Some things sure can sweep me off my feet

Another one of those Bach/Gould deals. 

Holdin’ It Back, It Hurts So Bad

The Mountains Are a Lonely Folk:

The mountains they are silent folk
       They stand afar—alone,
And the clouds that kiss their brows at night
Hear neither sigh nor groan.
        Each bears him in his ordered place
As soldiers do, and bold and high
They fold their forests round their feet
And bolster up the sky. 

Hamlin Garland

I Came Here for Something and I’m Not Leaving Without It

Now y’all know I had to make a video. 🇺🇸

Congrats, Team USA! Ya done us proud! pic.twitter.com/jovoa4YYVK

— Renee (@PettyLupone) September 14, 2026

USA!  USA!  USA!

Ahem.

Anyway, I'm quite happy with the World Cup results (although I really hated seeing MJ cry after the Final).  My faves got hardware: Awa has a Bronze with Spain, Dom & Gabby (who was also named Best Defensive Player) grabbed Silver for France's first medal ever, and Stewie earned yet another MVP trophy to go with yet another Gold.

It was a wicked fun tournament.  Lovely to see Angel and Paige and Jackie and Phee and everybody playing together.  NGL, though, I'm glad to be getting back to familiar courts and more NTodd-friendly game times.

And you may say to yourself

My God, what have I done?

μέλαινα χολή

Autumn:

There is a touch of sadness in the air this fall,
Such as recurs to fellows of melancholy:
Memory of its passage out of time
Follows the year's progression,
Ash that settles a twister of flame
On mountaintops.
Autumn is quick to remember
And passes like a sunbeam in the wave.

Norman Macleod.

I, Too, Am Acquainted With Intrusive Thoughts

Stay forever and ever, and ever, and ever. 

Don’t Leave Me Locked in Your Heart

Strange Captivity:

Never will you depart
Though often cast away,
Unburied in my heart
Wraithlike you stray.

First, tenuous and thin,
Then warmer, closer, deep,
You pierce without, within,
You enter in my sleep.

And higher, higher, till
My blood calms all my breath,
Your resolute, strong will
Leaps through the walls of death.

Spectre, whose radiant eyes
Destroy all life in me,
Let me immortalize
My strange captivity

In thoughts that none will read,
In blood that leaves no strain,
Words spoken to the rain,
Devotion none will heed.

Marya Zaturenska.

Someone's got to be oppressed!

Yes, it's all for the best!

Important, Worthy and Complex Stories

The Tiger:

The tiger

He destroyed his cage

Yes

YES

The tiger is out

Nael.

The World Was Different When I Was Twenty

WTC, October Break, 1989.

It happens every day

No matter what you say.

PS - Suddenly reminded that I used to snap my fingers in class to demonstrate timing signals (Physical Layer stuff), then would bust out into the first couple verses of this song.  Yeah, I draw on multiple disciplines in my teaching tech.

frangere

Breakage:

I go down to the edge of the sea.

How everything shines in the morning light!

The cusp of the whelk,

the broken cupboard of the clam,

the opened, blue mussels,

moon snails, pale pink and barnacle scarred—

and nothing at all whole or shut, but tattered, split,

dropped by the gulls onto the gray rocks and all the moisture gone.

It's like a schoolhouse

of little words,

thousands of words.

First you figure out what each one means by itself,

the jingle, the periwinkle, the scallop

       full of moonlight.

Then you begin, slowly, to read the whole story.

Mary Oliver.

#throwbackthursday

That tree is in high school now. (2019)

Johann Gambolputty de von Ausfern...

You have to look past his little marble goolies.