Haiku and Hoku

Cherry blossom at Union Station



















Rain coming
cherry petals
drift down

Christopher T. George

Aficianados of poetry will know that a traditional haiku has a set pattern of syllables, namely 5-7-5. I have been writing a number of haiku recently but also some shorter haiku, which I have named the hoku. It is also three lines, like the traditional haiku but less than the 5-7-5 syllables that a haiku calls for. No set number of syllables, just less syllables than the 17 syllables of a haiku. On a general basis, a hoku, despite the Oriental sounding name, is probably more fitted for Western verse than the usual nature theme of a haiku.

Herein are some examples of hoku and haiku.



















Koi-ku Hoku

Gold
very fishy
fish

Emu-ku Hoku

Emu chick
to go to good home.
-- You?

Grackles in White Narcissi (Haiku)

Sleek black grackles
move through the white narcissi
as silent as sharks.

Hoku

I clear my
throat; you read
these lines.

Hoku Live

Here! Listen
to these
few words!

Astronomical Odds? (Haiku)

Path across night sky:
friendly visitor or foe?
You just do not know!

Christopher T. George
























Funny Face

That smiley face bag stuffed in that space
has a certain imbecilic personality;
the snow's fast disappearing here in D.C.,
crocus in bloom in the Smithsonian gardens.

Dunned for a light by a bum with a dog end,
I see I've a hole in my crotch -- I mean,
my tan pants have a hole in the crotch area,
shame-faced when I'm supposed to be dressed up

for work, and the soles of my shoes need repair,
my wife and I need to go see the orthodontist;
our bought-used Saturn needs to be traded in,
our Twenties bathroom needs new grout.

I withdrew $50,000 from my retirement
to pay my mother's nursing home bills.
But -- just got word we'll get government help.
Gonna go around town wearing that smiley face.

Christopher T. George

Resurgence

What Mankind Hath Made

"Bay sees blue crab resurgence"
Baltimore Sun, April 15, 2010

As I smoke my cigar,
I watch a man with
bedroll on back pick
through an ashtray for
a gourmet smoke.

Tonight he'll sleep on
a grate in our capital;
I'll sip another Scotch,
toast my father who died
of cancer on this day,
a lifelong smoker.

Mankind giveth,
mankind taketh
-- despite the Dioxins
and Palmolive bottles,
the Blues survive!

And we remain the dirty
bomb in our own oyster.

Christopher T. George

Letter to Douglas Jemal, head of the Douglas Development Corp., owner of the Washington Coliseum, near the New York Avenue Metro station.

Hello Mr Jemal

I read in the Washington Post about the development about the "tombstones" appearing as an apparent anti-war protest on the roof of the old Washington Coliseum. [See link through title above]

As a rider on the Marc Train, as a Beatles fan, a man born in Liverpool, England, as well as a historian and a preservationist, I have been concerned for some time about what is going to happen with the Coliseum.

Have you thought of developing it as a Beatles Museum?

It would appear clear to me that the fact that the Beatles played there in 1964 is the building's greatest claim to fame, along with its long use for different events dating back to 1941 as a significant building in Washington, DC history that deserves to be preserved.

Washington, DC, is already a tourist destination and it would seem to me that as a museum on the famed Liverpool rock group that played there in 1964 this building could become a lucrative and interesting asset for the City of Washington and the Douglas Development Corporation much as the Beatles Story is in my native Liverpool. See http://www.beatlesstory.com/

Best regards

Christopher T. George
410-908-5634
http://christophertgeorge.blogspot.com/



Bioletti's Barber's Shop, Liverpool, from the Beatles' video of "Penny Lane." In reality, the barber's shop was at 11 Smithdown Place and not in Penny Lane, which is a road west of the old bus station.

You can download a copy of my article, The Bioletti Family of Liverpool: From the Maybrick Case to John Lennon and the Beatles, in pdf format. The article originally appeared in Ripperologist magazine at the time of the 2003 Jack the Ripper Convention held at Liverpool's Britannia Adelphi Hotel. Enjoy!

Staying On Message

According to news reports, Republican National Committee (RNC) Chair Michael Steele's "longtime political consulting firm, On Message" has parted ways with him.

Are those the people who have kept Mr. Steele so "on message" that over the last year he has been a barely credible voice for the Republican Party? Are they the same people who advised him back in 2006 when he was running for the U.S. Senate in Maryland that it would be good to run an ad in which he said he liked puppies (click on the title above for my blog post from November 10, 2006 questioning Steele's credentials back then).

In a fit of self-denial, instead of recognizing his own shortcomings in being unable to run the RNC, Michael Steele is now saying that he is being picked on because he is an African American.

When he was interviewed by George Stephanopoulos on ABC's "Good Morning America" he was asked whether his race gave him a slimmer margin for error. In the sort of barely coherent and rambling statement that has become typical of his statements to the media, Steele answered:

"The honest answer is yes. It just is. Barack Obama has a slimmer margin. We all -- a lot of folks do. It's a different role for me to play and others to play, and that's just the reality of it."

It might be a different story if Mr. Steele had shown any competency as chairman of the RNC over the past year. It is truly significant that Republicans are showing no confidence in him and are refusing to funnel money to the RNC. Time for him to admit his shortcomings and to step down.




















Tour Duck at Union Station, Washington, D.C.

Union Station Impressions

1.

This woman possesses
some powerful pheromone,
always has a man in tow;
pixie-like red hair,
leather knapsack on back.
Is she giving it away?

2.

A little chap, a miniature
man like British comedian
Ronnie Corbett, black hair
carefully combed, almost
shellacked, black-framed
glasses; he runs beside
the taller woman as if
craving her attention.

3.

Two elders: he walks
with aid of a twisted
briar, wears a safari
hat, grizzled gray
beard; she follows: jowly
with a sour look, gap-
toothed, wearing a yellow
t-shirt printed with coiled
snake, slogan exclaiming,
"Don't Tread on Me!"

Christopher T. George

"Oh, say can you see. . . ?"

Hello All

I spent a pleasant day Thursday visiting Maryland Eastern Shore War of 1812 sites in brilliant spring sunshine and during which yours truly got some accolades as a published War of 1812 historian. I also was able to have some input talking to the group at various locations. The last stop was a beautiful colonial farmhouse on the Chesapeake Bay that was burned by the British in 1813. The owners had arranged tea, both hot and iced with mint, on the patio along with gourmet cookies, and there was a brilliant view looking out toward the Chesapeake Bay with black and white ospreys making their peeping cry flying overhead and other waterbirds, ducks and cormorants out in the water. (You can hear the cry of an osprey here.)

My friend Scott S. Sheads, long-time ranger-historian at Fort McHenry, was one of the speakers on the tour. He is an entertaining and informative fellow. Scott always delivers whatever he is saying in a deadpan manner, a very funny guy.

Scott said he had a lady come up to him at the Fort who told him that "The Star-Spangled Banner" is the Baltimore Orioles (baseball team) theme song and that she amazed to learn that it was actually the U.S. national anthem. Hard to know if it was a true story. Donna pointed out to me that on the "Oh!" of "Oh, say can you see. . .", the crowd always shouts out the word "Oh!" for "O" in "O-rioles" so there may be some truth in the story.

Scott is co-author, with Ralph Eshelman and Dr. Don Hickey of the new book, The War of 1812 in the Chesapeake: A Reference Guide to Historic Places in Maryland, Virginia, and the District of Columbia (Baltimore, Maryland: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2010, which I highly recommend. Ralph was one of the tour leaders on yesterday's tour of Eastern Shore sites along with Mary Margaret Revell Goodwin who is working on saving part of the Slippery Hill Battlefield of August 1813 near Queenstown, Princess Anne County. See Eastern Shore 1812 Consortium.

For an article by me on Fort McHenry and the story of the Star-Spangled Banner titled "Birth of a National Icon" click on the title above.

I should add something more about Scott Sheads:

Scott is impassioned about honoring the men who fought in the War of 1812. In Spring 2006, when Robert Reyes and I were working on saving 9 1/2 acres at the center of the battlefield at North Point that had originally been slated for a supermarket that was never built -- land that is now, thankfully, safely in the hands of the State of Maryland's Department of Natural Resources as part of North Point State Park, Scott came along in a private capacity as a historian and citizen with Robert and myself to a meeting of the Board of Public Works in Annapolis. Some local Dundalk, Baltimore County politicians made a last-minute attempt to ask for an extension of Trappe Road across the piece of land, which effectively would have cut the land in half and defeated the object of trying to preserve as much of the battlefield as we could. (As many of you may know, a small section of the North Point Battlefield, known as "Battle Acre" was donated for public use to commemorate the battle by local landowner Jacob Houck in 1839; Battle Acre is on the west side of Old North Point Road south of Trappe Road, while the acres that needed to be saved, which formed the very centre of the Baltimore City Brigade under Brigadier General John Stricker on that memorable Monday, September 12, 1814, are on the east side of the road.)

Scott stood up before then-Governor Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. and Comptroller William Donald Schaefer (himself a former Governor of Maryland and Mayor of Baltimore) and spoke passionately about the sacrifice the militia of Baltimore had made on the battlefield and that therefore the land should be saved for posterity. Thankfully, both Governor Ehrlich and Mr. Schaefer agreed with Scott. Obviously, the land needed to be preserved to tell the story of the battle for future generations.

And long may it be!

Dear President Obama

Dear Mr. President

When you spoke in Baltimore in War Memorial Plaza prior to your inauguration I was impressed that you mentioned a brave African-American, an escaped slave, who as a private in the U.S. Army had his leg blown off by a British cannonball during the bombardment of Fort McHenry, September 13-14, 1814 when Francis Scott Key wrote the words to "The Star-Spangled Banner."

Pvt. William Williams, slave name Frederick Hall, died a few weeks later at the Baltimore public hospital. In my capacity as a historian of the War of 1812 I have written about that brave man, Although African-American men in that period were forbidden by law to serve as fighting men in the U.S. Army or state militias, he was light enough to pass as a white man. (See "Escaped Slave Made the Ultimate Sacrifice at Fort McHenry" by Berry Craig.)

By contrast, at sea, this was a golden period of opportunity for blacks. We believe about one-fifth of men in the U.S. Navy as well as aboard American privateers and merchant ships were African-Americans and we know the stories of many of these men.

As you will know, the British on August 24, 1814 defeated an American army of mostly militia at Bladensburg. It is possible that Pvt. Williams was in that battle as there were several hundred U.S. Army regulars in the battle, fighting with D.C. militia, U.S. Marines, and the sailors of Commodore Barney's Chesapeake Bay flotilla in the area of what is now Fort Lincoln Cemetery. One of Commodore Barney's flotillamen was a former slave named Charles Ball who served helped service the cannons in the battle and later left an important slave narrative, Slavery in America. Barney's position was overrun and the Commodore was severely wounded with a bullet in the thigh. The British under General Ross marched into Washington D.C. and after his lead forces were fired on and his horse killed, this led to the burning of the U.S. Capitol, the White House, and other public buildings.

Mr. Obama, you might know that a War of 1812 Bicentennial bill has been considered in Congress but has stalled. This is perhaps not surprising because despite the great significance of this war in our nation's history, not every of the 51 states of our nation were touched by the war, so it can't be said that every state has a stake in the legislation. This is the reason the backers of the bill, including the Maryland congressional delegation, have had trouble trying to persuade other lawmakers to vote for the bill. I do believe you have had some difficulties getting legislation passed in the past year as well.

Mr. President, I have a better suggestion. I have a plan for a National Museum of the War of 1812 including an archives and research center and have identified a disused Federal building which might be ideal for such a museum. It is the Department of Agriculture's former Annex, also known as the Cotton Building, at 300 12th Street, S.W. The building is within sight of the National Mall and so just across from the National Museum of American History where the newly restored "Star-Spangled Banner" that flew over Fort McHenry can be viewed by our citizens as well as overseas visitors. I would like the proposed museum if it is to be in that location or any other to tell the story of the war, including that of African Americans and all ethnic groups that helped defend this nation.

Mr. Obama, I hope you will back this effort. On March 23, as I was instructed in a telephone conversation with Mr. Juan A. McPhail, General Services Administration (GSA) Building Supervisor, about the former Dept of Agriculture Annex, I emailed Mr Robert Roop, Deputy Director, GSA, but have not heard back from him. I include a copy of that email below. Perhaps you could be helpful in getting me in touch with Mr. Roop so we can explore whether the building in question could serve the needs I have specified. Many thanks in advance. I work near the Cotton Building and can see it out of my window. I cannot wait to see a replica giant 15-star flag flying over the building if it becomes the National Museum of the War of 1812, just as it did over Fort McHenry that inspired Francis Scott Key to write the words of the anthem.

Best regards

Christopher T. George
Author, Terror on the Chesapeake: The War of 1812 on the Bay

*****************

For an article by me on African-American Sailors in the War of 1812, click on the title above. Incidentally, in a cover article in the Washington Post on Wednesday, it was revealed the President Obama receives an astounding 20,000 letters per day, out of which he does personally read about 10 per day.

Red Pencils and Blue Pencils: Of Slavery and Bondage

My favorite Maryland Republican, Michael Steele (above), chairman of the Republican National Committee (RNC), has been in the news again.

First, on the weekend of the final House of Representatives vote on health care reform, when Tea-Party activists verbally attacked Democrats entering the Halls of Congress to vote yelling out racial and homophobic epithets, Mr. Steele, an African American, failed to strongly condemn such behavior instead just labeling such people as "stupid." And this against the background of the long history of violence and hatred displayed at times in this country in the past.

Need Mr. Steele be reminded of the slavery, Jim Crow, fiery crosses and the Ku Klux Clan? The same weekend featured a number of instances of vandalism against the offices of congressman, apparently both Democratic and Republican as violence, even if just (so far) against property reared its head.

Second, Steele and his personal expenses for February, as revealed by the Federal Election Committee last week, totaled $17,514 and $12,681, respectively, for the use of private planes and private cars. And the RNC are reportedly in trouble for authorizing an undisclosed Republican's expenses of $1,946 spent at a California nightclub known as Voyeur West Hollywood that specializes in bondage and simulated lesbian sex.

A spokesperson assured the media that the person whose expenses were covered, and who will now be made to reimburse the RNC, was not Mr. Steele himself. Well, that's a relief. (Subsequently, it was revealed that the man who billed the RNC for their time at the club was Erik Brown, an Orange County, California GOP donor-vendor. Should we say, "Good work, Brownie"? The RNC staffer who paid Brown was fired by Michael Steele.)

Bottom line is, the GOP operatives have been enjoying themselves while the country faces serious issues. Remember this is the party that speaks about "Family Values" and fiscal responsibility. Talk about fiddling while Rome burns!











The U.S. Capitol in 1829 with the copper dome designed by architect Charles Bulfinch. H. and J. Stokes, after Charles Bulfinch "United States Capitol," The Jackson Wreath. Philadelphia: Jacob Maas, 1829, p. 87.

In regard to where hateful rhetoric can lead, Pulitzer Prize-winning Washington Post journalist Eugene Robinson has an excellent column in today's Post, "Where the rhetoric of rage can lead." Check it out by clicking on the title above.

As a War of 1812 historian, I am reminded of the savagery of pro-war Baltimoreans against anti-war Federalists in the streets of the city in the summer of 1812 after President James Madison declared war on the British. A man who when I got into research on the war appeared to me somewhat of a hero because as a private in the 27th Regiment at North Point on September 12, 1814, made a statement that appears consistent with some of the nasty rhetoric we are hearing these days. Levi Hollingsworth, who owned the copperworks on the Gunpowder River where the copper for the Bulfinch Dome on the restored 1830's U.S. Capitol was made after the then Capitol buildings was burned by the British in August 1814, remarked about Federalist tortured and killed by the mob "They deserved it." Are such incidents and such sentiments the price of democracy? I hope not.

Meanwhile, talking about democracy Google has removed itself from Red China after the hopes of Google co-founder Sergey Brin, who grew up in his native Russia under the Soviet Communist regime, to liberalize China through the internet were dashed after the Red Chinese hacked into Google to trace dissidents.

China continues to use strong arm tactics against anyone who opposes the regime despite the hopes of Brin and even Bill Clinton that the Internet might help open up the country. The former President reportedly in 2000 mocked Chinese attempts to control the Internet, "Good luck. That's sort of like trying to nail Jell-O to the wall."

And Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head. . . .

Image and Words

Sometimes image comes first and words follow,
stumbling along in the wake of the eye candy.

Here are March raindrops I captured for you,
the photographer drenched in the downpour.

Was it worth it, a few words dripped on the page:
image to startle the eye, words to tickle the mind.

Christopher T. George















Of Asteroids and Asterisks

Health care got enacted and as Barack declared,
the earth didn't chasm, nor did asteroids attack us
tho' GOP eyes rolled and Obamacare's foes groaned.

Soon all those i's will be dotted and asterisks added
as the wheels of government creak into motion.

The new GOP cry has become "Repeal and Replace!"
But heading to November's polls, they best save face
-- to repeal the new reforms might bring more disgrace.

Christopher T. George

"Heap Bad Medicine"? Fellow Citizens! Is U.S. National Health Care Good For You?

Yes It Has Happened, America, Despite Republican Opposition! A Significant Victory for President Obama and for all of America, I truly believe.

As the Washington Post headline states this morning, "Divided House passes health bill. The Republicans who stirred the tea" -- the latter being of course a reference to the Right Wing "Tea Party" movement that has so vocally opposed what they call "Obamacare" which they liken to what they see as Socialized medicine and a significant shift of the country to the Left, if not a total Government take-over. (To read the Post story click on the title above.)

To hear the triumphant President and his Democratic allies speak, this is a great day for America and a great step forward. Even the Republicans admit it is the most massive social reform since LBJ passed Medicare in 1965, so the day is certainly significant whatever your political stripe! It will enact significant changes for the American people, including covering some 39 million Americans who are not currently covered by health insurance. It will enable individuals to purchase affordable health insurance and allow small employers to offer health care for their employees.

Republicans claim that Obama is saddling the American citizenry with debt for decades to come, taking us to the brink, wrecking the country. Of course that might not be the case if the last Republican President, George W. Bush, had not led us into an ill-advised war in Iraq in Spring 2003 (all that long ago????) on apparently trumped up evidence that Saddam Hussein had developed Weapons of Mass Destruction that Coalition forces were subsequently unable to locate, right? Oh, dear....

Arriving at Union Station this morning under stormy skies, I did hear some ominous booming sounds. What were they? Just thunder, Or the Metro rumbling under Union Station, or planes taking off at Reagan National Airport across the Potomac. Don't ask me. (There was a massive thunderclap at Noon today!) Whatever the case, this is an important day in the history of our nation. A whole new day.

I don't necessarily buy the rightist political argument that the Democrats will lose heavily in the Fall because they backed this health care reform package that supposedly, as they insist, most Americans do not want. That's not correct. As I have written before, powerful moneyed forces have been working for decades to defeat health care reform and probably no more so than in the last 12 months. And no doubt many ordinary Americans have been confused by the size of the bill, some 1,200 pages as the Republicans are quick to point out, and by the long and arduous legislative process. Health care is an intricate and complex problem and hard to explain. Most Americans when they are told about the good things in the bill, such as that you cannot be dropped by your insurer, no matter what or that you cannot be denied by an insurance company for a pre-existing condition, are for the health care package, once it is properly explained to them.

Now that the Dems have found the message, now that they have triumphed over the forces of "No" and have rediscovered their voice to explain the good that health care reform will do for all Americans. America should be proud. If only the late Senator Edward M. Kennedy (D-Massachusetts) had lived to see this day! Teddy Kennedy's dream as a Senator was to bring about national health care. It is finally happening. I understand Sen. Kennedy's widow Vicki will be on Larry King on CNN tonight.


Federal Eagle

Above the portal of the old Federal office,
a bronze eagle is emblazoned, green with age.
Health care reform has passed in Congress,
despite partisan foes and vested interests.
Gray storm clouds broil over Washington,
a thunderclap splits the air at midday.
I walk up a hill past pink cherry trees as
rain spatters my cheeks. On a rooftop corner
a roosting hawk silently watches and preens.

Christopher T. George




















Citizens, Will You Join Me in My Dream to Establish a National War of 1812 Museum in Washington, D.C.?

I have an idea for a National Museum of the War of 1812 and have identified a former US Department of Agriculture building at 300 12th Street SW close to the National Mall in Washington, D.C., that possibly could be the home for such a major museum and archives and research center dedicated to the War of 1812.

What attracted me to the building which is only a block from where I work in Washington, D.C., was the lovely Federal Eagle above the doorway, shown above. Around the doorway is the fasces design from Roman history, seen both on Baltimore's War of 1812 Battle Monument honoring the city's dead in the Battle of Baltimore of September 12-14, 1814, and on the old U.S. Morgan dime of the 1940's, I was taking photographs with my cell phone camera when I noticed the glass doors of the building were padlocked and the building unoccupied.

Frankly, I think such a project for a National Museum of the War of 1812 in our nation's capital might be more doable politically than the Bicentennial Commission that has stalled in Congress but that we advocates of the war still bring about -- not every state has a stake in the war, but the nation's capital was clearly at the center of events when the British captured Washington, D.C., the only attack on the U.S. capital by a foreign attacker before September 11, 2001. And what location could be more appropriate to tell the whole story of the War of 1812 than our nation's capital? This is a way to raise the visibility of the war and teach American citizens about the significance of a little understood war.

I have made a preliminary enquiry with the Government Accounting Office and have been told there are no plans at this time for the presently vacated facility, known as the Dept of Agriculture Annex or Cotton Building at 300 12th Street SW, a block south of the National Mall and the Smithsonian Castle, and within a mile or so, across the Mall, of the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History, where the newly restored Star-Spangled Banner that flew over Fort McHenry in September 1814 is housed. The same flag that inspired Georgetown lawyer and poet Francis Scott Key, detained on a truce ship in the Patapsco during the famous bombardment, to write a poem entitled "The Defense of Fort McHenry" soon to be renamed "The Star-Spangled Banner"!

I hope within the next several weeks to arrange with the GAO to tour the facility and see whether it in fact could be adapted for the purposes expressed above. Meanwhile there are photographs of the building in question as well as posts about the proposed museum on the Maryland Star-Spangled Banner 200 list at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/starspangled200. To get put on the list contact Kate Marks at KMarks@choosemaryland.org - you might need a Yahoo account to join.

Of course, as with the Star-Spangled Banner National Historic Trail that I helped initiate along with Mr. Robert Reyes, I realise the founding of such a National Museum of the War of 1812 will not be an easy task. Even so I would like to inform the list at this early stage of the attempt to initiate such a significant institution which will help inform the American public and overseas visitors of the importance of the War as we enter the Bicentennial celebration of those events 200 years ago.

Edgar Allan Poe Class and Tour with Christopher T. George

An unfamiliar, unmoustachioed Edgar Allan Poe looking more like he would have looked when he lived in Baltimore in 1829-1835 when he tasted his first literary success in his family's city.

I will be teaching a one-evening class with a day tour of sites associated with Poe in the Kaleidoscope program at Roland Park Country School (RPCS) on "The Mystery of Edgar Allan Poe." The class will discuss the mystery of Poe's death here in Baltimore in October 1849 as well as his many connections to the city.

Class night Thursday, April 29, 7:00 pm to 9:00 pm, with field trip, Saturday, May 1, 8:00 am to 4:00 pm. Bus will leave the parking lot at RPCS, 5204 Roland Avenue, Baltimore, Maryland 21210 (located between Northern Parkway and Deepdene Road; RPCS is about 1/3 of a mile from Northern Parkway on the right) promptly at 8:00 am and return by 4:00 pm. Class registration includes lunch at Patrick's of Pratt Street not far from the Poe House on S. Amity Street, West Baltimore. Download the Kaleidoscope program in pdf form through the title to this blog listing or call (410) 323-5500 x 3045 with any inquiries.
















Church Home Hospital, formerly the Washington College Hospital, on Broadway, East Baltimore, where the writer died in mysterious circumstances in October 1849, will be one of the stops visited on the tour.

A "Deeming Vote" for the Dems?

As reported in The Hill on Tuesday:

"Majority Leader Steny Hoyer on Tuesday defended a tactic that would allow the House to 'deem' the Senate healthcare bill passed without actually voting on the bill.

"Hoyer (D-Md.) said at his weekly news conference that a rule deeming the Senate bill passed is consistent with procedures and practices used by Republicans and Democrats alike, and that it’s appropriate for a bill that will be moments away from being amended anyway."

A "Deeming Vote" is a new term to me. When I first heard the term spoken on one of the cable news programs I was sure that the pundits were saying "Demon Vote" which of course would be utterly consistent with the way G.O.P. politicos have been characterizing Democratic plans to finalize health care reform!

I wonder if any of the Dems who are considering such a "Deeming Vote" know that Frederick Bailey Deeming was a mass murderer who killed his family in Rainhill, England, and then went to Australia with another woman whom he had romanced in England. Then he killed her too. Deeming, a confidence trickster who also went by the name of Baron Swanston, was found guilty of murder and hanged in Melbourne on Monday, May 23rd, 1892.

Newspapers of the day thought that Deeming could have been Jack the Ripper, the notorious but uncaught serial killer of London's 1888 "Autumn of Terror." Above is a press conception of Deeming with fifth canonical victim, Mary Jane Kelly, killed and grievously mutilated in her one-room lodging at 13 Miller's Court, Spitalfields, in the early morning hours of November 9, 1888. Certain it is that Deeming did have a thing for bladed weapons -- he had a collection of South African assegais among other nasty killing instruments.

Yet most Ripperologists discount Deeming, seeing him more as the family murderer he appeared on the surface to be. It is believed that the con man and killer was in South Africa at the time of the Ripper crimes.

He may not have been Jack but the Public Record Office of Victoria, Australia, have done an extraordinary job of putting on-line documents and information about Frederick Bailey Deeming. Check it all out by clicking on the title above.























With Jackie O and Joe Cocker at Union Station

Okay, so it wasn't Jackie O
-- a woman hustled by me with
an oil of the late Missus JKO.

And it wasn't Joe C -- a bloke
with Joe's pushed-in fizzog
and scruffy ponytail scuttled

thru with groupie toward the
U.S. Capitol dome, maybe to get
health care reform passed at last, pray,

"With A Little Help From My Friends."

Christopher T. George

Take This Bill and Shove It

According to a front page article in today's Washington Post (read the full article by clicking on the title above), "After laying the groundwork for a decisive vote this week on the Senate's health-care bill, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi suggested Monday that she might attempt to pass the measure without having members vote on it."

Well, yes, of course, because the Democrats are not sure they have the votes to pass the Senate bill, such is the strident opposition to it by Republicans both in the Senate and the House of Representatives.

And the American public supposedly doesn't want the bill because they have been soured on it by critics who say it is too expensive or would jeopardize what benefits they do have. Or else, the more extreme accusations, because President Obama and his Democratic cronies want "to pull the plug on Grandma" or bring Socialist medicine to the United States, the nation that the deluded think has "the best health care system in the world" -- indeed, friends, it is the best system in the world, . . . er, if you can afford it. You can have all the latest tests and procedures. Save up, Americans! Keep playing the numbers! Pray to your fuzzy dice.

How Ridiculous!!!! Of course all Americans want Good Health Care!!!!!! And Health Care Reform, if Americans did but know it, would be Good for them. Swallow that medicine, America. We all know medicine can taste nasty. But it makes you better. . . in the end.

My friends, isn't it more likely that the citizenry have been brainwashed and misled by the vested interests and fat cats who love their health care and don't care for the rest of us who can't afford health care???? And people who have been denied by insurance companies because of "pre-existing conditions" as the industry notoriously does. Oh, dear. Will President Obama and his allies be able to deliver health care or not? Aaaaargh. Stay tuned.



All for Oil and Allah

Jihad Jane and G.I. Joe got on down, created
a clutch of blue-eyed G.I.-Jihad terrorists,

a mixture we found both unexpected and unsettling.
What happened to racial profiling: the filthy Arab,

the raghead, the stereotypical Jihadist?
Don't tell us you're right here among us,

in suicide vests, ready to detonate
as we kiss each other's cheeks.

Christopher T. George


























Homage to Holy Frijoles

I'm in Hampden* to pick up our fajitas
because Holy Frijoles won't deliver,
they’re one of those go-to-places for
burritos, chimichangas, refried beans.

I'm waiting for them to finalize the order,
wonder if I should chug a beer at the bar,
a cool Dos Equis, Corona with wedge of lime
but instead I skulk around back with my cell-

phone camera, still with your ABBA CD ringing
in my ears (SOS!) that I heard on the drive over:
imagine I'm decked in turquoise spandex
and platform boots as I photograph detritus

left from the snow -- a crushed Bud can, myriad
cigarette butts and some mysterious eye graffiti
by the sign where the bank threatens to tow my car.
Finally, stroll back down the side of Frijoles, snap

the pictographs on the wall of the Aztecs
who used to populate Hampden centuries ago.

Christopher T. George

* Hampden is a working class area of Baltimore, maybe a bit akin to Wavertree in Liverpool, to characterize it for my Merseyside and British friends and other readers of this blog. The area has recently become yuppified with trendy restaurants, clothing boutiques, antique stores.

The neighborhood is a favorite place of movie maker and schlockmeister John Waters. He and I live about the same distance from the place. Johnny boy and his artsy thin moustache live just up the street from Donna and myself in an old carriage house. That's envy speaking.

But we can be the poor Waters neighbors. After all Donna put those two plastic purple flamingoes out on our balcony. :-)

Pop Goes the Weasel?

Khalid Sheik Mohammed, the self-proclaimed mastermind behind the Sept. 11 attacks, photographed while in detention at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

POP!!!!!

Wait, was that the sound of Obama's spine snapping?????

"Obama aides near reversal on 9/11 trial" -- a front page headline in today's Washington Post. Check out the on-line version of the article through the title above.

Despite Attorney General Eric Holder's earlier decision that the correct course of action would be to try the man who allegedly planned the Al Queda terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 in a New York civilian federal court and the established fact that under the Bush administration almost all terrorists were tried in such civilian courts, it appears the Obamaites are caving to unjust and unreasonable Republican pressure. Reports suggest the White House will reverse itself and prosecute Khalid Sheik Mohammed, the self-proclaimed genius behind the horrendous attacks, before a military tribunal.

An Obama administration official had said on November 13, 2009 that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four other Guantanamo Bay detainees would be sent to New York to face trial in a civilian federal court. Well, guess what, now, three months later, after relentless criticism from critics who claim that decision showed weakness in the face of the terrorist threat, as well as complaints from New Yorkers including Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg that a New York location for the trial could leave the city open to attack, the administration seems to have backed down and reversed itself.

Sorry, White House!!! This just goes to prove exactly what your critics have been saying: the current Obama administration has a backbone of Jell-o when it comes to dealing with terrorism. You should be able to stand up to your critics just as you should be able to stand up to terrorists. For shame. And by the way, New York a target for attack??? Give us a break. When has it not been a target for attack.... just like the entire United States.... ever since the Age of Terror began?

Once again, this shows that the White House needs to take charge of its own messaging and lead rather than appear to be unable to lead. Get your act together, Mr. Obama, please. You've sounded better recently on health care. Forceful. It needs to be done. Yes. Then get it done. If you don't get it done, your foes will get the win they crave through your defeat. That would be bad news for you and for the nation.
















Guilty

Okay, so I was home watching the AM ESPN soccer
match I'd promised to show you at your nursing home.
I know you won't remember my promise. I should be there

to take you for a drive, the ritual Royal Farms coffee
but there's been overnight snow, if just a light dusting,
and I'm still tired from our Wednesday night outing,

wheeling you in and out of the ladies, you squealing
as I took you out to the chill parking lot; a man glared
as if I was abusing you. In our politically correct times,

I could be brought up on charges. So I phone you now
to say I can't take you: I'm guilty as sin, the guilty son.
You tell me "Go to hell" and hang up: guilty as charged.

Later I walk to the deli, buy a cheap green plastic bottle
of scotch, take cell phone photos of wall moss, lichen,
and snow, and a fossil leaf dimpling sidewalk cement.

Christopher T. George












The Jury Pool

I've begun this poem in the Quiet Room
of the Baltimore City Courthouse;
the name is a joke given the periodic

belching flush from the restroom
in the corner. I've been dozing--
snooze interruptus; my lunchtime

BLT's repeat. A slumped fat guy snores,
his "Juror" tag rises, falls on his chest.
Woman with scarf wrapped round her head

might be the first casualty of jury service.
Fellow awake jurors clack on their laptops.
And I feel consoled: I've made this poem.

Christopher T. George

Signs of Spring?

Jonquil Advent

In soil free after weeks buried
under feet of frozen snow,

yellow shoots thrust up
hard by dwindling ice--

arise, jonquils, in gentle rain.
Arise! For your season has come!

Christopher T. George

A UK poet at FreeWrights Peer Review poetry forum (see link through title) questioned my use of the term "hard by" and some other elements of the above poem--

Hi C.T.G,

I had a job understanding line four, if the earth is clear of snow, where did the ice come from, I thought you said it was gently raining; it seems to be a contradiction in terms. Maybe you could explain what you mean by “hard by dwindling ice” did you perhaps mean that the narcissus were hard, or is it just some strange North American term. Last time I heard “hard by” used was at the Sheep Dog Trials at Keswick.
I rather like Poeticus they are rather appealing don’t you think...

Mor
The jack of doggerel.

I replied:

Hi Mor

Well I am from Liverpool as you may know but do admit some confusion any longer on what are Yankee or Limey terms. I would have thought "hard by" in the UK means "close to" just as it does here. And per the photograph and what I mean in the poem, the some 30-inches of snow we received here in the Baltimore-D.C. area within a week a month ago has now, through warmer temps and rain, mostly disappeared: what had been vast piles of snow turning into ice and melting away as described. I hope this helps. Thanks for reading and commenting.

Chris














Petals
look so pastel
pink by the red brick wall
-- the Korean rhododendron.
Beauty!

Christopher T. George




Photography and Poetry -- For Sale!

Gerry Temple, a talented photographer and poet in Derry, Northern Ireland, has made me aware that he is marketing some of his images combined with poems at a site called RedBubble.

Gerry reports:

"I've been putting a lot of my work onto another site that allows people who like my work to buy anything from a card right up to a poster.

"It's worth having a look there just to see some of the beauty some good photographers have captured."

Check out Gerry's beautiful poem and photograph "Calm":



Enjoy! I thought this might give a few of us some ideas on how to market our work.

Cheers

Chris

President Obama's "Dog and Pony Show"?

My favorite Republican, Michael Steele, chairman of the Republican National Committee (RNC) and former U.S. Maryland senatorial candidate (see links to my previous blog posts on Mr. Steele through the title above) declared yesterday morning on MSNBC's "The Daily Rundown" that President Barack Obama should have held his "dog and pony show"--the gathering yesterday at Blair House to bring together Congressional leaders of both parties--a whole year ago, when the Congressional Democratics began their effort to craft national health care reform legislation.

Specifically, Mr. Steele stated:

"This whole dog and pony show that we're about to witness today is something that should have taken place a year ago, when the administration first came in last February and laid out its agenda for health care. This is how you should have started it - bipartisan, public forum, CSPAN, your cameras rolling to capture this and to capture, most importantly, what the American people want. And right now, they want us to start over, and I think we should."

Of course, given Mr. Steele's scathing and dismissive characterization of the President's effort to enable bipartisanship on health care as "this whole dog and pony show," presumably the Republican national chairman would have thought such an event a year ago would have been equally of little consequence.

Reminded by "Daily Rundown" hosts Chuck Todd and Savannah Guthrie that President Barack Obama did indeed convene a similar forum on March 5 of last year in Baltimore, an "Oh" moment occurred for Steele showing how well briefed he was (an African-American Sarah Palin?). Todd stated, "And it wasn't just the legislative leaders. They brought in folks from the industry as well. And that one was televised. So. . . does that one not count? I'm just curious."

Steele replied lamely, "Well, apparently it didn't. Because we don't have health care. And we don't have reform like everyone is talking about."

The RNC Chairman was also asked why Republicans had not tried to enact health care during the eight years that Republicans had the majority under President George W. Bush. Well, replied Steele we had things like the Iraq War to worry about.

Oh, again.

Yes, indeed, if Bush had not led us into the ruinously expensive Iraq War that has not made America any safer, we might have the resources for things such as affordable health care that Americans need!



























Dreaming of Spring!!!!!


Blessed Are The Lawnmakers
(Dedicated to Senator Grassley of Iowa)

Every politician on the stump
(tree stump, that is) promises
much. They speak of high ideals,
gaze toward the purple horizon
and survey the lordly forest.

When they reach the Capitol
in Washington, they mutate
into Lawnmakers: bugs lost
among the blades of grass
unable to see the trees.




And Baseball season. . . . and Poetry, perhaps?


My Belated Confession

I admit it -- I cheated: I took steroids
-- they helped me to win all those awards,
the Pushcart, the Pulitzer, and the Nobel
-- even if it's ignoble of me to admit it.

Although I claimed that I took no stimulants
(here, I dab my eye) I've let down my family,
all my fans and all aspiring poets who believe
they can reach the pinnacle without a fix.

I confess, I doped myself up real fine. . .
I deserve to be stripped of everything.
For my success, anonymity I would trade.

My megalomaniac malice was incontestible,
my artful duplicity all too contemptible:
I fully deserve the world's tirade.

Christopher T. George

Health Care for All? Dream On. . . .

This Thursday, in the health care showdown. . . .

Republican leader John Boehner
and President Obama
will both show us what they have. ;)

Is it too much to hope that the American public will get the health care system that it needs and deserves? Well, probably not, because I think President Barack Obama made a rookie mistake in his first year of office in wishing for health care and handed the idea over to the Democratic leadership in Congress, Rep. Nancy Pelosi of California on the House side and Sen. Harry Reid of Nevada on the Senate side.

Obama should have led from the beginning instead of letting the Congressional Democrats do it because it led to all the sweetheart deals and wrangling that has characterized the health care debate over the past year and led to the mess we are in today.

Obama and the Democrats, moreover, did not do enough to defuse the charges of the vested interests that passage of health care would be bad for the country, would put us further in debt and lead to such things as "death panels" for Grandma.

Now in a televised meeting between the Democrats and Republicans at the Blair House in Washington, D.C., on Thursday, Obama will try to fix the impasse that his earlier lack of leadership has created.

As has been widely reported among the pundits, the Republicans have largely become the "Party of No" with some right wing commentators such as Rush Limbaugh and even certain conservative politicians as well openly saying they wish Obama will fail.

This is hardly a recipe for passage of health care that will provide coverage to the some 45 million Americans who are not covered, that will help lower skyrocketing premiums or ensure health care for those with pre-existing conditions. It does not look good, Playmates.

There was a Prez named Obama
who couldn't be dumber
to wish for health care
while foes yell "Don't you dare!
We would rather be sick Plumbers!"

When Obama took office, a few commentators predicted that he could be the new Franklin Delano Roosevelt, getting us out of a recession almost as bad as the Depression of the 1930's and finally passing landmark health care in a long-awaited and much-needed reform that could be likened to President Roosevelt's passage of Social Security or President Lyndon B. Johnson's passage of Medicare and Medicaid in the 1960's. A new New Deal like the one FDR gave the American people or a new Great Society similar to the one insituted by LBJ.

I do believe that with the Recovery Program instituted a year ago, Obama and his team saved this country from a worse recession, although Republican critics have carped at the cost and some Republican lawmakers have even refused "stimulus money" for their states or districts. As with the health care discussion, the wimpy Democrats lost the debate and let the Republican charges stick.

As far as I can see, the only PR victory was the "Cash for Clunkers" program that helped the U.S. automobile industry by allowing the public to trade in their old cars for new ones. "Cash for Clunkers" got good publicity and was widely reported to have been successful.

"Cash for Clunkers"--a great and nifty slogan that captured the public imagination. Obama and the Democrats need to come up with similar ideas for slogans that will help them win over the American people to the idea of health care reform. Americans need to be persuaded that such reform is good for them, as of course it is. Don't let the special interests and the rich cats win. They already have their health care. What do they care about the majority of American?

Go for it, guys. For the nation's sake, for the sake of all of us. Please!!!!

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .


Postscript written Friday morning, February 26:

President Obama's attempt to get Republicans on board to finalize health care has apparently failed. As reported on the Hill blog (see link through title), Republicans "continued to assail Obama's proposal for its cost and size, repeatedly asking the president to 'scrap the bill' and start over."

Democrats meanwhile seem prepared to pursue health care alone, through the so-called "Reconciliation Process" by which they will try to iron out the differences between the House and Senate bills and pass it in the Senate for Obama to sign.






















Donna's Purple flamingoes on our apartment balcony during the big Baltimore snow, February 10, 2010!



Purple Flamingo Out in the Baltimore Snow

It's a hard hard winter in Bawlmer
we ain't used to the white stuff
but we got our purple flamingoes
out on the balcony to memorialize
the Ravens who didn't go all the way
oh Poe save us do a flip in your grave
under the big marble hunk at the corner
of Greene and Fayette, city under feets
of the white stuff and s'more on the way
hey hey hey, wail the sax, thrum the bass
purple flamingo out in the Baltimore snow
purple flamingo out in the Baltimore snow
purple flamingo out in the Baltimore snow
oooo-wee purp flamingo in Bawlmer snow

Christopher T. George

What Was So Great About J. D. Salinger?

Let's face it, J. D. Salinger, who has just died at age 91, was a virtual one-hit wonder, known primarily for his 1951 novel The Catcher in the Rye, a well-thumbed copy of which was found famously in the pocket of convicted John Lennon assassin Mark David Chapman when the loner shot the rock star on the night of December 8, 1980. Chapman supposedly killed Lennon because he recognized in the former Beatle the same phoniness that Catcher in the Rye hero Holden Caulfield saw in the world around him.

What's the world's fascination with Salinger? Or is it a kind of Baby Boomer longing for a lost innocence, a desire to have what could not be, more literary jewels from the reclusive Salinger? An aching throb like a missing phantom limb? But Salinger was America's literary ghost long before his death, and in the nearly four decades since he last wrote for The New Yorker in mid-Sixties. He was literature's Greta Garbo. AWOL from the scene, understandably perhaps conjuring dreams among his admirers of a luminescent and glorious return like the legends that King Arthur or Elvis might one day return.

Now of course those same Salinger junkies have thoughts that there could be more great novels written by Salinger just waiting to be discovered. But couldn't it have been more that the writer realised that he had written his one great book and had nothing more left to contribute??? According to Lillian Ross, the writer once said he'd never "had the annoyance" of meeting Truman Capote.

That was a case, I suppose, of the admired superior moral values of Salinger, able to look down on the more commercially oriented Capote, a noted publicity hound. So thus did one literary legend dismiss another. Yet perhaps the real truth is that J. D. Salinger and Truman Capote were very much alike: two peas in a pod. Both famous mostly for just one great book each, The Catcher in the Rye and In Cold Blood, respectively. Their promises equally unfulfilled.

Hit the title above for a number of tributes to Salinger in The New Yorker of February 1, 2010. Enjoy!

Loch Raven Review 5th Anniversary Reading, Ukazoo Books, Towson, Saturday, February 13, 2010

Gabriele Munter, "Black Mask With Rose," 1912, from the cover of Loch Raven Review Print Volume 5 shortly to be published.

I am pleased to let you know that the Loch Raven Review Fifth Anniversary Reading will be held beginning at 2:00 pm on Saturday, February 13 at Ukazoo Books (www.ukazoo.com), 730 Dulaney Valley Rd., Towson, MD 21204, opposite Towsontown Town Center Mall (it is one of the stores behind Superfresh), (410) 832-2665.

We are aiming to have as many local poets/writers as we have published in the five years of our existence as are able to attend, maybe some out of towners too.

Scheduled readers include Caryn Coyle, Dan Cuddy, Jim Doss, Dave Eberhardt, Christopher T. George, Reginald Harris, Clarinda Harriss, Danuta E. Kosk-Kosicka, Dan Maguire, Mike Monroe, Michael North, and Dr Michael Salcman.

To read the latest material by these and other talented writers in the Winter issue of Loch Raven Review, just released, tap the title above. Enjoy!

All the best

Chris

The Brown Party: No More Red or Blue?

Of course, there's no real reason to think that U.S. Senator-elect from Massachusetts Scott Brown will be much different than any other of the vote-down-the-line Republicans who have been resistant if not to say obstructionist to the Democratically led health care proposal initiated by the Obama administration. But he did run more as an Independent than as a Republican, actually a very canny thing to do for a man who hoped to capture the Senate seat so long held by the late Edward M. Kennedy. And as a state senator in Massachusetts he did vote for the state's health insurance program even if he now opposes the proposed federal health insurance package now stalled in Congress. He even told ABC's Barbara Walters that he supports Roe versus Wade, the woman's right to choose. And on gay marriage he says that should be left up to the states. In Massachusetts, where gay marriage is legal, he states that the matter is "settled."

It would be nice to think that as a United States Senator for Massachusetts, Mr. Brown would be a genuine Independent. So far, he has called himself a "Scott Brown Republican" -- whatever that means. Might we dream perchance of a Brown Party that would help us break the gridlock that so often seized Washington? I really don't know whether the guy has what it takes. But maybe the former Cosmopolitan magazine centerfold has more going for him compared to that other rising rising (or is that falling???) star of the Republican Party, Sarah Palin, the former Governor of Alaska, lampooned on Saturday Night Live for saying she can see Russia from her house. Ahem.

Independent parties have not faired well in American politics; the national government has long been sewn up tight by the two main parties. Still, it would be nice to think that someone could throw some spice into the mix to get us out of the current impasse.

For more on Brown and a look at that Cosmo centerfold, tap the link through the title.

The State of the Onion

First off, it stinks.
And there are so many layers,
no wonder nothing gets done.
Or undone.

Christopher T. George



I am featured poet this week in Allen Itz's zine Here and Now, "Winter on the South Frontier," Friday, January 22, 2010. Get to it through the link in the title. Enjoy, my friends!



My Belated Confession

I admit it -- I cheated: I took steroids
-- they helped me to win all those awards,
the Pushcart, the Pulitzer, and the Nobel
-- even if it's ignoble of me to admit it.

Although I claimed that I took no stimulants
(here, I dab my eye) I've let down my family,
all my fans and all aspiring poets who believe
they can reach the pinnacle without a fix.

I confess, I doped myself up real fine. . .
I deserve to be stripped of everything.
For my success, anonymity I would trade.

My megalomaniac malice was incontestible,
my artful duplicity all too contemptible:
I fully deserve the world's tirade.

Christopher T. George




















Yoria Painting Within the Lines
To my mom, Yoria C. George

Tacked on the institutional varnished door
in your simple nursing home room, a flower
so garishly pink; did you choose the color?

You are proud to tell me you were the sole
patient to stay within the lines; I wonder
if you drew the flower too -- I fail to see

if the plant is printed. You are proud
at your age of eighty-nine, as I am, to recognize
this chink of light in your humdrum existence.



Blessed Are The Lawnmakers
(Dedicated to Senator Grassley of Iowa)

Every politician on the stump
(tree stump, that is) promises
much. They speak of high ideals,
gaze toward the purple horizon
and survey the lordly forest.

When they reach the Capitol
in Washington, they mutate
into Lawnmakers: bugs lost
among the blades of grass
unable to see the trees.

Christopher T. George

Steele in the Night: Flipping America the Bird

Several times in the past, I have criticized Republican Party Chairman and former Maryland Deputy Governor Michael Steele for the odd things he says and does (see link to my last blog post about Mr. Steele through the title above). Now Steele is back saying that the Democrats in Congress are "flipping America the bird" for the way they are trying to pass the health bill in the Senate before Christmas.

Of course Steele's remark is entirely in line with the policy of his fellow Republicans, to be obstructionists and to refuse to contribute to forming what will be, even in the watered down version of the bill as now conceived, landmark legislation concerning health care for all Americans, whether they be Democrats, Republicans, or Independents, the young, the poor, men, women, Latinos, native Americans, Christians, Jews, Muslims, etc. In short, All Americans.

The Republican strategy in fact flies in the face of history considering that Republicans such as Presidents Theodore Roosevelt and Richard M. Nixon tried to pass health care, as did former Republican vice presidential candidate Bob Dole, although in the end ironically he helped kill the late Senator Edward M. Kennedy's bill to institute health care.

Universal health care is long due here in the United States and is something that Republicans should want to see brought about for their constituents.

Republican Party Chairman Michael Steele's remarks are not helpful to the American people.

Priceless!

Christmas on the Moon

NASA has found water on the moon
and the intergalactic geeks exult
at the notion of a lunar space station.

Christmas has come early in Houston:
spangled gifts, the renewed dream
of intimacy with heavenly bodies,

intercourse at astronomic costs.

Christopher T. George



The Price of Poetry

Its worth?
Butterfly scales?
Beauty lacks any price.
We write masterpieces, demand
no wage.

Christopher T. George

At Desert Moon Review, Guy Kettelhack commented:

"well, we write, anyway! masterpieces? hmm: once every 164 yrs. maybe

"'beauty lacks any price' -- interesting twist on 'priceless' - sort of gives it a spin I hadn't thought of before - although it does perhaps imply that it 'lacks' a price because we haven't given it one yet. priceless (though cliche: wouldn't suggest you use the word here) implies we couldn't give it one.

I replied:

Yes, Guy, I do think "priceless" has two distinct meanings:

1) something is worth so much that you can put no price to it; and

2) the thing is so worthless that it has no price.

So two opposite meanings both with the same word, two meanings for the same price. Priceless! Ha ha.



I wonder how many other words have definitions that mean the exact opposite? This proves once again, what we already knew:

What a strange language English is!

Chris