Down and out semi poet who is down and out in the Low Country of South Carolina after living in Atlanta which is not to be confused with the south, the old south or the new south. Atlanta was a global metropolis with all the pluses and minuses that comes with that. The low country, low because it is low, 8 feet above sea level, is not Podunk but once you get to Podunk, turn left. I try to chronicle a small part of all that through my daily haiku for you.
Reading some odd stuff online I came across in review of the book of Thurber Letters titled The Thurber Letters: The Wit, Wisdom and Surprising Life of James Thurber , edited by Harrison Kinney,
In a reviewer states, Thurber never warmed to William Shawn.
Shawn took over as Editor of the New Yorker when Harold Ross died.
I also recently came across the fact that after three years, Shawn dropped out of the University of Michigan and went to New York to find his fortune.
Thurber never graduated from Ohio State after being a student there for five years.
Both institutions wrestled with how to handle these famous but non-degree holding alums.
But did it also sprout the roots of a non-working relationship?
Some one’s PhD dissertation is waiting to be written.
integrity so strong to defend the Constitution govern their actions
Plaque in Constitution Corner at United States Military Academy at West Point, NY.
A plaque states:
The USMA Class of January 1943 dedicates this Constitution Corner to our classmates who died in combat (shown by *) or in military accidents
They supported and defended the Constitution as, here on the Plain, we together swore to do.
2 Cadets and 74 of our 409 graduates died in the sequence below …
Plaque Seven states:
The United States boldly broke with the ancient military custom of swearing loyalty to a leader. Article VI required that American Officers thereafter swear loyalty to our basic law, the Constitution.
While many other nations have suffered military coups, the United States never has. Our American Code of Military Obedience requires that, should orders and the law ever conflict, our officers must obey the law. Many other nations have adopted our principle of loyalty to the basic law.
This nation must have military leaders of principle and integrity so strong that their oaths to support and defend the Constitution will unfailingly govern their actions. The purpose of the United States Military Academy is to provide such leaders of character.
news unstoppably not by week and day but by the hour and minute
During the Second World War, the volume of information dispensed by what were beginning to be called the media — newspapers, magazines, books, movies, and, a few years later, TV — multiplied to an extent that nobody has been able so far to make an accurate reckoning of.
It was a change so great that even the remotest illiterate hermit could not fail to be altered by it; for the first time, with astonishment and sometimes with dismay, one sensed that a Niagara of news was flooding unstoppably in upon us, not by the week and day but by the hour and minute.
People sat by their radios and listened with satisfaction to news bulletins, infinitesimally rewritten as they were repeated, about victories and defeats throughout the world, and then went out and bought newspapers and magazines and gorged themselves on the same information for a tenth or twentieth time.
From Here at the New Yorker by Gill, Brendan, (New York: Viking Press, 1975).
Can you imagine such a world?
One sensed that a Niagara of news was flooding unstoppably in upon us, not by the week and day but by the hour and minute.
Let’s repeat that.
Not by the week.
Not by the day.
But by the hour
But by the minute.
People gorged themselves on the same information for a tenth or twentieth time.
Flooding unstoppably.
Unstoppably!
What a great word, but I digress.
A change so great that even the remotest illiterate hermit could not fail to be altered by it.
1941.
The state of news once the United States got into World War 2.
Looking back at the change wrought in the “media”, Mr. Gill wrote in 1975 that “nobody has been able so far to make an accurate reckoning of.”
On the one hand … no kidding.
On the other, how long will it take to make an accurate reckoning of the social media age?
a corner of the deserted beach solitary sea loudly claps its hands
Midday. A corner of the deserted beach. The huge, deep, open sun on high Has chased all the gods from the sky. The harsh light falls like a punishment. There are no ghosts and no souls, And the vast, ancient, solitary sea Loudly claps its hands.
Midday by Sophia de Mello Breyner Andresen as published in Obra Poética (translated by Richard Zenith) I. Lisbon: Caminho, 1990.
“We always talk in our program about ‘winning the response,’” Lea said earlier this month. “There’s a respect that we have for all the things we come in contact with, and that certainly includes the spaces where we prepare for our games and execute for our games.
This photo was posted from the custodian crew at Lane Stadium at Virginia Tech saying thank you to the VISITING Vanderbilt team for leaving the locker room clean.
“There’s an appreciation, and we never want to be entitled when it comes to those things. How we show respect is we try to leave a place better than we found it.”
“Everything about our program is centered around that,” Scelfo said. “The way we do small things is the way we do all things. When you go to somebody’s house, you don’t leave it dirty. You clean it. If you finish eating, you pick up your plate. There’s manners involved.”
Hard to believe this article was written in 2025.
Look at the words and phrases used, not written by the writer, but in quoting people involved in sports today.
There’s an appreciation …
We never want to be entitled …
How we show respect …
Leave a place better than we found it …
way we do small things, way we do all things …
You don’t leave it dirty …
You clean it …
If you finish eating, you pick up your plate …
There’s manners involved …
Of course, we are talking about sports.
That such a level of expectations might exist for the political leaders in this country is asking too much, don’t you agree?
I mean, read over that list again.
Did the thought that the writer of the article in question might be writing about our leaders EVER cross your mind.
It is sad really.
It comes to mind what Ben Franklin said about George Washington.
No Haiku For You 