The Earth has traced another track around the Sun. The axis is at full tilt once more. The frost is on the windshield and the chill is (finally) on the Republicans. Six more weeks! What Cheer! Sanity and Reason and (imagine!) Public-Spirit after twelve depressing years of greed, fraud, truculence, bigotry, and environmental devastation.
Bill 'n' Al won't have it easy: the reaganistas took all there was to steal and more, put us and our grandchildren into debt: $35,000 for every taxpayer. All to benefit the armaments industry and the 1% richest Americans (who own hundreds of times more than we do). GM lays off 15,000 workers and pundits cry "good news!" For whom? Boycott of the year: Nike shoes, who sells tennis shoes at $135 to kids in the ghetto, but out of greed closed their $7-an-hour plant in the U.S. and contracted their labor out to malnourished Malaysian women at 15 cents an hour (45 cents per pair). They have to work 63-hour weeks or lose their jobs. "Free trade" is all about driving US wages and working conditions down to that level.
I can be mildly thankful that I have had work all year. By living frugally (with one exception: Japan!), I will have extricated myself from short-term debt next week. I breathe easier. Japan was the big splurge. It costs 50% more than New York City. Kent Asmussen and I visited my friends Michael and Joanne in Kyoto for a week, then spent a weekend in Tokyo (three hours, and worlds away from Kyoto) with an (ex-boyfriend)2 (i.e. an ex of an "ex"). This year's photo was taken on the top floor of a Tokyo toy store, next to a Shinto Shrine. Like having an Infant Jesus set up at F.A.O. Schwartz. In Japan, little boys learn all the names of the dinosaurs and monster lizards, and neatly write them down in Chinese characters. Little girls don't; it is still a blatantly sexist culture.
Kyoto and environs is all that remains of traditional Japan. (We bombed the rest to smithereens in World War II ( they had it coming.) Sublime serene spots and gardens of contemplation. Unrealized by most Japanese, who are marched through them on a grade school tour. It's still 1956 there: faith in materialism wasn't shaken as it was here in the 60's. The level of public and private amenity is high, and people can expect more wealth in the future. Socially, it's a straitjacket of family and employer obligations that I couldn't accept for one day. With time and with more outside contact, will disillusion maybe set in?
Personally, things are on an even keel. Love has still not made an appearance, even though the fortune vendor at the shrine in Nara promised. The interest I attract is unfortunately proportional to distance away. May a probability amplification bring Love into my local calling area!
O.G. Whottasnozzle (he's the cat) [the original Popeye character was spelled Watasnozzle according to my POG cartoon] is as intractable as ever. A true joy of life: to have the cat jump up on you, crawl up your belly, smell your beard, and then SNEEZE! big time. Poor karma: one eye, feline leukemia,and terminal post-nasal problems. But he's so full of character that he'll have to have a better time of it next incarnation.
My wishes:
May you be granted your dearest wish in the next twelve months. Consider it granted already. Keep smiling. The situation may actually improve...
Pax tibi
Your Friendly Neighborhood
Bomb-throwing Bolshevik
Pinko Queer Hippie,
David Kerlick