Well, here’s the deal, ebbody. I put my head down for a nap at around 4 MST (I gave a two hour final exam earlier today, during which time I was able to catch up on some reading, plowing through the last two print Weekly Standards and an article in the latest Foreign Policy — all of which left me very sleepy), and I am just now waking up. Just now. My wife — who got home around 5:30 — “let me sleep in,” she says, because (get this) I “looked so tired.”
So tired, dear?
“Uh huh. And sleepy, too. You looked so tired and so sleepy.”
Well, uh, yeah. When I’m asleep, I tend to look that way, honey.
At any rate, I’d wanted to comment on the Crimson Crusader’s® Iraq piece and to write up some final thoughts on the Yates case. I noticed that Richard Bennett added his thoughts to one of the protein wisdom Yates threads (there’s another, longer thread here, Richard), and I still have to respond both to Alex Knapp’s Heretical Ideas post and to reader and blogmentator supreme, Myria, with whom I’ve been involved in a nice conversation concerning this whole Yates ordeal. I’ve likewise been alerted to some nice posts re: Yates on Ginger Stampley’s “What She Really Thinks” that I want to regard more carefully. Then there’s John Braue, Fritz Schank, and the fat guy….
So. Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow, okay? In the meantime, take a look at Michael Walzer’s piece, “Can There Be a Decent Left?” — which, I fear, is no longer a de facto rhetorical question…
Now — at 10:35 in the p-frickin’-m! — I’m going to have some coffee, maybe make myself some dinner (flash frozen calamari from a box), then watch Zoolander and Who’ll Stop the Rain (by all accounts, a great Nolte performance — though I’m on record as saying his turn in Lumet’s Q&A is one of the greatest non Oscar®-nominated performances in the history of film).
*[about the title: If you’re unfamiliar with The Guess Who, you’ve got some e’splainin’ to do, Lucy… Best thing to come out of Canada since…well, Molson, I guess…]
Flash-frozen calamari & coffee? No Bachman-Turner Overdrive Canadian reference? You MUST be fogged in…
“Who’ll Stop The Rain” is based on Robert Stone’s novel “Dog Soldiers”. Fantastic story of Vietnam, the drug trade, honor, and fidelity. Nolte plays Ray Hicks, who easily qualifies as my Most Memorable Literary Character. The psychopath as anti-hero, very Mailer-esque stuff, but somehow more valid. Reading your post today reminded me of the powerful effect this book had on me.
From the Amazon site – “This is the place where everybody finds out who they are,” says the novel’s protagonist, the journalist Converse, to which his friend and partner in crime Ray Hicks replies, “What a bummer for the gooks.”
I like BTO, Scott. But they’d be opening for the Guess Who if I booked the show. So would *gasp* Rush, for that matter.
Don: I haven’t read <i>Dog Soldiers</i>—though I do like Stone. One of his short stories, “Aquarius Obscured,” has remained with me for ages now. Just can’t seem to shake it. It’s “about” a woman who, stoned, takes her kid to an aquarium, and winds up having a telepathic conversation with a dolphin. The dolphin slowly morphs (as its philosophy is revealed) into some sort of swimming fascist.
At least, I <i>think</i> that’s a Robert Stone story. Stone also taught at one of my alma maters, Johns Hopkins, in the Writing Seminars. <a href=”http://www.dave-edelman.com/nonfiction/stone.cfm”>Here’s a bit on his (short) Hopkins stint</a>.
“Aquarius Observed” is indeed Stone (see <a href=”http://www.boston.com/globe/search/stories/books/books97/robert_stone.htm”>here.</a>
By the way, there’s a link on my website (under Tools) to a free Task Bar Search Tool that can answer all such questions where answers exist. Why live in doubt? I know it leaves out the philosophical, but then, Richard Feynmann referred to such debate dismissively as “Words about words.” It might be a good thing.
Yes, I looked it up right after I posted the message. But I wanted to provide others the opportunity to hone their search skills, so I didn’t follow up (until now, that is).
You’re search skills have been honed by one Stone, Don. Consider yourself that much bettered…
Bad man. Bad. Sit.
PS – Teach your comments thingee to remember input. Please.
I’ll take a look at it. It remembers input here on my end, but my end’s not important…
I’ve been reading Yates-ernalia all morning (oh, and enjoying a Subway club glutted with banana peppers), so I hope to have something new up soon.
It has been hard not having the protein wisdom take on things today. Then, with Samizdata, Sullivan, Reynolds, Edgar, Domenech, and many others on posting breaks today – well, I haven’t had a clue what to do with myself! But, I missed you the most! It is like an addiction…I mean my wife wasn’t sure why I was away from the computer so much…
You’re too kind, Josh. Of course, what <b>protein wisdom</b> <i>should</i> be doing is getting student grades together and working on its long overdue novel…
Real work is overrated…blog more please!
very sorry
Joseph Taylor
Helen Roberts
Margaret Garcia
Betty Hall
Robert Evans
Deborah Hill
Betty Green
Karen Jackson
Kimberly Hernandez
David Wright
Ruth Rodriguez
Linda Lee
Susan Wright
Michelle Rodriguez
Robert Robinson
Nancy Young
James Lee
Margaret Turner
George Scott
Christopher Walker
Brian Robinson
Charles Williams
Jeff Robinson
Deborah King
Patricia Collins
Patricia Green
very sorry