Some great lyric poetry - set to music for the public (Schiller, Goethe and Verlaine)

Modernist lyric poetry (for academics only)

Gerard Manley Hopkins, T.S. Eliot et al. -- not a fan. (Except for Eliot's cat poems, which were the basis of a successful Broadway play.)

Found this interesting re: Richard Blanco's poem for Obama's inaugural, from Jahan Ramazani, an editor of The Norton Anthology of Modern and Contemporary Poetry (already suspect to my mind):

“[It] was especially well suited to the occasion,” added Ramazani. “A more knotty or abstruse poem—even if it had a better chance of lasting or was more formally innovative, less conventional in its imagery or diction—would have missed the mark as an act of public address as well as poetry.”

Going back to ancient Greek literature, lyric poetry was not "knotty or abstruse" and was meant for "public" consumption.  (Lyric poetry should be "sincere and clear" (said Verlaine).)  The French even put their "literary" poems to music. (There's no disparity between the popular and the academic, as in English.)

I would also like to point to Friedrich Schiller's "Ode to Joy," incorporated into Beethoven's 9th Symphony.

Wednesday night

Bootsy's doing remarkably well. He's even started running away from me when he knows I'm about to nab him to administer the Clavamox. (It's been a while since I saw him running -- and that would have been chasing Lucky.) I think there's one squirt, maybe two, left of the Clavamox.

Tuesday night

Traffic has been a nightmare lately with all the yahoos in town for the BCS Championship Game (I guess this used to be the "Orange Bowl Game"). Been late to work and late home the last two days, so I've been busier at home after work than usual, trying to get stuff done.

I've also been busier in the morning, getting up a bit earlier to administer Bootsy's medicines. (The Clavamox is almost gone now.)

This morning I was horrified to see that there was a Google+ button at the bottom of my blog posts, revealing my name (and this is an anonymous enterprise here). (I hadn't noticed it before.) I'd kind of been hoodwinked into joining Google+ (as if I needed another social network), but had no idea they'd link my profile -- basic as it was -- to Blogger and put a button on my blog. (Note that I figured out how to get rid of the button.) I also unlinked everything I do on Google sites from Google+ (Google didn't use to own Blogger). When I did that, they asked why, and I wrote that it was an invasion of privacy to reveal my name on my blog without my permission.

BTW, I've been doing blogs for years, beginning here in 2006 (if not sooner).

So many privacy issues on the intertubes. (Goes way back.) The rule of thumb nowadays is that if you use a product that's free, you're the product. So watch out!

Why Platinum Coin Opponents Are All Wrong

From Bloomberg here

Sunday night

So glad the holidays are over. Whew!

And Bootsy is OK. Here I'd thought (sadly) I'd been watching him die a slow death from old age, when in fact he had a condition we didn't know about that was treatable (we already knew about the kidney problem).

I'd tried to ameliorate the kidney problem by putting Bootsy on expensive special foods (available only from the vet's) which he essentially refused to eat, so I'd given up on that. I figured the kidney problem was causing him to waste away, whereas it turned out to be a thyroid problem that has popped up since the kidney problem was diagnosed via blood tests a couple of years ago.  (Last week the vet didn't even remark that the known kidney problem was that much of a problem, being confined to one kidney.)  (I guess I'd forgotten that detail.)

Meanwhile the head cold appears to have cleared up, and he can smell and relishes eating his food again. While it's probably true that a had a mouth infection (the vet detected it), I don't think that had stopped him from eating on New Year's Day. I think the head cold was killing his appetite, since I'd read that cats won't eat anything they can't smell, and you could hear the congestion, plus he was sneezing.  (He even turned his nose up at a strong beef broth, and he loves beef.)  But he's no longer sneezing and I no longer hear the head congestion.  (Maybe the antibiotic Cefazolin, administered at the clinic, cleared that up.)

Meanwhile I'm still administering the Clavamox (for the mouth infection), which is quickly running out. Whew on that also!

Gott sei dank, es ist Freitag!

Das war die Woche die war...

Thursday night

So Bootsy's back home and I was glad they'd discovered the thyroid problem (through blood tests) and got pills to treat it, when I picked him from the vet's today. Was reading all about it online tonight and it appears to be a common problem in older cats (often in tandem with the kidney problem). The thyroid pills are cheap and supposed to be better than what they used to prescribe (fewer side effects).

Apparently they'd determined Bootsy's kidneys were healthy enough for him to undergo the possibly dangerous (and expensive) Cefazolin antibiotic treatment, and he got 3 of those during his stay (vs. the estimated 4). On the bill, it says they were shots (vs. IV). He also got vitamin B-12 to stimulate his appetite. (Working.)

The thyroid pill has to administered twice daily, along with the Clavamox (for his mouth infection and possibly also the sniffles, which can affect appetite if cat can't smell the food -- wasn't told). Until the Clavamox runs out (course of treatment comes to an end), I'll be waking up 5 minutes earlier in the a.m. to administer the medicines. Administering the Clavamox involves immobilizing (and comforting) Bootsy in a towel burrito. After that's over, I can wake up 5 minutes later and only have to pop him the thyroid pill in the Pill Pocket.

The thyroid pill might have to be administered twice daily for life. I have three weeks' worth of pills to administer and then have to schedule an appointment with the vet to do another blood test to see how the pills are working. Meanwhile, he should start gaining some weight back and be healthier.

Wednesday night

Bootsy's in the animal hospital tonight. I was reluctant to let the vet keep him there -- which she prescribed for any possible good outcome for Bootsy -- since they don't have a night staff. The animals in the hospital are left at night by themselves. I just hope Bootsy isn't as miserable as I can imagine he might be. But I just hope he's sleeping and has benefited from the IV to help rehydrate him and stimulate his appetite, etc. (though he's been drinking lots of water if not eating since yesterday.)

They're supposed to administer an IV antibiotic, which curiously I wasn't charged for today (though included in the estimate of the cost of his treatment). Based on online searches today, I think they can't do that till they get test results back for his kidney function (which we already know isn't good), since the drug has to be eliminated via the kidneys. We'll see what the vet says tomorrow.

Meanwhile I'll be going back to work on my regular schedule, unless I get a call from the vet early in the a.m.

Happy New Year!

 Bootsy jumped back up onto the settee today.

I'm glad I was here, observing him. At one point, I noticed he was eyeing the settee, standing in his usual jumping-up place, so I immediately grabbed the cover from the foam bed and placed in on the cushion (for sanitary reasons). I also put the toile footstool there, by the stairs, but he used neither.

The past couple of days he's had a head cold, I think from lying in front of the leaky cat door instead of atop his new foam bed. (I stuck some VapoRub in front of his nose; maybe that helped.)

Earlier, I had rearranged his sleeping area so that he wouldn't be sleeping in front of the cat door. (As you can see, the wind today, e.g., is stronger than the magnets that usually draw the flap into the closed position -- it's pouring right through the opening.)

(Now look who's sleeping on the cat bed)