Samuel Beckett Brain Chew

I unearthed my fascination for the absurd during high school drama class. It was in there that I was first exposed to Monty Python; Wallace & Gromit; Harold and Maude... and a variety of other plays, movies and television shows that still, to this day, make my "favorites" list (thank you, Mr. G).

It was also in drama class that I first read Samuel Beckett; we started "light" with Waiting for Godot but then graduated to Endgame in Drama II. In both instances, I found myself obsessed with the minimalist stage design and "nonsense" dialogue which sounded like Abbott and Costello's "Who's On First" at best; and absolute nonsense, at worst. But I knew there was something more to it... that all of the "nonsense" meant... "something" (even if it was more than I was able to grasp at the time).

I may have been the only student in the class who was actually bummed when we'd end our study of Beckett and move on to someone else. Years later, I wound up extending my literary interests to include Edward Albee and a vast catalogue of postmodern poetry & prose (in other words: just about anything that makes me go "hmmmm").

[The C&C Music Factory song notwithstanding.]

This is just a roundabout way of saying The Onion recently published an article on Mr. Beckett that I found pretty amusing.

And some people call me verbose...

Faux Toes (General Washington)

For more photos of Washington, see Haiku/Gesundheit (Volume XII) or my Olympia post.

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Faux Toes (Olympia, WA)

For more photos of Olympia, see Haiku/Gesundheit (Volume XII).


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Faux Toes (Portland, OR)

For more photos of Portland, see Haiku/Gesundheit (Volume XI)


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Haiku/Gesundheit(Volume XII - The Washington Chronicles)

on visiting olympia for the second time
(or, "who doesn't want to visit o-town?")



when someone asks if
you'd like to go to "o-town"
try to not chuckle

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lessons on flirting taught by a five-year-old child
(or "man, that boy is smooth")

meeting someone new?
be sure to ask about their
favorite color

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on driving past a ‘lover's package’
(next door to ‘larry's guns’)

wish we could've stopped:
i wanted that one for my
ironic pics album

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things you notice when jogging rural washington
(or "poetry in motion'")

mountains like adams
saint helens and ol' rainier:
some bison farms, too

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on visiting an uber-rural wal-mart
midway between portland and seattle
(or "and you think my hometown is backwoods?!”)


next time you're about
to make fun of my hometown:
remember your hood

Haiku/Gesundheit(Volume XI - The Portland Chronicles)

on seeing a man light up next to a police officer at skidmore fountain

looks like pot smoking
is a low priority
for portland police

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on watching three pigeons perch on drinking fountain spouts
(or “i know something you don't know”)


bet you wouldn't drink
from there if you saw what the
pigeons had with lunch

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portland 'saturday market' hodgepodge

homeless elvis sings
dancing elf plays on bagpipes
folks eat, shop & watch