Misleading

I believe that lying by statisticians

Often depends on judicious omissions.

Blocked

When a play is “blocked” that’s good - it means 

The actors know how to move through their scenes.

It’s one of those things that directors do

To make the story and meaning come through.

Kitties and Crumb

I came across this quote from the cartoonist, R. Crumb: "All that stuff I did in the late '60s... I didn't really know what it was about when I did it. It was all very instinctive. Somehow, the L.S.D. liberated me in this way... that allowed me to just put it down and not worry about what it meant. I had some vague idea that it meant something... but it's only later that I'd look at it and kind of analyze it and see what it's about." 

I had been thinking about Crumb, because he wrote and drew the original Fritz The Cat cartoons, which involved a misbehaving humanoid cat in adult adventures. Because it bears a sort of family resemblance to my characters in Kitties In Space, who are also poorly behaved humanoid cats. No one has ever mentioned a resemblance to me. But I've thought of it. 

But, really, it was his reflection on HOW he wrote that struck me, because how I wrote my Kitties was something like that. I did it without benefit of LSD. My imagination is wild enough without adding chemicals to the cauldron. But, nonetheless, Kitties was written in a way where I didn't worry much about what it meant. I felt what I was writing was idiotically silly. So I'd have a strong plot line, and silly characters who took themselves very seriously, and I'd just charge ahead with the humor. 

It often seems 

That serious themes 

Pop out in humorous plays. 

You can argue about them for days, 

Or just accept that it's funny 

And stupidly punny.

The El

Train tracks built

On iron stilts

Let you loop around 

Chicago’s downtown. 

But the track’s clatter

Makes it hard to chatter

Beneath the El. 

You have to yell!

Or else, just wait

Till the noise abates.

Meditating on the Declaration

There's no guarantee of happiness, 

You just get a right to pursue it - 

But when given a chance to grasp it, 

I recommend that you do it.