waldopaper

Canals on Mars

Posted in Uncategorized by waldopaper on August 30, 2023

San Juan Cigar sand…


Did they send me daughters
When I asked for sons?
You’re the saddest bunch I ever met
But you can bet before we’re through
Mister, I’ll make a man out of you

DPD: 1830~8r; from Incubator, Pack IT VonHot01

During the war a fast packet was anything that could go upstream and could fit in a canal.  We built them out of wood.  Yah you could pole them upstream (and we did) but we made steam engines for packets.  Took them to Norfolk for fitting out (whoops).  When ironclads were a thing we were making steel ships. 

We took hundreds of master boat builders (and their people) at Cincinnati.  For Copper Harbor. Think Douglas fir.  Sitka spruce.  In 1929, the Great Lakes Aircraft Company (GLAC) was formed in Cleveland, Ohio at the former site of the Martin Aircraft Company.   In 1933 the Company was reportedly working on a steam power plant for driving aircraft turbines.

At breakfast, soon after Christmas, Henry was ready to become active again. It had been over a month since he’d catered to his moods by alternating whole weeks of ranting and raving only to settle down into a sulking silence and periods of depression. Daisy busied herself around him by simply being available, thankful that his moods swings required nothing other from her than her mere presence.

By the end of November, Henry had returned to the man she had been attracted to for so many years. Henry’s personal choices couldn’t be manifested without travel. At the breakfast then, New Year’s Day, he proposed that he and Daisy go north for a while. There were things he wanted, and needed, to see first hand. When Daisy hedged over the trip, especially in winter, he romanticized it a bit.

Daisy. I ordered over one thousand units of the new Colt 1860. It’s the same weapon that the Union has ordered for their troops. I wasn’t given privy to the exact size of their order. They have no idea for whom you ordered them. Of course not, Daisy. They think they’re going to Europe. Precisely why you could not accompany me in my search or negotiations.

Although your mere presence would have been a delightful diversion, your accent would have been a dead giveaway. I paid for 25 percent of what I’m to obtain after six months manufacturing period. I have half a year to find the investors for the balance, after which I will be back for receipt of the entire shipment. Which they will ship where. Directly to my hands. How will you move them. In steamer trunks much like yours. And if it is indeed war time. They will be discovered for sure.

Warhead on the forehead

We must be swift as the coursing river
(Be a man)
With all the force of a great typhoon
(Be a man)
With all the strength of a raging fire
Mysterious as the dark side of the moon

Henry took his first road trip in 18 thirty something.  He was almost ten.  The Baron made the Jägermeister go to Frankfurt for salt and flour… and something new: sugar.  Flour and salt were in heavy barrels- sugar in little casks- weighing a tenth of that.  Mean Franks were looking at the casks.  Give us that sugar.  Why don’t you take it asked Henry.  A simple question. 

They never answered Henry, but the Jägermeister smiled all the way home.  Later there was coffee and chocolate and such.  On that trip Henry learned that the smart cavalryman (fly) lands on the handle of the flyswatter, and a good plot thinks with the nose down. The remaining stock of aircraft parts, as well as a complete set of drawings, were purchased at a bankruptcy sale by Charles E. Smith of Willoughby, Ohio.  

I see. She paced the room, stared out the window, wished for that drink. After only a few minutes, she turned around with a grin. Yes and meanwhile I have an idea for moving your… products. That’s my girl. But, by the time they were to leave for Philadelphia, they had been invited to hear a speech on March 5th at City Hall while stopping in Hartford. In his quest for first-hand information, Henry was subjected to Abe Lincoln’s speech to his Republicans. He instantly regretted that he was out of time to double the order of his Colts.

The top of the roof was all fire. A big ball of fire, that’s all. And then, a second explosion. I ran over there but the police, the first two cops who got there pushed us back and that’s when the second explosion happened. We felt the heat and that’s when we said we gotta go. My heart was just racing, there was a lot going on at the moment. I just felt many emotions. I was scared, nervous. Surprisingly, the two men in their uniforms didn’t look like they had any injuries on them at all. One of them said that their ribs were broken probably, but they seemed fine. They struggled a bit climbing up the roof but they got down, a police officer was asking them if they were okay, if they needed any help.   

Mustang is now a Bee.

I’m never gonna catch my breath
Say goodbye to those who knew me
Why was I a fool in school for cutting gym?
This guy’s got them scared to death!
Hope he doesn’t see right through me
Now I really wish that I knew how to swim

+_)()_+

Garden Party

Posted in Cool shit, Reality by waldopaper on August 27, 2023

song about a honky-t…

I went to a garden party
To reminisce with my old friends
A chance to share old memories
Play our songs again

DPD: 1865 sommerwunder; uber argentina, heavy reign deck o smokes

The hammer and sickle (☭) is a symbol meant to represent proletarian solidarity, a union between agricultural and industrial workers. It was first adopted during the Russian Revolution at the end of World War I, the hammer representing workers and the sickle representing the peasants. Behind every totalitarian symbol stands its victim.

Sometimes, as in the case with the hammer and sickle, its target is an abstract group of people, like the bourgeoisie. Sometimes, as in the case of the swastika, and the analogous Z symbol, the targets are specific national groups – Jews and Ukrainians. I thought it was sad when they coughed up their last ironclad.  Poor thing.  She was to be a bastion against Sherman and his winged monkeys… or Grant and his steam-roller.

I said hello to Mary Lou
She belongs to me
When I sang a song about a honky-tonk
It was time to leave

She had her counterpart to the Dahlgren (Brooke) siege guns (with their crude rear bands) like iron is going to take that kind of pressure.  Displacing as much as any of the Yankee monitors (who never touched her).  Got stuck on a sandbar in the river whose name she bore.  She was only 152 feet long and 34 at the beam. And there she sat until after the war.  Neuse was cannibalized for more metal I suppose.  Johnny still had his pluck and ingenuity- made out of crap of course. 

By that time we had the Tallahassee (220 x 24) with her pressure hull of steel. It was all flat as a pancake to Henry who had the eyes (with spectacles) of a hawk.  And you can’t see shit on the ground.  Thabo was a ground-pounder for sure- and if there was anything going on flatland he could handle it. 

The Tesla generator that Henry wanted for Tal (she was now the Chameleon) was for (illumination) light- the kind to freeze quarry or opponent- in midnight storms during the Jutland rattle- in a circle of light at 1000 yards.  Like a deer.  Look man say Thabo.  I’m a hard numbers guy.  I add and subtract.  Chaska do the abstract stuff.  Not abstract say Chaska we find the losers who are leaving. 

We find big winners who return with loot.  Off coast of South America and China there is much plenty useful stuff- easy to carry and trade.  Junk rigged sails cost adds Thabo.  Motors cost.  Steel cost.  Torpedo cost.  Deck gun.  Ammunition.  Motors cost.  Payback ain’t penciling out man.  Tell me again why me messing around with Europe.  Grumble (GmbH) Punta.  Same reason

you talk symbols.

 

Now if you gotta play at garden parties
I wish you a lotta luck
But if memories were all I sang
I’d rather drive a truck

!@#@!

Hammer and Sickle  

Posted in Answers, Cool shit by waldopaper on August 26, 2023

Kung fu fighting

Everybody was kung fu fighting
Those cats were fast as lightning
In fact, it was a little bit frightening
But they fought with expert timing

DPD: 1776 herb de pout; fleur de least of these, Mai Lie outlying (tanks a) village) ~1949~99

All Chaska wanted in those days was to put his people safe behind laws.  That’s why he became a lawyer and in those days it was easier to pass the bar exam.  Not so easy to take it if you are a wild Indian.  Chaska stood as high as most white men, but was not blocky like Paul Bunyan and the white men who cut down all the trees.  Dancing Bear said land is land and the state will stand. 

It was not easy for Chaska to prove he was a civilized Indian, but he did it because his father taught him to read the white man’s talking chicken scratches when he was a boy.  Buoy was an inside joke among three old men.  Everybody knew it.  No one laughed. 

Daisy noticed immediately that Henry’s need for her bourbon had increased somewhat from his previous visit. In truth, she had not expected him so soon. He appeared to be his normal quiet and introspective self. Daisy didn’t have any reasons to believe he was drinking off stress, regrets or unnecessary anticipatory events.

Joining him upstairs, outside on the porch that overlooked her personal road in toward the main house, she brought the crystal glass that he had filled for her while pouring his. It was getting chilly already, early in the year even for their area of the south.  She stood for a while at the railing watching the sun in a tangled mess trying to make its way to the horizon that was blocked by the million blinking leaves on the trees way out on the county road.

There were funky China men from funky Chinatown
They were chopping them up, they were chopping them down
It’s an ancient Chinese art and everybody knew their part
From a feint into a slip and a kicking from the hip

Daisy was trying to digest his words. This was quite a different Henry from the one who relished a good battle, experimenting with the latest of weapons and dazzling with an impressive show of swordsmanship. What was he trying to tell her? That he enjoyed the battle only to secure a tangible outcome? This talk that an enemy of ideals was unbeatable? She tried to pull some kind of sanity from the reading of his eyes.  He went on but more quietly this time.

As I took my concerns to the Marines who were dallying a few miles from the armory and the arsenal buildings, the barge had come ashore. We returned in time to be confronted by the barge men who were using the weapons we were supposed to be guarding. Amidst the killing and the pilfering, they slowly became outnumbered… barricaded themselves in the part of the armory that had been the fire house.

Here we go again, Daisy thought. He’s slipping back into the confused. She knew she was tempting fate, but spoke again anyway, but very gingerly with a soft and understanding voice. So why would a war between the northern states and the southern states be any different for you. She rubbed the back of his hand. She waited for a long time for his answer. Because this outcome will really matter (he managed to slur). His eyes started to close. His head found his chest once more.

Daisy barely got him to stand and pulled him into the house even though he tripped on the threshold. She got him to the bed and he sat turned and passed out face down into the pillows. She removed his boots lifted his feet onto the bed opened two windows and blew out the candles. Just before closing the door she went back and covered him with a blanket. She barely made it to the couch in the study directly across from her closed bedroom door. She didn’t open any windows and remained there until morning… because the outcome of anything otherwise… really could have mattered. 

Sickles was already a joke to most men who were at the battle.  Chaska was not there (at Gettysburg).  He had trouble keeping his long hair.  So he cut it (not all) off as a sign of surrender.  Could have said it was in his way.  But he did not and wondered why.  When he won his first case he began to let his freak flag fly.  He felt like he owed it to someone.  Dark as a raspberry- but not a ripe one. 

Chaska knew all about the buffalo soldiers and in his misspent youth- killing them would be fun.  He thought he was a warrior then.  He did not know (then) war as an art and that compliance is a science. Chaska was adding much to the zeitgeist across America.  Whispers softly speak about whether there’s an undeclared civil war. Well, maybe yes, maybe no, but what are the signals.  Smoke signals.  Chaska knew how to read them as well…

as wampum. 

There was funky Billy Chin and little Sammy Chung
He said, “Here comes the big boss (huh-ha!), let’s get it on”
We took a bow and made a stand, started swaying with the hand
A sudden motion made me skip, now we’re into a brand-new trip

+++

Tools & Weapons

Posted in Answers, Cool shit, Rants by waldopaper on August 24, 2023

Rapier (shovel) Cutlass 

Well, I stand up next to a mountain
And I chop it down with the edge of my hand
Well I pick up all pieces and make an island
Might even raise a little sand
Yeah

DPD: 1863 Summer Sun; rise from the bottom of the sea, we hold hands and watch (time?) ~1913~

The Neuse River was named by English explorer Arthur Barlowe in 1584 for the Neusiok (meaning peace) Indians; the Tuscarora Indians called it Gow-ta-no, or pine in water. The river’s entire 250-mile length is encompassed by North Carolina; the size of its watershed measures 6,235 square miles. 

The Mongols were fighting the Romans and the Chinese at the same time.  Before each one (c+r) knew the other even existed.  That is the Silk Road.  Mongols patrolled the highway.  Isaiah was foretold it kid.  Punta blinked.  The rose ere blooming.  After that.  All people shall see it.

Make straight in the desert a highway and such.  For our God.  Boom (echo)  Boom.  That’s Handel’s canon you hear.  Soon you see horses and wagons and men and infantry and impedimenta.  And even on the summit of South Mountain (eye blackbird) it was flat plain as day… even at night with campfire stars.  The lord of hosts.  Ye catching on Pandybuns. 

Dust clouds like thunderheads since ancient times.  Even the Chinese knew rocket science.  Hessians sold the Bavarians wood to make cuckoo clocks.  Punta grinned.  So the artifacts you are smuggling back now are words. Compost modern. Bra. Imagine a drone the size of a sparrow.  It even looks like a sparrow. 

In October of 1859, Henry had his eye upon weapons again. He was hired by a private security company to discourage trespassers from infiltrating strategic places that might serve as being valuable should the rapidly dividing country commence to fighting on different sides. He was now in Virginia after having spent a few months on the plantation with Daisy. And he was back on the water, where everything was easily moved, smuggled, coveted and gambled on.

The Potomac and Shenandoah met here in a cool valley forest, and for the sake of what he considered to be personal sanity, Henry roamed the area in search of boats that hosted gaming adventures now and then. On perpetual duty, he surveilled his surroundings and personnel for signs of weapons that were excessive to those that were government issued individually for their tasks, but in the meanwhile, Henry always looked out for his recreational interests.

If I don’t meet you no more in this world then uh
I’ll meet ya on the next one
And don’t be late
Don’t be late

In an obvious rush, the nervous man brought out the revisions to Henry’s letter and waited for him to approve his editing. The man concentrated on the river until Henry had finished. Ach. This will do nicely. My thanks and what do I owe you, Mr. …? It’s Brown. John Brown. And after Henry had paid him the man tipped his hat and walked rapidly down toward the riverbank and disappeared in the same direction as the barge loaded with the mixed company.

It must be a coincidence that this man had the same name as the infamous man involved in Bleeding Kansas a few years back. The man who had just met his acquaintance was far from being a violent sort. Just the same, Henry was intuitively having negative thoughts regarding that barge. He mounted his horse and went in that direction. At the same time, he kept his eyes open for members of the regiment that surrounded him, the arsenal, the armory and the rest of Harper’s Ferry and vicinity.

There is no shade on the steppes… and European trader figured that out.  He wanted to ride a horse, but on the advice of friends, got an oxcart instead.  Under cart there is shade.  Steel tubes would come another day.  Our SG GmbH started with steel- but branched into prosthetics and optics LLC.  Electrics was a side-line.  A spandrel.  Yes. 

We had no idea what a quadrillion volts looked like- let alone what it could do.  Our business card read simply:  Weapons & Tools.  Fencing is like dancing, so flying is to fighting is to argument.  Henry looked at Pandora sadly.  Like sailing was before the steamship.  I miss those ships and the folk who travelled in them.  They (the ships) taught me about the world.

American kestrel- it is a trained assassin- and could kill anybody.  Show it a picture and say kill this fucker.  It could fly to outside your window and wait on a utility line for a year- (getting its power from) the utility thing.  Facial recognition and telescopic heat microcopy night vision and all that.  It can blow up your building.  Or send 220 volts through your toaster.  Send a snake through your toilet & c.  Henry was dreaming all this. 

It is in a PA USA town in 1863.  His silly sword had gone from expensive merchandise to dress accessory (useful pointer) to a meat cleaver. A weapon is a tool people use to kill because our teeth are tiny squares and our claws are getting manicured.  Man cured is what the girls were because of the war.  And whatever our age- we still called each other girls and boys.  Had to get back through Schurz, town, and Jubal Early.  Pony found her own way back. 

Implements Evolve 2

I’m a Voodoo Child baby
I don’t take no for an answer
Question no
Yeah

.,oO0Oo,.

Tanks are Stupid.

Posted in Answers, Reality by waldopaper on August 23, 2023

Wagons can fly.

There once was a Square, such a square little Square,
And he loved a trim Triangle;
But she was a flirt and around her skirt
Vainly she made him dangle.

DPD:  manmoon; 1648~1865. Truth (capital T) don’t give a fiddle (DD) <=log book enter 

The morning that the ten Osage clan members had greeted them that month ago, four of them stripped the caskets off the wagon and revealed the guns and ammo. They did not appear to be impressed. They emptied each box and wanted to trade. They wanted only the boxes. Henry sidled his way over to the man he had seen the evening before. Sitting regally on his barebacked horse, at first Henry wasn’t sure it was the same man. His face paint was more colorful and with smaller detail.

Intrigued and wishing he knew what it all represented, he saw that Thabo was hanging near the doorway of the tent looking anxious again. Thabo was certain they had fallen into some sort of unknown ceremonial abduction. Looking up at the now more familiar face, Henry had determined him to be a chief. He called him so and was immediately corrected.

Indian Country

To his solid spell the Triangle fell,
And she thrilled with love’s sweet sickness,
For she took delight in his breadth and height—
But how she adored his thickness!

Castles are great machines we made with stone.  Worked better than dirt.  Not real complicated like a wheel but… will last almost forever.  They don’t move.  Horses were born to move… and they are sentient.  What about a tank of ale.  Different use of the word.  Called them that originally because that’s what they looked like.  They were too big to hide and too heavy to move without everybody getting involved.  Somebody got the idea to build castles that move.  Called them battle wagons.  Really bad idea. 

Moved like a turtle and lit up like tinder.  Hessians tried it against the Bavarians.  Didn’t work.  We were a forest people (like Chaska so long ago) not like the Prussians.  They can watch their dog run away for an entire week. With every opportunity in his stops along the way, Henry (like the dog) spread the rumor that he lost his wagon, team of horses, cargo and slave to the Osage Indians of Oklahoma. To his misfortune, they were indeed a clan of the tribe who believed in war. To his credit, every word was the truth.

We (believe) see what we (see) believe .

The Square’s sad lot she has long forgot,
And his passionate pretensions …
For she dotes on her kids—Oh such cute Pyramids
In a world of three dimensions.
 

+_))_+

Optics: Civil War

Posted in Answers, Reality, Uncategorized by waldopaper on August 21, 2023

It looks; bad/good/undecided

Beware the Jabberwock, my son!
      The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!
Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun
      The frumious Bandersnatch!”

DPD: 1865 Raz;PB, shadowing NATO farces off New Farginweigh, Ireland  (who are thinking about breaking) China  ~20?5~

Looking back at the Junk Henry sold them in the war.  Nothing else was rigged like that in those days- except months/years (century) away (on the other side of the world)- but that is a fish of another color.  Swords were heavy and obvious- likewise rifles, pistols and such were in high wartime demand.  Time pieces (watches) and telescopes (microscopes): things Henry only sold for gold.

At thrice the price @ origin (they will check later) and there is nothing magic about it.  Never apologized. She was only a girl.  Tell me where your woman mother abides.  New Farginweigh (rhymes with bargain pea) is all she could see (say).  Alice was in wonder land right away when the war ended.  Such is the (beggars description) power of little girls. Only a child. Only a baby. Would you know without long heirs (you look like a -).

And, as in uffish thought he stood,
      The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame,
Came whiffling through the tulgey wood,
      And burbled as it came!

Junk Henry was Now Tom (aka -T) being a birthday present for some southern jackals’ daughter.  Said he would trade all the slaves (he had six) on his plantation (a weevil-infested three hundred acres) for Henry’s huge buck.  Henry thought about giving him a sabre lesson but T gave H the silent nuh-uh (no).  

Reading thoughts is no trick if you play well together.  Dig it.  Jubal Early was a valuable patron and so was Carl Schurz. Carnegie and Stetson were nobles-one ruled an empire, the other a fiefdom. Unlike the old country- birth did not guarantee… nobility.

Henry passed the buck (knife).  A trick for bureaucrats and soldiers, only one will take a chance to take the trick (the Buoys played cards aplenty).  We practiced playing dare (as draw poker was called in those days).  Dart was not yet a transformer- only the CSS Tallahassee cut into sections.

Hot sections of crude steel were long gone when in her youth her soul was touched with fire.  Henry lost all interest in weapons when a daughter was born.  They came to the lodge to see Pandora become a fighter.  She was already a natural-born pilot.  Optics to the casual passer-by says they are just a bunch of gambling (GmbH) bums.  Passing the time. 

(and it’s true)

’Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
      Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:
All mimsy were the borogoves,
      And the mome raths outgrabe.

$-oo-$

Deck Hand Talk

Posted in Cool shit, Rants, Reality by waldopaper on August 20, 2023

Steve adores Saar

Good Day Mama,
and shut for the thrust
of the unicorn.
She is unsoiled.
She is as white as a bonefish.  

DPD:  PoonMoon; 1898, Metz over Nancy.  (Bone of war zone) 1919 (19etc.)

Of the three- The crazy Indian is clearly the most intelligent.  Then why does the dumb Dutchman run the ship.  He doesn’t.  The huge nigger runs the ship because he owns it- but he won’t come aboard the Dart for anything- so you’re reasonably safe here.  Yah- as long as the Captain don’t catch you loafing or looking. 

It doesn’t matter if her rails are flesh or bone- the Dart that is.  The fine dust she sweats will build up.  Ain’t you never been up on deck before?  Like- take off- hosier.  We all been up here when she goes to sea.  None of us have when she goes to weird.  Those that have (they say) wish they hadn’t. Flesh or bone… you mean hull or superstructure-  right.

The dwarfs, those little hot dogs,
walked three times around Snow White,
the sleeping virgin.  They were wise
and wattled like small czars.
Yes.  It’s agood omen

The fact that the Dart is a time machine is something you didn’t talk about.  Nobody would believe you and those who do are bound to disturb your shit.  Big time.  Little Dutchman is the reason the grub is so good.  Grog is the best in the word.  Drink too much and Captain feeds you to the sharks.  Or the crocs- whichever is handy.  All three is old as dirt and can’t last much longer. 

We know the score or we would not be here.  Then they will replace us with obedient robots.  And you best believe they won’t tell them shit.  Get while the getting is good mate.  But don’t be a pig- ye dig?  Major Dumb and Corporal Happy know better.  

We are technicians and know as well as anyone that anything we make can be weaponized.  There was a fight in the shop once and we saved a women from being choked by a rag doll.  Little girls rag doll.  The Hotchkiss-style deck guns we smuggled aboard before the Great War.  Meant to impress some other old git who didn’t give a shit. 

Some folks on the bridge (that folds into the hull (like a duck going to sleep)) are from far ahead (it is said).  And if you know how far I’ll give you a cigar.  Henry scared the hell out of the crew when he (rarely) talked to the screen.  Watch the ones on the gangplank. 

Dart goes weird on her own.

Meanwhile Snow White held court,
rolling her china-blue doll eyes open and shut
and sometimes referring to her mirror
as women do.
 

=-00-=

Wandering Jew

Posted in Answers, Cool shit, Rants, Reality, Stupid-heads by waldopaper on August 19, 2023

The Pemberton ∑rror

Would you like to swing on a star?
Carry moonbeams home in a jar
And be better off than you are
Or would you rather be a mule?

DPD:  465 BC; Moon the loon, barb be que (chicken). Missed steaks were maid. (1945)

Civil War Generals were not hard to find after the revolution.  The recent unpleasantness is what we call it these days.  You all call it that.  We call it boring and are tired of hearing about it.  Jah.  Bet you are.  There is applied math.  Is what we do in motor city.  We did business with JCP at Vicksburg.  He was a good fellow but he hit the wrong belle from Norfolk. 

Hell of a goddam note.  Going. In 1848, Pemberton married Martha Thompson of Norfolk, Virginia.  About the same time Henry got kicked out of Europe noted Chaska.  Same deal rumbled Thabo.  Henry says he was right in front of Sherman during the siege. Billy give him a few weeks head start. Pemberton the chemist instead of Pemberton the General was where Dart took them (it was her idea).

A minor argument over the supper campfire ensued when another trader insisted that they were no longer in Nuevo Mexico but rather in the Republic of Texas, a common contention for the times. The crude little hand drawn map made no such distinctions, and although Texas and Mexico both still laid verbal claim to the territory in question, it was neither, as far as the native Indians were concerned.

It was unclear to visitors of the area as to what sparked potential violence from the ancestral natives of the land, so most transients were wise enough to treat their visits with temporary respect. Those that didn’t frequently met with disaster or disappearance.

To fool the people is his only thought
And though he’s slippery, he still gets caught
But then if that sort of life is what you wish
You may grow up to be a fish

The two established ranches traded with the locals without infringing upon their resources or taking them for granted. So the stories blended well with the smoke from the fire, mostly ghost stories of those who stole from the natives after they had their comeuppances. Interest morphed into terror until every minor fire snap got folks to try to jump out of their skin.

Thabo couldn’t find anywhere to go where he could get relief. Eventually, all human interference lulled, and the living smoke was able to join the spiritual once again, peacefully. The next day, the men all took those lessons with them on their travels.

We are strolling in the park goosing statues in the dark.  If Duke the spook can take it why can’t you.  Chaska zipper smiles.  That is discrete math.  Imaginary numbers plenty.  None of that shit on my books says Thabo and I got slavery in the motherfucking equation. 

And don’t forget how dark you are adds Henry.  Dummkopfen is stupid heads wherever they be:  high or low; black or white, left or right.  How they become powerful and command rising walls should be no mystery.  It’s history.  Just not (unfortunately) at the present…

(Christmas and birthdays) time.      

Every day you meet quite a few
So you see it’s all up to you
You can be better than you are
You could be swingin’ on a star
 

****V****

Whose Sorry Now

Posted in Answers, Cool shit, Rants, Reality, Stupid-heads, Uncategorized by waldopaper on August 16, 2023

Met in the Train

She choking with sobs leaned her head on my waistcoat— Did the Charming Young Widow I met in the Train.

DPD:  rage moon 1868; Flanders, flowers & susceptible young men 

The widow and I side by side sat together. The carriage containing ourselves and no more. When silence was broken by my fair companion who enquired the time by the watch that I wore. Henry had his own opinion of Uh-oh Howard.  It was shared by most of his XI c. boys who were as sorry as Henry (was) that the corpse face-down in the kudzu was not Howard. 

Instead a broken-hearted aide looked up through tears at his mounted captor and bawled:  Sir it is General McPherson. You have killed the best man in our army.  This was early in the Battle of Atlanta that led to the surrender of Atlanta a month later. General Otis Howard succeeded poor McPherson as commander of the Army and Department of the Tennessee.

The last Henry had heard, Taos had suffered attacks, massacres, murders and bad blood between everyone involved. What had settled originally as a lucrative trading post, had become an occupied military post on and off for the past four years, and according to Marta, a low class bunch of volunteers from Missouri  had caused more harm than good.

After the Taos massacre of 1847, these yahoos came in from the Midwest and horrifically tortured the Indians whom they had judged as being responsible for the initial trouble. The bad blood amongst the enemies on all sides congealed.  The resulting scab was constantly being removed prior to healing.

For behold ‘twas no baby—’twas only a dummy! Oh that Crafty Young Widow I met in the Train.

And after an hour or so of prairie communicating, sharing food, water, and points of view, the three of them, now joined by Juan’s (Johnny reb) summoned horse, headed again toward Lacome and Arroyo Hondo. Henry had had his personal fill of the west and its unstable politics.

Thabo had the personal epiphany of desperately wanting to return east once more and put the outrageous mountains behind him once again. Three days later, they made their way into the settlement, the folks on the edge of town welcoming Juan and his two new traders.

When asked about trading the coffins, Henry agreed to some but came up with a fictitious excuse and destinations for those secured on the bottom level of the wagon. Lacome was happy with his new rifle. He was responsible for helping to shelter and distribute quite a few of Henry’s wares in the northeastern New Mexico Territory.

After Beecher’s Bibles Henry spent the first years of the war on a river:  St. Louis to Cincinnati to Pittsburgh (Harrisburg); and the littoral Atlantic.  Chaska did not agree that the enemy of your enemy (is your friend).  Thus did the son of Dancing Bear prepare for the 30 years’ war on the Sioux (that started about the time he was new).  Burp went black Thabo. 

Crazy Indian.  I unloaded all our riverboats and Chaska found Copper Harbor like Moses found Mr.C pissing behind a tall rock.  That was the year we took the Tallahassee lads- remember.  1865 or something yawned Pandora.  Makes Punta’s face hurt noted Henry (like he could see through Pandy’s bandages). 

Pipe down Punta.  Henry knew both James (McPherson and Pettigrew) since before the war.  Sold a watch to one a spyglass to another.  Both were professionals, and had no reason to pay what was needed for guns or swords.  Mac just got unlucky.  It happens.  But JJ fucked up.  Waded in to get close enough to shoot one of the yahoos working for Custer or Kilpatrick. 

Henry smiled.  Nope.  The James I knew best was the old man river.  Littoral(ly).  Sat there and waited by the build a bong (on Grant) while his Billy boiled.  It’s an old romance the boohoo dance. Pullman cars to plunder. Down this tear wall.

Soon there will be no one marching at all.

The heroine was having her boots laced on when she fell in; she married her rescuer—still in the same boots. Time has mercifully forgotten Matilda.

iiixxxivixx

A horse named Sam

Posted in Cool shit, Rants, Reality by waldopaper on August 15, 2023

Plants and Rides

… What you gon’ do? You wanna get down?
Tell me, what you gon’ do? Do you wanna get down?
What you gon’ do? You wanna get down?
What you gon’ do? You wanna get down? Tell me

DPD:  Heat Moon 1865;  Time machine, log on water 1905 (life begins @)

God moves in mysterious ways.  Generals in the Civil War, not so much.  Sherman rode Sam away from burning Atlanta.  But he rode Duke during the siege, just like Grant rode Cincinnati before Petersburg.  Most were government property.  Some were private property.  They looked at their staff officers the same way with much affection and sorrow at the loss of any of them. 

The loss of friends stings the most and the loss of children burns deepest of all.  Most men- from generals on a hill to peasants in the mud- saw it this way.  Punta is injured.  Badly it appears and Schatzenputz GmbH has no answers. Henry had trouble with the crew (to say the least) and could only recognize two of them. 

Dixie carried Alexander and another carried Cleburne.  Al and Clay were not their names of course- but Henry was blind as a bat and loopy as a hat in a nor’easter.  The 1893 exhibition made her a star in Chicago.  Nobody knew she was the Chameleon.  Pandora’s wounds were ugly, but not mortal.  She landed at Ypres where life writes on your face. 

Pap Thomas rode old Billy and many named their horse after their boss.  Because in those days- we could make these animals do anything- they- wanted to do.  They were the fastest thing we had.  We lost this knowledge.  Unless we start riding dogs and cats- which are predators and would eat us if they had to (I guess).

… How you gonna do it if you really don’t wanna dance
By standing on the wall?
(Get your back up off the wall) tell me
How you gonna do it if you really won’t take a chance
 

A horse would not do that.  She was romantic, she was sentimental, she had a passion for little secrets and mysteries—a very innocent passion, for her secrets had hitherto always been as unpractical as addled eggs.  We ditched the guns.  We recovered the airplane.  Dart allowed her aboard and gave her reason to fly.  It looks serious observed Chaska. 

Thabo rumbled about Ford investments in the motor city.  The migration was small… but significant.  I remember (not too long ago).  We went to a theater.  And saw the cool and the gang show.  Holly.  Wood.  Only the mistletoe let Baldy die.  Everything else had taken some kind of pledge. 

All objects made this vow except mistletoe… a detail which has traditionally been explained with the idea that it was too unimportant and nonthreatening to bother asking it to make the vow, and young people were not eligible to swear legal oaths (which could make them a threat) later in life.   Goddammit I don’t want to fly this thing- but you assholes insisted I find a substitute. 

Well- there she is.  And now we have to deal with the temperance turds.  Not a bad idea added Chaska (squarely inside the reservation).  The lips that touch liquor will never touch mine.  Punta no longer believed women could vote away the demon rum.  Thabo snorted. 

Yo junk ain’t that good honey.

… What you gon’ do? (Uh) do you wanna get down? (Ah)
What you gon’ do? (Uh, ah)
Get your back up off the wall
Dance, come on, get your back up off the wall
Dance, come on

!!@@##$$