Delivered passionately, as part of a ~ intro to those who wondered what all the fuss was about. If it seemed to some.. a bit over-dramatized then: I'd wonder today - to one who thought so then - how "the wheels and levers in the '04 Machine" now appear?

{sigh} The way to the cubicle-for-all, the homogenization illustrated by the mushrooming of the hugest monopolies ever - all were forecast pellucidly by C. Chaplin in Modern Times .. but we paid as little attention to that message as to The Great Dictator, an equally prescient forecast of what lay (shortly) ahead, from people with lightning strikes embroidered on their lapels, who strutted a lot.

(Hitler is alleged to have rilly-despised! Chaplin, whereas the Jews were merely a political scapegoat, as always. Ridicule is the ultimate solvent for all pontification and Hitler was no fool. Nor is Rove. He should have despised Chaplin, as should Rove.)

I can see Rodney Dangerfield sorta gettin no respect -- but that the genius of Chaplin went Zooooom, ricocheting off so many dull forebrains seeing only the slapstick -- that said all we need to know about 'us'.)



Anticipating a Vonnegut '05,

moi

that MT was the inspiration - dunno fershure, but canot believe that savvy Mario would never have seen most of Charlie's opera.

(Had I the presence of mind - I coulda asked him, not long after. Now he be daid, and rather too-early.. like most of the other good guys of this execrable century.) Which, by subtraction leaves us with ___ the dregs.



I trust you will not be joining those other wacky Finns, diving into the sea this time of year; still.. have a kewl Gl\ufffddelig Jule, as they say in a nearby noncombative land. Damn, I miss Tivoli...