[seemed a shame to waste this/have it disappear as a throwaway comment]

Once upon a time there were people who expressed themselves - for me perhaps MLK & RFK & others in amazing books I'd read, you may have your own - in a way that was lucid and compelling and convincing. I could listen to them and I'd find reason to mull over what they said and incorporate what they had to say in my belief system - they provided new grist for the mill, not merely retread.

Nowadays I don't feel it. Barefooted offered up a 1963 interview with Frank Sinatra (posted here, tx BF), and in a few minutes Frank eloquently summed up the liberal humanist position as well as anything I've seen on any blog in 10 years. That's amazing, it's depressing. Here's a guy from 50 years ago that we think of as a hard-drinking mafia-loving lout, and he can keep up dead with all the post-internet drivel that's been bandied about, and I of course include myself in this, and I include everyone who's ascribed as a leader.

[insert - I took a pass on the kind of irony that it was in Playboy, a "men's mag" that also provided some hope in the sixties that we'd evolve a holistic intellectual playground that included our sexual & amorouos & romantic desires - still rather sexist in execution, but considering the then recent emergence from 50's intolerance, striking - and not that much progressed since, more like abandoned. Much like the (non)evolution of how we treat & view & integrate women in our society and worldviews.]

People of a previous age were still imbued with philosophy. We're no longer discussing philosophy - we think it's been decided, so were down in the trenches of policy and minutiae.

Somehow I want our minds back**. Somehow I feel my only value now is as clickbait or not. I looked at my diary output over the last, and only measured it in terms of reads - hey, I had over 10,000 at one point, know it's tough to get ovr 1000. But I didn't look at what I'd written - was I proud of anything, did I offer up anything no one else could have? I just saw the stats - I'm collecting baseball cards, not spouting any wisdom, even at my most clever.

Have a nice holiday, y'all  - hope we're all wiser and saner and happier in the New Year.

And that Dick guy - maybe he won't be so parsimonious with those Dayly awards next year - sheesh, the groveling and exhausting work I have to do just to get one.... you'd think he made 'em out of gold brocade and taffeta. Come on, Santa - lighten up!

**Special thanks to Mr. Smith for his haikus loaded on - at least requires some out of the box thinking within the confines of a box, sometimes revealing special beauty - better than Sudoku -

what is the sound of 
1 haiku thankyou clapping?
A handku? (applause)