Nina, born March 31, 2010 at 5:05 AM

My daughter and first grandchild are now home and doing well.
Nina took her time being born and so did her mother.
They were coming from a better place.

 "Take the matter of being born. What does being born mean to mostpeople? Catastrophe unmitigated. Social revolution. The cultured aristocrat yanked out of his hyperexclusively ultravoluptuous superpalazzo,and dumped into an incredibly vulgar detentioncamp swarming with every conceivable species of undesirable organism. Mostpeople fancy a guaranteed birthproof safetysuit of nondestructible selflessness. If mostpeople were to be born twice they'd improbably call it dying--"- e.e. cummings, Introduction, New Poems

Why does the Catholic Church have to drag the Jews into every sleazy thing they do?

Here's a quick note for Holy Week:

 A quote from story reported by the BBC:  

His (Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury) comments came after Pope Benedict's personal preacher, the Rev Raniero Cantalamessa, compared criticism of the pontiff and Church over child abuse to "collective violence" suffered by the Jews.
Speaking at Good Friday prayers in St Peter's Basilica, attended by the Pope, Father Cantalamessa quoted a Jewish friend as saying the accusations reminded him of the "more shameful aspects of anti-Semitism".

If the Church hierarchy is comparing the criticism they are getting for their institutional, long time, practice of child rape to anti-Semitism then they have put an equivalence of Jewishness with pedophilia. It is helpful to know what they really think about Jews, as if we didn't already suspect the truth.

My Prayer:
May all the institutions of religion come crashing down and may humans experience truth directly from Hashem. Amen. 

An Observation:
The Book of Revelation should have been called the Book of Obfuscation.

Monk's Advice (1960)

- Just because you’re not a drummer, doesn’t mean that you don’t have to keep time.

- Pat your foot and sing the melody in your head when you play.

- Stop playing all that bullshit, those weird notes, play the melody!

- Make the drummer sound good.

- Discrimination is important.

- You’ve got to dig it to dig it, you dig?

- All reet!

- Always knows …(Monk)

- It must be always night, otherwise they wouldn’t need the lights.

- Let’s lift the band stand!!

- I want to avoid the hecklers.

- Don’t play the piano part, I am playing that. Don’t listen to me, I am supposed to be accompaning (sic) you!

- The inside of the tune (the bridge) is the part that makes the outside sound good.

- Don’t play everything (or everytime); let some things go by. Some music just imagined.

- What you don’t play can be more important than what you do play.

- A note can be small as a pin or as big as the world, it depends on your imagination.

- Stay in shape! Sometimes a musician waits for a gig & when it comes, he’s out of shape & can’t make it.

- When you are swinging, swing some more!

- (What should we wear tonight?) Sharp as possible!

- Always leave them wanting more.

- Don’t sound anybody for a gig, just be on the scene.

- Those pieces were written so as to have something to play & to get cats interested enough to come to rehearsal!

- You've got it! If you don’t want to play, tell a joke or dance, but in any case, you got it! (to a drummer who didn’t want to solo).

- Whatever you think can’t be done, somebody will come along & do it. A genius is the one most like himself.

- They tried to get me to hate white people, but someone would always come along & spoil it. -

Thelonius Monk (as transcribed by Steve Lacy)

 On the Beach, John Bonanno photo of my daughter Nicki, who is having a baby this week.



This Week's Maine Words of the Day 
Part Two

Maine word of the day: "puncheon" slab lumber used back in the day for flooring and much valued in old homes today. From the French word for "cask for liquor," 1479, from M.Fr. poinchon (13c.), of unknown origin. Uncertain connection with puncheon "slab of timber" (1466), also "pointed tool for punching" 1425–75; M...E ponchoun, punchon < MF ponçon, perh. to be identified with puncheon.

Maine word of the Day: "Fitten" adj. Proper, seemly, example: "It not fitten they gave Alex a letter of warning the day before he retired."

Maine word of the day: "Corn Sweat" a heated effort to cajole or convince, from boiled ears of corn laid alongside a patient under the covers to get him to sweat out a fever. example: "My supervisor thought he could corn sweat me to get  back in eight hours by waving  around the numbers  but I had eight certs, fifteen parcels ...and my DPS was an ugly mess and that just aint in the numbers."

Maine word of the day: "squaretail" the brook trout, not to be confused with a "togue" the lake trout which has a forked tail.

Maine Word of the Day: "Sport" a paying guest at a hunting or fishing camp who has hired a registered guide. example: "Lester's pretty ugly about the sports crowdin' his fishin' spot but they paid for his new truck."

Maine word of the day: "Cowbeef" meat from a cow which has outlived her milking days. Not too savory.

Quote of the Day

"Unto the lewd all things are lewd."-Theodore Schroeder