29 June 2007

Meryl Streep's daughter is an actress named Mamie Gummer; I just read it. Why would one do that? Name one's daughter Mamie with a family name of Gummer? Is it a joke? Was Meryl joking? Or was it a bit of, "Live with it; the way I've lived with 'Meryl Streep.' It'll make you strong." The ways of these showbiz people. Mamie Gummer.

16 March 2007

This week I'm explaining what I wrote last week, a craven act.

23 June 2007

All right. Yes, after going on about the cover and links I have changed the whole thing. The cover. See, the idea originally, a year ago, was to have the cover look like the cover of a journal, a little magazine. But this is the, er, uh, the web; and I wanted navigation to be easier. The copy editor had nothing to do with it. He was in the living room on the floor having his hair done with a grooming brush. I did it all, the editor and publisher; and now I could use some grooming myself. But I'm going to bed; it's almost midnight.

9 March 2007

I know that you are envious of my tattoo and that older people are paticularly envious. If you also choose to have your forearm tattooed and decide to use your Medicare card as a design I would think of it as an hommage. A little credit line would be nice: "Inspired by Old Britt."

Intelligentsia Coffee has a pleasing logo (above), and I was thinking of using it as my design but instead chose my Medicare card for reasons explained in "Modify Body: Modify Mind."

22 June 2007

The copy editor is asleep so I have checked the cover. I think all the links are in place and working properly. Time to bathe, little sponge bath at the sink. Copy editor uses his tongue when he bathes.

2 March 2007

>I am keeping silence. This issue is dedicated to presenting new photographs from Catherine Roberts Leach.

>On Monday I published a revision of "I Love These People," and I have added a link to the website of Suzanne Roberts, a poet.

19 June 2007

I just realized that some of the links on my cover have been out of whack for five days. Very disturbing. Let's see, whom can I blame? Arrowhead? No. The nice young woman next door? No. My cats? No. Cathy? Certainly not. Wait a sec, just a sec. Just came to me, yes. So simple. Britt. I'm to blame. Yes, my fault. A life lesson. Accepting blame. Not even Bush. It's Britt, the Editor & Publisher. Yes, old Britt. I've just put a note on my monitor. "Check cover links. Accept blame."

16 June 2007

The young woman next door just sent an email. She said that she had never told the water guy to buzz me if she's not home. So he lied when he said that she had. The Arrowhead water guy lied. What a world.

15 June 2007

At the very moment that I thought about updating this very important part of my page, the intercom buzzed. It was the Arrowhead water guy, needing entry to the building so that he could deliver to the apartment next door. "She said to buzz you if she didn't answer." "I'm no longer the manager; please don't buzz me again." And then, when I came back to my desk I had forgotten what I was doing, forgotten what I wanted to say. I sent the young woman next door an email, asked her to tell the water guy not to buzz me.

23 February 2007

My old friend Richard's black cat has never had a name here—referred to only as "black cat," as in, "there's also a black cat on the stump." I was recently informed that this once anonymous cat is, in fact, quite nonymous: He's "Puff Adder Fatso Da Gama." The white cat is "Mouse Feather." In this photograph they can be seen following Richard down his drive. He calls this photo "Trailers."

8 June 2007

I enjoyed publishing my page from Vegas. I enjoyed sitting in my hotel room late Thursday and then, right at 00:01 on Friday, uploading the page. It didn't work that way exactly because I couldn't immediately find a good internet connection; but still, I liked the idea. Publishing in the very first minute of Friday. So I'm doing it again with this issue and here I sit, waiting for midnight.

16 February 2007

>Any insight that I have about homelessness derives from walking my neighbohood. Homelessness isn't visible from a car. (Cell phone. Dog. Child. Mate.) A homeless person is a blur on the sidewalk.

I've written two pieces on homelessness. Call them essays—anything I write about the unspeakable is an essay. In September: "Gold Slippers for Her Dreams" and this week, "On Tuesday I Took A Walk."

>Catherine and I have decided that we will no longer fly. Cathy had a moment of "It's come to this" on a recent trip to San Francisco and my revelation came when I went back to the south in September of 2006. Never again. A train is more civilized, more humane. Like walking. (Except for what you sometimes see.)

1 June 2007

This was supposed to be my week off. But because I come from hard-working, addiction-prone stock, I have spent some of my vacation time redesigning the cover. The copy editor once mentioned that he thought it could be more logically arranged, with less clutter. My week off, and I listen to a drunk.

26 May 2007

> Let's look at this photo of my dear friend Richard Lockmiller and his dog Zoee. Let's not think of anything else—politics, celebs. Just Zoee and Richard. Richard is hauling something in this photo, a part for his classic panel truck maybe, and the blades of the riding mower are not active so Zoee is safe. Richard has been taking great care of dogs for many years. Many, many years. And has recently decided to tolerate cats. He takes good care of them, too. Puff Adder and Mouse Feather.

9 February 2007

I have seen many, many films in the last three months. All the biggies, all the nominees for the Academy Awards ®—please don't forget the ®. And I am also a member of Film Independent, the folks who do the Spirit Awards. They sent me a film that I should have seen on PBS, "A Lion in the House." But I stopped watching KCET, my local PBS station, because of Feng Shui, Wayne Dyer and a person named Huell Howser, all silly. OK, my fault. I should have waded through the offal so that I could have found "A Lion in the House." Dyer and Feng Shui are particularly inexcusable, but I should have avoided them and seen "A Lion in the House." Please see it.

(I'm not a multiculturalist. Dyer? Multicultural? Yes, Mars.)

> The writer-in-chief came to me today and said, "Boss, I need to talk to you. You said that you were going to take the week of the 18th of May off, but you did the page from Vegas anyway. How about a break? For you and for me." "I'll think about it," I said.

He's right; I've thought about it. I didn't take my Vegas week off, and we're supposed to have a week off in March, June, September and December. So I don't think we'll publish next week, 1 June. I'll tell the writer-in-chief as soon as he wakes up for dinner. The next issue will be that of 8 June.

18 May 2007

I'm still in Vegas. The issue (except for this) has been published, but it took a while (3 hours) to work out the internet connection. My fault. No vodka.

6 February 2007

Today my plan was to clean the cement just outside the sliding glass door of my apartment. Instead I have added "Links of Interest" to the Contents Page. A better choice.

17 May 2007

I am sitting in a hotel room in Las Vegas looking out of the window. I can see The 4 Queens sign, the Fremont's sign, "F." I seem to be publishing this week after all—a special issue. "Briefs" will return next week, and I will return tomorrow.

2 February 2007

Please allow me to share; I live in SouCal, and I must share. On 5 January I wrote about exercising with dumbells. Ted Turner wanted me to; at my class reunion he said that he wanted all his classmates to exercise with dumbells, come back in five years. So I did, sitting in a chair as directed by the book, "Age-Defying Fitness." Here's the sharing part: spinal stenosis. My spinal stenois does not like the compression of the spine that results from lifting dumbells whilst sitting. And now movement in the morning is very difficult, to the necessary room, for example. I look like Quasimodo. My thanks to all.

When this happened before I had turned myself over to a personal trainer who didn't understand the concept of age and put me in a contortion called The Cobra. It took a month or so for that pain to subside. I'm not sure what I'll do next in the way of the physical. I might try nothing; we'll see. And when I make my decision I'll be sure to share.

11May 2007

> Regarding the recent L.A.P.D riot, I am happy to revise what I have written here. L.A.P.D. thugishness seems to have been confined to the "highly trained" and "elite" Metro Division. The motto of the L.A.P.D. is "To Protect and Serve." O.K., protect us from Metro; we'll consider that a great service. I lived in Venice, California forty years ago. Metro was occasionally invited down to patrol the beach and was feared then. (And I wasn't a criminal.)

What happens to para-military types who become "highly trained" in crowd control? Nothing good; they become military types. You know, as in war. the enemy. Did you see the photos, TV? The cops:"Huh, huh, huh, huh"— that double-time thing they do, that chant they do, jogging toward a disturbance, i.e. people gathered. "Huh, huh, huh." The Haka, except not as kind. Get rid of them; get rid of Metro. Many of us think of ourselves as defenseless civilians; we're not the enemy. No, really.

29 January 2007

The rule here ("here" being my opulent design studio) is that if I change one thing I must change everything. Actually, I changed two things: I redesigned the cover and added a "Contents" page. And because I wanted a clear link on all the other pages to the new "Contents" page I had to replace the navigation buttons at the top of all those other pages. So now we have new navigation bars at the top and bottom of each page. I also wanted a clear link on each page to this, the Masthead Page, where so much is said and so little is explained. But I got a late start on my wonderful Stumptown coffee this Monday, and I'll come back here just as soon as my caffeinated synapses begin to pop and will try to understand what I just wrote. Maybe I'll revise or I could leave it as a little mystery. Happy Monday. [And now, later in the day, I've changed this very page. I won't attempt any more explanations.]

> Yes, for research purposes only, I am going to Vegas next week. On the bus. There's a proability that the page will not be published that week. So the next issue will be that of 25 May 2007. Of course I could change my mind and do something from our holy city itself. I might do a "slog." A "Vegas Log."

5 May 2007

Police riot, 1 May, cont'd. I just saw an image on TV of an L.A.P.D. officer hitting a boy who couldn't have been more than ten. The boy was neatly dressed; blue and white short-sleeved shirt, clean white shoes. The boy had no weapon, but he somehow displeased a rioting cop. The boy was hit repeatedly on the legs by a man who outweighed him by one-hundred pounds. How did we get such thugs on our police force? My son is a police officer in Alabama, so I know that there are good men out there. What happened in Los Angeles? Thugs.

4 May 2007

Our L.A.P.D. officers have rioted again. Have you seen the video of their riot during the immigration rally on 1 May? What did seeing that do to you? I was enraged. What's that jog-march, that double-time thing that the L.A.P.D. does in formation before they riot? Maybe they shouldn't do that, maybe it puts them into a warrior-frenzy mode, like the Haka. I guess you need that when you're beating up on old folks and children, TV anchors, reporters. I was even sorry for the people from Fox. And angry.

27 January 2007

The cover was becoming a bit crowded. So this morning, the Writer-In-Chief, the Copy Editor and I began a small re-design of the cover and added an all-inclusive and quite functional contents page with links to everything on the site. My eyes hurt, but we love our work.

26 January 2007

It's a little (California) chilly in the apartment, but Jimmie is lying on my wool shirt, the one given to me by my brother Brooks. I'll just have to find another shirt.

20 January 2007

The donation link has just been changed from Amazon Honor System to PayPal. That "Honor System" phrase was bothersome; so I changed to PayPal. Thanks for letting me share.

19 January 2007

My intent was to write a piece about a curmudgeon, and I will. But today, in place of that consideration, there's a coffee update featuring The Coffee Wimp, and a poem. I am unable to offer a reason for the supplanting. Angelic, perhaps.

12 January 2007

My friends Richard and Anne Lockmiller live in Duvall, Washington, near Seattle. The weather has been rough there this winter. Rain, high winds and now snow. They were without power for ten days. I admire them; they soldier on. Richard sent me a photo of Mouse Feather and Peanut Butter keeping each other warm.

Thinking about Richard and Anne reminded me of our time in the woods, in Pine Mountain Club, California, about seventy miles north of Los Angeles. I wrote about that time in our magazine, country CONNECTIONS, and have reprinted that piece in this issue. Get Out Anyway: Our Time in the Woods.

5 January 2007

The University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa, 100 miles or so from where I was born, has a new football coach. His name is Nick Saban and he is being paid four million dollars per year. That's $4,000,000. Per year. Yes, I left the state, went to Hollywood to make it as an actor, but great God! It makes me ill; I still love Alabama. I have said for years that in a dark building somewhere in Birmingham or Montgomery there is a Department of National Embarrassment: that Ten Commandments judge, Roy Moore (from my hometown), and now this obscenity. Nick Saban's most recent tenure as a college football coach was at L.S.U., where only half the football team graduates. God, what four million per year could do for Alabama education. Shame.

27 April 2007

Catherine has returned from Seattle. Five of her photographs are featured this week. Beautiful. While putting together this week's page I've been listening to Beethoven, 7th Symphony. Beautiful. It was time.

20 April 2007

Catherine is in Seattle for a little vacation. I am helpless. Old and helpless, and I look it. Not like the good folks of our new (and old) series: "Geri-ANTICS! Fun with Seniors!" Great god! I can't drink sake. Even in moderate amounts. Five miles of bad road.

13 April 2007

> We again are using Man-With-a-Hat on the cover, one of Catherine's photos that was used early in our first year. Maybe we'll start each year with Man-with-a Hat.

>The bright young women of Rutger's have been used. They're now in showbiz, a silly business. (Don Imus is (was) in showbiz; Oprah.) Did they really want to be in showbiz, these bright young women? And when they first heard about what the old fool Imus had said on his silly talk show did they think of themselves as grievously wronged? Of course not. Not until they were told. My bet is that they were coached. "C. Vivian Stringer." Beware the leading initial. Thanks, coach. And Jesse and Al.

6 April 2007

The Writer-In-Chief, the Copy Editor and I would like to thank our readers on the occasion of our first anniversary. And we do.

30 March 2007

While on my vacation in Las Vegas, soaking in a martini…No, not true. I didn't go. I might never go back. How sad. It's so much fun for half an hour or so. No, the Writer-in-Chief the Copy Editor and I stayed here and did some work on the page. We've added a new section: Briefs: Clippings and Excerpts.

Each week we'll print excerpts from a book and from a few of the remaining newspapers. The book we're featuring this week is Infidel, by Ayaan Hirsi Ali. Next week, The Koran by Mohammed. No, wait, that's wrong. It will probably be The End of Faith by Sam Harris, and Sam quotes The Koran; that's what I meant. I'm sure that I'll have it all sorted out by next week's issue. Going to Vegas wouldn't have helped.

20 March 2007

In a recent staff meeting, Alex, my very sharp copy editer and prof reader, said, "Say, boss, why do we have our vacations during two weeks in September and two weeks in December? Wouldn't it make more sense to spread our vacations out? During the entire year I mean?" And Jimmie, my writer-in-chief, said, "Yeah, boss. How about one week in March, June, September and December? " And I agreed. We're vacating next week; the next issue will be that of 30 March 2007. I've been considering a trip to Vegas, but I think I'll just stay home and hit myself in the head with a hammer instead. Save money.

"Notes From the Editor & Publisher," continued, 2006

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