From: marek@casbah.acns.nwu.edu (Marek Lugowski)
Subject: Re: [poem] + this is your mind on Plato, this haiku has no title / Marek, cup the disgrace, Re: An Act of Kindness (was: Re: a rose-fingered...)
Organization: Northwestern University, Evanston Illinois.
Date: Wed, 23 Dec 1992 17:19:58 GMT

[poem follows]

In article <NIKOLAY.92Dec23022007@husc10.harvard.edu>
nikolay@husc10.harvard.edu (Philip Nikolayev) writes:

>                               ^^^ Learn thy grammar, poet!

you mean, proofread after hasty editing.  but do you merit such care? :)

		----=- -=- =-=-=- --==----=-=-=-==-- - --==--

Ok, one more time... This is your Mind.  This is your Mind on Plato:

>you itchy upright snitch
>a howling host of other douchebags.
>delayed-action ants in your pants, or what?
>stick his license where the sun 
>don't shine; or better still,
>I'll sodomise the twit personally.
>you mumbling newly-fledged moralist 
>Never tired of emitting elementary farticles, are you?
>Get lost, pukehead.

		--=-- -= --== -- -- - - -=--- -- - --=


>Plato is the founder of the entire Western philosophical tradition,
>and you can't ignore him in the manner you would best be ignored yourself.

Nah.  Plato had no Usenet access -- he did not found net.flaming, which is
one reason you are so lousy at it, Plato-dude.  Branch out, study under the
Great Masters in talk.bizarre, alt.strife, alt.butt-harp or ...with Yours
Truly -- on rec.arts.poems (for only $5 a month you too can begin to grasp
elementary remareking in the comfort of your own cave.)  I can tell from
your net.presence which choice you have made.  Prepare yourself for my zen
stick's swift sting, O student!

		-  =-=- =------=====-- --- =- -=---=-

>If I posted some poetry here, do you think I would
>give a tipsy tinker's cuss about your opinion?

Logically then, why should anyone care about your opinions here,
Plato-dude.  Your platodudes are an entertaining addition to our newsgroup,
and on behalf of everyone reading and not reading, I wish you a Merry Berry,
intransitively, and I do thank you for brightening our buffers with your
scintillating candles (that, as you aptly observed, are not worth your gamy
efforts).

	      =---=----=------- = -- -= =---=- =--====--

>Besides, I don't need any credibility, as I'm sure you've heard before.

What if we give you 25% off on your next purchase?  C'mon, a little
credibility has not hurt anyone...  It's for a good cause:  We'll donate
some of the proceeds towards encouraging the "bottom" behavior in
prepubescent boys by donating paperback copies of _Symposium_ to local
schools. 

		----=- - -=-- =- -- - =-=-==-----=---=--

>But it's nice of you to acknowledge that
>you've never read any Plato

You sure jump to long conclusions for a Plato-dude.  Whatever happened to
logic?  Aristotle's got your inferential tongue?

Ms. Grube's translation of the _Republic_ has been with me since 1982.
But I cannot say it is one of my favorite reads.  Since Mr. Plato has
nothing interesting to say about metaphor, I don't zero in on Mr. Plato
anymore.

Incidentally, on my way to work, I was listening to philosopher Mortimer
Adler, who is 90 years old or so, who is a Medievalist and an Aristotelian.
He would have haad you for lunch and spit out the vertebrae (I guess that
is the difference; Aristotelians devour and Plato-dudes sodomize to show
intellectual supperiority).  He can't abide Plato-dudes.  The again, Adler
himself says things like "there have been no new ideas since the 17th
century (in philosophy)" and that the first 45 years of his life were fun
but he has not read anything of value since then.

I don't know about you philosophy folks -- major breakdowns in reality
perception: little ponderous robots getting stuck in corners while outside,
children robots play in gardens, in sunshine, in warm rain, in sex.

Merry Berry and Exemplary Nowego Roku

				-- Marek (child robot)

[for all you xmas eve cooks, once again:]


		we don't know if trotsky liked tabouli but
		-------------------------------------------------------------

		we know he ate a lot.
		trotsky had a healthy appetite,
		for russian food and when in the mood
		for italian.
		
		but to this day i cannot say
		if he liked mexican.
		
		tabouli.  you see, this is
		another story.
		
		tabouli is a lebanese salad
		made of bulgar (cracked wheat),
		olive oil and greens,
		like mint parsley and green onion
		and salt and pepper
		oh, and diced tomato
		
		(the oak street market here in evanston adds
		cucumber
		but a real lebanese tells me this is foul.)
		
		would trotsky like tabouli had he lived in lebanon
		instead of mexico?

		what if trotsky escaped to lebanon
		from russia 
		and no one killed him.
		what if trotsky became a famous lebanese leader
		fighting the new british plans for palestine.

		would tabouli become the in marxist thing
		to eat?  the yummy gruel of the academia?

		if trotsky had made this tabouli,
		he would have made it as good workers' soup.
		added some turnips, a beet,
		a little sour cream...

		there ought to be an international
		tabouli cook-off and barbeque
		complete with vodka and tex-mex appetizers and pizza.
		there ought to be a 365-ways-to-cook-tabouli
		cookbook.

		tabouli makers, unite!  you have nothing to lose
		but your pyrex cups.


			Marek Lugowski / Marie Coffin
			25, 27 August 1992
			Chicago, Illinois / Ames, Iowa