Conversations At Wormhole Electric: Mark Twain and " Mad "ness.

hi Carolyn,

Well.... Just sat down a short time ago this morning to do the blogfather thing when I was treated to a short but quite energetic spring storm. It was one of those kind that sweep through with torrents of rain and rifle cracks of thunder for a half hour or so and then steal away just as quickly. Very nice to watch it start to wash away all the crusty crap that has accumulated after this particularly character building winter, though.

Anyhow, on to some of the stuff that landed in the Inbox on my mental desktop in the last few days.

First item concerns the passing on of a gentleman who, as Matt Schudel noted in an article on May 2nd in The Washington Post " warped the sensibilities of Americas youth for more than two decades " The man in question was Al Feldstein who died on April 29th of this year and who was the editor of Mad Magazine for a number of decades, beginning in 1956. I totally agree with Mr. Schudels observation that Feldman, in that capacity, " had a defining influence on modern humour. "

Mad Magazine can be considered a major cataylist for the highly developed sense of skepticism and political self-awareness that first characterized the sixties generation and still flourishes in electronic media and in print. The magazine still marches on but commands a circulation about one tenth the size of that of its halcyon days.

I still feel the unspeakable anguish I endured for months as the hapless boy in Saint Patrick's Grade School who took his paperback copy of " The Ides of Mad " to class and lost it until the end of the year. I was so entranced with its countercultural delights that I failed to notice Sister Mary Surveillance as she silently swished up behind me. I was simply too busy stealing furtive glances at it in my desk while I was supposed to be doing something much more stultifying and mundane.

To this day I can still visualize that ominous nun hand appearing, palm up, in my peripheral vision and a spine-chillingly stern voice intoning, " I will take that, Donald! "

Of course, I had no choice but to surrender the delicious contraband that my paper route money had purchased just a day before.

I didn't see it again until the last day of school as I fled out the door along with the other liberated captives.

Healthy skepticism seems to be a touchstone for this entry. A very good friend of mine is returning to the international teaching world this coming school year. While he will be a school director ( or as we call it up here - a Principal ) of a school in Hungary he also finds himself having to teach a Literature class for junior high school students. He is by no means a slouch academically but leans more towards the sciences than the arts.

I offered to help him with this and found that there is a healthy dose of Mr. Twain's works on the curricular plate. To that end, I've been doing some reacquainting of myself with both Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn and some background refreshing on Twain as well. It reminds me of just how much I do enjoy his works and his own brand of , shall we say, " irreligiousness "

Hard for the likes of me not to be drawn to someone whose quotable quotes include the one on the right and " I don't care a damn about a man who can only spell a word one way." Maybe I should pass these along to our daughter in light of her recent close encounters of the incongruous kind as an educator.

BTW, she is far from discouraged about it and takes it in stride as we all do who toil to keep the lamp of learning lit.

Hopefully, with boats to be launched, bikes to be ridden, 8-ball playoffs to be played, renos to be completed, spring and summer to be welcomed, etc., I will be able to get back to more of his works sooner than later.

Speaking of works or at least, offerings, I did see the riddles collection on the website, Carolyn, and it does look kinda cool. I'm not surprised to be published for riddles though. They are short, sweet and fun to create. I've maintained more than once that I'm more in the vein of a one-liner writer than a full blown novelist type. Sometimes I think I should have gone into advertising and tried my hand.

So now that the door has been opened lets saunter in and take care of the riddle business for this time, shall we? Coffee was the last one I sent along. I guess I was thinking springlike thoughts as I composed it and that would explain the green bean part. I just went back and checked your last one again and am still semi-stumped. I want to say compact discs as they are round and carry information, but the "large or small" thing throws me a bit. Anyhow, that will be my guess.

Here's mine:

In my animal form

I'm highly attractive

In my mineral form

I'm very selective

Only ferrous will do

Okay, now to get outside and see how much mother nature has left for me to clean up or mop up.

Don

All images sourced from Google images.

Fig. 1 - www.wibwnewsnow.com

Fig. 2 - mentalfloss.com

Fig. 3 - www.madmagizine.com