by Sly the Family Rat
What we’ve learned in the past 48 hours: everybody forgets about Sly the family rat when guests come. What is so endearing about a big, hairless rat anyway? Sniff. I am a sad rat.
Category Archives: Uncategorized
Reading between the signs
by the Night Writer
Some folks are getting upset that “stimulus” money for road construction projects is also being used to post signs alongside the project that say “Funded By: American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, Barack Obama, President.” It’s a common enough political play (many a governor has done something similar within his/her state). The issue for me is one of truth in advertising, especially since much of the “stimulus” comes not from tax money on hand but from borrowed money, a significant portion of which comes from China.
The signs really ought to read:
“Made In China” or
“Your Children’s Tax Dollars at Work” or
“You Are Driving On the Road to Serfdom”
Since those signs as well cost money we should look for signs already on hand that succinctly reflects this administration’s sentiments:
(HT: Mr. D)
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I’m just waiting on a friend
by the Night Writer
Here’s an excerpt from a poem I wrote several years ago. I wrote it after my final visit to see my grandfather while he was stll alive, but this section is appropriate for the waiting we’re doing today. The poem is called, “Just Waiting.”
And now, just waiting,
back at home I stand by another bedside,
listening to my wife breathe.
Undressing, I fit myself in beside her,
our heads touching, our arms
around each other, and we talk…
About the great moments of one’s life,
the excitement before a birthday,
the joy before a wedding,
and how these fall short of the momentous
anticipation and anxiety of the days leading up to
the birth of a child,
of going to bed wondering if this will be the night
that everything will change
and we awaken to bring forth a new life,
at once shuddering in both
the hope and the dread
of the joy that would be set before us
and the trial to be endured.
We also talk about the hope we have in Christ,
and of the days leading up to the joy/dread
in some distant but nearing future
when we go to bed wondering if that will be the night
that everything will change
and we awaken into new life.
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Monty Python study guide
by the Night Writer
Tiger Lilly has been studying for her Western Civ test and plowing through the various philosophers and their philosophies. A great way to learn things, of course, is to make up rhymes or songs of the key details as a memory aid, so I thoughtfully provided the following for her:
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eE7Fe1cGLPk
I sure hope it helps!
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Free advice from Sly, the family rat
… especially if you’re heavily invested in oatmeal or cheese.
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Since you asked nicely
Merry Christmas from The Sly One
Yeah, I got out finally. So, the Reverend Mother is making this bacon thingy and she sends the new guy out for barbecue sauce which she conveniently forgot to buy. Sounds like a fool’s errand to me. Where’s he gonna get barbecue sauce on Christmas day. Yeah, cause everyone celebrates their savior’s birth by barbecuing something. He’ll probably be gone the rest of the day searching for that. That Rev. Mother is really smart. She effectively eliminated him from the day’s festivities. I like the way she thinks.
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Many are Called, Few are Chosen
![Random_for_now_066[1]](http://thenightwriterblog.com/files/2009/12/Random_for_now_0661.JPG)
Sly the rat
Listen up, you humans. I don’t have much time because when they find me up here they’re gonna put me back in that cage. I doooooooooon’t wanna go! Yeah, that’s right, it’s Sly. Yes, rats know how to type and use the intertube, but most of us can’t get access. Anyway, the deal is I’m gonna tell you what’s really goes on around here. I admit this is a pretty good gig but they could feed me more. What do they think? Like I can’t smell all those things they’re eating when my cage is right inside the door from the kitchen. Why don’t they just hand some over who cares how much the rat weighs! Come on I’m a rat! What else do I have to live for. I happen to know that aren’t any boys around because when I manage to get out I run all over looking for some and I’ve never found one no not one. It’s probably for the best because there’s barely enough food for me.
So here’s the deal. There’s a bunch of people living here and most of em are OK. There are two ugly birds also in a cage, on the other side of the room, and when they manage to get out all heck breaks loose. They go everywhere and by go you know what I mean. Anyway most of the human are like I said, OK. There’s a new guy who used to only be here once in a while and now they can’t seem to get rid of him. I don’t like him he swats at me and doesn’t give me any treats. I chew his clothes when I manage to get time on the outside. There’s lots of girl humans and they like me. Human girl 1 gives me warm oatmeal almost every morning but not enough and then most days she leaves the house. Human girl 2 who looks almost like girl 1 go figure, she likes me a lot and takes me out ocassionally and compliments me but she could give me more treats. Human girl 3 has the weirdest hair and acts really funny and pretends to be a ninja at least I think she’s pretending, but I like her because she gives me food and takes me out and lets me chew run around on the couch. Then there’s this really big human who’s not here much which is too bad because even though he’s really scary he gives me food. So like I said it’s a pretty good gig at least when I’m not fasting but I overhear some crazy stuff sometimes and noooooooooo, I’m not finished .. . . . … . .
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They reportedly like Obama, too…
The new fashion statement from Europe is…
Men In Skirts (story and photos)…
How do you know men’s lib is in full swing? When men start wearing skirts. On the street. In everyday life. The Sartorialist, Scott Schuman, snapped two men wearing skirts on the streets of Europe, and it caught us off guard — it’s not like these guys were heading to a Scottish wedding in ritual dress. No, they evidently woke up that morning and decided that instead of putting their pants on one leg at a time, they’d slip a skirt over both legs. We thought we weren’t ready for mirdles, but this is a whole new level.
We admit, we find the looks Schumann shot stylish. But we can’t get past the fact that they’re men wearing skirts, and something about that trend catching on just doesn’t look or feel right. Don’t get us wrong — we’re all for equality of the sexes, and if Yves Saint Laurent can put women in pantsuits, there’s no reason other designers can’t put men in skirts. We expect to see them on the men’s runways from time to time. And we find it delightful when we do, but in a non-serious way. But now that it may be getting serious, we’re a bit unsettled. We don’t know if America is ready for her men to be traipsing around the streets in skirts. And if they’re just barely catching on in Europe now, how long before they’re popular here? Five to ten years?
Commenters on the Sartorialist are smitten by these men in their skirts. One writes, “I’d do it myself (in ten years maybe).” Another writes, “There was a great Met Costume Institute show of men in skirts a few years ago — it took about 5 seconds inside to realize that the West has missed an opportunity for beautiful tailoring and sexy knees.” And yet another writes, “I love both looks — I was struck by the usage of the belt on the guy with the tie — these looks are hot.”
Hot? As in, Damn, that outfit compels me to get that guy’s number? Hm. Dunno. But that’s not to say that in several years we won’t find a hot man in a hot skirt to be the sexiest thing since Brangelina. For now, though, so long as they’re off the runway, we can’t help but prefer to see guys with that extra bit of fabric between their thighs. But maybe we’re just behind. So we’ll ask you: How do you feel about men in skirts? Is the world ready for it? Or do you think it will take another decade or so for the planet to prepare?
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Ere the “surly bonds” were slipped…
From today’s Writer’s Almanac:
Today is the birthday of the man who wrote the most famous inspirational poem about aviation — a sonnet about aviation — John Gillespie Magee Jr., born in Shanghai, China, in 1922, the son of missionaries. He was an American, but like thousands of other young Americans he served with the Royal Canadian Air Force before the United States officially entered WWII. He had a scholarship to Yale, but after high school he enlisted in the air force, and he was sent to combat duty in England. A month or maybe two months later, he wrote a sonnet, “High Flight,” and sent it to his parents on the back of a letter, saying “I am enclosing a verse I wrote the other day. It started at 30,000 feet, and was finished soon after I landed.” Three months later, the U.S. entered the war, and just three days after that Magee died in a plane crash. The sonnet was widely copied and distributed, and it is still referenced in novels, television shows, and political speeches. All first-year cadets at the United States Air Force Academy are required to memorize and recite it.
High Flight
Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of Earth
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward I’ve climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth
Of sun-split clouds, — and done a hundred things
You have not dreamed of — wheeled and soared and swung
High in the sunlit silence. Hov’ring there,
I’ve chased the shouting wind along, and flung
My eager craft through footless halls of air…Up, up the long, delirious, burning blue
I’ve topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace
Where never lark, nor even eagle flew —
And, while with silent, lifting mind I’ve trod
The high untrespassed sanctity of space,
Put out my hand, and touched the face of God.“High Flight” by John Gillespie Magee, Jr., Public Domain.
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