America 250: Short Update on North Carolina Colonials Expected to Pay Taxes in Gold and Silver

 Maybe I'll shorten the title <g>. In Spring 2026, I enrolled in a fantastic online course on sustainability. A recent publication I bought clarified in the run-up to the American Revolution, the British Parliament imposed a Stamp Tax. The tax had to be paid in gold and silver coin only, when the colonists tended to use paper currency or barter. 

As I alluded to in my course assignments, paying taxes in coin posed a hardship on North Carolinian colonials: they had to leave their farms for Wilmington or other towns to sell their crops to obtain silver or gold, a risky business and burden. What source could gold or silver coin come from? sailors, captains of vessels and sailing ships, book-keepers, banks? It's an interesting topic I plan to pursue. 

Wendell Berry: Chapter on Sexuality and Fertility

 Early thoughts: Berry avoids using the word "abstinence" in this essay. He includes another country's practice where after having a baby, the woman sleeps in a separate bed until the baby is weaned. What Berry does not say is what birth control or abstinence mean for people in second or third marriages who do not want to have children. Sleep in a separate bed is not viable. 

Reading Wendell Berry "The Art of the Commonplace"

 In this collection of essays, Berry has an essay on using his wife to type his manuscripts coupled with he refusal to buy a computer. Granted, his essay is his view and highly personal. Interesting to me he says nothing about people who write dissertations, and how having a computer screen that's easily revised eliminates the need to retype pages and pages of a dissertation to get the alignment right, to add references, text, and footnotes at the bottom of the page

I've set a reading goal to include more Wendell Berry, who, like Edgar Cayce, is from Kentucky. 

America 250 Continuing Thoughts

 For the 250th birthday of America, let's reflect on a great point from Ken Burns American Revolution, 5 minutes before the end of Episode 2. Burns quotes the last sentence of the Declaration of Independence:

"And to support this Declaration, with reliance on Protection from Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our Sacred Honor."

I'll wager not too many Americans have read that last sentence and asked the question: where is the money supposed to stay? Right here, in this nation, for the benefit of everyone. A second point: why do Pennsylvania and Virginia, two of the colonies, and Kentucky, the 15th state, have the term "Commonwealth" in their titles? Again, the money, the wealth, should stay right here in this country for the benefit of everyone. 

Think about why we have fast food restaurants and coffee chains traded on Wall Street. It's like picking out one shanty and installing a gold domed roof on it. Why make US salary structure top heavy with CEOs, executive boards, stock prices, and offshore tax havens? 

I can see delisting from Wall Street fast food restaurant chains and coffee chains. What is the least academic degree it takes to one them? Limit them to state level only, because there is no STEM involved in running them. A spreadsheet and a 12 item supply chain should suffice. Pay the workers. 

When Raygun came up with the notion of "Trickle Down" economics, Wall Street was definitely part of the United States. While Republicans are busy "owning the libs," the libs should know that Wall Street should NOT be exempt from trickle down economics. The Wall Street gains should trickle down to the states, on a rotating basis, instead of going to offshore tax havens, stock buybacks, CEO salaries. Common sense to a Democrat, because when it comes to "trickle down," New York City is part of the United States. 

Same for Members of Congress: the lobbyists monies should not stay in their pockets. The monies should trickle down to the states: to heads of households to lift them above the poverty level. To augment $7 minimum wage. To augment SNAP benefits. To augment Walmart workers where Walmart is the largest employer in the state. Trickle down for everyone. I disagree with Mike Johnson that Members of Congress should be allowed insider trading in the stock market because $174K salary is a tough go for paying for living in Washington, DC. Let the Members of Congress live on $174K and otherwise: leave, go home to their districts, server their constituents: schools, unemployment lines, staff bus driving, help with academic advising and subject mastery in schools. 

"And to support this Declaration, with reliance on Protection from Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our Sacred Honor."

America 250 Thoughts

 While reading one of the Celebration 250 publications at the local bookstore, I came across the founding of the country and the term “flawed.” The 250th birthday is a good time to look at the word. 

Let’s back up to Ken Burns’ documentary, American Revolution. In Episode 2, 5 minutes before the end. he focuses on the Declaration of Independence last sentence: “And to support this Declaration, with reliance on Protection from Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our Sacred Honor.” 

Where is the money meant to stay? right here in the states, for the benefit of everyone. Not Wall Street, not stock prices, not CEOs, and not offshore tax havens or tax dodges. Everyone. If you know what a dictionary is, the dictionary in 1776 is Samuel Johnson’s 18 Century dictionary, available online thanks to Tech Bros. The word “socialism” is not in there.

https://johnsonsdictionaryonline.com/views/search.php?term=Socialism

The regimes at the time were all monarchies. Catherine the Great was on the throne in Russia. If you have common sense, Russia was a monarchy. Communism hadn’t happened yet. Socialism didn’t exist. Marxist didn’t exist. Karl Marx wasn’t born until 1818. Any Republican using the word communism, socialism, or marxist is full of it. Who did we declare independence from? Great Britain. Where are the Murdochs of Fox Nooz from? Australia. Who enabled Murdoch buying Fox? Ronnie Raygun and Roger Ailes. Factoids that I want taught in our nation’s classrooms. 

Additional point: Why do Pennsylvania and Virginia, two of the colonies, and Kentucky, the 15th state admitted to the Union, have the words “Commonwealth” in their titles? 

Reminder: Speaking of classrooms, the late Charlie Kirk, Turning Point USA, has to be one of the best DEI hires every in the Republiclown party. Why is dum one, to paraphrase Trump, deemed appropriate on a university campus? Kirk flunked out of community college and only had a high school diploma. Proof DEI is alive and well in a political party. 

26May2026 thought: “Trickle down economics” should apply to both Wall Street and the Member of Congress. The corporation publicly traded on Wall Street needs to trickle down earnings and profits to the state it grew in pre-IPO, and trickle down to heads of households. Successful businesses ow their success to their first, loyal, repeat customers, NOT to the stockholders and shareholders. The customers, stockholders, and shareholders should be one and the same. Not strangers in New York, Connecticut, tax havens, pension funds, insurance funds, venture capitalists, and the like. To think otherwise is myopic and shortsighted.

Same for Members of Congress. To truly abide by “trickle down,” Members should not keep lobbyist monies and bribes. The monies should trickle down to their states they represent, to heads of households. The Members of Congress serve as elected officials in an constitutional republic. 

Mary Oliver "Clamming"

 Mary Oliver in her poem "Clamming" controls lighting and language. She maintains dark to dawn through lighting effects: 

"I rise by lamplight" "I sit on the dawn-soaked shore" Finally, "its upheaval, its shining proposal, its black anonymous roar." Dark-to-dawn throughout the poem. 

Her word choice avoids overused, trite, overworked words: "dawn-soaked shore" "pink one-lunged life" "slash through the crisp life muscle."

A lesser word smith would have used "shining promise" instead of "shining proposal." Look at how original the last 3 lines are, how they avoid cliche: in describing the tide,

"its upheaval"-you can hearing the rise and fall in "upheaval."

"its shining proposal"-as noted above.

"its black anonymous roar"-no sentimentality. 

Persimmons - Morning Harvest

 An October drive to a nearby small town yielded the attached persimmon harvest. I found several seeds on the ground. I heard one persimmon fall to the ground and collected it. Curious, given there's not yet been frost here, I reached up to test several still on the tree. I found one that was ripe and plucked it. The persimmon was ripe and sweet, not astringent. There goes another "must have frost" myth, especially interesting given we're in the south. 

and after splitting open 2 persimmon seeds, 2 spoons which mean snow (shovels):

The Thursday Murder Club and Deus Ex Machina

Update 08Oct2025 While reading chapters 5-7 in Natasha C Sass's How to Write A Cozy Mystery, she confirms: don't introduce new characters or places in what she call Acts 3 and 4 of a cozy, making my point.  

Although deus ex machina didn't show up in Elliott Ackerman's novel, it probably does show up in the next mystery, recommended by a friend, that I read: The NYT best seller The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman. 

In the last 75 pages, the protagonists travel outside of England to Nicosia to meet with a patriarch Demir Gundoz (interesting last name). His son Johnny is introduced late in the mystery, a form of deus ex machina. Most cozy mysteries have characters travel from the British countryside to London, in comparison. Break the rules! seems to reign supreme in mysteries. 

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Osman ends the mystery with more than one demise.  

Poetry and Language Exercise Based on Mary Oliver's A Poetry Handbook

 Sound and silence are important. On page 24, Mary Oliver makes a great comparison of 2 nouns, synonyms, with different sounds: stone and rock. She can see the smooth roundness of "stone." She can see the jagged edges of "rock." 

Poets of every level: Can you think of other examples of nouns that have similar meaning but contain different sounds?  

2054: a Novel. By Elliott Ackerman and Adm James Stavridis

 During a Triangle Sisters in Crime Zoom call, I asked a question about Thriller/Mystery/Horror novels using deus ex machina, god out of the machine: an ending that isn't prepared for by the author(s). 

2054, a thriller I read over the past few days, seems to demonstrate my point. The novel begins with the President of the United States dying from remote manipulation of his DNA. During the autopsy, the surgeon finds the President's heart has been altered remotely. 

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Raymond Kurzweil and his Singularity, the combination of biology and technology are referenced. 

Update: p 253 Sarah Hunt achieved Kurzweil's Singularity. She put obstacles in the way to prevent any scientist achieving a second advent of the Singularity. Explains the alteration of the previous president's heart. [However, at the end of the novel, it seems that . . . well, the Kurzweil premise doesn't exist! Seems like deus ex machina!. I looked at the Amazon reviews: no reader seemed to pick up on it. I need to look at Goodreads reviews next.]

Ghosts by Mary Oliver

 Stanza 2 

The golden eagle, for instance,

has a heaviness in him 

moreover the huge barns

seem ready, sometimes, to ramble off

toward the deeper grass. 

 

What does the poet gain from using "for instance" and "moreover?"

 1. the 2 are more appropriate in prose. In many ways, Ghosts is a prose poem. In addition, the 2 are denotative language, which ground the reader in prose. The 2 prepare the reader for the later beautiful metaphors.

2. the two set off the assonance of the "seem ready, sometimes, to ramble off." 

 

Stanza 4

What does the pronoun "they" refer to? How do you know? 

"In the book of the Sioux it is written

they have gone into the earth to hide" 

 

Stanza 7

What does the poet achieve by using "of, in, to"? 

Throughout the poem the poet's achievement is settled in the brilliant use of language and image. She writes of the extinction of buffalo, bawling beasts, yellow-eyed wolves. A lesser poet would have started by naming the animals. Oliver refrains, in several sense of the word. The front rhyme of "of, in, to," is abc, bbc, ba.  

Walter Mosley Mystery Novel Devil In A Blue Dress

 Many thanks to Triangle Sisters in Crime, guest speaker Jaden Terrell for mentioning this first novel by Walter Mosley. A master class in good writing. Great irony. Great vignette. In Chapter 1, the metaphor "a Black man with ten children and one on the way" becomes a vignette toward the novel's end. Great fix for the sagging middle. Great, economic style that is the small letter "c" continuity of thought that presages the mouse and Mouse of the novel. Evocative word choice in Chapter 4: bankbook. How long has it been since you've seen that term? Well done.

Mosley writes a first person narrative from an unflinching culturally accurate ethnic perspective. For several years, I had on a book shelf former president Barack Obama's Dreams From My Father and his highly praised account of his early years, another unflinching culturally accurate ethnic perspective. My drafts are much improved for reading these two great authors one after the other. What I really want to say: I first heard his name on Hillsborough Street in Raleigh, NC. What Teevee and mass media presented to me was how Caucasian he comes across on a Teevee screen and in mass media. Dreams adds the puzzle pieces of Black family and Black culture, and after reading I can see why racist, bigoted folk get their teeth set on edge. Effective writing: he saves the chronological story of his grandfather and father until the last chapter; the final paragraphs are a tour de force. 

I'm looking forward to reading The Audacity of Hope.

Effective Opening Paragraphs from Novels

 From the incomparable English writer Mary Stewart, who passed away in 2014, the opening of The Moonspinners, available where you buy your novels or ebooks. 

Short Story Coaching, Advice, Guidelines

 From The Writer's Digest Handbook of Short Story Writing: Preface by Joyce Carol Oates. "How will [my students] know they are writing their true subjects? By the ease with which they write. By their reluctance to stop writing. By the headachy, even guilty, joyous sensation of having done something that must be done, having confessed emotions thought of as unconfessable, having said what had seemed should remain unsaid."

Rock, Roll, and Ruin: Jungle Red Writers Blog Post from Editor Karen Pullen

 Enjoy. 

https://www.jungleredwriters.com/2022/10/rock-on-what-song-would-you-choose.html

Book Launch and Signing Rock Roll and Ruin

 Lucky #7 to read in order of the Table of Contents. One mesmerized person listening on the front row. One mesmerized person listening on the back row. Rapt, unwavering attention equals storytelling success. One person came up to me after and said my story setting was the favorite. Great reward after wrestling with story setting. Another person mentioned looking up "girdling of trees" to understand the crime. We read from the podium wrapped in crime scene tape! We entered and exited to music: my was "Someday" with vocals accompanied by banjos. Afterwards, I signed several copies of my story.

My spa day: no cucumber pads, heated stones, or deep hot water, just a deep dive into creativity. SRO: We had guests from out of state on a Saturday of football and the NC State Fair.

Another Blog Mentions Rock Roll and Ruin

Good review and pictures.

https://writerswhokill.blogspot.com/2022/10/carolina-crimes-rock-roll-and-ruin-by-e.html 

 

Amazon Has Rock Roll and Ruin

 The Triangle Sisters in Crime Anthology available for Kindle and in paperback. Excellent short stories, including mine, "Duet." 

https://www.amazon.com/Rock-Roll-Ruin-Triangle-Anthology-ebook/dp/B0BB3DV6N5/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=Rock%2C+Roll+and+Ruin&qid=1664893868&qu=eyJxc2MiOiIwLjAwIiwicXNhIjoiMC4wMCIsInFzcCI6IjAuMDAifQ%3D%3D&sr=8-1