The Coffee Shop is an open thread-style discussion forum for human interest news of the day.
Authors
Recent Comments
The Coffee Shop – “L’illusion de Joseph” (video)
Posted in Animation, Art, Short Video
Tagged Klesha Production, L illusion de Joseph, Open Thread, phantascope, phantasmascope, phenakistiscope, phenakistoscope, phenakitiscope, The Coffee Shop
Comments Off on The Coffee Shop – “L’illusion de Joseph” (video)
Walking with Walt Whitman – Leaves of Grass – Inscriptions – To A Historian
Walking with Walt Whitman
A daily installment from Leaves of Grass.
~ ❦ ~
To a Historian
You who celebrate bygones,
Who have explored the outward, the surfaces of the races, the life that has exhibited itself,
Who have treated of man as the creature of politics, aggregates, rulers and priests,
I, habitan of the Alleghanies, treating of him as he is in himself in his own rights,
Pressing the pulse of the life that has seldom exhibited itself, (the great pride of man in himself,)
Chanter of Personality, outlining what is yet to be,
I project the history of the future.
~ ❦ ~
Leaves of Grass – Wikisource
Image – Walt Whitman, age 35, from the frontispiece to Leaves of Grass, Fulton St., Brooklyn, N.Y., steel engraving by Samuel Hollyer from a lost daguerreotype by Gabriel Harrison (my frame) ~ Wikipedia
Posted in Leaves of Grass, poem, Poetry, Walt Whitman
Tagged Inscriptions, To A Historian
Comments Off on Walking with Walt Whitman – Leaves of Grass – Inscriptions – To A Historian
Notes in Emily Dickinson’s pocket – “If I can stop one heart from breaking” (Life, 6)
If I can stop one heart from breaking,
I shall not live in vain;
If I can ease one life the aching,
Or cool one pain,
Or help one fainting robin
Unto his nest again,
I shall not live in vain.
Emily is said to have carried a pencil and scraps of paper in her pocket in order to always be prepared when a poem came her way.
~ “Tell all the Truth but tell it slant.” ~
❦
Image of Emily Dickinson – from the daguerreotype taken circa 1848. (my frame)
Poem – Emily Dickinson. Complete Poems. 1924.
The Coffee Shop – Onbashira Matsuri (御柱祭), “Sacred Pillars Festival” (video)
The Coffee Shop is an open thread-style discussion forum for human interest news of the day.
From OH! MATSURi, a film about Onbashira Matsuri (御柱祭), i.e., the “Sacred 
Pillars Festival”: Every six years for 1,200 years, people in Japan’s Nagano Prefecture risk life and limb to ride huge logs down a steep slope and transport the logs across a river to their destinations at branches of a shrine, where the logs are erected and remain in place until the next festival. For more information about the festival, see articles at The Asahi Shimbun and Japanese Architecture.
Posted in Japan, Short Video
Tagged Culture, festival, OH MATSURi, Onbashira Matsuri, Open Thread, Sacred Pillars Festival, The Coffee Shop, 御柱祭
2 Comments
The Story of the Taoist Farmer
A Chinese folktale:
A man who lived on the northern frontier of China was skilled in interpreting events. One day, for no reason, his horse ran away to the nomads across the border. Everyone tried to console him, but his father said, “What makes you so sure this isn’t a blessing?” Some months later his horse returned, bringing a splendid nomad stallion. Everyone congratulated him, but his father said, “What makes you so sure this isn’t a disaster?” Their household was richer by a fine horse, which his son loved to ride. One day he fell and broke his hip. Everyone tried to console him, but his father said, “What makes you so sure this isn’t a blessing?”
A year later the nomads came in force across the border, and every able-bodied man took his bow and went into battle. The Chinese frontiersmen lost nine of every ten men. Only because the son was lame did the father and son survive to take care of each other. Truly, blessing turns to disaster, and disaster to blessing: the changes have no end, nor can the mystery be fathomed.
Sources – story, image
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged china, Daoism, Folktale, Story, The Story of the Taoist Farmer
7 Comments
Walking with Walt Whitman – Leaves of Grass – Inscriptions – To Foreign Lands
Walking with Walt Whitman
A daily installment from Leaves of Grass.
~ ❦ ~
Insriptions
To Foreign Lands
I heard that you ask’d for something to prove this puzzle the New World,
And to define America, her athletic Democracy,
Therefore I send you my poems that you behold in them what you wanted.
~ ❦ ~
Leaves of Grass – Wikisource
Image – Walt Whitman, age 35, from the frontispiece to Leaves of Grass, Fulton St., Brooklyn, N.Y., steel engraving by Samuel Hollyer from a lost daguerreotype by Gabriel Harrison (my frame) ~ Wikipedia
Posted in Leaves of Grass, poem, Poetry, Walt Whitman
Tagged Inscriptions, To Foreign Lands
Comments Off on Walking with Walt Whitman – Leaves of Grass – Inscriptions – To Foreign Lands
Notes in Emily Dickinson’s pocket – “Glee! the great storm is over!” (Life, 5)
Glee! the great storm is over!
Four have recovered the land;
Forty gone down together
Into the boiling sand.
Ring, for the scant salvation!
Toll, for the bonnie souls,—
Neighbor and friend and bridegroom,
Spinning upon the shoals!
How they will tell the shipwreck
When winter shakes the door,
Till the children ask, “But the forty?
Did they come back no more?”
Then a silence suffuses the story,
And a softness the teller’s eye;
And the children no further question,
And only the waves reply.
Emily is said to have carried a pencil and scraps of paper in her pocket in order to always be prepared when a poem came her way.
~ “Tell all the Truth but tell it slant.” ~
❦
Image of Emily Dickinson – from the daguerreotype taken circa 1848. (my frame)
Poem – Emily Dickinson. Complete Poems. 1924.
Posted in Emily Dickinson, Poetry
Tagged Glee the great storm is over, poem
Comments Off on Notes in Emily Dickinson’s pocket – “Glee! the great storm is over!” (Life, 5)
Under tRump, cockroaches will have unenumerated, unimpeachable rights and envy the dead
By ann summers
If we thought the End of the Republic happened when Monica Lewinsky got a TED talk, surprise -— Donald Trump could become POTUS, just as he states that Latino or Muslim judges could be unfair to him. Sonia Sotomayor will become the Earl Warren for the Birchers of the 21st Century…
DON’T WORRY, WE CAN ALWAYS CLEAR AWAY THE NUCLEAR RUBBLE AND IMPEACH (HIM).
It’s sad when the pro-Trump argument is, “Don’t worry we can impeach him if it gets too bad”http://www.thefeeherytheory.com/time-nevertrump-republicans-call-quits/ …
The cockroaches left after the nuclear holocaust can worry about unenumerated federal rights.
Is a sign of the Republic’s end those conservative reactionaries and their fear of the cooties of the Other— women, POC, LGBTQ, furriners, your idiot neighbor, the gummint, and even the LEO who’s supposed to be the friend at least of your kids, so why did I get that ticket. In Driver Ed, instructors used to call it “selective enforcement” more recently it’s quotas, revenue streams, and arbitrary & capricious depending on whether you’re driving while: young, while a POC, while cute….etc
Posted in 2016 Election, American History, Barack Obama, Bill Clinton, Capitalism, Civil Liberties, Congress, Conservatives, Conspiracy, Constitutional Law, Courts, Crime, Democracy, Economics, environment, Equal Rights, Fascists/Corporatists, Free Speech, Government, Government Propaganda, History, Homosexual Rights, Humor, Immigrants, Jurisprudence, Justice, Liberals, Libertarians, Media, Neoconservatives, Neoliberals, Pharmaceuticals, Police, Political Science, Politics, Presidential Elections, Progressives, Propaganda, Racism, Reproductive Rights, RNC, Society, Tea Party, Uncategorized, World History
Tagged 2016 Presidential Candidates, birchers, Constitutional Rights, earl warren, impeachment, john birch, ninth amendment, police, Racism, Racism in the United States, Republicans, tenth amendment, unenumerated rights
Comments Off on Under tRump, cockroaches will have unenumerated, unimpeachable rights and envy the dead
The Coffee Shop – MONOPOLY, the Board Game’s True Origins
The Coffee Shop is an open thread-style discussion forum for human interest news of the day.
—oooOooo–
This is an open thread. There are several hosts, each host being responsible for picking a “theme of the day” and starting the discussion. However, there is no hard and fast rule about staying on topic, especially if you have a personal story burning a hole in your pocket trying to escape.
Pictures and videos are welcome in the comments. If photos are used, please be sure you own the copyright. We would rather see your personal photos anyway, rather than random stuff copied from the internet. Our only request is that if you use pictures or videos, take pity on those who don’t have broadband, and don’t post more than two or three in a single comment.
This is an Open Thread. Grab your cup, pull up a chair, sit a spell and share what’s on your mind today.
The “official” story of MONOPOLY, the one that came inside the game’s box for years, isn’t the whole story of the game. Charles Darrow wasn’t really the sole inventor of the game – in the 1930’s, he “borrowed” much of it from THE LANDLORD’S GAME, which was created and patented by Elizabeth Magie, and from other buying-selling-land games that previously had only limited success. But Darrow is the first game designer to become a millionaire from sales of his board game. Elizabeth Magie is said to have made $500 from her earlier version of the game.
Posted in American History, The Coffee Shop
Tagged board games, Charles Darrow, Elizabeth Magie Phillips, Henry George, MONOPOLY Game, Parker Brothers, Ralph Anspach, US Patents
Comments Off on The Coffee Shop – MONOPOLY, the Board Game’s True Origins
If You’re Bored With Tying Your Shoes
Just in case you’ve become bored with tying your shoe laces the same old way day after day, here’s DaveHax to show you how “easy” it is to change your lacing for the Ukrainian Knot, and re-learn to tie your shoes.
For people who have way too much time on their hands?
Source
Posted in Humor
Tagged DaveHax, If Youre Bored With Tying Your Shoes, Shoe Laces, Shoes, Ukrainian Knot
5 Comments
Nicole Plyler Fisk
Gene Howington
FFS Guest Blogger
Joy of Fishes
Chuck Stanley
shortfinals
Terry Welshans
ann li-summers
wordcloud9
Flowers For Socrates 
.jpg){kind=link}