get off my lawn... !

Charles M. Schulz, it turned out, was a bit of a curmudgeon who isolated himself from friends and family, perhaps best illustrated when he said thru his avatar Linus Van Pelt, "I love humanity. It's people I can't stand!" I pondered this as I had an exchange recently on Twitter with a woman offering one of those soporific thought-munchies about expecting others to do unto you as you would do unto them, a reversal on the biblical golden rule from the Sermon on the Mount (I think), and which she's now deleted, wonder of wonders. My response was a simple: "But what if one is a misanthrope?" It was one of my many attempts at humor, but it also made me wonder subsequently if I wasn't in fact a misanthrope... or just a curmudgeon.

Food4thought!

life is cheap, you say... ?

I see American society spiraling toward a more volatile if not unrelentingly violent feudal system controlled exclusively by the obscenely wealthy who would without a care bludgeon the masses whose lives they deem as cheap. I am, at rest, progressive in thought, and did at one time fervently believe the motto engraved atop the Supreme Court's building facade: "Equal Justice Under Law," an ideal now proved to be at best beyond reach, or at worst a hideous fraud... all to my gloom and disillusionment.  Should one not then avail himself of weaponry with the expressed intent of putting it to useful purpose when the metaphorical balloon goes up and as he just happens to be in the way? Or perhaps just before... would he be a hero then or a villain?

fix it... !!

I *must* be getting old because I object to the beat-to-death incorporation of Neil Diamond's (a Brooklynite, not Brooklineite!) 'Sweet Caroline' for the 7th-inning stretch at Fenway. Oh, I get the fans love to jerk off to the 'So good! So good!' rhythms, and that it wakes them the fuck up to survive the final 1-1/2-to-2 innings, gahd forbid extra frames, but haven't they heard: it's a song about Caroline Kennedy at the age of 5, and the 'touching me/touching you' inspiration is way past creepy. And, Jesus Christ, it's been 13 years since 9/11. I mean, Irving Berlin's "God Bless America" is a lovely anthem and all, but group-nationalism TWICE a game is bullshit! Either get rid of it or the national anthem before the start of the game or both! And shove the flag-lapel pins up yer ass while yer at it!! And couldn't we just pipe in a recording of John Kiley's cover of 'Take Me Out To The Ballgame' for old-time's sake? And make the Sox wear knickers and SOCKS again. No more with the bell-bottom pantaloons!! This is BASEBALL, not 'Dancing With The Douche-cups!'