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So glad you have signed up to receive the For Random Learning Comes Newsletter! This is the one hundred and eleventh edition.
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These are the dog days of summer. Since I am neither an enthusiastic dog owner nor a crazy cat lady (like most liberals--wink!) I would be perfectly happy to stay inside my house from now until the end of September.
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The tropics are beginning to murmur. By Monday, our area will be awash in moisture from the latest yet-unnamed tropical depression.
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Yesterday, driving in the blinding rain, I got a sneak peak of what is to come. Water gathered in deep puddles at major intersections in town. Rounding corners a bit too fast, through thick standing water, cars created waves that looked eminently surfable.
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The upside was that my car thermometer read 75 degrees as the outside temperature for the first time since early June.
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Other things happened since my last newsletter, dated July 15, as you may well be aware. We now have a new Democratic Presidential candidate. This choice by the current President, to pass on this election, and pass the baton during this Olympic week to his vice president, was received quite well. It has been enthusiastically endorsed by the party, from the upper echelons to the legions of everyday citizens. Many of these are already voting, via Venmo.
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Of course, I had to write a poem or two to mark the occasion of the first 1) Woman 2) Black and 3)South-Asian Presidential nominee.
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The poems are in reverse order, so you may want to read the second one below, first, and the first one, last.
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The second poem below is call First At Last, and is about the historic nature of the nomination.
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The first poem below is called Laughing. It refers to Kamala Harris's laugh, which has become a meme and object of ridicule. You cannot really blame the Right for fomenting this. They have found precious little else to ridicule her for.
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Of course, this isn't really true. I have the utmost faith in both parties, and their ability to destroy one other with irrelevant jibes and thrusts. Anyway, may Kamala have the last laugh.
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Hope you enjoy both poems.
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My other work, that is, the novel, has been rather slow going, but I have added a few hundred words and edited a few chapters. Strange how editing, which you think of as a subtractive process, sometimes adds to the length of the work.
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The book is at a point about half-way through (45,905 words) where it seems to want to go in several directions at once. Sometimes, I find it necessary to let it ruminate and simmer, to cook off the immaterial material, until the book's true essence is revealed.
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I recently responded to a deadline for JaxbyJax, an event here in the city of Jacksonville. I had the good fortune of being picked last year to read my short story, Becoming the Story, about a washed-out journalist covering a protest.
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I really enjoyed the December 2023 event, which consisted of readings in 15 minute increments. I was glad to be able to put faces to so many names I had heard over the years. This year, the date will be sometime in the fall, and it should be announced any day now.
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This year for JaxbyJax, I sent in another short story. Fingers crossed! The deadline has been extended to August 14 and there is no cost for submitting if you are thinking of applying, yourself! You or your work must have some connection to Jacksonville.
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I am hoping to eventually introduce a new way to reach and follow me, which I hope will be a little less clunky and cumbersome than this enormous and ancient tome of a website. Stay tuned! And thanks for hanging in there with me!
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If you know of anyone else who might be interested in receiving this newsletter, please forward it and send them to my website, linked in the logo above, to sign up!
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Stay safe if you're in the path of any hurricanes or rotten summer weather. Till next time!
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So Close and Yet So Far
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This essay discusses the Semiquincentennial celebration and compares it with Fourths of Years gone by.
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Drawing
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A poem on redistricting, the drawing of new districts to serve the ruling party's political purposes, with the blessing of the Supreme Court and with enthusiasm unchecked by either the people's will nor the State's Constitutional provisions.
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Attempt
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A poem describing the swirling emotions on and offline provoked by the attempted assassination of President Trump at the dinner for the press. Caveat: I do not doubt the attempt on his life was real. P.S. The photo is an attempt at beauty.
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Approaching May 1st, 2026, Anniversary of The Great Fire, Jacksonville, FL
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A poem about a very dry spring in Florida which calls to mind the terrible fire which consumed Jacksonville early in the 20th century.
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Smiles
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This poem analyzes the loss of reputation of the US in the eyes of its closest allies, and the attitude it projects, about that loss.
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