Turkey a la King

Bobby, here. We got a lot of turkey a la king for the full moon the other night. Mrs. D. writes up all this moon stuff it's some big deal, but what they really do when it's full is go to this kind of Irish hofbrau place down by the railroad station and have a drink, and then have another drink, and then get a lot of food, and I'm in storage in her bag under the table and don't get any. Then they pack up the leftover food and drive down to the marina and look at the moon. I still don't get anything to eat, but she lets me out of the bag so I can pee on a few trees.

They look at the moon, and they sing the same old song about it, and blather on the way they do. Then we all get in the car and go home.

I finally got leftover turkey a la king for dinner yesterday. This morning, I had to make a bit of a scene, but scored some more for breakfast. Tonight she mixed the last of it up with the dumb old kibble, so I had to pick through to get the good stuff, and leave the slimy bits of kibble in a heap on the floor beside my dish.

I realize that you can more or less survive on that kibble if you have to, but it's pretty weird how she thinks I can't tell the difference.

Full Moon

Worship and celebration

Dancing and music

Lovemaking

Conception and birth are both likely and auspicious.

MEDITATION:

If possible, sit where you can see the moon. Otherwise, visualize the full moon hanging in the sky. Close your eyes and see the moon grow smaller and smaller, until it is just an intense point of light in the sky.

Then it will begin to grow larger again. As it begins to grow larger, you may say that it has taken a new form---the figure of a Deity, or an animal, or some other image; or it may be just the moon itself.

The image will grow larger and larger, will surpass the normal size of the moon, and will fill the night sky.

Then it will continue to grow larger, encompassing the earth, and surrounding you and filling you with its gravity and light.

Feel yourself in the moon and part of the moon, as it permeates your body.

Then the image will begin to grow smaller and recede, leaving some of its power behind, in your bones and blood.

The image will recede back to the small point of light in the sky. Then the point will begin to grow again, until you can open your eyes and see the full moon again as everyone sees it, hanging round in the sky.

Acceleration

I've spent the last three days at a conference on "acceleration," our new community college buzz-word. There is some research indicating that under-prepared community college students can do as well or better with less remediation rather than more. There is a push to apply this principle to ESL, my field, which I find counter-intuitive.

Achieving academic proficiency in a second language is not really remediation, for one thing. Thinking of it as such might even be regarded as a subtle form of imperialism, since it is most often required of people from less powerful countries or communities who must establish squatters' rights in a dominant culture in order to improve their prospects. Certainly I couldn't do college-level work in any language but English, and neither could most other Americans. And plenty of long-established research suggests that it takes a number of years to get there.

My French, for instance, is probably more or less equivalent to my intermediate students' English. Suppose that I were a bit younger, found myself in a French-speaking country and wanted to get a university education there. I would have at least a few years of hard work to get ready for that, and would not be in any way served by an attempt to "accelerate" the process from a few years to one.

Anyway, after three days of sometimes inspirational and sometimes annoying pep talks, my conclusion is that, probably unbeknownst to the people actually running this conference, "acceleration" is a characteristically Californian spin on all the devastating budget cuts.

You see, it's actually good for the students to spend less time in school and reach their goals faster, and we can make this happen for them by working really, really hard and teaching really, really well, and oh, yes, spending less of the taxpayers' money, so it's a win-win all around.

People there were boasting about how teaching is their whole life, they need no other.

I tried this "teaching is my life" thing for a few years in the early '80's, during which time I drank a lot (something that was also in evidence after-hours at this conference). Then, throwing up on the compost heap in the back yard one night, I was blessed with a moment of realization that I stood poised in a window of opportunity between heavy drinking and truly addicted alcoholism, a good time to quit.

Without that hazy cloud of alcohol at the end of the day, "teaching is my life" no longer seemed quite so fulfilling, and I was forced to diversify my portfolio.

Waxing Moon

Magical work for fertility, prosperity, growth and plenty:

Harvest crops and herbs that grow above the ground.

New Moon Divination for the Ailing Economy

I am a Witch and not an economist. However, the current confusion and cluelessness of economists is giving me confidence in my intuitions.

The economy is not going to get better for any of the fiddling proposed by either Democrats or Republicans. The current economy has reached the hospice stage at which we work not for a recovery, but for an easy passing and auspicious rebirth.

The problem is that while most of us played Monopoly as kids, relatively few of us hung in to the end. Most of us got bored with the interminable length of the game, or frustrated with the older cousin who kept putting up hotels everywhere and charging outrageous rent. So we turned in our assets and wandered off to watch TV, or go for a swim. We never learned the lesson about capitalism that the game aptly demonstrates.

Monopoly ends when somebody like Cousin Dick finally has all the money and all the property, and nobody else has anything to play with, so there's no longer any game.

Now, when this happens, there happen to be options. Karl Marx predicted a proletarian revolution, but he did not realize how many proletarians were going to be distracted by literal interpretations of the Bible and the performance art of Sarah Palin. Another possibility, prescribed in a part of the Old Testament that modern fundamentalists generally overlook, is the Jubilee Year: to continue the Monopoly analogy, this means that you just start a new game. Cousin Dick has to give back all his play money and red plastic hotels, and everybody starts over again with an equal allotment of stuff, as dictated by the rules.

Or maybe, just maybe, there could be an entirely different kind of game that would be more fun.

New Moon

(when the first sliver of the moon shows in the sky)

Divine the future (this is when the priestesses at Delphi prophesied)

Move to a new house

Trim hair or nails in order to make them grow faster

Sign contracts

Auspicious for:

Consecrations and initiations

Marriages and new partnerships

Major purchases

New enterprises, new investments, starting a business

When you see a new moon for the first time, salute Her by kissing your hand and saying, "New Moon, leave me as well as you found me."

(According to folk tradition, you are supposed to kneel on a rock while you do this, but in my neighborhood it is hard to find rocks large enough to kneel on.)

Tornado on the Connecticut River

Way east of Berkeley, where Mrs. Drinkwalter originally came from: