LETTER FROM MIKE -- PART THREE
"Did you see that Einstein's General Relativity Theory has been disproven by another team of astronomer-physicists? They've published their study with its celestial proof (two giant, twin stars, side by side, should twirl around each other, according to einstein's theory (the symbol of genius on this planet) -- his theory is the symbol, that is), but these people have found a pair that hardly circle each other at all. The Relativity Theory is off by a factor of more than ten times. Maybe now they can come up with a new Great Theory. The door is open. Is there anyone out there who can Seize the Time? I once got cut off from a guy's company because he tried to seal a debate we were having by quoting Einstein and I said Einstein was nothing absolute, did he think a human being had already figured out the working of the entire universe already? He just wouldn't come around me no more. He was an editor of the college paper (Antioch).
"You know, we had the worst quake since the historic one a few months ago. It felt like an earthquake, no sharp jolt, but every thing was rattling, and it came in waves, about 3 or 4 of them. At first I thought I was having some kind of nervous problem. We stood in the doorway, as you're supposed to do. It wasn't much of a quake, but I had a chest pain about 3 minutes after it, which surprised me, considering I hadn't known I felt that much about it. It was little. The big one must have been a lot different. I called AAA and had them send me a TRIPTIK for a journey from here to Fort Walton Beach, Florida. I found that town is a weather anomaly, with winter down to 18 degrees and summer no higher than 95, which really gives this little Florida coastal town the idea blend of four mild seasons, probably without snow. I knew about that a long time ago, but we came here for the society in Berkeley and the city, no, more to see the place I remembered from 1971, and I was so different that it made this seem like a bad dream.
"The last chapter I wrote was called "Hounded Against a Black Background." I believe that was last. It's a humdinger about a strangled dog (choked Doberman?)
"You ought to look for the Vanishing Hitchhiker and The Choked Doberman by the same guy. He collects contemporary American Myths and Legends, and I've heard a lot of them myself, and he says these tales are all across this country. I heard about the vanishing hitchhiker who said he was Christ before he disappeared maybe three times in the early 1970s while I was hitchhiking. Made me wish so badly that I could disappear."
(To Be Continued…..)
Ed. Note:
Things are looking up for the ittle black dogs. The family living next to our mother's house has a black rottweiler I have always detested, because he is insanely territorial. Two weeks ago I got a call from our little brother. He said Jake the rottweiler went nuts in the middle of the night and the neighbors came outside to check and caught a lowlife from up the holler attempting to break into Mom's house, which has been uninhabited for the past six months because she is in the hospital. She used to give that Loser work around her property and pay him under the table. That's the thanks you get. So they called the cops and hurray for Jake. I swung by their house last Sunday and left a thank you card, dog cookies made with oats, honey and cinnamon, also some gourmet brand duck jerky, and two tennis ball toys for good boy Jake. Then, yesterday, I saw an article on MSNBC about prejudice against black dogs. The article said that for some reason, shelters everywhere have difficulty moving large, black dogs. I know several people with large, black dogs, but if it is overall a situation, then it is a good thing some light is being shed on it so people can stop being subliminally cruel to helpless pups just for being sleek and dark and shiny and good eaters. It said lots of cultures have superstitions about large black dogs being associated with death, so somehow that superstition has apparently made it into the Social subconscious. Bad, BAD subconscious!!
Mike --
Remember how psychotic the German people were about their property? ("Was jahre bist du?! WAS. JAHRE. BIST. DU!!!!!!!!!!? RAUS! Alles RAUS!!!!!") I just saw an article online about a town in Germany called Rummelshein. It said somebody horrified the townspeople by depositing a plastic chair on the side of the road just outside of town, under a tree. A crew was dispatched at once to retrieve and recycle the plastic chair, only to find somebody had placed a big teddy bear in the chair. The town council met, and voted to allow the chair to remain for a bit, because the bear in the chair was having a positive impact on the people of the town. Now the bear in the chair has sprouted many stuffed friends, and an umbrella to keep them all dry. The chair and the tiny stuffed critter community remains and thrives in the land of keep-off-the-grass signs. The original bear disappeared for awhile once, but then reappeared…… (?) It reminds me of how you told me once that during the Johnstown flood, the rescuers kept loading every man woman child dog cat they could find into the boats and ferrying them to the hilltop cemetery overlooking the town, which was the only land poking out of the water. You said that every time one of the little boats docked, the dogs hopped out and commenced immediately to chasing the cats around, barking. I said those townspeople crowded together on that bit of hilltop watching the waters rising around them, must have taken the yowls and aarfs and racing around as confirmation that they were in hell. You said -- "I take it as confirmation that dogs know what is important and keep their eye on the prize."
Looks like Rummelshein is going to the dogs.
Ps. I looked up the choked Doberman story, and I am not amused. When will you stop making me smack my forehead?