Alexander Rothbard: The Sale Part Two

(Continued from July 3rd 2010) I reached into my bag and brought out five cartons of Philip Morris and 500 Flat 50's.  I started my presentation and the dealer interrupted with, "What else do you want to sell?"  He bought my entire stock, built the display himself,  asked for two posters and went outside and put them up with paste, a perfect angle shot.  That did it.  It was the most difficult job in my life to hold back the tears.  I thanked the dealer and went out.   It was a little after 2:00 p.m. and my bag was empty.  However, the sale did not cheer me because he had bought,  I did not sell.  After five minutes of thinking "Why" ,  I returned and asked the dealer why he bought. the Philip Morris from me.  He stated that he had watched me through this window while I was making up my mind to come i, said I looked real "beat" and in need of a lift, so when I came in and put those cigarettes on the counter and started to talk, he could not help but try to cheer me.  I then noted that he took the flat 50's and opened them up--again.  "Why?".  "For the one cent sales"  was the answer--a new one on me.


That sale did the trick.  I bought five cartons of Philip Morris back from the dealer and a carton of Flat 50's, with the provision that if I did not sell them he would buy them from me--again. From 2:30-6:30 p.m.  I not only sold the cigarettes but also sold, displayed and merchandised 5 additional cigarettes from this same dealer since there was no jobber in the area, and he called a jobber and ordered 10 Philip Morris for delivery to him the next morning.  A most unforgettable sale.

Ramblings of Greg 7.2.

I am not writing well today.  Nothing is really that bad, it’s just one of those other days.  It has been a lazy morning here in Florida.  It has been rainy and the clouds hang low like a present rumor.

My wife plays the guitar in the other room. Her soul soars on high.  

Sometimes writing is difficult, there really is not much going on. 

But you need to write every day, no matter what!   So today I sit here trying to think of what to say that might be somewhat positive.  

My arm hurts. Probably from cutting too much meat, filling customer orders, and cleaning up.  Why does ones ears not hurt from listening too much?  

Tonight I will be going to feed the homeless at Munn Park from old Chinese carry out containers, and food made by my friend Miguel Vazquez.  

Cheers to my Nederland friends, and the three guys I met in Israel.   We had a blast partying in the Old City of Jerusalem in 1997, London Underground, Arizona Bar, and spending all my money so that I had to borrow some to get back to Egypt.   I have never planned very well, and have had to rely on the courtesy of strangers.  I have learned  a lot from these adventures though. I am so happy that y'all beat those brats from San Paulo.  

Thomas Hart Benton An American Original

(Kansas City)  I recall enjoying the brisk September air, and that flap jacks were sitting heavy in my stomach.  I had just eaten at a local greasy spoon.  I was enamored with all of the big pretty white suburban houses.   Then, I chanced upon the former residence of Thomas Hart Benton.   I had no idea who he was.  I decided to go and visit and find out!   I am glad I did.  His studio was left just as if he had gone out for an errand, downtown.  Coffee cans held paintbrushes.  His studio was a  place where work had been done, not necessarily orderly and clean. A place reserved for creative expression.  Thomas Hart Benton embodied the Western Landscape just like the buffalo did long ago.

 Thomas Hart Benton
on the model for Susana: 
"that delightful hillbilly girl (a true Ozark product gone wrong) who became the model for "Susannah" - My boy- what a skin what a blood pulsing skin - just enough yellow in the belly to make the tits look pink - we don't find models like that anymore."
on his art 
"We were different in our temperaments and many of our ideas, be we were alike in that we were all in revolt against the unhappy effects which the Armory Show of 1913 had had on American painting.  We objected to the new Parisian aesthetics which was more and more turning art away from the living world of active men and women into an academic world of empty patterns."

Simpson Marc, Sally Mills and Jennifer Saville The American Canvas Paintings from the Collection of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco (New York: Hudson Hills Press, 1989), 218.

Reprint:

Toy Publix truck on mantle,
Van Gogh Flowers Poster
Flogging Molly Banner
Mountain Riders Maui Poster 242-9739
White (the hero's color) Cowboy hat from Ocala
Cologne: Burburry London for Men
Obsession Silken Body Lotion C.K.
Compass pointing out Due North
Date Jar full of Dimes
Wind in the Willows Poster from London's National Theater
My bedroom lies cramped with so much character.   

A Far Country There is Hunger

"When they spoke of those hours, they said, We passed hunger.  As if it were a place, an outpost, on a lonely road.  Other times they said, Hunger passed through here.  As if something alive, pale hoofed creature, who tore though on bristling haunches or ambled out of the white forest with a worn suit, and a broken face, a monster or a devil."  (Mason page 5)

Check out the LOST Reading List... 

Ode to my Wallet

My wallet went missing this morning.    I could not find it anywhere, and began to fear all the possibilities of what might have happened.  I thought of calling the bank for fear that someone might use my debit card to buy a plain ticket to Timbuktu.   I did not know who to call to prevent some pervert from stealing my identity.   i prayed to God that he would keep my wallet safe.   Angrily, I tore up my house attempting to find my extraordinary normal brown wallet.    I found the wallet in the last place I looked, right behind a leg of the leather coach.   Nothing is more ordinary than a brown wallet;  (my dad's wallet is the same exact one)    but nothing is more securing than having a wallet in your back right pocket.  Why can't we treasure the things in our pockets here and now?

Moon Pies of Romance: North Dakota Lake

I was a purple clad Viking lover, red white and blue flag waving, parade loving, three foot celebration of a tale. The tale that filled up my dreaming life was the one told about a lake house in North Dakota. I dreamt of flying above the lake like a Canadian goose, only I was wearing cute little mouse ears on my head. I was told that if I wore the hat my dreams would surely come true; my dreams would happen for me.
I dreamed of sailing a little boat into the middle of the lake. I dreamed of diving from the boat into the middle and breaking into the deep crystalline surface. I would then swim down and collect rocks from the bottom. I would show how strong I was to my grandfather. Life would be broken open and made newly awesome. My grandfather’s lake pure and simple remained a dream. In a way I am glad that my dream of getting to the lake did not occur. The inability forced me to dream big and search for the hidden treasures found in America.

How can you be neutral on the point of a bullet?

Book Sandwiched In: December Reading.


All Things, All At Once: New and Selected Stories by Lee K. Abbott

How can you be neutral on the point of a moving bullet????

Lee K. Abbot's collection of short stories provides a gateway to the dusty roads in the rural south-west. Abbot's writing covers a wide range of themes including: violence inside a man, lawn mowing, Methodists, UFOs, dreams, choices, shadows of reality, Zodiacs, Wars, Envy, Lust, Friendship, Father and Sons, Golf, New Mexico, Lands of Enchantments, Deserted Byways, wives, and the lost Art of Conversation.

The book may stretch your rigid cultural lines. The characters in the stories are not the type we would necessarily want to hang out with. They are all rebels who may seem at first morally irresponsible. But the characters redemption lies in telling their tales honestly. One of my favorite lines in the stories is "All of this happened years ago when I was the son of a bitch I am not now." (92)
He shows the dark closets full of secrets hanging on clothes hangers ready to be worn.

He forces us to look at our relationships with others and shows how these relationships may not be true to our pretenses.

You can't hate Abbot for his bold strokes, for his bold strokes are his alone.



View all my reviews

Next Month BSI Reviews- The Conjurer's Bird by Martin Davies

Tuesday: Cheap Date Nites

Tic Tac Toe Picture Hunt

Materials:

Tic Tac Toe Board (3by 3 grid)

Camera

Procedure:

You and your date will take pictures of subjects.

Here are 9 pictures ideas to get you started.
You can either do three in a row diagonally, horizontally, or vertically.
Or do all 9 (black out); that means all pictures have been taken.

1. Deli Clerk at Publix Holding Head Cheese.
2. A boy wearing a football t-shirt.
3. A truck with large, large tires.
4. A bumper sticker saying something political.
5. A man with a cigar.
6. Wildlife local to the area (Gator here in Florida).
7. A person with crazy hair.
8. A dentist holding a drill.
9. A person with dreadlocks.

I am sure you can come up with better ideas. You should ask people for permission before you take their photos. The main point is to just have fun finding these pictures.
Post your pictures online.
Share with friends.

Happy Hunting! Tell me how it went.

Monday: Greg's Journal of Found Things

Tools for Week:
Sandwich Calculator

Wednesday: Going Deeper, Who's the Ape?

We the Zoo Keepers standing in front of the Chimp Cage. The chimps are kept safely from us caged behind titatnium bars. One chimp, Geraldo attempts to hide a banana from the rest of the apes. He goes to the hanging tire and places the banana inside the tube. He grins with triumph. But we know its a matter of time before Harry, Geraldo's arch rival, finds the hidden fruit. We stare in anticipation. Geraldo is affraid that we will give his hiding place away, and growls towards our direction, showing all his teeth. We stare back pointing and grunting. Geraldo growls back in Protest.

Ode to the Rivalry between St. Louis and Chicago

The little village seemed accursed;
Soon all her gaudy baubles burst,
She proved what me thought her before,
A wind bag bugh-and nothing more.
When this wretched village stood
Now stands a sign of painted wood
On it these words: "Upon this spot
Chicago stood, but now stands not"
Her time soon came, she had to go
A victim, she, of too much blow.

St Louis Democrat May 8, 1875.

Redrawn-Watchmen!

Barbie at 50

Dick Gregory

Dick Gregory tells it like it is... an apology to the first BLACK PRESIDENT!

(from Wikipedia article on Mineral King Ski Resort and Country Bear Jamboree)

Walt Disney Ski Resort

Disney's Mineral King Ski Resort was a project developed by Walt Disney and Company in the late 1950s and 1960s. Disney had become interested in skiing around this time, and decided to build a ski resort in Mineral King Valley. At the time, many skiers believed this to be the largest potential resort in all of California. Disney's bid won out over those of other developers, with plans made to build 27 ski lifts, serving an expected 2 million annual visitors, by 1973.

The ski resort was never built though, due to environmental concerns raised by a coalition of preservationists, led by the Sierra Club^[6]. After years of legal battles between pro-development and preservationist groups, the Mineral King Valley was annexed into Sequoia National Park in 1978 by an act of Congress. That legislation effectively stopped the plan to ever develop the area into a ski resort.

Country Bear Jamboree Originally to be at Mineral King Ski Resort...

The Country Bear Jamboree was originally intended by Walt to be placed at Disney's Mineral King Ski Resort which he was trying to build in the mid 1960s. Walt knew he wanted some sort of show to provide entertainment to the guests at the resort, and he knew he wanted the show to feature some sort of bear band. The project was assigned to imagineer Marc Davis.

Life as a Frog!

The squish of mud between your toes; how would you live your life as a frog?

I died, last month. Wow what an ordeal, I thought I would be talking to St. Peter! But... I entered a great hall and Vishnu the great Hindu deities sat on a giant throne, (it was actually a toilet) he beamed a blueish grin. (He had been sucking a blow-pop.)
Vishnu said: "You have been a bad bad monkey. Now I pronounce your new incarnation to be that of a frog."
"Ribbit!" was the only word I could muster, so many other words were in my head, but all I could say was "Ribbit!"

Playing Gods the Board Game:

Playing Gods the Board Game:
I personally have not played this game, but it seems of interesting note.

Review from the Blog- "Zombiebacon":

Aware that much of the world’s violence comes from the source of eternal love, Radford realised that mocking various images of God and their faithful adherents would “make more social commentary” and “pierce the pretensions of extremist religious zealotry with humor.”

That it does wonderfully, passing many hours in the entertaining pursuit of monotheism.

Someone should really distribute this game to all the world’s spiritual leaders so they can settle their differences without destroying us in the process.

55 Random Debris in our Bedroom:

Toy Publix truck on mantle,
Van Gogh Flowers Poster
Flogging Molly Banner
Mountain Riders Maui Poster 242-9739
White (the hero's color) Cowboy hat from Ocala
Cologne: Burburry London for Men
Obsession Silken Body Lotion C.K.
Compass pointing out Due North
Date Jar full of Dimes
Wind in the Willows Poster from London's National Theater

Exciting to see only three more people need to find this web until we have one-hundred visitors...