July 2, 2002

• If you’re looking for the final installment of my memoir from 1962-’63, it’s there, just scroll down a bit.  This bit is something else.  oOMisFitOo posted a dream she had about my family, and this is my reply.  She wrote:  “There ya have it.  What do you think?”

  
  

  I think you’re nuts, but that’s not news and it’s one of your most endearing traits.

  
  

   

  
  

  As I read along in your dream, a few thoughts came to mind:

  
  

   

  
  

  Greyfox used to sell Archie McPhee novelties.  He’d order the grab bags and get a box full of slugs, bugs, snakes, and all sorts of crap including halloween masks.  This was part of his effort to carry something for everyone.  Then he discovered that the McPhee attracted kids to the stand and the stuff got very shopworn before any of it sold.  He has been giving the remaining McPhee to his nieces and other kids for a few years and still has some snakes and glow-in-the-dark banana slugs.

  
  

   

  
  

  Your PS just came in.
  

  
  

  In a quick re-read, what I meant at the end of that dream sequence, when I said,
  
  We congratulated each other and began discussing the next skit we would do.  I realized we were on a stage, and all of it had been pre planned.  Some kind of impromptu scene we agreed to do, and accept the consequences of.
  

  
  

  Was that we had agreed to take part in the scene, kind of like, “Who’s line is it anyway?” and simply accept whatever each of us threw out.  We would incorporate everyone’s ideas into a scene … and see what would happen.  A leeetle dangerous for us all to be gathered in one room, eh?

  
  

   

  
  

  Bottom line, I truly believe we were all involved in some kind of test or something.

  
  

  I wonder if we passed?

  Of course we passed.  Hell YESH!  We always pass, kiddo.  As a team, we are unbeatable.  Getting that through your head won’t make you any more or less effective, but it will make the whole thing more consistently fun for you.  Or, on second thought, it might make you overconfident, which is another way of saying manic, which is often your mode anyway, so….

  
  

   

  
  

  Back to my free-associating:

  
  

  The gunblade is a weapon in Final Fantasy VIII and nowhere else that I know of.  In that game, only two characters use it:  the main protagonist and his arch-nemesis. 

  
  

   

  
  

  BTW, if you or your kids play FF, Xenogears, Chrono Cross or other RPGs and would like to be some of the first members of a new game forum based in OZ, point them to terraaustralis.  SuSu goes there every day.  I recommend you check out the “Emotional Attachments” thread in General Chat.  [Editorial note:  That thread is pretty laugh-provoking all by itself, and now it has a truly hilarious illustration that can be seen in "Manol's GFX Shop".]

  
  

   

  
  

  Greyfox carries in stock a tacky little sheath knife in a plastic holster.  The knife’s hilt looks like the grip of an old-west revolver and it has a “trigger guard”.  This is the only knife that I have told Doug he cannot have.  Not that I’d object to him having it in his collection at home, but I don’t want to ever take a chance on his wearing it out in public.  Ever hear the old adage, “Never take a knife to a gunfight.” ?  I can see someone getting shot when he reaches for this knife.  Greyfox thought, at first sight, that it was just too tacky.  I agreed, and added, “but it would sell.”  Should have kept my mouth shut.  They sell out as soon as he gets them in; he has reordered again and again.  Bikers just love them.

  
  

   

  
  

  First, please never let anything, especially guilt or embarrassment or any of that nonsense, make you avoid me.

  
  

   

  
  

  I just skimmed the whole thing through again, all the way, and got an overview.  Nothing cohesive, mind you, just a mass of overall impressions.

  
  

   

  
  

  We did participate in that agreement among the 25,000 Xocomans, 1400+ years ago, to keep coming around every 700 years to keep alive the Atlantean teachings.  I, for one, have been around for my own purposes plenty of times between those, but this one is definitely one of those.

  
  

   

  
  

  I have an affinity for the Koshare clowns, the “Delight Makers” old Adolph Bandelier wrote about.  Their origin is prehistoric and their social function in the pueblos is to clown around at ceremonial dances.  What they do is a sort of improv mime schtick, taking their cues from whomever is passing by or sitting around. They heap satire and ridicule on individuals who violate mores:  gluttons, straying spouses, drunkards, gossips, etc.  Bandelier observed them over a century ago and reported a dark side.  They also apparently have been responsible for causing the “disappearance” of more serious offenders such as witches.

  
  

   

  
  

  Both the “old” Greyfox and his alter-ego Mort have a thing about death, so the funeral parlor connection is fitting.  When I was in the SCA, my coat of arms was (in heraldic terms) *or, a chalice sable flammant vert* a black goblet with green flames on a gold field:  the cup  of death that comes to all, issuing the fire of life, on a field of truth.

  
  

   

  
  

  An ABANDONED funeral parlor, and one that keeps growing larger, seems so appropriate.  A frequent topic of conversation in this house is the death cult, the crazy superstitions surrounding burials, remains, etc.  What a crock, and more and more people are realizing that.  Hurrah! 

  
  

   

  
  

  When the National Park Service starts leaving dead climbers on Denali as is done on Everest, we’ll know we’ve made some real progress.  They often end up leaving them anyway, following extended expensive and risky searches.  Now they risk the lives of both government employees and volunteers, spending millions in the often unsuccessful attempt to find dead bodies. 

  
  

   

  
  

  Rescues are a different matter, but still badly handled most of the time, I think.  We have the technology so that every climber could carry both vital-sign monitors and locator beacons.  That, I think, would be a better way to invest the $$$.  Ooops, I forgot to say, “Don’t get me started.”

  
  

   

  
  

  Where will you be when the fit hits the shan?  The Doug Doll as I see it is a quantum voodoo doll, fireworks and mayhem on a higher conceptual plane.  The wise women who’ve known him have all noticed his power and the unpredictability of its focus and its effect.  I’ve made sure that Doug is aware of the force of his words and his thoughts, and school has helped him grasp the consequences of his actions.

  
  

   

  
  

  I’m feeling around the edge of the Doug Doll idea.  I picked up a few threads but no solid handle.  Greyfox has had more of a role-model influence on Doug than Doug or I, or Greyfox, likes.  He winces when he sees some of his assholery mirrored by Doug.  Likewise with Charley.  A healthy dose of the old farts’ crapola will pass down to a new generation unless we fix it.

  
  

    

  
  

  You, please, keep an eye on Doug after I’m gone, eh?   He had to go to school.  It was his desire, his choice, the advice of wise friends, and he would not be the cyberwizard he is, otherwise.  He would have no social life at all, or else a rum-soaked, beer-fueled, pot growing local crowd of rowdy buddies, if he didn’t have the web. 

  
  

   

  
  

  I think he chose wisely on his path, but he is not aware of how strongly the socialization aspect of school and popular culture have taken hold of him.   When he does snap to something stupid he picked up in school, he feels embarrassed.  I knock his denial down fast and easily.  I bequeath you that job, should you choose to accept it.

  
  

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  ka boom

  • 1:53 pm
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