Phyllis McGinley Gallery of Elders

Some short poetry by Phillis McGinley:

The Old Feminist

Snugly upon the equal heights

Enthroned at last where she belongs

She takes no pleasure in her Rights

Who so enjoyed her Wrongs.

The Old Politician

Toward caution all is lifetime bent,

Straddler and compromiser, he

Becomes a Public Monument

Through sheer longevity.

The Old Actor

Too lined for Hamlet, one the whole;

For tragic Lear, too coursely built,

Himself becomes his favorite role,

Played daily to the hilt.

The Old Beauty

Coquettes with doctors; hoards her breath

For blandishments; fluffs out her hair;

And keeps her stubborn suitor, Death,

Moping upon the stair.

The Old Prelate

God’s House such decades has been his

To tend, through fortunes or disaster,

He half forgets now which he is–

Custodian or Master.

August 1969

Peace……Love……..Music………Rain……….

Woodstock Photos: LIFE - Bill Eppridge and John Dominis

Heath Ledger Graces Vanity Fair

Picked up this yesterday for the weekend trip.  Happy to see some haven’t forgotten him already, especially with all the never-to-see-the-end-soon hype over MJ’s death.  Here’s a younger talent whose untimely death still haunts us…

Love, love, love this shot.

Peace…

What Could Have Been…

I imagine what could have been…had John Kennedy Jr. and his wife Carolyn BessetteKennedy had not died ten years ago today.  Ten years has passed…I remember this day, like my mother and father who remember the day John’s father died before I was born.  And last year, with all the political landscape in turmoil, with Hillary, Obama, and McCain, I had often wondered what it would have been like had this man decided to join the foray… I think we would have been pleasantly surprised.  This possibly would have been his time, or perhaps, 2012, which would make more sense.   A friend of John’s on GMA this morning said that John had been privately preparing for the presidency his entire life.  He never stated that he would run, but somehow we all knew…

Today I remember and honor John Kennedy Jr. and his lovely stylish wife Carolyn Bessette Kennedy.  They would have been smashing in our White House…but only after, I might add, our current incredible pres and first lady had made their exit. 

These were two lives cut way too short.  He was only 39. 

That day, that glorious-weathered Saturday, when the news channels continually ran clips and interviews of John, one stands out for me.  Among all the numerous film clips of John walking down the streets of New York this one is timely:  John is walking and approaches some steps, obviously talking to the too numerous photographers that hounded him daily wherever he went, and from what I’ve read he was always polite to them.  Here we see John suddenly lean down, out of the camera shot.  I’m thinking, what is he doing?  Tying his shoe?  Did he drop something?  The camera finally pulls back and down at John, who is kneeling on a step, petting a cat that was sleeping there. 

Got to love this man.

Peace John and Carolyn…wherever you are…

Shocking Indifference To Drowned Victims

More news from 2008 that The Wit Continuum cannot forget.  Article found in July on CNN.com/europe: 

“Italians wereexpressing outrage over published photos that show beach-goers near Naples going about their day as the bodies of two Roma girls lay on the shore.  The girls had drowned earlier in the day, but the tragedy draws attention to what one group calls Italy’s atmosphere of “racism” toward Gypsies.

“While the lifeless bodies of the girls were still on the sand, there were those who carried on sunbathing or having lunch just a few meters away,” Italian newspaper La Repubblica said.  The young girls reportedly had come to the beach with two others to sell trinkets.  They then went swimming but were overpowered by the strong currents.  Lifeguards were able to save only two of them. 

Their bodies were eventually laid out on the sand under beach towels to await collection by authorities who arrived hours later to carry them away in coffins.  The incident also drew condemnation from the Archbishop of Naples.  “Indifference is not an emotion for human beings,” he wrote in his parish blog.”

Three photos show the sunbathers (as above) near the bodies, another shows the coffins being carried past those lounging in their beach chairs, and another, which we find so appallingly disrespectful, a guy talking on a cell phone  not two feet from girls’ bodies, as if they were piles of sea weed washed ashore.  I wonder if the people in these photos admit it to anyone they know.  I could only hope not.

The End in 2012?

More doom and gloom appears on the History Channel this week which they call Armageddon week, or some bullshit of the sort, and the programs range from the “impending” ice age to Nostradamus’s end of the world predictions as well as the Mayan Calendar stories.  In case you haven’t heard, the Mesoamerican Mayan long count calendar ends on December 21 in the year 2012, just four years from now.  So called experts believe this means that the end of the world will happen then, thus we have been inundated with these stories for years now: end of the world – or not, maybe, possibly, there’s a chance, global warming a sign, or maybe not, new ice age? we’re all going to starve to death? – or not, maybe….there’s a chance……..CUT ME A BREAK.

I don’t know about anyone else out there, but I’m getting bored with it all.  The streak of paranoid delusion has yet struck again, and there are people who are worried, praying, and banking their decisions of the future on this “possible end” the Mayan calendar is so sure of. 

The “experts” agree something is about to happen.  More harbingers of the coming end time include UFO sightings, crop circle formations, disappearing honey bees, disappearing bat populations, and flocks of migratory birds falling from the sky.  The belief in the world coming to an end is rooted in ancient history – long before biblical history, in ancient Hindu texts and Asiatic acts of astronomic observations as well as the calendar calculations of the ancient Maya.  Why does the calendar end on that date? Maybe the Mayan dude (or dudette) who was the calendar keeper developed a case of triskaidekaphobia, the fear of the number 13 (see my phobia blog from yesterday) and decided this 2012 was a good date as any to quit, or maybe he or she died before appointing a new calendar writer to take over, or perhaps, no one wanted the job.  (I know, I know…but  really, is this any more corny than some of the crap people believe?????????)

Here are some other dooms-day beliefs that have gone around:

The Shakes believed the world would end in 1792.  

Great disappointment among the followers of William Miller, who fixed the date of doom on March 21, 1843.  Miller’s followers were afire with enthusiasm, but still failed to see Christ descending from the clouds as expected.  Miller decided he had miscalculated and set a new date on October 21 of the same year.  “On the appointed day  of doom frenzied believers donned their robes, tucked an ultimate lunch in the folds, and took their places on housetops, facing east.  On the 22nd they ate their lunch and climbed down.  Miller confesses his disappointment, but insisted ‘the day of the Lord is at the door.’”  The Millerites never gave up hope, and offshoot sects still exist today. 

Oriental sages said a Day of Brahma lasted a thousand years.  On the basis of that scripture it was decided that the world would end in the year 1000 A.D.  With the approach of that year, Europe was seized by an apocalyptic mania.  Towns and farms were abandoned.  Fanatics ran about announcing the Last Days.  In some places, commerce came virtually to a standstill.  The year passed uneventfully enough, but human society suffered greatly from famines and civil disorders caused by the doomsday belief. 

It may be in our genetic code, our human natures, to always be thinking that the world will end.  Perhaps we need to feel that all could just stop, with or without us dying in the process, and perhaps some of us do not need to feel this at all.  One thing always rings for me with these prophecies, that the world as we know it will end.  The key words are “as we know it”.   Instead of a literal change on the earth, perhaps a shift in consciousness will be the change, and the result will be make the world quite new, different, and free.  Maybe, just maybe, the end will be a good thing.

sources: Wikipedia and The Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets

drawings Link:  printouts of today’s date from the Mesoamerican Long Count Calendar

The World’s Oldest Cat

With our love for black cats, even the mostly black cat, The Wit Continuum could not resist this story. 

An English cat named Mischief recently celebrated his 27th birthday (which insidently in cat years makes him 125 or so) in Cornwall.  The Guiness Book of World Records puts this kitty as the current world’s oldest living cat.

The owners say he is going strong and “still manages to jump over the stair gate.”  Born in 1981, Mischief is as old as MTV, Beyonce, and Pac-Man.  And older than the oldest Jonas Brother by six years. 

Still, the record for the longest living cat in recorded history was Cream Puff, a Texas feline who died three years ago at the rip old age of 38.

Source: The World’s Oldest Cat Turns 125  by Julianne Smolinski for Lemondrop

Jen and Kate Bare All

Our take on the December covers of GQ and Vanity Fair magazines. 

            We aren’t sure why Jennifer Aniston found it necessary to literally expose herself to GQ this month.  The cover shot (which we’ve chosen not to show here) features her wearing only a men’s tie and should possibly be age rated.  Yes, in the photo spread she looks fabulous (her smooth, smooth, 40 year old thighs are of photo re-touch heaven…?) but why she chose to so blatantly objectify herself for a men’s magazine is beyond us.  Un-provocative and unnecessary.  (Anison sports a nasty “come get me” grin in a majority of the photos which saddens us.  I guess most people would think she was having fun.)  In any case, we find no artistic value here.  Sorry Jen.  We like you, but…

               Of all the pics we sort of like this one:

                 Kate Winslet however stopped our hearts.  For Vanity Fair cover this month we salute Kate’s classic-always style and in the these pics, and the ones in the issue, she evokes the screen goddess that she is along with an uncanny look of Catherine Deneuve. 

Le Chat Noir

Le Chat Noir is the 19th Century cabaret in the bohemian Montemartre district of Paris.  It was opened on November 18, 1881 at 84 Boulevard Rouchechourart by the artist Rodolphe Salis, and closed in 1897 much to the disappointment of Picasso when he visited in 1900.

In its hey-day, Le Chat Noir was a bustling nightclub – part artist salon, part rowdy music hall, partially due to an illegal piano.  The cabaret published its own journal Le Chat Noir.  It was here that Salon of Incoherent Arts, the “shadow plays” and the comic monologues got their start.

Above is the famous Theophile Steinlen poster, Tournee du Chat Noir (1896)

Source: Wikipedia

Now, Finally…Hope For America

Congradulations to our friends and everyone out there who “Rocked the Vote” yesterday.  Be proud of taking part in an outstanding moment of history.  It wasn’t difficult, was it?

“Out of many we are one.”

-Barack Obama

Rock The Vote – 2008

            Have no doubt, The Wit Continuum has been out expressing the right to vote.  The polls have been busier than ever, as predicted, which we think is a good sign.  Continuing to purvey for more thoughts, ideas and images to blog in the future.  Without mounting the podium I have one more thought to express:  If you’ve not been out there to vote yet stop playing with the computer and go.  Remember, if you don’t vote, you have no right to complain, not that you would want to…. Peace

Montparnasse Cemetery: Beyond The Language of the Living

  

If, as Jean-Paul Sartre once wrote, “Hell is other people,” the famous existentialist is no doubt rolling in his grave at this cemetery, which he shares with some 3,400 others.  In death, as at the cafe table, he rests next his lifelong love, Simone de Beauvoir.

“The communication of the dead is tongued with fire beyond the language of the living.”  – T.S. Eliot

Source: Novel Destinations: Literary Landmarks from Jane Austen’s Bath to Ernest Hemingway’s Key West.

Above: Grave markers of Sachery, Charles Pigeon, Unknown by this author, and Sartre/Beauvoir.  The Montparnasse Cemetery is a popular tourist destination located in Paris’ bohemian Montparnasse quarter.

Photo source: Cool and Spooky website called The Adams Residence

Ultimate Pet: The Black Cat

Of course, we at The Wit Continuum love, love, love cats…and especially this time of year our hearts are unrested by pure, perfect black ones.  Contrary to one’s fear or suspicions of cats, I feel an affinity with the creatures, the elegant grace, and the attitudes they pose on their terms only.

History of the black cat is both bleak and kingly.  Witchcraft, sorcery, and evil follow le chat noir, yet in Egypt the cat was worshipped and harming one was punishable by death.  In witchcraft, the black cat is considered to be a shape shifter, or an animagus, to which the cat’s human form is the witch herself.  Some believed the Devil himself took the form of a black cat.

In Scotland, a black cat on your porch is a sign of prosperity. In Italy hundreds of years ago, it was thought that if a black cat sat on the bed of a sick person, that person would die.  Meanwhile, a black cat on a ship was considered good luck by fishermen.  Today, cats retain a status of good luck in Britain and Ireland.  The Celts thought black cats were reincarnated beings able to divine the future.

We in America have the on-going superstition of a black cat crossng one’s path as predictive of bad events to come–especially if a full moon is present at the time.  There are still myths and legends about black cats-one we found particularly strange.  The bones of a black cat are believed by some to hold magical powers.  There is a black market for the sale of black cat bones with the belief that they will “bring luck or power to the bearer of the bones.”

Here’s a bit of folklore in celebration of Halloween:  If a black cat jumps over a dead body, or the grave of someone recently dead, the corpse will become a vampire.

                  OOOhhh…Here’s to Halloween…and cat’s of the dark everywhere.

Source: Wikipedia Free Encyclopedia

A Presidential Halloween?

          If the selling of Halloween masks has any weight in who will win the election next week consider this:  In the past, whichever presidential canidate’s mask sold the most during an election year has been winner of the election.

 

         Obama masks have outsold McCain masks 2 to 1 so far.

20 Things

The following is a list of just some of the things that I am thankful for.  This list can go on and on and on… Thankfully, I’ve kept my WITS and hope a few things inspire you to make your own list.  Other than the top three this is a random list not expressing order of importance.  However, I feel the first three should be on everyone’s list of things to be thankful for.  Enjoy.

 1. Alive and living in the USA.

 2. The Right to Vote.

 3. New President coming soon.

 4. Gas prices below 3 bucks.

 5. Halloween right around the corner.

 6. The full moon

 7. The state of Florida.

 8. Shopping

 9. Writing a blog.

10. Reading – anything good.

11. Yoga

12. Laduree Chocolate Macarons

13. Scary stories

14. Scary movies

15. Skelanimals

16. Black clothes

17. Coffee – non-black

18. Madonna on Tour

19. Driving my black Mercedes at night-moon roof open

20. Cool, crisp October air to breath.

In Morbid Yet Poetic Fashion

 

Morbid yet poetic, Skelanimals are the latest craze by our teen members of The Wit Continuum, who first saw this clothing line while shopping at Hot Topic.  With the subtitle to the Skelanimal name: Dead Animals Need Love Too, my deeply held dark side gets curious, especially with the approaching Halloween season. The Continuum places these scary yet hauntingly sad and lovable characters in the file with the Dark Fairies of Neopets.  Each pet comes with a profile and cause of death poem.

Diego The Bat:

Diego’s favorite scary movie is “Birds.”

You can usually find him in the dark upper corner of your closet sleeping during the day. At night he flies around pestering the other Skelanimals to play…  While you’re asleep, Diego will watch over you to make sure the bugs don’t bother you.

How Diego Died:

Diego would glide and fly through the night

His sense of vision was perfect and bright.

He would wake the birds as they tried to sleep

Screeching and flapping with screams so deep.

Tired they were, these birds so weary,

Each day became longer and uncomfortably dreary.

A lesson had to be taught to this bat of the dark.

‘Let us sleep near the wire fence!’ squeaked the small, quiet lark.

Diego flew screeching, and speeding passed the fence

And through the rows of barbed wire so many and dense.

He weaved and dodged through the spiral blades

Only to be chunks of hues and shades.