Author: Rev. Joe Dirt

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Oscar Wilde – His Life and Confessions by Frank Harris

Oscar_Wilde_His_Life_and_Confessions_1004Oscar Wilde is best known for his quips, quotes and aphorisms, at least to me.  The Importance of Being Ernest gave to me my first real appreciation of plays.  It is a light, comic romp full of misdirection and subtle and not so subtle puns.  For various reasons I have seen the play three times over the years.  The Picture of Dorian Gray is a classic of this epoch.  The novel also in many ways led to his downfall.  While he wrote the book before his fall from grace I found The Picture of Dorian Gray metaphorically autobiographical of his entire life.  In the end Oscar Wilde ended up destroying himself.  The book raised the rancor of  puritanical 1890 England due to its homoerotic theme, and allusions of an underworld of what was then considered deviant behavior.

I knew Oscar was gay(in the modern sense of the word) and had gone to jail for two years for this “crime”.  However, I had always pictured him as this bon vivant, a social gadfly.  The Oscar I discovered in this book Continue reading “Oscar Wilde – His Life and Confessions by Frank Harris”

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And John Kerry called it…

John_F__KerrySpeaking at an international security conference in Munich, Germany, Kerry said:

“The aspirations of citizens are once again being trampled beneath corrupt, oligarchic interests – interests that use money to stifle political opposition and dissent, to buy politicians and media outlets, and to weaken judicial independence and the rights of non-governmental organizations.”

Most folks thought he was talking about Ukraine, but sounds a lot like what is going on the good old USA.

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An Interesting side of Mark Twain: 1601

1601_v2_1210The full title of this work is, 1601: Conversation, as it was by the Social Fireside, in the Time of the Tudors.  It is written by Mark Twain. I stumbled upon it a little accidentally.  Well, that is almost true, librivox.org has a genre entitled Erotica.  Considering that all their books are in public domain I wondered what was in there.  I found this little gem.

We all know that Samuel Clemens had a colorful and varied life.  Occasionally he has been criticized for his language.  A recent brouhaha about the use of the N* word comes to mind.  However, there is not a book of Mark Twain’s that is commonly read that I would have an  issue with any of my children reading when they were of tender age.  This little volume I would have had them wait a few years.

As I understand it, he wrote this work between The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.  Without giving too much away, I have a picture of Samuel Clemens sitting in his octagon writing studio and passing the mother of all flatulence. To me it is utterly delightful to think of this American legend writing something like this.

The actual oeuvre is very short, and circulated as a pamphlet for many years.  If you download the Librivox version it runs 17 minutes or so, but the whole download is about about Continue reading “An Interesting side of Mark Twain: 1601”

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A Good Time at Uncle Mike’s House

Robin and I have a very fond memory of a night and a morning that we spent at Joe Mike’s House.  It was after Sue had passed away and he was staying in the house while her kids figured out what to do with it.  Robin and had taken our first extended trip together.  We had been down to Mississippi and across to Florida during the week of 4th of July.  As they say, we had and were having an excellent time.

We wanted to stop and visit in Owensboro.  We arrived there late, never thinking about it being hard to find a motel room.  What we did not know was that the large hotel on the river had closed down, and all the other baseball_bat_kid_by_sir_smoke_alotmotels were full.

We decided to venture over to Uncle Mike’s even though it was close to one in the morning. Before I went and knocked on the door I got a bottle of rum out of trunk (remember we were on vacation) as a peace offering.  I knocked on the door several times, each time progressively louder.  I could not rouse anyone in the house.  Remembering that the bedroom was at the side of the house I went to   that window.  I called Mike’s name a few times and finally heard a commotion in the bedroom.  I went back onto the porch expecting a friendly greeting by my Uncle.  Instead there was a wild man at the door with a baseball bat.

After our initial shocks, we greeted.  We then sat on that sweet porch drinking rum and cokes until 2 or 3 in the morning.  I am not sure what we talked about, probably our travels.

What makes this story special for us, besides the good time on the porch is what happened the next morning.  Not having any other bed, Robin and I slept on a twin bed in the back bedroom.  Even though we had been dating a few months I had never told her that I loved her.  In telling someone that, it is a huge commitment and carries with it a tremendous responsibility.  At least it should.  I hugged her that next morning and said, “I’ve loved you for a while now, but I was afraid of the responsibility of that.”  Or something to that effect.

I’ve been loving her quite a while now.

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US Constitution – Links to document and audio book – Less than one hour of your time

ConstitutionThere a couple foundational documents that many Americans cite as absolute truisms.  One is the Bible, Old and New Testament.  The other is the Constitution of the United States.  Yet when you get to quizzing folks, the actual count of who has read either one of these documents in totality is not staggeringly impressive.

According to one survey, Americans Love the Bible but Don’t Read It Much , showed only 20 percent read the Bible regularly.

“Results of a nationwide survey released Thursday by the Center for the Constitution at James Madison’s Montpelier show 86 percent of respondents recognize the importance of the document, the 223-year-old framework for American government. Thirty-one percent say they think they understand the Constitution “a lot” and 48 percent say they understand “some” of it. But only 28 percent say they’ve read all of the document, and 14 percent say they’ve read most of it, according to a report by Sean O’Brien, executive director at the Orange, Va., center.”

I can understand the Bible to some extent.  It is long, dense and arcane.  I once had very “religious” person tell me that he did not need to read the Bible.  If there was something in there he needed to know his preacher would tell him. Okay.

The United States Constitution is not long, dense or arcane.  It is not any more  a perfect document than is the Bible.  If nothing else counting people of color as three fifths of a person for the purpose of congressional representation would toss the Constitution from that category. Continue reading “US Constitution – Links to document and audio book – Less than one hour of your time”