Selling Stories with Don Draper (A Strange Dream)

It is not an uncommon thing that I should have strange and vivid dreams, but last night’s dream was among the stranger ones I’ve had:

Don Draper (of AMC’s show Mad Men) and I were in southern California as a small and ill-fated invasion of the United States began.  A couple of hundred poorly equipped soldiers crossed the Mexican border with WWII vintage carbine rifles.  The response from the American military was swift, and soon there was an ugly battle.  Draper and I found shelter in a hidden attic apartment.

But the ground forces were really a diversion.  The real attack came when several thousand rockets were launched at the International Space Station.  Their pink and orange smoke trails lingered long in the pale blue skies.

After the battle was over, Draper and I turned that hidden attic apartment into an office where we began to sell an elaborately exaggerated account of the brief war.  “Facts don’t matter.  Only the story,” Draper told me.

“The sales, you mean,” I replied to him.

“Same difference.”

Call Me a Fugitive

Call me a fugitive wanderer
and fraudulent beggar, if you will;
I don’t mind.

I have slept beneath the stars
with my head upon a stone.
And sleeping, perchance, did I dream?

Aye, a dream I had
and what a dream it was.

I dreamt I saw John Ball
alive and living well, preaching
despite the axes and knives
stabbed into his back by
agents of the John Birch Society.

I saw four horses eating noxious weeds.
I saw the peasant revolt successful.
I saw General Francisco Franco washing cars
in south Detroit.

In my dream I heard muttering mumblers
and murmuring mummers
chanting the socialist manifesto.

I saw a human skull
(it was my own)
in a field of blood.

I saw Red Rock Dam
and I was not afraid.

Powerpoint Slides for Everyone - 2014 - Advent Weeks

I usually post these free background images on Sunday afternoons.  But because this week has been more than regular busy, I wasn't able to do it then.  I was going to do it on Monday, but then I was swamped with other things... Tuesday, Wednesday... bah!  Finally, on this Thanksgiving Thursday, I can finally get them posted for you.

And to make up for the fact that I was somewhat delayed (and to ensure that I won't have to worry about it for a few weeks) I am going to share all four weeks of the Advent themed backgrounds here in a single post.  Feel free to use one, or all, or none, or any that you like.

It's Not My Intent To Make People Cry, But Sometimes it Happens

It's never my intent to make people cry while I'm playing my guitar and singing at the red kettle for The Salvation Army.  It wasn't my intent, but it happened.

I was playing through some of the songs in my Bob Dylan songbook when she came out of the store pushing a cartload of groceries.  I saw her start to exit the foyer area and then hesitate, then she pulled her cart off to the side and waited.  My attention wasn't really on her, so I didn't see what she was doing until I finished the song.

When I finished the song, I rolled my shoulders and stretched for a bit (it gets to be a long afternoon) and I saw that she was still there, standing next to her cartload of groceries, crying.

I asked if she needed anything.

She said "no," and thanked me for playing.  She said that her husband (now dead) used to play that song for her.

It's not my intent to make people cry with my singing, but sometimes it happens.

Biblical Limericks: Stay Awake

Solomon said, “Sleep and you’ll grow poor;
stay awake and you’ll increase your stores.”
So I took caffeine pills.
Twelve days later I’m still
awake, but I can’t go on much more.

Proverbs 20: 13