tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-228118882024-03-13T12:37:06.603-07:00Dharma YumInspired by the Wisdom of Tom RobbinsDalehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00186594525258721615noreply@blogger.comBlogger169125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22811888.post-32377837798146698842012-04-24T11:42:00.000-07:002012-04-25T11:44:52.828-07:00Guest Post<br />
<div style="background-color: white; color: #454545; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
<span style="text-decoration: underline;"><strong>Good Ideas And Bad Destinations</strong></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #454545; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
On page 87 of <em>Still Life with Woodpecker</em>, Tom Robbins introduces the concept that good ideas are more dangerous than objects. That a good idea is taken by those who disciple it, and it is turned into dogma. That in this way, inspiration creates convictions and becomes deadly serious (and he emphasises that the word ‘deadly’ is literally accurate). Robbins then goes on to examine the process further: that by applying the human failing of Tunnel Vision, a good idea becomes squeezed and manipulated into a fine point of intent which is often quite removed from the original intention. This argument seems very sound.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #454545; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
Moreover, once that ‘truth’ is found, another danger, Group Think (coined in 1972 by Irving Janis), often swings into play to keep it secure. Group Think is a process whereby members of a collective with a single identity (be it a religious organisation, a government cabinet, or corporate board of directors) are so loathed to be the ‘one who does not conform’ that re-examination and use of common sense are made nigh on impossible. Group Think can be found anywhere, from social services meetings to police investigations, and some appalling events have been the result of it: most famously the Bay of Pigs invasion.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #454545; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
<strong>A Need for Purpose</strong></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #454545; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
Taking both together however - Tunnel Vision and Group Think - it seems to suggest that it is not so much the good idea that causes the danger, but our human need to make meaning out of it. Indeed, we seem incapable of living a single day without an aim, a destination, a goal, a plan – in fact a veritable self-penned instruction manual of self-worth obsessed, egocentric mania. Well, maybe that is overstating it a bit, but certainly we are obsessed with destination and purpose. To illustrate, here is an old Hindu story:</div>
<div id="yui_3_2_0_1_1335285250475247" style="background-color: white; color: #454545; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
In this story, Maya (illusion), is personified as a demon. Together with many lessor demons, Maya is watching a man performing a walking meditation. They study the man as, with peace and tranquillity, he treads lightly and gently upon the path to enlightenment. Suddenly the man stops and bends to pick something from the ground.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #454545; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
“What is it, Master?” the demons ask.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #454545; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
“A piece of truth,” Maya replies. “He has found a piece of truth.”</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #454545; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
“Oh no!” wail the demons. “We will never get him now.”</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #454545; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
“On the contrary,” replies Maya, smiling. “Now he is most certainly ours. For shortly, he will make a belief out of it!”</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #454545; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
How curious it is that we have this marvellous apparatus for making meaning, and so much evidence that doing so is dangerous. Where on earth(?) did that practise come from? Clearly, the wisdom of learnt experience says ideas should not be fixed down.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #454545; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
<strong>Balance</strong></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #454545; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
The answer though, may come some ten pages later in <em>Still Life…</em> . On page 97 Robbins talks (well, the Woodpecker does) about how there must always be an equality of good and bad luck in the world; the same also with good and evil. This is the philosophy of Duality: the notion that Creation is constructed from balanced opposites. Not just good and bad, but up and down, black and white, happy and sad, and so on. It is a complete argument: if only because we cannot give anything description and definition without at the very least alluding to its opposite.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #454545; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
What makes this curious is what happens when we apply the concept of unavoidable duality to ‘truth’. For although we know that Life allows for such things as lies and falsehoods, it is very curious to consider that perhaps it could not be without them: that Life has to contain that which is untrue. If this is so, that truth MUST be balanced with untruth, then it suggests there can be no single ultimate truth, and our human obsession for the good-idea-made-manifest and an ultimate destination-of-meaning are innately doomed. (It would be interesting to know what Robbins thinks of that, but he probably wouldn’t have a problem with it.)</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #454545; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
<strong>The Road to Nowhere</strong></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #454545; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
Whatever the ‘truth’ of the matter, it does suggest that the path, our path, is not meant to end in a certainty. We are not meant to work ‘it’ out, and that the Buddha on the path is not a roadside attraction to be found. Perhaps, after all, we are only capable of movement, of fluidity. Indeed, healing (especially by such ways as Tai Chi, Shiatsu and Acupuncture) is said to come from moving energy blocks in the body, rather than getting rid of them. It could be a hint. Maybe our real journey is, actually, to accept that we can never get to the true meaning of a good idea - just as we can never get to the end of the mystery of life.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #454545; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
And just maybe, that is because the ‘mystery’ is constantly moving too.<br />
<br />
----</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #454545; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
<em>Tina Lane is a freelance writer from England who has written self help guides covering everything from a guide on how to maximise savings with a <a href="http://www.money.co.uk/savings-accounts/cash-isas.htm" style="color: #234786; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px;" target="_blank">cash isa</a> to finding happiness through meditation.</em></div>
<br class="Apple-interchange-newline" />Dalehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00186594525258721615noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22811888.post-798781261038063262012-03-26T13:46:00.000-07:002012-04-25T11:45:32.979-07:00Guest post.<br />
<div id="yui_3_2_0_1_13327942955252997" style="background-color: white; color: #454545; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">
<div id="yui_3_2_0_1_13327942955252996">
<div style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://us.cdn4.123rf.com/168nwm/yellowj/yellowj1012/yellowj101202982/8516710-god-heaven-dream-door-passage.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="215" src="http://us.cdn4.123rf.com/168nwm/yellowj/yellowj1012/yellowj101202982/8516710-god-heaven-dream-door-passage.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<b><span style="text-decoration: underline;">What’s the Point?</span></b></div>
<div style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">
Did God get diaspora? Is that what happened? Was he/she/it bored and felt the desire to spread out and wander? It’s not a popular theory, least of all amongst those who want to know where their God is, was, and will be. But to some of us, the idea of a bit of God hanging out everywhere has soul comforting merit. It is especially comforting to those of us who tried writing a college paper on soap opera, and ended up telling their TV & Film Media Studies tutor that Life is probably just one big soap opera for God, after he/she/it got a chronic case of diaspora, spilt up into little bits, and ended up watching all the little bits of itself for amnesia-based entertainment purposes - only to have her write on the bottom of the paper, ‘What’s your point?’ Evidence, one feels sure, that she was not the kind of person to have Tom Robbins on her bookshelf?</div>
<div style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">
If she had been the kind of person to have Tom Robbins on her bookshelf, she would understand that this thing called Life is so utterly confusing in its apparent meaningless simplicity, that to ask ‘what’s your point’ to any component part of Life, is to undoubtedly miss it – the point that is. And yet, well, yes, therein lies the rub - as Hamlet would say - for to quote that guy in the socks: an unexamined life is not worth living.</div>
<div style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">
<b>Examinations and Distractions</b></div>
<div style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">
Of course, one might feel that to focus on the contents of life as presented in the 21<sup>st</sup> century of the mass entertainment, distraction and anaesthetic, risks more than missing the point – it is downright dangerous. Yet someone, this writer feels sure, with Tom Robbins on their bookshelf (last time that phrase will be used, promise), can be abundantly served with entertainment, distraction, and anaesthetic <i>without</i> having to abandon the examination of life, the point, or anything else that it’s probably worth being here for. For that is the point: that we not only have a view point, we have an existential point too. In fact, there is something about reading a Tom Robbins book that makes the reader feel like both the examiner and the examined. It’s a bit like reading about everyone you know from an internal viewpoint and yourself from an external one. One could get egotistical if one wasn’t already.</div>
<div style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">
<b>Interconnectedness</b></div>
<div id="yui_3_2_0_1_13327942955252995" style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">
There is another bonus to owning a book shelf that has some of the novels of Tom Robbins on it: it is that there is the sense that they may chat to the ones next to them, that they may share insights and play in the ethers. What advice does Alobar and Kudra impart to the boy in <i>The Alchemist</i> for instance? Was any Zen-like motorcycle maintenance carried out inside the packet of camel cigarettes? And what giggles does Sissy Hankshaw share with Lao Tzu? This is not to suggest that the books themselves are talking - that would require chemical support - but that a reader who has taken in various materials may find they become so jumbled up in the head that they create a mix of insight, bemusement and, on good days, wispy gossamers of wisdom - and perhaps most of all, a sense of interconnectedness that is so vital in the new American Empire. For a country built on the foundation of powerful words and ideals, remains vulnerable to the ‘sound’ of powerful words and ideals, and can be easily besieged by media and mediums only able to examine inwards.</div>
<div style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">
<b>Back to our point</b></div>
<div style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">
So ‘what’s <i>your</i> point’ is really only different from ‘what’s <i>the</i> point’, when seen through eyes that block interconnectedness, and fail to recognise our god-like diaspora; one that cannot see that all viewpoints are ‘our’ viewpoint. That like our species, our point is global. It is shared, and wholly inter-reliant. Therefore, when we have truly wide-view perspective books, such as Mr Robbins’, it is wonderful to celebrate these ones who mix it all up, and play and dance with multiple viewpoints through a lexic humour that’s meaning perhaps only comes out when seen holistically. Maybe all point is not lost, and one day we will reach a time when all visitors will come to our homes, examine our bookshelves, and say in whatever words indicate the unifying awareness that comes from our acknowledged diaspora, ‘Wow, you have Tom Robbins on your bookshelf!’<br />
<br />
----- </div>
<div style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">
<i>Tina Lane is a freelance writer from England who has written self help guides covering everything from a guide on <a href="http://www.alcoholic.org/research/how-to-help-an-alcoholic-spouse/" style="color: #234786; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px;" target="_blank">how to help an alcoholic spouse</a> to finding happiness through meditation.</i></div>
</div>
</div>
<br class="Apple-interchange-newline" />Dalehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00186594525258721615noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22811888.post-9994906649394946712012-01-10T09:28:00.000-08:002012-01-10T09:28:51.527-08:00A Light Touch<span style="font-family: inherit;">Last week, I discussed the editing (or not) of Another Roadside Attraction. I shared that with Tom, inviting him to chime in if he'd like. And chime he did. Quite passionately. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"></span><br />
<blockquote>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"> <span style="background-color: white; color: #353535;">The</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #353535;"> Doubleday editor who handled Another Roadside Attraction was a young woman named Dorothy Pittman. Originally, a woman named Claudia something or other had been assigned to ARA, </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #353535;">but she soon left to open a toy store in New Jersey with her husband.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #353535;"></span></span><br />
<div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #353535;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #353535;"><br /></span></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #353535;">
In any case, only female hands touched my manuscript -- and they </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #353535;">touched it lightly, indeed: so lightly, in fact, that it might be </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #353535;">accurate to say that the book was virtually unedited. A few </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #353535;">misspelled words, a couple of lapses in grammar, that was it. </span></span><br />
<div>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #353535;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #353535;">Any man </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #353535;">who claims to have edited the book is a fraud and a liar, and I'd tell </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #353535;">him so to his face. </span></span></div>
<div>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #353535;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Tom Robbins </span></span></div>
</blockquote>
<div>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #353535;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">An apt beginning.</span></span></div>
<div>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #353535; font-family: sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #353535; font-family: sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #353535; font-family: sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="color: #353535; font-family: sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<div>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #353535; font-family: sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #353535; font-family: sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
</div>Dalehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00186594525258721615noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22811888.post-51983940012192103332012-01-01T18:14:00.000-08:002012-01-02T17:46:30.330-08:00Tales of the Wiley Peyote<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.captainahabsrarebooks.com/ahab/images/items/35.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://www.captainahabsrarebooks.com/ahab/images/items/35.jpg" width="136" /></a></div>
In an interview back in the 70's, the editor of Tom Robbins' first novel, Another Roadside Attraction, seemed to claim that he had convinced the young author to remove scads of wordplay and gobs of writing pyrotechnics that didn't "work" in the novel. The thought was intriguing and disturbing.<br />
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Later Tom informed me that wasn't true. Nothing was removed and the novel retained his vision of it.<br />
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
I felt ambivalent about it. First, it was good that he hadn't been forced to change his work. On the other hand, the idea of a lost stash of Robbins wordplay was an enticing thought. </div>
</div>Dalehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00186594525258721615noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22811888.post-63116155525740854232010-03-21T18:49:00.000-07:002010-03-21T18:52:59.064-07:00Book Review: Anarcho Grow by T.A.SedlackStrange doings in Costa Rica. The novel opens with an American man named Ben who isn't who he says he is, doing something he's not supposed to be doing but we don't know what exactly. That is a mystery that is slowly revealed. <br />
<br />
It's not a traditional mystery although its main character acts mysteriously for most of the novel. It's not a whodunit, so much as a what the heck are they doing or why are they doing it? Ben's motives are idealistic and he is a combination of innocence and guile. Like Plucky Purcell, he's not a criminal, he's an outlaw. For a good cause. Drugs are involved but not in the way you might think. This novel has a new take on pot smuggling.<br />
<br />
I've been to Costa Rica and Sedlak's descriptions of people and place ring true and vivid. He circles the meaning of "Pura Vida" throughout the book, but I couldn't define it for you even now. Maybe that's the point.<br />
<br />
I found I became a little unstuck in time because some chapters were from 2001 and some from 2006 and I had trouble following the shifts. The 2001 chapters were about when it all started-- the plan and the romance-- and the 2006 sections were "now". <br />
<br />
The tension of the events is wound tight by the gradual closing in of CIA agents on the protagonist. It's a story of a man who came back one too many times to the scene of the "crime". Sedlak's novel has a heartbreakingly hopeful ending.<br />
<br />
I enjoyed this very original story.<br />
<br />
Leslie W. LePere designed the vibrant cover of Anarcho Grow. Aftrlifers will know him from the Tom Robbins novels he has illustrated.<br />
<br />
<u>Anarcho Grow</u> by T. A. Sedlak, published by This Press Kills Fascists Publshing, 2010.Dalehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00186594525258721615noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22811888.post-8183497893902818402010-03-03T09:55:00.000-08:002010-03-03T09:55:20.585-08:00A Gathering of Crete'ns.Tom Robbins is going to Crete. No he's not going to intervene in the Greek financial crisis, he's going to Crete, Nebraska. <br />
<br />
<blockquote>Legendary Novelist Tom Robbins To Lecture at Doane<br />
Legendary American novelist Tom Robbins will speak and sign copies of his works, especially his latest novel, B Is for Beer, a children's book for adults and an adult book for children, Thursday, April 8, 2010 at 7:30 p.m. in Heckman Auditorium on the Doane College campus in Crete. <br />
(1014 Boswell Avenue Crete, NE 68333)<br />
<br />
His talk, this year's lecture in the Lucille Cobb Lecture Series sponsored by the English department, is entitled "An Evening with Tom Robbins." It is free and open to the public. <br />
</blockquote><br />
More at <a href="http://www.doane.edu/news/35741/">Legendary Novelist Tom Robbins To Lecture at Doane</a> <br />
<br />
I hope one of the attendees will write us to share their impressions of the evening with The Aftrlife. aftrlife@gmail.comDalehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00186594525258721615noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22811888.post-39935620647557170632010-02-11T19:20:00.000-08:002010-02-13T08:07:23.995-08:00Anarcho Grow author on tour<a href="http://www.tasedlak.com/events.html">T. A. Sedlak</a>, an Aftrlifer, is out talking about his new novel in LA next week at <a href="http://hempcon.com/">Hemp Con</a> Marijuana Show Los Angeles February 19-21. <br />
<br />
Here are some future appearances:<br />
<br />
39th Annual Anne Arbor Hash Bash April 3<br />
<br />
AWP Conference in Denver April 7-10<br />
<br />
Seattle Hemp Fest August 20-22<br />
<br />
Portland Hemp Stalk September 11-12<br />
<br />
Boston Freedom Rally September 25 (if they can move it from the 18th for Yom Kippur)<br />
<br />
NORML National Conference September (Dates to be announced)<br />
<br />
I'll be reviewing the novel soon. It's a suspenseful story of a unique "revolution."<br />
DaleDalehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00186594525258721615noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22811888.post-48203402427217213522009-11-23T17:24:00.000-08:002009-11-23T17:25:15.343-08:00Tom's Grassroots EffortsFOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE<br />November 19, 2009<br />12:47 PM<br /><br />CONTACT: Marijuana Policy Project<br />Mike Meno, MPP assistant director of communications <br />202-905-2030 or mmeno@mpp.org<br /><br />Marijuana Policy Project’s 15th Anniversary Gala to Celebrate ‘15 States in 15 Years’<br />Celebrity guests and other prominent figures will help celebrate MPP’s remarkable passage of improved marijuana laws in 15 states in 15 years<br />WASHINGTON - November 19 - The Marijuana Policy Project, America's largest marijuana policy reform organization, will look back on 15 productive years of improving marijuana laws at a January 13 gala that will feature guest speakers such as talk show host Montel Williams. The star-studded host committee includes Melissa Etheridge, Tom Robbins, Bill Maher, Ben Taylor, Steve Buscemi, Susan Sarandon, Lewis Black, Nicole Atkins, Margaret Cho, Mark Leno, Hal Sparks, Ani DiFranco, Garry Trudeau, and Medeski, Martin and Wood, along with many other prominent supporters. <br /><br />When MPP was founded in 1995, medical marijuana was illegal in all 50 states. Since then, 13 states have passed medical marijuana laws, with Michigan becoming the 13th state in November 2008, when Michigan voters passed MPP's ballot initiative by a 63% to 37% margin. By the end of 2010, MPP is hopeful that medical marijuana will be legal in 15 states (with passage in New York and New Jersey).<br /><br />At the same time, marijuana possession is now decriminalized in 13 states, with Massachusetts becoming the 13th state in November 2008, when Massachusetts voters passed MPP's ballot initiative by a 65% to 35% margin. In 2010, MPP is hopeful that marijuana will be decriminalized in 15 states (with Rhode Island and Vermont becoming the 14th and 15th states).<br /><br />WHAT: The Marijuana Policy Project's 15th Anniversary Celebration<br /><br />WHEN: January 13, 2010. Press Availability from 6:00 to 6:30 p.m.<br /><br /> Reception from 6:30 - 7:30 p.m. Dinner from 7:30 to 11:00 p.m<br /><br />WHERE: Hyatt Regency Washington on Capitol Hill, 400 New Jersey Avenue, NW, 20001<br /><br /> Tickets cost $250 each, or $2,000 for a table.<br /><br />###<br />With more than 26,000 members and 100,000 e-mail subscribers nationwide, the Marijuana Policy Project is the largest marijuana policy reform organization in the United States. MPP believes that the best way to minimize the harm associated with marijuana is to regulate marijuana in a manner similar to alcohol. For more information, please visit http://MarijuanaPolicy.org.Dalehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00186594525258721615noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22811888.post-88003278024428606722009-09-12T15:11:00.000-07:002009-09-12T15:26:52.151-07:00Daffy Yum: IndigoneWell we've finished reading Jitterbug Perfume--one page per day, about the same pace that Tom wrote it. Aptly it ended right after 9/11 because it is a story of hope and peace and love.<br /><br />Tomorrow, Sept 13, 2009, we'll start Skinny Legs and All.Dalehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00186594525258721615noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22811888.post-79044105023692249592009-08-18T13:37:00.000-07:002009-08-18T13:42:17.026-07:00Spoiler Alert- Daffy Yum- Jitterbug Perfume page 317Big happenings in today's page. Alobar is going to dematerialize. They all are apportioned their shares of the profit for K23 perfume. All is forgiven. <br /><br />In one of the little coincidences which I've grown accustomed to with Robbins, i just yesterday learned the French word, blague. And today Tom mentions that all this happens on the rue Quelle Blague. The word means 'joke' and the phrase means 'fiddlesticks'. :-)Dalehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00186594525258721615noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22811888.post-22435023406728191562009-08-07T21:50:00.000-07:002009-08-07T21:57:27.438-07:00Your Opinion of B is for Beer?<a href="http://www.examiner.com/x-17561-SF-Literature-Examiner~y2009m8d7-Why-Id-let-Tom-Robbins-teach-my-kids-that-B-is-for-Beer">Aubrey Winkler, the Literature columnist</a> for the San Diego Examiner newspaper has written a column about B is for Beer. She invites readers to give their opinion about Tom's latest book. I rated it wonderful. Her past columns are interesting as well.Dalehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00186594525258721615noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22811888.post-24639514127124565752009-08-07T18:11:00.000-07:002009-08-07T18:15:53.497-07:00Do Redheads Feel More Pain?<a href="http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/08/06/the-pain-of-being-a-redhead/?em">The New York times</a> reports that "A growing body of research shows that people with red hair need larger doses of anesthesia and often are resistant to local pain blockers like Novocaine." They're sensitive, but perhaps they'd not like to stay that way. "Researchers believe redheads are more sensitive to pain because of a mutation in a gene that affects hair color." I guess the doctors don't read Tom Robbins, else they'd know that red-heads are from alien seed.Dalehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00186594525258721615noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22811888.post-67929173938839865862009-07-20T14:51:00.000-07:002009-07-29T13:09:54.866-07:00Googled Tom<iframe src="https://docs.google.com/View?docID=0AaNWwQNP6GtYZGQ1bXhjNGZfNThkYzl3dmtjaw&revision=_latest&hgd=1" width="500" height="305"><br /> <br /></iframe>Dalehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00186594525258721615noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22811888.post-64468371437221669402009-06-23T22:04:00.001-07:002009-07-20T15:59:55.619-07:00Beer Notes<iframe src="https://docs.google.com/View?docID=dd5mxc4f_55g74rsmgh&revision=_latest&hgd=1" width="500" height="305"> </iframe>Dalehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00186594525258721615noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22811888.post-51356247401505351732009-05-31T21:12:00.000-07:002009-05-31T21:50:46.101-07:00Moontroll captured a recent Tom Robbins appearance on video<span style="font-weight:bold;">Moontroll writes:</span><br /><br />Tom Robbins live on stage at Boundary Bay Brewery in Bellingham:<br /><a href="http://vimeo.com/4738924">http://vimeo.com/4738924</a><br /><br />It is over 45 minutes long, so get yerself comfortable before firing this baby<br />up. Includes the interview I was lucky to conduct with Tom after his reading.<br />But it does not, at Tom's insistence, including the actual "B is for Beer"<br />reading -- he wants to keep that special to the live readings. Still, I think<br />y'all will appreciate this -- leave a comment if you do!<br /><br />Tom Robbins Incognito at <a href="http://magcloud.com/browse/Issue/14846">http://magcloud.com/browse/Issue/14846</a>Dalehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00186594525258721615noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22811888.post-74812207876277213802009-05-31T18:29:00.000-07:002009-05-31T18:51:09.153-07:00Tom and Alexis in the Wind<span style="font-weight: bold;">Mike shared a delightful story with the aftrlife mailing list:</span><br /><br /> A close friend of mine drives a bus for the community transit in the Skagit. His<br />route takes him by Tom's place. One particular windy afternoon, or as he puts<br />it, "Must have been blowin' 50 60 miles per hour. The trees were bending over<br />and the leaves swirled about everywhere but on the ground. There was Tom and his wife. Running around with rakes, laughing so loud I could hear them on the bus."<br /> Just a little story I thought everyone would like."<br /><br />Mike<br /><span style="font-style: italic;"><br />If you want to be a part of the conversation just go over to http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aftrlife/ and Join the Yahoo Group.</span>Dalehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00186594525258721615noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22811888.post-82042585663049898862009-05-17T10:59:00.000-07:002009-05-17T11:01:43.106-07:00Jitterbug Perfume, Week 31, Daffy YumJITTERBUG PERFUME<br />Week 31, May 5 – 11<br /><br />Page 223-ish<br /><br />"Reality is subjective, and there's an unenlightened tendency in this culture to regard something as 'important' only if 'tis sober and severe. Sure and still you're right about your Cheerful Dumb, only they're not so much happy as lobotomized. But your Gloomy Smart are just as ridiculous. When you're unhappy, you get to pay a lot of attention to yourself. And you get to take yourself oh so very seriously. Your truly happy people, which is to say, your people who truly like themselves, they don't think about themselves very much. Your unhappy person resents it when you try to cheer him up, because that means he has to stop dwellin' on himself and start payin' attention to the universe. Unhappiness is the ultimate form o' self-indulgence. "<br /><br />I read recently that popular opinion has it that Wiggs Dannyboy was fashioned after Terence McKenna. I had always assumed Dannyboy was based on Timothy Leary, after reading lines like..."left his native Dublin to teach at Harvard, where he experimented with mind-altering chemicals beyond the call of academic duty...." and "Since it was hardly in the best national interest to relieve citizens of their violence, greed, fear, or repression, the government acted to silence Dr. Dannyboy by arresting him on a phony marijuana charge and checking him into the steel hotel. Escaped, only to be nabbed two years later...and imprisoned again." I know it needn't be an either/or situation, but surely there is some Tim in with Terence.<br /><br />GemUnknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22811888.post-49269872635116191192009-05-06T12:34:00.000-07:002009-05-06T12:38:20.296-07:00JITTERBUG PERFUME, Week 30, Apr. 26 – May 4Page 208(ish)<br /><br />"Did a man's wives all blend into a single entity after their deaths? Would he blend with Navin the Ropemaker if and when he died? Was it wife soup and husband soup on the Other Side? Or was it simply soup?"<br /><br />Oooh, I hope it's not husband soup...the three I've had would make one bizarre concoction!"<br /><br />Whatever else his long, unprecedented life might have been, it had been fun. Fun! If others should find that appraisal shallow, frivolous, so be it. To him, it seemed now to largely have been some form of play. And he vowed that in the future he would strive to keep that sense of play more in mind, for he'd grown convinced that play--more than piety, more than charity or vigilance--was what allowed human beings to transcend evil."<br /><br />More fun for everyone!<br /><br />"Our individuality is all, all, that we have. There are those who barter it for security, those who repress it for what they believe is the betterment of the whole society, but blessed in the twinkle of the morning star is the one who nurtures it and rides it, in grace and love and wit, from peculiar station to peculiar station along life's bittersweet route."<br /><br />Blessed Be the Individual!<br /><br />GemUnknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22811888.post-36702300713911949282009-04-18T16:33:00.000-07:002009-04-18T16:36:40.345-07:00Sand Grains Gallery<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.sandgrains.com/NineSandGrains-web.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 225px; height: 225px;" src="http://www.sandgrains.com/NineSandGrains-web.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><br /><a href="http://www.sandgrains.com/Sand-Grains-Gallery.html">Sand Grains Gallery</a>: "Sand grains under the microscope microscopic sand photography art photo microscopy artwork"<br /><br />William Blake had it right. There is infinity, at least an infinity of beauty, in grains of sand. They're as unique as snowflakes. Visit this site and be amazed.<br /><br />The Blakes often read poetry to each naked in the garden. Explaining that they didn't bathe much, she offered the explanation that, "Mr. Blake don't dirt." If dirt is as beautiful under a microscope as sand is then perhaps he should have.<br /><br />DaleDalehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00186594525258721615noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22811888.post-62861986732716456192009-03-17T20:37:00.000-07:002009-03-17T20:39:38.967-07:00Week 21, Jitterbug Perfume, Daffy YumJITTERBUG PERFUME<br />Week 21, Mar. 9 – Mar. 16<br /><br />Page 160<br /><br />"Our little couple, however, our Alobar and Kudra, remained intact and indigestible, like the hard octopus beaks that sicken the stomachs of whales, causing them to vomit the ambergris that bonds the bouquet in great perfumes. Like octopus beaks, our couple. Or maraschino cherries."<br /><br />Hilarious sentences, alive with alliteration! I must plunk the radioactive red orbs into drinks several times a shift, and I would rather coat my fingers in the slippery slime of a bleu cheese stuffed olive than paint my fingers with the devilish dye of the red #4 variety! Anybody know if the report of those four maraschino cherries found in Lenin's colon is based on fact? TR wouldn't embellish, would he?<br /><br />Erleichda,<br /><br />GemUnknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22811888.post-64321552976468086782009-03-09T20:43:00.000-07:002009-03-09T20:56:52.448-07:00Jitterbug Perfume, Week 22, Daffy YumJITTERBUG PERFUME<br />Week 21, Mar. 1 – Mar. 8<br /><br />Page 152<br /><br />"But what if," asked Kudra, shooting Alobar a meaningful glance, "but what if we decided now to choose life?" "Then choose it," said Pan. Again, Kudra and Alobar exchanged glances. "But would not that anger the gods?" Kudra asked. "Ha ha ha!" The laughter burst out of Pan like the barking of some obscene dog. "Anger the gods? The gods, those that art still around, wouldst congratulate thee for finally catching on." "You mean...?" "I mean that gods do not limit men, men limit men." I felt compelled to type out those lines. I read in a biography that Hunter Thompson would type over entire books of Hemingway and F. Scott Fitzgerald, to get the feel of typing good writing. It does feel wonderful. Gem<br /><br />[Note I couldn’t find the exact page with this quote, so went by the Daffy Yum page/date of the email. MW]<br /><br />***************************************************************<br /><br />True-dat.... .."gods do not limit men, men limit men"<br /><br />Michael McMahanUnknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22811888.post-37828566729288180032009-02-24T08:11:00.000-08:002009-02-24T08:14:55.332-08:00Jitterbug Perfume, Week 20, Daffy YumJITTERBUG PERFUME<br />Week 20, Feb. 16 – Feb 22<br /><br />Page 137<br /><br />"It was encouraging that he would mention a contemporary female, for Pan had begun to live in his memories, an unhealthy symptom in anyone, suggesting as it does that life has peaked. Every daydream that involves the past sports in its hatband a ticket to the grave." Ouch, this hurts a bit. I'm not as old as Pan (having turned 53 years young last October), but old enough to find myself telling the 20-somethings at the restaurant where I work (I wouldn't call myself a genius waitress, but I am a waitress with a Master's degree!) stories from my younger, crazier days. TR's words are a good reminder to stay in the NOW and enjoy creating new stories! Gem<br /><br />***************************************************************<br />If it's never too late to have a happy childhood, let's get started regenerating our 20-somethings.<br />Dale<br />­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­_______________________________________________________________<br /><br />Page 138<br /><br />Renga ding dingThe mortals grow suspiciousYou can live foreverBut not in one place.Kudra and Alobar flee Constantinople. This sort of reminds me of Tom's idea for a tv show about Helen Keller as a detective. Tagline: She's blind, dumb and mute, but she can smell a rat from a mile away.Tom 1Google 0I'm pretty good with Google but I couldn't track down a reference to Basil II breaking cedar boxes over his head. Anybody else know where that anecdote comes from?Bits like Basil II are rabbit holes hidden in Tom's fiction. You can explore them into equally, shall we say, byzantine story tunnels. <a href="http://www.nationmaster.com/encyclopedia/Image:Basil-II.jpg" target="_blank">http://www.nationma ster.com/ encyclopedia/ Image:Basil- II.jpg</a>Dale<br />****************************************************************\<br /><br />"They are always in good humor and health...They bathe together. They smile too much...They are often at the act of love..." so obviously they are "Agents of the Evil One"!Alobar and Kudra obviously need this new "depressant drug" (Sorry, don't know how to post a link, but copy and paste works!)<a href="http://www.theonion.com/content/video/fda_approves_depressant_drug_for" target="_blank">http://www.theonion .com/content/ video/fda_ approves_ depressant_ drug_for</a>Gem<br />****************************************************************<br />Thanks for the hilarious link, Gem. And in reality which Onion often mirrors "A depressant drug reportedly taken by such dignitaries as the Princess of Wales, Florida Gov. Lawton Chiles and Donald Trump has been found to cause social upheaval in a colony of laboratory rats. Scientists investigating how the popular drug affects mood and behavior in humans found that it causes subordinate rats to rise up and challenge the authority of the dominant "top rat.""Sounds like some good old chemical-induced outlawism, Robbins style.<br />Dale<br />­­­­­­­­­­________________________________________________________________Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22811888.post-40082756457924094742009-02-09T22:17:00.000-08:002009-02-09T22:19:58.426-08:00Jitterbug Perfume, Week 18, Daffy YumJITTERBUG PERFUME<br />Week 18, Feb. 2 – Feb 8<br /><br />Page 120<br /><br />......."the perfect taco" Metaphor? Yes...no.... both?<br /><br />Weality<br />­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­_______________________________________________________________<br /><br />Page 123<br /><br />.......would a whale mask be suitable to me.......?<br /><br />"Actually, there are two kinds of people in this world, those who believe there are two kinds of people in this world and those who are smart enough to know better" SLWW<br /><br />Weality<br />­­­­­­­­­­________________________________________________________________Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22811888.post-81786034452595360332009-02-02T08:29:00.000-08:002009-02-02T08:41:04.938-08:00Jitterbug Perfume, Week 17, Daffy YumJITTERBUG PERFUME<br />Week 17, Jan. 26 – Feb. 1<br /><br />Page 114<br /><br />This is the first sentence of my thoughts about page 114. This is the second sentence. This is the third sentence which tries to really express my ideas about page 114 but fails. Finally this sentence succeeds in expressing the thought that Priscilla takes a spill on her bicycle whilechecking out the Last Laugh Foundation where i assume Alobar will soon show and another connection is made with New Orleans and her parfumier Stepmom. This sentence sighs with relief. This is the next to last sentence. This is the last sentence. Nope. Now.<br /><br />Dale<br />****************************************************************<br /><br />Well said, Dale! I am excited to be pulling in to New Orleans...knowing that however many of us are reading JP at present, that many consciousnesses will be reveling in pan-sensory descriptions of that still recovering city, we'll be grooving with the denizens, all that focused, positive energy has got to help in some small way to revivifying New Orleans! May it be so!<br /><br />Gem<br />­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­_______________________________________________________________<br /><br />Page 115<br /><br />I really liked the opening of this page, "When we accept small wonders we qualify ourselves to imagine great wonders."But I have to admit that I hate dialect in a novel. I especially find a white southern writer doing black dialect to be icky no matter how good the intentions. "Mouf" for "mouth" and "libber" for "liver" just sounds bad to me. Am I missing something?Creating studio apartments out of your own secretions sounds interesting though. I'd tell you how to do it but it's "TOP SECRETE".<br /><br />Dale<br /> ****************************************************************<br />Ha! Dale, your secrete slays me! <br /><br />I understand your distaste for ethnic dialect in general; however, it does go a long way in making a character come alive--regardless of ethnicity of either the writer or the character. When I read dialect spoken by rich white hipster techno speak geeks (regardless of the writer), a vivid picture comes to mind. Or worse--the dialect of corporate lawyers, whose inflated nonsense lingo is spoken to identify and separate themselves not by ethnicity, but by class. That said, when we read dialect spoken by a character in a novel, it helps them come alive. You can hear V'lu speak and the aural image of her is completely different than if she spoke without the dialect, e.g.: "I eat liver with you, made from goose livers, but I won't eat any slime." TR in no way allows her to be condescended or demeaned, and in fact, the reader identifies more with V'lu than Madame Duvalier. (At least I do--especially when it comes to eating slime. ) Iguess my point is, that I see written dialect as an identifier and expression of the character's personal and cultural style. It is a credit to the author who does not cringe or succumb to flatlining the language into one "correct" way of speaking. (I'm not saying one word about "shrooms," because I know that if a character said "shrooms" TR would tell it like it is. I just know it.)<br /><br />Mary<br /> ****************************************************************<br /><br />It emphasizes the two extremes of V'lu...and that she's laying it on real thick so her true intellect and sophistication is guarded by her cloak of the general public's underestimation of her...gives her plenty of wiggle room to fly under the radar...<br /><br />Messy Kat<br />****************************************************************<br /><br />You make some good points, Mary as usual. I personally find thick dialect to be distracting. A few words to suggest the dialect is sufficient for me. This particular dialect makes V'lu seem simple-minded to me, which may be Tom's purpose as messy kat suggests.(Is Tom putting us on, by having V'lu put us on?) Southerners are usually kinda sensitive to people "doing" Southern accents anyway. Anyway as hot as V'lu sounds from Tom's descriptions I wouldn't be attracted to her because of the way she talks. Oral non-sex I guess. Now I will "Shut my mouf." :-)<br /><br />Dale<br />****************************************************************<br /><br />Ah, that's interesting. I have totally forgotten the details of this novel. I keep expecting them to rush back into my brain at any moment but they don't. I expect the details to get back, messykat. It makes it like I'm reading it for the first time (now I know how Ronald Reagan felt on entering the bedroom with Nancy each evening). I'll watch for V'lu's secrete agent personality to emerge.<br /><br />Dale<br />****************************************************************<br /><br />Hey Dale....for me, the dialect draws a distinct picture, one I wouldn't necessarily have without dat moufpiece.....i mean, she could have had a bloody Br-ish accent...but no, our gal was Southern...and she musthave smelled good too, to pass the Bunny’s nose.Remember...."Don't trust anybody who'd rather be grammatically correct than have a good time."<br /><br />Michael<br />­­­­­­­­­­________________________________________________________________Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22811888.post-27149416293871086002009-01-26T20:58:00.000-08:002009-01-26T21:14:49.556-08:00Jitterbug Perfume, Week 16, Daffy YumJITTERBUG PERFUME<br />Week 16, Jan. 19– Jan. 25<br /><br />Page 106<br /><br />This page really expresses the "stone remains, water goes" line. Even water stays if it freezes or gets stagnant. It shows how desire trumps detachment as well. Alobar and Kudra become fierce invalids as they fight the blizzard to get to the Bandaloop and safety. Alobar's desire for life in general and Kudra's in particular inspires him to heroic action to save her.I can understand that. When desire gets ahold of me, its pain and pleasure are irresistible, much like a passionate beauty with very long fingernails.Alobar laughs as his ridiculous life passes before him. What kind of laugh would you laugh at your life? Mine would be rueful and amused I think. How about you?<br /><br />Dale<br />****************************************************************<br />Mine would contain 2/3 what was I thinking?? and 1/3 yippee! finally found the right track, with a dusting of cinnamon on top.<br /><br />Gem<br />****************************************************************<br />My laugh would probably be somewhat hysterical and, whilst not exactly bitter, there would certainly be tears.<br /><br />Deena<br />****************************************************************<br />I think my laugh would be exactly like the laugh Jim Carrey gave as Andy Kaufman at the end of Man on the Moon. Kind of an "Aw, shit--the joke was on ME!" I haven't participated in Daffy Yum yet. I might try to catch up with you all.<br /><br />pk (popartmonkey)<br /> ****************************************************************<br /> It would vary from a snort of acknowledgment that something amusing had occurred to uproarious in reaction to the sheer genius of it all. If graphed in terms of volume over time, it would appear to be a sinc function convoluted with your average everyday transcandenent function.<br /><br />BoB - whoohoo, math! (Bob Nesheim)<br /> ****************************************************************<br />:-) There must always be tears--an integral part of the endarkenment.<br /><br />Dale<br /> ****************************************************************<br />LOL (my current laughter at life) BoB. Science in spite of it all.<br /><br />Dale<br />­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­_______________________________________________________________<br /><br />Page 107<br /><br />I think Tom sort of uses Kudra to fuss at himself. He quotes her interior monologue that Alobar is always prattling about the meaning of things--which is a pretty shorthand way of describing what Tom's novels do, but that I never find tiresome.The Bandaloop have flown the coop. The caves are bare, but Alo-Kud take it all with Taoist calm. Sweep floor. Make love.<br /><br />Dale<br />­­­­­­­­­­________________________________________________________________<br /><br />Page 108<br /><br />So does anyone know what TV movie Tom is talking about at the beginning of the Seattle section? The Transcosmic Pigout?<br /><br />I guess Tom Robbins has written so much and about so many things that synchronicity is inevitable. I'm always running into things that remind me of his novels in some way. I'm reading Twenty-Eight Artists and Two Saints, a book of bio-essays by Joan Acocella. The first artist is Lucia Joyce, the troubled daughter of the author of Finnegan’s Wake. Not only is Finnegan’s Wake a big deal in Fierce Invalids, there is a bonus little Robbinsesque vignette of Lucia, the slightly mad daughter, dancing silently in the background while Joyce worked on Finnegan’s. One biographer cast her as a co-writer of the book, saying that her dancing was his inspiration.<br /><br />And, of course, the fabric of the ordinary world always crinkles in interesting ways. Weird graffiti has been much with me recently. On a sidewalk, I encountered a reminder of Magritte the painter who under an illustration of a smoking pipe wrote the words, (in French) "This is not a pipe." I ran across a word painted on the sidewalk that said, "Image".<br /><br />Marijuana leaves are popular for engraving in wet cement around here. And on one wall someone had written, "I am a pussyboy." WTF, I asked myself. Does that mean he is like Switters and knows 100 words for vagina? Or is he like Larry Diamond who describes sexual organs with culinary names like "Pussy Fricassee"? Or is it a pre-op transgender who hasn't quite made up his/her mind? (Who knew that the efforts of Feminists to de-genderize the language would come in so handy for talking about third-sexers.) The world is strange once your brain gets Robbinsized. (Or Robbins sized.)<br /><br />And that's not even mentioning the smells, odors, scents and bouquets.<br /><br />Dale<br />****************************************************************<br />Who-boy...that’s some "bouncy" world over there, Dale if I had to guess at a title for that movie...it might be a re-make of "The Blob" by Monte Python.<br /><br />"Perfume...the smell of creation" <br /><br />MichaelUnknownnoreply@blogger.com