Rabbit at McDonald's

"[Roy] likes to pour salt out of the shaker until he has a heap and then rub the French fries in it, one by one. The French fries and about a pound of salt are all the kid eats; Harry finishes his Big Mac for him, even though he doesn't much care for all the Technicolor glop McDonald's puts on everything—pure chemicals. Whatever happened to the old-fashioned plain hamburger? Gone wherever the Chiclet went."

~~ from Rabbit at Rest by John Updike

where and when did i write Auggie, and what does it cost right now?

I wrote Auggie's Revenge over twelve years, from winter 2004-2005 to spring 2016, and completed writing for it variously in Philadelphia, PA; Clemson, SC; Xi'an, China; and Oakwood, Ohio. It wasn't easy for me to write this novel, and writing it in four places probably makes my life seem exciting or at least vaguely interesting in ways it may not be. I will say that in the off-the-tourist-track neighborhood I live in when I visit Xi'an, China, I'm the only one of European ancestry I've ever seen, but on this last visit a McDonald's that had stood partially complete for more than a year finally sprouted. I was still the only one of the European diaspora, but the new McDonald's had a few lines of poetry by Mary Oliver on the interior walls. I know buying from Amazon isn't best for publishing, bookstores, or writers, but the book is only $8.79 direct from Bezos, so if you'd like to purchase an affordable copy, you have my appreciation for doing so. Of course, anywhere books are sold is always fine by me. It won't disappoint unless it does.

Over Fifty Billion Served. . .

. . . but no longer in Moscow, at least not for now:

“We will be healthier,” Mr. Aksyonov told reporters in Simferopol, the Crimean capital, according to the Interfax news service. “This food does not suit. Look at people who regularly eat McDonald’s food. Some of them have to turn sideways to squeeze through a door frame.” 

According to this CNN video, the now closed Moscow McDonald's opened in 1990 and was once the largest in the world. Here's the famous first customer queue for burgers and fries "fresh" from fast-food freezers and deep friers.

We'll wait and see if this closing leads to a next wave of Russian immigration to the United States, a land where we are all somewhat free to spend our afternoons in any fast-food establishment we please.

vintage selfie

Colin Powell took time to post a vintage selfie, and it reminded me of my dad's efforts at such from the 1970s.

Below my father's photo rests his college copy of The Sun Also Rises, which I enjoyed rereading in Suzhou, China in May of 2012. The book, as in the copy depicted (originally posted two years ago), figures prominently in "My Old Man," a story included here, about visiting my father when he had only forty dollars in his pocket but was happily living by the beach, writing poetry, and soon to return to the world of work as a cashier at a local gas station's convenience store. That was twenty years ago when I first plucked it off Jay's shelf near St. Augustine, Florida, began reading, and took it back with me to Philly (not my first time through that novel, but my first time through my father's copy).

In Suzhou, among other places, I read from it in a faux Italian gelato cafe in a small shopping mall near my daughter's four-year-old kindergarten. Alas, I'd feel I was dissembling if I didn't also confess to doing much of my editing and proofreading at a McDonald's in the same "retail environment."

The Audacity of Excuses?

Please Mr. President, could you create a single job before your content is more or less the same as George and Bill? As in W. Bush and Cosby, but you are welcome to insist Clinton's "Welfare to Work" was in a similar vein; Costanza wouldn't dare pull the "responsibility card" out unless he thought it could get him laid or fed or both. But back to the Obama link:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/17/us/politics/17obama.html?_r=1&hp

We have more population, more high school and college graduates, and millions of more folks who would like more work, not less. You don't have to be John Travolta talking economy with the old dude behind the doughnut counter (the film version of Joe Klein's Primary Colors) to know a change in tone and lofty rhetoric and two dollars will get you on the bus in most cities but rarely pays the utility bills, rent, post-secondary education, medications, groceries, or any other ingredients required for your subsistence.

Okay, so Barbie in Whaleskin Boots can't find the Kurdish region of Turkey on a map of said region. She probably knows how to talk about "responsibility" and uplift her version of "the people." Both of these "leaders" have significant basketball experience although it is Palin who won the state championship, which to my mind makes her the superior WNBA applicant, an old Jrue Holiday if you will, but still doesn't prove she is WNBA-ready. (Check out Jrue's youtube.com links from the McDonald's HS All-American game! If only we all got to play against other 18 year olds for the rest of our lives.)

Is it that bad? Where's the good news???

It's Friday, folks!

So forget the politics, the unemployment rate, the homeless, all the NBA teams losing money, the higher cost of textbooks. Remember this week's lower cost of gas and GO!

I take the bold liberty to send you Cassendre Xavier's blessings and light, Don Riggs's spiritual healing, and my own middle "peace"; if you happen to receive pay on this Friday, the truth is I'm not responsible for it.