Tuesday, February 22, 2005

O February Moon! Trapper's Moon--Moon of the Raccoon Budding Moon--Moon When Trees Pop Bony Moon--Little Famine Moon Moon of Ice--Hunger Moon Storm Moon--Snow Moon ["War talk by men who have been in a war is always interesting; whereas moon talk by a poet who has not been in a moon is likely to be dull."           Mark Twain, Life on the Mississippi] 7:29:59 PM    comment []

On the other hand, lest we forget, in an article titled "Prisoner of Denver" published in the June 2004 issue of Vanity Fair, Thompson wrote many sentences along the lines of the following: "Now I know different. I know that police are the Enemy, cruel and stupid and dishonest in a way that would shame the Hell's Angels." "When you think of Denver you think of cowshit and gunfights, small brains and big guns, dumb brutes and wild whores with hearts of cheap gold. Yes, sir, that is Denver in a nutshell--a cowboy town with cowboy rules and cowboy justice. When you come to Denver, Bubba, you'd better be ready to fight. Kick ass or die is what the Denver Police Department is all about. It is kill or be killed in this town. The D.P.D. has never been anything but a dangerous gang of vengeful, half-bright cowboys with a vicious reputation for brutality and what the Hell's Angels used to call 'massive retaliation.' Hell's Angels didn't just punish the enemy, they massacred all of them. Nobody who fucked with a Hell's Angel ever lived to tell about it. Indeed, that was the point they wanted to make, and few people dared to forget it." (italics mine) "It is not in my nature to be polite to people who want to hurt me..." "One of the most valuable things I have learned in my life is that you can beat city hall, but I have also learned that you cannot do it alone. 'We' is the most powerful word in politics. Today it's Lisl Auman, but tomorrow it could be you, me, us." * * * The September VF carried a (somehow tepidly) irate letter to the editor from the Denver DA in protest of this article. And now just enough time has passed... well, shall we go there? 10:49:10 AM    comment []

Little to say today after the spillage of yesterday. So much to do. Dreams of moving again and again only to return in the end to the mouldering shack we began in. Kindly half-witted landlady warned of neighbors who tended to play and replay the Wizard of Oz rather loudly. "I hope that won't bother you." Also a wedding party for the second marriage of my son's friend Jake, who is 40 in the dream (which makes it six or seven years from now). Presently, in life, he is happily married to wife No. 1. We shall see whether this dreams presages anything. And wish him the best. After a little walk on the ridge, we'll drive out--our first exit in four days--and fetch mail, post four sold books, go to the bank. We're running low on supplies, and we can get only the most basic basics even today. And still so much writing and revising to do! 9:45:41 AM    comment []