liberty · equality · eternity

What to do while listening to Brahms’ Third Symphony?
Clean off the top of my bureau.

Useful because I uncovered nifty stuff.

• Close to a dollar in change, or enough to park at a San Francisco meter for about eight minutes.
• A roll of Avery stickers for 49-cents. Those must be ancient. And they still stick.
• Paper clips, pens, various rubber and plastic fasteners.
• Photos, framed and un-.
• Many manufacturers’ coupons, one unexpired, bringing the mean expiration date to January, 2005. Not bad.
• Dust, which at least had the decency to clump together for easy removal.
• Refills for the gum picker, an expensive item, probably because the dentist gets so many free samples someone has to pay.
• Empty containers I planned to fill with some crap for neatness. Good idea.
• A spare name tag for Chyna the cat, who lost hers.
• Coasters and Post-Its, which seem to rhyme, but don’t.
• Handily for Memorial Day, one of those little paper flags on a stick. I like to ignite them on the proper occasion as a reminder that while the US did not invent hypocrisy, the government has turned it into an art.

I was tempted to clean another location; I resisted.

Then I read about an athletic director in Paducah, Kansas, who outdid me last week. He found a two-foot long ball python in his rental car. And he didn’t have to clean anything. A rental car with a snake in it brings up the inevitable question: Was the python extra?

And you thought living in Paducah was scary enough.

Someone once observed that I have been unemployed for over a month. If you consider it a vacation, as I do, and not a termination, it is my greatest taste of freedom in perhaps 36 years. Liberating.

I’ve done little. Read, watched television and burned a stack of musical CDs. (“Copying benefits music.”) Of course, I also enjoyed the weather and relaxed, things that should be considered activities, which are not because they can’t be taxed… yet.

I suppose I’ll work on my novel, but having so much time removes the urgency. I’ve decided that I like not working. And I really, really like not getting up to an alarm every morning to go to a “job” that means nothing to me or, apparently, to anyone else.

Despite decades of paying taxes under duress, the government offers no assistance, not even a break. Now would be a great time to tap some of my retirement money, maybe even take a year or two of early retirement, but I’m not quite 59½, so the government charge me a penalty for using my money, besides the abnormally high regular taxes. (There are circumstances under which the tax is waived, destitution not being one.)

Back in the eighties, I wrote an essay on the benefits of being unemployed. Not unemployment insurance, which is a pittance. The free time, the ability to miss crowds at the market, to get books at the library, to catch the movie bargain matinee. There are savings on clothes, food, travel and all sorts of stuff that lose importance when you don’t need to show up to your daily boredom. I submitted my article to the Los Angeles Times, hoping to pick up a few dollars. They rejected it, so it was good practice for job interviews.  For life in general.

The big network programmers did it again. Mainly, introduced lots of disposable dreck. Before looking at the dear departed, at least we can console ourselves with “Veronica Mars” and quite a few other renewals. In many cases, the cancellations were just.

Some ironies in the whacked programmes, like “Inconceivable” and “Still Standing.” It’s not. Many of the victims are new to me. (There was show called “E-Ring?”) Usually, most of my faves get the hatchet. Not this year.

The top victim is “Arrested Development.” Still no confirmation that Showtime will pick it up. After that, I’d choose “Just Legal.” As noted before, this was a terrific show right out of the box. Apparently, UPN or the WB, whichever, wanted younger viewers. “Love, Inc” was a bit uneven, but funny each week. Too bad it ended with a kind of cliffhanger.

I’ve been waffling on “Pepper Dennis,” though I have watched each episode. Rebecca Romijn is excellent. The supporting cast, too. Somehow it never quite clicked, possibly because it couldn’t decide what to be. Maybe I have trouble seeing an aspiring anchorwoman as that complicated. Still, it had its moments.

ABC wouldn’t stand by “Night Stalker,” yet they still netted the most cancellations. Thirteen. While CW have sixteen, they combine two networks, each with more remaining favourites than ABC. Some of the WB shows are retiring long-running series, not short-lived failures.

“Surface” is another unfortunate departure but, seriously, who expects quality drama on NBC?

For those who care, here is a handandy list of cancelled shows:

Alias abc
Apprentice, the: Martha Stewart nbc
Arrested Development fox
Bernie Mac Show, the fox
Blue Collar TV cw
Charmed cw
Commander-in-Chief abc
Courting Alex cbs
Cuts cw
E-Ring nbc
Eve cw
Everwood cw
The Evidence abc
Freddie abc
Head Cases fox
Hope & Faith abc
Hot Properties abc
In Justice abc
Inconceivable nbc
Invasion abc
Joey nbc
Just Legal cw
Kitchen Confidential fox
Less Than Perfect abc
Living with Fran cw
Loop, the fox
Love, Inc. cw
Love Monkey cbs
Malcolm in the Middle fox
Miracle Workers abc
Modern Men cw
Night Stalker abc
Out of Practice cbs
Pepper Dennis cw
Reunion fox
Rodney abc
Sex, Love & Secrets cw
Sons & Daughters abc
South Beach cw
Stacked fox
Still Standing cbs
Surface nbc
Survival of the Richest cw
Teachers nbc
That 70s Show fox
Three Wishes nbc
Threshold cbs
Twins cw
West Wing, the nbc
What I Like About You cw
Will & Grace nbc
Yes, Dear cbs

PORN KING

RIYADH, 16 May 2006

King Abdullah has ordered Saudi editors to stop publishing pictures of women as they could make young men go astray, newspapers reported Tuesday.

In recent months, newspapers have published pictures of women – wearing the traditional Muslim headscarf – to illustrate stories. The stories treat women’s issues, even including views that are not generally accepted in Saudi Arabia – such as women having the right to drive, vote or draw pictures of Mohammud.

The king told editors that publishing a woman’s picture for the world to see was inappropriate. “One must think, do they want their daughter, their sister, or their wife to appear in this way. Of course, no one would accept this,” the newspaper Okaz reported the Monarch as saying.

All of which reminds me of a book I read recently concerning pornography, Pornified by Pamela Paul. Read my extensive review, “The Porn and I.” It’s thrilling. Maybe not as thrilling as porn.

The other day Hillary Clinton, Senator Hillary Clinton (D-NY), insulted today’s young people. The reported bit was her remark that kids think “work is a four-letter word.” She went on to say that they expect to begin a job at $50,000 or $75,000 a year. Perhaps because they know the cost of living and have huge college loans to repay.

It was covered only because Hillary apologised to her daughter for the slam after her daughter complained. (Chelsea Clinton, 26, was hired in 2003 by McKinsey & Co. as a consultant, reportedly for a six-figure salary.)

What about other young people, those with degrees, who are working for normal starting salaries. Don’t they deserve an apology? The Senator tried to revise her remarks, claiming she didn’t mean to imply that young people don’t work hard. If not, what did she mean? Work is a four-letter word; presumably she meant something.