THE CONQUEROR WORM

Wednesday, May 10, 2017

MORE "ME" TIME

     After 13 years, I finally finished Dostoyevsky's Crime & Punishment. It started out pretty good, got really long and boring and then ended up okay. It would have been a great 150-page novella. But overall I liked it better when Poe wrote it and it was called "The Tell-Tale Heart".  Instead, I read 600 pages of this thing only to discover that I should have been following the Word of the Lord all along. Who knew?

A guy trying to ax himself in the back. The perfect suicide.

     At the same time, people who get all excited about Dostoyevsky also tend to spout off about Nitschke all the time, too. Now, look, I admire Nitschke as much as the next guy, but I think Butkus was every bit as good--(What's that you say? Nietzsche? Frederich Nietzsche, a philosopher? Not Ray....?)
     Ahem, yes, well, um, never mind....

Dick Butkus and Ray Nitschke. Not philosophers.
WHAT I'M READING NOW
     I'm holding off on Andersonville until Gulag Archipelago and Crime & Punishment wear off a bit. I started Gulag but had to bail. I can only take so much suffering. Must be something in the Russian water.
     In the meantime, I'm halfway through House of the Seven Gables. I'm reading it bits at a time. Sometimes it's a little dull, other times it's awesome. Right now, it's awesome. So I hope that'll carry me through to the end.
     After House, I'm planning on reading The Phantom of the Opera. This was recommended to me by a fan of My Clockwork Muse. So it's got that going for it....

Henry Waxman.
WHAT I'M WATCHING ON THE TUBE
     I'll let the picture do the talking.


     Now that the Preds have swept my Blackhawks, and have taken out the Blues, I've jumped on the Nashville bandwagon. I usually pull for Chicago or San Louee, but Nashville has the look of a team of destiny. Plus I think Carrie Underwood is pretty...
     I'd like to see an Ottawa-Nashville final. Before that, though, I'm pulling for Edmonton and Washington. Edmonton has that Nashville look of destiny, too -- but their destiny, I think, is to lose to Nashville in the Western final. I'm not a big Ovechkin fan (although I bet he's an existentialist, though probably not much of a philosopher, unlike Nitschke), so I'm giving the nod to Ottawa. Plus, I'd need GPS to find Ottawa on a map...(Capital of Canada, you say? Now you're just making stuff up...)

WHAT I'M LISTENING TO
     I had this album back in 1978 or so and hadn't heard it since. I looked it up on YouTube one day and was surprised at how sophisticated the music is. I've since become a big fan (again).
     I remember the NFL playoffs (79 or 80, somewhere in there) , Philly vs. Atlanta. Whenever they'd go to a commerical break, they'd leave off with a snippet of an appropriate song, like maybe "Philadelphia Freedom" for the Eagles and, I remember distinctly, "Oh Atlanta" for the Falcons. I was pulling for the Falcons, but the Eagles took it. The Falcons running back that year was Bubba Bean. Probably the best sports name til Coco Crisp.
     Anyway, I'll leave you with "Oh, Atlanta," from "Feats Don't Fail Me Now."



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