Stirring the Pot

That Shakespeare thing?  "Me thinks the lady doth protest too much."

Wow.  Let's all get in a big circle, bunch up our skivvies, and then after our skivvies are in a big enough bunch, hold hands and form a gigantic example of a stereotype.

I am a grandmother.  I used to be a mom.  Well, actually, I am still a mom.  I am also still a daughter.  So  if I was in the mood to jump on bandwagons, I would be pretty busy, and knowing me, I would end up with lots of bruises.

The Wall Street Journal wrote an article about how mommy blogging is such a biggie nowadays, and how much money companies are spending to appeal to this group as they  see them as cash cows, plainly and simply.   I didn't think the article was terribly biased as WSJ articles can be.  I felt it was a commentary on a phenomenon. Lots and lots of people got pissed about it.

I don't care if someone says I blog for this and that altruistic reason, and I know this is gonna lose me a passel of followers, but when you go to read about someone's latest cute caprice with their darling family and it is a repost of a three year old article but still has all the latest ads and product updates, you gotta wonder.

I used to have ad sense ads on my blog, and they are missing out on a good deal here.  I have asked  what is  the deal since the spaces show up but the actual ads don't.  (I referred to the canary story previously.) So maybe I am just trying to use my own blog as a cash cow.  But it isn't.  It hasn't had an ad for years, and I am not pelting Google with complaints cuz the ads are not there.  I blog mostly to vent, and I make that very clear from the get go.

I don't care how much you shout about how you are just trying to give other mommies a heads up with some of their issues.  Some of them are very serious about that and do a service, but many of the mommy blogs are ADS.  Like the one's that crop up on yahoo that tell you they are going to give you the straight dope in thirty seconds and then another long blah'blah'blah starts after the thirty seconds.  Or that darling video about the mom and dad rapping.  It was a little too well produced you all noticed.  And then you found out, if you clicked and watched the video you had some woman blabbing in your mail box about her marketing company every day.  Misleading.  Don't like it.  Do you?

STATE YOUR BUSINESS.  I feel like a monkey when I respond to some story some one wrote in their blog only to realize later that the story was just a back drop to get you interested in these swell pots and pans. If you want to sell stuff, fine.  Lots of people want to buy stuff.  I would LOVE to sell stuff.  But I don't think shoving the product down someone's throat or mixing the Milk of Magnesia in with the Nestle's Quik is the way to do it.  But maybe that is just me.  I have taken up a lot of space here over the past year or so talking about the buy me, buy me phenomenon that is becoming so wide spread.  Okay.  I am just jealous.  Happy?  Does my saying that make you a little less angry about the WSJ article?

I think someone just poked you in that tender spot you have been trying to pretend wasn't there.

I want to build a huge literary metaphor about the panhandlers on Clark street wearing clean clothes and make up, and the shabby guy on the street corner in Wheeling with the okay but kind of old winter coat holding the sign "will work for food".  But I guess that would be putting too fine a point on it.  It is really just another internet meme, and when one leaves, another one pops up.


Photo Attribution:  restoringthoughts.blogspot.com 

The Good Part Is At The End

 

I have this internet acquaintance that lives across the ocean in a very charming place.  He recently lost his wife and he took us through the journey with such love and compassion and his usual acerbic wit, that we were all able to share with him and offer our support.  Of course, we couldn't even give him a real hug or kiss his beloved wife goodbye, but he knew we were there for them, and I hope it helped him a little.  He is charming and has a wonderful way with words.  He doesn't tell "jokes" as such , but he gets me laughing and often crying within the same post.  I won't tell you his name or even what country he lives in because, (I hope this is not too disrespectful to say so soon), when the ladies realize he is "back on the market" they will throng to him, and a certain airline told me to watch my step.

Someone gave him the Leibster Award.  Yeah, I know, the f-ing Leibster award again.  He knows as well as I do that these "awards" are just to put up a few more poorly painted road signs along the unpaved side roads of Blogdom, but I am all over that as I hold my self-earned title of blog whore close to my heart. (Hey guys, you wouldn't believe how well it works,) So I am jumping on this band wagon.  God, how I do love me a mixed metaphor.

 Lots of cut and paste here, so I guess we might be seeing those annoying little white strips.  Think of them as highlights, okay?

As with all awards there are rules.
1. Accept the award, post the picture of the Liebster Award on the top of your post and say who nominated you for the award and list their blog site.
2. List 11 random facts about yourself.
3. Nominate 11 other bloggers for the Liebster Award and list their blog sites.
4. Notify the bloggers of their award.
5.Ask the award winners 11 questions to answer when they accept their Liebster Award.
6. Answer the questions left for you by the blogger who gave you the award.

OMG.  It is waay worse than I remember.  If you don't want to do this, move on.  I won't even remember long enough to forgive you.

I was nominated by Lord David Prosser.  Spoiler there, but pretend you didn't see that.
Here are the eleven random facts.

1.  I have never died my hair.  I even tried to put highlights in it with clorox but it wouldn't work.  Alien hair.
2.  I have difficulty coping with the aging process.
3.  My maiden name is NOT Irish.  It is Scot.
4.   I always said I am almost five-seven.  I was a shade over five -six.  I am now five-four.
5.  My knees are titanium and ceramic.
6.  I'm addicted to coca-cola.
7.  My eyes are gray.
8.  My Alfredo sauce is the best in the world.
9.  I'm insomniac.
10. I love banana popsicles.
11. I worry randomly.

Here are my nominations: I am listing at least two that said they refuse to do these things.  That's okay with me. Some I am garnering randomly because I don't think I can come up with eleven.

1.  Sherry Riter at The Redhead Riter
2.   (Anne Kimball) at Life on the Funny Farm -
3.  Cindy Mai at In This World Of Books
4.  Ty Johnston: life on the written page
5..  pascal at pascal campion
6.  Jonathan Wilhoit at I Read a Book Once
7. (Marie) at Burton Book Review
8.  B. Wildung at Two - Tall - Tales
9.  Kelly Hashway at Kelly Hashway
10.  RM York at GrandpaYork
11.  jambalian at jambalian

Thank God those are click throughs or I'd be outta here.

I am totally copying David's questions, which I must tell you, he copied.  It's not as if you have even read this far, is it?


1. What teacher from your youth or childhood had a profound impact on you?  How?
2. Who is your greatest literary inspiration?
3. What is a favourite quote from another person, and what do you like about it?
4. What is a favourite quote from your own work, and what is the story behind it?
5. Tell us about one of your pets.
6. What is the greatest barrier in your life?
7. Where is your favourite travel destination?  Why?
8. What is the most interesting place near where you live? What makes it interesting?
9. What is your writing space like?
10. When you were eight, what did you want to be when you grew up?
11.  What is your goal for your writing?

And here are the answers.
1.   Sister Mary Alfred in first grade was very condescending.  A friend of mine from first grade recently told me she spent years in therapy cuz Sr. MA tore her down so bad in public.  We had a phonics book and we were going around the room, each child had to say a "P" word.  I said, "Pea Coat."  Sr.MA said, "And tomorrow it will be a q coat and then an r coat."  My friend said didn't that make you feel awful?"  I said, "No.  I just thought, 'Well, her dad's not in the Navy." Having self-confidence is one thing.  But KNOWING you have self-confidence when you are six is priceless.

2.. Ruth Rendell.  She is a peer and uses the "f" word in her books and is terrific looking.  Writes great also.

3.  "Though she be but little, she is fierce."  Shakespeare.  My only bow to feminism.  I don't need you to carry my flag for me, but thanks.

4.  I have used the heck out of this.

  "Why is it so much to you to find me willing

To swallow down the souls

 Of some potential kingdom?"

It scans beautifully.

5.  Oh, Poor Henry.  Trying to give him peace in his waning years is so difficult.  He is okay, though, thanks to my wonderful daughter.  It is hard to love something so annoying.  Kind of like marriage.

6. Reticence.

7.  I am going to Mt. Rushmore for Mother's Day.  I have always wanted to see it.  I also like Florida's West Coast Beaches. 

8.  My backyard is amazing.  I have seen so much wildlife, including, I insist, a wolf, which my husband also saw.  There is  a dedicated Nature Preserve bordering my lot with a creek. I have already written elsewhere today about the cool snake I saw yesterday.

9.I am usually at the dining room table since I got this laptop.  I am trying at present to consolidate all my note scraps and notebooks.

10.  Eight.

11.  I have achieved it.  One male reviewer, a stranger,  said, "Crazy good read" about my longest sexiest book.  I can die happy.

Man, if you got this far, you deserve some new kind of award.  Thanks for stopping by.

WAAAY TOO SERIOUS

I have not been able to pull the strings of my WIP together.  I have used every excuse in the world to dilly-dally.  I have made myself sit down and added a few sentences, and edited.  But could not propel the story to where it needed to go.

I simply did not want to take these people there.  I have a life that is a certain way and causes me to be a certain way.  I have gone into way too much detail in other posts on my blog, so most of you that stop here with any frequency know that I am a raving nutcase most of the time.

My stories are fluff. I am not reaching for the stars here.  Maybe I should be.  Maybe I should take it all a little more seriously.  But mostly, lately, it as been an effort and a drag.  The last 3,000 words were drawn out of me with a block and tackle.

I kind of didn't know why I started doing this.  But it has been fun, and I am not ready to stop. I have just enough positive feed back and revenue to keep me in the game. But this time, and maybe from now on, it has been too much like work.  I am pretty sure my fiction is all revisionist history on a very personal level.  Some people would read some of these stories and get highly pissed off or strangely elated.  But that is neither here nor there.  Well, actually it is maybe the whole here and there.

Bunch of troubling stuff going on in the real life.  Nothing we can't handle.  We have pulled through the worst of it.  "And when the hardest part is over, we'll still be here."  I think that is why I am holding the strings of this story so closely to myself.  What will I do when it is out of my head?  Where can these people go?  I am way too much in love with them.  I am god for them and they are my creations.  I control what they say and do.  I think.  Tonight, it kind of poured out and I had to close  the Word file, because tears were running down my cheeks.  You know how sometimes you are by yourself and no one can see you,  but you still feel like an idiot?  Yeah.  That's where I'm at.

I guess it is nice to have a totally imaginary place to go when reality sucks.

Photo attribution:  grlonthemuv.blogspot.com

FAIL: Worth a Thousand Words

Here I go again.

This is one of those scotch picture hanger things that are supposed to come off clean.  I had to use two of them to hang a pic that was kind of heavy.  The hanger is sitting on a white piece of paper.  The blob at the bottom is the thing you are supposed to pull to get the thing off the wall, CLEANLY. The khaki blob next to the silver is my dining room wall paint.  Fail.

This is the back of the hanger.  The brownish stuff is the paper covering from the drywall underneath several coats of paint that all came off with the hanger.

This picture was hanging about a quarter of an inch crookedly so we determined with human logic that were we to remove the picture, cleanly remove one hanger, replace that hanger a quarter of an inch higher, the picture would then be straight.  Now we have to spackle and hope the paint still matches.  Fail

We didn't even get to pull on the little blob.  The entire mess came down when we lifted the picture.

If any of you know anyone who works for Scotch (used to be Minnesota Mining but I am old) tell them this blog had over 450 hits today. I think I will send the pictures to their customer service.  That's my human logic kicking in a little late.  But I bet there is a disclaimer on the now discarded packaging saying this MIGHT happen and they are not responsible.

TRAFFIC

 

Well, I am not one to look a gift horse in the mouth -- well, maybe I am.  But my blog traffic is soaring.  It is almost absurd.

I know a lot of it is Plumbers in New Zealand that think my Outside Plumbing book is a how to winterize your faucets guide, but the rest is a mystery.  It is nice that most of it does come from Google.

But here is the thing, guys.  And I SO do not want to deter you.  As a matter of fact, spread the word far and wide.  I am insanely flattered.  So PLEASE don't tell me it is all a mistake.

I keep saying it is not good form to do this buy me stuff.  I have always heard it was spammy.  But maybe that is just cuz I spend too much time on Amazon UK forums.  But "Everybody is doing it" so. . . .

If you enjoy reading my blog -- well, you don't say you enjoy it.  Maybe you hate it, but I guess that is okay as long as you visit it.  But if you enjoy it, maybe you would enjoy my BOOKS.  What do ya think?  They cost less than the price of a nice greeting card, and I have heard they are a lot of fun.  Personally, I love them.  Have a look, okay?  You won't be sorry.  Thanks!!!

Warning:  they are kind of for Mature Audiences.

P.S.  DO NOT count how many times I said "But" in this post.  It was totally necessary.

PHOTO ATTRIBUTION:  www.the-digital-reader.com

This Week

So this week, among other things not documented, I have been accused of causing a national terrorist attack with my hateful rhetoric*, (my audience has increased, but not by THAT much) and called outright "just plain stupid". (I am so glad no one told me that when I was young and impressionable. )

I totally accept that that is to be expected when one puts one's self on public display.  I just thought, since I am always shouting about the great stuff, that I would reveal the other side of that particular coin.

* The hateful rhetoric was when I commented on an article about Obama's speech in which he said the purported and then unknown attackers in Boston would feel the weight of justice when apprehended.  I mentioned that we also needed an explanation for Benghazi and the six Americans killed in Afghanistan.  I am having a highly paid semanticist analyze that remark in depth  so I can correct my unconscious but oh so obvious habit of sounding hateful, or making my words sound hateful.  (Just kidding.) 

The stupid thing was in regard to a remark I made on Huff Post which I know most of you would prefer I didn't write on at all, but the comment was faved by about thirty people as opposed to the one negative remark.  I know Huff Post is not held in high esteem by ANY of you, so I won't go into that too deeply.

I don't feel too bad about any of this.  I always enjoyed making waves. 

How was your week?

Photo Attribution:  curezone.com

Feature and Follow Friday.

For today's issue of Feature and Follow Friday, our hosts are

 Alison at Alison Can Read and Rachel at Parajunkee’s View..

Then they have a feature and today's is  this question:  If you could hang out with any author (living), who would it be and what would you want to do?

I replied that I would like Ruth Rendell to by my neighbor and beta reader.

On their blogs they asked the question of two guest bloggers: Words Fueled by Love and Bookworms Avenue

I have noticed that I am special because all of the names and titles I have copied here are click through and, in fact, on many of the blog's trying to do this, they are not click through.  So there's that.

I do not believe the badge is click through, and I don't remember how I copied the blog hop list.  My attempts to copy code today produced unsatisfactory results.  It is certainly true that I am trying to increase my "presence", but I feel that some of these attempts are futile.  Nevertheless, I did the following and commenting as required and hope you will do the same.

Thank you!





Photo (top) attribution:  emirin.name

New Blurb for The Maze

Can you put a label on love?  What happens when a familiar type of love morphs into something out of control?  How far would you go to find the truth?  How much of your self, your life would you put on the line?

Maisie is an adorable, bookish nerd.  Only two people know the depth and intensity of her passion.  One day, minutes before going upstairs to "spend time" with Neil, she says something to his father.  Like ripples from a really large rock thrown into a pond, those words will alter lives and tilt the world on its axis for the already notoriously famous MacLaren clan.

Without question or doubt, the women in Dan MacLaren's life believe that they have a genetic imperative, accentuated by a characteristic mane of copper curls, that drives them.  Everyone else can just step aside.

If you are looking for another "Mary Poppins" type series, these would not be the books for you.  If you occasionally enjoy an infuriating female protagonist, you will devour these stories.

A vivid and satisfying read on its own, The Maze might be enhanced by reading Sacred Sin.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0061SB3TC

Some mature, explicit content.

Good Neighbors

You wonder why there are wars?  You wonder why there cannot be peace in the world?

I commented on a blog where they featured Obama saying IF the perpetrators of the Boston debacle are found they will feel the weight of justice.  I remarked that while he was at it, let's get the Benghazi thing straightened out and what about those six Americans killed in Afghanistan.  A person remarked that it was my "hateful rhetoric" that inflamed the world and caused these things to happen.  A + 8= Q.

Another yahoo commenting on Yahoo said that we have been doing this to other countries for centuries so now how do we like how it feels?  Seriously.  I'm kind of old, and I do not recall a single instance of an American citizen sneaking a home made bomb into a social or political venue in a foreign country, EVER.  Correct me if I am wrong.  And yes, I know American citizens have done it in America, and  NO, I am not making an assumption that a foreign national did this.   As the Yahoo commentor did.

But here is the deal.  Let's not even bring Konrad Lorenz's goldfish into this discussion at this point.  I have the nicest neighbors in the world.  I live in a stable subdivision with the heart of middle America on display every day.  I took a walk one day and, just for fun, I counted encounters, and I stopped and conversed with eleven people.  I now use a treadmill. Someone was letting their dog pee on one of my yews and it was starting to show.  I placed a cute little ceramic plaque saying "Please curb your dog" at the exact locale and it stopped.  The person did not frisbie the ceramic plaque through my picture window as might have happened in other communities.  I have gotten in the car and driven to someones house to pick up a dog poop because Henry did more movements than I had bags that day.  I have also had people drive up to my house to carry out the same courtesy.  BUT.  The other day I went out to see my opening daffodils, and there sat the most enormous, silver-back gorilla sized dog defecation I have ever seen.  And I know exactly whose dog did it, and I thought, it doesn't matter how nice someone is, or what church they go to, anyone will try to get away with something rude or mean some time in their life.  Okay, gang up and tell me you would NEVER do that.  Move in next door.  Please.  I NEVER left a dog poop.  But on the other hand, I freely admit I have committed more grievous sins along the way that did not involve defecation.  At least not directly.  

I remember this little poem from grade school.  I don't know if it was on a "holy card" or in a book, but I know it was a male priest that said it, and that is all the attribution you are gonna get today.

There is so much good in the worst of us,

And so much bad in the best of us,

That it hardly behooves any of us

To talk about the rest of us.

Please do not use this brief and largely unconsidered commentary as the reason to begin a discussion about, psychopathy, pressure cookers or ball bearings.  Thanks for stopping by.

Your Loss versus Mine; Who wins?

I just watched half of someone else's story of loss that was dramatically videotaped. Funny how it doesn't get my heart all sore and remind me of my losses. It just makes me wonder who plans for all these camera angles and selects which view will be the most enhancing, the most dramatic, the most telling. I have images in my mind and heart, and I didn't need any one to choreograph it or photograph it. It is just mine. And I think that is all the people it needs to be shared with. It makes no impression or difference on any one else's life, so why record it? What is to be learned from it? That people hurt? Everyone already knows that. Don't you?

 

 

Feature and Follow Friday

This is something I am trying to participate in.  I did it before, but I think I put the badge in the wrong place.  There is an immediate assumption that I know what a linky is, and I have been in a list of them and it supplies a lot of new hits to my blog, but I do not know how to make one.  I am putting the badge here.


<a href=”http://parajunkee.com/category/ff” imageanchor=”1″ style=”margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;”><img border=”0″ src=”http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8366/8474595901_873f4993f4.jpg” /></a>

So, whomever, tell me what I did right or wrong.  I put that code in the add a gadget place before and I have a huge list of links at the end of my blog.

I have admitted publicly that I go to some lengths to promote my blog, but I only go so far.  How is this working out for ya?

Point of View

First of all:  Bulletin!  He bought me the necklace!  I even gave him a hug!

On another note: I have read entire novels because I enjoyed the story line and wanted to follow it to the end but feeling slightly annoyed because the entire book was , "and then I. . ."   "He turned toward me. . ."

That is first person and I am not comfortable with it.  I have heard that it is de rigeuer in Young Adult writing which I don't very often read.  I have had reviews where the person said they liked the story and the characters but had a little trouble reading third person.

I write third person.  That is why the dialogue is in quotation marks or, if it is internal, italics.  Someone said I write third person omniscient which isn't very popular right now.  I don't get that.  As near as I can tell, 99% of what I read is third person, but maybe that is just me.  I admit I read lots of oldies. Further, I classify it as third person omniscient, universal.  I even know what God is thinking. (See the Blizzard in Sacred Sin) God said it was spot on, thanked me and bought three copies for Himself. (See what I did there?)

I had another fair review where the person was kind of invested in the story but said the POV often changed in the middle of the paragraph and she found that distracting. .  Like this?

When I change I change fast. The moon drags the whatever-it-is up from the earth and it goes through me with crazy wriggling impatience . . . I’m twisted, torn, churned, throttled—then rushed through a blind chicane into ludicrous power . . . A heel settles. A last canine hurries through. A shoulder blade pops. The woman is a werewolf.

That one jumped out even at me.  That is not my work.  I won't attribute it because I do not want to awaken the grammar nazis.  And if the writer is searching for plagiarism, he/she can easily see that is not why the paragraph is included here.  It is an illustration of POV shift within a paragraph.  And the author found it necessary for some reason to insert a bit of the much maligned third person.

The previously mentioned reviewer said that it sometimes seemed as if the narrator was telling the story. That is precisely why  I sit at this keyboard -- to tell a story.  All the little kiddie books, and I have read a passel of them, start out with something like, "It is spring. . ."  or "Once upon a time. . ."

And I have diagrammed my share of sentences and then some because I loved it and I do it mentally even to this day for certain situations.  I think most writers under a certain age have no idea what diagramming a sentence is.  The word parse is tossed about a bit, but I am usually a little vague on the context.

Oh, wait up.  I have been writing my blog in first person all along, eh?  Well, I guess that just makes me even more of an outspoken, self-appointed expert.

PHOTO ATTRIBUTION( for Me, me, me):  thewritersadvice.com

FONTS

What is the deal with this font changing and the white tape look?  Any one know why this is happening?  Or how to fix it?  It copies to Wordpress just fine. 

Idea

Do any of you have multiple blogs? I am interested in making a blog where I can maintain a degree of anonymity but add to my hard won presence. I think I want to make statements that I don't want people to think are reflections of personal experience--even if they are. Not political. Any thoughts?

Mommy Blogging

I am not a mommy blogger.  I do talk about my grandchildren a lot and feel it is necessary to share their amazing beauty with this deprived world. (That is an "I" not a typo) And a few years back when nine people lived here and I was in a fog, I did write about my children some times.  But now I write about me and politics and idiocy and stuff. Which may be the same thing mommy bloggers write about.

Well, maybe I got this attitude from starting out my internet communication mania pre-twitter by using Goodreads and Amazon forums.  On both of those it is clearly stated that it is bad form to promote yourself or spam, that is, hide a sneaky link to something within the boundaries of your blog so people do not know they are reading an ad. They have specific self-promotion forums where you can go nuts if you want.

That has gone out the window.  There is Google Ad Sense, and I used to have ads on my blog.  Once I wrote about my canaries and an ad for birdcages appeared in the margin.  I thought that was terribly clever and technologically advanced.  I even had a balance of $1.72 in my Ad Sense account which I never collected because they don't cut you a check unless it is a certain amount.  I don't have ads anymore.  I have asked them why because the spaces are there.  My readership is much higher now so maybe I would earn more than $1.72 a year, but they keep telling me my blog sign-in is not my Ad Sense sign-in and they don't answer questions; they just send you to their circuitous forums and I never get the right answer.  Their loss.  They could be raking in a bundle off my back.

Anyway, I noticed lately this "Buy my book"  "Like me on facebook"  "visit my blog", etc.  EVERYWHERE.  Everyone still says you will lose twitter followers if you just keep linking to your book.  If someone reads my blog, they see the links to my book and can click or sample or whatever. (Damn, I wish they would BUY.  I'd be shitting in tall clover.) And "agents" will not ALLOW their clients to write on twitter or anywhere about their books.  So it is a subtle game.  To draw attention and not be spammy.  But now I have signed up to several blogs that have given me lots of hits, and some of them are interesting and amusing.  But many of them are purely ad based.  They try to relate it to their family, but it is buy this or that. And one that is usually about her family suddenly drops one that is purely an ad.  I am new to this, so maybe everyone else knows that is the purpose.  I am just trying to figure out how to get their links off of my facebook because they breed like bunnies.

I know that I will lose a passel of hits when they read this and take me off their linkys.  They probably already know I don't get it because I have been commenting  on their blogs about the content instead of the products they are pushing.

I hope everyone is not laughing up their sleeve at me, that that is the real purpose of Blogger and Wordpress and I have been totally disillusioned that it was to bring my literary bon mots to the attention of the world for their enjoyment and intellectual betterment.

And I hate that fucking Raffle Copter.

Photo attribution:  www.bloggerstand.com 

Image may be subject to copyright

wow. . .

Isn't this incredible?

Not so very new news

Take my word for this.  I am way older than any of you, so chalk it up to the voice of experience.  And as far as experience is concerned, name it and I probably have experienced it. 

You know that cute little phrase, "Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water..."?

Just when you think you have a handle on what is coming down, and you know it is going to be bad, like raining hell bad, and you think you have a grip on it because your relatively xanax free brain is looking at the horrible, earth-shattering crisis as a sort of logistical problem that can be broken down and handled pragmatically, step by step.  And you are maybe thinking, it will seem better as each step of the path gets cleared off and smoothed out, and the people involved will survive cuz others have and we have enough resources and wits to make it through safely and we will handle it as well or maybe better than others have, and it is possible to survive, then something comes along and, figuratively speaking, throws into the hellfire a can of charcoal lighter with a tiny puncture in it and the whole thing blows up like the fucking Hindenburg.

All of a sudden you want the Israeli's to solve their own problems and you don't give a shit who is the president.  They are all assholes anyway .

An attractive Hindenburg;







 A Hindenburg going into dock.



A Hindenburg almost all the way in a dock..

A skeptic.

   A lovely thing listening to a smooth talker.

Ooops.  How did that get in there?

  Children leaving the Hindenburg.


  A person chortling somewhat maniacally

   And so, become yourself, because the past is just a good-bye.