Saturday, November 25, 2006

So Many Poets, So Little Poetry


Current mood: dismayed

Category: Writing and Poetry




COMPOUND FRACTURE


A line

break

does not a

poem

make.





(From Deeplip's The Little Book of Poems About Poetry and Poets
.)

Thursday, November 23, 2006

Tofurky Day


Current mood: benevolent

Category: Life




Spare the turkey;
hold the ham.
Ditto duck and
leg of lamb.
Tonight when I
sit down to eat,
I'll give thanks
I don't eat meat.



(Deeplip, who marches to a different drumstick.)



No Good Deed Goes Unpunished



Current mood: somber

Category: News and Politics


From YAHOO! News:


Secret Santa reveals his identity

By MARIA SUDEKUM FISHER, Associated Press Writer Sat Nov 18, 3:13 AM ET

For 26 years, a man known only as Secret Santa has roamed the streets every December quietly giving people money.

He started with $5 and $10 bills. As his fortune grew, so did the gifts. In recent years, Secret Santa has been handing out $100 bills, sometimes two or three at a time, to people in thrift stores, diners and parking lots.

So far, he's anonymously given out about $1.3 million. It's been a long-held holiday mystery: Who is Secret Santa?
But now, weak from chemotherapy and armed with a desire to pass on his belief in random kindness, Secret Santa has decided it's time to reveal his identity.

He is Larry Stewart, a 58-year-old businessman from the Kansas City suburb of Lee's Summit, Mo., who made his millions in cable television and long-distance telephone service.

His holiday giving started in December 1979 when he was nursing his wounds at a drive-in restaurant after getting fired. It was the second year in a row he had been fired the week before Christmas.

"It was cold and this car hop didn't have on a very big jacket, and I thought to myself, `I think I got it bad. She's out there in this cold making nickels and dimes,'" he said.

He gave her $20 and told her to keep the change.

"And suddenly I saw her lips begin to tremble and tears begin to flow down her cheeks. She said, `Sir, you have no idea what this means to me.'"

Stewart went to the bank that day and took out $200, then drove around looking for people who could use a lift. That was his "Christmas present to himself." He's hit the streets each December since.

While Stewart has also given money to other community causes in Kansas City and his hometown of Bruce, Miss., he offers the simple gifts of cash because it's something people don't have to "beg for, get in line for, or apply for."

That was a feeling he came to know in the early '70s when he was living out of his yellow Datsun 510. Hungry and tired, Stewart mustered the nerve to approach a woman at a church and ask for help.

The woman told him the person who could help was gone for the day, and Stewart would have to come back the next day.

"As I turned around, I knew I would never do that again," Stewart said.

Over the years, Stewart's giving as Secret Santa grew. He started a Web site. He allowed the news media to tag along, mostly because he wanted to hear about the people who received the money. Reporters had to agree to guard his identity and not name his company, which he still does not want revealed.

His entourage grew over the years, and he began traveling with special elves. People like the late Negro Leagues icon Buck O'Neil, who handed out hugs while Stewart doled out $100s. NFL Hall of Famer Dick Butkus will join Stewart this year in Chicago when Stewart hands out $100s in honor of O'Neil, the first African-American coach in the Major Leagues.

They'll give out $100,000 between Chicago and Kansas City. Four Secret Santas who Stewart "trained" will hand out an additional $65,000.

Doctors told Stewart in April that he had cancer of the esophagus and it had spread to his liver. He has been lucky, he says, to get into a clinical trial at M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. But the aggressive chemotherapy has stripped away his appetite and energy. He's lost about 100 pounds, but has held onto his white hair.

The treatment costs more than $16,000 a month, not including the cost of traveling to Houston every two weeks and staying there for five or six days. He now has two months off, but returns to treatment in February.
His insurance company won't cover the cost of the treatment, which has left him concerned about his finances and his family.


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Unfortunately for Mr. Stewart, God works in mysterious ways.

Sunday, November 05, 2006

Hyperbole


Current mood: instructive

Category: Writing and Poetry



Love means never having to write a prose poem about your feelings.
Proof That God Has A Sense Of Humor

Current mood: newly devout

Category: News and Politics


From YAHOO! News:

The president of the National Association of Evangelicals, an outspoken opponent of gay marriage, has given up his post while a church panel investigates allegations he paid a man for sex.


The Rev. Ted Haggard resigned as president of the 30 million-member association Thursday after being accused of paying the man for monthly trysts over the past three years.

Haggard, a married father of five, denied the allegations, but also stepped aside as head of his 14,000-member New Life Church pending an investigation.

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An anagram of "evangelist" is "evil agents".
Surprise of the Week


Current mood: exasperated

Category:
News and Politics


From webmd.com:


Dementia May Rise With Longevity


As More People in U.S. Live Longer, the Number of Dementia Cases Will Go Up

By Miranda Hitti

WebMD Medical News


Reviewed By Louisa Chang, M.D.on Tuesday, October 31, 2006


Oct. 31, 2006 -- Dementia may be set to rise as more people live longer.

---------------------------------------------------------

Well, duh!
Bush Wants It Both Ways


Current mood: derisive

Category: News and Politics

FROM YAHOO! News

Bush hits hard at gay marriage

By JENNIFER LOVEN, Associated Press Writer 2 hours, 31 minutes ago

President Bush has for months cast the midterm elections as a choice about just two issues: taxes and terrorism. Now, with polls predicting bleak results for Republicans, he is trying to fire up his party by decrying gay marriage.

"For decades, activist judges have tried to redefine America by court order," Bush said Monday. "Just this last week in New Jersey, another activist court issued a ruling that raises doubt about the institution of marriage. We believe marriage is a union between a man and a woman, and should be defended."

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Bush would not be president today were it not for activist judges who redefined America by court order.