Abraham Lincoln's Hearse

A. Lincoln's Hearse.  There's something terrifying about this picture; those black sentinels of a massively significant loss.

Gwyneth Paltrow - Fraudstress

Princess should be ashamed of herself. At least she was unconsciously right-on with the name of her snake oil:  "goop."  Rich, feckless, and stupid.

John Hartford - Gentle on my mind 1977

Although the late Glen Campbell recorded this song for the masses, John Hartford actually wrote it.  Gentle on My Mind has some of the finest assembly of lyrics I've ever heard.

Justice William J. Brennan, Jr.

I gave my son, Frank Brennan Whetstone, a tiny piece of Justice Brennan's identity out of respect for one of the greatest liberal jurists in the history of this country.

Paris Dennard - Latest Recipient of the Oreo Award

Roundup - The Beginning of the End to this Toxic Concoction that Causes Cancer

A California jury has returned a $289-million-dollar verdict against the purveyors of this poison that now saturates the earth and its groundwater reserves in densely-populated areas of the country.  Please sound the alarm and have this removed from the shelves immediately. 

Francis Bacon's Portrait of Michel Leiris (1976)

Ahed Tamimi - A Palestinian Jewel

Locke - Written and Directed by Steven Knight

The parallels drawn by this movie along the lives of complicated, 21st century men, are damn near perfectly aligned.  Tom Hardy's monolithic performance was totally convincing.  A wireless multitasking white male meets the consequences of his actions and manages to do the right thing, in relative terms, after an awful mistake.  An excellent film.

Gregory Alan Isakov - The Stable Song - How'd She Know

A strange thing happened during the summer of 2018.  I was drawn, mental pictures and all, to the Looking Glass Creek in Transylvania County, North Carolina, imbedded deep in the Pisgah National Forest, to a spot where I once played, just below Sliding Rock.  I told my wife that I wanted to go there, so off we went.  I drove so Stacey could have a beer on the way.

As we approached Highway 276, which would run parallel to the Looking Glass Creek, Stacey said, "this one's for Daddy," and played the Stable Song.  I big fat tear rolled down the left side of my face, unbeknownst to Frank and Stacey.  How'd she know?

Addicts and Alcoholics

What separates addicts and alcoholics from the rest of society is their need to constantly adjust the thermostat on their consciousness in order to cope with their own vagaries.  They are alcoholics and addicts because they have effectively lost control over their intake, called "unmanagability" in AA parlance. This naturally throws off balance their ability to make the thermostatic adjustments to their congnitive interactions with people, places, and things associated with this incremental life on planet earth.  Probably has something to do with what's called, "affect." Who knows?