“There are so many varieties of apples, that if you ate a new one everyday it would take you 20 years to try them all.” “The day you were born and the day you die are the only two days in your life lasting less than 24 hours.” Catchy little bits of trivia, aren’t they? And there is this: “Every man has two deaths, when he is buried in the ground and the last time someone says his name.” (Ernest Hemingway quote.) I have them in my phone and as notes on scraps of paper, and while I find them interesting, I question if readers do. Let me know.
I saw a short snippet of a Road Runner cartoon the other day and wondered if it was an original from my Saturday morning cartoon watching days, way back when, or a new rendition of an old favorite. What made me wonder was as the coyote, Wile E. Coyote, by name, sped down the road in pursuit the cell frame froze and the Latin name of his species appeared in parenthesis below; I read it but didn’t register it. But when the same freeze showed the Road Runner’s appellation it read (BATOUTAHELIUS). Really? I’m not sure that would have passed the censors 60 years ago.
Half-quoted idioms I am sure I have never heard in full: “Curiosity killed the cat; but satisfaction brought it back.” That seems to soften that rather graphic old saw, doesn’t it? And this one gets downright snarky: “Great minds think alike; but fools seldom differ.” That one plus “Rome wasn’t built in a day; but it burned down in one,” I could wordsmith my opinion on how they correlate with some of the actions of the present administration in D.C., but I won’t. Most of us know seven days is a week, four weeks a month and so on for at least up to a millennium, 1,000 years. I also knew that two weeks equals a fortnight because the term is used in books and films, but I was unaware that two years is called a “biennium” and five years a “lustrum”; now you know too. And while we’re looking at words, did you know that the only word in the English language that uses no proper vowel is “rhythm;” it uses the “and sometimes ‘y’ option.” Another “only” word is “dreamt,” as no other word with an “mt” ending exists. Both dreamed and dreamt are correct usage of the past tense of dream.
And here’s a quote I’m not even going to try and find who the author is: “We the unwilling, led by the unknowing, are doing the impossible for the ungrateful. We’ve done so much for so long for so little we are now qualified to do anything with nothing.” Those words could be used as a serious look at American capitalism and the present plight of the dwindling middle classes. Or it could be a lighthearted look back on select periods of many of our own lives.
And while I have mentioned capitalism, let me toss in another economic theory, democratic socialism. It seems in the recent New York City mayoral race a guy won despite millions of conservative dollars thrown against his campaign; and this in a city where our seated president once held much political sway. (The fact that Mr. Mamdani is a Muslim means no more to me that if he proclaimed Zoroastrianism, Buddhism, Christianity or Nonbelieverism, but apparently it is upsetting to some; but I digress.)
The history of what we know as democracy goes back to Plato, who was a critic. Socialism was first mentioned in the early 1800s in France. The research takes time but here is what I found that may help explain its current definition: “A Democratic Socialist is not a Marxist socialist or a communist. A Democratic Socialist is still a capitalist but one who seeks to restrain the self-destructive excesses of capitalism and channel government’s use of tax dollars into creating opportunities for everyone. Democratic Socialists believe that both the economy and society should be run democratically to meet human needs and not simply to make profits for a greedy few.” Somehow in a society with vast resources but where a small percentage of billionaires control much of the wealth while the working-class struggle paycheck to paycheck and many are homeless, this economic plan is hated by many Americans for no other reason that its use of the word socialism. Those who presently adhere to a “let them eat cake” attitude may have deep regrets when it finally hits their pocketbooks.
And on the local scene, or at least a bit of history of the local scene, I recently read about World War II Italian POWs in America in the later years of the war and did a little research to find if any were here in Monterey County. And there were at both Fort Ord and Camp Roberts, where some were used as crop harvest laborers. In fact, across the country such POWs accounted for a savings of $230 million in agricultural labor costs. But closer to home I found the city of Soledad gave 35 acres to the government for a German POW camp that housed hundreds of men and operated from October 1944 to March 1946. I found a photo and a map of the complex at militarymuseum.org/Soledad.html but am confused as to the actual location. Another site detailing the early years of Soledad State Prison, now Soledad CTF, cites it was built as a POW camp and became a prison soon after the war. Interesting to me because my father began his career as a correctional officer at Soledad when the old Quonset huts, called The Barracks, were still used; the cement and steel buildings began going up a year later, and a year I began my life in the Valley.
Take care. Peace.
