Spitball Army

Using “The Road Not Taken” and another poem as jumping-off points, Frost biographer Jay Parini hopes to show the vandals the error of their ways — and the redemptive power of poetry.

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Today marks the 189th anniversary of the birth of Walt Whitman.

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As described, muttering under the breath would be less audible than breathing which, in most cases, would be about as loud as silence. If the mutterance were not meant to be heard, I imagine that the mutterer would merely think it.

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“1505, y’all!” I say that all the time when I mean to say my name.

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Today I was sidelined with the incapcitating numbies, which is what I am calling the non-specific dizzyness and lethargy that I am associating with a cold. I also can’t sit still in one place today. So I am taking the opportunity to spend the afternoon in my office, clearing out the crap.

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So, my Dad still won’t let me have any money. He said he didn’t have any, but now he’s saying that I can’t have it, so that sounds like he actually has some, which means he was lying about not having any money because if I can’t have it that means there’s some money there, right?

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After the show, we went over to Manuel’s Tavern. The place was filled with Democrats. Democrats! They had the CNN wrap-up of the Pennsylvania primary on the big TV screens. It felt like Cambridge, but it was Atlanta.

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Did anyone notice? Was she speaking with poor grammar to engender identification with the “working class?” Were Princeton and Harvard helpless to teach her simple rules of English grammar?

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Speaking of laughing out loud, I got the entire waiting room at my doctor’s office doing just that this morning by telling this silly riddle. It was prompted by the talkative woman in the corner who was knitting a baby shawl and talking about her cats.

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Members of the black community protested that any film version of the Uncle Remus stories was bound to portray black Americans in a servile and negative way. A “vicious piece of hocus pocus,” one group called it.

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