To thine own self be true

Snoop Dog has given up smoking weed.

1. snapping fingers
2. whistling, especially of melodies. Often boys and men would whistle while doing nothing in particular and to make music. Whistling was one way to entertain oneself when walking or working alone.

whereby school children go to cemeteries to leave poppies on deceased soldiers’ graves is an excellent way to honour the dead who fought in wars to safeguard our country, other countries, and the world.

used in a tv commercial as usual.

The commercialization of Christmas has long been bemoaned going back to a Lawrence Ferlinghetti poem from his 1958 classic A Coney Island of the Mind:

Christ climbed down
from His bare Tree
this year and ran away to where
no fat handshaking stranger
in a red flannel suit
and a fake white beard
went around passing himself off
as some sort of North Pole saint
crossing the desert to Bethlehem
Pennsylvania
in a Volkswagen sled
drawn by rollicking Adirondack reindeer
with German names
and bearing sacks of Humble Gifts
from Saks Fifth Avenue
for everybody’s imagined Christ child

is liable to get stolen and sometimes even bolted things get stolen, too.

Like the 6 million 18-carat gold toilet that’s been stolen from an English palace, as reported today.

Works for me. Peaches from the sunny country that gave us Homer, Aeschylus, Sophocles, Herodotus, Zorba the Greek, the Grecian marbles, and the British Museum’s Grecian urn which inspired Keats to write his famous ode. A vision of dark blue waves breaking on a rocky Aegean shore; Odysseus on his long way home after the Trojan War.

apparently, for a mere $300 /hr. (by yourself, no one else in the room).

I visited for free twice on my early 1990’s fall New England literary trips (in the company of a few other tourist-fans). Both times, her famous white dress was also present in a glass case. The window is from where she lowered picnic basket goodies to local children below. She also wrote at the table beside it.

Leonard Cohen passed in 2016; the Thanks for the Ride memorial CD was assembled by his son Adam Cohen in 2019. Leonard started with poetry and finished the same way. These 9 poems have been set to music by Adam and other musicians; quite the labor of love.

This is no album for literal people; all the ironic words and images are metaphorical and symbolic, as is most of Cohen’s writings. Everywhere on the album lines and phrases jump out honestly and reveal Cohen’s sensibility in his last days:

Listen to the mind of G-d                                                                                                                Which doesn’t need to be                                                                                                                        Listen to the mind of G-d                                                                                                              Don’t listen to me                                                                                                                ……………………….

I can’t make the hills                                                                                                                         The system is shot                                                                                                                              I’m living on pills                                                                                                                                For which I thank G-d                                                                                                          ……………………..

German puppets burned the Jews                                                                                              Jewish puppets did not choose                                                                                                …………………….

No one to follow                                                                                                                                 And nothing to teach                                                                                                                          Except that the goal                                                                                                                         Falls short of the reach                                                                                                            ……………………

It’s torn where there’s beauty,                                                                                                           it’s torn where there’s death                                                                                                             It’s torn where there’s mercy                                                                                                           but torn somewhat less                                                                                            ………………………..

So turn up the music                                                                                                                       Pour out the wine                                                                                                                             Stop at the surface                                                                                                                            The surface is fine                                                                                                  …………………………….

The night of Santiago                                                                                                                        And I was passing through                                                                                                                 So I took her to the river                                                                                                                       As any man would do                                                                                                     …………………………..

And now you’re gone, now you’re gone                                                                                            As if there ever was a you                                                                                                                Who held me dying, pulled me through                                                                                              Who’s moving on, who’s kidding who                                                                              ………………………….

I had no trouble betting                                                                                                                      On the flood, against the ark                                                                                                            You see, I knew about the ending                                                                                                What happens to the heart                                                                                                     ………………………….

The musical arrangements are nicely unpredictable and listenable in themselves and put together; many of Cohen’s old musical collaborators are on board for this labor of love including: Javier Mas, Daniel Lanois, Patrick Leonard, Anjani Thomas, Sharon Robinson, Adam Cohen, and Jennifer Warnes.

If you are a fan of his previous three albums, this late entry is not to be missed for its final feelings and insights.