resupinate

After some months of dormancy, my little orchid again budded and came into full bloom. These flowers have a very specific and peculiar architecture, and there are more kinds of orchids than there are different species of birds and are closely related to asparagus. Resupination refers to the structurally downward facing dog yoga pose that the parts of the flower assumes as it develops and suggests being upside down, though almost all flowers grow this way so I wonder upside down to what.

My orchid does not display the advanced and a little smug mimicry of this wild cultivar (evolved, coerced to look like something it’s never seen) but I can certainly see the family resemblance.

sing-a-long

A group of artists have collaborated to create luggage-labels for all the des-tinations mentioned in the folk standard “I’ve been Everywhere,” covered by Johnny Cash and Willie Nelson. There are some really brilliant designs and I certainly would not mind seeing this group applying themselves to bigger undertakings.

werewolf x-ing

dbase or paying peter to rob paul

The German state of North Rhine-Westphalia is again bringing scrutiny on itself by putting on airs of vigilantism and proceeding with the purchase of more data CDs from Swiss banking institutions with information on German account holders.

While I can understand and do sympathize with the slowness of reform and the byzantine channels of bureaucracy, NRW is really airing its frustrations—continuing to pursue this tactic in order to reclaim hypothetical tax revenue loss from citizens who might be seeking to hide wealth in the Confederation and then previously threatening to withhold financial assistance meant to help the former East Germany develop economically—by taking matters into its own hands and exercising a prerogative that is criminal, at least by proxy, is exacerbating and threatens to unseat the whole process. Such volleys of deals that are not above board, however indirect, and trafficking in stolen goods would make the Swiss, I think, unwilling to entertain more transparency and reform in a legal framework, and turn German depositors into anathema, unwelcomed like their American counterparts already shunned by the US’s world-policing. Further, Switzerland, in order to dampen the effects of investors seeing the franc as a safe-haven and the follow-on inflation of its value (being bad to trade and export), is buying up quite a significant amount of German bonds. In other words, servicing German debt, and while I don’t think that act against its own interests like the government of NRW (or what the American authorities are doing) by doing something rash and outside of jurisdiction, decisions are suspended on a delicate equilibrium that is not beyond being passive-aggressive.

countermand

Lest we forget, our friendly anti-terrorism office sent out a message recently that August is Anti-Terrorism Awareness month and we are admonished to be ever-vigilant and that it was also a perfect occasion to review and renew annual mandatory training requirements.

August, additionally, is Cataract, Psoriasis, and Spinal Muscular Atrophy Awareness and Audio, Goat Cheese and Panini Appreciation (according to one’s communion, I guess) Month. What inspired collusion results in such a horrendous and random patronage? The terror bit is especially disconcerting, I think, because I guess the message is not such a subtle reminder that had we always remained ever on guard, suspect and omnipresent, the events following in September may never have happened. Such a sentiment seems rather sorry and insulting, considering all the theatre and duplicity that’s imposed unchecked but very easily and beyond reproach justified and indoctrinated in all our everyday activities. Is it a resilient or circumspect thing to accept and cower to a thousand small tactics affecting freedoms of movement and one’s privacy that certainly are far-removed from peace and reconciliation—or even from triangulation and appreciation of the broader connections? Reminders of the patent and obvious are only cues, become ornamental as the rest of the theatre syndicate, even if the time of the year has been appropriated too to recall or foreshadow things to come.

nickled and dimed or be gone dull care

Summer recesses and vacation opportunities, depending on the culture of course, I think have always muted financial developments. It is, however, rather eerily quiet right now, and not maybe the driving forces, rather than those that have to deal with the consequences, are on holiday. Still, underlying conditions have not improved or set in the right direction and plans are going unattended without even follow-on debate or discussion. Perhaps less meddling is called for in order to separate the real from the virtual market, but still America is without a budget with an economy buoyed momentarily by turbulence and expecting yet another round of so called quantitative easing and the bargaining and coping of an election that may see drastic cuts to the social safety net, and Greece is primed to renegotiate its financial aide and stake its membership in the eurozone on the good graces of its neighbours.
Toil and trouble never take a holiday and I wonder if the hiatus from the attention and worry from the usual hyperbolic and gloomy headlines and analysis is to purpose: the prophecies of doom are inuring, lulling and desensitizing and can be by such cycles suspended or overcome before they cry Wolf. The driving forces probably need the support of a labour and spending pool prone to anticipate such drama, because I suspect that a dramatic crisis is not deferred otherwise, creeping and leisurely at a vacationer's pace and not with the expected and wanted clarity of disaster.