And the cry arose:
"Board all your windows! --
lock all your doors! --
here comes more info!"

Now it's "Once Upon A Time" time:
Once upon a time there was a man who decided that he'd talk about extraordinary matters to those who might believe they were interested in such, and to keep the focus more where it belonged, that is on what he had to say. He initially addressed them in a monotone while standing motionless, but soon realizing his audience's negative reaction to this method, he revised it and began pacing the floor, waving his arms, and speaking to them in a highly dramatic manner. He soon found that just as many who had originally seemed interested were leaving now as did when he employed the opposite approach.
De End.

A man went to a mystic and said,
"Can I ask you something?"
And the mystic said, "Uh huh."
So the man said,
"Well, sometimes it's hard to work up the energy just to get the little, everyday things done in life that we have to do."
And the mystic said, "Uh huh."
And the man continued,
"And when circumstances unexpectedly demand more of us,
it can be an even bigger challenge to come up with the effort needed to deal with whatever it is."
And the mystic said, "Uh huh."
So the man said,
"Well, I figure the kinds of things people like you are involved with must really require an extraordinary and constant degree of some special kind of enthusiasm."
And the mystic was almost able to work himself up to replying, one more time, "Uh huh."

The young need no lectures on enthusiasm,
and they are wasted on the old,
so who does that leave whoever must have conceived of the word originally?

 

The promotion of routine affairs must be limited to but two pitches at a time, such as the sign at a restaurant that announces, "Good Food -- Open 24 Hours."
Or, perhaps the sign at a bank which proclaims,
"Friendly Service -- Competitive Rates."
Or at almost any ordinary commercial enterprise can be found, "Highest Quality -- Lowest Prices."
But should they press on to a third description, it would turn out to be funny and not at all conducive to normal business success.

Thus it is that aspects of man which appear naturally at one stage in his life, then just as naturally fade, must be but briefly thought about within this dichotomous context, or else your eyes might explode & you glimpse the unnatural.

And a reader writes:
"Just about the time I think you've gone as far afield from reality and reason as is possible, while still almost making some kind of sense. You surprise me and outdo yourself all over again, and I just wanted to write and thank you for this -- while I am momentarily in that special mental condition wherein it is possible for me to do so.
P.S. Is this, per chance, part of what you're up to?
Yours Until It Happens Again (I Hope)" etc.

Now for our Transcendental Thought For The Day:
'Tis a sorry civilian who'll accuse a mystic of being
almost comprehensible.

(One man's personal take on life was, "We're all a bunch of dick heads.")
(While his private member had a variation thereof....)