President Obama Wins Nobel Peace Prize (Could've Been ME)

I was very happy to hear President Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize. To be perfectly honest, I didn't even know he was a candidate for it.

This is the way the election in '08 should've gone. Instead of nail biting for two years in advance, just wake up one day and it's over.

Winning the Nobel prize is like an eclipse. Some only happen every 500 years but they don't tell you about it till the day before.

I think one of those 500 year eclipses, they ought to tell you a couple years in advance so you can get a decent telescope.

Am I just supposed to have a fancy telescope in the garage on the off chance that the 500 years is about up?

Anyway. This was two extraordinary pieces of news before I was even awake. The Nobel prize and NASA shooting the moon.

May as well go back to bed. Nothing else can possibly happen.

The moon probe was called something like the CENTAUR 5000. They should have named it the ALICE KRAMDEN 1956.

As in "Pow, ZOOM."

So, congratulations on two fronts. To the Moon for being such a good sport. And to President Obama for skunking everyone else for the prize.

When you're a candidate for the PEACE PRIZE you have to be a good sport. You can't be blocking and tackling others who are in your way.

You have to have a Chip 'n' Dale attitude: "No, you first, I insist." --- "No, no, by all means, you lead the way."

As for myself, if I could be a candidate for the Peace Prize, I'd be very mellow in public, but clawing like a tiger behind the scenes.

They'd be saying, "Mr. Kundalini, you have prevailed." I'd be in my study, swishing a snifter of cognac, saying, "Exxxxcelllent...."

Say that 5 times fast, "Swishing a snifter."

I understand there's a cash prize that goes with it. Which of course I wouldn't be interested in having.

September 18, 1973

September 18 is always a day I think of when it rolls around.

One time, in 1973, I was going through some of the work of moving us into an apartment, student housing somewhere.

I had to walk/run part of the way, because the housing office was some distance from the actual apartment complex. But it was right at the edge of town.

So there I was on that day. And I checked this out on a moon calendar place a few years ago just to verify it. The moon was up in the western sky. Why I remember that particular day, I don't know.

Every year as far as I can recall I think of this. There was something significant about that day ... and the moon.

The Moon

The moon tonight is big and bright, clap clap clap clap.

Maybe it's a full moon, certainly full-ish. And a crisp yellow, at least five minutes ago.

I had a clear shot at it through a clearing in the trees. Very nice. It looks so close.

I wonder about the astronauts who landed on the moon, if they think about that every time they look up and catch sight of it. That would be a mixed blessing. But probably it'd be worth it to have that added perspective, of what it's like to be there, and what it's like to see here from there.

I don't know -- I think you'd be walking around like a marked man, someone with secret knowledge. Like "I know more than you know about the moon!"