Nice monster

 

This monster was a present to my daughter.

A friend just sent me a link to a cool story in the Washington Post about how a 1950s monster sighting in Braxton County WV gave a boost to my hometown's Blenko Glass Company. But first a bit about both...

First, the century old Milton Glass company has always been a fixture for me. It's history is pretty cool, starting with the fact that it was founded by a British-born socialist who was a friend and devotee of Eugene Debs, a five time candidate for president on the Socialist Party ticket between 1900 and 1920, the last time while he was in prison for opposing World War 1. Blenko even wanted his ashes scattered on Debs' grave.

That's just part of the appeal. Another major element is the almost medieval process they still use to blow and shape molten glass by hand.

Back to the monster, in 1952 some people in Flatwoods saw a UFO and then a 10 foot tall monster with a blood red face. Some skeptics cook that down to a UFO and an owl, but whatever.

The point is that Blenko recently decided to make a limited commemorative critter that caught on like wildfire, apparently leading to the company's most profitable year in decades.

If demand for the Flatwoods monster diminishes, maybe West Virginia's other favorite monster, Mothman, might take its place.

Of reading, classics, vampires and such

I usually keep a pile of several books going at any given time and try to turn a page or two of each per day. Usually these are pretty dense and a page or two is plenty.

At the moment, my pile consists of some stories by Chekhov, The Fall by Camus, Vol. II of Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Aristotle's Politics and Eaarth, Bill McKibben's new book about climate change (which is a real downer, by the way). Oh yeah, and Thoreau's Walden.

I don't always see eye to eye with Henry, but I share his fondness for old classics:

Men sometimes speak as if the study of the classics would at length give way for more modern and practical studies; but the adventurous student will always study classics, in whatever language they may be written and however ancient they may be. For what are classics but the noblest recorded thoughts of man? They are the only oracles which are not decayed, and there are such answers to the most modern inquiry in them as Delphi and Dodona never gave. We might as well omit to study Nature because she is old. To read well, that is, to read true books in a true spirit, is a noble exercise, and one that will task the reader far more than any exercise which the customs of the day esteem.

Still and all, sometimes you need to clear the palate and there's nothing to do just that like a vampire novel. For fun, I've been listening to Guillermo del Toro and Chuck Hogan's The Strain. These vampires aren't sexy or teenybopper heart throbs or tragic existentialists. They are totally repulsive viral parasites with totally gross appendages. Listening to it made mowing the lawn a bit more entertaining.

I have a feeling Thoreau wouldn't have been a big fan of vampire novels.

PLAYING WITH FIRE. As I've been ranting for the last week or so, deficit mania could make the recession worse. And Krugman thinks so too.

WHATEVER. This is disappointing.

THIS COULD EXPLAIN A LOT. Research on voting behavior suggests that such decisions are often made on the basis of non-verbal and superficial factors.

A LITTLE GOOD NEWS. Blenko Glass, a WV company that specializes in handmade glassware has fought its way back from the brink after nearly closing for good last year.

MONKEYS like TV too.

GOAT ROPE ADVISORY LEVEL: ELEVATED

Information and improvement

This conversation improved and entertained both participants (although the one on the right has since shuffled off this mortal coil).

Goat Rope has recently been spending time in the company of Benjamin Franklin. Well, actually with his autobiography, but you get the idea.

Franklin achieved remarkable success in many of his endeavors thanks in no small measure to his skill in dealing with other people. As noted in yesterday's post, he made it a habit to avoid not only arguing with and directly contradicting others but also to state his own views in a modest and unassuming way.

If, as he believed, conversation is about informing others and being informed in turn and pleasing and being pleased by others, then stating opinions in a dogmatic way tends to shut things down. He said,

For, if you wish to inform, a positive and dogmatical manner in advancing your sentiments may provoke contradiction and prevent a candid attention. If you wish information and improvement from the knowledge of others, and yet at the same time express yourself as firmly fix'd in your present opinions, modes, sensible men, who do not love disputation, will probably leave you undisturbed in the possession of your error. And by such a manner, you can seldom hope to recommend yourself in pleasing your hearers, or to persuade those whose concurrence you desire. Pope says, judiciously:

Men should be taught as if you taught them not,
And things unknown propos'd as things forgot...

Many years before Franklin, Lao Tzu put it like this:

A good soldier is not violent.
A good fighter is not angry.
A good winner is not vengeful.
A good employer is humble.
This is known as the Virtue of not striving.
This is known as ability to deal with people.
This since ancient times has been known
as the ultimate unity with heaven.

GOT THE DIPLOMA. NOW WHAT? This isn't the best of years, economically speaking, to graduate from college.

HUNGRY COUNTRY. The nation's food banks may need a bailout if things continue as

DREAM ON. Research suggests that people interpret their dreams selectively.

RELIGION ON THE BRAIN. Adaptation or accident?

A LITTLE GOOD NEWS. Blenko Glass plans to resume limited production after closing earlier this year.

GOAT ROPE ADVISORY LEVEL: ELEVATED

Attention, attention, attention

Arpad has trouble paying attention.

One interesting thing that happens when you encounter a different language is that you find words that are full of meaning but are hard to translate into your native tongue.

One example is the Greek word kairos, which can be translated (badly) as time, but means so much more (something like "the time is at hand" or a time of crisis or decision).

There are quite a few words in Japanese that contain concepts that people interested in making the world less violent or more just might find useful. Many of these originated in the martial arts but their application goes far beyond that.

(Full disclosure: my Japanese is limited to technical terms and a Japanese-American friend laughs at how I butcher the words I know.)

Not surprisingly, many of these words are related to paying attention. There's an old Zen story about a student who asks a master for the inner meaning of the dharma. The master takes up his brush and writes the word "Attention."

The student isn't satisfied, so the master writes "Attention, attention."

The student still wasn't content, so the master wrote "Attention, attention, attention."

Woody Allen is often quoted as saying that 80 percent of success is showing up. I wouldn't argue with that. But a lot of the other 20 probably has to do with paying attention.

Tomorrow's word is kamae and it's all about attention.

SPEAKING OF WHICH, I'd advise paying attention to the economic recovery vote in Congress this week. The Senate and House versions are very different and will have to be reconciled.

Unfortunately, the Senate version reduced aid to states and for urgent human needs programs such as food stamps, unemployment and covering workers who lose insurance along with their jobs. Here is Paul Krugman on that subject.

The American Friends Service Committee is still offering a toll-free number for people to call their representatives in support of President Obama's plan and to call for improvements in the final bill. The number is 1-800-473-6711.

A RECENT ECONOMIC CASUALTY is Blenko Glass, which recently shut down production. Here's an op-ed of mine on that sad news.

MONEY FOR NOTHING. A new report by the WV Center on Budget and Policy looks at economic development policies that give away state money and get little or nothing in return.

FRYING OUR BRAINS. Are we overdosing on digital devices?

GOAT ROPE ADVISORY LEVEL: ELEVATED