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Weak XLVII

20 November 2020

No. 1,348 (cartoon)

I think too much.

What does that mean?

I think too much, therefore I am too much!

21 November 2020

Saving Money the Coronarama Way

Priscilla was supposed to be playing a show tonight, but it was of course canceled because of The Thing, as was every other performance she had booked since April. In the unlikely event you were thinking about shedding an empty tear for a starving artist, please don’t do either.

Many artists are destitute, broke, or worse, but not Priscilla. And she’s certainly not starving, either; Coronarama has been good to her, economically. After paying for her this, her that, and her other thing in the course of putting on a show, she loses money every time. She figures the pandemic has eliminated almost three thousand dollars in losses in the last eight months.

Priscilla’s business model is the same one Thomas Stearns Eliot used in the last millennium: “The object in publishing poetry is to lose as little money as possible.”

22 November 2020

Being a Better Conversationalist

I ran into Georgia at the grocery store parking lot this morning, and it didn’t go well at first.

Me: Good to see you again!

She: What in the hell is wrong with you!?

Me: How much time do we have?

After a bit of reconnecting, she explained that that comment was her interpretation of her therapist’s suggestion. He advised her that if she wanted to be a better conversationalist, she should ask open-ended questions in order to allow other people to talk about themselves.

We ended up having a nice conversation unfudging that, so I suppose her therapist may have been right. First time for everything!

23 November 2020

Schadenfreude City’s Village Idiot

Rudy Giuliani is a caricature of a parody of a mockery of a man who’s half rabid bat, half foaming-at-the-mouth weasel, and half old geezer playing Gollum in a small community theatre. Recently his theatrics got even worse—or better, depending on your perspective—when a viscous, black liquid started to ooze from his screeching head as if it was the festering discharge of his rotting soul. Schadenfreude City’s village idiot does not disappoint.

And that’s quite enough of that.

Emma Beddington wrote a great opinion piece on why we shouldn’t put down losers like Giuliani because of their appearance. Instead of being so shallow, we should instead revile and vilify them for their contemptible and reprehensible beliefs and actions.

Take Ivankkka Drumph, for example. The pResident said he’d like to date—wink wink nudge nudge—the conventionally attractive woman if she wasn’t his daughter. (The sound you hear is crawling flesh.) Her appearance is far from grotesque, but her greedy grifting is not. As Beddington put it, “the ugliness keeps showing through,” no matter how pretty the parasite.

In his 1929 autobiography, Mahatma Gandhi wrote, “Hate the sin and not the sinner.” I’m sure there’s a clever quotable update about ugly politics and policies and the ugly appearance of people who advocate and implement them, but I’ll leave it to someone else to come up with a quotable quote.

24 November 2020

Three Painted Desert Diptychs

Ernst suggested that I explore “the painted desert” while I’m in this part of the world. I looked on a map and discovered that would require spending a thousand kilometers driving to Arizona and back; that’s ridiculous. Instead, I decided to experience it right outside my door using an old can of spray paint I found in the garage.

I can recommend plein-air painting; it’s easy! I stopped when the nozzle clogged, and ended up with Three Painted Desert Diptychs.

25 November 2020

A Traditional Thanksgiving With Viruses

I usually can’t say no to a dinner party, but I graciously and wordily declined Robin’s invitation to a large Thanksgiving dinner at her compound tomorrow. It sounded like fun, but this seems like an especially good year to avoid the traditional Thanksgiving reënactment of bringing a deadly disease to people with little or no immunity.

I try to be grateful for all I have every day, so in practice tomorrow will be just another Coronarama Blursday.

Gobble gobble!

Gabba gabba hey!

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©2020 David Glenn Rinehart