Category Archives: Shed a tear

More Volts

5 Replies

OK. Yesterday I wasn’t in the best of moods and I did feel let down by some readers. Thanks to people like my sister in law Karen, my sister Annemarie and my pal Foot Foot Harpy I was brought down to Earth. And even Juan chimed in. And Debra W, Yoga instructor. And..and…

You see, part of me wants to know how many people read this blog and another part of me doesn’t want to know. The thing is when I know who is reading this, like family members, I generally tone it down.

Not wanting to offend them or getting them upset with my usual sacrilegious views, my anti religion stances. They know about my politics and generally take them with a grain of salt. But some of them do believe in a higher power and often go to church.

Bill too, but he’s immune to my attacks on religion. His father was an atheist and his mother was evangelical. Most of my friends feel like I do towards religion, and some of them don’t.

Luckily religion hardly ever enters the picture. I’ve had the religious schooling, 13 years of it. I was agnostic until 9/11 when I decided for myself that any god that would allow such heinous acts doesn’t deserve my worship or attention.

I’m sure if I were alive during World War 2 I would say the same after seeing the horrors of the holocaust.

So occasionally I try to tailor what I write so as to not offend.

And I did think what I wrote on October 7 was pretty funny and silly. A slight return to a form that I started a few years ago, also involving a parrot I think.

So despite my feeling down yesterday about the lack of feedback or comments, I think I’d rather not know. Still since this is my blog I have license to whine and bitch and complain if no one writes anything in return.

Write your own blog and I’ll comment early and often.

No one besides Annemarie and Harpy. I do wonder where that Dave McKenzie has gone. I hope he’s alright.

Last night I slept really well, partly because Bill took the initiative and fixed his sleep apnea mask and also because of the Xanax I had taken earlier in the day.

Also gave me a very pleasant hangover, causing me to say ‘Good morning’ to various strangers as I walked to get the paper.

Today being today meant that today was laundry day and laundry is what I did. But I also had to get a new clothes rack since one of the two that I had broke last week. I balked at the first store selling one for 17.00 and walked towards the other hardware store (which is the hardware store I prefer).

On the way I saw an old friend of mine, actually an old friend of Rita’s. I smiled and I was about to say hello to her she turned and hastened her pace. That was odd so I called Rita and asked ‘What was up with Karen Bunny?’

I thought maybe she was a reader of this here blog, but no, Rita just said that Karen Bunny is a crazy person. Generally nice but a bit crazy and maybe a touch homophobic. That was oddly reassuring, it had nothing to do with me or my blog nor anything that I might have said or done.

Had a good talk with Rita anyway, the usual larfs.

I did wake up this morning to the news that our President, Barack Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize. A nice accomplishment, more for changing the climate of the world stage after eight years of the bully boys and Condoleezza, to won where Obama has said we will shake your hand if you unclench your fist.

I’m proud of Obama and this country for trying to make this world a better place. I did spend a good portion of the day posting and rebutting comments on the Yahoo/AP news.

Anyway, do what you want. Comment if you’d like, or don’t.

It’s funny, a few years ago when ill and I were seeing Philip Beansprout for our couples counseling, both Philip and Bill were pushing me to try and make money from my blog. I didn’t see it being possible then and I don’t see it now.

The only sponsors I can imagine are pharmaceutical companies with an ad that could change day to day, perhaps saying, ‘If you feel the same way John Ozed feels in this entry, maybe it’s time you had a talk with your doctor regarding Zimdon.’

That might work.

I’d be rolling in the bucks.

And once again this was written on Bill’s Mac.

and happy birthday Dr. Winston O’Boogie!

Rags to Riches

4 Replies

Well I was just wondering what I should write about today. I haven’t done much, nothing really worth writing about. (Your line: And since when has that stopped you?) I almost called up Harpy to see if he could suggest anything, but changed my mind.

Then something inside, maybe my pancreas, said, ‘Isn’t today an anniversary of sorts?’ I said, I wasn’t sure. Then my Canals of Hering spoke up and said “maybe you should check the date of the first posting for johnozed.” So I reluctantly checked.

I hate it when the Canals of Hering are right. They can be so smug. I know I’ll never hear the end of it. ‘Ooh, we are part of the outflow system of exocrine bile product from the liver. Ooh look at us! We’re so clever!’ Still credit should be given where credit is due.

Ooh, we are soooo clever!

Ooh, we are soooo clever!

I looked at the archives and saw that today, October 7 was when I posted my first entry, way back in 2005. The entry was mainly about going with Bill to An Evening of American Satire with Barry Crimmins, Paul Krassner, Lewis Lapham, Kurt Vonnegut and Art Buchwald at the Society for Ethical Culture on Central Park West.

Both Vonnegut and Buchwald have passed away since then. No- I didn’t have anything to do with it.

Bill and I spoke with Lewis Lapham outside the hall where he was having a smoke after the show. He was the one who inspired me with something that a few other people had said before, that a writer should be like a musician.

Basically Lewis Lapham said, Where a musician practices for an hour or so each day, a writer should do something similar. Write for an hour or so, or write 300 words, or 500. Or 1000. I thank him for that and he rattled off that Balzac would write 500 words a day. Not 499 or 501 but 500.

Graham Greene would write only if his favorite parrot, Ozymandias would sing The White Cliffs of Dover in Latin. Impressive things to know. So being a big fan of Latin speaking parrots, I set about writing.

Initially it wasn’t easy and I found myself longing for a parrot of my own. It never came through though I did see a Starling fly into the supermarket. I’m sure I could have caught it and trained it somehow, but the only Latin I know is Tempus Fugit, E Pluribus Unum and that’s about it. Plus I was next in the express line and I wasn’t about to give up my place. It was all about the genius loci, you see.

Still it’s more than I know of Gaelic.

I also wrote about seeing Paul McCartney earlier that week at Madison Square Garden with Julio. That sort of repeated itself this past July and included Bill, Julio’s wife Stine, and Annemarie and Earl out in Flushing.

I know it seems all ab absurdo but it has been 4 years since I’ve started and I’d like to think things have improved. Not that I’ve done that much but I don’t see any of you writing at least 500 words a day. And by you, I mean the 6 people that subscribe to this cyber rag.

Perhaps it’s all cacoethes scribendi so caveat lector.

Caveat Lector! Squawk! Caveat Lector!

Caveat Lector! Squawk! Caveat Lector!