Shalott/Shalot*

A woman stands full frontal naked with a tropea onion in one hand, extended with straight arm at eye level as if offering it to taste or to take. In the other hand hanging by her side, she holds a red scarf as if in reserve for her courtly lover. She has natural red hair--luscious long or punk short--and a plaintive look without deep sorrow, more like yearning for love to be returned. She wears a round, polished silver pendant on a long silver chain. Add a medieval tapestry draped over a row boat in the background. On the boat are the words "Lady of", but the phrase's completion is blocked by the woman's body. No gossamer or other tricks. Minimalist, no makeup, no distractions. Possibly somewhere inconspicuous, a seeming misplaced CD jewel case. The woman is looking directly into the camera's eye. The focal point is the face and the expression. The rest is context.

___

* A proposed art photo along the lines of a friend's fine work.

3 X 51 symmetry

Youth dismisses obtuse others--uninformed at best; stupid are the worst. They don't understand and can't. We are special; we know it. Self-assured, cock-sure. But no one will have us and appreciate our depth of knowledge and self-evident insights. We are old souls if we had heard of such a thing.

Mid-age brings true know-how and smarts. We exercise our special talents with acts of excellence. We would spread our wings, venture  into unknown lands and occupations. But most often we do what we know and have become so proficient at. Dreams live still of making that difference, helping, or something more.

Old age brings the same in accumulation. We have all of youth, a career or two to reap the best from. Perhaps personal successes and love--to share for some new young venture or need, or just tell someone? There's no audience. We are no longer needed, if we ever were.

. . . I still would live to 153 just to see what happens.

Invite

each and every One not the same
with separate dreams separate stories
gracefully told old and young . . .
if only asked.

Before the lights go out and we to bed
let us hear record these retell
ourselves and those to take our places
this and each in every place.

Each at the center the world we matter
our dreams our stories preserving preserve
and honor our being here and having been.
Listen and repeat we never die.

Start a point and all directions
let the magic reach round the world
to show this whole and one and center
reaching full circle in dignity's fullness.

We are each One and not the same
not the dreams not the stories when
we listen each round the world . . .
round our lives.

Invite.

to be these ways

I am subject, me,
for my object, you.
Fortunately.
I am pretty.
you are too.
Then you are subject
and I your object.
Nothing wrong.
It's just like that.
And deep in sex
we back and forth,
me the one,
you the other,
you the one,
me like you.
Forth and back
till we be come
the one in love,
knowing its ok
to be these ways.
Yes, we the selfish,
we come back
to where we start
again, again and 'gain.

Instructable

How does she look like? (incorrect--in my opinion)
What she looks like is a dream. (correction in the answer)

I hear this a lot: "That (something/-one) is how (it or s/he) looks like." This construction is substituted for or confused with "what it looks like."

To remember the two expressions--"how does she look" or "what does she look like," but not a mixture of the two: Never "how does [something or someone] look like."

Now, just to be fair, the questions of how and what are not necessarily the same. How does she look might have the answer given above. It could also mean the same as the what-question which asks for a description in order to recognize someone as opposed to another person.

Let's take a thing instead of a person to illustrate.

"How does it (the situation) look?"
"Fine. You can proceed safely."
"But what does the road look like up ahead?" (Or, how does the road look ahead?)
"All clear."

Who is making this mistake? In my casual observation, it is speakers of other languages who are using the English they have learned or heard somewhere. Or am I mistaken? Perhaps I am. I heard this on the (vererable) BBC TV last evening.

. . . how it (the busy train station) looks like . . .

Followed by showing the busy train station. So what is going on? The BBC, known for its presentation of an English everyone can understand, and I, a native American English speaker not unfamiliar with BBC and British English, arrested every time I hear what I believe to be an error?

The train station, what it looks like--description or comparison with something else. How the train station looks like--for in this case, what it looks like--description.

If you run ngrams on the two phrases, "how it looks" and "how it looks like," you get the following.

how it looks

how it looks like

And if you run a frequency count on an American English corpus, you get the following.

how it looks

The number of instances is huge.

how it looks like

This is it, the total number of instances, four.

What to make of these? My reading is that the frequency over time favors "how it looks," without like. There have been periods that have come and gone where the addition of like has taken place, but only to be "corrected" somehow through editing, highs and lows in literacy rates . . . you guess. As for such a dramatic difference in the corpora counts, the difference might be sample sizes and/or characteristics of populations? Clearly, something is or is not going on. Regional differences? generational? types of English (native vs. other) used? As more and more people learn English from non-native speakers not well versed in how the language sounds (not "sounds like"), or is used, we get this, what I call, an  error.

I confess, a small bit of a bite of difference when in most instances we think we know what the user means regardless.

Rant, recant, resolve

RANT

From AD 623 to 632, we have

This list of [100] Battles by Muhammad, [which] also includes a list of battles by Muhammad's order and comprises information about casualties, objectives, and nature of the military expeditions ordered by Muhammad, as well as the primary sources which mention the Battles. Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_expeditions_of_Muhammad)

1. If fifty percent of this information is correct, Muhammad authorized or took part in "battles" at a rate of two plus per month.  (Although the word battles does not strictly apply to all offensive/defensive acts listed. Consult the source above for a fine-grained analysis.)

What then does the "injunction" mean to do as the prophet did? which derives from the following:

YUSUFALI: Ye have indeed in the Messenger of Allah a beautiful pattern (of conduct) for any one whose hope is in Allah and the Final Day, and who engages much in the Praise of Allah.
PICKTHAL: Verily in the messenger of Allah ye have a good example for him who looketh unto Allah and the Last Day, and remembereth Allah much.
SHAKIR: Certainly you have in the Messenger of Allah an excellent exemplar for him who hopes in Allah and the latter day and remembers Allah much.
(Source: http://www.usc.edu/org/cmje/religious-texts/quran/verses/033-qmt.php#033.021)

2. I say unto thee, take serious note of any movement claiming such categorical (divine) correctness about inflicting pain, suffering, death on others. Was there no such thing . . . is there no such thing as diplomacy and peacemaking? Or something better, such as live and let live and let God sort us all out.

YUSUFALI: And thou (standest) on an exalted standard of character.
PICKTHAL: And lo! thou art of a tremendous nature.
SHAKIR: And most surely you conform (yourself) to sublime morality.

YUSUFALI: Soon wilt thou see, and they will see,
PICKTHAL: And thou wilt see and they will see
SHAKIR: So you shall see, and they (too) shall see,

YUSUFALI: Which of you is afflicted with madness.
PICKTHAL: Which of you is the demented.
SHAKIR: Which of you is afflicted with madness.
Source: http://www.usc.edu/org/cmje/religious-texts/quran/verses/068-qmt.php#068.004)

Nice irony. Whose madness?

3. Increased numbers will also become deluded and miss the messages of what Islam says and does and stands for. For example, the soon to be released film, "Muhammad: The Messenger of God," will beget converts, as well as controversy. According to "Sami Yusuf, who is one of the Islamic world's biggest musical stars and who sang the soundtrack for the film. . . ."

You cannot study Mohammad's life and not fall in love with him and his character. If this film makes people of the world know our prophet better and see how kind he was, we have done our job.
(Source: http://www.jpost.com/Middle-East/Iran/Sunni-Muslim-clerics-furious-over-anticipated-Iranian-film-about-Muhammad-413587)

Kind? Kind of an antithesis as seen by other than the chosen. No war is without human suffering. No human is immune to suffering if a loved one is taken for words not uttered under duress. Convert or die? (This from other parts of the holy book. Have a look if interested.)

RECANT

I have been a pacifist all my life. Cooperation and mutual understanding have been my lived principles.

Given the clear and present danger in the face of Islam and its origins in and adherence to the words of Allah, I reject the choice to convert or die. He, and I do mean _he_, has a gun as should I. My choice is for me and my family and my friends and my acquaintances and my fellow nationals and my fellow world citizens. I will shoot.*

RESOLVE

It is not difficult to look into the matters of Islam, from its founder to its teachings and scriptures. Without deep scholarship and based on cursory examination, anyone can learn enough to dismiss the religion, especially its political and missionary intentions. To volunteer to become a missionary or more for the cause, read and learn if ever so lightly as is here demonstrated. To board boat, train, or plane and head for the battlefront before doing so, well, consider yourself lost.

While living in or visiting a more secular state, to protest in public and demand the heads of unbelievers or to claim that the western nation-states are violating the word of Allah, these are life-and-death threats and therefore can be strongly censured--deportation will be among the next responses from  awakening democracies and other civilized corners. Back to wherever you who so speak can consort with other like minded delusionals.**

--
* Containment-isolation is a humane (evolved?) alternative, if you have the opportunity and luxury for implementing same.
**For more on the battles of Islam, see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Im0IisZ77QI. IMPORTANT STUDY, NOT TO MISS.

(Im)precisely

He added, "Brothers and sisters don't be fooled by your desires, this life is short and bitter and the opportunity to submit to allah may pass you by."

A Washington Post article online concerning one of the latest shootings in the US outlined the different lives the shooter, Mohammad Youssef Abdulazeez, led. As with many articles online, advertisements were sprinkled throughout, among them this one concerning wine. What is interesting is that the advertisement comments nicely on what the article at that point was highlighting in the writings of Mr. Abdulazeez. 

I question the mechanical insertion of advertisements into "content," always, but that is perhaps a minority view. As this one, however, makes clear, Mr. Abdulazeez's interests are eerily underlined and give pause to the wisdom of scrambling content with Mammon's messages. 

Isn't that what these intrusions and diversions are? Down with the silly and time-wasting insertions . . . they even lead to posts like this one, where the diversion is the subject, not what the article says, much less what the article might mean.

Oh, the title and authors in case someone might want to delve. Chattanooga shooter's real, online lives seem to take divergent paths, by Greg Jaffe, Thomas Gibbons-Neff and Adam Goldman, July 17, 2015.