What Passes For Entertainment

I was riding the streetcar downtown the other day, looking out the window, following my trip with my eyes. We stopped at 9th and Irving and waited for people to get on and off and for the light to change. It was evening, rush hour, so we had to wait for about 5 minutes. At this corner, there are several news boxes. There was a woman who, from her appearance, seemed not to have a permanent residence, standing at the USA Today news box, cleaning it. First she used what appeared to be one of those green scrubby things, then she switched to a white Kleenex. For the entire time I observed her, she cleaned only the USA Today news box, and she was scrubbing and rubbing with gusto. I wondered what compelled her to choose this item to clean. And since it looked clean when I first noticed her activity, I wondered how much longer she would continue before it was clean enough for her.

I rode that same route approximately 24 hours later. She was not there.

unintentional haiku by charles

It was a thrilling
moment in ambient sound
recording.

Inside

I should be outside
walking and listening to
the sounds of the day

Found Flowers

I planted some alyssum that I dug up out of the strip of city-owned land next to the boulevard not very far from my house. The first little clump I dug up with a stick, but since, after a couple of days, it didn't die, I got bold and brought my trowel with me the second time and dug up a bigger clump. They are both still fairly small clumps and have made little noticeable difference in the random growth on the strip of land where I got them. What mostly grows there are trees that fall over in bad storms, grass, and voluntary wildflowers (aka weeds). We have been having lots of rainy days and my (it is now mine) alyssum seems to be surviving. It probably won't last, though, since it will not get any direct sunlight, ever. But right now, whenever I go outside, there they are, at the junction of where the path and the house meet, small roundish groups of tiny white flowers, offset by the dark soil that covers what was once sand dunes.

unintentional haiku by nor

eats Reese's peanut
butter cup that she got at
Palace of Fine Arts

Food is Tasty

Time to eat pancakes! The best pancakes in the world! Yum!

Best Peanuts Ever

I just read this post from angelo's blog (http://angelorambles.blogspot.com/):

A girl
So, there was once this girl. She lived at this place. and then she left. The end.

This reminded me of my favorite Peanuts:

Linus is bugging Lucy, following her around, holding a book, and asking her to read a story to him.
She doesn't want to be bothered, but finally relents, sits down, opens the book, and says, "Once upon a time there was a man. He lived and he died. The End."
She then slams the book shut and takes off, leaving Linus alone.
Linus muses, "What a fascinating account. Sort of makes you wish you had known the fellow."

Unintentional haiku by alexi's friend

Oh no, he is a
really good singer. He just
has really bad taste.

Look Out!

an haiku that is
profundity in action
does not move at all

Today is the first day of the rest of February

Some days my brain feels fuzzy. My thinking is s l o w and my mind drifts to emptiness and stays there. It only bothers me when I am required to perform many tasks that require a lot of concentration with no intelligence. Being sharp as a tack that is sharp is not always the best thing anyway. Sometimes mental acuity blocks creative expression.


When she was 15 (after graduating first in her class and receiving a gold medal for the best pupil of 1883) and finally having a year of fun in her life, Marie Curie wrote, "Sometimes I laugh all by myself and I contemplate my state of total stupidity with genuine satisfaction."

I love the biting honesty and unintentional irony of that statement.