2 Years of the Rosary

Today is Anniversary Day: no missed days in two years. Although there were a few getting up out of bed just as I was falling asleeps, some those gummies are kicking in and I'm really going to have to CONCENtrates, and such likes. 

But I've enjoyed the daily twenty minute meditations. I'm going to do my best to keep at it every day.

For one thing, it gives me a chance to think about my family, my friends, people I know who have suffered from tragedies, people I don't like...as I pair each of the 53 Hail Mary beads with a person in one of the four aforementioned categories. It is an interesting bifurcation, focusing on both the rosary and a person I know simultaneously. 

H. P. Lovecraft

I wanted to see if this poignant line

"writing alone will allow me to endure the final mockeries of living"

was really written by H. P. Lovecraft...or if Romuald Giulivo (writer) + Mercedes Gilliom (translator) had written it in the letter attributed to Lovecraft (writing to Robert E. Howard) in The Last Days of H. P. Lovecraft.

So I " " -ed it and guess what? No results found. I did get this unsolicited AI advice, though:

Thanks fot lurking out for me, AI.

Peter Matthiessen

I've been circling around Peter Matthiessen for several months now. I remember my mom reading one of his books —The Snow Leopard—and I picked up a copy of that and put it on the To Be Read pile. And then more recently the movie At Play in the Fields of the Lord, which is based on a Matthiessen novel, kept coming into my head, so I ordered a copy of that. Before it arrived, however,  I decided that I needed to read the book before rewatching the movie, so I ordered a copy of the novel.  I started reading it right away, just a few pages, and somehow (don't remember how)  found out that Matthiessen had written a book on Leonard Peltier. That one, which is called In the Spirit of Crazy Horse, was available at the library, and it is in my hot little hands right now. I think it's going to be my next DDR after the AFL book.

I also saw a very nice copy of The Peter Matthiesen Reader at Better World Books for a pittance, so....

P.S. Speaking of Better World Books, my other favorite online bookstore, they do some lovely things with a portion of their profits. For instance, this showed up after I placed my order today:

So...you know what to do!

Ebrie, cave OR Mushrooms and Moi

I've never taken any kind of mushroom before...excepting the kind you put on a salad. But I've been reading some things, and my interest level finally reached the tipping point, so I stopped in at 502 Hemp (👍👍👍💪) and consulted my friend Rocko about what 🍄 product would be the best choice to blow my mind.

Rocko handed me 

Which sounded like the perfect ticket. On the back there was a dosage guide:

Mr. DeMille?

Well. As tempted as I was to go whole hog on this, I thought I'd better bend to discretion for my first 🍄 outing, so I broke off two of the 16 pieces.

After an hour I started feeling that special feeling. I was excited. More than ready to have my 🤯. 

I waited.

And waited.

The feeling began to recede. 

And then 🐡 it was gone.

Ok. Clearly I'd lowballed it. So the next day I ate the rest, clearly putting me into the WALLS MIGHT MELT category.

After a little while I started to get that special feeling.

I waited.

And waited.

The feeling began to recede. 

And then 🐡 it was gone.

Razz a frazzin frickin frackin...that shit cost me $25.

Back to Delta 8 and / or 9 for me.

Three Sheets to the Wind

The surprising things you learn when you read:

https://www.etymonline.com/word/canvas

In the book I'm reading (Sea of Poppies by Amitav Ghosh), when the boss is away the sailors smoke Ganga. If they don't have any, they scrape the sails and smoke that.

 

Billy Jack, anyone?

Not only do I own the whole series of Billy Jack movies...I actually saw the second one (Billy Jack 1971) in the theater. But until ten minutes ago I had no idea that there were Billy Jack novels:

Billy Jack by Frank and Teresa Christina

&

The Trial of Billy Jack by Howard Liebling

Both of them are a bit pricey...upwards of $25 on Amazon...but the latter is available for free at 

https://archive.org/details/trialofbillyjack0000howa

Yesiree Bob. 

A nice surprise.

I was reading Maria of Guadalupe by Paul Badde to Jacqueline today and ran across this:

Which made me exceedingly happy because

"Spalato is the Italian name for the city of Split, Croatia."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spalato_(disambiguation)

And 

is one of my all-time favorite novels.

Thanks, Universe.

DDR: Going Long : The Wild Ten Year Saga of the Renegade American Football League in the Words of Those Who Lived It by Jeff Miller

 

This one has been a long time coming. I bought it (from 😍Thrift Books 😍) September 07, 2022. Started reading it right away and was quite taken with it, But then as often happens I wandered away to other things This is why my daily devotional reading is so important to me.

xviii + 398 = 416 pages

Day 1 (DDRD 3,248) September 25, 2026

Read to page 32.

NOW I remember why I stopped reading this book. And I misremembered liking it. I stopped because it was so strangely constructed. Each page has snippets from different interviews.

I suppose it's an original way to tell the story, but it's kind of a pain in the ass. 

But I'm going to take a run at this anyway. A book that interviews Roman Gabriel can't be all bad, right?

https://fartheroffthewall.com/2024/07/14/no-18-roman-gabriel/

Day 2 (DDRD 3,249) September 26, 2026

Read to page 62.

Unfortunately, this interweaving interview method leads to a superficial narrative. When games are mentioned, there's not enough to allow you to really get the picture.  Also, since it is composed of spoken words, there are often strange lapses in focus and I'll have to reread a sentence three or four times before I can even get a clue as to what they are talking about.

Sigh. Thinking about quitting. And I haven't even heard from Roman Gabriel yet.

Day 3 (DDRD 3,250) September 27, 2026

Read to page 94. Still mucking along. Like the story, hate the storytelling mode.

Day 4 (DDRD 3,251) September 28, 2026

Read to page 125.

Day 5 (DDRD 3,252) September 29, 2026

Read to page 155.  We're finally getting to some players I actually have heard of. Roger staubach, for instance.

Day 6 (DDRD 3,253) September 30, 2026

Read to page 203. Enter Joe Namath. Born in Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania...a town of 9,000. In high school there he played football, baseball, and basketball. In basketball, he could dunk. 

Dick Butkus and Gale Sayers. Oh, yeah. I just watched some clips of Gale Sayers and Joe Namath. Stunning stuff. I don't think anybody else could run like Gale Sayers. And when Namath threw the ball? Magic.

Day 7 (DDRD 3,254) October 1, 2026

Read to page 233. Here they come now. Bob Griese, Jim Kiick, Larry Csonka....

Fuzzy Thurston and 💓Jerry Kramer💓! I have special live for Jerry Kramer. Way back when (50+ years ago) I read lots of Packers books, with special love for Kramer's Instant Replay. Ah, yes, those were the days.

And then...Bart Starr. My hero.

Just for the record...on page 234, Jerry Izenberg is talking to Junius Buchanan, who tells him he is reading Run to Daylight by Jerry Kramer.

No cigar.

Addendum: Read a little more (270) and got to some commentary on the first Super Bowl. That forced me to go watch a highlights real on YouTube which was a lot of fun. Good old Bart Starr...Jerry Kramer...Zazu Pitts...Paul Hornung (who didn't actually play). Those were My Boys back in the day..(I was nine years old.)

Day 8 (DDRD 3,255) October 2, 2026

Read to 316.

I'll leave the details to you, but I just want to note that thete is a Wikipedia page entitled "Heidi Game."

Day 9 (DDRD 3,256) October 3, 2026

Read to page 398, The End. This turned out to be a good, satisfying read. Took me awhile to get used to the format, but after the halfway point or so it started working for me. Sometimes sticking with it works out.

Blood, AB type

 

https://www.instagram.com/p/DCLw5fEN8SF/

So. AB is the rarest blood type. 5 1/2 people per 100 have it.

AB blood was found in all of the Eucharistic miracles which have been examined.  It has also been found on the Shroud of Turin, the Sudarium of Oviedo, and the Tunic of Argenteuil.

Very interesting. Obviously not conclusive of anything, but still.... Interesting.

In addition, the blood and tissue found in the Eucharistic miracles all show signs of extreme bodily stress--consistent with torture and violent death.

🤔

Stoned Humor #13

I have great respect and admiration for the institution of

Marriage.

I just wish that I'd found someone else who felt that way.

Hmmm. That sounds more like Sad and Pathetic than humor.

Hey...fuck you, left hemisphere.

 

Blausen.com staff (2014). "Medical gallery of Blausen Medical 2014". WikiJournal of Medicine 1 (2). DOI:10.15347/wjm/2014.010. ISSN 2002-4436

This Week's Comics

I think Google is fucking with me.

For YEARS I've been searching for "This Week's Comics" (because [1] I don't usually bookmark, [2] I have a shitty memory, so I never think "League of Comic Geeks"; I ALways think, "This Week's Comics.)

And today, for the first time in a very, very long time...well, EVer, right? when I searched for "This Week's Comics," League of Comic Geeks did not come up at all.

Motherfucker.

I had to go open my History and search for a previous visit to the site, because I couldn't remember its name.

And it is the best comic book site.

I guess that's why Google decided to try to hide it from me.

And you.

But here it is: https://leagueofcomicgeeks.com/comics/new-comics/2026/09/23

Shhhhh.

It's still there.

 

Two Dreams

 

I had two dreams about my ex-wife last night...with a wake-up in between. In both of them she was angry with me...and very clearly hated me.

In the wake-up between the dreams, I was awash in the knowledge that she really does hate me...assuming she ever thinks of me at all. 

The truth is that I loved her with every fiber of my being, and that for most of the 8 years we were together,  I was as happy as it's possible to be. And I think she was, too. Even after she left me I could see the love in her eyes.

How does it go from that to hatred? I wish I knew.

But every day I include her and her son (not by me) in my prayers. I hope that she is doing well and has found happiness. 

Meanwhile, I am plagued with these dreams, and even there I find no happiness. 

Opium & Empire

 

"...British rule in India could not be sustained without opium — that is all there is to it, and let us not pretend otherwise. You are no doubt aware that in some years, the company's annual gains from opium are almost equal to the entire revenue of your own country, the United States? Do you imagine that British rule would be possible in this impoverished land if it were not for this source of wealth? And if we reflect on the benefits that British rule has conferred upon India, does it not follow that opium is this land's greatest blessing? Does it not follow that it is our God-given duty to confer these benefits upon others?" (113)

Of course, times have changed, and we are much more subtle about how we exploit impoverished countries nowadays. That's progress. 😎

Émilie Dequenne & Rosetta

 

I picked this movie up from the library because someone (don't remember who) in a Criterion Closet clip recommended it. It's a French film about a girl who is just trying to find a job...because her alcoholic mother has deserted her in every sense except physical.

It's a great movie. One of the greatest things about it is that there are several times when you can't figure out why a character is doing something. Which means that (1) the director is assuming you will work it out, (2) that this is not a movie which accepts superficial motivations, because (3) the director respects the complexity of human beings. 

Émilie Dequenne is quite stunning as Rosetta. She's a tough girl, for sure, but there are key moments when she reveals the frightened child that is also a part of her. When she calls out for her mom to help her. (She doesn't.) When she is carrying a heavy canister and stumbles and falls and begins to cry.

And she was only 18 when she made this movie. She died very young, in her early 40s, but she made quite a few movies in her 25 year career, and I'm hoping I can find some of them Out There.

Addendum: And what do you know, Rosetta is available on HBO Max, and Émilie's second movie, Brotherhood of the Wolf, is on Amazon Prime. More news as it happens.

DDR: A Cardiologist Examines Jesus: The Stunning Science Behind Eucharistic Miracles by Dr. Franco Serafini

 

I decided it was time to get back to Jesus. I bought this book some months ago...after reading about eucharistic miracles in one of the Jacqueline books. 

Day 1 (DDRD 3,242) September 18, 2026

Read to page 30. In the first chapter, we're told of a 1200 year old host and wine sample which are examined and found to be heart tissue and AB blood. 

Day 2 (DDRD 3,243) September 19, 2026

Read to page 60.

Day 3 (DDRD 3,244) September 20, 2026

Read to page 135.

Read about a book I really wanted to read: A Sceptic’s Search for Meaning by Mike Willesee...and it's pretty much impossible to find. Looks like I might be able to buy an audiobook version of it from audible.com, but I don't really do well with audiobooks. Still, if that's all there is, then I will probably go for it. Also, there was a reference to 

 YouTube video, but it's been switched to private viewing. Hmpf.

In other news, I met with some friends this morning and told them about this book, and they seemed pretty interested, although neither of them are Christians.  I'm pretty interested in what they think about this and might loan the book to them once I'm finished. 

Day 4 (DDRD 3,245) September 21, 2026

Read to page 170. This book has definitely moved from interesting to fascinating for me. I wish I could get somebody else to read it, too, so I could discuss it with them, but my friends are all either atheists or people who don't read this kind of book. (If you're reading this, then I've put you in the atheist group, btw. If I've erred, let me know!)

Day 5 (DDRD 3,246) September 23, 2026

Read to page 230.

Speaking of AB type blood, here's a thing Dr. Serafini seems to have missed: AB blood only appears when one parent has A blood and the other has B. AB blood itself cannot create AB offspring. So that would mean that Jesus got either A or B from Mary...and A or B from God / the Holy Spirit / etc. That seems problematic...and limiting for God/ the Holy Spirit / etc. unless you oropose that Mary had A or B and God specifically designed His sperm to make baby Jesus AB. Seems unlikely, doesn't it?

Day 6 (DDRD 3,247) September 24, 2026

Read to page 279, aka The End. A fascinating book. Not definitive...nor does it aim to be. In fact, at the end Dr. Serafina talks about how disastrous it could be if the results were definitive. (In a nutshell,  it would eliminate Faith.)

Our Lady of Guadalupe

 I'm reading this book

to Jacqueline (along with 4 other books) every night. 

Short version of the story: a Mexican guy named Juan sees an apparition of the Virgin Mary. He goes to tell a priest, and the priest wants proof. The Virgin Mary tells Juan to pick the flowers at the top of the hill where she has appeared. He is surprised at this, as it is not the season for flowers, but he follows her directions. And at the top of the hill, he finds flowers that are not even native to the region growing. He collects them in his tilma.

Then he takes them to the priest. When he opens his tilma, the flowers fall out, and imprinted on the tilma is a picture of the Virgin Mary. (The tilma was made of a material which should have deteriorated in about fifty years yet five hundred years later it is still here.)

If that's not amazing enough, check out these details from the book I'm reading with Jacqueline:

🤯 💥 

Amitav Ghosh Bibliography +

What Amitav Ghosh has written:

Novels

The Circle of Reason (1986)

The Shadow Lines (1988)

The Calcutta Chromosome (1995/1996)

The Glass Palace (2000)

The Hungry Tide (2004)

Gun Island (2019)

Ghost-Eye (2025/2026) 

Sea of Poppies (2008)

River of Smoke (2011)

Flood of Fire (2015)  

Verse & Illustrated Books

Jungle Nama (2021)

The Living Mountain (2022) 

Non-Fiction & Essays

In an Antique Land (1992)

Dancing in Cambodia, at Large in Burma (1998)

Countdown (1999)

The Imam and the Indian (2002)

Incendiary Circumstances (2005)

The Great Derangement (2016)

The Nutmeg's Curse (2021)

Smoke and Ashes (2023)

Wild Fictions (2025)

What Barnes & Noble has on the shelf:

Admittedly misogynistic, but with a side order of self abnegation, I'm going to call it a fair ball.

I don't have regrets about all of the women in my life. Nancy, the cashier at Kroger's, is always very nice to me.

P.S. More stoned "humor."

How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Amitav Ghosh

 

I suppose it started with Christopher Nolan. I watched a video where he went into the Criterion Closet to choose some of his favorite movies. One of them he referred to as The Apu Trilogy. I am a big fan of trilogies and a bigger fan of Christopher Nolan, so I immediately checked the local library listings to see if they had the these movies. They did. I got them, then, as usual, left them to ferment on the table as I did Other Things.

At about the same time I was looking at a New York Times review and saw an ad for a novel called Ghost-Eye by Amitav Ghosh. I don't remember what it was that attracted me to the novel — it might have just been the picture of an eyeball on the cover (see above). At any rate, I checked the library and they had it so I took it out and began to read. It didn't take long for it to pull me in and I finished reading it in just a few days. As soon as I finished it I wanted more from Mister Ghosh.

It was an astonishing novel which touched on reincarnation, environmental disaster, remote viewing, drones, and class warfare...all in one neat package. It also introduced me to Indian and Bangladeshi culture, about which I'd known nothing previously.

At the same time I watched the first two films of The Apu Trilogy, which was also centered around Indian culture. It made for a nice bit of minor immersion.

And just a few minutes ago I picked up this--

 --which is the first book of The Ibis Tril🌝gy,  and I'm going to start on it as soon as I shut up here. 

Like NOW.

A few words from Amitav Ghosh's Ghost-Eye which should scare the shit out of you.

 

And by the way, this is a Great, Must-Read novel...no matter what that stupid motherfucker at The Guardian says.

Addendum: "...human faith in the sacred is founded...[on the] sense of awe and wonder...." (288) (Quote rearranged for clarity.)

DDR: Twenty-Two Stories by J.D. Salinger

Day 1 (DDRD 3,234) September 10, 2026

Read to page 43.

I was tempted to continue reading Hungarian Stuff, but this arrived in the mail and that was that.

J.D. Salinger published one novel and 35 short stories. 13 of those short stories were collected in book form. The other 22 were Out There for the intrepid reader, but were not easy to find. When I was 18 and attending Catonsville Community College in Baltimore, I found a couple of those stories on microfilm, and spent quite a few hours copying them by hand.  I still have them around here somewhere. Later on in life, I started tracking down the original publications and xeroxing copies of the stories. I'm pretty sure that I ended up finding all of them, but I have no idea where those are now. I'm not really a thrower-outer, so I probably still possess them, but it would take Heinrich Schliemann and his friends to unearth them.

Enter 

296 pages of teeny tiny print. I've read some of these previously, but I'm really anxious to one fell swoop this. 

1. "The Young Folks": A girl talks to a guy at a party. Mostly dialogue.  👎 

2. "Go See Eddie": an abusive brother orders his sister to go see Eddie. Mostly dialogue.  👎

3. "The Hang of It": a young soldier fucks up. Mostly dialogue. 👎

4. "The Heart of aBroken Story": a young guy fantasizes about a pretty girl he sees on the bus. Mostly narration and letters. 👎

5. "The Long Debut of Lous Taggett": a girl marries an abusive husband. They divorce. She marries again--a nice man. They have a baby. The baby smothers in its crib. Mostly narration. 👎

So...none of these first 5 stories were very good at all, and I can understand why Salinger didn't want them to be collected. 

P.S. Read one more: 

6. "Personal Notes of an Infantryman": very short...which is a blessing. Terrible story with a confusing ending.  👎 👎

Day 2 (DDRD 3,235) September 11, 2026

Read to page 84.

You know, I really want to read all of these stories, and my love for J. D. Salinger's writers is undiminished, but (1) six bad stories in a row and (2) I've been reading Ghost-Eye on the side, and it is excellent and I want to spend more time reading it.

7. "The Varioni Brothers": at last...a decent story. Not great, mind you, but at least decent. A songwriting brother duo finds success at the expense of the lyricist's novel writing. 👌

8. "Both Parties Concerned": not as good as "The Varioni Brothers," but almost. A small story about a young couple who have a fight. The narrator had Holden Caulfield's voice...a bit too much of it, actually.  👌-ish.

9. "Soft-Boiled Sergeant": a really bad title for a pretty good story about a flint-faced but kind-hearted soldier. And another Holden-kind of narrator.  👌

10. " The Last Day of the Last Furlough ": a very touching story about two young men who will be going off to war in the morning. One of the two, one is Vincent Caulfield, whose younger brother, Holden, is missing in action. Which doesn't fit with the Holden we know from The Catcher in the Rye, but some other stuff, like getting kicked out of school, does. So that was a thrill. 👍

Day 3 (DDRD 3,236) September 12, 2026

Read to page 118.

11. "Once a Week Won't Kill You": I was sure this was an early version of " A Perfect Day For Bananafish" at first, but no. Seemed very See More Glass, though. Not much of a story here: a guy days good-bye to his aunt before he leaves for the war. So...👌

12. "A Boy in France": Babe, from " The Last Day of the Last Furlough," appears again. He's in the war now. This is a very slight bit of story: Babe gets in a fixhole, reads a letter, and falls asleep. That's it.   👎

13. "Elaine": a story about a beautiful girl who seems to be mentally retarded. She goes to the beach with a sketchy guy she later marries. There's a row at the reception between mother and mother-in-law. The end.  👎

14. " This Sandwich Has No Mayonnaise ": Another Vincent Caulfield story, and mentions of Holden (who's still misding in action) and Phoebe. Another story devoid of plot: 34 soldiers ride in a truck to a dance. It's raining. We don't see them arrive.  👎

Day 4 (DDRD 3,237) September 13, 2026

Read to page 157.

15. "The Stranger": a very slight story. Babe is back...to tell Vincent Caulfield's ex about Vincent's death. That's it.  👎

16. "I'm Crazy ": Another Holden Caulfield story, this time with Holden as first person narrator. It's pretty much the same as an early section in The Catcher in the Rye. Holden leaves school, visits a teacher, then goes home. Talks to Phoebe and another, younger sister, talks to his parents, goes to bed. 👌

17. "Slight Rebellion Off Madison": Another Holden Caulfield story, this time with a third person narrator. It's pretty much the same as an early section in The Catcher in the Rye. Holden visits Sally, they go ice-skating, then she goes home. He gets drunk and calls her. 👌

18. "A Young Girl in 1941 With No Waist At All": on a ship. Girl smooches with a guy even though she's engaged. The end. 👎

Day 5 (DDRD 3,238) September 14, 2026

Read to page 187...which is halway through

19. "The Inverted Forest "

Thus far it's pretty good. It's a story about a rich young woman who falls in love with a poet. Her friend tells her not to marry the poet, saying he doesn't love her, but she marries him anyway. So disaster is sure to follow.

I'm tempted to read more, but I just picked up this

from the library, and I must begin reading ot immediately. 

Day 6 (DDRD 3,239) September 15, 2026

Read to page 213, the end of "The Inverted Forest." A pretty long story. "Hapworth 16, 1924," this would habe made a decent sized book (a la Franny and Zooey.) And a decent story. Girl meets guy, marries him despite warnings from a friend, he runs off with another woman. Wife tracks him down, asks him to come home with her, he says...well, you'll just have to read the story, won't you? 👍

It occurs to me that Salinger was at his best in long story form. The short ones don't give him enough room to develop characters, which is what he does best. 

Day 7 (DDRD 3,240) September 16, 2026

Read to page 243.

20. "A Girl I Knew": a guy flunks out of college and is sent to Europe by his father to learn some languages...ostensibly so that he will be an asset to the father's business. He meets a 16 year old girl and they hang out a lot, exchanging languages. Then he moves on, she gets married, and then dies in a concentration camp. He goes back to look at the apartment he once lived in. The end. Kinda empty, huh? 👎

Great line: "She wasn't doing a thing that I could see, except standing there leaning on the balcony railing, holding the universe together." (217)

21. "Blue Melody": Joe and Sonny Varioni return for a guest spot in this one, the story of a jazz singer. This one seemed devoid of the smug insincerity that appears in most (maybe all) of the early stories. It was a good one. 👍

22. " Hapworth 16, 1924": it's a Glass Family story...and a pretty long one--52 pages of tiny print. This also has the honor of being Salinger's last published story. (In checking on that, I found a list of 29 unpublished Salinger stories. Hmpf. And the beat goes on. 

Day 8 (DDRD 3,241) September 17, 2026

Read to page 296, The End.

Turns out this story is narrated by Seymour Glass, age 7. And quite an intelligent little feller he is. He's writing to his family from camp, where he and little brother Buddy (age 5) are suffering through the summer. 

Since this was Salinger's last published story, I thought, "I should get a copy of the original magazine. Two minutes later...

Um...nope. On the other hand, you can read it in its entirety here:

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1965/06/19/hapworth-16-1924

I enjoyed this rambling epistolic story. I can't understand why it was never published with, say, "The Inverted Forest" and "Blue Melody." That would have made for quite a nice package.

At any rate, I have now read the complete published works of J. D. Salinger. Actually, after reading this collection, I am kind of wanting to re-read the other four books, but I think I'm going to move on to something else tomorrow instead.