Shoot up, Shoot Out

Every day we pick up dirty needles and clothes on our granite garden stairs. The addicted homeless folks shoot up and shoot out of their clothes.

Men will clutch illusions when they have nothing else to hold onto. Czesław Miłosz

I am composed of contradictions, which is why poetry is a better form for me than philosophy. Czeslaw Milosz

Language is the only homeland. Czesław Miłosz

The living owe it to those who no longer can speak to tell their story for them.

 ― Czesław Miłosz, The Issa Valley 

To believe you are magnificent. And gradually to discover that you are not magnificent. Enough labor for one human life. Czesław Miłosz

The purpose of poetry is to remind us
how difficult it is to remain just one person,
for our house is open, there are no keys in the doors,
and invisible guests come in and out at will.
― Czeslaw Milosz

When a writer is born into a family, the family is finished. Czeslaw Milosz

In a room where people unanimously maintain a conspiracy of silence, one word of truth sounds like a pistol shot. Czesław Miłosz

The Curse

She deprived her child of food, one meal a day as a toddler. His growth was stunted. All because his father had been a fat boy. The mother soon kicked the father out and took all of her rage out on the boy. He was her experimental guinea pig. She deprived him of the alphabet and colorful books to read because she believed some quack about discouraging preschool literacy. Mother and son did not share meals at the table. She bought a case of canned soup and told him his meals were in the pantry. Help yourself, she scowled. I blame the mother for causing her son to shoot himself. She should be jailed but instead she hangs up his handprints on paper plates from nursery school all sentimental having never done such a gesture while he was alive.

What are you going to write about? And the equally big answer: Anything you damn well want. Anything at all . . . as long as you tell the truth. What you know makes you unique . . . Be brave.”

 Stephen King

The scariest moment is always just before you start. After that, things can only get better.

 Stephen King

In the end, it’s about enriching the lives of those who will read your work, and enriching your own life, as well. It’s about getting up, getting well, and getting over. Getting happy, okay? Getting happy.

 Stephen King

Your job is to make sure the muse knows where you’re going to be every day from nine ‘til noon or seven ‘til three. If he does know, I assure you that sooner or later he’ll start showing up, chomping his cigar and making his magic.

Stephen King

DNA Evidence Leads to Cold Case Arrest

Rhode Island

History of Hortense

She insisted on stirring the rice counterclockwise by candle light when she visited. And when we went to see her I couldn't believe the outhouse was attached to her home. It stank up the whole place. I remember that it was August and she served us hot oatmeal. 

The tide has turned and like a lapsed Catholic everything became the opposite. Now she's all about convenience bad take-out Chinese food gloopy galore and a big TV stuffed with Netflix opposite a couch the size of her house. I don't read, she shouts if you tell her about a book.

She adds cream cheese and bacon to everything and gloms it up with shredded cheese. The worst of it is she thinks she knows everything and she will dive right into your conversations and offer her unfiltered opinion to maintain her illusion of superiority.

You own everything that happened to you. Tell your stories. If people wanted you to write warmly about them, they should have behaved better. Anne Lamott

Rude and Ungrateful

Criticizing someone's home-cooked food without being asked is widely considered rude and ungrateful, as cooking is an act of time, care, and personal expression. Most agree that unsolicited critiques hurt feelings, while constructive feedback should only be offered gently if the cook specifically asks for your opinion.

Why People Do It 

Control and ego: Some people use criticism to feel superior or show off supposed culinary expertise.

Insecurity: Projecting personal anxieties about diet, health, or upbringing onto others.

Habitual negativity: General dissatisfaction that spills over into everyday interactions.

The Critic Should

Pause before speaking: Ask yourself if your comment is kind, necessary, or helpful.

Focus on gratitude: Remember that someone spent time and effort making a meal for you.

Practice neutrality: If you do not like a dish, simply eat what you can or say "thank you" quietly without giving a review.

Keep preferences to yourself: Save specific recipe changes or tweaks for your own kitchen.

The closer to street level you live, the more you have lessons thrust upon you.

 Robert Stone

Last night someone walking down the street got shot in our neighborhood. Luckily a passers by gave him a lift to the hospital. 

This morning I found three hypodermic needles in the shrubs at my garden stairs. I carefully disposed of them by dropping them in an empty plastic water bottle. Then I started trimming the shrubs to make my garden stairs more visible and less like a cave for hiding. 

I went swimming and when I came home I made salmon cakes for the first time and they came out great.