Monday, December 30, 2019

DESIGNER CHILDREN





A Chinese scientist was just sent to jail for having modified the DNA of a human embryo of twin girls, producing an immunity to HIV.     


This case raises the ire of many Christians and other religious denominations who have referred to the scientist as Frankenstein.
  

This is again where science runs up against dark age religious thinking – where science must drag religion out of the age of mysticism.
 

There are medical ethical concerns to do with the possible unknown side effects of editing the targeted gene, and these are fair complaints; but the religious moral police should be disregarded
 


There will come a time when designer children are the norm; and future generations look back on this era and marvel how religious thinking still dominated the 20th and 21st century, delaying genetic research that could have resulted in cures for birth deformities and many of our most debilitating and deadly diseases. 

 Of course, there is always thoughts and prayers.

the Ol'Buzzard







A PROBABILITY PUZZLE FOR THE NEW YEAR








A friend lays out three envelopes on a table: a red one, a blue one and a green one.   He tells you that two of the envelopes have a nude picture of Donald Trump and the third has one-hundred-dollar in cash.  

The friend knows which envelope contains the one-hundred-dollars.

He tells you to pick an envelope and if you pick the one with the $100, you can keep it.

You pick the red.

Your friend tells you he will narrow the odds and opens the blue envelope and shows you Donald Trump’s ass. 

You still have the red envelope and the green remains on the table.

He asks you if you want to swap the red envelope for the green.

Should you swap?

The answer is below
















Yes, you should swap.   When you picked the red envelope there was a thirty-three percent chance (33%) that you picked the envelope with cash, and a sixty-six (66%) percent chance that the envelope with the cash still remains on the table.  

Once your friend opens the blue envelope and shows Donald Trump’s ass, the probability has not changed: there is still a thirty-three percent chance that you have the cash envelope and a sixty-six percent chance that the cash envelope remains on the table – in the green envelope.  

You can test this probability results with three playing cards: two black and one red.     If you run the test forty times you will find that swapping the card is best option. 



Wednesday, December 25, 2019

A CHRISTMAS MIRACLE





PROOF THAT MIRACLES STILL DO HAPPEN









the Ol'Buzzard


Tuesday, December 24, 2019

HAPPY WEDNESDAY TO ME, HAPPY CHRISTMAS TO YOU, AND HAPPY HANUKKAH IF YOU ARE A JEW


























I do like the holidays, regardless of whose custom.  It is nice seeing people being nice to each other

the Ol'Buzzard



Monday, December 23, 2019

CATCH-22







I first read Catch-22, by Joseph Heller, in the early sixties when I was on my first enlistment in the military.    The story perfectly chronicled my experience at that time, SNAFU, Situation Normal All Fucked Up.


I am glad I decided to reread it over this holiday season.   Now, being older and life experienced I am able to see depth in this story that speak to the dysfunctional construction of human society and human interaction in general.


The overviews of Catch-22 is the story of Capitan Yossarian, a Second World War bombardier navigator on a B-25 bomber, tasked to fly low altitude bombing missions over heavily protected targets.   The result of every mission is a loss of aircraft and flight crew.  The missions are so dangerous that the Army Air Corps has set a maximum number of missions that air crew members are required to fly, after which crew members will be grounded and rotated back to the States.   The problem with Yossarian’s squadron is that their colonel keeps raising the mission numbers, resulting in flight crew members never rotating out.   Yossarian is certain that if he continues to fly he will be killed.  He appeals to the Squadron doctor to medically ground him.


Here is the catch.   The only condition the squadron doctor is allowed to ground flight crew members, is if a crewman is insane and submits a written request to be grounded.  But in that case the doctor is not allowed to ground the crew member because of Catch-22, which states that if a crew member request to be grounded he is obviously sane and therefore required to fly His scheduled missions. 


This book will not make the reading list of the liberal, woke community because of racist and misogynistic text; it can not fit into their utopian bubble. Though, the attitudes toward women and race were the accepted attitudes, especially in the military, at that time and place. 

  
But for the rest of us that live, and have lived in the gritty world of reality, Catch-22, like George Orwell’s 1984, is an insight into social, political and bureaucratic governance at its most dysfunctional.   

the Ol’Buzzard



Saturday, December 21, 2019

THE OLD YEARS EVE WINTER SOLSTICE



December 21, 2019






Today the old year ends with the shortest day of the year.   

Tomorrow is the beginning of the new year as days get longer moving toward summer.  

happy new year
the Ol'Buzzard 

Wednesday, December 18, 2019

FOR THE 2020 ELECTION WE NEED TO KEEP OUR EYE ON THE BALL










I don’t give a fuck about Medicare For All.  I don’t give a rat’s ass about the environment.   I could care less about immigration.  The rich can go fuck themselves and keep their money.   Every policy that the Democrat candidates are expounding is falling on my deaf ears.
   

The only thing that matter in the next Presidential election in beating Donald Trump. 
 

Albert Einstein came to his monumental scientific concepts through ‘Thought Experiments.’ 
  

This is what I am doing in regard to the Democrat Candidates opposing Trump.


In my mind I see each individual Democrat candidate, one-on-one with Donald Trump, in a debate hosted by a major news networks.    

Joe vs Trump
Elizabeth vs Trump
Bernie vs Trump
Peat vs Trump


The outcome is not good.  Trump, with his showmanship and vicious personal attacks, name calling, confronting with half-truths and lies, will eviscerate each candidate on that list.


Trump’s confidence is that he actually believes himself superior to each Democrat candidate, because he is richer.    Trump the billionaire.   Trump the billionaire business man.   Trump the billionaire successful showman… “You’re fired.”


But then I see Michael Bloomberg on stage with Trump.   Bloomberg, who can buy and sell trump fifty times over.  Bloomberg, a legitimate multi-billionaire, a legitimate successful businessman.  Bloomberg, a take no shit, New York mayor.  



 

Trump would feel totally inferior to Bloomberg, and be afraid to attack him or name him, in his usual bellicose style. 


Bloomberg would eviscerate Trump on stage.
 

We need to keep an eye on the ball, and not get distracted by policy proposals and who can appeal to which section of our base.   We all need to unite on the person that can put down Trump; and that person is Michael Bloomberg. 
 

I am confident that we will win the popular vote with any of our candidates.  But, our best chance to win the Electoral College in the swing states is not with policy, but by making Trump look small, making Trump look weak, making Trump look like the insecure, ridiculous clown he actually is.


In order to do this, we have to make Trump feel small, weak and insecure on stage against his Democrat opponent.


Trump would actually fear Michael Bloomberg, and in my thought experiment, in a one-on-one debate against Bloomberg, Trump would lose control, and crash and burn on stage for all to see. 





In my opinion, Bloomberg is our best chance to defeat Donald Trump.

the Ol’Buzzard




Monday, December 16, 2019

THE REAL STORY OF MOSES AND THE TEN COMMANDMENTS









Fundamentalist quote their New Testament, without ever realizing that the book wasn’t put together until 325 A.D.   Of course, by then, the stories had been passed down and modified until they were no more relevant than fairy tales
. 

The same goes for the Old Testament.  Can you imagine a six-hundred-year-old man and his one-hundred-year-old sons building a boat, and then collecting two of every animal in the world; then sailing in a flood that covered the earth, mixing salt water and fresh water…  and the unicorns missed the boat. 


Wikipedia says that Moses was probably a legendary figure (like King Arthur) and not a historic person.  The main point of the Moses story is the issuance of the Ten Commandments.   Actually, the story happened something like this:


A group of indentured servants, after traveling for six days, fleeing bondage in Egypt, had decided to rest from their travel at the base of Mt. Sinai.   The people spent the day putting together a celebration to thank the Gods, and to boost morale.    As the evening came on and the fires were lit people started to realize that old Moses was missing.
   
Eli, “Moses always wants the recognition, but disappears every time there is work to be done.”

Rachel, “You shouldn’t be so hard on him.  He’s probably off praying.”

Eli, “Praying my ass.    He has probably been dipping into the fermented camel milk and is sleeping it off somewhere on the mountain.”

Moses, who had been dipping into the fermented camel milk, listened from the cover of a shelf above the company.    He overheard everything.   

Moses decides to make an entrance.   Hear ye, hear ye sinners, I have just returned from the top of the mountain where God summoned me! God told me, that as your leader, you should follow me without question, because only I know Gods plan. 
 
Eli, “Yeah right.”

One of the scribes, “A God actually spoke to you?   What did he say?

Moses, “After telling me that I’m the leader and that everyone should follow me without question, HE gave me some rules that were written down on rock tablets, but I dropped them and they broke on the treacherous way down the mountain.  Not to worry though, because I know them by heart.”

One of the scribes, “Maybe we should write all this down.”

Moses, “Yeah, that a good idea.  Write all this down.”

Abe, “Moses, what God were you talking with.”

Moses, “He was the head God, the only God you are to worship.   The one I say.”

The scribe writes: No God but me.

Abe, “What about the cow God?

Moses, “He said if you worship any other god he will kill your children, your grandchildren, your great grandchildren and your great-great grandchildren – to the fourth generation.

The scribe writes Don’t worship the cow.

Jacob, “God damn!”

Moses, “You can’t say that.”

The scribe writes: Don’t swear at God.

Jacob, “We have been traveling for six days.  I know this is important, but can we still have our party tonight?”

Moses, “God says it’s OK.”

The Scribe writes: Party on the seventh day is OK.

Marge, “Moses, what else did God say?”

Moses thinks for a minute, looks at his children, then says, “Children should obey their parents.”

The scribe writes it down

Moses, “And God also said, no murder.

The scribe writes: Murder bad.

From the corner of his eye Moses sees Lev grab a feel of Moses’ wife’s ass.   Moses says, “God said don’t fuck off on your husband.”

The Scribe writes: Adultery.

What else?” Someone shouts.

Moses is on a roll now.   You can’t steal.”

The scribe writes it down.

Eli shouts, “Moses, you are full of shit.”

Moses, “That’s a lie, you are not allowed to say that.”

The scribe writes: Can’t call someone a liar.

And Moses adds: Lev, you horn dog, you are always ogling my wife, or my daughters, or my serving girl; even my own ass.  God will get you for that.  

The scribe writes: Don’t covet wife, daughter, serving girl or donkey of neighbor. 

This all took place about one thousand four hundred years B.C.    Over the eons the Ten Commandments have been edited and polished, in order to read better and to keep control of the punters.   


Later that night Moses got drunk on Camel beer and added some more commandments that the scribes didn’t write down:

1.    If you open wine you must drink it all
2.    It is not adultery if it is with a chicken
3.    Don’t use the chicken for the soup
4.    If you see an Arab, drop your drawers and show your ass
5.    It is all right to fart when you feel like it, but especially when you come home in the dark, so your wife can recognize you.
6.    If you take a crap you must wash your crack, and if you don’t have water, use sand.


There may have been more, but the scribes were drunk,  so we may never no. 

the Ol’Buzzard













Tuesday, December 10, 2019

TRUMP HAS TO FLUSH TEN OR FIFTEEN TIMES





Whenever Trump brings up a subject with the press it is because the topic is something that effects him personally.  


'Sometimes you have to flush the toilet ten, maybe fifteen times...'    

I definitely wouldn't want to be the person at the White House that has to clean Trump's bathroom...and plunge out his toilet!  









the Ol'Buzzard



Sunday, December 8, 2019

QI GONG








At my age exercise is important to remaining healthy.   I try to spend 15 minutes every day on my Total-Gym for upper body strength and 5 minutes meditation; but what I have lacked was a stretching and movement routine in order to stay fluid and limber. 


My wife and I have taken a number of Tai Chi courses, but have never followed up on the practice; first, because Tai Chi requires room for movement (few homes have that kind of open space) and secondly, I have an injured ankle that limits my movement.


I recently purchased a Qi Gong course from Great Courses for $35.00 (includes CD and on-line.)   Qi Gong is similar to Tai Chi and has many of the Tai Chi movements, but doesn’t require me to learn a rigid complicated routine and doesn’t require space to move around.   This exercise perfectly meets my wife and my needs.   It is a stretching, breathing and movement exercise that centers the body and the mind, relieves stress and limbers the body through low-impact movement. 


You can find Qi Gong exercises on YouTube – one included with this post; but I wanted the full 12 class series that was available in the CD/on-line course.   The course normally cost $69.00; but if you call Great Courses (1-800-832-2412) and tell them you know of someone that recently bought the course for $35.00 they will probably extend the offer to you – hoping that you will buy other courses in the future. 


I recommend Qi Gong for anyone that leads a sedentary life, has physical limitations, or is aging and wants to remain active.  


A disclaimer: I don’t advertise anything; but I often share information on products that I am passionate about.
 

The mind has a major impact on body health, so it is important to exercise the mind-body connection for ultimate health.



the Ol’Buzzard










Saturday, December 7, 2019

DECEMBER 8, 1980



DECEMBER 8, 1980
John Lennon murdered

Whenever we think there is hope for humanity, we must realize that there is a faction of mankind that is capable of the most atrocious things.   

There is something about the killing of John Lennon that seems to be the seed that sowed the unimaginable violence we experience today. 

Just imagine...




It was a nice dream

the Ol'Buzzard










Sunday, December 1, 2019

WHO IS THE MOST ROMANTIC COUPLE IN ALL LITERATURE?






Some might say Romeo and Juliet







 High on my list would be Lara and Dr. Zhivago.





But in my opinion it would have to be Morticia and Gomez





Gomez is who I pattern my marriage relationship on.







 Caramia my wife
the Ol'Buzzard



THANKSGIVING WAS CANCLED 2O19








Wednesday the 27th a snow/ice/rain storm began about 7 pm.  Trees and power lines were coated with ice.  We lost electricity at 11 pm.   I was up every two hours over night to feed the wood stove.   The power was finally restored at 2 pm on Thanksgiving day.  

On Friday the 29th we cooked our Thanksgiving meal and were thankful we had power. 

Power good
No Power bad
The Ol’Buzzard

Wednesday, November 27, 2019

Monday, November 25, 2019

Saturday, November 23, 2019

A BREAK FROM INSANITY



Dave Mallett is Maine's own ballad singer and song writer.   

My wife and I have a karmic experience with Dave Mallet.   We first heard him in 1982 when he played a concert at the University of Maine,where we were students.   

 In 1985 we were due to graduate, and to celebrate we went to an exclusive dinner at One Stanley Avenue, the home of the man who invented the Stanley Steamer.   After the dinner we went into the small living room and Dave Mallett and his base player played for our small group - a very personal experience.

A few weeks later we loaded our small Toyota truck and headed for Alaska.  As we pulled out of the driveway I plugged in a tape we had purchased at One Stanley Avenue and Dave Mallet sang us off with North to Alaska.   

Eight years later we left Alaska.   We were listening to Alaska Public Radio and at the exact moment we crossed the border from Alaska to North West Territory Dave Mallett came on the radio - my wife and I looked at each other in amazement.

Our first summer back in Maine we attended the Common Ground Fair, and that night, to our surprise, Dave Mallett was playing at the Fair Grounds.

Since that time we have attended concerts when ever Mallett played in our area.








We have all aged.






The music of Dave Mallett has marks some important moments in our life.
the Ol'Buzzard

Thursday, November 21, 2019

VETERANS FOR TRUMP CAN KISS MY ASS






I am some disgusted with military veterans that show allegiance to Donald Trump.   A man who received five deferments from service in Vietnam: four rich kid school deferments and a medical deferment claiming bone spurs. 

   
On a talk show with Howard Stern, Trump was asked about avoiding venereal disease after sleeping with numerous women.  Trumps answer was, “It is a dangerous world out there.  It’s scary like Vietnam.  It’s my personal Vietnam.  I feel like a great and very brave soldier.”


 1959 to 1975, 58,479 brothers and sisters never returned from Vietnam.   Not a joking matter.


During his election campaign Trump denigrated John McCain by saying, “He’s not a hero.  He’s a hero because he was captured.  I like people that weren’t captured.”


McCain spent five years as a POW.  While being interrogated, with his hands tied behind and hoisted from a ceiling, McCain was beaten, sustaining a life-long injury.  McCain kept the faith with his fellow POW’s refusing a release when offered, until all other captives were released in order. 


Trump’s statement “I like people that weren’t captured” is a spit in the face of every man who ever sacrificed his freedom for this country as a POW.


This cowardly draft dodger, during his campaign, disparaged a Gold Star family that gave their son to the ranks of brave heroes that have served this country and will never return.


Now Trump attacks a military man who wears the purple ribbon signifying a soldier who has bled for this country – a man whose brothers all served in the arm forces of the United States. 


This bloviated, bellicose coward, who was designated Commander in Chief by a flawed Electoral College after losing the election by three million votes – the same coward that quaked in fear when the aircraft lights were turned off prior to landing at his one visit to troops in a war zone; has no claim to allegiance from military veterans. 

the Ol'Buzzard
retired Navy
Vietnam vet



Monday, November 18, 2019

A BUZZARD EGG OMELET #33








SOME PEOPLE I MISS



A quote from George Carlin

I didn’t wash today.  I wasn’t dirty.  If I’m not dirty I don’t wash.   Some weeks I don’t have to shower at all.   I just groom my three basic areas: teeth, hair and ass hole.   To save time, I use the same brush.




Sunday, November 17, 2019

BUZZARD EGG OMELET #32








Related image












No comment
the Ol'Buzzard

HUMANS ARE FREE FROM THE EVOLUTIONARY CULLING PROCESS





Animals that survived through the evolutionary process were not necessarily the largest, the strongest or the smartest; but those most adaptable to change.   Survival was a competition, and the physically weak, the mentally weak and the stupid were culled from the heard early.  Food, shelter and sex were the priorities for survival, and the ability to adapt was the prerequisite for passing on genetic traits. 
 

Today humans have freed themselves from evolutionary constraints, which accounts for today’s burgeoning population growth.  The physically weak, the mentally deficient and outright stupid people are able to survive in today’s technologically society.



Homo Sapiens had existed for 300,000 years, since they first appeared in Africa; but it was not until 1800 that the population finally topped one-billion.   It took 125 years (from 1800 until 1925) for population to expand to two-billion; thirty-five years later (1960) human population hit three-billion; fourteen years later (1974) four-billion, thirteen years later (1987) five-billion; twelve years later (1999) six billion; twelve years later (2011) seven billion.

 
Today, November 17, 2019 at 10 p.m., the world population stands at 7,744,609,768 (Seven billion, seven hundred forty-four million, six hundred nine thousand, seven hundred sixty-eight) and increasing at the net rate of 204,000 per day. 


So, what does this mean?    I don’t fucking know.

Two interesting web links:





The Ol’BUzzard





 

Wednesday, November 13, 2019

SOLIPSISM









We see the things that we would see
And know what we would know
Our thoughts are always prejudiced
To the way we want to go


It has been said that humans are heard animals. But I believe hives are a more accurate depiction: geographic hives, racial hives, religious hives; and we readily devour animals that don’t belong to our hive. 


Each hive has a king or a queen and drones that serve it; the rest of us are workers and spend our lives unknowingly sustaining the hive. 


We think we are important because we support the hive, and if we are diligent, we will thrive for a while, and then we are gone.


In fact, we are no more than an accidental, insignificant life form, existing on a minor planet in a minor solar system of a minor star, in one of hundreds-of-billions of galaxies in an unfathomable universe.


The universe doesn’t care if we live.  The universe doesn’t care if we die; it doesn’t care if we hurt, have sex or go to the movies…


The nature of the universe is expansion, ever since the Big Bang.  There is no reason, there is no why.


There are Christian hives that like to ask, what kicked off the Big Bang?  But we know it wasn’t a God, because man hadn’t invented him.


THE UNIVERSE DOESN'T GIVE A FUCK


the Ol’Buzzard


Saturday, November 9, 2019

TECHNOLOGY DEPENDENT




YOU CONTROL ALEXA OR ALEXA CONTROLS YOU?










The next time you are visiting someone who has ALEXA, wait until  they are out of the room and then say; Alexa, set alarm for 3:30 a.m and play Wagner's Ride of the Valkyries - loud.







the Ol'Buzzard





TECHNOBROTHER 2084









I recently posted a rant about cell phones and how, I believed, people would be amenable to a cell phone chip implant, in order to be connected, 24/7, to their phone.


The statement was a glib jab at people’s obsessive cell phone use. 


The idea of an implant, at the posting, seemed an absurd example.


At my age, eighth decade, sleep follows a predictable pattern: a nap if I feel like it in the afternoon and six hours averaged at night; which means, I wake between four-thirty and five, in the quiet of the morning, and this is the time that my monkey mind takes control and I occupy the realm of imagination.


This morning it was cell phone implants.   Actually, a cell phone implant is not such an absurd idea, as the technology exist today.   Amazon’s Alexa voice recognition- pods can control your home, send texts, play music, and generally control all the electronic functions in your life.  

The medical technology exists to wire the synapse in your brain to machine functions, so it would not be a giant leap to develop the micro-miniature chip implant that could connect you, through Wi-Fi, to a service similar to Alexa. 
   

If cell phone towers were converted to Wi-Fi towers you could be connected to the world, through your implant, from any place on earth: Alexa send text; Alexa start my car; Alexa play music; Alexa turn off the lights; Alexa set my security system; Alexa start the coffee pot; Alexa book travel plans…


The chip could also hold all your financial and medical information that would allow you to make purchases at stores, or check into a hospital with just a scan.   You would no longer need a driver’s license, or personal ID.    You would not need a passport to travel the world.


How possible would it be for geographic nations to become secondary to the citizenship of your electronic Nation?    Are you a citizen of Apple; are you an Amazon citizen; are you Samsung…?


Present governments would love a bionic society.   They could locate you; they could listen in to your private conversations; they could read your text messages; they could judge your mental and physical state; They would know EVERYTHING about you: what foods you eat, who you communicate with, what purchases you make, who you are sleeping with and how often; and by accessed video cameras in your home, they could watch you.  It would move Orwell’s 1984 to a new level: Big Brother of 2084 – total surveillance.
 

I not only think this technology is possible; but I think it is probable in the future.    The question is, how much personal privacy are people willing to relinquish to be a member of the techno-herd?   I think that question has already been answered: check out Facebook etc.  








the Ol'Buzzard






Thursday, November 7, 2019

A LITTLE BRAKE FROM INSANITY





Maybe there is still hope





(HIT THE ENLARGE ICON AND ENJOY)

the Ol'Buzzard



Wednesday, November 6, 2019

CELL PHONE IMPLANT





My wife and I have a membership at the university gym in town.  We walk the track in the winter time.   We don’t interact with the kids just transmogrifying into adulthood.    We view them as curious creatures with a connection to our DNA, in the same manner we view chimpanzees; as different enough to be considered another species. 
  


We try to arrive at the gym around noon when the students have gone to feed; but the last time we were there was during a peak usage.   It was amazing.  All the student walking the track had their cell phones in their hand or plugged into their ears, the students running the outside of the track were wired into their cell phones, all young people on the exercise bikes had their cell phone balanced atop their display panels or plugged into their ears, one young girl was stretching on a mat while reading her text messages. 
  

Only one; a tiny young girl, running at a demented pace on the Nordic Track, didn’t seem to have a bionic connection to a cell phone.


If a cell phone implant was available, I wonder how many of this new generation would spend the night in the parking lot, waiting for the hospital to open, to be first in line for the implant?
    

OK, I can understand this.  Children, a couple of generations after mine, were raised in front of a television: Mr. Rogers and Sesame Street.   This new generation was introduced to some type of computer before they were even potty trained.


The thing I find curious is the attachment to cell phones for people born before 1970.   These people spent at least thirty years of their life – over half of their life – never knowing what a cell phone was.   They got up in the morning and went to work or school, came home, had supper, watched television and went to bed.  They probably went for days without using a telephone.  If they were traveling, or involved in an activity, and found they needed to communicate by phone, they either waited until they got home or used a public pay telephone. 
 

People fifty and older never suffered by not having immediate and continuous connection to a telephone or the internet.    Yet, today, they can’t sit in a restaurant without checking their cell phone.   Sometimes in restaurants when a person’s cell phone goes off, I feel like standing up and shouting: Turn off your damn phone.  You’re not that important.
  


 My wife and I attend a playhouse in the summer time.  We always go to the Wednesday matinees, which are mainly attended by older people.  At the beginning of each play the stage manager announces to people to turn off their cell phones.     I have never attended a play that at least one cell phone didn’t go off during the performance.


I have got to admit that I have a cell phone, and when we lost electricity during the wind storm last week and our land line was down, I turned it on and called the light company. 


I plug our cell phone in once a month to keep it charged.   In case of an apocalyptic disaster caused by global warming and wiping out civilization, I want to be able to call my friend and tell him: I told you so.



The Ol’Buzzard








Sunday, November 3, 2019

SALMAN RUSHDIE’S NEW NOVEL




I own, and first read, my first American edition of Rushdie’s novel, Satanic Verses (Viking 1989), that resulted in the Ayatollah Khomeini issuing a fatwa ordering Muslims to kill him.


Image result for quichotte salman rushdie


I have dyslexia, but as a result I am a fast reader (another story.)   I easily read a novel (300 – 400 pages) in ten days, if I can stay awake an hour each night before falling to sleep; but, not Rushdie’s.


As with poetry, a Rushdie novel requires me to slow down and laboriously, but lovingly, read word for word.


His new novel is titled Quichotte, a parallel to Cervantes Don Quixote, another favorite of mine that I have read many times, but taking place in today’s America.



Image result for quichotte salman rushdie


It is difficult to explain the prose of Rushdie that so fascinates me; so, if you have never read Rushdie, I offer his first sentence as an example of his unique writing style.


There once lived, at a series of temporary addresses across the United States of America, a traveling man of Indian origin, advancing years, and retreating mental powers, who, on account of his love for mindless television, had spent far too much of his life in the yellow light of tawdry motel rooms watching an excess of it, and had suffered a peculiar form of brain damage as a results.”


His next sentence, to the best of my computation, is one-hundred and seventy-four words and nineteen lines long.


If you belong to a reading group, this would be an excellent book for study and discussion; if you enjoy reading writers with an unusual cadence and stories with many facets, I urge you to take a look at Quichotte. 



If you have not read Cervantes Don Quixote – at least check out the musical or the audio book: this is, of all times, a time to tilt at windmills.





the Ol'Buzzard