oromagi

I am suggesting this posting as one possible solution.  Anybody can and should add a post to this topic that simply says "Hello, please like me" or something else to that effect.  I ask that we refrain from any posts designed to make anybody else feel unwelcome posting here or anywhere on DART- no cursing, no pro and anti anything.  The goal here is to get everybody to like everything ponzi-scheme style.  Before you post, you must like every post before you.  If there are more than 25 posts you can stop after 25 likes but I'd encourage every poster to continue liking.

New people!  If you'd like some way to introduce yourself- just like everybody before you and tell us that you have arrived. Everybody you liked will already be in your debt.

-William Carlos Williams

II.

AUGUSTUS

Jet pears hung squalidly against the drapes

and his fingertips glistened with frost.

The orange sun melted his nape.

In his drafty palace, there lived a statue

and over the palace Augustus sent his vines,

cerise cries in the white air.

Tender little shots rang out.

Waterfalls swelled and kissed before him,

knelt and screamed as crowns spun

through the night, the night of Augustus

which was like an army of marauders,

unceasing and full of insight,

the dashing snow! the fierce! the free!

and the waterfalls were still as flames.

The voices began, like so many daggers.

At first Augustus only felt them

as doves attempting to hide in his breast,

but soon they surrounded him completely

like a crown of screams, as clearly as sand

pouring through glass in the winter desert.

He was the metal of his crown at last.

Frank O' Hara

jetblue

-Percy B Shelley

Jasper Johns + Last Stanza of the Battle Hymn of the Republics + poetic commentary from the brilliant Sharon Olds

He says he doesn't care so much about medals so I don't know if he noticed (I would have assumed he'd have published a new topic in self-praise if he did), but early  this morning RatMan won his hundredth debate:

Which also means that RM is the first to achieve every medal and is so far ahead of number 2 that he's likely to be the only user to achieve every medal for a very long while.  We can complain of his madness and methods but there's no denying this result.  There's also no denying that RatMan is highly original, creative, amusing and the most engaged force on this site.

Congratulations, RatMan and well done.  In your honor here is a link to the Wikipedia entry for Rat king-https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rat_king

I was going to go with famous Greek homosexuals in honor of supadudz's pride resistence but this felt somewhat nicer.

&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

-George Herbert

Per the eponymous dear departed

That or RatMan has a new alt called certificates

Per Alec

RIP Peter Mayhew

Avengers is the theme

For all you non-Eastern Orthodox, Happy Easter

For Easter..... hey, it was that or rabbits.

Toast St. Pat with a pic of your favorite beverage.  Slainte!

Not so much the activity of golf which is fine but the culture of golf: the clubiness, the maximized use of open space for minimized numbers in urban areas, the water usage and the carefully manicured lawns and the interminable whispered weekend tv matches and the tax breaks and the presidential golf traditions. Driving ranges? Good sport. Putt-putt?  Excellent family fun. Country clubs in city centers?  No, thanks. 

Well, SupaDudz has clearly abrogated his  profile pick responsibilities- like that guy who initiates the ballpark wave but then when it comes around again acts like he's too cool to carpool and just sips on his beer: so I've assassinated SupaDudz and assumed his role.  My first act is to move this shit to the PERSONAL category. Cuz that's all it is, just hey what are you into?  If a picture paints a thousand words then why can't I paint you, etc. Speaking of assassinations, the Ides of March is next week so we're doing profile pics of the famously assassinated. 

I'm going with Wikipedia's dead Rasputin .jpeg- in honor of SupaDudz.

As we approach St. Patrick's Day,  it's important for us to remember that everybody loves an Irishman because an Irishman loves everybody.

Name three awesome Irish things.  I'll start:

1. Pints of Guinness lined up on the bar.

2.  The Rock of Cashel.

3.  The final paragraph of Joyce's "The Dead."

Hickenlooper  announced his candidacy for the presidency today.  I know he does not have much name recognition outside of Colorado and he is certainly not the kind of charismatic controversy machine that the Democratic party seems to think necessary to combat Trump in the general but for people of any party who are looking looking for competent, moderate, rational leadership - Hick is definitely worthy.  For that moderate remnant of the Republican Party who supported Kasich in 2016- note that Hick and Kasich have worked and campaigned together on a number of issues - including healthcare and there remains some real talk about a dual party ticket.  Hick is a sort of Democrat's Kasich.

Hickenlooper was working in Denver as a geologist researching oil shale when Black Monday and Silverado crashed Downtown Denver's economy hard. Vacancy rates in downtown skyscrapers approached 90%.  Hick took his science into craft brewing, opening his first restaurant  and pool hall in the heart of skid row and made it the busiest restaurant in Denver in his first year.  Forming a triumvirate with a local newspaper editor and a bookstore owner, they transformed downtown in the space of years, rejuvenate hundreds of historic, abandoned buildings while leading on major projects like Coors Field, Pepsi Center, Union Station.  Now that first restaurant sits at the heart of an entirely transformed city of young, wealthy  techsters.  He took his successful formula into restaurant consulting and led the microbrewing revolution- opening hundreds of restaurants across the west and getting very rich.  If the Front Range is truly now as many call it the Napa Valley of Beer- Hick can claim more credit for that transformation than anybody else.

When he ran for Mayor, I really thought he was too soft-spoken, too detail oriented.  But in terms of economic growth, Hick proved to be the most successful Mayor the city has ever seen.  Then he did same as a two term Governor.  He handled the three worst natural disasters to hit our state without breaking economic stride.  He opposed legalization of marijuana personally but worked hard to build in build in gently regulated supply chains, price controls and tax structures that are now the envy of less forward-looking states like California. 

His family is rooted in Iowa politics- a cousin was Governor and four term Senator there.  He's certainly not as Green as most Democrats would like- his deepest money support comes out of his old oil industry background.   He's not a Medicare for all kind of guy but he has a lot of ideas about how to bring prices down.  He's believes in Capitalist solutions and has a solid track record on that front.  He's a scientist and an entrepreneur and his leadership style reflects those backgrounds.

Hickenlooper was my boss for a couple of years during the early day of his first brewpub.  I didn't know him well but he was a good boss- a communicator, a forward-thinker, a scientist.  He created a fun, busy, laid back business and fostered deep loyalties from many passionate people.

Does he really have enough mojo to make an popular national candidate?  Probably not.  But for Americans who are tired of the waste and inactivity caused our present polarization, Hickenlooper is a solid centrist deal-maker that genuinely represents the kind of effective executive most Americans say they want.

name ONE favorite US President

name ONE excellent Presidential biography/autobiography 

name ONE favorite fictional President 

describe ONE excellent presidential movie scene briefly 

cite ONE excellent presidential portrait or painting

name ONE US citizen who you’d like to see as president 

summarize ONE favorite presidential anecdote OR cite TWO favorite presidential quotes

NEVER repeat any ANSWER

Compliment prior posters generously

love my funky little square red car

looks after me and he takes me far

he likes to speed a bit above the bar

watch out for sheriffs shouting out radar

junky spunky little squirrel red car

worn black plastic wrap interior

pop out the backseats time to make some

take this piano to the bride and groom

honda civic frame with four wheel drive

four thousand down trips up old I-twentyfive

not much on comfort no she's not much on looks

got extra bungie cords on extra hooks

okee dokee little hunchback car

looks after me and she takes me far

keep chugging on and away we'll wander

roll down the road with me a little longer

The Bourne movies are back on HBO and I'm reminded that these movies did a grave disservice to the literary character of Jason Bourne's wife, Marie St Jacques.  In the books, Marie is the brains of the operation as Bourne is too carefully programmed to effectively investigate his identity.  She is a brilliant economist and Canadian diplomat who saves Jason's bacon more often than he saves her.  As the novels progress, Marie marries Bourne and they have two children.  She continues to support Bourne's  missions with intel from home base.  In the movies, she's an aimless drifter who's relatively overmatched by circumstances and is merely added to the carnage early in the second installment.  Some argue that the feats of deduction that assemble an assassin's biography, (the core narrative of the novel), would play less well than karate with a rolled-up newspaper on screen.  Maybe.  But Bourne is also stripped of the dynamic that makes him more than the cinematic killing machine.  Marie's character is why Jason Bourne is teaching linguistics at Georgetown- healing, progressing, discovering new loyalties that sustain 12 literary installments of interest in Bourne's story, while the static brute of the movie versions get uninteresting by the third story.

I'd like to see a more faithful adaptation of the original Bourne Trilogy, set in the 1980s, something like a 12 part Netflix series might be the best venue.  Casting?  I think Julia Stiles would be great as Marie....try Tom Hardy as Bourne.