Thursday, October 23, 2008

Word Lust

To the untrained eye this just looks like a bunch of words. Random and meaningless. To a writer, this is like porn.


Look at those beautiful words all crammed together, one on top of the other in total phonetic orgy. No verbs, nouns, or adjectives, just words. Muscular, lean, beautiful words. Together in the oblivion of the page, not caring what anyone thinks. Free of grammatical confines. It's pure, beautiful, random expression.


This is the product of wordle.net, the ultimate site for word nerds. Enter any text or link to a website, and it will grab a sampling of the words and randomly display them in a text mosaic. The larger words are the ones that appear most often in the selected text. You can change the colors, and decide whether you want mostly horizontal, vertical, a mixture, or a total free-for-all. Click and they all rearrange creating new pairings, unexpected phrases, accidental alliteration, glimmers of brilliance.

frantic cartoon half existence
life comes ebbing

lusty orchard afternoon
simplicity begins

like honey gossamer inspiration

imperceptible sentinel
former dying green edge

gentle brutish
sun
pale winter meadow
mud-heavy valley
heaven speaks


These were all random pairings. Oddly beautiful on their own, strung together they don't make a half bad poem.

And the most beautiful part? You can do it over and over again and never get the same result. Very dangerous for obsessive compulsive types.

Thursday, October 2, 2008

Whoa


So, you know that stock I bought. Yeah, didn't work out too well. Feeling a little queasy. Whoa. Okay, that was this morning's breast milk.

I think I'm just going to stick to the xylophone. Yeah, I just spelled that. It's easy. Almost as easy as buying stock on E*Trade.

Also, if you know anybody whose looking for a clown...I had to let Bobo go.

Wednesday, October 1, 2008

Because I don't Want To Think About Money Or Politics


No matter what else is going on in the world, we still have this.

This is the bike trail at the Biltmore Estate in Asheville, North Carolina, one of my favorite places to be on a gorgeous fall day. And if I were to be in southeast today, I would no doubt have to make a stop at Cracker Barrel. It's where comfort meets food, so you know you're going to come out of there feeling like a puppy after a kibble binge.


Chicken 'n dumplins. Fried okra. Green beans boiled with bacon and onions and barely resembling something that originated from the earth. Corn bread. Biscuits. Sweet tea. (I always ask for non-sweet, which confounds everyone in the restaurant and takes extra time while they search out the only container of non-sweet in the place.)

Though the Cracker Barrel name refers to the old time practice of selling crackers out of a large cooper's barrel, it could just as easily refer to the majority of the patrons, most looking as if they just came from a meeting to discuss ways to rid the town of drum circles and hemp products.

The attached country store is stocked with "Grandma's Little Dumpling" sweatshirts and assorted platters offering up a variety of blessings with every meal. I don't think there is anything in the retail area that I could imagine looking at in my home every day, but they do have an exceptional selection of bygone era toys and candy that I quite enjoy. I always follow up an artery clogging meal with a little browse-time. Here are a few of my favorite items: