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There Are 9 Central Beliefs We All Share. This Is #3.
Stop lying to yourself. You know you feel this way.
Admit it.
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I love Tom Waits so I have rec. I would have to admit that I am younger now at 44 yr old than I was even 7 years ago so for some reason growing up is making me feel younger now... I guess I learned not to take it all too seriously even when I am.
October 14, 2008 2:47 AM | Reply | Permalink
Compared to 7 years ago, there's so much more madness.... And yet, inside myself, and talking with family & friends, we all feel like there's so much crap we've cut through.
Which is maybe how the final verdict will come down on our generation - the weighing of the madness vs the clarity. I suspect much of that clarity will take the form of recovering our younger selves, our dreams- as opposed to abandoning it, as recommended daily by the media and the Serious People. they always seem to be pushing us to become "adult," "mature" and "responsible" - but in a very particular form.
Me? I'm with Tom.
October 14, 2008 3:17 AM | Reply | Permalink
Sigh. Dial-up. I so prefer it when people actually express their thoughts. Words seem to be a lost art - links are so much easier.
October 14, 2008 3:08 AM | Reply | Permalink
The lyrics.
Which are enjoyable on their own, albeit not quite the same as Tom Waits singing, and riding around in a devil suit on a tricycle.
October 14, 2008 3:48 AM | Reply | Permalink
Enjoyable, indeed. Why is it that words alone are considered weak? I feel that they lead us, protect our lack of comprehension. Perhaps they complete us - if we let them.
October 14, 2008 4:05 AM | Reply | Permalink
Not everyone has a good relationship with words.
October 14, 2008 4:29 AM | Reply | Permalink
What about worms?
October 14, 2008 5:32 AM | Reply | Permalink
Ewwwwww! Not worms...
October 14, 2008 5:57 AM | Reply | Permalink
I believe the relationship between Words & Worms is most fruitfully spelled out here.
The final Edict? Stay away from Worms, that's my view.
October 14, 2008 1:51 PM | Reply | Permalink
From Peter Pan (the broadway musical, not James Barrie):
"I won't grow up; I won't grow up;
I don't wanna go to school,
To wear a serious expression,
And recite a silly rule, and recite a silly rule...
'Cause growing up is awfuller,
Than all the awful things that ever were.
I'll never grow up, never grow up,
Never grow uh-up.
No Sir -- not me, not I, no Sir, not me!"
October 14, 2008 7:00 AM | Reply | Permalink
Cut through crap? Hell, I had an easier time posting on a BBS 20 years ago.
October 14, 2008 5:40 AM | Reply | Permalink
And I've updated my profile a few times and it keeps wiping it out. If this keeps up I'll remember how to spell "misanthrope" for good.
[Thanks TPM for reminding me to sign in again since the 15 seconds since I last signed on was oh so long. Oh wait, now where's the submit button? Perhaps I just need to hit enter - no guts no glory, here it goes... Oh, didn't work, fancy that. Screen refresh/F5? Hey, the comment is still there, didn't even have to paste. Okay, I start to get it - this system is almost completely counter-intuitive, so if I just do things opposite of what any sentient being might do, I'll likely get close to the result I wanted. Designed by sub-humans for sub-humans.]
October 14, 2008 5:45 AM | Reply | Permalink
Hey Q, do you use Explorer?
October 14, 2008 5:46 AM | Reply | Permalink
Most days, I use (in order): Explorer, Sensodyne, iMac (78" monitor). Panasonic, Aveeno (with natural colloidal oatmeal) (menthol), Cialis, Wilson Pickett (Don't Let The Green Grass Fol You), Peter Jackson Light Kings, Smuckers, Cialis XTRA, Lemon Pledge, Blackberry, Cialis ROCKIT ALL-WEEK, Rockport (10 1/2), Folgers and... Cialis.
I find that keeps me going.
Oh. Safari.
October 14, 2008 12:36 PM | Reply | Permalink
Does this new software let us withdraw a question?
Did anyone bother to explain the purpose of Cialis to you, or did you just start latching on to internet orders thinking it must be some fantastic hair-growth remedy? Never mind, only 243 packages to go, poor guy.
October 14, 2008 8:13 PM | Reply | Permalink
I tell ya, that can of Pledge looks awwwwwful good right about now.
October 14, 2008 9:36 PM | Reply | Permalink
78" monitor??? And I suppose you use 1950's 3-D glasses to view it? Jesus. Granted, I've been embarrassed before by taking people seriously who were snarking. Nonetheless, even the concept of a 78" monitor -- at least if it belongs to a man who espouses wind power et al -- is pitiful/pitiable.
How does this relate to the admirable (title may be wrong) Into The Wild (except in wild ass excess)?
October 18, 2008 6:12 PM | Reply | Permalink
The 4 mentions of Cialis didn't tip you off? ;-)
Naw, it's a pretty normal screen......
October 18, 2008 6:29 PM | Reply | Permalink
Oh, thank you, peanut. THAT'S funny.
October 14, 2008 6:48 PM | Reply | Permalink
So nice to wake up and have a Tom Waits momement. Thanks Q. Cocked my day off in the right direction.
October 14, 2008 7:19 AM | Reply | Permalink
A Tom Waits moment? Ain't that coffee and a half a pack of cigarettes? Maybe a shot if no one's looking?
October 14, 2008 8:26 AM | Reply | Permalink
One moment, in the eye of Tom Waits, may be 1,000 years to a mere man.
Then again, the reverse is also probably true.
October 14, 2008 12:40 PM | Reply | Permalink
Who ever really grows up? Nobody, that's who. Bill Bennet? Ha! Does Bill Kristol really think he's a grownup? Thhhppphht! They're two of the biggest babies I know! Nyah-nyah-nyah-nyah!
Thanks for the Waits. Good vibe for the A.M. I'm off to work, now. But in my heart I'm waiting for the first decent snow so I can throw my first snowball at a moving vehicle. Heh-heh...
October 14, 2008 7:30 AM | Reply | Permalink
Ok, which part of the following equation does NOT compute:
Loki + Work.
Now I'm too frightened to leave the house.
October 14, 2008 12:42 PM | Reply | Permalink
I didn't say it was hard work or anything! ;^}
October 14, 2008 7:31 PM | Reply | Permalink
Probably a hard snow ball.
October 14, 2008 8:14 PM | Reply | Permalink
Note Tom didn't take questions from the crowd.
(Loved the Waits movie "Down by Law.")
October 14, 2008 8:14 AM | Reply | Permalink
Why do guys love this particular Waits song? I mean, the guy's a religion with me, but give me Tom Traubert's Blues, Big in Japan, Come on Up to the House, Looking for the Heart of Saturday Night, That Feel...
It's not that I ever particularly wanted to grow up. This song just leaves me cold as a Waits piece. Seems like a throwaway. Hate the guitar work.
Think this is a girls thing as opposed to guy thing?
October 14, 2008 10:40 AM | Reply | Permalink
Oh but I loved the devil suit stuff to let me get on up on it.
October 14, 2008 10:52 AM | Reply | Permalink
It was never one of my favorite Waits' bits - tho that fat fuzzed guitar helped. Then I wandered (belatedly) across the video, and that just made it into something else. Everytime I hear it now, I see the devil on the trike.
Figured if I was going to do late-night testing of the new system's ability to link, might as well leave it up as some fun for people as they trooped off to the slaughterhouse. Errrrr, you know.
October 14, 2008 12:46 PM | Reply | Permalink
Moose, you look really wasted in the photo up there on the right. Everything OK?
October 14, 2008 10:44 AM | Reply | Permalink
Tom Waits is cool (I especially liked his work in Mystery Men, and his song "Step Right Up" is a favorite along with "Old 55").
But I couldn't wait to grow up. To have my own money, to have sex (as the old Higgins Boys and Gruber routines said) with a partner, to be free of the school system and its social dictatorship, to be able to drive cars and/or ride motorcycles.
Of course growing up is scary - it's dangerous. Ultimately, no one ever survives the process. As I used to say when I taught motorcycle safety classes: it is assuming both personal freedom and personal responsibility for the consequences of that freedom.
October 14, 2008 12:28 PM | Reply | Permalink
Father. Somehow the idea of you giving Motorcycle Safety classes frightens me even more than the idea of Loki "working."
I get you on the freedom & responsibility thing. But if I had to do a real post on this one, I'd say the versions they (fill in your favorite "they" here ______) feed us are utter codswallop. For starters, we've built a massive economic machine that cultivates fear & greed, hits our pre-rational impulse buttons so fast & hard they're damn near wore out, is objectively unable to survive on its present trend-lines, which increases our (the creators, participants & beneficiaries) dissatisfaction, and tells us that lying in the name of all the above is socially productive.
In short, their freedom ain't free. And their responsibility pretty much means "play along & keep your mouth shut."
What I'd prefer to see is a version of "growing up" which meant more fully realizing the kid within us, not abandoning it to the long weeds in the ditch as we jumped in the cab. And I mean that seriously, in economic & political & sexual & musical & practical terms - this ain't me hitting the Pop Psych button.
Besides, you're the dude with the collar. And I seem to remember your Boss telling us to pay attention to the kids, even to become as they are. Which people - natch - never take seriously. No serious adult does, eh?
October 14, 2008 1:02 PM | Reply | Permalink
It's amazing to see actual pictures and YouTube embeds here at the TPM Cafe. I'm all choked up.
October 14, 2008 4:19 PM | Reply | Permalink
Yeah, it's kinda cool, eh? I hope it doesn't end up with everyone just being an idiot (comme moi) and slapping video's up the way we (often) link articles now, but it really could add something. Just the occasional map or schematic or pic or vid would be nice. This was just a test-drive that I thought might be nice to have land as people tuned in in the morning.
Although, Tom Waits in the morning is always a bit of a dodgy call.....
October 14, 2008 6:59 PM | Reply | Permalink
Call me old-fashioned. Or barefooted, either one.
I still like words.
October 14, 2008 8:51 PM | Reply | Permalink
And words won't bring me down.
Wow, I got to use that twice in a day.
October 15, 2008 2:23 AM | Reply | Permalink
I hope you're quoting French porno & not Aguilera, or we may have a problem. Bringing Christina into my post ain't called for.
October 15, 2008 2:55 AM | Reply | Permalink
Who wants sex?
October 15, 2008 6:31 PM | Reply | Permalink