The Coincidence Cannot Abide

Yesterday, I, somewhat randomly watched an episode of House that I had recorded a couple of months ago. It was about a possible smallpox case that derived from a broken bottle brought up from the frothy deep, that had exploded, and cut a young lady's hand. The bottle was from a sunken slave ship from yore unknown. Ultimately Spock would've termed it illogical, but nevertheless, after one guy dies, it turns out to be something else...

zzzzzzzz. Hopefully not putting you to sleep.

After this show was over, I wandered over my list of shows on Tivo, and decided to watch Bones.

After a couple of minutes on this show it suddenly pops up that there are 'bones' discovered from a sunken slave ship. This show also had been recorded a couple of months ago. It goes on to tell the tale of some gigolo, who died at the end of his "Jane's" hook. There were also pink worms involved - and then there was a melodramatic scene about the slaves, and their lost lives - yeah, but what are lives without freedom!

Okay, then about halfway through Bones, I realized it was MLK's Big Daddy Birthday! Okay, you may all think this is co-incidental, but I'm getting damned paranoid. What the hell is God trying to tell me!

Travelling with your Stuff

I can barely handle travelling now; and yet I think that's all I'll want to do once Alice is beyond the pale. I could explain why I can barely handle it but don't want to - elsewhyse - I hope and think that Alice's pale is still a few years down the road.

I bought something from Amazon.com (more mystery) and it's coming from Indiana. Through the wonders of 'tracking' I know that it has traveled into (and probably out of) Illinois. I realized while thinking about this, that there is some visceral connection that I have with my 'stuff' that allows me to travel with it through my imagination; there's Iowa... barren fields this time of year. Perhaps I have mistaken Missouri for Iowa, but same general idea.

I don't know why this visceral connection should exist, but I believe it really does. Of course the 'tracking' really helps to make it so, but I still think that in the olden days this was probably still true. I imagine a prairie girl ordering a pretty dress from some outfitter in Chicago, and riding along on its trip too. Hey; bon voyage!

* The word 'stuff' was brought to you today courtesy of Amazon.com

Who Would Fardels Bear

-Something brought To Be or Not To Be to mind, and for a moment there I thought I could still recite half a dozen lines.

The wonder of the internet is that in a matter of seconds you can verify whether this memory or that memory is correct.

I think I dropped about 3 or 4 lines between the 4th and 5th.

Being on the internet, of course I read it from top to bottom; then back from top to bottom. And so forth.

I realized of course that I'd missed more than half of it in the first place. The true heart of the poem is in the lines below; 'the grunt and sweat under a weary life' and 'pangs of despised...' struck a chord.

For who would bear the whips and scorns of time,

The oppressor's wrong, the proud man's contumely,

The pangs of despised love, the law's delay,

The insolence of office and the spurns

That patient merit of the unworthy takes,

When he himself might his quietus make

With a bare bodkin? who would fardels bear,

To grunt and sweat under a weary life,

But that the dread of something after death,

The undiscover'd country from whose bourn

No traveller returns, puzzles the will