposium. (19-23, Sapporo, Japan) Radio Science https://www.ursi-gass2023.jp/
Answer to Puzzle of the Week: Prime Meridian
T S Eliot's first and middle name are generally unknown. Top Secret. / Patsy Poet used to run across the street to use the restroom in the Menagerie so she could poo in the loo at the zoo.
..........'Bout workin' all summer just to try to earn a dollar.........The Who …..Summertime Blues
^^^^^ By the late 1950s and early 1960s, HUAC’s influence was in decline, and in 1969 it was renamed the Committee on Internal Security. Although it ceased issuing subpoenas that year, its operations continued until 1975.
Sayings of the Jewish Buddhist of the Week: Accept misfortune as a blessing. Do not wish for perfect health, or a life without problems. What would you talk about? https://www.tikkun.org/sayings-of-the-jewish-buddhist/
Quote of the Week: The aim of science is not to open the door to infinite wisdom but to set a limit to infinite error. --Bertolt Brecht
Final Funniest Thing I Read of the Week: I need transition lenses that keep getting darker the longer someone is talking to me. --Submitted by INRITH
Today's Peace of History, August 18, 1920: Women throughout the US won the right to vote when the Tennessee legislature approved the 19th amendment to the US Constitution (the last of 36 states then required to approve it). An amendment for universal suffrage was first introduced in Congress in 1878, and Wyoming had granted suffrage in state law by 1890.
Son of Today's Peace of History, August 18, 1963: James Meredith, the first African American to attend the University of Mississippi, became the first to graduate. His enrollment at “Ole Miss” a year earlier had been met with deadly riots, forcing him to attend class escorted by heavily armed guards.
A woman was courted by two men, a poet and a baker. She had to decide for batter or for verse. / If a poet ascends in an elevator, can we say the bard has been raised?
..........Go ask Alice when she's ten feet tall.........Jefferson Airplane …..White Rabbit
Masthead of the Week: Friday ePistle August 18, 2023, adVerse ePistle. Online at: http://fridayepistle.blogspot.com/ Exclusive editor: Christine Smith. Lawrence, KS.
Moonbeam: If you don't accept failure as a possibility, you don't set high goals, you don't branch out, you don't try – you don't take the risk. --Rosalynn Carter
Cost of War:
- As of 08/17/23 State Department War Costs since 2001: $214,468,161,051.
- As of 08/10/23 State Department War Costs since 2001: $213,912,753,631.
- As of 08/17/23 Interest on War Debt since 2001: $1,158,135,398,922.
- As of 08/10/23 Interest on War Debt since 2001: $1,156,584,582,476.
- As of 08/17/23 Homeland Security since 2001: $1,144,663,810,858.
- As of 08/10/23 Homeland Security since 2001: $1,144,060,711,580.
- As of 08/17/23 Veterans Care since 2001:$3,204,225,625,459.
- As of 08/10/23 Veterans Care since 2001: $3,192,469,563,869.
- As of 08/17/23 Military Costs since 2001: $3,039,010,510,265.
- As of 08/10/23 Military Costs since 2001: $3,037,832,939,342.
- As of 08/17/23 Total Cost of Wars since 2001: $8,760,506,479,625.
- As of 08/10/23 Total Cost of Wars since 2001: $8,744,863,508,098.
https://www.nationalpriorities.org/cost-of/
My great-grandfather was the last ruler of the Choctaw Nation, and from birth, I was taught that my role was to restore the power and the glory of my bloodline. James Meredith
Famous Last Words: Ain't no man ever been shot while doing the dishes. --Erron Blockmon --Submitted by aeb of kc
..........'cuse me while I kiss the sky..........Jimi Hendrix …..Purple Haze ~~Today's songs are from the Woodstock Playlist.
Why can't ladies with three names who publish in the Sunday newspaper just leave the writing of poetry to the prose? / Poetry lover Zuckerberg never met-a-verse he didn't like.
May Peace command
And Joy be at hand
prairie mama
christine
Last Laugh:
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