1. I gave over much of this day to reading. I dipped back into two somber stories in James Joyce's, Dubliners, "Clay" and "A Painful Case". The title of the second story poignantly sums up the whole collection. In these two stories, as in Joyce's other stories, characters ache for some degree of relationship with others, long for even a shred of meaning in their lives. Characters teeter occasionally on the brink of some kind of fellowship, or even intimacy, but, in the end, Joyce portrays human life as a lonely, alienated experience, as much defined by spiritual and emotional paralysis and unrequited desire as anything else.
2. And then there's the story of Richard Nixon. I spent hours today reading J. Anthony Lukas' detailed account of the Nixon presidency. In the chapters I read today, Lukas details the efforts that were going on in secret by attorneys, former policemen, ex-CIA operatives, government agencies (like the IRS), disgruntled Cuban exiles, and others to wiretap, physically surveille, burglarize, discredit, and gather information about Nixon's enemies and Lukas details these operatives' attempts to stop people within the administration from leaking sensitive information to the press by using these same methods, especially wiretaps. Up next? Dirty money and dirty tricks. The title of the book is Nightmare: The Underside of the Nixon Years.
3. The Deke and I cruised uptown to Radio Brewing to participate in a benefit for the Silver Valley Farmers' Market, opening June 7. The most popular activity of the evening, by far, was the Cornhole Tournament. It attracted over twenty teams and, from all we could tell, the corn bag tossers were having a great time heaving their bags in the direction of the hole cut into a slanted platform. The Deke and I have never played Cornhole, so we spent our time out in the beer garden yakkin' with Fitz and Deanne and Val and Mallory, enjoying the Extra Special Bitter for sale outside. After a while, we went inside and ordered two snacks, calamari and a shrimp skewer which satisfied our appetites. We especially enjoyed being the oldest people at the benefit and got to see a lot of the younger men and women from around Kellogg that we rarely ever see, say, at the Inland Lounge or anywhere else we go. Now we look forward to the Farmers' Market opening and seeing what the different vendors will have for sale.
No comments:
Post a Comment