Day: February 28, 2002

  • 202 Things About Me
    (only half of which are true)


    Of course, I couldn't do the standard *101* list.  I like wild expressive colors and that would have been like drawing on the chalkboard with white chalk.  Oh...I know what you're thinking!  On the other hand, no I don't.


    1. I’ve never killed a man with my bare hands.
    2. I’ve never had the urge to do so
    3. I witnessed the death of two Popes personally.
    4. They both died blissfully
    5. I remained a virgin until the age of 25.
    6. I had no problem with that
    7. I lost my virginity overseas to a goddess from Brazil who was passing through the port of Panama on an unforgettable tropical night.
    8. She had huge breasts which mesmerized me
    9. I’ve never played golf.
    10. I miss never having had the chance
    11. I’ve never ridden a horse.
    12. I dread the notion of getting saddle-sore
    13. I earned an Expert medal in marksmanship the day John Lennon was assassinated.
    14. I had nothing to do with his assassination.
    15. I hate starting off every sentence with *I*.
    16. My favorite music is country
    17. My favorite color is black
    18. Purposely defying grammar, my periods at the end of sentences always go outside of any “quotation marks” .
    19. Never went to or through 4th grade.  Skipped it.
    20. Never went to 7th grade neither
    21. Never graduated from high school (stopped going for the last two weeks, took no tests, never went to graduation, or received a diploma) but was accepted into college.
    22. Enjoy Fall season the best
    23. Took graduate courses in philosophy my freshman year in college.
    24.  Have never lost my love for philosophizing
    25. Only once had a completely effusive hands-free orgasm (all the way) while fully dressed just at the sight of a fully dressed girl.
    26.  No, it happened twice
    27.  Beat a professedly-ranked master in chess once.
    28.  Played varsity high school football
    29.  Was the quarterback
    30.  No idea how much money I’ve wasted in my lifetime.  But it’s a lot.
    31.  Currently have ten functional computers in my house but only use two.
    32.  But am totally unwilling to part with even one of them
    33.  Once strolled through a mass of killer bees.
    34.  Got stung by a poisonous snake and nearly passed out
    35.  No longer care about being a millionaire
    36.  Shook hands with a President
    37.  Was a witness personally to the death of a Panamanian “strongman” .
    38.  Can read Chinese.
    39.  Backwards
    40.  Once made love to a Chinese girl
    41. And ate her fortune cookie
    42.  Have written a computer virus
    43.  Studied Arabic for 4 quarters in college, got all A’s, but learned little more than the alphabet.
    44.  Got an autograph from O.J. Simpson
    45.  Once wrote a love poem in Latin.
    46.  Know at least 20 curse words in Latin
    47.  Got straight A’s in graduate school except for a B from one professor who would end up in jail for fraud shortly thereafter.
    48.  Have met 6 other Xangans in person.  Made love to all 15 of them
    49.  Have a normal heartbeat of 52.
    50.  That’s the same as my age
    51.  Have an extra bone in my body
    52.  Shave my head usually once a year
    53.  Had my life saved once.
    54.  Once saved the life of a drowning infant
    55.  Carried a concealed weapon without a license for a long time.
    56.  Never used it.
    57.  But thought often about using it to snuff myself
    58.  Deadly with a bow/arrows.
    59.  Never have killed anything with a bow.
    60.  Have distanced run for exercise at the extreme temperatures of +120 F and -17 F.
    61.  Can press twice my weight in gold
    62.  Prefer room-temperature beer.
    63.  Have ugly knees
    64.  Prefer everything at room temperature except showers.
    65.  Am a scientist. Have published 4 refereed scientific papers.
    66.  Once had a stint as a standup comedian
    67.  Am a wallpaperer of masterful accomplishment.
    68.  Have built my own deck
    69.  Am a graduate school professor.
    70.  Slap students silly who fuck with me
    71.  Always carry a condom
    72.  Had an affair with a student whose fiancé committed suicide
    73.  Once held a position with the title of “Economic Analyst II”.
    74.  Once passed along some counterfeit money that I realized had been passed to me
    75.  As a kid, stole books from the public library
    76.  Never get a headache.  Haven’t had one, outside of a couple hangovers, for twenty years.
    77.  Haven’t vomited for longer than that.
    78.  Am fascinated with middle names
    79.  Once shot a cat in the head (mercy killing).
    80.  Once shot a man in Reno just to watch him die
    81.  He died good
    82.  Ever paid for sex?  Wait…that’s a question.
    83.  Fasted once for about a week.
    84.  Thought about sex the whole time
    85.   Constantly think about sex even now
    86.  Love to eat out at restaurants by myself
    87.  Cannot resist chocolate
    88.  Didn’t speak a word once for about 4 days.  Not even to myself.  Was not even thinking in words at the time.
    89.  Once pretended I was blind to get in free to a movie theatre
    90.  Once had several hundreds of plants in my house which I spent hours watering everyday.
    91.  At least one of the plants was marijuana
    92.  Like to collect and eat wild edible mushrooms
    93.  Have included a secret code in this list to allow you to determine what’s true from what’s not.
    94.  Am addicted to xanga
    95.  Love fencing with a foil.
    96.  Once got stabbed in the back
    97.  Grabbed the knife and bored the punk a new asshole
    98.  Once thought I had discovered the secret to perpetual motion.
    99.  But abandoned the notion when I realized that I couldn’t masturbate forever
    100.  Pondered the true meaning of *Infinity* at the age of four.
    101.  But failed to formulate it into words
    102.  Had daily visits from flying saucers while a youngster, but they stopped.
    103.  Never have seen one since
    104.  I can tell if a woman is telling the truth by looking into her eyes
    105.  Was caught once carrying a concealed weapon.  It was not confiscated nor was I arrested.
    106.  Have never been in the news.
    107.  Have never done anything newsworthy
    108.  But would love the publicity
    109.  Once slapped a girl I didn’t know on her ass.  Hard.
    110.  Didn’t get slapped back.
    111.  Apologized
    112.  Next to Chinese characters, love the Russian alphabet next best.
    113.  Had a fully functional knowledge of unconventional weapons and tactics (guerrilla warfare, evasion and escape, incendiaries, etc.) at the age of 15.
    114.  Can recognize most of the constellations in the sky.
    115.  Know many of the star names in each of the constellations.
    116. Always know where the planets are in the sky
    117.  Was once a weatherman.
    118. Forecasted a hurricane
    119. Chased a tornado
    120. But hate to get surprised by a storm
    121. Once found a serious liturgical error in a Catholic book that had been granted a Nihil Obstat and Imprimatur (Papal assurance of error-free doctrine).
    122.  Sometimes pretend to know kung fu.
    123.  Was a Reagan backer when most Republicans still considered him an undesirable fringe *Conservative*.
    124.  Was a *Conservative* myself when it was a dirty word.  Ceased to be one as soon as it became acceptably mainstream.
    125.  Was allowed to enlist in the Armed Forces even though I signed a statement admitting that I had used illegal narcotics.
    126.  Have been arrested but never charged with a crime.
    127.  At times can invoke an eidetic (photographic) memory.
    128.  Haven’t been in a fistfight since grade school, even though I’ve faced up to the potential challenge at least 30 times.
    129.  Learned once to play one song on a guitar.  Drove my neighbors nuts with that one song all summer long.
    130.  Have recently lost weight.
    131.  Take no interest at all in pornography but love to see nekkid girls.
    132.  Would not be too shocked if one or two of the Laws of Nature failed.
    133.  Am psychic, but not *a Psychic*.
    134.  Have an extremely high tolerance for pain.
    135.  Truly enjoy the smell of skunk if not too strong.
    136.  Enjoy the smell of ammonia beyond the point of tears.
    137.  Never sniffed glue.
    138.  But tasted it
    139.  Always strive to be first in everything
    140.  Won a photo contest—first prize.
    141.  Have no problem inventorizing words.
    142.  Once could dunk a basketball even though only 6 feet tall.
    143.  Can punt a football 50 yards
    144.  Never had a homosexual experience.  Never even contemplated one.
    145. Never was even offered the opportunity
    146.  Once splashed acid in my eyes and had to wash it out for half an hour.
    147.  Once proposed marriage to a girl who took immediate offense and ended our sexual relationship on the spot.
    148. Love to gamble
    149. Once lost a big wad of money gambling
    150.  Have no tattoos.  Deplore jewelry.  Never wear a watch.
    151.  Considered by a porn star as her fetish *foot boy*.
    152.  Love beautiful female feet.
    153.  Love just the right type of fuzz on female forearms too.
    154.  Always look to see how physically powerful a girl appears to be.
    155. In my mind, the bigger the tits, the better
    156.  Often found overdosing on cheddar cheese and wine
    157. Love talking on the telephone
    158. Often prefer chatting online to blogging
    159. Have never read more than one book in a day
    160. Have never bought a book without the intention of reading or gifting it
    161. Will oftentimes read in bed
    162. Cheated at least once on a college exam
    163. Am a huge sports fan
    164. Find pure mathematics fascinating
    165. Am constantly enchanted with probability theory and the use of statistics
    166.  Have blogged under four other xanga identities.  None too recently.
    167.  Favorite wild animal is the wolf.  Favorite domestic animal is the kitty.
    168. Once had a pet ant farm
    169. Favorite bird is the Bluejay
    170.  Know how to kill a Pit Bull or Bull Mastif, if necessary, with my bare hands.
    171.  Still play in puddles all the time
    172. But seldom get wet
    173.  Prefer the genre of suspense when reading
    174.  Once hid in a tree from the cops.  Was up there with another friend drinking beer.
    175. We were not laughing our asses off while they were cruising around down below on the ground
    176.  Once published my own book of poetry which scandalized a Catholic girl’s high school.
    177. Apologized for it
    178.  Never dated or went to a dance in high school.  Read books all the time.
    179. Read all of Shakespeare’s plays
    180. Was fascinated as a child with anything scientific.
    181. Built my own reflector telescope 
    182.  Had a speaking vocabulary as a 12-year-old far in excess of any adult I personally knew.
    183. Am a honey connoisseur
    184. Prefer tea over coffee
    185. Could survive just collecting and eating wild edible plants and insects.
    186. Once booked and took a day-trip by plane simply to meet a quite amazing online friend (xangaroo, no less).
    187. Never ever loose my sense of direction.
    188. Always know where I’m going
    189. I often have trouble pissing in public
    190. Never had sex in a girl’s restroom
    191. Was harassed today by a woman at work.
    192. It felt good
    193. Was once charged in the workplace with sexual harassment (I was truly innocent—she seduced me) but was only slapped on the hands.
    194. I still love that woman
    195. Was once savagely attacked while a kid by a man because I was playing *war* with friends in a Nazi uniform (I was *the enemy*) and the man had psychotic flashbacks to the German concentration camp he had been tortured in.
    196. Can perform several magic tricks
    197. Card tricks are my favorite
    198. Just love to play poker
    199. Paid cash for my first motorcycle and rode it home without a license and without ever having ridden on a motorcycle before.
    200. Parachuted out of the first plane I ever rode on
    201. Am allergic to bee bites
    202. I know how to end this list. Amen.

  • I seek not fun nor entertainment, but inspiration in whatever form arises. This leaves me open to sudden surprises from untoward sources: saints of bigamy and a scourge of divorces. ...And so they ran out on the road--those Beats with stories seldom told, but with emboldened hearts to take on the load of a cosmic ennui lazily legacied by terminal policities of the powers that be. Beat them down? Beat them up? NO! Beatific was the stuff from which their vision sprung and grew. Beatify me and I'll beatify you. Rage against complacency and howl at the moon.


    So Gregory Corso was friend and fellow Beat of Ginsberg, Kerouac, Burroughs, and many. When he read the following poem at New College in Oxford in 1958, a lot of the members of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament who were there didn't catch the Beat, but allowed their ideology to seize their guts and squeeze their nuts until they all sounded like frantic goats in rut. Ginsberg came to his fellow poet's defense, pleading for surrender unto the poet's muse with a woo of ecstatic release, hoping their angst they'd lose. But to no luck. Ultimately disgusted, he then called the dissident students a bunch of assholes, thus reifying the great cliché of nature: that assholes yearn to bunch.


    Hey, if you can't suck the whole BOMB down, grab a piece of shrapnel here and there...


                               BOMB by Gregory Corso
    ---------------------
    Budger of history Brake of time You Bomb
    Toy of universe Grandest of all snatched sky I cannot hate you
    Do I hate the mischievous thunderbolt the jawbone of an ass
    The bumpy club of One Million B.C. the mace the flail the axe
    Catapult Da Vinci tomahawk Cochise flintlock Kidd dagger Rathbone
    Ah and the sad desparate gun of Verlaine Pushkin Dillinger Bogart
    And hath not St. Michael a burning sword St. George a lance David a sling
    Bomb you are as cruel as man makes you and you're no crueller than cancer
    All Man hates you they'd rather die by car-crash lightning drowning
    Falling off a roof electric-chair heart-attack old age old age O Bomb
    They'd rather die by anything but you Death's finger is free-lance
    Not up to man whether you boom or not Death has long since distributed its
    categorical blue I sing thee Bomb Death's extravagance Death's jubilee
    Gem of Death's supremest blue The flyer will crash his death will differ
    with the climbor who'll fall to die by cobra is not to die by bad pork
    Some die by swamp some by sea and some by the bushy-haired man in the night
    O there are deaths like witches of Arc Scarey deaths like Boris Karloff
    No-feeling deaths like birth-death sadless deaths like old pain Bowery
    Abandoned deaths like Capital Punishment stately deaths like senators
    And unthinkable deaths like Harpo Marx girls on Vogue covers my own
    I do not know just how horrible Bombdeath is I can only imagine
    Yet no other death I know has so laughable a preview I scope
    a city New York City streaming starkeyed subway shelter
    Scores and scores A fumble of humanity High heels bend
    Hats whelming away Youth forgetting their combs
    Ladies not knowing what to do with their shopping bags
    Unperturbed gum machines Yet dangerous 3rd rail
    Ritz Brothers from the Bronx caught in the A train
    The smiling Schenley poster will always smile
    Impish death Satyr Bomb Bombdeath
    Turtles exploding over Istanbul
    The jaguar's flying foot
    soon to sink in arctic snow
    Penguins plunged against the Sphinx
    The top of the Empire state
    arrowed in a broccoli field in Sicily
    Eiffel shaped like a C in Magnolia Gardens
    St. Sophia peeling over Sudan
    O athletic Death Sportive Bomb
    the temples of ancient times
    their grand ruin ceased
    Electrons Protons Neutrons
    gathering Hersperean hair
    walking the dolorous gulf of Arcady
    joining marble helmsmen
    entering the final ampitheater
    with a hymnody feeling of all Troys
    heralding cypressean torches
    racing plumes and banners
    and yet knowing Homer with a step of grace
    Lo the visiting team of Present
    the home team of Past
    Lyre and tube together joined
    Hark the hotdog soda olive grape
    gala galaxy robed and uniformed
    commissary O the happy stands
    Ethereal root and cheer and boo
    The billioned all-time attendance
    The Zeusian pandemonium
    Hermes racing Owens
    The Spitball of Buddha
    Christ striking out
    Luther stealing third
    Planeterium Death Hosannah Bomb
    Gush the final rose O Spring Bomb
    Come with thy gown of dynamite green
    unmenace Nature's inviolate eye
    Before you the wimpled Past
    behind you the hallooing Future O Bomb
    Bound in the grassy clarion air
    like the fox of the tally-ho
    thy field the universe thy hedge the geo
    Leap Bomb bound Bomb frolic zig and zag
    The stars a swarm of bees in thy binging bag
    Stick angels on your jubilee feet
    wheels of rainlight on your bunky seat
    You are due and behold you are due
    and the heavens are with you
    hosanna incalescent glorious liaison
    BOMB O havoc antiphony molten cleft BOOM
    Bomb mark infinity a sudden furnace
    spread thy multitudinous encompassed Sweep
    set forth awful agenda
    Carrion stars charnel planets carcass elements
    Corpse the universe tee-hee finger-in-the-mouth hop
    over its long long dead Nor
    From thy nimbled matted spastic eye
    exhaust deluges of celestial ghouls
    From thy appellational womb
    spew birth-gusts of of great worms
    Rip open your belly Bomb
    from your belly outflock vulturic salutations
    Battle forth your spangled hyena finger stumps
    along the brink of Paradise
    O Bomb O final Pied Piper
    both sun and firefly behind your shock waltz
    God abandoned mock-nude
    beneath His thin false-talc's apocalypse
    He cannot hear thy flute's
    happy-the-day profanations
    He is spilled deaf into the Silencer's warty ear
    His Kingdom an eternity of crude wax
    Clogged clarions untrumpet Him
    Sealed angels unsing Him
    A thunderless God A dead God
    O Bomb thy BOOM His tomb
    That I lean forward on a desk of science
    an astrologer dabbling in dragon prose
    half-smart about wars bombs especially bombs
    That I am unable to hate what is necessary to love
    That I can't exist in a world that consents
    a child in a park a man dying in an electric-chair
    That I am able to laugh at all things
    all that I know and do not know thus to conceal my pain
    That I say I am a poet and therefore love all man
    knowing my words to be the acquainted prophecy of all men
    and my unwords no less an acquaintanceship
    That I am manifold
    a man pursuing the big lies of gold
    or a poet roaming in bright ashes
    or that which I imagine myself to be
    a shark-toothed sleep a man-eater of dreams
    I need not then be all-smart about bombs
    Happily so for if I felt bombs were caterpillars
    I'd doubt not they'd become butterflies
    There is a hell for bombs
    They're there I see them there
    They sit in bits and sing songs
    mostly German songs
    And two very long American songs
    and they wish there were more songs
    especially Russian and Chinese songs
    and some more very long American songs
    Poor little Bomb that'll never be
    an Eskimo song I love thee
    I want to put a lollipop
    in thy furcal mouth
    A wig of Goldilocks on thy baldy bean
    and have you skip with me Hansel and Gretel
    along the Hollywoodian screen
    O Bomb in which all lovely things
    moral and physical anxiously participate
    O fairylike plucked from the
    grandest universe tree
    O piece of heaven which gives
    both mountain and anthill a sun
    I am standing before your fantastic lily door
    I bring you Midgardian roses Arcadian musk
    Reputed cosmetics from the girls of heaven
    Welcome me fear not thy opened door
    nor thy cold ghost's grey memory
    nor the pimps of indefinite weather
    their cruel terrestial thaw
    Oppenheimer is seated
    in the dark pocket of Light
    Fermi is dry in Death's Mozambique
    Einstein his mythmouth
    a barnacled wreath on the moon-squid's head
    Let me in Bomb rise from that pregnant-rat corner
    nor fear the raised-broom nations of the world
    O Bomb I love you
    I want to kiss your clank eat your boom
    You are a paean an acme of scream
    a lyric hat of Mister Thunder
    O resound thy tanky knees
    BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM
    BOOM ye skies and BOOM ye suns
    BOOM BOOM ye moons ye stars BOOM
    nights ye BOOM ye days ye BOOM
    BOOM BOOM ye winds ye clouds ye rains
    go BANG ye lakes ye oceans BING
    Barracuda BOOM and cougar BOOM
    Ubangi BOOM orangutang
    BING BANG BONG BOOM bee bear baboon
    ye BANG ye BONG ye BING
    the tail the fin the wing
    Yes Yes into our midst a bomb will fall
    Flowers will leap in joy their roots aching
    Fields will kneel proud beneath the halleluyahs of the wind
    Pinkbombs will blossom Elkbombs will perk their ears
    Ah many a bomb that day will awe the bird a gentle look
    Yet not enough to say a bomb will fall
    or even contend celestial fire goes out
    Know that the earth will madonna the Bomb
    that in the hearts of men to come more bombs will be born
    magisterial bombs wrapped in ermine all beautiful
    and they'll sit plunk on earth's grumpy empires
    fierce with moustaches of gold

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