WWJD AT NORDSTROMS

ANYONE WITH A PAST

My life assumed this pattern: I would invade the streets and live within their world eagerly; then I would flee, get a job, walk out of it. And return to the waiting streets like a repentant lover eager to make up with added intensity for lost moments.

...and now I no longer feel the guilt I battled so long, about the "real people" I thought I would "leave behind." No, they are a permanent part of my life, of that part of me--the writer--who tells of his journey...

--John Rechy

POEM ON THE SOUTH STREET BRIDGE

I think this is an adaptation of a poem by Walt Whitman, but I've never been able to find it. Does anyone have a source?

It's is a poem that appeared spray painted on the South Street Bridge years ago--maybe a decade ago! For the time it was perfect:

I am anticipating the return
of the gay men to the trees
and railroad tracks that line the Schuylkill River.

I see them everyday in this season
I disturb them by staring.

Love is not dead, but lurks
as a seed within their blind lust.

They hunt (hurt) for partners
behind stone columns and trees.

They are not the unnatural ones
the ones on display
acting out for us all love's fumbling futility.

For those who dare look
they unblind us all.

Love is not dead.

ABOUT ART

The individual, man as man, man as brain, if you like, interests me more than what he makes. --Marcel Duchamp.

My art would be that of living: each moment, each breath is a work inscribed nowhere. --Marcel Duchamp.

Life is action, not production. --Aristotle.

Art, when fully understood, is the province of every human being. It is simply a matter of doing things--anything--well. It is not an extra, outside thing. --Robert Henri.

BEST SCONES EVER!

SIFT TOGETHER
2 C Flour
1/3 C Sugar
1 T Baking Powder
1/2 t Salt

CUT IN
6 t COLD Butter

STIR IN
1/2 C+ Chopped Dried Fruit (candied lemon peel or candied ginger)

WHISK SEPARATELY
1 Egg
1/2 C Heavy Cream
1 t Lemon Zest

ADD LIQUID ALL AT ONCE
Stir

Knead 6-8 times

ROLL INTO A BALL
FLATTEN
CUT INTO 8 WEDGES

BAKE AT 425 FOR 12-15 MINUTES

SPECIAL RIGHTS

Consider this: Earned Income Tax Credits (EIC) hold promise as an incentive for personal responsibility. But, they need to be more broadly implemented. Non-custodial parents, for example, may not claim or share EICs given to custodial parents. That's not a concern for 2-parent families, which was the focus of my last post. But, it's important in the context of any desire to promote the responsible behavior of fathers, as well as others who might take responsibility for the welfare of their neighbors if we expanded our conception of family and supported people in making differant choices.

DEFENSE OF MARRIAGE CHAZARI

Chazari (n.)
Anything bad or rotten; junk: That TV show is total chazari.

http://www.infoplease.com/spot/yiddish1.html

So you may have heard, conservatives want to defend marriage from people who want to get married. Meanwhile, conservative evangelicals are getting divorsed at surprisingly high rates, according to statistics quoted in Ron Sider's latest book, The Scandal of the Evangelical Conscience. (I can't recommend it, but more on that later.)