I became insane with long intervals of horrible sanity.
Edgar Allen Poe

The trouble with fighting for human freedom is that one spends most of one's time defending scoundrels. For it is against scoundrels that oppressive laws are first aimed, and oppression must be stopped at the beginning if it is to be stopped at all.
- H. L. Mencken

Many people would sooner die than think; In fact, they do so
-Bertrand Russell

What I have been telling you, from alpha to omega, what is the one great thing the sigil taught me — that everything in life is miraculous. For the sigil taught me that it rests within the power of each of us to awaken at will from a dragging nightmare of life made up of unimportant tasks and tedious useless little habits, to see life as it really is, and to rejoice in its exquisite wonderfulness. If the sigil were proved to be the top of a tomato-can, it would not alter that big fact, nor my fixed faith. No Harrowby, the common names we call things by do not matter — except to show how very dull we are ...
-James Branch Cabell

March 07, 2018 - 11:54 a.m.

Where's Ralph Kramden When You Need Him?

My room was freezing I got up to put on a second hoodie. When I did I saw that my window was open a tiny crack. It still isn't closed right but at least there's no visible opening. There's no breeze but every time the wind howls the temperature in here drops. I'm now warm enough to write. It would help if I had something to write about.

I forgot something important from Monday. Originally the plan was to meet Katherine at 4:00. Then I realized that we were meeting by Bob's Bagels and at 4 PM the bagels drop to 55¢. I asked it was OK to meet at 4:15, it was. I now have a freezer filled with real bagels not the rolls with holes that I bought in Pelham. See, I'm a good Jew; I know what's important.

Yesterday I had to go to Stop & Shop. I was a bit worried, the nor'easter was forecast for today and whenever snow is forecast some people are afraid there will never be fresh food again and buy out the store. I was lucky, the only things that were sold out were the home made baked good. I couldn't get their great hamburger rolls. My problem was getting home. The store is at the other end of the BX29 bus. It's a short route that takes just 21 minutes. It's a loop, the last stop one way is the first stop the other. The first time I went the bus driver wouldn't let me on going home. He said I have to walk around the back of the shopping center. That's the second stop and a much less pleasant location. There's no place to sit. I lived with that till recently when someone got on the bus as I got off. I asked the bus driver if people can board there. He said yes. The sign at the stop says you can board there and gives a schedule. So, I started getting on there. As I said, it's closer, and more comfortable. Yesterday I used the bustime website to find when the next bus was. I was a bit late, but I was already at the stop, so I waited. I saw the bus was two minutes away. A bus showed up, but it said, "Out of Service." People got off. He immediately closed the door and drove off. I checked the website. My bus was no longer coming, that was my bus and he deliberately didn't pick up riders.

I waited 20 minutes for the next bus. It said, BX29 Co-Op City. That's my bus. It switches to City Island there. As soon as the last person got off I boarded so he would have no time to close the door. I told him what happened. He said, "Drivers like to take a break so they pull up ahead and walk around and pick people up at the next stop. I understand the break. They do that at the City Island end too. But they don't skip the stop. They just don't let people board. They very rarely get off the bus, especially when it's cold like it was last night.

When I got home I told Jane that I need a favor, for her to be my alibi My plan is to go to the same bus stop and when the last person gets off toss a cannister of nerve gas on the bus and then blend into the crowd. I will give Jane my phone and the tracker will show that I was nowhere near the scene of the crime. I also wanted to write a letter to the MTA to complain. Even if that one driver is dead it is apparently a common practice. The problem is that once I write the MTA the motive for the murder will be on record. I decided to go with the complaint, not the homicide. Am I being lazy?


I wrote the MTA and complained. It's ridiculous that drivers won't pick people up at a posted bus stop. Nobody tells you this. There's no sign. The only way you can find out is by missing a bus then asking the next driver. I demanded action. I want the driver reprimanded I'll see what they do. Maybe I'll write my City Councilman. The buses are run by the MTA which is a state authority, but I suspect that I should go for the more local representative. I am ashamed of myself. I don't know the names of my City and State representatives. Oh wait, I do know it. We have a new one. I did have to check the spelling, it's Mark Gjonaj. What language do you think the name is from? I was thinking Turkish or the Balkans. I was right, it's Albanian. It says so right on his website. If I call I have something positive to report to my therapist. I want my pat on the head.


There's a Marshall's in the same shopping center as the Stop & Shop and I bought pants, the first new clothes I've bought in ages and ages. I'll have to stop in there again. While in there I lost my Mets ski cap; I left needing to buy just as many things as when I went in. I have lost so many hats the last few years, all my baseball caps, The Mets and WFUV ski caps. Then there is the hat that Bev knitted me. She gave me another one. Oh, right, I just lost my very warm thinsulate hat last week. I might just have to buy Rogaine and grow my hair back. I paid just $5 for this great very warm hat in Crown Heights. I lost that one too. It's hard not having a brain.

I'm in a run of avoiding politics and philosophy. I don't plan on going out today or tomorrow. If I think of something fun, I'll make a note and write about it. I know some people like reading about the minutia of my life but that can't be all I write about.


I signed the Pro-Truth Pledge:
please hold me accountable.





Memories: Not that Horrid Song - May 29, 2018
Wise Madness is Now In Session - May 28, 2018
The NFL and the First Amendment - May 27, 2018
On The Road Again - May 26, 2018
Oliver the Three-Eyed Crow - May 25, 2018



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Horvendile March 07, 2018
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