"Use All The Crayons!" newsletter no. 58
Today's theme ... "America"
• Today’s post: “It was 30 yrs ago this week I quit my last job (& notes on my new novel)”
Asks the question, “Who knew doing squat for so many years would pay so much squat?” (Full story here)
• ’80’s Music Video I can’t quit watching…
’til Tuesday, Voices Carry
The song is fantastic, singer Aimee Mann striking and the cheesy acting oddly compelling. I’m hooked. (Click here).
• Daily “Crayons!” on Instagram!
I know it’s only been two weeks, but I think I’ve finally found a video format that works for me. I’m getting encouraging feedback on my daily “Colorful Living” tips. If you’re a fan of what you see here, I encourage you to follo me on Instagram.
• Today’s theme: Patriot
• Colorful Living Tip of the Day …
• The American Flag: Three colors, countless threads.
• Relateds …
.• Argue at Fourth of July picnics America could end world hunger if for just one summer everyone agreed to cease all competitive eating contests.
• There are still many pockets of America where "Do you think rasslin's fake?" is considered a sophisticated pick-up line.
• Always have a handy list of your three favorite Americans. It makes a great conversation starter and reveals as much about you as it does the U.S. Always include at least one of the following: Ben Franklin, Dorothy Parker, Mark Twain or Bugs Bunny. Colorful people use all four and justify exceeding just three.
• Refer to negative seekers of political office who think America is no longer capable of achieving great things as cantidates.
• Because I enjoy seeing the fundamentalists get all excited, I hope I live to see the day when America has a First Lady named Eve.
• Wake up every day with the realization that all it takes to succeed in America beyond your wildest dreams is one really good idea. Then spend the rest of the day trying to find one.
• Colorful believers in American equality do not miss Jim Crow. Believers in great American folk music do miss Jim Croce.
• In appreciation of one of our national treasures, take a weekend and listen in chronological order to every single song Bruce Springsteen’s ever recorded. For nearly five decades he has chronicled the ups and downs of America and, in a way, much of your very own life.
• Call a current events talk show and ask the host if he or she thinks the CIA considers it a red flag when countries choose to fly red flags.
• Zeitgust Word of the Week (a word I made up with the goal of getting it into an actual dictionary) …
Zeitgust: The contrived and deliberate act of trying to mass manipulate the popular culture to an individual whim. One lone man’s attempt to zip zeitgust into the dictionary..
• Related blog post, “July 4th parades need Vietnam War protestors” (july ’16) …
We were about 90 minutes into the grand Latrobe Fourth of July parade when I was struck by an idea I know is bound to be controversial. I can’t help it. The mind tends to wander when it’s watching more than 200 redundant firetrucks crawl by at 2 mph. What, I was thinking, could we as a community do to add promotional zip to the parade? Sure, a county-wide arson spree would eliminate all the firetrucks but then the parade would be over in just 15 minutes. Then it hit me. The parade needs protesters! Vietnam War protesters!
• From Back A Ways …
“The Man who Invented America: Ben Franklin at 300 …”
When the last toast has been drunk and the last scrap of confetti swept away, when we’ve taken the latest, last full measure of the man, there will be one inescapable conclusion about the yearlong gala conceived to celebrate Benjamin Franklin’s 300th birthday: It was insufficient. How could it be anything but? One slim year to fete the man who stole lightning from the sky? C’mon, that electrifying trick had already secured Franklin, then 46, his place in history. And he was just getting started.
• Concluding thought …
• Next time you have occasion to heartily sing "God Bless America" which groups will you in your mind parenthetically ask God to exclude? White bigots? Welfare moms? Pro-Trumpers? Immigrants? Former FB friends you can no longer stand for political reasons? 'cause we're all in there.
• Author’s note …
People often ask me how long it takes to write a novel. As I’ve only written one novel my frame of reference is narrow. “The Last Baby Boomer” is 66,143 words (215 pages) and it took me about two years. I’m nearing the finish line of my newest satire, “Evan & Elle in Heaven & Hell: A Long-Distance Social Media Afterlife Love Story.” This weekend I crested the 70,000-word mark and have been at it two years. I figure I have another 5,000 or so words before finishing. I intend to keep it snappy. Just because a book deals with eternity doesn’t mean it should take forever to read.
Writing any book is an exercise in abject optimism. You forsake daily income in the hope and belief that your efforts will pay off down the road.
But it’s mindset is sure to produce hardship and tension until the presumed — but not guaranteed — payoff materializes. So as I struggle to produce something magnificent and devote many other hours to pursuits that many of you enjoy for free, I hope you will consider donating whatever you can spare.
Please consider supporting me with some tangible appreciation (PayPal, Venmo, 874 Solomon Temple Rd., Latrobe, Pa, 15650).
All Chris’s books can be purchased through www.ChrisRodell.com
