Overheard at Table 3: Haiku for Mangalores

Haiku for Manglares


Quick pindrops, water
slow paddle, canoe quietly
drifts through manglares.


MR
2022-0727

Overheard at Table 2: More on the Prince of Pegging

Niall Carter: Whilst I never wish to kink-shame, all I can say is that I can imagine what breakfast was like in Prince William's household today, with little George saying, "Mummy, what's pegging?" and Kate saying, "Well, dear, it's a game that adults occasionally like to play" and George says, "Oh Mummy, can I play?  I would so like to play 'pegging'!" ... "Maybe one day, dear, when you're older."

Overheard at Table 1: The Prince of Pegging

Niall Carter: Have you heard today's news?  Our dear William has been dubbed "The Prince of Pegging"!

Sheffield Souter: I don't suppose that's a hamlet in Wales?

Niall: No, but it may be a direct route to Uppingham.

*guffaws all around*

Overheard at Table 2: Write?

Poem from a notebook dated 2022-0727



Write?
Hell, guys, I write
every damn day - 

Now, writin' good,
that's another matter
entirely.





Then: reworked as a haiku:

Write? Hell, guys, I write
Every damn day.  Now, write good?
Whole other matter.

MR

2022-0727

Overheard at Table 2: Who Exactly Got Owned Here?

1: Gas prices are going down faster than yer MOM!

2: Not fast enough then, eh?

Overheard at Table 4: White Fragility

 

White Fragility: Why It's So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism

Robin DiAngelo

2018

Beacon Press, Boston

Most will say this is an "important" book.  It's an important topic, but I would have liked for the book to have delved more deeply into the historical origins for the institutionalized racism that permeates every level of this society.  

Yes, it is understandable that the beneficiaries of such a structure will find it difficult to speak of it with any true objectivity; but most of the book is quite repetitive about the simple fact that white people simply CAN'T, without much constructive insights as to how they CAN.   The author runs seminars for this, apparently, and perhaps a walk-through of the seminar that she gives might have helped.

I was, however, very impressed by her articulation of the difference between prejudice and racism.  Whether other people hold to this idea, I don't know, but I'd like to adapt it:  Prejudice is just that: pre-judging someone before getting to know them, while "racism - like sexism and other forms of oppression - occurs when a racial group's prejudice is backed by legal authority and institutional control." (p. 21)

Also: "People of color may also hold prejudices and discriminate against white people, but they lack the social and institutional power that transforms their prejudice and discrimination into racism" (p. 22)

That's powerful!  That is a fantastic breakdown of the intrinsic power imbalance that is entrenched into the entire American system: something that White People are desperately trying to maintain even while it's crumbling under its own weight.

All in all ... definitely a book worth reading and discussing.

Overheard at Booth 3: Twitter Down Today

Twitter is down today!  Yay!  I can finally write that novel!

You can find me in my Heaven IRL.

Overheard at Table 3: 3-Day Weekend

So, what'd'ya do for the 4th of July weekend?

I wrote five songs, two short stories, and an outline for the novel I'll be doing in November for NanoWrimo.

Really?  That's awesome!

Nah, I'm kidding.  I helped my wife refinish the kitchen cabinets.

Oh.  Well, that's also cool, I guess.

Overheard at Table 2: Comedy Sketchbook - The Adventures of Jake and Coco

The Adventures of Jake and Coco

A photo of Jake (Miniature Pinscher) and Coco (Chihuahua/Italian Greyhound mix)

 

Coco: OK, Jake, tell everyone the Spanish I taught you.

Jake [happily]: SOY TONTO!

Coco: And what does that mean?

Jake: I'm a good boy!

Coco: Si, Jake, siiiiii...

Overheard at Table 2: In Future Years ...

I.  Scene: An old man and a young boy around a campfire

Granpa, what was the world like when you were my age?

Well, the world was consumed by two deadly viruses: one destroyed your lungs, and the other destroyed your mind.

But people survived the viruses, right?

Well kid, if we had, we wouldn't be living in this cave, now would we?

II.  Scene: An old man and a young boy around a campfire, in a cave.   Voices can be heard from outside the cave entrance, a short distance below

HEY!  We know yew all 're up there, Libs!  Come on down, now.  Don't make us come up thar 'n gitcha!