Special note: *Ridders* don’t have to have seen the New York production of Tennessee Williams’ “The Glass Menagerie” to get something from this piece. In fact, they don’t have to know the play at all, or get all the references herein. Neither do they have to like plays or gay playwrights…or understand that “ridders” means *readers*. They just have to be capable of caring about cruelty. Caring for its opposite.

> “This is doubtless the worst of them.” — Critic Jacques Le Sourd of *The Journal News*, judging the current Broadway production relative to previous revivals of “The Glass Menagerie.”

> “If activists can’t appreciate the beauty of a Du Bois or a Degas, they’re probably better off not talkin’ shop…and just tellin’ jokes.” — Anonymous

May 23rd, 1934 - Noam Chomsky has a schoolyard encounter in the first grade, which spurs him onto a lifelong commitment…championing the underdog. Seeing a boy being taunted because of his weight, young Chomps started to intervene. However, when he saw that the rolled up articles with which he battled the bully were [...]

In Japan, they say that –for expats– if you’ve never been first on line for the subway doors to open… and last to get a seat, you simply haven’t been there long enough. They also add, that if you’ve had the experience of being last on line and first to get a seat… you’ve stayed too long.

So many Japanese songs play like that.

When I lived in Nippon, at first I couldn’t figure out why medical professionals were always writing prescriptions for drugs. Any visit to a doctor guaranteed coming away with a one-way ticket to their version of The Pharmacy.

1990…Paul Abdul has a hit with “Opposites Attract.” Don’t you read the news?
1899… Jacob German of New York City is hit with a ticket as the first driver ever arrested for speeding. His taxicab exceeded the 12 mph speed limit on Lexington Avenue.
‘46…the birth of “Moonstruck” Cher (LaPiere)*…who dies (botoxed) in “Stuck on You” [...]

“A thankless, well-nigh ridiculous task, performed with humility as an act of pride. If the outcome happened to be fame and fortune, no right-minded man would have interpreted it as a symptom of success.” — James Lord, speaking of Beckett’s and Giacometti’s attitude toward their work…in his mind.

“Giacometti definitely looked at fame as a ‘misunderstanding.’” — Stranger on a train

In the 1960s, Giacometti’s health began to fail seriously. In 1963 he underwent an operation for cancer of the stomach. He made the curiously characteristic remark: “The strange thing is… as a sickness, I always wanted to have this one.” The cancer did not recur, but in 1965 heart disease and chronic bronchitis were diagnosed. Giacometti died in June 1966 at the Kantonsspital in Chur, Switzerland.

A couple of weeks after Giacometti’s death, my Uncle Max (who had met Alberto on the artist’s only venture to New York, during a major exhibit… not long before the fatal diagnosis) showed me a fascinating photo that he had found in *Paris-Match*. They had published it only seven days after his demise.

**War Cries**
May 19th is a kind of Who’s Who of *Troublemakers*…by certain standards.
Imagine the party time with Napoleon, Ho Chi Minh, Pol Pot, Malcolm X and Joey Ramone all present…to blow away the candles! Oh yes, and Peter “Who” Townshend, alleged Internet Child Netter, could play the “Happy Birthday” tune ’cause it’s his day [...]

*Les morts ne parlent pas*. Dead men tell no tales, they say. But they do. The women too.

Les morts?

They are… the many left leaders. And their followers. There are many walking dead. Spreading dirt… over serious matters. Others shed light on the grave.

Sylvie and I have decided to walk among the dead, tread seven feet under Gay Paree. To glean from the graves, the ashes… the remains, what the residue of the left denies us. Choosing history in marble and stone over granitic hysterics.

Alistair Horne of Time Out tells me that for a whole week in 1871 French Communards were driven across Paris by government troops at this time, the beginning of *la semaine sanglante* (bloody week). Eastward, burning the city as they retreated. Then, facing overwhelming forces, they dug in at Cimetiere Pere Lachaise –between imposing bourgeois [...]

“The cataclysm has happened, we are among the ruins….” — D.H. Lawrence

Wow. And Lawrence lived so long ago.

When I came across John Berger in 70s New York, he was already asking why we should look at animals. [1] His passionate pleas and insights are caught in the excerpts immediately below (Magritte’s words). Please apply the thrust of Rene Magritte’s injunction as you read Berger…and me; Magritte, painter of “The Human Condition” (and, of course, much more) cried:

“People who look for symbolic meanings fail to grasp the inherent poetry and mystery of the image…The images must be seen *such as they are*.” [2]

He’s talkin’ ’bout his work, but I’d like one and all to put the sentiment to good use ‘cross the board. The spirit of his words can be applied even to works that do not involve *symbols*.

**What has changed, what hasn’t…. Yes?**
May 17th, 1875
Aristides is the horse that wins the very first Kentucky Derby at the Louisville Jockey Club. How many of the 15 jockeys do you think were African-Americans? Take your time. Fourteen. A better question might be WHY has that kind of thing changed. [...]