I’ve been so extremely busy packing up our home for the movers to come in a few weeks time.
Got rid of books I didn’t need. See previous post. Got rid of some paintings. See heartache. Got rid of a bunch of files and folders that haven’t seen the light of day in over 10 years. See recycling containers burst.
Getting rid of a old software, old hardware, lots of kids clothes, and a mirror or two that probably won’t make the 1,500 mile trip. Got boxes from around the neighborhood, much thanks to Fresh Direct who make the perfect size small moving box.
Getting cold feet. Getting to say goodbye to some friends and family. Getting out a bit more only to know that I’ll be getting out less soon. Getting a lot of telemarketing calls lately. Don’t know why. Getting up early, getting to bed late, not getting enough work done, getting nostalgia for Coney Island, Gothamist, Prospect Park, a few museums and galleries, Time Warner Cable, the MTA (here’s a cool related link from Kottke), the Major Deegan, the Coastal Evacuation signs, getting lost in thoughts, getting gone.
Getting better and getting sad.

It’s been too long since I’ve written a Deckchairs entry because the following things have occurred:

• My daughter is now toilet trained. It’s a big deal in the field of parenting and it took a lot of cajoling, bribery, shenanigans, and generalized anxiety. But she is and her parents are relieved that, when she goes to a new school in the Fall, the teachers won’t have to do any training around the potty. I must say that I already miss the days of holding her hand while she went to the bathroom in her diaper and watched her as she gave permission to herself to do what she needed to do.
• On the moving scene, I’ve confirmed with the mover that we’re moving. I’m about to detail and sell the car and I’m thinking about loading Tiger so that I can simultaneously worry about something other than moving and shipping and packing and saying goodbye to all that. Up to Canada.
• I experienced a Father’s Day that was filled with much joy. In particular, we went to the Brooklyn Museum of Art and I fell in love with Brooklyn generally again. The Museum, having recently undergone reconstruction (remont in Polish, which always made more sense to me), installed an incredible fountain that is beautifully choreographed in the most minimal and yet most pleasurable ways. It’s hard to describe but imagine about 20 propelled water streams forced to different levels above a marble base, each one in some sort of synchronicity with the others, falling up, falling down, and then falling flat. The sounds of the water hitting the stone and the droplets hitting each other was mesmerizing and it has completely transformed that busy corner of Brooklyn’s Prospect Heights.
• I’m equally mesmerized with the recent fate of public radio and television. It’s as if the Republican administrators of our fair country have decided that the small amounts of funding provided to keep public-oriented programming on the public airwaves is too much to bear for our debt-ridden nation. It’s hard to believe but their position seems to be that the federal deficit can be helped along by cutting out a few culturally rich parts of the popular arena so that the gap can be filled by benefactors. Bill Moyers has been predicting this for some time and so have I.
• At the same time, I’m impressed by the audacity of Con Rice going around to Arab countries lately pronouncing the importance of democratic institutions and civic values. I always think that the person the person that doth protest too much is always the most guilty of crimes.

More tidbits and better posts coming up.

The New York Times today noted the passing of Edward von Kloberg III. The headline is “Edward von Kloberg III, Lobbyist for Many Dictators, Dies at 63.” (The “von” was his tasteless add-on.)
Kloberg worked in Washington for some of the most evil persons to walk the face of the planet, including “Saddam Hussein, Nicolae Ceaucescu of Romania, Samuel K. Doe of Liberia and Mobuto Sese Seko of the former Zaire.” He tried to recruit North Korea’s Kim Jong Il, another beauty of a man. While my back immediately went up, upon reading Kloberg’s obit, I also realized that it’s too easy to make the distinction between a man like Kloberg and someone like, say, the current President. While Kloberg willingly sought out to represent the most heinous individuals, those who had the discipline and power to decimate and maim populations, some of our own elected officials hold hands with despots and tell us to value freedom and democracy.
To take this line of reasoning further: Kloberg is, in many, many, ways, the more honest of the two. His shingle clearly says: “Hire me if you are a tyrant and I will represent you.” Our President’s shingle says otherwise: “Visit me if you are a tyrant and I will represent you to my people.” Granted, the President lives in a more complex political environment; he needs to pay for many people’s dinners, not just his own.
I wonder if the guilt was too much: Kloberg had “leapt from the parapet of a castle” to his final death.

I question whether I should even post something on the subject, but it does strike me as slightly odd that Catholic officials chose Joseph Ratzinger to be Pope. The man does seem singularly acceptable to the old church but I can’t imagine that it’s going to help the foundation of the faith expand in places like Latin America and Africa, where there actually are church-goers (as compared to say, much of Germany, where Mr. Ratzinger hails).
Further, while Jewish newspapers like Haaretz seem to support the choice, his membership in Hitler Youth feels strange. According to a number of articles, Mr. Ratzinger has a very positive view of and has committed himself to contemporary Jews, Judaism, and Jewish religiosity. And it’s true that almost any young boy during Hitler’s reign was inducted into the youth movement.
Still, still, why did the Church take on a German cardinal when Germany is no longer a model Catholic country? And while hiring a senior citizen as Pope keeps the tenure short, why not make a statement about the Church’s longevity with someone with longevity? And what’s with the name Benedict? Odd, odd, odder still.

There is a man in the forest who lives all by himself, in the West, and nobody ever built him a home. He has long, scratchy fingernails and is near the trees. His name is Matcho Peacho. Soon a man made his house and he’s fine now.
This comes from the brain of a three-year old girl. I find the story dangerously funny.
Tomorrow or the next day, I will post something of another nature — what websites hide.

During particularly hasteful mornings, my daughter has taken to ask me whether I’m “Nice or Mad.” It helps her sort out whether or not to be anxious, angry, or aggressive or something else entirely. I’ve never before thought about this unique justaposition but it, in fact, jibes nicely with other psychological differentiations that I’ve been fond of in the past. These include:

• Creep or Asshole: A former professor of mine at the University at Albany remarked once that all people could be easily categorized into the former or latter. I’m the former.
• Dumb or Stupid: I recall being in high school and people called each other one or the other. I’m dumb.
• Sorry or Sordid: I made this one up. I’m sorry.

Tonight I walked home with my friend and we talked and talked, for over 1/2 hour, about all of the things happening in our small world. We talked about the car being towed away this morning after it wouldn’t start. She asked me if I was sad to see it go away, and I replied that I was but that it would probably be fixed soon. She told me that she herself was sad to see it go. Then we talked about what it would be like to move away and how our friends in other places are unviewable from any distance except that of being front of them or very near. We spoke about how we would no longer be here if we were there and how much our friends would be different. And then we on to discuss the trash. I told her that I had to take out the garbage tonight, because it hadn’t been done in a few weeks. I asked if you could ever imagine what would happen if the trash just piled up and she remarked that we would be all be then sleeping on the garbage at some point and it would be pretty stinky. My daughter then asked when Mommy was coming home and it was a while until she did come home.

Today is Sunday and these are the scattered, boring thoughts going through the head of a generally unscattered individual. Sundays are somehow always filled with these kind of thoughts for me.

• I must finish that educational website as soon as possible. It’s going to be very stylish and I just need time to get the many images properly composed, edited, placed, and styled. I need time. Why the hell am I wasting time writing this?
• New Year’s is coming up and I actually don’t care. Or do I care? No, I don’t care.
• Our closet is packed with cardboard boxes on top of cardboard boxes, and behind them is a vacuum cleaner that needs to be found so that cleaning can be done.
• Tomorrow is Monday and I imagine now that my productivity then won’t be great.
• I just received one of the new series of books that holds all of the early Peanuts comic strips. It should make me feel young or old.
• We’re going to eat latkes tonight with our family and that will be nice and greasy.

We’re now almost half way through the holiday here in Jewishland, which sometimes feels about as remote as the Arctic Circle. In any case, I found a few interesting tidbits about the holiday — some of which are courtesy of my child’s school:

• A Talmudic debate occurred at one point between the schools of Hillel and Shammai. The latter believed that we should light all eight candles and then each day, light one less. Hillel argued for the opposite: light one candle, then two the next night and so on. He won the debate. Chanukah would be a much darker and more deliberate holiday had Shammai won.
• Antiochus Epiphanes was the Hellenic ruler of Syria when the family Maccabee struggled against Greek culture and religion. While today we often glorify the ancient Greeks and their beautiful-looking language and ruins, the nation was once a colony that preyed on its residents like any other hegemon.
• According to Chabad.org, the first time that elephants were used in war was during the Maccabean War.
• My pals at TheGolem.com show Harrison Ford at a Chanukah celebration in New Haven, CT. Who knew? (It’s a spoof.)

Saturday Night Live is now a terribly turgid show and I barely can stay awake through the supposedly “juicy” first half hour of the thing anymore. The SNL Saturday Night Live” href=”http://www.nbc.com/Saturday_Night_Live/index.html”>website
is crappy and, while Tina Fey is still beautiful, she’s no longer funny.
U2 was on last night and they gave a near-lip-synched rendition of the lead song off of their upcoming How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb.
The only thing that caught my closing eye was during the Robert Smigel cartoon of George Bush demonstrating to an audience of the faithful how to convert gays into straights. The cartoon was not funny nor interesting. But there was a sign hanging up in the back of the cartooned Christian right audience that read “Everything is NOT Horrible.” I felt immediately that this captures much of the likely feeling of the red states. For many in the United States, everything is fine if not good if not very fine if not very good and the sheer worry of liberals was disheartening to them during this campaign. I understand this to a certain extent. Moral clarity can be filled with personal grace, no doubt, but I do wonder aloud about the possibility of a more national redemption when governed by those who prefer being “cheery.”