FRIDAY FIVE

Appetizer
Name 3 people whom you admire for their intelligence.
This is a fascinating topic. I started thinking about famous (probably dead) intelligent people and then I thought wait a minute who do I actually know, and then I thought what does intelligence mean to me. My dad was an early collaborator at Stanford with the designers of the Stanford-Binet IQ test so I know there’s that measure. But just to take a few xangan examples (IMO): (1) Intelligence is eclectic curiosity for all the variations of life exemplified by the deservedly popular Leonidas. (2) Intelligence is the ability to go get answers for all the problems that arise in life and probably having more of them just because it comes with the territory, and this is exemplified by my daughter, turtle_dove who is one of the smartest people I know and who always looks for solutions. (3) Intelligence is focus and passion and creativity, all wrapped up in a nutshell in our most consistent Real Writer, thenarrator, who pulls no punches and lets himself feel and share both hurt and joy.
Soup
What’s the last food you tried that you really didn’t care for.
Actually, I finally tried sushi for the first time in my life that I can recall and maybe it was just a crappy example of it in the hospital cafeteria but I’m sorry I just don’t love the taste of raw fish and cold sticky white rice. I think I can live the rest of my life without trying this delicacy again.
Salad
If you could rename the street that you live on, what would you want it to be called?
I like the name of my street – Nehalem. It’s a Salish Indian word meaning “place where people live.” How simple is that.
Main Course
When was the last time you were genuinely surprised?
When Brad Pitt and what’s her name broke up. Just kidding. Okay when Brad Pitt and what’s her name got together after he broke up with what’s her name. Truth is, not much surprises me any more.
Dessert
Share a household tip.
Sprinkle household cleaning products (like Ajax and/or something sticky) on ant trails. Hopefully when no ants are present but you’ve seen them there recently.
(See origin of graphic here).

Deep Thought:: “One afternoon, when I was about ten, I decided to walk over to the “wrong side of the tracks.” At first I was a little scared. But then I noticed that the yards were nice, and so were the houses. In fact, most of the houses were better than those on our side of the tracks. A lot better.”
Today I am grateful for: Great Spirits
Guess the Movie: “In the world I see – you are stalking elk through the damp canyon forests around the ruins of Rockefeller Center. You’ll wear leather clothes that will last you the rest of your life. You’ll climb the wrist-thick kudzu vines that wrap the Sears Tower. And when you look down, you’ll see tiny figures pounding corn, laying strips of venison on the empty car pool lane of some abandoned superhighway.” Answer: Fight Club, 1999. Winner: thenarrator.
Hiroshima Spirits, Nagasaki Voices:
Learning from the First Ground Zeroes
by Walter W. Enloe and David B. Willis
“The flash of light. The flash of light was like nothing I had ever seen before. Or since.” – Survivor of Hiroshima, July 2005
August 6 and August 9 are the 60th anniversaries of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the first and so far only nuclear catastrophes ever visited upon humankind. As with other anniversaries it is now time for reflection, in the cases of Hiroshima and Nagasaki especially so, as these two bombings and their aftermath, though with enormously devastating possible consequences for the entire world, seem to be fading from our collective memory, will, and consciousness. (Rest of article here.)
End of Day: 8:45 pm
+ = Finished watching The Story of the Weeping Camel – so fine.
- = Another sleepless night approaches in the 80+ degrees wee hours.

THURSDAY WHATEVER

Setting sun, Gleneden Beach, Oregon, July 2005

The grass-harps of madmen clatter
to a nine-nine rhythm

first wave, second wave, the sand
is entering itself with pleasure

will you, third wave, notice it;
the fourth wave breaks the surface

bearing nothing but the fifth wave birth
upon the sixth wave shore;

the guilty weaken quickly as the seventh wave
goes down to spread itself upon the breast

of all the eighth waves in the world
before the ninth wave turns them under.

(written by me years ago – photo from last week)

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Deep Thought: “I think a good scene in a movie would be where one scientist tells another scientist: “You know what will save the world? You’re holding it in your hand.” And the other scientist looks, and in his hand are some peanuts. Then, when he looks up, the first scientist is being taken away to the insane asylum”
Today I am grateful for: The sensation of soft
Guess the Movie: “When are you people going to learn? It’s not about who’s right or wrong. No denomination’s nailed it yet, and they never will because they’re all too self-righteous to realize that it doesn’t matter what you have faith in, just that you have faith. Your hearts are in the right place, but your brains need to wake up.” Answer: Dogma, 1999. Winner: tearsign.

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End of Day: 8:48 pm
+ = Still in that zone from the sea.
- = Back to record heat in the valley and my non-air-conditioned life.