riley dog |
half-baked cookies in the oven...fruitcakes on the street... |
Speaking of one-track minds (and groins), the New York Daily News had an exotic item today about the sort of repetition compulsion that lands you back in the slammer:
A subway pervert was back to his old tricks just 12 days after being released from prison - while his twin is still behind bars for the same crime, officials said Thursday. [also from the story: "Johnson's brother, Freddie, was sentenced to a maximum of life in prison after his 53rd bust in April 2008, when cops caught him in the act on the No. 6 line." That's a lot of arrests, but life?]
Ted Johnson pressed up against a woman's backside Tuesday on a No. 6 train in Manhattan and was immediately nabbed, authorities said.
Sounds like something out of an old Ed McBain 87th Precinct novel, giving the detectives something to jazz about an their way to a homicide scene, but the reason the item caught my eye was not the twin angle but a comment made by the prosecutor, who clearly had no sympathy for Mr. Johnson's distinct style of mass-transit lambada.
"He's a recidivist subway grinder with over half a dozen convictions," a prosecutor said at his arraignment in Manhattan Criminal Court yesterday.
"Recividist subway grinder"--is this an actual category of offender or an impromptu phrase tossed off by the prosecutor. Either way, I intend to appropriate it. It's so aptly, pungently describes the journalistic practice of certain egregious offenders.
Andrew Malcolm, for example, definitely a recidivist grinder in the non-art of punditry.
Politico--it's a veritable go-go lounge of recividist grinders without shame or flair, from Mike Allen to John Harris to Manu Raju.
Although consensual grinding between adults is neither criminal nor immoral, it does make for a tacky spectacle, which is why I must avert my eyes from this week's Meet the Press, when host David Gregory, Karl Rove's former dance mate, will be journalistically sexting that perpetual vanity production known as John McCain.
Dear Johnny Depp,
How are you? I have not heard from you. Sometimes I worry. Do not worry about me, however, I am fine.
I recently purchased your Pirates of the Caribbean Jack Sparrow with Transforming Crab and Navigational Chart. I am pleased to find that this action figure features eight points of articulation, which I will not list here, because I am sure you are familiar with those points.
The crab is an interesting and creative accompaniment. I believe that you should change the name of this toy to Pirates of the Caribbean Jack Sparrow with Transforming Rock and Navigational Chart, since it is more like the rock changes into a crab instead of the other way around.
Your friend,
Natalie
Cut from the front of scalp back to the temple. Start where the tip of the widow’s peak might be, if you had one, following the hairline. Make sure the blade is sharp to pull through the skin with ease, though be careful to not let it slip in too deep. Holding your forehead down with one hand, pull the skin above it back slow, like peeling the plastic off the top of a container. Tools that may help: tweezers, scalpel, any of a variety of dentistry instruments you may be able to acquire, the tip of the blade itself. Peeled back, the skin may stay on its own or you can hold it in place or, most recommended, pin it back with some kind of clamp, hair pin, binder clip. Retrieve the small piece of metal or plastic or even paper you’ve been keeping though you never knew why. Place it against the exposed area. You may need to move it around until in place; when there is a pang of regret or forgetting, you’ll know how it fits. Fold the scalp back into place, reattaching as you best see fit. Don’t worry about the scarring or healing. It will have already happened.
What you want for it you’d want
for a child: that she take hold;
that her roots find home in stony
winter soil; that she take seasons
in stride, seasons that shape and
reshape her; that like a dancer’s,
her limbs grow pliant, graceful
and surprising; that she know,
in her branchings, to seek balance;
that she know when to flower, when
to wait for the returns; that she turn
to a giving sun; that she know
fruit as it ripens; that what’s lost
to her will be replaced; that early
summer afternoons, a full blossoming
tree, she cast lacy shadows; that change
not frighten her, rather that change
meet her embrace; that remembering
her small history, she find her place
in an orchard; that she be her own
orchard; that she outlast you;
that she prepare for the hungry world
(the fallen world, the loony world)
something shapely, useful, new, delicious.
Family Therapist living
in the Northern Rockies.
Blogging as Riley Dog
since 1999.
Reading:
And Then
C-Monster
Erasing
Consumptive
La Linguisterie
Look Into My Owl
Odd Citrus
Radish King
Susannah Breslin
Wood s Lot
All images and writings
are copyright of their
respective owners.
day draw near
another one
do what you can
we are an accident that thinks
listen: there's a hell
of a good universe
next door; let's go
