I Hate Hippies

Fine, it's (Wednesday, Bhud-waar, Chaharshanbeh, yawm-al-arba'a, Idal, Boomtime) and I should be relieved. I'm not. I feel very much at odds with the world right now. Still not feeling well and I am sitting in the Cheese Factory which is very cheesy today. Many strange things seem to be going on in the world. Over 20,000 have been killed in Myanmar (Burma) by a cyclone which has absolutely nothing to do with a woman moving her body like a cyclone. Don't worry thought because apparently the UN has decided to "force" the Myanmar junta to accept aid. I honestly don't recall the UN ever being able to truly force anything upon anyone. I will not eat Arby's for quite some time. To make matters worse, I was stuck behind some dirty hippie in mid-80's Volvo station wagon most of the way to the Cheese Factory this morning and all I could think about was the strong desire to make a molotov cocktail.

In 558 the dome of the Hagia Sophia, one of the greatest churches ever, collapsed. In 1274 the 2nd Council of Lyon opened to regulate the election of Popes. In 1429 Joan of Arc led the French to victory at Orleans. In 1763 Chief Pontiac led an attack against British forces at Fort Detroit. To honor this event someone named a car company after Chief Pontiac. In 1824 Beethoven's Ninth Symphony premiered in Vienna. He did not hear it. Because he was deaf. In 1840 a tornado hit Natchez, MS killing 317. In 1847 the American Medical Association was founded to give doctors something to be a part of. In 1915 the German submarine Unterseeboat 20 sunk the RMS Lusitania killing 1198 people. In 1946 Sony was founded. In 1964 a suicidal passenger aboard a Pacific Air Lines flight shot the pilot and co-pilot during the flight. As you can probably guess, the plane crashed killing all 44 aboard. In 1992 four employees at a McDonald's in Nova Scotia, Canada were killed during a robbery. This was the first murder at a fast food restaurant in Canada. They're always lagging behind. In 1998 Daimler-Benz bought Chrysler for $40 billion. Bad move. In 1999 Pope John Paul II became the first Pope to visit a primarily Eastern Orthodox country since 1054 when he went to Romania. Later that day, a jury found the Jenny Jones Show liable for the murder of Scott Amedure (of Lake Orion, MI) who was killed after he announced on his show that he had a man-crush on his friend. If that's not enough to happen in one day, the US "accidentally" bombed the Chinese embassy in Belgrade. I am pretty sure the US military has never accidentally bombed an embassy of a nation with which we have potentially strained relations. Especially when nothing else around it was hit.

Today is Radio Day in Russia. So to celebrate I suggest you turn on your radio grab a bottle of vodka and a tin of pickled herring. Open up a copy of Tolstoy and start calling everyone comrade and saying "nyet" or "da" depending on the question.

If you were born today you have a good chance of being either a composer (like Tchaikovsky or Brahms) or a porn star (like Traci Lords or Nicole Sheridan). Either way perhaps you'll realize that in life there is a quiet rhythm and if you're quiet and still sometimes you can actually feel it. And in those still moments, when there is naught but the sublte undulations of the earth below and the skies above, it is possible to hear that soft spoken voice which my great-grandmother would have called god. I don't know if it's god or if it's simply that inner voice that is so often drowned out by the roar of life as we hurtle ourselves through it.... Today seems like a good day to be still and listen.... and if not today, then soon I hope, for all of us.