The Misanthrope –Sunday’s Lighter Side

If you want work well done, select a busy man: the other kind has no time.
Elbert Hubbard (1856 - 1915), writer, printer, and editor.

Working. I like being busy, but I resent being so busy that I have no time for anything except to drive to work. When B2 told me about the urinal piece, which I loved, I barely had time to cobble together my piece (he would have kindly waited, but I was eager to add my two cents). The urinal idea struck me as something Nicholson Baker could have written. My newspapers continue to stay pristine, but the contents have gone stale. I am composing this on Saturday at my desk downtown at 3:30 p.m. awaiting a 4 p.m. conference call. I have listened to the new Bruce Springsteen CD “Devils & Dust” at least three times today, because I already listened to my CD compilations of Josh Stone and Miles Davis. Oh well, I have it better than the other individuals who worked for two days without sleep last weekend.

Driving Aimlessly. Poor Daughter had an interview for an internship, but ended up driving the Southern California freeway system missing turnoffs and exits for almost three hours. If you were to diagram her travels, it would look almost like three-points on a star. Daughter goes back for phase-two next week. She now knows exactly how to get there and can provide directions to most anywhere in the So. Cal area.

CDs. I am sure everyone feels that they can make a music mix for a CD or an iPod better than anyone else, but I do make a heck of a CD. In my car currently playing are Neil Young’s Greatest Hits; Joe Lovano’s “I am All for You;” my mix of songs from Tierney Sutton, my mix of Frank Sinatra love-lost songs, which is simply great; a mix of the Kinks and one I made in between showering and dressing the other morning, which was a selection of rain songs. I had many to select from, here is a sampling of what I chose:
Tom Waits – Make it Rain
Cassandra Wilson – I Can’t Stand the Rain
Carmen McRae – Come in Out of the Rain
Leon Russell – A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall
Creedence Clearwater Revival – Who’ll Stop the Rain
Joe Cocker – I Can Stand a Little Rain
Randy Newman – I Think it is Going to Rain Today
Stan Getz – Here’s That Rainy Day
Billie Holiday -- Come Rain or Shine

People. I was having my Saturday night dinner at 8:45 p.m.; a bowl of soup and two cold slices of last night’s pizza. The baseball game was on the television and I was flipping through the People magazine, when my heart jumped into my throat. The *&%*$%#* magazine had an ad for the CBS Elvis movie that blasted out the King’s "Blue Suede Shoes," when you turned the page. A tribe of pigmy elves could have swarmed the house and I would have been only slightly more surprised.