Site Map: MAIN / This Page       How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news. Isaiah 52:7

Good Mountain Press Monthly Digest #059

Above is what New Orleans looked like during the early dawn hours the morning after Katrina had passed. No lights on, a dark city, as if in mourning for its citizens who have spirited themselves away, most in the flesh, some in pure spirit. This beautiful city rests in the dark like a seed underground which is awaiting its time to sprout into life. All your prayers, you wonderful Readers from around the world, are most welcome and appreciated.
in freedom and light,
Bobby Matherne

== == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == ==


~~ TOP TEN LIST of WHAT PEOPLE WANT ~~

Like this Digest? Let the Editor know with a short email by
Clicking Here!


Great Way to show Gratitude for this Digest is to use the Google Search Engine to Search this Site or the entire Web wherever you find it in these webpages:
Google
Web www.doyletics.com

LIKE US? To Receive a Monthly DIGESTWORLD Reminder, Click the Link to Send Email Request: SUBSCRIBE

NOTE: Place Cursor over a photo for a few seconds to read text description.



CLICK FLAG TO OPEN FIRST-AID KIT.
All the tools you need for a simple Speed Trace
IN ONE PLACE.

== == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == ==

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~ In Memoriam: Vince Matherne (1930 - 2005) ~~~~
~~~~~~~~ Born on a houseboat in Bayou Gauche ~~~~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

== == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == ==
~~~ GOOD MOUNTAIN PRESS DIGEST #059 Published September 1, 2005 ~~~
== == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == ==
Quote for September:

Summer has come and passed
The innocent can never last
Wake me up when September ends.

from song performed by Green Day

== == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == ==

By Subscription only.
Editor: Bobby Matherne
[To Contact Bobby Click Here!]
To Subscribe, Click Here : http://www.doyletics.com/subscrib.htm
or here: <A HREF="http://www.doyletics.com/subscrib.htm">Click here</A>
To Unsubscribe, see bottom of Digest.
©2005 by 21st Century Education, Inc, Published Monthly.

To Read All of Bobby's Writings Click Here!
== == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == ==
~~ Click on Heading to go to that Section (Allow Page First To Fully Load). ~~
THE GOOD MOUNTAIN PRESS DIGEST #059, September 2005
Archived Digests
Table of Contents

1. September's Violet-n-Joey Cartoon
2. Honored Readers for September
3. On a Personal Note
4. Cajun Story
5. Recipe of the Month from Bobby Jeaux’s Kitchen: Stilton Blue Cheese Dressing
6. New Poem by Bobby :"Bang Into It"
7. Reviews and Articles Added for September:

8. Commentary on the World
9. Closing Notes - our mailing list, locating books, unsubscribing to Digest
10. Gratitude

== == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == ==

THE GOOD MOUNTAIN PRESS DIGEST #059
== == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == ==


ARCHIVED DIGESTWORLD ISSUES ON THE WEB
 
~ ARCHIVED DIGESTWORLD ISSUES ~
2000: INAUGURAL YEAR: Jun  
#1 Jul  #2, Aug  #3, Sept  #4, Oct  #5, Nov  #6, Dec  #7
2001: Jan  #8,  Feb  #9,  Mar #10, Apr #11, May #12, Jun #13, Jul #14, Aug #15, Sep #16, Oct #17, Nov #18, Dec #19
2002: Jan #20, Feb #21, Mar #22, Apr #23, May #24, Jun #25, Jul #26, Aug #27, Sep #28, Oct #29, Nov #30, Dec #31
2003: Jan #32, Feb #33, Mar #34, Apr #35, May #36, Jun #37, Jul #38, Aug #39, Sep #40, Oct #41, Nov #42, Dec #43
2004: Jan #44, Feb #45, Mar #46, Apr #47, May #48, Jun #49, Jul #50, Aug #51, Sep #52, Oct #53, Nov #54, Dec #55
2005: Jan#051,Feb#052,Mar#053,Apr#054,May#055,Jun#056,Jul#057,Aug#058,Sep#059,Oct#05a,Nov#05b,Dec#05c
2006: Jan#061,Feb#062,Mar#063,Apr#064,May#065,Jun#066,Jul#067,Aug#068,Sep#069,Oct#06a,Nov#06b,Dec#06c
2007: Jan#071,Feb#072,Mar#073,Apr#074,May#075,Jun#076,Jul#077,Aug#078,Sep#079,Oct#07a,Nov#07b,Dec#07c
2008: Jan#081,Feb#082,Mar#083,Apr#084,May#085,Jun#086,Jul#087,Aug#088,Sep#089,Oct#08a,Nov#08b,Dec#08c
2009: Jan#091,Feb#092,Mar#093,Apr#094,May#095,Jun#096,Jul#097,Aug#098,Sep#099,Oct#09a,Nov#09b,Dec#09c
2010: Jan#101,Feb#102,Mar#103,Apr#104,May#105,Jun#106,Jul#107,Aug#108,Sep#109,Oct#10a,Nov#10b,Dec#10c
2011: Jan#111,Feb#112,Mar#113,Apr#114,May#115,Jun#116,Jul#117,Aug#118,Sep#119,Oct#11a,Nov#11b,Dec#11c
2012: Jan#121,Feb#122,Mar#123,Apr#124,May#125,Jun#126,Jul#127,Aug#128,Sep#129,Oct#12a,Nov#12b,Dec#12c
2013: Jan#131,Feb#132,Mar#133,Apr#134,May#135,Jun#136,Jul#137,Aug#138,Sep#139,Oct#13a,Nov#13b,Dec#13c
2014: Jan#141,Feb#142,Mar#143,Apr#144,May#145,Jun#146,Jul#147,Aug#148,Sep#149,Oct#14a,Nov#14b,Dec#14c
2015: Jan#151,Feb#152,Mar#153,Apr#154,May#155,Jun#156,Jul#157,Aug#158,Sep#159,Oct#15a,Nov#15b,Dec#15c
2016: Jan#161,Feb#162,Mar#163,Apr#164,May#165,Jun#166,Jul#167,Aug#168,Sep#169,Oct#16a,Nov#16b,Dec#16c
2017: Jan#171,Feb#172,Mar#173,Apr#174,May#175,Jun#176,Jul#177,Aug#178,Sep#179,Oct#17a,Nov#17b,Dec#17c
2018: Jan#181,Feb#182,Mar#183,Apr#184,May#185,Jun#186,Jul#187,Aug#188,Sep#189,Oct#18a,Nov#18b,Dec#18c
2019: Jan#191,Feb#192,Mar#193,Apr#194,May#195,Jun#196,Jul#197,Aug#198,Sep#199,Oct#19a

To Receive a Monthly DIGESTWORLD Reminder — Click Here.


== == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == ==
1. September Violet-n-Joey CARTOON:
== == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == ==

For newcomers to the Digest, we have created a webpage of all the Violet-n-Joey cartoons! Check it out at: http://www.doyletics.com/vjtoons.htm Also note the rotating calendar and clock that follows just to the right of your mouse pointer as you scroll down the page. You'll also see the clock on the 404 Error page if you make a mistake typing a URL while on the doyletics.com website.

The Violet-n-Joey Cartoon page is been divided into two pages: one low-speed and one high-speed access. If you have Do NOT Have High-Speed Access, you may try this Link which will load much faster and will allow you to load one cartoon at a time. Use this one for High-Speed Access.

This month Violet and Joey learn about listening and playing music at the same time.

#1 "Reader as Musician" at http://www.doyletics.com/images/05290295.gif

== == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == ==
2. HONORED READERS FOR September:
== == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == ==

Each month we take time to thank two of our good readers of Good Mountain Press Digest, books and reviews. Here's our two worthy Honored Readers for this month. One of their names will be in the TO: address line of your email Digest notification. Our Honored Readers for September are:

Tom Trumble in New Orleans

Jeff Barnum in California

Congratulations, Jeff and Tom !


== == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == ==


3. ON A PERSONAL NOTE:


== == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == ==



Out Our Way:

Dear Friends,

Usually I begin my Personal Notes in a chronological fashion, first things first according to time, but times have changed in a short month and the first things on everyone's mind is how the New Orleans area fared through the hurricane, so let me focus on that and then share with you a bit about the first part of the month.

By now you have seen the Top Banner image of the dark city panoramic photo I shot from across the Mississippi from New Orleans during early dawn. I took this photo from the deck of the three story warehouse where Del and I weathered the storm. We went there because Del's mom, Doris would not leave, and we have been taking care of her 24/7 for about a year and a half. Her back operations made spending 12 hours in a car evacuating problematic, the building is a sturdy metal girder warehouse with her river view penthouse well-secured. We had a few minor problems with water leaking and one isolated office door blew in during storm. The skylights at the 35 foot level of the warehouse blew in, popping like champagne corks at the height of the storm, spraying water into warehouse below us. A ship ran aground on the side of the levee across from the warehouse, doing no damage to us but providing a smell of diesel fuel at first. It was Miss Darby, a Bollinger Shipyard floating drydock. A twin-hulled vessel which in the dim light of the storm appeared to be two ships.

We moved Doris with us to Timberlane the day after the storm when we discovered that our home was undamaged from the storm except for tree limbs down all over and holes in the fence. Our neighbor is a local contractor and he had some emergency power, not enough to run our refrigerator, but for some small fans and powering our cell phones. With the windows open and two fans blowing, Del and I in our bedroom and Doris in the guest bedroom passed a much more comfortable night than the previous night in the warehouse apartments with no windows to open and no power at all. Also no water there. We flushed with water we caught from dripping during storm. At Timberlane we had some very slow running water usable for flushing, lots of food in pantry, and we were planning to wait out the recovery of power and water. But when our neighbor left and the time for recovery went up to 6 weeks, we decided it was time for us to leave town, too.

We drove to our son John's home in Baton Rouge and he had a houseful. His mother-in-law Pam was there - she lost two homes in the flood, one in Diamondhead and one to the 17th St levee breach. We drove on up to Alexandria to our daughter Kim's home. It was full of activity and people, but these were visitors. Her grandparents, Virginia and William Hatchett II lost their home in New Orleans East and Kim had rented them a home in Alexandria. One of our neighbors in Timberlane, Linda and Skip Santos came over to Kim's to do some laundry and visit. Linda and Kim were girlhood friends from church. My brother Paul and his wife Joyce were staying at their daughter Monique's home in Alexandria and we got a visit from them. Stoney, another son of ours, came up with Sue, his wife, and Sam from Oppelousas where they spent the storm,

The next day we relaxed a bit, Wes grilled some fish for us and we watched the Saints pre-season game. How did it go? Well, I told a few people facetiously that Katrina destroyed at least one useless building in Metairie, the Saints Training Camp. One can always hope that they're saving themselves for the league games, which undoubtedly they are -- I only wish it were for the league games this next year instead of the perennial next year.

Early the next morning which takes us into September a bit, I read the first page of the paper that there were gas shortages. I immediately drove down a main street to see all of the gas pumps bagged, but lucked into an Exxon station still pumping and filled up. I decided I'd better head up to my son's house in Bloomington, Indiana where I am typing these words right now on the 6th. Del had decided to hire a private jet to fly her and Doris to Dan's house (Del's only sibling) in Charlotte, NC, where Doris will stay for four to six weeks while her home is fixed. Plans more than a day or two away are very flexible as you might imagine. I drove straight through from Alexandria, Louisiana to Shreveport, up to Texarkana on new freeway just opened, through Little Rock to Memphis, up to Cairo, Terre Haute and down into Bloomington about 3:30 am. Roads were clear, no traffic, gas was $3.39 in places, but dropped to 2.99 by end of my trek. I think I was running on pure adrenalin and some peanut butter sandwiches I ate as I drove stopping only a couple of times to fillup.

Del flew her mom to NC the next day as planned and flew into Indianapolis airport on US AIR yesterday. I just came back in from sitting next to her on the large hammock outside where the air is cool and dry. Our plans are to make several visits to friends before we head for home. Electricity in our area may be a week or so away, we have no way to know exactly.

Since bad news travels further and faster than good news, I can tell you that we have had only good news about the friends and relatives we have heard from and about. My dad and Emily are safe back at home with water and power on outskirts of city to the west. My brothers Paul and Steve had minor damage to their homes and should be back home soon. Most of my relatives are in Terrebonne Parish which was spared the brunt of the storm by its dogleg east at the last moment, and they are getting power and water back quickly so far as I've heard.

I'd like to share with you a portion of an email I sent out to as many friends as wrote me while we were in Alexandria where I reply to emails, but didn't have my PC with its address book working as I do now:

Dear Friends:

Wanted to let you know that we're okay and thank you for your prayers during this trying time. We are bone-tired, bruised, a few battle scars, and thankful for the lives of our friends and relatives who have been spared. We ask your continued prayers for our great city of New Orleans which we expect to rise phoenix-like from the watery ruins.

I'd like to leave you with a quote from Rudolf Steiner who wrote these words about the Great War in 1917 (WWI). They seem applicable today to those who have died in the Great Flood of New Orleans and those who remain behind: [See entire review at:

1. http://www.doyletics.com/arj/destinie.htm ]

[[ Dear friends, in closing, let us first of all remember those who are out there at the front, in the great arena of present-day events: "Out of courage shown in battle, Out of the blood shed in war, Out of the grief of those who are left, Out of the people's deeds of sacrifice Spirit fruits will come to grow If souls with knowledge of the spirit Turn their mind to spirit realms. "And for those who because of those events have already gone through the gate of death: "Out of courage shown in battle, Out of the blood shed in war, Out of the grief of those who are left, Out of the people's deeds of sacrifice Spirit fruits will come to grow If souls with knowledge of the spirit Turn their mind to spirit realms." ]]

Do not seek comfort in your fears, but find instead comfort in the spirit-fruits which will rise from these deeds of sacrifice and love.

Early Portion of August:

This month started off with a call from my daughter Maureen that her daughter was going to have a Caesarian section because her baby was breech and he cannot be rotated into position. The next night we visited Tiffany and John and their new son, Aven Christopher Ostarley, 7 lbs 5 oz and 18" long, born August 2 at 11 am at Ochsner's Hospital in Jefferson. New mom is doing fine as you can see in the photo. Aven a tiny image of his Papa John. Gotta find room on my cooking apron for another tiny footprint of our second great-grandchild.

We babysat for Sam while Sue and Stoney celebrated their anniversary. Our daughter from Beaumont came to town with her two children, Molly and Garret. I fixed green beans and potatoes over rice for them and they cleaned the pot. Molly regaled us with an impromptu Barbie Doll Fashion Show on the Timberlane bar. After they left Del and I gave Sam some poker lessons -- we actually won for a change -- Sam is hard to beat.

Saturday brought the CODOFIL Breakfast followed by Pay Me! games at Timberlane. Buster, Emily, JB Borel, Paul and Joyce, and me and Del. I popped for the lunch po-boys from DiMartino's. Del won today, but Emily won both of the last two low score hands. I almost beat her for the low score jackpot, but got blocked on the last hand and missed by about 5 points. Joyce actually said I won and I began collecting the tokens when she announced that she had overlooked Emily's hand. At one point Emily got so excited about having a pay me, that she splashed her coke all over the table, herself, the floor, and her cards. Then she couldn't recover the all the cards she had initially and we had to declare a misdeal.

Then we left immediately to go to Stoney's house-warming where all his siblings and their off-spring were there. Also his parents and grandparents. Lots of grilled sausage, steak, chicken, and hot dogs. Robbie Todd and Brett were there with their families. Amazingly they and John all have children about the same age, pre-teens. While we were there, Kim and Wes gave me this huge book by John Folse, "The Encyclopedia of Cajun & Creole Cuisine," as a birthday present. Weighs 8 lbs, but feels like a ton. A book that heavy is hard to lift in just one hand because your fingers have difficulty keeping it from slipping down. It takes two hands to handle this whopper. Great photos, history, and recipes throughout. 852 pages, 150 of history, rest of recipes. A real gem.

Wrote this comment on Kevin Dann's BeyondMainStreet Blog:

["Enjoyed this more than your recent spate of desultory philippics against a certain political figure, a habit which I fain have fall into rapid desuetude, Bobby "]

He wrote back:

["Hey there mon ami, I cannot recall when I was last accused of

'desultory philippics' but I plead guilty as charged."

Kevin ]

Wes called on the 14th and said George Poettgen died in his sleep this morning at his home in Missouri. His son discovered his body when he didn't show up for work. George was Oday Laverne's father-in-law, Julie's dad. I told Wes it was terrible to lose a good duck hunting buddy as well as a good friend. He'll be there from now on without having to load up. "Or take a place in the blind," Wes added. I agree. My eyes are a little teary right now, George, we'll miss your smiling face and good cheer.

I walked into my masseuse's office one Thursday and noticed a large poster of a view of the Alps with a small figure in the middle who seemed to be kneeling in front of a crucifix. I told Laura about having finished a Steiner review in which he talked about someone stumbling upon a crucifix in the high Alps. The painting was a watercolor by Joseph Mallord William Turner, and I spent a couple of hours in Googling Joseph Mallord William Turner trying to find a reproduction of St. Gothard's Passage painting of his.

Finally found one or two, but they look different from the one on poster. They have no sign of crucifix. Lots of his paintings offered in reproductions, but so far have not found the right one. Would be glad to get a $10 poster, but unable to find it.

On the next Saturday, I took my dad to the WildFowl Exhibit at Alario Center. We looked at all the new carvings of ducks, geese, owls, eagles, hawks, etc, on display. The Great Owl you could swear those were white feathers on its face overlaying the dark feathers. Then we went to look over the items offered for display. I bought myself a Vernier Caliper — not much better than a ruler, but has inside and outside measuring calipers.

Daddy talked to two of his cronies who bought decoys from him in previous years. He held one of the black ducks he originally carved and sold and considered buying it back. Then Gary from Baker came out with a black duck that my brother David had carved and Dad was obviously touched as he saw it. His eyes teared up a bit as he said, "I lost my son, but I going to buy his decoy." The price was $150 and Gary told him, "Just give 100 dollars, Buster. I think that's what I bought it from David for." What a nice gesture. I told him the story about David telling me weeks before he died when I asked if he was leaving anything undone he would like to have done in his life, "Just a few decoys." He gave me one of those, which I cherish. trying to find a reproduction of this St. Gothard's Passage artwork. Finally found one or two, but they looked different from the one on poster. They have no sign of crucifix. Lots of his paintings offered in reproductions, but so far have not found the right one. Would be glad to get a $10 poster, or a more expensive print, but have been unable to find a suitable one, up until now.

That night we drove to Sandra and Fil's house and looked at the water damage on the ceiling due to a tub overflow from their grandson they're raising. Tony Zimmerman and his wife Joan picked us up in his extended van and drove us to Restaurant Des Familles in Crown Point. Enjoyed talking to Sandra - she laughs great at jokes, likewise with Fil -- he talks golf. When he explained how marvelous he felt on the golf course, how time just seems to fly by, I said that's how I felt sitting at my desk writing as I am doing right now. Enjoyed talking to Tony, a classmate from early high school days at Westwego High -- he likes to talk about people he knows and meets in his job as limo driver.

The next Saturday we went to Evan Soulé's mom and dad's home in Bocage, Algiers for a garage sale. Del bought some tools for her mom's place. I bought some Cyclopedia of World's Writers and Wiss pinking shears. Evan says they'll have an estate sale auction later of collectibles from Soulé College etal, planned originally for sometime in October. Helped Evan move a large framed photo of Colonel George Soulé from the house to his condominium in the Federal Fibre Mills downtown.

I had this one interesting thing happen to me while I was waiting for my weekly groceries to be rung up by the cashier at the A&P Supermarket where we shop. An old lady came in looking distraught. She was looking for a phone so I offered her mine. She called Twin Tire to come fix her car. Her key was broken in the ignition or something like that, she said. After she called for help, I asked for more details and found that she had just returned from having an oil change at Twin Tire and not work on her ignition system. Immediately it seemed me something simple, so I suggested that when she returned to her car where her disabled husband was sitting, in the hot sun, that she make sure that the transmission is in Park and see if the car will start. In a minute or two she came back in and asked for me my phone to call off Twin Tire as she had put the car in Park and it started immediately. When not in Park cars these days will not start and you cannot remove the key. This is to prevent you from leaving an automobile and have it coast down the street later. I had solved her problem before my groceries were completely checked out without leaving the area.

By the next Thursday I had just finished writing my "Riddles of the Soul" review and I printed out a copy for Renee to give to her when we got to the Botanical Gardens at City Park for the Twilight Concert. Burt and Renee were already sitting in front row waiting for us. Burt was eating the jambalaya. Renee offered me hers so she could keep her appetite for later when we went out to eat.

Talked to John Rankin and told him about my reaction listening to him perform on WWOZ around jazz fest time. "I knew from having watched you perform that you were blowing on the harmonica, picking the guitar, and singing on the radio, but I doubt if many other listeners knew that." He agreed. I said, "Now if you were playing the harmonica and singing at the same time, that would really be spectacular!" He laughed, and said that he was actually working on that. Told me about a guy who plays two harmonicas at same time, using his nose for harmony. And another one who plays the harmonica in his mouth using his tongue to make notes. If anyone can do it, John Rankin can! I listened to his mother, May Rankin aka "Big Mama", on WWOZ for many years. She was an expert on New Orleans Jazz and was a wonder to listen to. During the break Del bought a CD of John's music for me and he signed it later. It was a memorable performance. As soon as it was over, we took Burt &Renee to see the Train Garden. Even though only a few trains were running due to trees on the tracks, there were several streetcars moving along all lit up in the deepening dusk. Burt and Renee were totally impressed and can't wait to bring their grandkids to see it.

From this point on our entire world turned upside down, as you well know. God Bless you for your prayers and thoughts, love,

Bobby and Del






~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A Word to the Wise:
IMPORTANT MESSAGE:
To those Good Readers who are puzzled by How the Moon could be Rising In Front of a Mountain, Click on Photo. To see 161021 photo, Click Here. ALSO: if you are puzzled because you No Longer get our Monthly Reminder, you may have Changed Your Email Address without notifying us. NOTIFY US NOW by a simple Click Here!

Here's the Sting:
You will NOT receive a Monthly Reminder unless you have Re-subscribed under your new address to DIGESTWORLD.

If you've already receiving DIGESTWORLD Reminders, ignore this message.

If you're not subscribed, and would like to Subscribe to DIGESTWORLD Reminders to receive one short email a month to inform you of the latest ISSUE, now's a good time. SUBSCRIBE NOW by Clicking Here.

Yes, this message does no good to those who changed their email address without notifying me — but it can alert those of you who are going to change your address.

If you've changed or are planning to change your email address, Click Here to SEND NEW ADDRESS. (Alternate way is to copy into your Browser this URL: http://www.doyletics.com/subscrib.htm )

EASE OF VIEWING NOTES:

NOTE: For Internet Explorer Browsers, DIGESTWORLD is best viewed at 100% Zoom and the Window's width sized so that Digest Archives lines are single-spaced, just barely. Adjust Window width so that Mountains almost touch the Archive Numbers, especially if you find some Photos overlapping text.

PHOTO CAPTIONS (CURSOR FLYOVER ISSUE RESOLVED):If you have been enjoying the photos in DIGESTWORLD, but have wondered who or what you were looking at, you will now be able to hold your cursor still over the photo and the photo's description will appear. (Test on Butterfly-Crab Image at Right.) We spend a lot of time writing these photo captions and hope you will read them. All the Archived Issues have been updated to provide descriptions when your cursor rests for a second on a photo. Note that older Reviews have not been updated. If you haven't finished reading text when description disappears, move cursor away and back on photo to finish. We thank you for your patience and hope this pleases you.


New Stuff about Website:

    The five most popular Tidbits Pages Visited in 2005 to date:

          1. Tidbit of Humor Saying Found on T-Shirts
          2. Tidbit of Humor by Jean Auel
          3. Tidbit of Humor Insightful Quips and Humorous Sayings
          4. Tidbit of Humor Will Rogers' Famous Quips and Humorous Sayings
          5. A Grabbag of Humorous, Witty, and Interesting Miscellania


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Movies we watched this past month:

Notes about our movies: Many of the movies we watch are foreign movies with subtitles. After years of watching movies in foreign languages, Arabic, French, Swedish, German, British English, Russian, Spanish, Italian, Japanese, Chinese, and many other languages, sometimes two or three languages in the same movie, the subtitles have disappeared for us. If the movie is dubbed in English we go for the subtitles instead because we enjoy the live action and sounds of the real voices so much more than the dubbed. If you wonder where we get all these foreign movies from, the answer is simple: NetFlix. For a fixed price a month they mail us DVD movies from our on-line Queue, we watch them, pop them into a pre-paid mailer, and the postman effectively replaces all our gas-consuming and time-consuming trips to Blockbuster. To sign up for NetFlix, simply go to http://www.netflix.com/ and start adding all your requests for movies into your personal queue. If you've seen some in these movie blurbs, simply copy the name, click open your queue, and paste the name in the Search box on NetFlix and Select Add. Buy some popcorn and you're ready to Go to the Movies, 21st Century Style. You get to see your movies as the Director created them — NOT-edited for TV, in full-screen width, your own choice of subtitles, and all of the original dialogue.
P. S. Look for HD/DVD format movies which are now available from NetFlix.
Hits (Watch as soon as you can. A Don't Miss Hit is one you might otherwise ignore.):
“Wedding Crashers” (2005) This is one I could have waited for DVD to watch, but was glad I went to see it earlier, so many people have liked it and talked about it. Two business men take off the month of June each year to crash weddings and pick up girls. That’s the simple premise which carefree bachelors Owen Wilson and his partner Vince Vaughn play out to the hilt. Funny, hilarious, outrageous, and dialogue which will keep your head spinning trying to keep up.
“The Glory of my Father” (1990) A marvelous movie you don’t want to end. No sex, violence, or thievery, just a family on vacation in a country house, but the story told through the words of Marcel, the 12-year-old boy, is enchanting. Uncle Jules is a larger-than-life man with a big heart who teaches Marcel’s father how to hunt and thereupon hangs the eponymous tale. A Don’t Miss Hit!
“Bigger than the Sky” (2005) “Life has role for everyone.” says the DVD jacket and that pins it. First time actor is a guy in a dead-end job and dull life. He signs up for Portland’s Community Theater, does an awful audition, but is given the title role in “Cyrano” by an intuitive directress who want a Cyrano without the nose. How can this klutz ever perform as Cyrano? Life has other plans for him which unfold beautifully in this amazing movie. A Don’t Miss Hit!
“Open Range” (2003) with Robert Duvall and Kevin Costner as free range cowboy herders in a time of cattle farmers who resented their large pasture grounds being used by others. Instead of barbed wire, they used barbed threats and violence. This is a story of the escalation of the threats every bit as powerful as the legendary “Gunfight at the OK Corral.”
“The Emperor’s New Clothes” (2001) Ian Holm (Bilbo) plays Napoleon in exile, who is replaced by a substitute, and the real Napoleon is allowed to return to Paris to return to power. But a funny thing happened on the way to the Palace, and Napoleon finds himself falling in love with a peasant girl and being a peasant. Can his original plan to return as Emperor be saved?
“Criminal” (2005) A new millennium version of “The Sting” with mind-bending twists and turns. A young Mexican is taken under the wing of a grifter who shows him a few tricks and learns a few himself. (Which should have given him pause, but didn’t.) When the big one comes along, who’s fooling whom will keep you on the edge of your seat.
“Elvis Has Left the Building” (2004) or rather 157 Elvises have descended upon the building. Kim Basinger plays a Pink Lady ala Mary Kay in her antique pink Cadillac. In keeping with a promise to help Elvis back in 1958, the ersatz Elvises are dying after Kim passes them on the road. This is a hilarious send-up of the Elvis craze. A Don’t Miss Hit!
“Downfall” (2004) You’ve heard the story of Adolph Hitler and Eva Braun in the bunker, now go inside the bunker through the eyes of Traudl Junge, a young lady who was Hitler’s stenographer and see the events up close and personal which happened during the last days of Der Führer, both inside the luxurious bunker and outside on the cratered streets of Berlin where twelve-year-old boys and girls were firing bazookas at approaching Russian tanks. A don’t miss hit!
“About Adam” (2000) Kate Hudson sparkles in this movie and so does her two sisters, brother, and his wife after they meet Adam. Innovative movie allows us to see what happens from each of the four siblings’ eyes as this one reaches a ... er... several climaxes as love sweeps through an entire family.
“Wasabi” (2001) is hot, hot green Japanese sauce and (Jean Reno) Hubert’s newly revealed Japanese daughter is a hot, hot, green and saucy Japanese teenager. He’s angry that her dad abandoned her mom, so he can’t reveal himself as her father till he has performed some heroic act and can explain that her mother abandoned him to save her country.
“The Upside of Anger” (2005) “is the person you become.” That’s what worked for Joan Allen’s character whose husband ran off to Sweden abandoning her and four teenage girls to the company of Kevin Costner. She is angry all the time. Kevin is never angry. A retired baseball star, he joins the family to regain the tension, spoken and unspoken, of the baseball game he loved so much.
“A Gaudi Afternoon” (2001) is like a guided tour of Antonio Gaudi’s sinuous architectural monuments in Barcelona, Spain. Gaudi was a contemporary of Rudolf Steiner and their forms of architecture are strikingly similar. During the tour we follow the adventures of Cassandra (Judy Davis) as she tries to make her rent by finding a lost husband for a fee. She suddenly finds herself in a maze of sexual gender confusions, a kidnaping of a real kid, a magic act, and finally a stolen kiss to make sure that she was, in the end, the only normal person of the whole cast.
“The Chorus Line” (1985) is a movie about auditioning for a chorus. Even the ones who had tears because of being rejected were played by actors who made the cut for the movie. Great dance numbers, songs, and stories of the lives of each of the chorus auditioning cast. “One singular sensation” from beginning to end.
“Wilder Days” (2003) Delightful movie with Peter Falk as a granpa growing old and not willing to be locked up in an old age home. Escapes with his grandson in the Shark, a Blue ‘59 Cadillac with tailfins, and heads for an island off the coast of Maine where all his stories come to life and he comes to die.
“Homeland Security” (2004) — docudrama of the months leading up to 911 with ominous portents which are ignored by the bureaucracy of agencies which stovepiped all their information — ran it up their own chimney. Shows the background work which went into designing what became the Dept of Homeland Security with a centralized data base for the first time in history. A few egg shells got broken during the scramble and we get to see one of these up close as well.

Misses (Avoid At All Costs): We attempted to watch these this month, but didn't make it all the way through on most of them. Awhile back when three AAAC horrors hit us in one night, I decided to add a sub-category to "Avoid at All Costs", namely, A DVD STOMPER. These are movies so bad, you don't want anyone else to get stuck watching them, so you want to stomp on the disks. That way, if everyone else who gets burnt by the movie does the same, soon no copies of the awful movie will be extant and the world will be better off.

“Napoleon Dynamite” (2004) was a Bonafide Dud! Imagine Beavis teamed with Cheech playing laconic, somnambulist teenagers stumbling their way through high school on their way to life. A DVD STOMPER!
“Constantine” (2005) Overblown puffery about evil using stale metaphors and fresh special effects. If you stay till the end, you’re glad it’s over and don’t have to watch it again. A DVD stomper for those who preferred they’d not seen it the first time. “The Boys and the Girl from County Clare” (2003) with Colm Meany is a study in multi-generational bitterness as a substrata for three bands which compete for the best Celi Band in Ireland, pronounced “kelly” btw. The music flows almost continuously in this movie of young love, old bitterness, and sibling rivalry. Pure Irish schtick and loveable all the way to the end.

Your call on these — your taste in movies may differ, but I liked them:

“Hilary & Jackie” (1998) Two sisters compete with each other as musicians. Hilary on the flute and Jackie on the Cello. Hilary is the first star, then Jackie, then Hilary gets married, and Jackie gets married. Soon Jackie wants Hilary’s husband. Jackie uses her influence on Hilary to get things that are not good for her. Jackie wants to stop playing the cello, so tries to destroy it, leaving in the direct sunlight and then out in the Russian winter. The cello proves stronger than Jackie who must then find a way to destroy herself, just the way she tried to destroy the cello: so no one could blame her.Will she succeed?
“The Ballad of Jack and Rose” (2005) is a blues medley of 1960s dreams of communes, LSD pads, vegetable gardens, and windmills. Jack and his 16-year-old daughter are the only remaining inhabitants of a commune on an island off the East Coast. She is growing up and he is dying. Can life and sensibility invade this sheltered enclave of father and daughter?
“Read My Lips” (2001) in which the heroine, a once-deaf woman who reads lips even though she now has corrected hearing, becomes involved with spying on a bank heist to discover where the bag on money was to be stashed and steals it. Her boy friend gets caught and things get in a sticky wicket, which is a strange thing to say because the action takes place in France not England.
“Young Adam” (2004) Ewan McGregor is young Adam who has sex with Eve’s and leaves them in his wake, one of whom slips into the river and drowns. Thereupon hangs a tale which plays itself out on a barge-house-boat and a courtroom.
“Fire” (1996) First of a Trilogy, followed by “Earth” and “Water” by a masterful movie maker of India, Deepah Mehta. A young girl gets married and moves in her husband’s father and mother. The father has been celibate for 13 years because of a guru and the son is almost celibate with his wife because of his Chinese girl friend who garners all his libido. With both husbands gone from the house every night and only the stroke-victim grandmother with her tinkle bell as a witness, things can heat up into a well, fire, I suppose.
“Detonator” (1993) Peirce Brosnan leading a team to defuse two nuclear bombs. One on a train and another somewhere in Germany. Post-Soviet Union General gone power mad. Fast-paced action and idiocy. Train with bombs clears Germany, Switzerland, Italy, and Slovenia before things come to a head. Worth a look.
“Alexander” (2004) Oliver Stone’s Director’s Cut on DVD. A discombobulated look at Alexander the Puny, er, Great — wasn’t it supposed to be Alexander the Great? Hard to tell from this movie. A wimp grows up into a bully, not very impressive.


== == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == ==
4. CAJUN STORY:
== == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == ==

Adapted for this Cajun Story by Bobby from a story forwarded to me by Renee Lattimore on August 25, 2005 from her son, Mike.

One dark night outside of Westlake, a small town in Louisiana, a fire started inside the local chemical plant and in a blink of an eye it exploded into massive flames. The alarm went out to all the fire departments for miles around.

When the volunteer fire fighters appeared on the scene, the chemical company president rushed to the fire chief and said, "All our secret formulas are in the vault in the center of the plant. They must be saved. I will give $50,000 to the fire department that brings them out intact."

But the roaring flames held the firefighters off. Soon more fire departments had to be called in as the situation became desperate. As the firemen arrived, the president shouted out that the offer was now $100,000 to the fire department who could bring out the company's secret files.

From a distance, a lone siren was heard as another fire truck came into sight. It was the nearby Cajun Hackberry Rural Township Volunteer Fire Company, composed mainly of Cajuns over the age of 65. To everyone's amazement, that little run-down fire engine roared right past all the newer sleek engines that were parked outside the plant. Without even slowing down, it drove smack into the middle of the blazing inferno! ! !

Outside, the other firemen watched as the Hackberry old timers jumped off right in the middle of the fire and fought it back on all sides. It was a performance and effort never seen before.

Within a short time, the Cajun old timers had extinguished the fire and had saved the secret formulas. The grateful chemical company president announced that for such a superhuman feat he was upping the reward to $200,000, and walked over to personally thank each of the brave fire fighters.

The local KPLC TV news reporter rushed in to capture the event on film, asking the chief, "What are you going to do with all that money?" "Whall," said Boudreaux, the 70-year-old fire chief, "Da first ting we gonna do is fix dem brakes on dat maudits truck!"



== == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == ==


5. RECIPE of the MONTH for September, 2005 from Bobby Jeaux’s Kitchen:
(click links to see photo of ingredients, preparation steps)
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =

Stilton Blue Cheese Dressing

Background on Stilton Blue Cheese Dressing: Have you ever bought a jar of Blue Cheese Dressing which said it contained "Stilton Bleu Cheese"? I know I haven't. Del and I have found that if we buy Stilton Bleu Cheese and add it to Naturally Fresh Ranch Dressing, it makes a great bleu cheese dressing. Note: Make this a couple of days in advance for best results.


Ingredients
2 Jars of Naturally Fresh Ranch Dressing
8 oz wedge of Stilton Bleu Cheese

Buy at least two jars of Naturally Fresh Ranch Dressing. You'll find it in the refrigerated portion of the Produce section of grocery store. We buy ours at Winn-Dixe. Either the green label original or orange label Lite Ranch are excellent. We've used them exclusively for our dressings for many years.

Preparation
By using two jars, you will have little mess. Simply eat half of the first jar as ranch dressing and mark jar as Bleu Cheese (or pour out half and save it for later). Break up the wedge of bleu cheese with a fork and add the crumbled bleu cheese to the half jar of ranch dressing. Use about one-third of wedge (depending on size) more or less to attain a balance of liquid and chunks to your taste. Stir well with fork or use portable mixer on slow speed to leave some chunks of bleu cheese.

Let prepared dressing stand overnight in fridge or for best results a couple of days.

Serving Suggestion
Here are two dishes we like to use our Stilton Bleu Cheese Dressing with:

California Avocado Half filled with Dressing (See above.)

Mandala Salad ( See above. Click Here for Recipe for Salad.)



== == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == ==
6. NEW POEM by BOBBY:
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =

             Bang Into It

       I.

When we reach the highest form of matter
We run Bang! into it — our brain.

When we reach the highest form of thinking
We run Bang! into it – a contradiction:

      The Wall of Analytical Intellect.

When we bang into it
Then we Bang! Intuit!

       II.

      And
When we reach the bottomless abyss
      And
We run Bang! into it — we find

Instead of abyss —
A bliss of spiritualness.

When we reach the finality
       of a spiritual reality
We find we have run Bang! into it!

We Bang! Intuit!

== == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == ==
7. REVIEWS and ARTICLES for September:
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =

And for my Good Readers, here’s the new reviews and articles for this month. The ARJ2 ones are new additions to the top of A Reader’s Journal, Volume 2, Chronological List, and the ART ones to A Reader’s Treasury.

1.) ARJ2: Toward Imagination — Culture and the Individual by Rudolf Steiner

One cannot study spiritual science the way one studies materialistic science — I have no doubt about that since I came to spiritual science from the perspective of a physicist. Once I understood how the physical world worked, I wanted answers to big questions about the world which physics always leaves untouched. In Rudolf Steiner I found someone who reasoned like a scientist and explained things like a scientist and actually had answers to my big unanswered questions. Every book or lecture cycle of his I pick up to read contains answers to some unanswered question I have held for many years, mind-boggling answers to my big questions which I receive with warm enthusiasm. Here is an answer, I say to myself, which finally makes sense to me about how the entire world operates, not just the atomistic one I was academically trained to understand. It is this spiritual science I refer to that Steiner named anthroposophy — the science of the complete human being and the cosmos. To understand anthroposophy as one would physics would be to completely miss the point — one would thereby lower anthroposophy to the abstract empty realms of physics and chemistry.

This is a book full of answers to big questions — some of which you may be holding unanswered,waiting for now. Maybe not, maybe you have no big questions about the world in which you live, and what you have read in religion classes has satisfied your curiosity about what happens after you die — if so, this review may not be for you, up until now.

http://www.doyletics.com/arj/towardim.htm

2.) ARJ2: How the Irish Saved Civilization by Thomas Cahill

It is important that we understand that the native characteristic of the Irish was a peace-loving folk, and that everything else came as a reaction to the invasions by foreigners into their land.

[page 3] The word Irish is seldom coupled with the word civilization. When we think of peoples as ci vilized or civilizing, the Egyptians and the Greeks, the Italians and the French, the Chinese and the Jews may all come to mind. The Irish are wild, feckless, and charming, or morose, repressed, and corrupt, but not especially civilized. If we strain to think of "Irish civilization," no image appears, no Fertile Crescent or Indus Valley, no brooding bust of Beethoven. The simplest Greek auto mechanic will name his establishment "Parthenon," thus linking himself to an imagined ancestral culture. A semi-literate restaurateur of Sicilian origin will give pride of place to his plaster copy of Michelangelo's David, and so assert his presumed Renaissance ties. But an Irish businessman is far more likely to name his concern "The Breffni Bar" or "Kelly's Movers," announcing a merely local or personal connection, unburdened by the resonances of history or civilization.
But as Rome was burning along with its books, the Irish monks were burning the midnight oil copying the great works of Western literature. To these hard-working monks we owe much of our knowledge of ancient literature. Perhaps you're Irish, or wanna be — if so, read this review.

http://www.doyletics.com/arj/howtheir.htm

3.) ARJ2: Riddles of the Soul by Rudolf Steiner

How do we know we are experiencing a lamed-mental picture in our everyday life? We find ourselves formulating a concept which is the dead remains of the internal living mental picture we started from. We each have living supersensible connections with the objects we perceive with our senses. But this connection is flattened out into a concept by our intellectual mind.

[page 119, 120] The living element that exists in man through this connection is lamed, reduced to a "concept" by his intellectual organization. The abstract mental picture is this real element — which has died in order to present itself to ordinary consciousness — in which man does live during sense perception, but whose living quality does not become conscious. The abstractness of our mental pictures is caused by an inner necessity of the soul. Reality gives man something living. He deadens that part of this living element which enters his ordinary consciousness. He does so because he could not achieve self-consciousness in his encounter with the outer world if he had to experience his actual connection to this outer world in its full vitality. Without the laming of this full vitality, man would have to recognize himself as one part within a unity extending beyond his human limits; he would be an organ of a greater organism.

Steiner has thus revealed one of the riddles of the soul he promised in the title of this amazing book. Anyone who has a living soul will admit having experienced this sense of being part of a greater unity at one time or another in one's life. That reality lies there as I type these words, as you read them, living and throbbing mostly unseen and unfelt below an encrustation of intellectual bafflegab, up until now.

The review is ready for you to learn about other riddles of the soul.

http://www.doyletics.com/arj/trsrvw.htm

= == == == == == == == == == ==

I hear often from my Good Readers that they have bought books after reading my book reviews. Keep reading, folks! As I like to remind you, to obtain more information on what's in these books, buy and read the books — for less information, read the reviews.


== == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == ==
8. COMMENTARY:
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =

In this section I like to comment on events in the world, in my life, and in my readings which have come up during the month. These are things I might have shared with you in person, if we had had the opportunity to converse during the month. If we did, then you may recognize my words. If I say some things here which upset you, rest assured that you may skip over these for the very reason that I would likely have not brought up the subject to spoil our time together in person.

1. Padre Filius Reads the New Orleans Times-Picayune this Month:

Padre Filius, the cartoon character created by your intrepid editor and would-be cartoonist, will appear from time to time in this Section of the Digest to share us on some amusing or enlightening aspect of the world he observes during his peregrinations.

This month the good Padre reads an AP Dispatch and wonders about his second and third trials.


2. St. Gothard's Pass

In this passage below by Rudolf Steiner is a poem about a hiker in the Alps encountering a crucifix on the path. The day after I had just completed my review of the book, Toward Imagination, containing the poem, I went to my masseuse's office, Laura Sampson, and saw a poster on her wall of Joseph Mallord William Turner's painting of St. Gothard's Pass. If you look in the lower left hand corner of this extracted portion of the work, you can see a person kneeling before a crucifix in the middle of the grandeur of the high Alps.

Adapted from my review of Toward Imagination, Seven Lectures by Rudolf Steiner in July, 1916 [RJM: Steiner's words are in bold, mine not in the passage below.]

Let us take another example. Suppose someone were hiking one morning in a beautiful area in the Alps, noticing the song of the birds, the beauty of the woods, perhaps even the marvelous virginal purity of the water as it babbles its way downhill in brooks, and so on. Imagine the hiker wanderedfor an hour, maybe, or an hour and a half, and then came upon a simple wooden crucifix. The hiker may be inwardly glad, having all the forces of gladness in his soul shaken awake because he or she has seen beautiful, great, noble, and sublime views. But the hiker is also weary and approaches this place where a simple wooden crucifix stands in the midst of beautiful and wonderfully sublime nature. On the crucifix there are the following words:
Stay your steps, wanderer,
Look on my wounds.
Wounds abide,
Hours glide.
Take heed, and guard your way,
Be aware what on the judgment day
Over you as verdict I shall say.
The experience we can have on reading these words can be greater and can touch our hearts more profoundly than what we may experience on seeing the figure of Christ in Michelangelo's famous painting in the Sistine Chapel. The author of the words I have just spoken is unknown. Yet, all those who understand anything about poetry know that the person who wrote the words: "Wounds abide, hours glide," is one of the greatest poets of all time. But first one has to have a feeling for this and know that true poetry is the poetry that pours out of the human soul in the right place. Not all words that rhyme, not all that passes for poetry is true poetry. But it is true poetry when out of Christianity's eternal truths there pours forth.

These are simple words, sublime words — grandest poetry! To be made aware of the greatest event in the evolution of the earth while surrounded by sublime nature and its graceful beauty means to experience with the soul the reality in the universe. This is only an example and a more profoundly touching one than the previous one of the sundial. The important thing is to develop in life so that when we meet with such things, we do not pass by reality but experience the human soul growing together with reality and maintain the balance even in our relation to what was not made by human beings, but was given by the eternal powers. We can perceive the spiritual world only when our striving is neither only one-sided mysticism, nor only one-sided observation of nature, but instead is directed toward the union of both.

3. The Word of the Day for August 10 was: ANODYNE

I'd like to share this marvelous word of the day with you. As you read the definition of the word below, note particularly how both definitions 1 and 2 apply to the doyletics speed trace.
1. The speed trace serves to alleviate pain when the pain is a result of a doylic memory which creates some discomfort. These doylic discomforts often appear indistinguishable from physiological pain. One needs to know that physiological pain runs through the exact same circuits of the brain, the hypothalamus as doylic pain. It was Joseph LeDoux's work described in his book, "The Emotional Brain", which clued me to that fact. If you haven't read my review of his book, Google my site to find it.

2. The speed trace is innocuous in the sense that it will only remove the offensive doyle you are tracing. Thus it is definitely "not likely to offend." Also it removes tension and therefore it is "not likely to arouse tensions." Doylic memories, especially the ones you will want to trace away, are usually doyles of tension, perhaps even dynamic tension, as in the unbalanced wavering of the acrophobic or in my falling into the sky doyle.

Some of you know that Google, Inc. insists that you capitalize Google even when you use it as a verb in a sentence, as I did above. They are a business, and the word "Google" which they coined from the word "googol" belongs to them. This prompts me to remind you that the words "doyletics" and "doyles" and "doylic" are my gift to the world. I coined them, and, rightly understood, they are my primary property (aka intellectual property), but I decided from the beginning to give them to the world as automatic remoteness dilution (aka, no specified charge in advance).

It may take decades for my coined words to become as popular as "Google" is today, but I guarantee you that they will. Just as anyone can benefit daily from Googling a word to check for misspelling, find a map or an image, or a website, or reference, etc, so can anyone benefit from doing a speed trace to remove an unwanted doyle which may cause them pain and the discomfort which can result. A speed trace is a way of asking your body whether this unpleasantness you're feeling is simply an old pre-5 memory. Ask it and if the answer is "Yes", then the unpleasantness will disappear, for good. And, I hope you agree, that is very good indeed!

~~~~~      Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day:      ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

      anodyne \AN-uh-dyne\ adjective

1 : serving to alleviate pain
*2 : not likely to offend or arouse tensions : innocuous

Example sentence:
Afraid of seeming overly critical, the new coach would only offer a few anodyne suggestions.

Did you know?
"Anodyne" came to English via Latin from Greek "anodynos" ("without pain"), and it has been used as both an adjective and a noun ("something that relieves pain") since the 16th century. It has sometimes been used of things that dull or lull the senses and render painful experiences less so. Edmund Burke used it this way, for example, in 1790 when he referred to flattery as an "anodyne draft of oblivion" that renders one (in this particular case, the deposed king Louis XVI) forgetful of the flatterer's true feelings. In the 1930s, a newer second sense began appearing in our vocabulary. Now, in addition to describing things that dull pain, "anodyne" can also refer to that which doesn't cause discomfort in the first place.

*Indicates the sense illustrated in the example sentence.

To Subscribe to Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day:

http://www.startsampling.com/sm/wod/register.iphtml

4. Computer Art and Poetry

A computer cannot transcend its programmers, but a human can. A computer cannot exceed its limitations, but a human being has no limitations except the ones they accept and expect to happen. EAT-O-TWIST!

To select a great work of art or a great poem would require that a computer have a huge data bases with all the greatest works of art and greatest poems of literary history. In addition the data base would have to include the bad poems so the computer could distinguish the good from the bad. Since there are many times more bad works than great ones, the database would have be enormous. Even given such a data base, the computer’s task of comparison would be daunting — it would require much more time and processing than determining the next move in a chess game.

Once such a computer has been programmed, we would quickly find upon feeding it a new poem that it would fail because what makes a new poem great is exactly that is not like any of the other great poems. Walt Whitman's blank verse would have been deemed not to be poetry at by a computer program as nothing about it rhymed. Similarly for new works of art. What would such a computer have done with Picasso’s early cubist paintings? It would have rejected them as trivial and ugly, no doubt.

New works of great art come about from the destruction of the sameness of the extant works. This is another way of saying that new works come from the spiritual world, not the material world. A computer, which has no soul, may be able to compare new art with older forms of art, but it cannot receive inspiration from the spiritual world to create a new work of art. What a human being can do, with little or no training — admire a great work of art — a computer cannot do at all. Computers live solely in the past accomplishments of humans beings. Human beings, when they are not imitating computers, can live in the future world they are able to create.

5. Innocent Murderers and Killer Storms

Does it seem as curious to you as it does to me that we seem to have wandered into a world where people who kill other people can be declared innocent of any intent to kill while the natural forces of Nature can be declared to be killers? It certainly seems odd to me that a proven or confessed killer can be declared innocent by reason of insanity while a tornado can be declared to be a "killer storm." Isn't there any legal protection for slandering Nature? After all, the statistics of the victims of a so-called killer hurricane include even those who, e.g., go surfing in the high waves, do they not?

6. Comments from Readers:

  • Dear Bobby:
    There sure is a lot to digest in your Digest! You really had me going in your Cajun Story" I am still digesting the Rudolf Steiner's Secret Brotherhoods and the Mystery of the Human Double. I did not know about the ahrimanic double.

    You must be one of the most efficient and profficient people on the planet! Seeing all you do I sometimes feel like a pre-crawling baby.
    Thanks for all you do and send--keeping us abreast in many quarters.
    Ciao, Dave Lyons

  • Dear Bobby,
    I thoroughly enjoyed your new (August) digest and wanted to mention how exceptional your photos were, as many have mentioned in this month's issue, but they REALLY are exceptional. I just loved the 'New Stuff' with the sea life swimming. The card is just adorable. I know that Alaina (our granddaughter) would just love the card!
    Renee Lattimore
  • Hey there mon ami, I cannot recall when I was last accused of "desultory philippics" but I plead guilty as charged.
    Love, Kevin
    [This was in reference to a comment I left on Kevin Dann's recent Beyond Main Street Blog "Snooping out the Sophians", where I wrote, "Enjoyed this more than your recent spate of desultory philippics against a certain political figure, a habit which I fain have fall into rapid desuetude," which is sesquipedalian gobbledegook for "I like your new approach."]

== == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == ==
9. CLOSING NOTES:
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =

Thanks to all of you Good Readers for providing the Chemistry which has made this site a Glowing Success. — Especially those of you who have graciously allowed us to reprint your emails and show photos of you and by you on this website — you're looking good! As of June 1, 2019, it enters its 20th year of publication. The DIGESTWORLD Issues and the rest of the doyletics website pages have received over 21.6 MILLION VISITORS ! ! !

We have received over ONE MILLION VISITORS per Year to the Doyletics Website since its inception June 1, 2000, over twenty years ago. Almost 2 million in the past 12 months. We are currently averaging about 150,000 visitors a month. A Visitor is defined as a Reader who is new or returns after 20 minutes or more has passed. The average is about one visitor for every 10 Hits.

IMPORTANT NOTES about DIGESTWORLDtm

Our DIGESTWORLD came into existence years before Facebook and all the other social media which interrupt people's schedules many times a day. All our photos, reviews, cartoons, stories, etc, come to you via a link inside of one short email Reminder at the beginning of each month. We hope you appreciate how we let YOU choose when to enjoy our DIGESTWORLD Issues. To Get a Monthly Reminder, Click Here .

We especially want to thank you, our Good Readers, in advance, for helping our readership to grow. NOTE our name is now: DIGESTWORLD. Continue to send comments to Bobby and please do create links to DIGESTWORLD issues and Reviews on LinkedIn, on your Facebook page, and on other Social Media. When you copy any portion of a webpage or review, please include this text: "Copyright 2018 by Bobby Matherne".
       Email your friends about the reviews, the handy doyletics Speed Trace, the Household Hints, the cartoons, the Cajun jokes, the recipes, the poems, and the photos in all the DIGESTWORLD Issues archived on our website. Urge them to subscribe to the DIGESTWORLD Reminder so they won't miss a single issue!
       The Subscription Process SIMPLE: no Reply Confirmation is required. An email to the Editor with your First and Last names is all that's required. There is never a charge for viewing any page on our website; nor for any of the guidance we offer to people using the FIRST AID KIT or asking for help with doyletics in any other areas.
       For those who are able to contribute to the site we offer a year's subscription for receiving the DIGESTWORLD Monthly Reminders for $50.

~~ NOTE: DIGESTWORLD is a Trademark of 21st Century Education, Inc. ~~

The cost of keeping this website on-line with its 300 Gbytes of bandwidth a month is about $50 a month. Thank you, our Good Readers, for continuing to patronize our advertisers when they provide products and services you are seeking as you visit any of our web pages. Remember the ads are dynamically displayed and every time you read even the same page a second time, you may find new products and services displayed for your review. Our reviews, digests, tidbits, etc, all our webpages act as Google magnets to bring folks to the website to learn about doyletics and frequent our advertisers, so they support one another in effect.

We welcome your contributions to the support of the website and research into the science of doyletics. To obtain our street address, email Bobby at the address found on this page: http://www.doyletics.com/bobby.htm and we will send it to you. Every $50 subscription helps toward keeping this website on-line for another month. If you can't send money, at least show your support by sharing your favorite Issue of DIGESTWORLD and Reviews with a friend.

We wish to thank all Good Readers who have made a contribution to the doyletics.com website! Special thanks go to Chris and Carla Bryant in Corpus Christi and Gary Lee-Nova in Canada!


You can read a description of how to do a Speed Trace (either in English or Spanish):

Learn to Do a Speed Trace Here



Or Watch Bobby extemporaneously explain How to Do a Speed Trace on Video:



To make a connection to the Doyletics website from your own website, here's what to do. You may wish to use the first set of code below to link to the site which includes a graphic photo, or to use the second set of code for a text-only link. Immediately below is how the graphic link will look on your website. Just place this .html in an appropriate place on your website.

<CENTER> < — with graphics link — >
<A HREF="http://www.doyletics.com/index.htm">Learn to Do a Speed Trace Here<BR>
<IMG SRC="http://www.doyletics.com/doylepb.gif" width="309" height="102" border="2" TITLE="Learn to Remove Doyles — all those Unwanted Physical Body states of fear, depression, migraine, etc." ALIGN=middle><A/></CENTER>

<CENTER> < — text only link — >
<A HREF="http://www.doyletics.com/introduc.htm">Learn to Do the Speed Trace at doyletics.com <A/>
</CENTER>

Check out the new additions to the Famous and Interesting Quotations at:
http://www.doyletics.com/quotes.htm

== == == == == == == == == == ==

My reviews are not intended to replace the purchasing and reading of the reviewed books, but rather to supplant a previous reading or to spur a new reading of your own copy. What I endeavor to do in most of my reviews is to impart a sufficient amount of information to get the reader comfortable with the book so that they will want to read it for themselves. My Rudolf Steiner reviews are more detailed and my intention is bring his work to a new century of readers by converting his amazing insights into modern language and concepts.

== == == == == == == == == == ==

The Good Mountain Press Digest is mailed monthly to:

Friends and associates
Individuals who have expressed interest in the Digest
Persons who have subscribed at the Digest Subscription Page.

Please Don't Bug Us

Nothing BUGS US more than losing Hale-and-Hearty, Ready-to-Read Good Friends from the DIGESTWORLD Reminder List.


So we've made it easy for Good Readers who have changed their Email addresses and Friends who would like to begin receiving the DIGESTWORLD Reminder at the first of each Month:

IT'S EASY to RE-SUBSCRIBE or SUBSCRIBE:
CLICK HERE!

As of August, 2011 we have begun using a Contact Manager with an Email Merge feature which allows us to send personalized Emails to everyone in our Contact List. You can receive the colorful Email containing the DIGESTWORLD Reminder beginning with "Dear [Your First Name]". It is important that we have your First Name, so if the name you are addressed by in your Reminder is not your first name, please notify us of the name you wish us to use. For convenience you can send a quick email to give us your name by Clicking Here. To Contact Bobby, his Email address is visible on this page.

NOTE: As of 2018 the Topica.com List messages are NO LONGER READABLE!

Please do your part by letting us know of any email address change so that you may continue receiving the DIGESTWORLD Reminders. Most of our Readers come from folks who don't get these Reminders, but we offer the DIGESTWORLD Reminder as a service to our regular Good Readers. To send us your new email address, CLICK HERE! .

If you discovered this page by a Google Search and want to SUBSCRIBE NOW
Simply Click the Link at right to send an Email Request: SUBSCRIBE

If you have enjoyed a particular issue, let us know, especially around the first of each month when those "lost soul" messages are bugging us, Send us a quick email by Clicking Here!

If you have a friend or two that you think would enjoy reading the DIGESTWORLD, suggest they view the current DIGESTWORLD Issue and perhaps they'll decide to Subscribe.

To unsubscribe from the DIGESTWORLD Reminder List:
Click Link at right to send a Blank email to: UNSUBSCRIBE

If the above links which provide canned emails don't work on your system, you can send a Subscribe/Unsubscribe request to the address found on this page: http://www.doyletics.com/bobby.htm Please include your first and last name when Subscribing.


== == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == ==
10. GRATITUDE - in Three Easy Steps:
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =

Maintaining a website requires time and money, and apart from sending a donation to the Doyletics Foundation, there are several ways you can show your gratitude and support our efforts to keep doyletics.com on-line.

One would be for you to buy a copy of my Dolphin Novel, The SPIZZNET File. Books May be ordered in hardback or paperback form from Xlbiris the Publisher here:

online: http://www.xlibris.com/TheSPIZZNETFILE.html

email: orders@xlibris.com

The best source at the best price is to order your copies on-line is from the publisher Random House/Xlibris's website above.

Two would be for you to use the Google Search Engine for your web searches or to find an item on doyletics.com website. New reviews will have a place to do a Google Search at the top and the bottom of the reviews. Just enter a search phrase in the box below to do a Search. Note you can check whether to Search just this site or all websites.

Three would be for you to let us know you like us by Subscribing to our monthly Reminder. One short email each month with a link to our Latest DIGESTWORLD Issue will keep you apprised of our latest reviews, photography, poetry, Cajun stories, recipes, Movie Blurbs, Travels, and even more! Simply Click Here: Subscribe Me!

Thank you in advance!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


Google
Web www.doyletics.com

LIKE US? To Receive a Monthly DIGESTWORLD Reminder, Click the Link to Send Email Request: SUBSCRIBE

NOTE: Place Cursor over a photo for a few seconds to read text description.



CLICK FLAG TO OPEN FIRST-AID KIT.
All the tools you need for a simple Speed Trace
IN ONE PLACE.

== == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == ==

== == == == == == == == == == == == == == == ==
22+ Million Good Readers have Liked Us
22,454,155 as of November 7, 2019
  Mo-to-Date Daily Ave 5,528 Readers  
For Monthly DIGESTWORLD Email Reminder:
Subscribe
! You'll Like Us, Too!

== == == == == == == == == == == == == == == ==

Any questions about this DIGESTWORLD ISSUE, Contact: Bobby Matherne
CLICK HERE TO OPEN OUR FIRST-AID KIT.
Look at George Burns, Bob Hope, both lived to 100. Doesn't that prove that "He who Laughs, Lasts"? Eubie Blake at 100 told Johnny Carson, "If I'd known I'd live this long, I'd have taken better care of myself." Do you find nothing humorous in your life? Are your personal notes only blue notes? Are you unhappy with your life? Fearful? Angry? Anxious? Feel down or upset by everyday occurrences? Plagued by chronic discomforts like migraines or tension-type headaches? At Last! An Innovative 21st Century Approach to Removing Unwanted Physical Body States without Drugs or Psychotherapy, e-mediatelytm !
Does your Face sometimes resemble the Faces Below? If so, Click on the Faces or Flags to Dig into our First Aid Kit.


To follow Research in the science of doyletics, Read our Monthly DIGESTWORLD Issues.
Click Here to get Monthly Reminder.


For Copies of Reviewed Steiner Books, Click on SteinerBooks Logo below.

Visit Bobby's Other Reviews, Articles, and Essays

Books are Lighthouses Erected in the Sea of Time


Counselor?
Visit the Counselor's Corner for Suggestions
on Incorporating Doyletics in Your Work.



e-mediatelytm is a Trademark of 21st Century Education, Inc. Prototyped 2000.