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
808 days or fewer remaining
