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Wednesday, April 5, 2017

The Writer's Life 4/5 - Minutes

According to an article in the NY Post, evidence in the bribery case against Joe Percoco, one of governor Andrew Cuomo's most trusted aides, includes eleven million pages of material and images from 22 electronic devices. How is this possible? To give this a bit of perspective, there are 525,000 minutes in a year. Percoco is 47. He's lived more than 24 million minutes. Subtract time for sleep and his youth from that and it comes to roughly one page for every minute of his adult life. That's impressive even for someone involved in politics.

I had a vivid dream just before waking. Nick, a childhood friend I haven't seen in at least 30 years, was on the floor, the fists of his son, who was about ten the only time I've seen him, plunged deep into his eyes. Soon he was recovered, his eyes blue. I'm pretty sure they're brown. Then he was a lecturer at an education forum. He asked me to join his faculty. So what is the interpretation? The part about the eyes may have something to do with Nick being an alcoholic, which his cousin John mentioned to me years ago. John's wife suggested I write a book about Nick's family. There were seven kids. The lives of several ended badly. The father was a neo-Nazi. As for my being asked to teach, which I have no desire whatsoever to do, I wonder if it has to do simply with enjoying being asked. Nick wasn't an educator. He went into sales after veering away from the family optometry business. He moved to Florida. What triggered the dream? That's easy - Chinga, season five, episode ten of The X-Files, which aired last night on My9 in NYC. In it, a doll opens its eyes, says "Let's have fun," and the people in a supermarket begin scratching at their eyes, drawing blood. It was co-written by series creator Chris Carter and Stephen King. In Spanish, Chinga has naughty connotation, as in chin-ga-me, which means do me. If any mention of that was made in the episode, I missed it.

My thanks to Ira, who bought a book on cryptology, and to the woman who bought two hardcover novels by Bleva Plain, and to the gentleman who bought Ludwig Wittgenstein: The Duty of Genius by Ray Monk. Born in Vienna, Wittgenstein, who died in 1951, is considered one of the most influential philosophers of the 20th century. I was familiar with the name but clueless as to his major ideas, so I ran a search on him. He seems a philosopher's philosopher. Even the summaries were dense, at least to this pedestrian mind. Only one of his books was published during his lifetime - Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus.

Caroline has been a fixture in the neighborhood for decades. Everyone recognizes her chic style and enjoys her congenial manner. She will be moving soon, as her landlord sold the house in which she lives. She is having a tough time finding housing that meets her tight budget. 53, she has been ill most of her life, awakened from a coma twice, although one would not know it looking at her. I heard from someone that she was born with a hole in her liver. She is on disability and works odd jobs such as dog or house sitting. She may have no recourse but to move into a shelter. Today she donated a blend of 30 CD's and DVD's, and promised more. Thank you, madam.
Vic's Sixth novel: http://tinyurl.com/zpuhucj 
Vic's Short Works: http://tinyurl.com/jy55pzc


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