f/k/a archives . . . real opinions & real haiku

 

New Year’s dawn
light first gathers
in the icicles

first page
of the new journal
untrammeled snow

after snowfall
a Buddha on the lawn
with coal eyes

 

Jim Kacian from Presents of Mind (Red Moon Press, 1996). “snowManGrayF”

• by dagosan

the hobo at Trailways –

nowhere to stay

or go

January 1

laughing ’til it hurts –

the Marx Brothers visit

January 2

haven’t seen the sun

all year

[Jan. 2, 2005]

 

one-breath pundit

Got Goat? We recently mentioned a local pet-or-meat? rabbit problem, but there’s a much bigger

Repast or Religion? conundrum stewing here in Schenectady, NY — our civic fathers and mothers,

along with the community, are debating whether to ban the backyard slaughter of goats (and,

due to equal protection worries, deer and all livestock) without a butcher license. This tale started

when an immigrant family apparently slaughtered a goat in its backyard (and cooked and ate it) this

summer, and a neighbor complained to our mayor, Bryan Stratton. Hizzoner was grossed out and

proposed the ban. Check out the ongoing conversation, with articles interspersed, at this Schenectady talkboard. You’ll find:

• folks worried about traumatizing our children by subjecting them to the sights
  and sounds of killing animals;
• others showing their barely veiled dislike for the many Indian-ethnic Guyanese,
  who have moved to Schenectady in recent years;
• a curmudgeonly columnist mocking a WASPy-preppy mayor in this culture clash
  (see Reply 15, Carl Strock column, Daily Gazette, Sept. 26, 2004, “Shrink-rap culture
  on the march”); and Reply 42 – Carl Strock column “Big Danger in Sch’dy: Goats?”
• an enterprising butcher, converting a truck into a curbside service (Reply 27, Daily
  Gazette, Oct. 26, 2004, “Butcher to offer mobile service”
• Scroll down to Reply 38, for a copy of an Albany Times Union, article, “Stratton turns
  
  focus to quality-of-life issue” Nov. 30, 2004); and Reply 41 to see reactions from our City
  Council (Daily Gazette, Dec. 07, 2004, “Schenectady proposal targets butchering”).go to
  “Goat Goes Mainstream,” for a Washington Post article on the national increase in demand
  for goats.

Thus — although this sad little rust-belt city has the lowest bond rates in the state; has recently

become the recipient of help from Curtis Sliwa and his Guardian Angels, to bring peace to our

neighborhoods; and has lost 33% of its population since 1950, with property values down

11.48% in just the past 5 years (see Newsday article) — you can come to our lovely City Hall for

the public hearing on Goat Slaughtering on January 10, 2005. See ya there!

There’s a very nice tribute to Susan Sontag and Jerry Orbach in Pete Hamill’s NYT op/ed

piece today. Hamill explains why “It was possible to cherish each of them in the same lifetime.” If you’d like an

Orbach memento, take a look at Brandon Bird’s the Law & Order Coloring Book, which we featured here.

“tinyredcheck” Our Sonorous Scold: Monica Bay has written a most uncommon New Year’s musing post — hitting all the right notes, and making me wish I coulda/hadda done it. I especially liked: “May we see the ordinary with new eyes. May we listen better,” and the next couple of clauses, which capture the quest for

the haiku moment.

Inadvertent Whiner? Unclear Winter? f/k/a turned up this morning as the #2 result in a [WeatherChannel]

Google search for Winer+Storm+Alert+Levels>. Who would have thought that Google would find almost

a thousand pages that contain all four of these words? Until I noticed the Weather Channel logo, I thought Dave Winer might be writing some code to improve Homeland /Userland Security. But, I figure someone

had lost a “t” (made an “ypo”) I sure hope the querist noticed the error sooner rather than later.

• How did we make the list you ask? In 2003, we had a post wondering whether anyone
  other than Dave Winer and one or two others populated the blogosphere. Meanwhile,
  the SideBar contained this dagosan haiku:

  storm alert
  every kind of cloud
  in one sky

Continuing to have more ego than common sense, I let myself be tempted into pinch-hitting over

at Mike Cernovich’s Crime & Federalism. (The poor wretch has been conned into believing he must

study for the bar exam.) Tonight, I’ve introduced my forthcoming series FedLabs 101. Make me and Mike

feel good and check it out, please.