Money Medicine Poem

by Martin Steingesser, from Brothers of Morning.
Money Medicine Poem

$11.3 million, what does James Mellor of General Dynamics do with it?
In how many beds does he sleep?
I want to know, how many breakfasts does he eat?
$11.3 million-that is every year, year after year.
What does he do with it?
James, how many copy machines do you have?
How many shredders?
Do you keep one in the bathroom?
How many suits do you own?
How many closets for the secrets money keeps?
Secrets? Does money keep secrets?
Year after year, 11.3 million.
Why so much in corporate pockets?
I need a chant to bring dollars back in my life.

Om Bram Brie Hasti Paté Yea Na Ma Om

I need a moon to draw the oceans of money back.
What does AT&T executive Bob Allen do with $9 million in stock options?
It's a great system we have.
Secrets? What secrets?
AT&T lays off 40,000 workers.
Robert Allen, you must feel like a god.
Robert Allen gets $9 million.
What are you building out of our conversations?
What is your phone number, anyway?
Will you answer a call?

Om Bram Brie Hasti Paté Yea Na Ma Om

How do we reach corporate dynamos to buy girl scout cookies?
How do we call when we want to rent a bus for the school picnic?
How do we call when the soup kitchen's out of soup?
How come big bucks stuff so few pockets?

It's a wonderful system we've got, all our money on the top floor,
corporate executives calling the truths we live.
Families of gods, like up on Mount Olympus, great scraperskies of CEOs.
One of them markets 100% water for juice,
another mainlines cigarettes,
another the medicines for smokers,
another pumps cancer into rivers and lakes, into oceans of air,
another lobbies for tax breaks to clean up the mess.
Great system we've got, billions stuffed in so few pockets.
I want a chant to bring the dollars back—

Om Bram Brie Hasti Paté Yea Na Ma Om

Give me those pants with money pockets,
closetfuls of pants, big bucks in the pockets.
Lean back, feet up, have a million dollar stogie,
Blow giant smoke rings over Broadway.
I want a chant, put the moon back in my pocket.

Miscue Laneous

What is the question to which the answer is "9W"?  Answer at end of entry.

Loaned my Bose noise-canceling headphones to the missus for her recent sortie into Chi Booma Gow Gow, and she loved 'em.  This week on our See Arizona tour (985 miles in three days, all in-state) told her of a review I'd read on the Honda Odyssey, a truly marvelous van.  Told her that in this van, whether the radio is on or off, it's putting out the same noise-damping technology as the Bose 'phones, making for a sepulchral sound level.  Always thoughtful and on the lookout for health and safety, she rejoins, "But doesn't that cause cancer?"

Got this sent to me and cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht I was rdanieg. The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid, aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoatnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit a porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Amzanig huh? yaeh and I awlyas tghuhot slpeling was ipmorantt! 

The question is, "Do you spell your name with a V, Herr Wagner?"

Lonesome Valley, Az

So the missus abandoned me, yet again, for the First Nations folk of our gentle giant to the north.  This time to the euphonious location yclept Chibougamau, Quebec. 

Sounds like a refrain from an Isley Brothers song, or, maybe, Jan & Dean (chibougamau-mau boppa bougamau-mau). 

Told Youngest Daughter that I'd looked up the finest (only) hotel in boogamau-mau;  the rooms run from $41 to $47 per night and the best it had to recommend itself was that it is "fireproof" and has an in-room coffeemaker.  You, Gentle Reader, can fair imagine the Missus' reaction to my research.  (After this many years, she's difficult to impress, easier to disappoint.)

Late word is that the actual encampment may be at a location distant from Boogamaumau.  Stay tuned for word of whether this is a reenactment of the  Reykjavik  debacle, or if it's woise.

Caligula's Horse

So, Paula Abdul had never been a judge before, either, and look how good she ended up doing.

Mood Food Fugue

This, I'm pretty sure, is the result of what happened when the two Tims - Burton & O'Leary - decided to make a garden together.  (Thanks again, 'Ski)

http://www.1st-ave-machine.com/video/anime_final.htm

Any conversation that begins with "Mom, what happened to Dad's nose?" is going to be a lot of fun for everybody but me.

Confided to the missus that I'm thinking of selling my scooter.  Did so as I accidentally picked up her beverage and stubbed my toe on the door jamb.  "Okay, but you're sure as hell not getting rid of your helmet."

It is a damn fine helmet.

Mozerdollzer is looking at condos in the DC area.  A modest one-bedroom will cost her more than the three homes we've bought combined.

This month my granddaughter turns four, my baby girl turns 26, and my baby brother turns 53.  The missus and I have been married for 12,342 days.  These are all obscene numbers.