L'aura del Campo

NCAA = G R E E D. Retire where? Military sex?

L'aura del campo

DEATH of WINTER: 10 'Ala (11 March) 52º.

'é a lua, é a lua, na quintana dos mortos'
♣ Federico García Lorca ♣

NCAA basketball is all about power and money, spelled G R E E D.

It's that time of year. Everyone (who's anyone) here was watching Kansas defeat Texas in overtime. Aaaaaah ... basketball. The only good part is that they will not face a "B" team (as in Bucknell or Bradley) in the first round, nor in the entire West bracket (lucky them). It will be Florida A&M or Niagara in their first game. I'm fond of the Niagara Purple Eagles myself since I grew up listening to them on radio when Calvin Murphy was scoring 50 points a game ... a long long time ago before the 3 pointer ...

So who was left out? Hmmmm. Kansas State? Well, they needed to beat Kansas; knew it, blew it. Syracuse, my brother-in-law's team will go to the NIT. RPI#30 Air Force (22 wins) wasn't invited and neither was RPI#36 Missouri State (21 wins).

Let in ... because? Texas Tech RPI#53: 21 wins and Bobby Knight must mean something. Stanford RPI#65 (18 wins) with a #11 seed? Someone explain this to me. Like Stanford is sooooo much better than say Vermont (25 wins) who lost their championship to Albany by one-point ...

Seeding: RPI#40 So Cal gets a #5 seed and RPI#29 Illinois gets a #12 seed?

The Missouri Valley is tied in the RPI with the Big 12 but gets only two bids to the Big 12's four? Does playing in the ACC, SEC, Pac 10 or Big 10 = entitlement?

The NCAA scam is all about power and money. The big conferences and schools hoard it all. Can you smell the sweaty basketball shorts? Can you spell G R E E D?

Laura in the light of the moon

Look at the camera and heed my words. They cannot hear me and never will, but your face records every nuance of fear, of anger, of lust. They know it. Stare straight now, do not turn. My words burn through your eyes, pool in dark shadows beneath the lashed lids. Each syllable that's expelled with my breath frosts on your lips. Do not pout. And never wiggle your ears.

Laura couldn't move. Her right side felt numbed by the cold, the awkward position from having slept in the closet. She could see the double halo of the moon through the haze. She wondered what sat in the corner and gazed at her. She dared not look.

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This is the beginning of what I'm writing for the contest "Short Shots: Official WDC Contest" . It has awesome winnings so there should be hoards of entries!

Based on the photo: ~~Image #1223070 Sharing Restricted~~

Prayer

He is the Gracious, the Well-Beloved!
O Holy Mariner!
Bid thine ark of eternity appear before the Celestial Concourse,
Glorified be my Lord, the All-Glorious!
Launch it upon the ancient sea, in His Name, the Most Wondrous,
Glorified be my Lord, the All-Glorious!
And let the angelic spirits enter, in the Name of God, the Most High.
Glorified be my Lord, the All-Glorious!
Unmoor it, then, that it may sail upon the ocean of glory,
Glorified be my Lord, the All-Glorious!

~ Bahá’u’lláh

Excerpt from the Tablet of the Holy Mariner:
http://reference.bahai.org/en/t/c/BP/bp-175.html

Me, my friends and my family

Friday night I cooked another steak, even ate a Snickers ice cream bar. My teeth objected to the assault. Had to lance the gums again.

Saturday: calm and peaceful. KU beats K-State. Reading.

Sunday: made buckwheat pancakes. There weren't any eggs in the house so I substituted mayonnaise for the eggs and oil. They actually turned out tasty! My father was the Sunday pancake maker when I was growing up.

More reading. I'm in a reading mood.

Spoke to my mother, aunt and cousin.

IMAGES and RAMBLINGS

Youth playing bocce; a small dark grey bird with white tail feathers and a light belly; purple crocuses; the caw of crow; a small blue flower in bloom (chickweed?); strewn seed pods; sweetgum balls on the ground; yellow hazel in bloom; a bouquet of 13 daffodils.

On the way to Indiana: 1 car seat, 4 kitchen chairs, 2 portable lawn chairs (student outside furniture in dry-plains Kansas); a drift of daffodils; pairs of robins; a spotted dog with huge black ears loping to the back fence; rough and peeling yellow-birch bark; for rent signs; black-and-white kitty sitting pretty on an a/c unit.

On the way up Indiana: thick vines clinging to old trees (Tarzan would be jealous); a block long stone wall covered with ivy; new green shoots on the honeysuckle vine; a squirrel carrying a nut; a car with Colorado license plates; sprinkles; the flag of Colorado in a window.

WATT'S GNU!

Everything is relative of course. If you make a quarter million/year in your productive youth and buy a house that appreciates 1/2 million during your working years, you can retire to a modest house of say ... $200,000 and live comfortably.

But and however and then again ... if you make a quarter million/10 years and your house you bought for $30k will only sell for $50k then you must be living in the Rust Belt or in the High Plains. If you can find a trailer home for under $20k somewhere where you have to shovel snow only 4 times a year instead of every day from October-to-April you can consider yourself blessed.

To wit, the article about retirement places by Kendra Todd, listing ¿reasonable? places:

Charleston, South Carolina; Asheville, North Carolina; Cedar City Utah; and Boerne, Texas.

And a Top List of 5 (maybe she knows our Queen Scarlett?)

5. Paso Robles, California (380k)
4. Lawrence, Kansas (180k)
3. Beaufort, South Carolina (275k)
2. Fort Collins, Colorado (200k)
1. Prescott, Arizona.

Note (the price of a home). What has not crossed Miss Kendra's mind (after all when you are successful, Everyone who is Someone is also, no?) is that these cities are NOT affordable for the light-blue or blue-collar retiree. Forget the poor. Wal-Mart will not give you an income to retire to one of these places. However, if you are 65 and must work to eat, they might hire you at lower than a living-wage. In Lawrence that would be $9/hour. The Waltons-of-Bentonville, bless them all, pay less.

The link: http://promo.realestate.yahoo.com/Kendra_Todd/Best_Places_to_Retire.html

The less said about sex and sexuality and sexual abuse in the military the better. But:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070309/ap_on_re_us/military_male_rape

When dishonesty is rewarded, honesty dies and people are damaged. This goes for accusations one cannot defend against, people who lie to save their own ass, people who believe lies long past the proof of the truth, people who quickly judge and never forgive, forget or get over it. For me to comment more would only lead to a rant.

We do not get along because we choose not to. We live dishonest lives of lies because the truth is not valued and it WILL kill you.

The weather is nice and moist. We may get three days of 70s. Even Missoula at 60º is pleasant. K.U. won its Big 12 Trophy today which helps with the weather too. En serio, win the big game and a few drops don't matter. 30s where my mother is; mild compared to what is was on Tuesday.

READING

Roderick Townley writes youth and children's books, so I got out The Great Good Thing and Sky. They won't be difficult and should read fast. My only question: Will I be able to focus long enough? I also have been reading his new book: The Red Thread and only put it down (at a most suspenseful point) because the Oread was closing. Borders didn't have it , so I must finish it tomorrow.

I'm also trying to finish Murakami's Kafka on the shore which has also hit a climax of sorts with 60 pages to go. I've been blessed these past few days. I've been able to focus enough to read.

BLOGVILLE and WDC

I started to clean up my portfolio by moving things around and making some items private until I know where to put them. It's slow when there are over 290 entries to sort. I did delete one 'book' though and will probably delete some poems, moving them to another 'book'. At least I posted three recent poems I put in my blog.

Prosperous Snow celebrating gave me a kind and thorough review for "Like water for chocolate," . But then I suspect Snow is a kind and thorough person in real life too .

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 Kåre Enga
~ until everything was rainbow, rainbow, rainbow!
And I let the fish go. ~ Elizabeth Bishop, The Fish