Just Want You To Know

It's spring, and Mary Jane's back.

Happy Birthday...

to Ulysses by James Joyce, published on this date back in 1922.

Seen with one of its most well-known readers.

Among its lesser-known readers...yours truly.

So noted.

Also, some wag put this picture on a web site:

It's Been A While...

About three and a half weeks, since the last post.

Here's one reason. I haven't given a shit about posting because I've been in a deep funk lately. I have my reasons and beliefs why, but I'm not willing to tell you, dear reader, and the rest of the internet..

Here's another reason. One of the biggest, if not the biggest, thing before me is the state of my apartment. It hasn't been cleaned thoroughly for at least five years. I'll admit to that..

Cleaning this place is like a combination of two of the twelve labors of Hercules: Cleaning the Augean stables, which seemed impossible to complete; and killing the Hydra, because when one of its heads was cut off, it grew two more to replace it.

And since this blog isn't a job or duty or obligation, but something I do for my own pleasure, I've done it when I felt like it.

I'm still in this funk, and the apartment just sits here untouched. But I decided, after I went through some of my notes, to start posting again. Or at the least, post this one thing.

As part of my return, I present this slice of cheesecake to mark the end of the summer:

Ah, Cheesecake!

I know one thing that can take away your blues about life: a nice slice of cheesecake.

And before you is a second helping of Elizabeth Taylor.

Back in December 0f 2008, I posted a picture of her. If you want to see it, then please click here.

For your pleasure right now, I serve you another:

Please enjoy.

For The Fourth

I know it's early, but I might as well post this now as the holiday starts.

I hope all of you have a happy -- and safe -- Fourth of July,
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O! say can you see by the dawn's early light,
What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming?
Whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous fight,
O'er the ramparts we watched, were so gallantly streaming?
And the rockets' red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there.
O! say does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?

Hispanic-American Cheesecake

It's been a while since I've presented some cheesecake for you, my readers. So I just decided to do it now, and I have just the thing:

Eva Longoria, star of the ABC nighttime soap opera Desperate Housewives, wife of San Antonio Spur guard Tony Parker, and very, very pretty/sexy/delectable.

You might noticed that she isn't wearing a bra. I believe someone must've put something on the inside of her dress so that she displays that kind of cleavage without a possibility of the dress opening and therefore showing a bare bosom -- not that I would complain about that.

Enjoy!

These Times ...

Lately, I've felt a little perturbed about the times. Three things put those vague thoughts and feelings about that into words.

The first was this review of the book Next Man Up: A Year Behind The Line In Today's NFL by John Feinstein. In it, he quoted Brian Billick, the former head coach of the Baltimore Ravens. It appeared in the January 8, 2007 issue of The New Yorker:

Billick says grimly about cutting players, "Whenever I have to make these cuts, I always think about what Clint Eastwood said in 'Unforgiven': 'when you kill a man, you not only are ending his life, you're taking away everything he ever had or is going to have.'" The unhappiness that you feel among the (Baltimore Ravens) players is hardly the misery of the oppressed, but is something more familiar these days, the rancor of the near-miss. Why them and not us? is a radical question. Why the guy at the next locker and not me? a bitter one.

(I forgot to note the author of the piece. For that, I apologize.)

The second is from the blog Gawker.com. It's entitled What Are You Even Doing, America? Here's the first paragraph:

The Way We Live Now: Ass out. We barely even know what we're doing any more. Stealing a bus? Living on the front lawn? Buying in before yet another real estate crash? It's a party!

The rest of the post was written in the same tone. Click here to read it.

The third is also from Gawker. It's about Joe Stack, the man who flew his private airplane into an Internal Revenue Service office on February 17 of this year in Austin, Texas. Click here to read it.

After I read all of them at about the same time, I wondered to myself: How fucking screwed are we? The bad economic times do not seem to be going away. There's a strongly vocal minority who opposes the president either for his policies, his race, or both. Add to that the lousy weather this winter. It's no wonder that I, along with many other people, feel somewhat helpless.

But when I think of all that, I think of this picture:


It reminds me of a famous quote from Candide, the satirical novel by the 18th-century French writer Voltaire. While Pangloss, Candide's mentor, tells him that "All is for the best in in the best of all possible worlds," Candide replies, "We must cultivate our gardens."

I cultivate my garden the best that I can. I hope you do the same.

There also is a quote by Shakespeare that's from Act 4, Scene 1 of King Lear:

And worse I may be yet: the worst is not/So long as we can say, This is the worst.

I believe that. I hope you do, too.

So take care, please.

Climbing The Ladder

Here we have a young woman climbing the corporate ladder.

However, we tell her this. She should not rely mostly on her youthful beauty and sexuality to get ahead in work. Those things fade. Skills and a good work ethic never do.

Some Cheesecake And Some Details

Before you is the latest piece of cheesecake from my blog's bakery and kitchen.

Her name is Marcy Hanson. I found her picture on the net and downloaded it my hard drive.

I put it before you because I've written 12 posts today --that's a lot more than what I've written during the last few months -- and I bet you could use some sweetness in your life. I know I do.
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Posting will be irregular in the future -- at least for the next month -- because I'm still involved with matters -- some personal, some related to the health of some relatives -- that keep me from my home base.

So this is all for today and probably for sometime soon.

Goodbye for now.

And please -- keep watching this space.

today's slice of cheesecake

eh -- enough of the gloom and doom. here's a slice of cheesecake for today.

it's julianne nicholson, who plays detective megan wheeler in the television show law and order: criminal intent, which is shown on the usa network.

she's quite the cutie. i'm a sucker for women with short auburn colored hair. AND i'm especially a huge sucker if they have freckles; think of them as cinnamon sprinkled all over.

danica, with and without

the young woman pictured above is danica patrick, openwheel driver and MAJOR BABE.

that's how the powers that be in auto racing are marketing her.

(sara fisher, another woman who races, is marketed as the girl next door. for example, in a commercial i've seen on television, she's featured with a bunch of kids that look to be of gradeschool age. and i can't remember now what product she's endorsing.

danica, on the other hand, is the girl next door -- if you live down the street from the playboy mansion.)

the picture on the left ran in the 2008 edition of sports illustrated's swimsuit edition. the picture on the left ran in the 2009 edition. the poses are about the same and the swimsuits danica is wearing are about the same.

if you think that's trampish, be glad she isn't wearing a thong.

(and i know some of you out there think it isn't trampish enough and she should be wearing a thong. to that i say: shame on you.)

you'll notice that the back tattoo is "missing" from the 2009 picture. that's because the powers that be at sports illustrated airbrushed it out. the sports blog deadspin has the details. please click here for the details.

the back tattoo, if you don't know by now, has been popular with young women. it's often made right above the tailbone, and often is based on a tribal pattern.

it's also been called a tramp stamp, prudes say proper ladies don't get one. and some misogynistic hetereosexuals say it's easily on display while you fuck a tramp (whore/slut/bitch/whatever) dog style.

whatever.

and yes, there are misogynistic hetereosexuals. i plan to write about them later on in this blog.

today's slice of cheesecake

i know it's been a while ...

and it's about halfway through the morning ...

and it's not the best food to eat for breakfast ...

but what the hell ...

here's today's slice of cheesecake:

bar rafaelli, who was on the cover of sports illustrated's swimsuit issue, published earlier this month.

she's an israeli, a supermodel, and girlfriend/significant other/lover/whatever of actor leonardo dicaprio.

enjoy!

today's slice of cheesecake

since it's still the holiday season -- at least for me until january 6 -- here's a slice of cheesecake that you can enjoy before you start your new year's resolutions.

it's a picture of elizabeth taylor. the sign in the lower left says it's a wardrobe still. i think it's for the movie version of tennessee williams' cat on a hot tin roof. paul newman and burl ives also acted in it.

i found this picture today on the net. when i saw it, my first thought was:

dangggggggggggggggggggg!

sexy sexy -- even in black and white.

please enjoy. i know i sure do.

special today -- TWO pieces of cheesecake

hey, it's the weekend. so for you, i serve this piece of cheesecake:



i might've faked out some of you with this picture of a fine piece of dessert. i found it on flickr.

this is more like it:



it took me a while to find a picture of a pretty lady posting as one of santa's helper elves -- at least one who wasn't topless.

so here are two pieces of cheesecake for you. go ahead and take them both. indulge yourself for once.

if they make you fatter -- well, you can always start losing weight as part of your new year's resolutions.

in the meantime, i'll be working on some things off the net. i plan to post them here later this month.

(by the way, i found the picture of santa's helper at lollipoplingerie.com.)

some comments about thanksgiving

posting has been light yesterday and will be today because of the thanksgiving holiday.

earlier this week, i posted a thanksgiving prayer for the cynical at heart. if you want to read it, click here.

i'll be eating thanksgiving dinner this afternoon with four generations of my immediate family: my parents, my brothers, their children and two of their grandchildren -- my grandnieces. one of my sisters in law invited her sister, husband, and two children. and a nephew make bring along his girlfriend. that's anywhere from 14 to 17 people.

if i know my family, many kinds of carbohydrates will be served: mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, noodles, and rolls, to name a few.

i'm not that great of a cook, so i'm not bringing macaroni and cheese from a box, fried chicken i bought from a store, or any other dish that was easy to make or easy to buy. i'm bringing relishes: sweet and dill pickles, green and black olives, celery sticks and carrots. you could call them side dishes to a salad.

i'm thankful for many things: that i have people i know with whom i can eat dinner today.

i have great empathy for many people who are away from home, whatever it may be, for thanksgiving. two groups come to mind:

• the first is those who are on duty -- u.s. military overseas, especially in the middle east, along with police officers and firefighters. and i'm thankful for them doing their duties for the rest of the populace.
• the second group is people who couldn't get back home because it was too far to travel or they're going through hard economic times or any other reason.

i'm thankful that i have my health. many people of my age, including a couple of friends, along with their parents, are dead and gone.

and i'm thankful that i have my sanity, although at times i'm not the most chipper and upbeat man you would know. but i'm working on that.

i know one man who's not thankful for today. he's a native american who's half iroquois. for him, i'm sure today is like january 27 -- the international day of rememberance for the holocaust -- for the jews. i bet he would agree with this quote from malcolm x:

"we didn't land on plymouth rock; plymouth rock landed on us!"

i don't want to end on a down note, so here's a slice of cheescake for dessert. go ahead -- it's thanksgiving -- gorge yourself with it along with pumpkin pie and other tasty desserts:



she is karolina kurkova, a czech supermodel who's one of victoria's secret angels.

by the way, at 10 p.m. wednesday, december 3, cbs will broadcast a special victoria's secret fashion show. so that's one thing, readers, you can be thankful for -- if you're a heterosexual male.

goodbye for now. posting will resume probably on friday and no later than sunday.

today's slice of cheescake

damn, it's noontime on a sunday.

it's also the start of a week with thanksgiving in the middle of it. because of that, a lot of people will be starting their mental vacation on tuesday at the earliest.

because it's near the start of a holiday, you ought to have a slice of cheesecake.

it's jessical biel. i've pictured her before. please click here if you want to see it.

now for your enjoyment is another picture of her.

much better, thank you

i had posted earlier today about the cold that had bothered me since last thursday. i hoped to start feeling better on tuesday, but after nappping off and on this morning and early this afternoon, i'm back to my regular condition.

so to celebrate, i'll have a little slice of cheesecake. you can have one, too.

it's actress sandra bullock, with a comehither look and a falling bra strap. i believe the publicity picture was taken sometime before the movie speed was released in 1994. it featured her with keanu reeves, dennis hopper, and a speeding bus. and it made her a star.

the election and some cheesecake

the polls close at 6 p.m. today in indiana. therefore, the watch starts on who this state will choose as the next president.

and surprisingly, it's been close, although i believe indiana will chose john mccain, but barely.

as of this afternoon, reports said barack obama had a 52.1 percent to 44.5 percent lead nationally over mccain. obama has 318 electoral votes, more than enough to win the presidency, to mccain's 196.

i won't be live blogging the election. i'm going to watch the results, then write about them tomorrow.

so in the meantime, here's a slice of cheescake as a reward for a long and hard election campaign. she is kyla cole, a model from slovakia.

stunningly bright blue eyes, yes? the rest of her is just as beautiful, too. in many pictures of her, she usually wears fewer clothes and her poses are less coy.

put her name in your search engine and check out her pictures on the net. but i warn you; most of them are DEFINITELY not safe for work or to view with your girlfriend or wife around.

please enjoy.

(by the way, cole was pet of the month in march 2000 for penthouse magazine.)

today's slice of cheescake

ah -- a midday treat for you!

today's slice of cheesecake is actress brittany murphy, who is really blonde.

she appeared in the movies clueless, sin city, and uptown girls. she also has been the voice of luanne on the fox comedy king of the hill, which has been cancelled.

today's slice of cheescake

here, for your slice of midmorning cheesecake, is a picture of the actor jessica biel.

she first came to public attention in the family-oriented drama 7th heaven, and now appears in feature films. she has been romantically involved with derek jeter, shortshop for the new york yankees, and is supposedly engaged to actor and entertainer justin timberlake.

enjoy -- and ride 'em, cowgirl!