Double Feature

I like Anna Wintour. She describes herself as "decisive." She appears so to be. Therefore, she possesses an abundance of a quality I lack practically altogether.
I like Grace. I like the luckless Italian fotografer. I like the little muscle-guy who knows how to print out fotos. I like the models, the designers, the slaves, the vassals.
For, they're all wholeheartedly in pursuit of an ideal, il bello.
I never knew before, for I've never had a copy of Vogue in hand.
They're painters, artists. They take young flesh and brilliant costumes and distinctive settings, and create foto-paintings.
God bless their hearts, one and all.
Besides, The September Issue was so much funnier, and so much more suspenseful than advertised, I was delighted to have bought the ticket.

Meanwhile, down the hall, was Lord, Save Us from Your Followers. Always glad to see Jon Stewart, that handsome dog. And Senator Franken, that--er--entertaining dog. And Bono's hair.
And so very many Uncle Toms, wherever did the presenter find them?
And the self-confessing, self-forgiving presenter. How pat he has it down. A little lipstick on the pig, no need for a change of heart. Or self-examination. Or a sense of justice.
A most disheartening movie, so glad I didn't buy the ticket.--Giac.

home economy

I was searching for an old recipe for pâté de fruit.
I didn’t find it.
Instead, in a 1929 cookbook published by the Woman’s Missionary Society of the Pope First M. E. Church South, I came across this recommended budget for household expenses:

36%--Operating Expenses (rent, utilities, ecc.)
24%--Food
10%--Wearing Apparel
6%--Advancement (education, donations)
5%--Health
12%--Investment
7%--Amusement

Well.
Health insurance costs so much nowadays that a family of four would have to have an after-tax income of $200,000 in order for medical expenditure to be only 5% of the budget. Something has to give. I hope it won’t be Amusement.
As for the perpetual harping on Americans’ refusal to save “12%” of their annual incomes--pish tush. Social Security deductions do that for us.
Only, the deductions stop before they get to the CEOs.

§§§

And just God bless the Woman’s Missionary Society for slashing the tithe, doubtless they knew best.--Giac.

Yes, I Did

Am I old enough to know better?

YES! I! AM!

Yet, during the Inauguration this morning, did I grow misty-eyed, did I chortle with glee a dozen times, did I jump up and down like a grunge-boy at Kurt Cobain's mausoleum?

YES! I! DID!
Auguri, America.--Giac.

pax hominibus bonae voluntatis

Buon Natale!
Which, do you think, pleased la Guadalupe? The zealot who hanged her child in Iran? The Bishop of Rome who, under the cover of protecting mixed-sex marriage, opposed the French initiative to condemn the murder of that child? Or the French who, thanks to Napoleon's rationalistic code, would've embraced that child?
Et in terra, pax hominibus bonae voluntatis.
La Madre Vergine di Guadalupe giudichi.
Buon Natale hominibus bonae voluntatis!--Giac.

§§§

Buon Natale!
Alla Guadalupe chi sarà piaciuto? Il bigotto zelota che l'ha impiccato il Figlio persiano? Il Papa che, sotto la maschera del Protettore del Sesso Sposato, ha condannato la proposta francese all'Onu, la proposta che avrebbe condannato l'uccisione del Figlio? Ossia i francesi, davvero francescani, che, grazie alle leggi civili, dote dal trisnonno corsicano Napoleone, avrebbero abbracciato il Suo Ragazzo?
Et in terra pax hominibus bonae voluntatis.
Giudichi la Madre Vergine.
Buon Natale, hominibus bonae voluntatis!--Giac.

(Foto e servizio: Oggi, No. 51)

No Wonder It Was Dull

° The audience at Belmont University was trying not to doze off, so were the candidates.
° Why should Obama or McCain be enthusiastic? After all, neither will be President of the country that existed two or more years ago when the campaign began. That was a country whose economic system, though abused and weakened by years of drugging by the Federal Reserve and flogging by the Administration and Congress, was not known to be on its last legs.
° At least, Obama and McCain didn't know it.
° Cheers to Obama for showing the first signs of awareness, in his assertion that energy independence would take precedence over the other items on his wish list.--Giac.