I am Venti – I Contain Multitudes

Happy Saturday. And, even with a cold, it’s still a Happy Saturday.

Around the mid-1850s Walt Whitman (1819 – 1892) wrote his breakthrough book of poems Leaves of Grass. He is considered a unique American poetic voice. The Poetry Foundation describes Whitman as; “a kosmos, of Manhattan the son, Turbulent, fleshy, sensual, eating, drinking and breeding, … I am less the jolly one there, and more the silent one with sweat on my twitching lips.”

Song of Myself, 51
The past and present wilt—I have fill’d them, emptied them.
And proceed to fill my next fold of the future.
Listener up there! what have you to confide to me?
Look in my face while I snuff the sidle of evening,
(Talk honestly, no one else hears you, and I stay only a minute longer.)
Do I contradict myself?
Very well then I contradict myself,
(I am large, I contain multitudes.)
I concentrate toward them that are nigh, I wait on the door-slab.
Who has done his day’s work? who will soonest be through with his supper?
Who wishes to walk with me?
Will you speak before I am gone? will you prove already too late?

Whitman’s works proved to be a breakthrough even into our modern times. In fact, Bob Dylan, long having an attraction to and a focus on the structure of oneself, felt comfortable enough to use a phrase from Whitman’s, Song of Myself, 51; “I contain multitudes”:

Wondering what’s going on? I’m a bit more reflective being in and out of bed while I fight a very leaky cold. Thus, it’s time to read more (especially since I was cleaning up my Kindle reader before the 26th). That is the day after which Amazon won’t allow you to download any of your Kindle books to elsewhere (i.e. your laptop). It’s all to let people know that even though you think you bought (a book in this case) you really didn’t – you only have it on a long-term lease.

P.s. Any books of special interest to me are now safe and sound on my laptop – including an E-version of a deluxe hardcopy first edition of Orwell’s “1984”.

 Mid-week — February 19, 1945, marked the 80th anniversary of the Battle for Iwo Jima, one of the most terrible of the Asian portion of World War II. Teach our children what those youngsters in that battle fought for and are now being remembered as the Greatest Generation.

Now as I sip some coffee – I’d like to say that in the EU, Brussels is BRILLIANT. The EU has just declared that caffeine is a poison. As yesterday’s The Telegraph headlined an article; “Coffee is dangerous for you, warns EU”. The newspaper’s article then published: “(European) bureaucrats said there was scientific evidence to back up claims that “caffeine is harmful to humans if swallowed””.

Brilliant, you ask? Here are my thoughts. It stands to reason that once the EU publishes a warning on caffeine it is bound to happen that a total ban will follow. Knock Europe out of the coffee cycle should drive coffee pricing down for the rest of us. See how this just a mere 1 + 1 = 2 equation?

Hurry up, I can’t wait.

Oliver Anthony — musically Anthony of “Rich Men North of Richmond” fame is a bit off the front page. But boy, has he been busy. Watch the attached speech he gave this week at the international Alliance for Responsible Citizenship (ARC) in London, UK where 4,000 changemakers gathered. It’s worth a view:

Techies: During the week I had the pleasure(?) of dealing with three techies over a span of two days. There is good news. As I climbed the techie seniority ladder it was that final push which broke the Sisyphus never ending struggle and my ‘boulder’ finally crested the mountain top of success.

Part of reaching a positive resolution was a bit of insight on my part. It turns out that each of the phone techies came from a similar ‘offshore’ site, hence the problem had great similarity. Here is my solution.

Between a crackling/hissing less than perfect phone connection and instructions spoken heavily accented, I was introduced to a series of ‘somewhat understood’ acronyms. I needed help. By day two I had my crib sheet to assist.

Now I just had to understand one or two letters, look up a word containing these on my sheet, and ask if such and such was what I needed to deal with – it’s called: ‘drill down’. My advice is to develop a cheat sheet, you’ll be surprised.

The national mood – in The Netherlands is as positive as it is because of this strange sandwich; “brood met Hagelslag” (chocolate sprinkles).

Life is AMAZING! Especially when you realize that for most of life you’re not fighting a cold.

Dirk

[ “venti” used in the title to conjure up size, coffee (Starbucks) & Whitman’s poetry ]

BONUS POINTS:

The German settlers here in town were beer drinkers. However, the local beer drinking is absolute fractionally a portion of the 50-Billion gallons of annual consumption worldwide. So, which contains the oldest known written Beer recipe?

       1)     “Brauerei Weihenstephan”

       2)     “300 BCE”

       3)    “Epic of Gilgamesh”

       4)    “Hymn to Ninkasi”

       5)    “Goddess Inanna ”

       6)    “Sumerian settlement; Godin Tepe”