Category Archives: Uncategorized

Best Experienced With:   Afghan Wigs;    Can’t Get Enough of Your Love

(please right click on the link below to open the suggested background music for this evening’s treatise in a new browser window.  Chock full o’ soul song for a Thursday night.)

 

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nZpZQ4niGWc

 

Received a note from an old friend last evening that ended with “Now I will leave you alone and go back to being a mom and hopefully with any luck can try and raise my kids with open minds and the willingness to listen to others.”  Hamsters starting running at full speed.  They ran all day.

 

Many of us first met the Church of The Latter Day Saints through a wonderful 1973 short film titled Cipher in the Snow.  We watched that film in Catholic CCD class soon after it came out.   Did you see it or read the short story?  Cool flick to watch with your kids if you have any.  If you don’t have any kids, invite the neighborhood over for movie and popcorn night.  Tell the neighbors it’s pot luck and you can eat for free the rest of the week.  You are welcome.

Was thinking about the Cliff Evans character in Cipher in The Snow the other day as RevolutionMuslim.com called for Trey Parker and Matt Stone’s death and as folks coast to coast joked about God striking down the sitting President on their Facebook profile.   Hate and anger are interesting animals.  I speak this from experience, having completed most of my doctoral studies  in anger.  Very seldom do you wish you could take back a compliment or a laugh.  Most of us wish we could take back angry or hateful statements three minutes after they pop out.  Few of us have egos strong enough to take them back.  Most of us unwisely defend an untenable position.  Things escalate.     Boom.  

 

Thought about Cipher in The Snow more this evening as I read about Phoebe Prince’s January suicide.  The young lady from Boston who hung herself after too much bullying from nine mean and nasty kids at school.  That’s a damn shame.  Somehow along the way our youth have gotten mean and nasty.  Some are armed and angry.  Wonder where they are picking that up?

 

Constitutional Law is fascinating.  Our Constitution may one of the most engaging and well written documents in the universe.  Only twenty-seven changes in over two hundred years of use.  Wonderful document and a group of nine bright folks charged with running our highest and most entertaining appellate court.  Regardless of your politics, most will agree that over a long enough event horizon the Supreme Court makes solid decisions.  The rest are morons.  Just kidding.

The Supreme Court hears both sides, retire to their chambers, take off those hot robes and have what is I imagine a very civil debate on the issue at hand.  Perhaps Hostess snack cakes and ice cold milk are served?  The Court votes and the majority or plurality authors the “winning” side of the vote.  I love when the Court is in session because it is great fun to read the “losing” side’s dissenting opinion.  You want to teach your children to be good people and argue well with others?  Have your children read the Supreme Court’s dissenting opinions.

 

There is certain eloquence in all Supreme Court dissenting opinions.  Our Supreme Court Justices know how to disagree without spewing hatred and vitriol.  There’s also a lot of reading between the lines in the dissenting opinions and reading between the lines is more fun than a barrel of monkeys.  The yapping rat dog haters in the Tea Party movement and yapping rat dog haters inthe newly formed far left wing Anti-Tea Party movement could learn from this eloquence.  Lots of silly yelling and screaming and hate coming from both of those groups these days.

The dissenting opinions do not attack people.  They discuss, in a well thought out and logical manner, why the minority disagrees.  There is no anger, there is no character assassination; there is only a well crafted dissenting opinion.  Very eloquent.

 

Earlier this week, the Supreme Court struck down a lower court’s ruling that it was illegal for a Virginia gentleman to sell graphic dog fighting videos on the web.   The ruling reaffirmed the First Amendment right to free speech and this gentleman will be allowed to sell his dog fighting videos again this week.  Up here in The Attic we despise those that hurt animals and yet embrace that First Amendment tightly.  Well done, Supreme Court.   I do not hate you:  you were doing your job.  Let’s hug it out.

 

The two best lines from Supreme Court opinions are “slippery slope” and “have a chilling effect”.  The first is from Lamont v. Postmaster General, the latter from dozens of other opinions. 

 

Hatred is a slippery slope.   Hate and character assasination have a chilling effect upon the reasonable and logical free exchange of differing opinions.  Hate discourages hugging it out at the end.

 

Should you find yourself being dragged into a hateful debate, get yourself out rapidly so that you may enjoy your day more fully.  De-escalate.  Feel free to use one or all of the following (Mind of Mully patent pending) questions to gracefully remove yourself from a potentially moronic hateful debate.  The fourth, fifth, and sixth questions are best used sequentially in that exact order.

1. How about them Browns?
2. Do you really buy into that Pythagorean Theorem hocus pocus?
3. How much do you weigh?
4. Would you be able to overpower a bear in order to save a helpless child or a picnic basket?
5. Really?
6. Same question, but the bear is a large anthropomorphic bear wearing a fedora with a smaller bear friend.  The smaller bear has on a bow tie.  Could you overpower both those bears to save a helpless child or a picnic basket?

 

The Mind of Mully

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Bonus Afghan Wigs track if you dug the song you played above

(Miles Iz Ded……..perfect weekend song.  Or, a perfect Tuesday night song if you are investigating twelve step programs yet have not yet found the one that suits your lifestyle.)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3hKdGfl4ltE

 

Best Experienced With:   Michael Stanley Band;   Let’s Get The Show on The Road

 (please right click on the link below to open the suggested background music to this evening’s treatise in a new browser window.  If you are not from The Land of Cleve you may not have had the MSB experience….once you hear this you will mentally hug me over this WWW)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HgFsiDtC2fk&feature=related

 

Whenever I watch Saint Elmo’s Fire (three times a week), there are two lines that always catch my fancy.  First one is when Rob Lowe’s character is laying on the ground and Demi Moore’s character says “you let everyone down, Danny”.  That line still haunts me and speaks to me from a relationship point of view.  As it should.  I was a poor dater from 1972 through 1999.  

 

Second line that resonates from that flick is “do you believe in pre-marital sax”.   The song you cued up when you right clicked that link has one of the finest saxophone performances in the history of recorded wind instruments.  Was listening to some old Michael Stanley Band this evening.  We will get to the Michael Stanley Band later.  My brain needs to vomit on the keyboard for a bit.

 

As the career adventure choices have evolved throughout the years and the team members I brought on board changed, the interview questions have also evolved and changed.   One question that has survived the test of time and will remain on the question list until the sun burns out is: “do you feel you are lucky”?  Not my question.  The gentleman that took a shot on me and afforded me the opportunity to enter surgical sales in 1989 when I was a waiter at a Fairfield, Ohio Bennigan’s asked that exact question in the third and final interview.   I answered “yes” and stole the question.  

Have never, ever, ever hired a candidate for any position that answered “no” for several reasons.  First, it’s more entertaining to work with folks that believe The Random is smiling down on them from the minute their foot hits the floor in the morning until they vigilantly floss late at night.  Second, those that feel they are lucky tend to attribute success, rightfully so, to things other than themselves.  This makes them good leaders in the future.  Finally, those that feel they are “unlucky” tend to not own their actions.  They attribute the good things to themselves and blame comets, poor timing, and the fact they forgot their lucky Sears Gold Toe socks at home for their business misfortunes.

 

 

Those of us fortunate enough to grow up in The Land of Cleve were exceptionally lucky to have WMMS as our album oriented rock radio station.  One of the first AOR stations in the country, WMMS created educated, well rounded music fans.  Back in those days there were three primary AOR stations:  WBCN in Boston, KLOS in Los Angeles, and WMMS in Cleveland.  WMMS was by far the finest of the three.

 

The Land of Cleve already had a head start as the Rock and Roll city because we were lucky enough to have Alan Freed coin the term “rock and roll” in The Land of Cleve in 1952.   Alan Freed and The Land of Cleve had the first rock and roll concert at Cleveland Arena in 1952.   Rolling Stone magazine bestowed upon WMMS the title “Radio Station of The Year” nine consecutive years from 1979 to 1987.   WMMS bestowed upon we lucky Clevelandianites things such as this………….

 

 

We music lovers were lucky to grow up in Cleveland.

 

Back in the late 1970’s, two bands towards the right side of the United States each released several albums to critical acclaim.  Both received serious airplay on WMMS.  The first artist was Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band and we all know how it turned out for them.  The second one is the band you are listening to right now, The Michael Stanley Band.  If you grew up in Cleveland, all you heard in the late 1970’s and early 1980’s was Bruce and Michael….Michael and Bruce.  Pre-pinko  Bruce and Michael.  The good pre-pinko Bruce stuff, like “For You” and “New York City Serenade”.  

Kid Leo and the crew at WMMS gave equal time to both bands, and by some stroke of luck the correct person heard the kids from Asbury Park and missed the kids from The Land of Cleve.  Fame and fortune for one and two annual Cleveland reunion concerts for the other.  My cousin Bo (pictured above in his natural keyboardist state)  has been an amazing musician since he could walk.  A few years back, The Random smashed him into My Morning Jacket when MMJ needed a keyboardist.  Bo has always been ridiculously talented and hard working:   one day he got lucky and found the perfect match.   Olin & The Moon, a Cali band I was lucky enough to bump into last year, is more talented than 97.2% of the bands any of us listen to and they have no major label yet.      Music is odd like that.

 

If you have ever been in love, are in love now, or plan on being in love some day, odds are that some chance meeting allowed you to meet your significant other.  Love, more than most things, is a product of luck and The Random.  Had you not joined your friends at that Tuesday night happy hour three years ago or if you made a right to grab pine nuts instead of left to grab a bottle of Jack Daniels at Vons, you may have not met the person you are madly in love with right now.     For example, let’s say they reopened Heathrow Airport last Sunday for a volcanic test flight and Natalie Imbruglia was brave enough to be on that volcanic test flight.  Let’s say Natalie sat in 3A, turns to her right and sees me sipping champagne in 3B.  That would be a lucky day for Natalie Imbruglia, indeed.      Love is odd like that.

 

Regardless of one’s talent in love, business, or music, luck is generally going to be the deciding factor that tips the scale.  It’s not logical, predictable, or fair but it sure makes it fun to get up every day to see what The Random is going to smash you into, doesn’t it?   Make sure you floss every night.  The Random hates poor dental hygiene.

 

That, in a nut tree orchard, is why I only hire those that believe they are lucky and yes, yes I do.  I wholeheartedly believe in premarital sax.  Thanks for asking.

 

 

 

The Mind of Mully

 

Today’s for sale

And it’s all you can afford

By your own admission

The whole thing’s got you bored

 

 

And the Lord uses the good ones

 

And the bad ones use The Lord

Ephesians 3:20

 

 

 

 

Best Experienced With:          Bob Schneider;    40 Dogs

(please right click on the link below to open the song in a new browser window or the Tuesday night sing-a-long won’t be terribly exciting for you.  Sitting there following the bouncing balls with no music in the background is only 23% as fun as following the bouncing ball and singing along with the music.)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6w5Y05f0Lig

 

Thanks for stopping by this evening.  We’re going to bring back something we have not done on a Tuesday night in years:  a bouncing ball sing-a-long, led by Mr. Bob Schneider from Austin, Texas.   Horn em’ hooks!   Or whatever….

Just after the dinner desire photo, you’ll find Mr. Schneider’s lyrics and helpful bouncing balls to follow.  We all sing like bags of rabid cats being pummeled against a wall so feel free to belt it out.   Really explore the space and give us all more cow bell.

 

 Ready?    5,6,7,8……………

 

Well if I spell it out, if I get it out,
Will you hear me when I tell you about
What I have to say, before it gets too late?
It’s not as easy as I said it’d be,
But there’s something right about you and me,
Something right about you and me.

 

 

 

Well you’re the color of a bird, a brook..
You’re the color of a sideways look from an undercover cop in a comic book
You’re the color of a storm in June,
You’re the color of the moon.
You’re the color of the night, that’s right,
Color of a fight – you move me.
You’re the color of the colored part of The Wizard of Oz movie.

 

We’re like Romeo and Juliet,
We’re like 40 dogs, cigarettes,
We’re like good times that haven’t happened yet but will.
And I can tell you where we’re gonna be
When the whole world falls to the sea:
We’ll be livin’ ever after, happily.

 

All the boys taking you for granted,
Tell you what they want with their eyes all slanted.
I don’t like the way they look at you,
I don’t like the way they talk to,
I don’t like the way they talk to you.
I wouldn’t let ’em talk to you like that.

 

 

Put ’em up high, reach for the ceiling.
Tell them that I’ma walk, damn it, I’m real,
And it ain’t no crime, it’s just dreams we’re stealing –
Anything to get more of this feeling

You take the high and I’ll take the low,
We’ll get there before you know.
We ain’t got no time to waste,
We got too much life to taste.

 

 

 

We’re like Romeo and Juliet,
And 40 dogs, cigarettes,
We’re like good times that haven’t happened yet but will.
And I can tell you where we’re gonna be
When the whole world falls to the sea:
We’ll be living’ ever after, happily.

Sometimes you remind me of a moonbeam,
On the ghost of a moonbeam out on the beach,
Down by the coast, slip into the night,
Like the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen.

 

Come out tonight, come out with me, baby.
We’ll throw the careful into the crazy,
Turn the sky black into a sky blue,
Turn the close shave into a whoo-hoo.
What I say is true, to make a fire, gotta burn a few,
To make a fire, gotta burn a few,
We can do what we want to do.

We’re like Romeo and Juliet, 40 dogs, cigarettes,
We’re like good times that haven’t happened yet but will.
I can tell you where we’re gonna be
When the whole world falls to the sea:
We’ll be living ever after, happily.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Well done.   Thanks for joining.   Bonsoir, salut, a revoir, and a demain…..

 

 

 

Best Experienced With:          Kings of Leon;      Use Somebody

(please right click on the link below to open the suggested background music for this evening’s treatise in a new browser window.)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MRgFeZa_I48

 

While driving through a parking lot this evening, happened upon a young lady with very unfortunate arm ink and even more unfortunate face metal.  Mostly the face metal directly under her lip.  By “happened upon” her, I mean she almost unwittingly became part of the Thunderbird’s left front quarter panel as she wandered off the curb, sullen faced, looking down at her iThingie.  Most likely she was catching up on Robert Smith from the Cure’s latest Twitter nonsense or looking up a Wiccan ceremony to perform this evening to conjure up even more ennui in her life.

Was unable to take a good photo of the unfortunate under the lip metal so the Mind of Mully crack scene reconstruction crew did the mock up below.  This is a true representation and, as noted, to scale.  Clearly, this young woman does not have a good role model in her universe.  That’s too bad because there as so many wonderful female role models in the world.   Just have to look up from the iThingie once in a while and find the one that best fits your aquarium.  

 

My three sisters were fortunate to have my mother as a role model.  Mom has worked almost every day from 1959 until three hours ago in The Land of Cleve…..that’s EST.  She pursued and attained several degrees, the last one in her late 40’s.  Mom never takes anything too seriously, laughs a lot, has a heart the size of Jupiter, and a brain size that rivals Alaska’s in square footage.  Much like The Dude. Kathy Mulligan abides.  

Seeing that poor young woman with the unfortunate face metal made me ask myself the following question:

“Self, if you had a daughter and that daughter’s mother was a Kardashian, what three non-Kardashian women would you want to be your daughter’s role model?”

Briefly, the hamsters drifted off the wheel to thoughts of Thanksgiving foot races with Bruce Jenner at whatever Kardashian home we rotated Thanksgiving to that year.   Barefoot Thanksgiving foot races after dinner with just me and Mr. Jenner!  Each Thanksgiving we would hobble Bruce Jenner like Annie Wilkes does to Paul Sheldon in Stephen King’s Misery, just to keep it sporting.  My poorly and scantily clad Kardashian would cheer me on as I sprinted,  rueing the day I joined the Kardashian clan.

Back on point.  In a world seemingly dominated by The Man, there are still many wonderful women role models that have said “no mas” to their situation and the plight of women where they are.  Brilliant and strong women that persevered and made a difference for many.  

Here are Mind of Mully’s top three women role models.  Feel free to share these three with your friends or any young woman that has unfortunate face metal or may be contemplating unfortunate face metal because she has not yet found the proper role model.

Benazir Bhutto:  Pakistan

 

If you had nothing to gain and everything to lose……if your assassination was at least eighty percent certain, would you return to a patriarchic country for an election?  What if your father won an election and then was subsequently hung when you were twenty-six and then you yourself were imprisoned time and time again until you went into exile in London.?  Would you return home for an election?  

Benazir Bhutto was the first woman to serve as prime minister in an Islamic country back in the mid-1980’s when she was thirty-five.   35.   Then we have the “yadda yadda” years with a Groundhog Day repetition of imprisonment, threat of death, elected again as prime minister, imprisonment, exile, husband imprisoned, yadda yadda.  You get the picture.

How strong is your will and character to go back to Pakistan in late 2007 for elections?   Knowing some whack job would take you out, which is exactly what happened?   “You can imprison a man, but not an idea. You can exile a man, but not an idea. You can kill a man, but not an idea.”

True, that quote.  Beautiful woman with remarkable strength and convictions.

Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf:  Liberia

 

If Haiti is this hemisphere’s example of a Horatio Alger story going horribly wrong and ending after the fourth page, Africa is that Horatio Alger analogy for women.  The home of ritualistic vaginal mutilation, the highest per capita physical abuse of women, and a continent where, even today, rape is used as a warfare tactic is where we find role model number two.  Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf.

On January 16, 2006 Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf became the first democratically elected female president of an African nation.  Not just any African nation, but a seriously messed up African nation that had been through decades of ugly civil war where children as young as six were used as soldiers.  Samuel Doe marked Ms. Johnson-Sirleaf for death in the 1980’s and she chose exile in Kenya.  Though Kenyan for a bit of time, she never competed in or won the Boston Marathon.

Fortunately she was then charged with treason and marked for death by crazy dictator man number two, Charles Taylor.  Long story short, Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf stayed the course, stayed with her moral and ethical compass and in November, 2005 became the first democratically elected president on that misogynistic continent.  

We will finish up with my favorite, and perhaps one female role model who has fallen by the wayside.   If you want some idea of her strength, rent the 1995 movie Beyond Rangoon.   Good flick. 

Aung San Suu Kyi:  Burma

 

 

Going to go ahead and call it Burma here because I do not recognize the new name, Myanmar……..mostly because Myanmar is only half as fun to say aloud.   Aung San Suu Kyi won the Nobel Prize recipient and the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought.  She has never won my coveted Polk Award.

No one gets to see these two awards on her mantel or on a moronic Fox News interview because Aung San Suu Kyi has been under house arrest for most of the past twenty years.  Despite the silly fact she won the general election with 59% of the vote in 1990.  Popular elections are overrated and uneeded when the miltary runs the government.   Her husband passed away from cancer without the ability to see her one last time because the junta denied his visit.  What are the odds Aung San Suu Kyi wishes Burma was an oil producing Islamic country?   Peaceful democratic movements seldom work unless lots and lots and lots of dinosaurs died under your country millions and millions of years ago.

Ever the champion of the dispossessed and disenfranchised, Aung San Suu Kyi  owns the following two statements.  “The value systems of those with access to power and of those far removed from such access cannot be the same. The viewpoint of the privileged is unlike that of the underprivileged.”   And, “It cannot be doubted that in most countries today women, in comparison to men, still remain underprivileged.”

 

If you have a long plane ride or if you have a daughter or niece that enjoys reading books by fearless female role models, buy The Voice of Hope.   It’s an engaging and enlightening read.  

Aung San Suu Kyi understands the importance of women as expressed by the widely known United Nations Millennium Development Goals and the very seldom recognized Mind of Mully “HEY…..IT’S ABOUT THE WOMEN AND CHILDREN” goals.  Perhaps we should not have put those goals in all caps.  Most folks do not like shouting.   Good thing it’s a plutocracy up here in The Attic.  LeBron James and Larry Ellison pay for all this Mind of Mully silliness.  Neither is a misogynist. 

If you see some kid with the face gear shown below or if you are a kid with face gear like the face gear shown below, please get over here.   Group hug.   There are plenty of wonderful and magical female role models in the world.  You can not like your mom and still find positive role models in the world.   You can take that silly thing out of your face.\

It’s OK to hate your mom.  My mom found her mom face down drunk in the living room more nights than she found her upright making dinner when she got home from school.   Her father died from cirrhosis of the liver when she was young.  Mom looked elsewhere for role models and took a different path, a path sans face metal or that irresponsible 1960’s hippy crap.   As mentioned earlier, my sisters were fortunate to have Kathleen Mulligan as a role model.  My nieces are just as fortunate to have my sisters as their mothers for exactly the same reason.  

Quo erat demonstradum…………………..

‘

The Mind of Mully

 

While you live it up

I’m off to sleep

Waging war to shake the poet

And the beat

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Best Experienced With:          Dylan & Will-i.-am;       Forever Young

(please right click on the link below to open the suggested background music in a new browser window.  Thank you The Band, Mr. Dylan, Mr. i-am. and Pepsi)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NSy2jbGB-Do

 

Jeffrey Goines quotes from the movie Twelve Monkeys:

“There’s no right, there’s no wrong, there’s only popular opinion.”

“Toys…..toys that want get out!”

 

 

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Mind of Mully

 

May you always do for others

And let others do for you

May you build a ladder to the stars

And climb on every rung

 

…….and may you stay forever young.

 

 

Best Experienced With:        Cake;            Sheep Go To Heaven

(please right click on the link below to open the suggested background music on life, love, and waffles in a new browser window.  Turn it up and really explore the space)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e0mx5ERj1eI

 

Antoine de Saint Exupery stopped by The Attic this morning for breakfast and he was vexed.  As we skillfully sprayed I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter on the piping hot blueberry Eggo waffles, he ‘splained the vexation.

Seems that with Facebook, iThingies, and 137 versions of Us magazines floating around these days, people these days are neglecting one of the finest cross divisional books ever written, The Little Prince.   

If you have ever been a child, know children today, or have your own children, The Little Prince is a fantastic read.  If you have ever been in love, are currently in love or plan some day to fall in love, The Little Prince is the finest relationship book in the universe.   

If you want to sell anything, buy anything, or process anything as a career. If you want to sell anything bought or processed, or buy anything sold or processed, or process anything sold, bought, or processed, or repair anything sold, bought, or processed. If, as a career, you want to do that……The Little Prince is one of the finest business and leadership books ever written.  

All life lessons are business lesson and all business lessons are life lessons.  The Little Prince captures all life and business lessons and wraps them in a beautiful fuchsia bow wrapped package for all of us to ingest over two hours.   Should you not have two full hours to devote to something as silly as reading, Antoine de Saint Exupery has blessed the sharing of the finest chapter in the book.  The fox chapter.   

 

As you read, Antoine de Saint Exupery and I will finish our Eggo blueberry waffles and start up a hacky sack circle in the back corner.  Feel free to join in later.   Bring your own patchouli oil.        Enjoy

 

It was then that the fox appeared.
‘Good day,’ said the fox.
‘Good day,‘ replied the little prince politely, looking up but unable to see anything.
‘Over here,’ said the voice, ‘under the apple tree.’
‘Who are you?’ said the little prince. ‘You’re very pretty.‘
‘I’m a fox,’ said the fox.
‘Come and play with me,‘ suggested the little prince.  ‘I’m terribly sad.’
‘I can’t play with you,’ said the fox. ‘I am not tame.’
‘Oh! I beg your pardon,’ said the little prince.
Then, after a moment’s thought, he added:
‘What does “tame” mean ?’
‘You are not from these parts,’ said the fox.’ What are you looking for?’
‘I’m looking for people. What does “tame” mean ?’
‘People,’ said the fox, ‘they have guns, and they hunt.
It’s a great nuisance! They also raise chickens. That is the only interesting thing about them. Are you looking chickens?’
‘No,’ said the little prince. ‘I am looking for friends. What does “tame” mean?’
‘Something that is frequently neglected,’ said the fox. ‘It mean “to create ties”.’

‘To create ties?’
‘Precisely,’ said the fox. ‘To me, you are still only a small boy, just like a hundred thousand other small boys. And I have no need of you. And you in turn have no need of me.
‘To you, I’m just a fox like a hundred thousand other foxes.  But if you tame me, then we shall need each other. To me, you shall be unique in the world. To you, I shall be unique in the world.’
‘I’m beginning to understand,’  said the little prince. ‘I know a flower… I think she must have tamed me…’
‘Quite possible,’  said the fox. ‘On this Earth one sees all manner of things.‘
‘Oh! But that was not on Earth,’ said the little prince.
The fox looked rather intrigued.
‘On another planet, then?’
‘Yes’
‘I see. Are there huntsmen, on this other planet?’
‘No’
‘How interesting. And chickens?’
‘No.’
‘Nothing is perfect,’ sighed the fox.
But he resumed his train of thought:
‘My life is very monotonous. I run after the chickens; the men run after me. All the chickens are the same, and all the men are the same. Consequently, I get a little bored. but if you tame me, my days will be as if filled with sunlight. I shall know a sound of footstep different from all the rest. Other steps make me run to earth. Yours will call me out of my foxhole like music. And besides, look over there! You see the fields of corn ? Well, I don’t eat bread. Corn is of no use for me. Corn fields remind me of nothing. Which is sad! On the other hand, your hair is the color of gold. So think how wonderful it will be when you have tamed me. The corn, which is golden, will remind me you. And I shall come to love the sound of the wind in the field of corn….”
The fox fell silent and looked steadily at the little prince for a long time.
‘Please,’ he said, ‘tame me!’
‘I should like to,’ replied the little prince, ‘but I don’t have much time. I have friends to discover and many things to understand.’
‘One only ever understands what one tames. People no longer have the time to understand anything. They buy everything ready-made from the shops. But there is no shop where friends can be bought, so people no longer have friends. If you want a friend, tame me!’
‘What do I have to do?‘ said the little prince.
‘You have to be very patient,‘ replied the fox. ‘First, you will sit down a short distance away from me, like that, in the grass. I shall watch you out of the corner of my eye and you will say nothing; words are the source of misunderstandings. But each day you may sit a little closer to me.’
The next day the little prince came back.
‘It would have been better to come back at the same time of the day,‘said the fox. ‘For instance, if you come at four in the afternoon, when three o’clock strikes I shall begin to feel happy. The closer our time approaches, the happier I shall feel. By four o’clock I shall already be getting agitated and worried; I shall be discovering that happiness has its price! But if you show up at any old time, I’ll never know when to start dressing my hearth for you… We all need rituals.’
‘What is a ritual?’ said the little prince.
‘Something else that is frequently neglected,’ said the fox.
‘It’s what makes one day different from the other days, one hour different from the other hours. There is a ritual, for example, among my huntsmen. On Thursdays they dance with the village girls. So Thursday is a wonderful day for me! I can take a stroll as far as the vineyard. If the huntsmen went dancing at any old time, the days would all be the same, and I should never have a holiday.’
So the little prince tamed the fox. And when the time for him to leave was approaching.
‘Oh!’ said the fox. ‘I am going to cry,’
‘It’s your own fault,’ said the little prince. ‘I never wished you any harm; but you wanted me to tame you…’
‘I know,’ said the fox.
‘And now you are going to cry!‘ said the little prince.
‘I know,’ said the fox.
‘So you have gained nothing from it at all!’
‘Yes, I have gained something,’ said the fox, ‘because of the color of the corn.’
Then he added:
‘Go and look at the roses again. You will understand that yours is, after all, unique in the world. Then come back and say goodbye to me; as a present I will tell you a secret.’
The little prince went off to look at the roses again.
‘You are nothing like my rose,‘ he told them. ‘As yet you are nothing at all. Nobody has tamed you, and you have tamed nobody. You are as my fox used to be. he was just a fox like a hundred thousand other foxes. But I made him my friend and now he is unique in the world.’
And the roses felt very uncomfortable.
‘You are beautiful, but you are empty,‘ he went on.
‘One could not die for you. Of course, an ordinary passer-by would think my rose looked just like you. But in herself she matters more than all of you together, since it is she that I watered; since it is she that I placed under the glass dome; since it is she that I sheltered with the screen; since it is she whose caterpillars I killed (except the two or three we saved up to become butterflies). Since it is she that I listened to, when she complained, or boasted, or when she was simply being silent. Since it is she who is my rose.’
And he went back to the fox.
‘Goodbye,’ he said.
‘Goodbye,’ said the fox. ‘Now here is my secret, very simply: you can only see things clearly with your heart. What is essential is invisible to the eye.’
‘What is essential is invisible to the eye,’ repeated the little prince, so as to remember.
‘It is the time you have wasted on your rose that makes your rose so important.’
‘It is the time I have wasted on my rose…’ repeated the little prince, so as to remember.
‘People have forgotten this truth,’ said the fox. ‘But you must not forget. You become responsible, for ever, for what you have tamed. You are responsible for your rose.’
‘I am responsible for my rose …’ the little prince repeated, so as to remember.

 

The Mind of Mully

 

I just want to play on my pan pipes

I just want to drink me some wine

As soon as you’re born

You start dying

 

So you might as well have a good time……………………..

  

 

Best Experienced With:           Gary Jules;           Falling Awake

(please click on the link below to hear a beautiful song)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lM2dlfuo-xQ

 

The purpose of a fish trap is to catch fish, and when the fish are caught, the trap is forgotten.

 

The purpose of a rabbit snare is to catch rabbits. When the rabbits are caught, the snare is forgotten.

The purpose of words is to convey ideas. When the ideas are grasped, the words are forgotten.

 

Where can I find a man who has forgotten words? He is the one I would like to talk to.

                                                                                                                                           Chuang-Tsu

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Mind of Mully

 

I could learn to play the game,

I could learn to run the hustle

If I only had the brains

The money or the muscle

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Or a puppy.

 

 

 

 

Best Experienced With:          Cracker;     Get Off This

 (please right click on the link below to open the suggested background music for this evening’s examination of The Rules in a new browser window.   Choices.   Everyone loves choices.)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ReEVb6hCnzs&feature=related

 

1. The following items are prohibited and are grounds for either suspension or expulsion:  knives, weapons, dangerous objects, Nancy Pelosi, gang emblems, and lewd or obscene behavior.
2. Fighting, provoking fights or intimidation may result in suspension or transfer to another school.
3. Students who dress inappropriately will be subject to disciplinary action.  Parents will be contacted to bring students proper attire.  Parents are prohibited from bringing students either Anarchy silly angel wing shirts or always ugly Ed Hardy clothing as “proper” attire.
4. Truancy is subject to disciplinary consequences.  Students are expected to be in every class every day to maximize learning.
5. Students who are habitually tardy or out of class are subject to detention, mandatory parent conferences and/or forced Ed Hardy clothing wearing.
6. Food and drinks are not allowed in the classrooms, main hall, home economics hall, library, or offices.  Razzles do not count.  First they’re a candy, then they’re a gum.  Little round Razzles are so much fun.
7. Please stay off the roof.
8. Students are not allowed in the parking lot during school hours.

 

 

• You do not talk about Fight Club
• You do not talk about Fight Club
• If someone says “stop” or goes limp, taps out…fight is over
• Only two guys to a fight
• No shirt, no shoes
• Fights go on as long as they have to

 

 

 

A.     No smoking in bed

B.     Persons who have consumed alcohol are not allowed to operate the cider press

C.     Don’t climb on the roof when you have been drinking

D.     No sunbathing on the roof

E.      For crying out loud, stay off the roof!   Can’t you read?

 

 

 

• Live each day with courage
• Take pride in your work
• Always finish what you start
• Do what has to be done
• Be tough, but fair
• When you make a promise, keep it
• Ride for the brand
• Talk less and say more
• Remember that some things are not for sale
• Know where to draw the line
• Be gentle to small children, old folks and animals
• Be helpful when someone is in trouble
• Respect womanhood, your parents, and the nation’s laws

 

The Mind of Mully

 

Are you truly deeply cynical

Because boy you know I loved you so

When no one knew your name

And you were pompous

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Good night, you princes of Maine, you Kings of New England………..

 

La la la la la la la la. 

 

 

 

 

 

 Thanks for the memories, Bubba.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Best Experienced With:     Four Non Blondes;     What’s Up?

(please right click on the link below to open up the suggested background music to this evening’s treatise on conflict resolution and anticipatory mediation)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R8CfQxyIe7g&feature=related

 

The two largest selling non fiction books, year after year, are The Bible and The Diary of Anne Frank, respectively.  Since we respect everyone’s beliefs up here in The Attic, feel free to mentally re-categorize The Bible into fiction in your own mind and pop The Diary of Anne Frank into the number one non-fiction spot.  No one here will spew vitriol in your general direction or hate or nuthin’.          Heck no. 

You believe what you want to believe and we will agree to disagree respectfully, like democratic republic people should.   The Attic is a bastion of tolerance:  sort of an anti-Fox News, anti-Tea Party mythical gathering place.  What a boring, stagnant world it would be if we all agreed.   And so vanilla, absent Jerry Springer, Judge Judy, and their public argument forums.  Conflict is inevitable in all non electroshock therapy treated relationships and most conflict breeds tighter bonds and better solutions.  It’s like welding without the need for protective eyewear, special gloves or evil union dues.

 

All things always end and most things end poorly.   Consider the two books referenced above.   Each of the protagonists died in the books:  the death of the protagonist being an event most consider a bad event.  Most people know that the protagonists die in these books, yet each remains in one of the  two top spots each year.

Starting with the expectation that all things generally end poorly allows for relatively dispassionate mitigation of the events leading up to the end.  Having a mitigation plan in place in the first week (the sunshine and happiness week) can often change the poor ending.  Joey Heller would be proud of that logic.

Great, ethical divorce attorneys will advise their clients to lay all their cards on the table and have a legal separation document in the first ninety days while there is still modicum of love left in the relationship.  Great relationship counselors will advise couples to set up the rules of engagement on fighting while everything is peachy.   When you have that Fight Plan in place at the beginning, it makes everything easier come fight day.     Timing is everything and no one should ever start a land war in Southeast Asia.  

In the “you teach best what you most need to learn” category, will also throw out (as a share) to the group right now that I may be the worst argument partner in the history of arguing.   My head is as thick as Stanford’s Linear Accelerator and my memory more durable than a parade of elephants.  The actual “marriage” part of my singular later-in-life marriage lasted as long as the maximum life span of the American Newt.   One of the box shapes in the root cause analysis on that thing ending poorly has a smiling picture of me, most likely in a colored Kangol hat.   Do as I suggest from the grape jelly covered bully pulpit……….….not as I do.   

 

Let’s jump outside the person to person dating/marriage relationship analogy and talk dogs and cats.  Most have raised a puppy or kitten to adulthood and all have had to train their respective pets in some fashion.  Not those of you that live with 14 cats and 5 dogs in a doublewide in West Virginia.  The rest of you that live in the first two standard deviations.  West Virginia is in the special category.

Never cater an explanative to the outlying tails of the distribution.  Always write for the median using a least common denominator assumption.  Apologies to those of you with 14 cats and 5 dogs living in a West Virginia trailer park.  This MLOG is not for you.  Please feel free to hit the link up there and go back to the White Zombie dance off page.  That MLOG was designed special for you.     And BenHur, of course.   No one puts BenHur in the corner.

Back to the puppies and the kittens.   Let’s say you did not want your cat’s filthy litter and urine stained paws on your kitchen counters.  Did you start squirting that cat with a squirt gun when it approached the counter as your cat closed in on its second birthday?  Heck, no.  You squirted that kitten day and night when it even thought of jumping on that counter.   You may have even squirted the kitten with the squirt gun sometimes just for fun when you had a few too many glasses of Meritage.   It’s OK.  We all do that.   Some of us do it all day every day because we have far too much time on our hands and too may squirt guns in the house.

Those of you with puppies took that puppy out of their crate and out onto the tree lawn when the sun came up.  As you learned your puppy’s routines, you took your puppy outside to pee when you saw that look in their eye, right?  You did it from day one, as opposed to letting them pee on your carpet between play sessions in the living room.  

All relationships have the potential to grow through arguing.  The best way to grow through arguing is to set up the rules well in advance of Fight Day.  It is exactly the same as training puppies and kittens as opposed to dogs and cats.   Always start at the beginning …………..with the end in mind.  This also applies to business. 

Let’s say that last week you added a brand new customer to your customer list and each of you is positively glowing.  Lots of “thank you’s” on your side and lots of “we are so happy that you won” on the customer side.  What an excellent time to discuss future discord!  Many shy away from this discussion in business and personal relationships, fearing it will mess up the bon bon and champagne moments. 

Within the first week, have a face to face adult business conversation about Fight Day.    Start the conversation by saying; “conflict is inevitable in all relationships, this one included.”  Agree that each of you is going to drop the ball at some point, discuss where you have each dropped the ball in past business relationships, and discuss how you are going to resolve conflict and mistakes when they pop up.   If you choose this road less travelled, you are going to laugh when you get to Fight Day.

If you have that Fight Day convo in the first week, you are going to work through the challenges far more effectively than those who believe there is some sort of mythical perfect relationship out there.  You and your customer will most likely stop in the first five minutes of the first argument and say “we saw this one coming from day one and we were both right”.  Ten minutes later you are going to hug it out and move on.  Bing, bang, boom.

 

Like anything, that mythical, perfect relationship is possible.  An eternal optimist, I grant the possibility that griffins, unicorns, mermaids, and dragons exist.  It’s possible.

Possible, yes.  Probable?  No more probable than that mythical, argument-less relationship.   

 (was blonde for 23 days very early in life)

 

The Mind of Mully

 I wake in the morning

I step outside

I take a deep breath

And I get real high

 

 

 (not really blonde ….thus, a total of Five (5) Non Blondes)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Post Script:   Received an email last week asking how this stuff gets written.  As shown in the photo below, we set up three computers in a serial configuration.  The computer on the far left chooses the music based upon an algorithm derived by gnomes in Northern Ireland.   The middle computer is the one we use to track Matt Damon.  It is also the one that chooses verbs and analogies.  The computer on the far right takes input from random bots that scour the WWW daily to take the pulse of the world.    Monday through Sunday, 24/7, The Attic looks like this:

Once a day, all this information is compiled onto a fourth computer linked to a load balancing, data server farm in an Omaha, Nebraska.   Last but not least, I take the output data, grab a magic 8-Ball and randomly choose words that look really, really, really cool next to each other.    

Nighty night.

 

 

Best Experienced With:   White Zombie;  More Human Than Human

(please right click on the link below to open the suggested background music to this evening’s dance off and quantum physics art gallery showing in a new browser window.   What BenHur wants, BenHur gets.     As we say in The Attic:  no one puts BenHur in the corner.)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MFqBTSvBPAU

 

The best questions:    questions without any definitive answers that stand the test of time and get made into tee shirts.   The best dance offs:  ones in which no one named Mully is dancing. 

 

 

 

 

 

y = y₁(detected particle, dead cat) + y₂(no detected particle, live cat)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 y = y₁(detected particle, observer sees dead cat) + y₂(no detected particle, observer sees live cat)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Mind of Mully

 

Scratch off the broken skin

Tear into my heart

Make me do it again

Yeah

Yeah

Yeah

(yeah)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Mind of Mully:   turning the world around with a skeleton hand for over fifty-three months.   

 

 

 

 

 

 

Nighty night.  Winner, winner chicken dinner of the White Zombie dance off is the monkey.    The cat simply……..is.