Tuesday, March 29, 2011

Awww, Isn't That Tweet? (A "Twitter for Gentlefolk" post)



Alan Burnett, world-renowned author -- Hey, he's British, and I've heard of him! -- of the always-entertaining News from Nowhere  blog, is nothing if not a chivalrous sort. Therefore, in his recent post entitled "Twitter for Gentlemen" -- wherein he extolled the virtues of the quaintly-archaic postcard as an alternative to the high-tech Twitter -- I assume he meant to include the fairer sex as well. (UPDATE: Since this writing, Alan has altered the name of this noble endeavor to "Twitter for Gentlefolk!")

But this is between "us guys."

I've received Alan's contribution (shown above) to the two-way "postcard swap" between Alan and myself, arranged secretly in the dead of night after I took him up on the all-encompassing offer in his above-mentioned post. And being the procrastinating s.o.b. that I am, Alan should receive my postcard sometime before the first of July. (Note to Alan: It's on its way! Really!)


(I wish I could say that my handwriting is as nice as Alan's. Sometimes, it almost is, and other times, it can be described with the not-so-polite term "chicken-scratching." I can only assume this will get worse. During the past few months, encroaching arthritis has periodically played strange tricks on my left hand -- and I'm left-handed, as "luck" would have it -- and more times than not, my hand painfully and automatically configures into something strongly resembling the Star Trek Vulcan Salute. But I digress.)

Alan's message to me was much longer than mine to him, amazingly! In case you can't read this post's second scan (and you don't feel like clicking on it), it is as follows:

Dear David,

Not sure why I chose this card, other than the fact that I suspect that you could take this image as a starting point for one of your stories. It could perhaps become an everyday story of soap sellers. [I suspect Alan is thinking of the ongoing saga of Pleasantview -- ended by Skip Simpson and myself last October -- from the Simpson/Lynch Studios blog.] We could set it to music and it would become a soap opera. [I may never forgive him for that line. I'm sure he heard my groan clear across the Atlantic!] I can just about remember Borax soap -- a strange name, sounds as if it bores its way through your dermis cleansing you with all the finesse of an unsharp axe. But it would appear that the soap was used by the King -- "for washing everything." What more can be said? [What more, indeed?!?]

Regards as always,
Alan

I know next to nothing about the Borax Soap brand in the U.K., but on my own side of the pond, the word will always be associated with a product known as 20 Mule Team Borax. This company goes back to the late 1800s -- further back than either Alan or myself, unbelievably -- and was the sponsor on both radio and television of a show called Death Valley Days. The host of that show's TV incarnation from 1964-1965 was an actor named Ronald Reagan, in one of his last acting roles before entering an occupation closely related to acting... that of politics

Hm. I wonder how Mr. Reagan (a former Democrat who had "converted" to the Republican Party in 1962) felt about being sponsored by a product whose "mascots" were twenty mules, symbol of the opposition party, as it were?

(By the way, fellow babies, there's an entertaining little "Easter Egg" of a joke if you're agreeable enough to click on all the links in today's post!)

UPDATE, 4/12/2011: You'll find Alan's remarks about my postcard to him, here.

Thanks for your time.

11 comments:

  1. Aww...don't you get it Silver? Alan sent that postcard to you because you're always getting on your soap box! lol

    just for the ladies? awww. :(

    ReplyDelete
  2. Oh bollocks
    Take that Silver Fox
    haha see I found your little egg
    But I won't give it away gift wrapped in a bag
    Making the rest look
    Hope they don't sook
    Anyway the postcard idea is an intersting one
    As Twitter is very little fun
    I have 80,000 people following me on a few accounts
    And although that is quite the amounts
    I may talk to about ten
    Some from way back when
    I hate it so much
    But it keeps people in touch
    With the old Face it Facts
    So I have to remain on the tracks
    Facebook is also a must
    Unless I want to go bust
    But I HATE it all
    Wish it would all fall
    As things are way more impersonal now a days
    As you can talk many different ways
    Without opening your mouth or going out
    Society is becoming a mindless goat
    But there are pluses for those that live far away
    As they can't come to stay
    Wow that was a long rant
    Guess I went off on a little slant

    ReplyDelete
  3. @Pat: I was on Facebook for a year, got bored, and left. And as you'll learn if and when you delve into my blogs past and present, this is the perfect place for "RantZ," mine and anyone else's!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Glad it arrived safe and sound and scrubbed clean with Borax soap. I don't care what your handwriting is like, I just look forward to your card arriving. I'll post it on NfN when it does. As for being a "world-renowned author", one of the proudest moments of my life was when I was told by an official of the European Union that I was "big in Albania"

    ReplyDelete
  5. @Alan: I was going to say "You're 'big' everywhere," but realized that could be taken as a huge insult.

    (Or a huge compliment, actually... !!!)

    ReplyDelete
  6. You know for someone who watches my verse
    To see if I curse
    Lately you've had you mind in the gutter quite a bit
    Maybe you do need a date before you have a real fit
    But yeah I HATE Facebook and all that other crap
    But then it brings visitors to the Facts while I take a nap
    So until the Factinary is full
    I'll put up with it's bull..haha

    ReplyDelete
  7. Fun idea, this postcard exchange. And both sides of the card are interesting. I'm struggling to envisage DRY soap (despite living in Borax land).

    ReplyDelete
  8. @Pat:

    You do not really think my remarks on your cussing
    Were anything more than my usual fussing?
    What
    looked like an attempt to take you down a peg
    Was a joke, like my "threats" to your arm and your leg!

    ReplyDelete
  9. @jennyfreckles: "Borax land?" A neighbor of Alan's, are you?

    ReplyDelete
  10. Oh I am well aware
    I just come back in my usual flare
    Using that as ammuntion on you
    Whether it's false or true
    As it's all for fun
    And that's how it's done

    ReplyDelete
  11. Wow!!! That is absolutely amazing!!! A postcard is addressed to David M. Lynch, United States Of America, and the post office knows EXACTLY who to deliver it to! I'm going to have to treat you with a little more respect there, pardner!

    ReplyDelete

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