RUDIMENTS

RUDIMENTS, pt. 823 (from zero to sixty in four seconds flat) The subject was telephones; frightening things even in 1967. The household wire phone was a bad blemish, yet nearly every house had one or more, and those that didn't, wanted to. People had 'gossip-benches' in their homes. Sort of a portmanteau seat (my father reupholstered any number of them; I've seen, and lugged, my share), but to the right or the left was a sort of desk-compartment shelf thing, for the telephone, as a table-top, and for storage too. Phone books, etc. I detested phones, from day one, and could never abide them and to this day, unless for emergencies and the like, I simply do not use one; do not have one; will not report to one. Besides that, I have nothing to say. Back to the Gossip Bench  -  we had one in my home when I was a kid, covered in some horrid green fabric, almost plastic-like, but not. It was, honestly, seldom used...

RUDIMENTS, pt. 822 (take a look around you) I always felt that when a person says something derogatory about another person, actually what they're doing is telling something about themselves. It was always apparent to me, and it's a good detective trick too, to find out about other's heads. Like just today, there was a female politician of long-standing and disgusting regard, who piped about about another that 'He's running a political extortion ring,' and I won't get into the rest of it here, but the person speaking that little nugget has been  part of a 30-year political extortion ring herself, and has never owned up to a damned part of it. So; what do you get from that? Truth, Justice, and the American way. I guess. When you go around  reading detective stuff you can  pick up a lot of strange nuggets. Like about liars. When a person is lying, it is said, there's a visible pulse, if you kno...

RUDIMENTS, pt. 821 (I'm ok now; it's all over) My setting always seemed  to be at 'Catch-all' and that's  the way it went   -  I roved  and picked everywhere. In the time I spent growing, it was often a pointed  decision for me to strictly stay on course. The last  thing I ever needed was  a 'country,' and I'd not  select this one  -  if I had to opt for a place. In any  case I chose my battles  and struck back as needed. One thing I found out was that you can't 'sift' for truth; it either is or isn't, and, if it is, then it's so apparent that no searching is in order, or needed. At about this time, up at Broadway and 19th or  18th street, the very first concept/working version of a Barnes & Noble 'Superstore' was in place. I didn't exactly know it at the time  -  to me it was just a cool deal; a new idea. A monstrous, organized, well-pr...