Remember Monty Python's News for Parrots [on youtube]? They'd briefly report some disaster with the reassurance, "No parrots were involved".*
The Girlettes were worried this morning that FLOWERS are being harmed, when Linda Sue posted one of her Orphans rallying for Ukraine. (They are not heartless, they just do not register human foolish behavior.) "Not the FLOWERS!?!"
It reminded me of my favorite Doonesbury cartoon (by Garry Trudeau), from the Vietnam War. I must have read it when it came out––October 30, 1972–– and never forgot it.
That's Zonker Harris in the starred ^ helmet, remember?
* Sadly, there are pet parrots in Ukraine... Here's a report of a vet in Poland helping parrot refugees.
The Housewares work area was almost a blank canvas before I started working there in the fall. No more! Toys are starting to appear. So far my only playmate there is "Sandr", the coworker who lit the Hannukah candles for us. He put up the carrot car and the rope swing.
Jester in Furniture has also filled his bulletin board with little things. It's funny to me when people DON'T decorate their area, especially given that we work in a stream of things. I'd expect people to pluck out ones they like.
I guess it's like how some people respond to the Girlettes, and some don't. When I went for my first Covid vaccine four springs ago, the public health nurse liked Penny Cooper and happily included her. She even gave Penny a little band-aid and a sticker after her shot:
The Toys are a little wary of Marz. She knows them, but doesn't always want them in her life. Recently she told me she'd put all the toys in her apartment in the closet.
Still, she knows me, and she made me a birthday card with a Bear spirit:
Inside it says that I am. . .
"The Most Minor Prophet, the Prophet of Toys (bears, dolls, etc.)"
Decorating the Fence
Yesterday I hung (with twist ties) the dozen "Don't Be Afraid" prints on the fence next to the thrift store (below). Okay, but they looked kinda paltry, and I texted the photo to Emster, saying "I need to make 100 to cover the fence."
(I hate this fence--the city put it up to keep people OUT of the pocket park four years ago, when people were camping there... because they had no homes.)
Em replied, "Let's cover the fence on your birthday!" Yes,
yay! I'll print up a ton, and she'll help hang them after work on
Wednesday. She'll make stuff to hang too. (I hope.)
When she worked at the
store, we used to do what she called "tschoch drops" together--leaving little
apotropaic toy-constructions in the alleys: Alley Protectors.
Reading about the power
of Laughtivism from Serbian resistance trainer Popvic, I came across an
article I liked that's worth sharing:
Book's Amina is fasting--she is very observant. She showed me her new portable prayer "rug"--just a sheet of plastic, like the material of a disposable raincoat, with a rug pattern on it. She was showing me how she can't fold up on her knees properly, to pray--injured knee!--by kneeling down partway on plastic rug on the breakroom floor. This young woman in hijab and long dress and Star Wars hoodie!
If I remember, I say "Ramadan mubarak" to Muslim customers, but sometimes I just say "Happy Ramadan" in my lazy American way.
_______________
ELONIA MUMP
Yesterday I referred to "Mump" in a text to a pal, and she texted me this back:
There's a STORY IDEA: Melania is the true mastermind of the Trump presidencies.
Would we be surprised? She is such a cipher, I have no idea what her deal is.
My pal also said there are reports from KGB agents that Trump was turned 40+ years ago. I thought that was some loony conspiracy theory--though psychologically it would explain a lot.
"Three KGB agents, . . . including former head of Kazakhstan’s intelligence service, Alnur Mussayev, who recently claimed in a Facebook post that Donald Trump was recruited by the KGB in 1987, when the 40-year-old real-estate mogul first visited Moscow.
"None of these former KGB operatives has provided evidence, but the fact
that three KGB agents located in different places and speaking at
different times agree on the story suggests this possibility should not
be dismissed out of hand.
"...Lending credence to the allegations is the fact that kompromat on [Russian control of] Trump
would easily, simply and convincingly explain the president’s animus
toward NATO, Europe and Ukraine, his admiration of Vladimir Putin and
his endorsement of authoritarian rule.
"One could even invoke 'Occam’s
razor,' the philosophical principle that claims that simple explanations
should be preferred to complex ones."
This interests me because I've always wondered, How did an American of the Cold War generation come to fawn on a Russian dictator?
It's especially weird, I think, to my generation of Americans to see Trump so eager to advance Putin's aims. I mean, we born after WWII were programed to distrust Russians, not to bow like spaniels before them. For millenials, it might be like seeing a US president kowtow to the Taliban.
_________________
bink is coming soon for our Sunday coffee and banana pancakes. Sugar-free,
they're best when the bananas are very overripe--sugary!––and today
they are. And I have walnuts and frozen blueberries for them too.
I cook them in MY MOST FAVORITE POSSESSION. (Toys aren't possessions, so they aren't in the running.) My
MFP is... the nonstick, ceramic-lined (non toxic) Green-brand pan bink
gave me for Xmas. It is dreamy to wash--just rinses off.
An inept leader appeases a bully who claims that neighboring countries rightfully belong to his nation.
Said bully invades neighbor in Eastern Europe.
British and European leaders pledge support for its ally, the invaded country.
Eggs are in short supply. ___________________
Even the eggs? Oh, that's not worrying at all.
I actually take hope that Mump's increasingly bad behavior will snap people out of apathy and complacency. Displays such as the shameful treatment of President Zelensky of Ukraine yesterday should motivate us to take action. Don't Go Alone: Take a Toy
But what can toys do in times of trouble? They are only little.
Thumb their noses!
Example: Toys protested government corruption in Siberia in 2012. When authorities said the protest was unsanctioned, the toys applied for a permit.
They were denied––for not being Russian citizens.
Helpfully, city spokesman Andrei Lyapunov explained, "As you understand, toys are not even people."
Penny Cooper says, "Of course we are not people. Who would want to be people? That doesn't mean we're not real."
We are pondering our next step. bink and I intended to make a zine after the Mumps got started, but couldn't find an angle, right off. "Lets' take a humorous approach" we decided yesterday.
Engage in Tauntery
I learned about the Toy Protest on this TED Talk: "The Power of Laughtivism" (below).
The speaker is Srdja Popovic, best-known of the Serbian founders of the student movement Otpor! (Resistance! in English) that used irony and mockery to help bring down dictator Slobodan Milošević in 2000. You might like it:
"Humor reduces fear", says Popovic, and irony and mockery were Otpor's main tools. Humor shows up the Powers That Be, and it's hard for them to fight without looking ridiculous themselves.
One of Otpor's slogans was, We want Serbia to be a normal country. "It was silly because just wanting things to be normal was kind of outrageous," said another Otpor leader, Ivan Marovic.
Training others was always part of their platform. Popovic went on to write Blueprint for Revolution: How
to Use Rice Pudding, Lego Men, and Other Nonviolent Techniques to
Galvanize Communities, Overthrow Dictators, or Simply Change the World.
Ideally a nonviolent resistance will coalesce here in my country, but even small, solitary actions have power. After the toys were denied a permit to protest, the group said it would look for another way.
One
possibility, said the activist Sergei Andreev, is a solitary picket, allowed under Russian law to take place without permission from local authorities.
"We will stand up one [toy] and the rest will sit on a bench not far away."
____________
Don’t go down with the ship!
Music helps us stay afloat.
One of my favorite rousing songs, "The Mary Ellen Carter" by Canadian Stan Rogers--about the raising of an abandoned ship.
"And you, to whom adversity has dealt the final blow, With smiling bastards lying to you everywhere you go,
Turn to, and put-out all your strength of arm, and heart, and brain,
And like the Mary Ellen Carter, rise again!"
