Linh, Always you make me think...the young girl's face/expression (1st pic) seems to belong to an older, more mature time in her youth. The second and third pics could be the same girl as she ages through life. I'll add this poem to the countless literary references you have made over the years that I would never had read otherwise. Merci Beaucoup!
Thanks for remembering. I saw he'd written once in the comments of a leftist blog I subscribe to. Can't remember if it was Caitlin Johnstone or Celia Farber. More likely it was the former as she and her crew don't compromise w/ MAGA or entertain the JQ the way Farber does. Nor do they like to be reminded of historical communist massacres. Tom kind of shocked me when he came out as a leftist towards the end of his stay here. I miss the old coot and his misery renditions.
I was thinking similar here recently. I was away from Substack and the comments here for a few weeks in late summer and haven't seen anything from Tom since. About the time I left my section 8 voucher behind, I remember reading that he'd gotten one. I don't like to pry, but was thinking about asking Linh if Tom is ok.
The verse from Jonathan Swift has me recollecting a line from a goofball back in college. Once, when hearing someone comment that “so-and-so thinks his sh*t doesn’t stink”, he remarked “Hey, I’m so cool, I don’t even go to the bathroom!”
Personally, I doubt that “as everything worsens, the NYT, Washington Post, and The Economist will insist nothing is wrong” until Cheeto has retired from the scene. While he is around, I think these august establishment voices will be telling us that EVERYTHING is wrong, whether or not that is the case. (This is not to say I disagree that much WILL be wrong, nevertheless.)
Linh, have you always gotten up so early? It is the same with me—it has always been my habit to arise when it is still dark outside, no alarm needed. Even now after years of retirement, I still get up between 3 and 4am. How early do you go to bed?
Normally, I go to bed around 9PM, get up before 2AM, then am at the cafe on General Uprising by 3:30AM. There I will usually write until 5:40. After breakfast in my room or some alley, I'll go to Cóc Cóc around 6:30 to write until about 10. After lunch I might return to Cóc Cóc or take a nap. If the writing is going well, I'll have an evening session there from 5PM to maybe 8:30PM.
Those hours pretty much line up with my own. I think my early years started the pattern--I had an early morning paper route that required me to get up at 5am. In college I always took early morning sections of classes because they were the easiest to get into. Then a number of years in the Navy, where there are no late sleepers. Finally, rotating shift work for 10 years years at the nuclear plant. By then, a life's pattern was set.
One way MAGA Americans can ease their consciences about Gaza is by belief in the Q narrative. Mike King, who has a long list of easy to read but informative books about various revisionist histories, sadly converted to Q around the time I was becoming disaffected w/ Trump (2018). Lately he's been touting a Wag the Dog type interpretation of horror in Gaza: it's a hoax conflict, crisis actors in bandages holding sleeping children, all part of the White Hats' plan to turn the world against Israel and enable Trump to rise from the ashes and break his Zionist chains.
Yo Linh - when are going to have a Linh Dinh get together for your "Audience" around the world and invite everyone to Vung Tau, Saigon or some other fine place - to meet you and enjoy Vietnam ? It's time for everyone to relax and get away.
Even tho reading Swift's poem was a treat, what with all of those clever rhymes and near rhymes, still I ponder some of the rhyming games apparently necessary to extend a long poem: the sight rhymes for example. Words w/ similar endings which aren't pronounced the same seem an acquired taste to me. An airy pleasure. Kind of like blowing kisses. Must be the thought that counts.
I think they used to ascribe works like A Lady's Dressing Room to an author's prurient interest, and relegate such to Bathroom Literature. Not that there was an actual course among English major's electives during school days, tho it certainly would have been a hit among the undergrads. Actually I'll wager Swift was seldom mentioned and quite unread except for Gulliver, then as now.
But that need for the male imagination to dishevel and degrade a lovely lady's composed show of beauty is what? Perverse? Diabolical? Adolescent? Churlish? Cubist? (I'm thinking Picasso) Mythological as necessary fantasy for braving entrance to the labyrinth? Whatever, I don't think it can be denied.
Linh, Always you make me think...the young girl's face/expression (1st pic) seems to belong to an older, more mature time in her youth. The second and third pics could be the same girl as she ages through life. I'll add this poem to the countless literary references you have made over the years that I would never had read otherwise. Merci Beaucoup!
Thanks Linh for introducing J. Swift.
I know he has existed quite a while but I have not read him.
I hope Tank Top is OK. He’s been absent nearly two weeks."
Speaking of missing... Whatever happened to Tom Herzog? He moved into his new home and went missing here. Too busy being chased by the old ladies?
Thanks for remembering. I saw he'd written once in the comments of a leftist blog I subscribe to. Can't remember if it was Caitlin Johnstone or Celia Farber. More likely it was the former as she and her crew don't compromise w/ MAGA or entertain the JQ the way Farber does. Nor do they like to be reminded of historical communist massacres. Tom kind of shocked me when he came out as a leftist towards the end of his stay here. I miss the old coot and his misery renditions.
I was thinking similar here recently. I was away from Substack and the comments here for a few weeks in late summer and haven't seen anything from Tom since. About the time I left my section 8 voucher behind, I remember reading that he'd gotten one. I don't like to pry, but was thinking about asking Linh if Tom is ok.
Exceptional column, Lin!
The verse from Jonathan Swift has me recollecting a line from a goofball back in college. Once, when hearing someone comment that “so-and-so thinks his sh*t doesn’t stink”, he remarked “Hey, I’m so cool, I don’t even go to the bathroom!”
Personally, I doubt that “as everything worsens, the NYT, Washington Post, and The Economist will insist nothing is wrong” until Cheeto has retired from the scene. While he is around, I think these august establishment voices will be telling us that EVERYTHING is wrong, whether or not that is the case. (This is not to say I disagree that much WILL be wrong, nevertheless.)
Linh, have you always gotten up so early? It is the same with me—it has always been my habit to arise when it is still dark outside, no alarm needed. Even now after years of retirement, I still get up between 3 and 4am. How early do you go to bed?
Hi JustPlainBill,
Normally, I go to bed around 9PM, get up before 2AM, then am at the cafe on General Uprising by 3:30AM. There I will usually write until 5:40. After breakfast in my room or some alley, I'll go to Cóc Cóc around 6:30 to write until about 10. After lunch I might return to Cóc Cóc or take a nap. If the writing is going well, I'll have an evening session there from 5PM to maybe 8:30PM.
Linh
Those hours pretty much line up with my own. I think my early years started the pattern--I had an early morning paper route that required me to get up at 5am. In college I always took early morning sections of classes because they were the easiest to get into. Then a number of years in the Navy, where there are no late sleepers. Finally, rotating shift work for 10 years years at the nuclear plant. By then, a life's pattern was set.
One way MAGA Americans can ease their consciences about Gaza is by belief in the Q narrative. Mike King, who has a long list of easy to read but informative books about various revisionist histories, sadly converted to Q around the time I was becoming disaffected w/ Trump (2018). Lately he's been touting a Wag the Dog type interpretation of horror in Gaza: it's a hoax conflict, crisis actors in bandages holding sleeping children, all part of the White Hats' plan to turn the world against Israel and enable Trump to rise from the ashes and break his Zionist chains.
Would hardcore communism be preferable to vax mandates?
What's the difference?
I had forgotten about the torrential rains in VT. The lanes literally become rivers.
Yo Linh - when are going to have a Linh Dinh get together for your "Audience" around the world and invite everyone to Vung Tau, Saigon or some other fine place - to meet you and enjoy Vietnam ? It's time for everyone to relax and get away.
Even tho reading Swift's poem was a treat, what with all of those clever rhymes and near rhymes, still I ponder some of the rhyming games apparently necessary to extend a long poem: the sight rhymes for example. Words w/ similar endings which aren't pronounced the same seem an acquired taste to me. An airy pleasure. Kind of like blowing kisses. Must be the thought that counts.
I think they used to ascribe works like A Lady's Dressing Room to an author's prurient interest, and relegate such to Bathroom Literature. Not that there was an actual course among English major's electives during school days, tho it certainly would have been a hit among the undergrads. Actually I'll wager Swift was seldom mentioned and quite unread except for Gulliver, then as now.
But that need for the male imagination to dishevel and degrade a lovely lady's composed show of beauty is what? Perverse? Diabolical? Adolescent? Churlish? Cubist? (I'm thinking Picasso) Mythological as necessary fantasy for braving entrance to the labyrinth? Whatever, I don't think it can be denied.