November 3, 2007 by fbk.

In an earlier post, I mentioned the idea of a companionable silence.  One of the twentieth century’s greatest Presidents was “Silent” Cal Coolidge.  It was reported that he’d sit with one of his friends for hours.  Just sitting, not talking.

There’s an old saying, “It’s better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to open your mouth and confirm it.”

As I get older, I note more and more that very few people are really that much alike.  The things that energize one person might bore, bore, bore most everyone else.  It is a priceless treasure to find someone who is really and truly interested in the things that you’re interested in.  I believe that 99% of conversations are spent with one or more people bored half out of their minds and ready to strangle the other conversants.  I also note that many people are not terribly good listeners.  They think that they have a lot to say, but know more than the people with whom they’re speaking, so why listen?  I overhear conversations with one person going on-and-on while others search for escape routes.  I hear people talking at cross purposes and one-upping each other with stories and ideas.  I listen.

I suppose I still talk a lot, but it seems less with each passing year.  Do people really want to hear what I say?  Maybe not, so why say it?  If someone asks to know something, I’ll explain.  But we’re in a world of chatter.  We drown in words of brine, words that are only too much, but do not satisfy the thirst.  Words more often seem to lead to miscommunication than communication.  Would it really hurt to just sit awhile, like “Silent” Cal, with friends without talking, just thinking?

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November 3, 2007 by fbk.

Reading back in the blog, I saw one of my first posts and the reference to Lyn Nofziger.  I used to read his wonderful blog wherein he often had silly doggerel poetry about politics and events of the day.  It wasn’t meant to be serious.  He certainly never considered himself a serious poet with those bits and pieces.  But I think that kind of thing is more likely to be remembered and appreciated than most of the serious poets working, just as Ogden Nash is a bigger part of the popular poetic culture than many who took themselves more seriously.

There aren’t many like Lyn that I know of.  I have seen poems in National Review.  And of course, there is the incomparable F. R. Duplantier with his Politickles.  But there aren’t too many out there who seem to be having fun with light verse at the expense of their political opponents, at least not on the Republican and Libertarian side.  Since we at the Attila the Hun School of Political Science do not bother reading the liberal magazines too much anymore, we may be missing a new trend there.  But traditionally, combining liberal politics and poetry comes out more earnest than fun.  So, where have all of the light verse artists gone?  Have they all gotten serious?  Are they just in the deadly drought of media attention deficit?

I think I’d welcome a candidate who had a twinkle in his eye and a limerick on his lips to counter some opponent’s windy gustations.  Maybe it’s even time we had a Poetry Party of America?  Maybe that would get more people engaged in politics if the candidates would have to frame all of their debates in verse, preferably limericks?  It could start a whole trend with new parties representing different streams and subgenres in poetry.  Someone might have the next Presidential nomination all “rapped” up.  Maybe we could put the stress in the language and get it out of the politics?

This started to be a post about politics alone and how I seem to feel less engaged with politics this year.  It migrated and twisted and turned, but in a sense, it did get there.  Would a metrist get me more engaged this year?  Perhaps not.  But it might give us all a bit more levity and leavening in this extended political season to make it more bearable.

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November 3, 2007 by fbk.

We at the Attila the Hun School of Fashion and Institute of Fashion Faux Pas Research are proud to bring you the latest in fashions that shouldn’t be.

We have long been observing two fashion trends in hairstyles that shouldn’t be, to wit, the cornrow and the use of hair gels by men with thinning hair.  Now, while it’s true that cornrows may be a fairly natural thing to do with hair of a certain consistency and kinkiness, it takes some getting used to, and perhaps, should not extend too far beyond the scalp in those small pigtail braids.  Hair gel, on the other hand, is a trend that can certainly thin out and control a full, rich, thick head of hair, such as Bill Clinton’s.  However, on a man that is even slightly thin on top, it exacerbates the condition to the point where the gent looks like a refugee from the combover academy.

So imagine, if you will, a gentleman of African descent of a certain age, that specific certain point in early middle age where one is not yet ready to shave one’s head, but where things are definitely thinning on top.  The point where so many men of European descent mistakenly are still using gel rather than letting their hair look its fullest.  Now, imagine this fellow who is thinning on top to have his hair in cornrows.  Let’s just say that the weather has been dry this year and corn has been lost in more than just the American Southeast.

So, we at the Attila the Hun School of Fashion and Institute of Fashion Faux Pas Research would like to encourage gentlemen with thinning hair not to embrace the cornrow fashion.  A picture of yourself taken at such a time in life while you are still in denial about your hair situation might later preclude you from getting a security clearance.  (”Can anyone blackmail you?”  “Well, there are those pictures from when I had the cornrows with an inch space between them on top of my head…”)  Men who are balding only really have three possible directions to go:

1. The Ben Franklin: Temporarily banned until another bad hair decade like the 1970’s, or unless you are an actor who often takes Ben Franklin roles or interpretations down at the historical museum.
2. The used-to-be-high and tight.  Most balding men look their best having embraced the fact that they aren’t going to ever look like the svelt young actors with full heads of hair.  If it’s going or gone on top, you might as well keep the rest of the hair short, perhaps letting more migrate down to the chin.
3. The Glorious Globe of Perfection.  For a man who is serious enough to pull it off, the chrome dome is a wonderful look.  This is generally not recommended for out-of-shape men who have a high roundness factor.  Patrick Stewart, yes; Willard Scott, no.

Consider this tip just one more service that the Attila the Hun Schools bring you.

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