Meander Where You May

[appaloosabeach]

I missssed spelled condom, condims, jeezarus, my mom tried to abort me when I was six years old, she's 87 and smokin a pack of Camels a day, life is way much funnier than I thought it should be, life is way much funnier.............

[appaloosabeach]

Did I just misspell Camels, did I just mispell misspell,how do you spell misspelled, damn, not enough antifreze in this moonshine recipe, livin in the wild, thank the big guy/girl, that would be God/Mrs. God, the right side of the bed is always warm, thanks to the angry dog.

[bosox18d]

Wow,I had a feeling that was the song Neil was going to do to close things out.Great job Mr. Young.

[bosox18d]

And then they  bring out Shatner for a truly "Canadian" moment.Okay now it's getting just plain stupid.

[whiskeypriest]

And then they  bring out Shatner for a truly "Canadian" moment.Okay now it's getting just plain stupid.

Yeah, whenever you whip out the giant inflatable beaver either your closing ceremony has become pathetic, or your sex life has.

[madupont]

And then they  bring out Shatner for a truly "Canadian" moment.Okay now it's getting just plain stupid.

You have to face it, Canadians are a lot more folksy and down to earth than we are. They are appreciative of folksy things like being able to use your hockey skates on the roadway by hitching a ride behind a vehicle as an inventive junior-high after school activity.

Up until recently, they were extremely resentful of their comparative cost of living being higher than ours on this side of the border( I expect that it has probably returned to that inequity for many in the Eastern area who enjoyed crossing the border to shop on our side before the time-consuming strict transportation inspections necessitated by lookout for "terrorists" attempting to enter U.S.).

They themselves are such civil folk that they wouldn't dream of asking an American visitor what you do for a living.  I myself have had moments where I felt so guilty about the "Co-operation" that former President Bush made a point of announcing and that became a strict inconvenience upon us as well as them, that I have been known to depart from the hardy but sophisticated French Canadian milieu without ever mailing in a claim for a return of the taxed portion that I made on the French products unavailable to us in the U.S. that I purchased before returning across the border to the U.S.

In the former British sector which stretches between New York state and Michigan, life in Ontario means weekly delivery of textiles and fabrics shipped from Britain. Housewives take a commute up to Toronto(known for a film industry) to buy the latest sewing patterns from the metropolis, which they then zip up on their sewing machines that are still a major appliance in English-speaking Canadian households.

On the other hand, I have been notified by a former poster at nytimes.com that there are new difficulties that are hangovers of the former Bush administration in the US, for US citizens who bought property and intended to live in the homes that they bought in Canada. The Bush administration apparently expressed grievances to the Canadian authorities against any of us who protested Bush-Cheney policies. Apparently seasonal  residential occupation among U.S. citizens in Canada is as desirable as vacation homes in the South of France are to Europeans who do not pay heavy taxes for working in France since they are not employed in France.

Apparently, it is going to take a lot more to undo the damage of the U.S.political legacy
before the policy of "Co-operation" becomes a more amicable relationship in which we are able to live at the next level of amicable civilization enjoyed by at least some Europeans who feel at home being citizens of Europe as much as nationals of the community in their birth-place.

Of course, I am not too thrilled about the boom-town flashiness of the Alberta Canadians
who took seriously W's philosophy that shale oil is good for the economy.  They are now living the High Life whereas  previously they were respected for the intellectualism of their University at Calgary.

Somehow this makes us look more as if having reverted  to  a less civil attitude problem in international relations.

[whiskeypriest]

You know, I'm kind of proud that the fattest gold medalist was an American!

[madupont]

Worked today, on a sunday, I can remember when I was a kid, nobody, noplace, not one goddamn shop was open, you couldn't buy Jack Daniels, you couldn't buy band aids, or, you couldn't buy anything. ...

That has been what Pennsylvania has been like ( I repeat twice, "has been", because that is the status of the state that time forgot. Pennsylvanians have not exactly kept up with the contemporary world; they live in their Past History by preference, while merely thinking they are contemporaries of the Contemporary  World.

Outside of Philadelphia anyway; which has a commercial relationship with the Up and Down river, and across the ocean, and reachable  from the International Airport which is not yet completely home-free as it is situated in a location beyond Philadelphia.

But even there(Philadelphia), it is noticeable where tv announcers believe that their occupation has made them "celebrities".  Fundamentally, non-metropolitan Pennsylvanians, which includes those who merely work  by commutte to Philadelphia are happenstance, if by birth when of German-American descent, what German intellectuals have always condemned as "mittel burghers".

It is well known how much Hermann Hesse, writer of Siddhartha,and particularly Steppenwolf, disdained burgerlichkeit.


"Editorial Reviews
From School Library Journal
Starred Review. Nobel prize winner Hesse's final novel, here available for the first time on audio, is set in a 23rd-century utopia in which the intellectual elite have distilled all available knowledge of math, music, science, and art into an elaborately coded game. Cleanly and precisely describing this complex and dense future is theater actor/director David Colacci, who has previously read titles by Greg Iles and Anne Perry. While the length may seem daunting, Colacci's voice remains fresh through the 17th CD of this captivating novel. For large public and academic libraries. [Audio clip available through www.bbcaudiobooksamerica.com.—Ed.]—J. Sara Paulk, Fitzgerald-Ben Hill Cty. Lib., GA
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Audio CD edition.
Review
Final novel by Hermann Hesse, published in two volumes in 1943 in German as Das Glasperlenspiel, and sometimes translated as Magister Ludi. The book is an intricate bildungsroman about humanity's eternal quest for enlightenment and for synthesis of the intellectual and the participatory life. Set in the 23rd century, the novel purports to be a biography of Josef Knecht ("servant" in German), who has been reared in Castalia, the remote place his society has provided for the intellectual elite to grow and flourish. Since childhood, Knecht has been consumed with mastering the Glass Bead Game, which requires a synthesis of aesthetics and scientific arts, such as mathematics, music, logic, and philosophy. This he achieves in adulthood, becoming a Magister Ludi (Master of the Game).

[bosox18d]

Whiskey,I thought it ended at ten last night so that last half hour went from strange to stranger.I'm wondering if I dreamed the whole thing.It's like Pee Wee Herman and Celine got together and that's what came out.Was Catherine O'Hara trying to get folks to come to Canada or scare them the hell way.Was Shatner a reverse message to the native peoples of the North to abstain from hooch?.I'm hoping the boys at South Park take a swing at it.

[bosox18d]

I loved the fact that the winning American sled was called"Night Train"

[bosox18d]

Teddys reply was that it went downhill after the part with the clown and the torch though she liked Neil Young actually singing.As for your comment on the giant beavers Whiskey she said the Moose,Beavers and Mounties were all way over the top.

[harrie]

I loved the fact that the winning American sled was called"Night Train"

...and it was designed and built just up the road (okay, a few miles) from me.

I guess asking for a giant Moose and Squirrel would be just a little too much.

[bosox18d]

Ha,I was actually thinking that last night.Would have fit in perfectly to bring in Moose and Squirrel.

[nytempsperdu]

I too thought Neil Young's effort was quite fine even with those poor li'l ol' lonesome amps--also thought it was the finale and switched away, only to come back later when the Macy's parade rejects were on display (OMG, the beavers--what a hoot!--and how 'bout those canoes, folks)--at which point I, too, thought fondly of Squirrel & Moose and attributed their absence to the location of Frostbite Falls across the border in Minnesota, drat! 

[bosox18d]

I saw this beaut of a headline tonight"Lady Gaga celibate" If only her parents had been....