he had an idea -- lets shoot people who throw stones

the Three Rs lest we forget -- though many may have or never learned them to begin with – are Reading Writing and ‘Rithmetic  ‘Rithmetic (the one he loved to torture  an ignorant child pulling the wings off a fly to turn it into an ant – he did say Ignorant) wasnt ‘Rithmetic to him rather ‘Rithmetric see what a clever little boy he was  and really enjoying his little idea he never again referred to it other than ‘Rithmetric  which earned him a corner in the classroom  a tall cone Dunce cap jammed down on his headfolding his ears in half his ears getting in the way of his ears  the teacherthe class knew what he was talking about but somehow his eccentricitieshis naming wasnt acceptable he could say the word correctlyhe didnt suffer any physical abnormalities that impaired his pronunciation  Arithmetic.  Say the word.  ‘Rithmetric  the teacherthe principal tried to turn it into something of a power play  when all he was doing was exhibiting the power of play  

even his parents couldnt convince him otherwise

that was the first time he was called incorrigible

incorrigible

           that had a nice ring to it 

so in addition to teaching himself the metric systemthe conversion of inches and feet and miles into centimeters metres and kilometres – Why shouldnt I  The rest of the world uses it  What does America think its so special – he persisted in his incorrigible way imaginingin his eyes  himself as an impregnable dirigible throwing its massive shadow across the ground and an enormous black space in the sky that blotted out the starsthe moon if he passed in front of it

there was comfort in being big and black   

lest we forget

              the Three Rs

he had an idea

trickle up

trickle down nauseated him

it didnt work

not for the Down people

reading one of the Rs he was reading Galeanos Open Veins reminded him of it this afternoon  

Galeano described early seventeenth century Spain  the Church was still getting its ya-yas out for The Inquisition

Spanish capitalists became no more than rentiers through the purchase of titles to Crown debts, and did not invest their capital in industrial investments. The economic surplus went into unproductive channels: the old wealthy class, the senores of gallows and knife, the owners of land and titles of nobility, built palaces and accumulated jewels; the new rich, speculators and merchants, bought land and titles. Neither the one or the other paid taxes worth mentioning, nor could they be imprisoned for debt. Anyone devoting himself to industrial activity automatically lost his membership in the gentleman’s club.

WOW

      a nifty description

of NOW

1552,  Friday,  2  11. 18
808 days or fewer remaining