The States of Colorado and Wisconsin

One of the funniest videos you will ever see for Mad the tv show. I'm not a fan of YouTube and its kin, but this is priceless:

http://www.rezab.com/

Nearly as good is this opening for SNL by Chris Rock:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1RlVtsAvKfs

And of course there is the Hillary take on the Apple Big Brother commercial. I don't think it helps Obama all that much. For one thing, the speech she is making is not all that disturbing. In addition, the first primary is ages away; and do YouTubers really vote? The talking heads will cream over it for a couple of days, but the AG scandal is juicier and a lot more lasting.

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Erik Larson is his book, Thunderstruck, wrote the captain of a cross-Allantic ship had:

"...a new rsponsibility - whether the ship's Marconi set and aerial were in good repair and ready to receive the inevitable flurry of trivial messages that engulfed a liner upon departure. Although the jokes, bon voyages, and riddles were utterly predictable, they nonetheless reflected the wonder with which people still treated this new and almost supernatural means of communication. (Italics mine.)

Sound like anything else we now use to communicate with?

Larson is also author of Issac's Storm, the best hurricane book ever, and The Devil in the White City, an equally well-written study.

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You may not know it, but I have a book for sale - poems based on Wang Wei's River Wang poems: A River Transformed. You can purchase it at http://www.lulu.com/content/178110

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This week's Poetic States include another of my favorites, Colorado. The full index of States is at http://garydawg.blogspot.com/2007/01/indexing-states-and-one-forgot-last.html


Poetic States XL – Colorado

Litter and Lice

Kill and scalp all, big and little; nits make lice.
-- Colonel John Chivington, leader of the volunteers
who attacked the Cheyenne’s Sand Creek camp

the old women, neške'e,
toothless, barren, are dead

their gray hair lies in the campfires
like last year’s leaves lie beneath birch

the old women are dead

the young women, he'eo'o,
brides, mothers, are dead

their scarred bodies lie in the teepees
like soiled rags in a trader’s wagon

the young women are dead

the children, ka'êškoneho,
babies, grandbabies, are dead

their broken bodies trampled under hoofs
like America’s flag in the Colorado mud

the children are dead

the old men, ma'hahkêseho,
elders, grandfathers, are dead

their blood floats in the creek
like sand in the stream’s floods

the old men are dead

the nits, the lice, hestaemo, are dead,
the red willow downed,
the rabbit skinned

justice, humanity, is dead,
Black Kettle’s peace, nanomonestôtse, is dead

the young men, hetaneo'o, are alive,
their horses driven hard to battle,
their knives revenged with blood

the young men ride to die


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sand_Creek_Massacre

http://www.manataka.org/page161.html

http://www.manataka.org/page633.html


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Poetic States XLI – Wisconsin

The Wonder of It All

…the Wonder Spot, a mysterious cabin where people can't stand up straight, water runs uphill and chairs balance on two legs, is no more. –AP News

The mysterious attraction closed for the same unrelenting
march of progress that demands cemeteries be moved
to construct reservoirs or an airport’s third runway.

“There were a lot of accidents.”

As if accident s are not expected in the vicinity
of an energy vortex no one can explain away –
as if an increase in mishaps could not be anticipated.

If the highway engineers have miscalculated,
watch for swimsuits at Noah’s Ark Water Park
to slide up the water tubes backwards.

“…it's hard to run water uphill when a car
is driving right by the fence…”

And it is hard to maintain the faith,
when all the world is an amusement park.


Quotes by the owner, Bill Carney.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070205/ap_on_fe_st/wonder_spot

http://www.roadsideamerica.com/tnews/NewsItemDisplay.php?Tip_AttrId=14477

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Until next week.

Smiles.

Gary