Scattered

Labor Day and no mention of  l a b o r anywhere,  except for statistics,  which are not good*.  The wagons are drawn up in a circle,  the "slings and arrows" coming in are not indigenous.  It is more like discontinuous shot guns blasts of a confusing array of media and mess.   Echoes of the Republican Convention part of the muddle,  described by the song words of Mose Allison (thinking of Romney's):  ..."your mind is on vacation,  you mouth is working overtime..."   & now we have the Democrats to look forward to in Charlotte?       * Farmer's Almanac:  "He Who Shuns Labor Labors Doubly."

In the recent past it seems that the Russian punk rock group,  Pussy Riot, has gotten itself in trouble with the Russian Orthodox Church,  Putin and the court system ... and are now are in a work camp for two years.   About the same time Eve Ensler's "Vagina Monologues"  have popped again all over the place,  which brought back a memory of a book in the 90s, "Femalia,"   "a photographic representation of women's genitals" ...  "they show that each human body is unique and beautiful..."  (Joani Blank, c1993,  There Press,  San Francisco,  Ca.)

In the early fifties,  Korean War duty,  I was introduced to words which had been extremely scarce in my high school and community,  pussy was one of them.  In fact,  Flexner's dictionary of slang was just on the horizon for bigots who not only wanted to keep the forbidden words out of society and its parlance,  books and libraries, of course.    My hazy memories of the young sailors using some of these forbidden words are strange,   some of the fellows brought regional equivalents which are still in my mind somewhere .... eg.  "beaver" for vagina, often spoken of in hushed tones,  fear and respect, awe (!).

And last but not least a more "prosaic"  thought;   as I listened to and watched the ("humble") bumble bee on the buckwheat this week.  This insect is doing to work for its endangered species,  and it is marvelous to behold.  Can this be one positive example of "nature" trying to right the wrongs that homo sapiens have wrought out there,  and will be bumble bee be able to withstand the "slings and dettos" that its cousin has suffered so greatly from?   Aye,  let us pray.