14th & 15th October, 2004

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Rod 4/16/04 Photo by Billy Iz

A Thought for Today

Humility is like a magnate it attracts the most worthwhile people for company.

 

Wednesday Evening October 13

Dear Diary,

Edward returned yesterday from a week in Boston so it’s back to business as usual. Lots of work to be done, including choosing an architect for Dos Vidas and getting ready for the trip to Austin.

Worse, too many business decisions are still hanging in the air. Mind; get thee to a make-up chair. Time; get thee behind me. As proof of Tempus Fudge it, the Flight Plan from eight years ago that I’ve chosen to repeat today.

A FLIGHT FROM6THE PAST
8 October, 1998

TODAY'S RESOLUTION

A day or so of doing nothing should be required work. But is it worth it to fall farther back while piles of things unattended still need tending to? A question I can’t answer and one that must stump more than just a few of us. I can’t help but think I used to work harder, faster and get more done. Looking back and reflecting on a canon of work, there is some. Sadly quantity doesn’t always equal quality.

Today’s Resolution: Everything can’t get done. Okay, if you say so. So what gets done will have to be done a little better every day. Sounds like a plan.

- R.M. 10/3/98

IN CONCLUSION

Final Presidential Debates tonight and thankfully less than three weeks left of pundant spin and commentators on Fox News trying to keep straight faces while using the term ‘fair and balanced.’

With everything as contentious as it is these days we can all use whatever smiles we can get. Here’s one Dr. Eric sent along to me that I thought I might share.

An 80-year-old man went to the doctor for a checkup and the doctor was amazed at what good shape the guy was in. The doctor asked, "To what do you attribute your good health?" The old-timer said, "I'm a golfer and that's why I'm in such good shape. I'm up well before daylight & out golfing up and down the fairways."

Doctor, "Well, I'm sure that helps, but there's got to be more to it. How old was your dad when he died?"

Old-timer said, "Who said my dad's dead?" Doctor, "You mean you're 80 years old and your dad's still alive? How old is he?" Old-timer, "He's 100 yrs old and, in fact, he golfed with me this morning...and that's why he's still alive... he's a golfer."

Doctor, "Well, that's great, but I'm sure There's more to it. How about your dad's dad? How old was he when he died?"

Old-timer, "Who said my grandpa's dead?" Doctor, "You mean you're 80 years old and your grand-father's still living! How old is he?" Old-timer, "He's 118 years old."

The doctor was getting frustrated at this point and said, "I guess he went golfing with you this morning too?" Old-timer, "No...... Grandpa couldn't go this morning because he got married." Doctor, in amazement, "Got married! Why would a 118-year-old guy want to get married?"

Old-timer, "Who said he wanted to?"


Sleep warm and I’ll see you with something new on Thursday.

RM 10/12/2004 3:15PM PST

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notable birthdays

Thursday 14 October

Harry Anderson o Hannah Arendt o e.e. cummings o John Dean o Thomas Dolby o Dwight D. Eisenhower o Greg Evigan o Lillian Gish o Gary Graffman o Benita Hume o Alan Jones o Pert Kelton o C Everett Koop o Ralph Lauren o Natalie Maines o Katherine Mansfield o Melba Montgomery o Roger Moore o William Penn o Lance Rentzel o Cliff Richard o Arlene Sorkin o David Strickland o Usher o Robert Webber o John Wooden o Alexander von Zemlinsky

Friday 15 October

Jere Burns o Richard Carpenter o Ina Claire o Jane Darwell o Sarah Ferguson o Michael Foucault o John Kenneth Galbraith o Peter Haskell o Lee Iacocca o Tito Jackson o Emeril Lagasse o Linda Lavin o Mervyn LeRoy o Penny Marshall o Barry McGuire o Kenny Miller o Kyletta Miller o Friedrich Nietzsche o Jim Palmer o Jean Peters o Mario Puzo o Jose Quintero o Arthur Schlesinger o Robert "PapaSco" Scofield o C.P. Snow o John Sullivan o Roscoe Tanner o Robert Trout o Virgil o P.G. Wodehouse

Rod's random thoughts If we go to beds of boredom knowingly, we deserve the ill attention we receive.

I have no quarrel with your lovers, only admiration for their taste.

Language has no ends and no beginnings, other than the coda each death makes and the paragraph that starts with each new birth.

NIGHT MISCHIEF

A young man
standing in the rain
outside that so familiar
                      window
known to me
because I’ve lived
across the street from it
too many years, too long.

Known to me
because it is unlike
any other window,
and what stays or sits
or struts behind / beyond it
is familiar if not known to me.

My domain
is not my own
not because it isn’t shared
although it isn’t
but because it isn’t shared
                           by her.

I should have moved
the day I saw her
gliding up the stairs alone
or later every time I saw
someone coming, going
beneath her balcony,
down those stairs,
or moving round the corner
on the sidewalk or the street
overtipping taxi drivers
as they found the right house
and dropped their passengers
four feet from the door.

Good woman
you do me damage.
Angels could not force
such sense of loss upon me
whatever their conspiracy.

Just now
the door is answered
and the young man
           steps inside.
Outside
the rain still falls
and not uncomfortably.

Long ago
I should have moved away
or else I should have
walked across the street
                           myself
smiled and told her
how she was an interruption
                           in my life
because she lived there
just the other side of it.

Without the chance
for real rejection
          she rejected me.
Without a no
she let me know.

- from "Looking For A Friend", 1980

 
© 1980, 1998, 2004 by Stanyan Music Group & Rod McKuen. All Rights Reserved
Webmaster: Ken Blackie o Birthday research by Wade Alexander, coordinated by Melinda Smith
Poetry from the collection of Jay Hagan o Sound & Fury: Dr. Eric Yeager o Editor at Large: Bruce Bellingham
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