11-11-11 11:11

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More Snow Behind the Zion Curtain

I'm at McDonalds again. This time I'm inside, and for some wonderful reason, they're playing Brian Eno Music. The piece currently being played is from the For All Mankind soundtrack. Mighty Mo and I saw that movie when we lived in Madison,Wisconsin. That's where we were when our son, Mason decided it was time to be born. That was 21 years ago next week.

Snow came to Tooele in a big way Monday. Before it was over, we had accumulated about six inches of fluffy whiteness. I rolled naked in the fluffy white powder after a long hot bath.
My 91 Ford 4X4 getting covered.
I drove to the location of the old Anaconda Mine today, and took this photo of the old slag pile because I liked the contrast between the black slag and the white snow.
There was plenty of snow for me to create a sculpture. Since there was plenty of food coloring in the cupboard, it seemed like the proper thing to do was to colorize my sculpture.

On Saturnday, my old high school buddy, Jon, accompanied me to the Utah State Fairgrounds where we attended the Belly Dance Festival. I met lots of nice folks, and got some lovely photos too. The above stereoscopic image is of a collection of masks that were being sold by one of the vendors there.
On the way to the event, I shot this stereoscopic image of some power lines near Salt Lake International Aeropuerto.

Got Gumption?

Gumption. That's one thing I don't have an abundance of at the moment... at least when it comes to writing for my blog. Sure, I've already begun writing many of the upcoming posts including, but certainly not limited to:

When in Morm - Do's and don'ts and insightful tips for visitors to Utah

Mighty Mo names the spiders that live in our house

My simple answer to the gang problem, (and it isn't dynamite)

Phrases and terms I have coined

A walk down rememory lane to the old Blue Mouse Theater in Salt Lake City

A recollection of the Bucket of Bernie Brains show at the Catalyst in Santa Cruz

A book review of Paula Phelan's 1919

Examples of literary structures in ancient texts

Hale Bopp

Plus many more Xtra Files

But I'm going to take a nap right now instead of writing. I'll listen to some Lawrence Welk for inspiration later on. Meanwhile, take a gander at this pretty bottle brush that Mighty Mo photographed last week.

Into Hot Air or How Daddy's Boy Put the CHRIS in CHRIStmas

Every Christmas, Mighty Mo surprises me with something unexpected and wonderful. This year was no exception.

I didn't even know that Chris Elliot had written a new book. I loved his masterful mystery, Shroud of the Thwacker* a few years ago, and have been anxious for more. Imagine my surprise when I removed the red and green wrapping paper to discover a signed copy of, Into Hot Air, the latest novel by Daddy's Boy, Chris Elliot. And, as if that wasn't enough, Mighty Mo included a first edition, first printing of Daddy's Boy: A Son's Shocking Account of Life with a Famous Father by Chris Elliot with rebuttals by Bob Elliot. I know what I'll be reading for the next few daze. I LOVE Christmas! And what could be better than a Chris Elliot Christmas?As I see it, Chris Elliot is more fun than a barrel full of junkies, and is ranked among my personal holy trinity of comedy, (Phil Hendrie, Jim Varney, Chris Elliot, irrespectively). A great bunch of guys.

Get a Life

Maybe by next Christmas those evasive episodes of Chris Elliot's Get a Life could somehow become available on DVD. Get a Life was the best program on TV in years, and unfortunately, only a handful of episodes are currently available on DVD.

Merry Christmas

* The Shroud of the Thwacker is a kind of Dan Brown spoof that involves time-travel, Teddy Roosevelt and the Widow of John Lennon who happens to live next door to Chris Elliot. Guess who ends up time-traveling back to 1882 New York? You guessed it. Mr. Elliot himself, and he reports with uncanny description the events surrounding the mysterious Thwacker who has the city in a panic wondering who will become his next victim. A riveting read with a surprising outcome, the Shroud of the Thwacker is sure to please many. Everyone else will hate it.

In 2005, Mr. Elliot made a brief appearance and book signing at a local book shop in nearby Capitola. My son and I attended and I was fortunate to get my copy of TSOTT signed. At the end of Mr. Elliot's lengthy lecture about his book, he invited questions from those attending. I asked him if he could be any animal, what would it be? His answer was obvious to everyone who has read TSOTT. Then, as if my question had been planned as a segue to what happened next, a group of people rose up from their seats wearing animal masks and began to sing a song from the "Zoo Animals on Wheels" episode of Get a Life.
"How do you like it when we stare at you?
It doesn't feel good, now isn't that true?"
Spectacular!

Happy Esther

Since the chosen people are celebrating Purim this week, I figured that now is a good time to bring up the topic of literary devices.

Some of the most interesting and profound hermeneutics are those associated with the learning of the Jews. To the authors of holy writ, truth exists on many levels, such as literal, allegorical, metaphorical, mystical and etc. These authors constructed their messages accordingly, hiding information within the texts themselves using a sophisticated system of hermeneutics.

The book of Esther is unique to all of the other books in the Tenak* for at least two reasons.

One, it is the first time that the term Yehudim or "Jews" is used in the scriptures.
Second, it is the only book of Tenak where the name, of the Lord is suspiciously absent from the text.

In Hebrew, the name of the Lord is unpronounceable** and consists of four letters, yod, hay vav, hay, (Hebrew text is read right to left).


In the book of Esther chapter eight, verse sixteen, the author wrote,
"The Jews had light..."
By skipping the first letter, and continuing to skip every other letter, (right to left) in the words, "had light," the name of the Lord is revealed.

This kind of exegesis is commonly called equidistant letter sequencing, (ELS), a new term for an ancient hermeneutic form of notarikon. The author of Esther utilized this principle to conceal the name of the Lord within the very text which it appeared that He had been excluded from. In other words, even though He was never mentioned by name, the Lord was with the Jews all along.

* The body of scriptures ignorantly referred to by Christians as the Old Testament. The word Tenak, is derived from a Hebraic literary device called notarikon, a kind of acronym. There are no vowels in Hebrew, therefore, the three letters TNK comprise the word which is acronymous for:

Torah - The five books of Moses
Nevaiim - The Prophets
Kethuvim - Other holy writings

** The name of the Lord is commonly mis-pronounced as Yaweh, and Jehovah, however, the true name is known only to the High Priest who enters the the Holy of Holies one day a year, on Yom Kipur, the Day of Atonement.

SARCASTICUS - Nuance or Nuisance

To me, sarcasm has always been an important and normal nuance of language, so it came as a bit of a surprise to learn that there are people in the world who don't understand sarcasm... I mean they just don't get it... and take it literally. Wow! they're missing so much.

A form of allusion which is apparently to some, more than a bit of an elusive nuance. I know it when I see it, and use it regularly in my own communications. Oratory sarcasm is more easily understood and delivered than the written word, because inflection contributes so much to the alluded and intended meaning of the sarcast. I wonder how many sarcastic illiterates exist on this planet... that could explain why the world is so screwed up.

Pronouncing Silent Letters, Invisible Rs and Sometimes whY

 Have you ever heard a silent letter scream?* 

OK, this may seem weird... but I've been pronouncing silent letters for a few years now. I'm not sure why I started doing it... maybe I'm just a waste not want not kind of person, and all those letters going to waste was just too much for me. Maybe I just like playing with people's minds, or perhaps it's just a social experiment I'm conducting. For whatever reason, its actually been quite rewarding to give a voice to these usually unspoken communicative symbols that have been trapped withing their respective word prison cells for centuries... performing their silent vigil, with little notice, and no thanks. 

Besides, it's English,** and rules are made to be broken anyway, Right?

Speaking of broken literary rules... What is with that invisible R? You know, the one that isn't really there, but some people, (who should know better) pronounce it anyway in words such as, waRsh, WaRshington, IdeaR and sherbeRt. I've never understood why it is used in some words and not other similar sounding words such as cash, stash, hash, bash and etc.... Some time ago, my car was pretty dusty, so I wrote, "waRsh me" in the dust on the back window. A couple of women walking dogs strolled by, and I heard one of them say, "Look, it says waRsh me. That's so funny." Someone noticed and understood. I love observant people.

*If a silent letter falls in the forest, but no one is there to hear it fall, does it make a sound? Answer: Sometimes Y.

**Don't even get me started on how French waste letters...