Thursday, August 22, 2019

Cheech & Chong

Cheech and Chong, recreational marijuana user icons, have a page that shows up on my FB wall with a regularity that is puzzling. I'm told such happens because I have subscribed to the page. I do not remember having done so, but then, y'know...blush.
But that's not the reason this was started. The thing that precipitated this particular, um, status report, is grammar. Well, not grammar, per se, more like the shining of it by Cheech and Chong. Not even that so much, actually.
Okay, here's the thing. I am not exactly shy. or silent, in my cavils about the dissonances of poor grammar. More not silent when those dissonances are on my FB wall,  quite often in bold and upper case lettering. I use that as a sort of mental emesis, a ridding the self of toxins and contamination. But, not when Cheech and Chong err. They, and I'm assuming that the page is a collaborative effort, split infinitives, misuse collectives, ignore punctuation, and generally ignore the niceties of literate communication with nary a peep out of me.
I got to wondering about that and to aid the process lit up a smoke. Clarity ensued, the purple haze notwithstanding. [Yes, I know Hendrix said it was love, but, y'know he was probably stoned and trying for PC when he said it.] So, anyway clarity..yeah...okay, wait... I have to exhale. 'S, like this, y'know, ahmean, what's an apostrophe or two among friends. After all, whats grammer, a chimera of existance lurking in th shadows of unnerstandin.

Friday, July 5, 2019

To: Joe Biden; Candidate, US President 2020
From: A Voter with an opinion.
Dear Joe,
I know you’ll forgive the familiarity of address inasmuch as you are pleased to be known as Uncle Joe but I am of your generation and ‘Uncle’ sits strange on my tongue, so, thambi (Tamil, little brother, translated for the linguistically challenged)...
Here’s the thing, while I will admit to your credentials as a fighter for the rights, and the responsibilities, of the Citizen and grant you that you have, for many decades, fought for those rights and their implementation, the fact remains that you have not been all that successful. Your struggle against the depredations of the Republican Party uses a playbook that the Republicans know all too well and have countered all too successfully and is one of the reasons Trump wants you to get the Democrat nomination. I think it is time for you to retire into the advisory, read avuncular, role for the upcoming battle for the soul of the Nation. You strike me as a reasonable man as is evidenced by your ability to work across the aisle, so here’s an idea...
Why not form a group of men and women of good faith, Democrat and Republican, and offer yourselves as an advisory group and bring to bear your collective wisdom and experience in the service of the, and I’m sorry about this, younger aspirants to the White House? If for no other reason than to bring to battle a knowledgeable perspective to the fight. Please note that Trump is the President because he was, is, willing to question and flout, the modes and mores of campaigning and governing. Advise the youngsters on the counter moves without lowering themselves into the gutter Trump likes to play in. Elizabeth Warren, Kamala Harris, ‘Beto O’Rourke, (even though I think he’d make a better Senator than a President), Jay Inslee, et.al. seem to be speaking truth to the substance of the issues that are threatening the very existence of a nation to which I owe a considered, (I am an immigrant and not to the manor born), allegiance. Take your ability to talk to the opposition and work in the grayscale of ideology and put it at the disposal of the youngsters. Use your non-candidate freedom to speak unvarnished truth to corrupt power without the constraints of campaign decencies. Use your experiences, garnered from the good and bad judgment calls you have made, to arm whomever, we, the voters, choose as our nominee. Trump is a formidable enemy because he has no problems fighting dirty. You know how to handle pitch with minimal defiling. Trump’s battle plan is Emotion, the younger Democrats are using Reason, and you can be the Coach. To paraphrase Crosby, Stills, & Nash – Teach our children well, their fathers’ hell, can go by. Please.
Politically
I am
A Citizen