Baby Bummer

I don’t care what the demographics say, I am so very tired of being lumped with the last of the Baby Boomers. Like most members of Generation X, I grew up feeling I’d missed out on something big, that there was some sharp delineation between the Flower Children and being an actual child growing up in the 1960s; and I think it comes down to the Beatles.

     Because, whereas some in my cohort may have been introduced to the band by an older brother or sister, us early Gen-Xers didn’t truly experience the Fab Four until their titular Saturday-morning cartoon.

Inspired by Words of Wisdom. Character design by Peter Sander, image from The Beatles Wiki.

He flies through the air, with the greatest of fleas, that daring young cat in his stripey jammies

All our pets have their special songs, but Badger has the most. First a song praising how his lithe kitten body walked a favorite handrail. Then the “Tuna Juice” song to lure his finicky adult self to dinner. Later, “Badger Needs His Medicine” a twice-daily ditty heralded his methimazole ministrations. After he became deaf, gentle, rhythmic pats of air behind his ears gave him a tune he could feel rather than hear. Badger died last week in his twentieth year. Just me and him and the “Puff Puff” song telling him he’d been a beautiful, brave boy worth singing about.

Inspired by Words of Wisdom. Photo, “Fishing for Cat Porn,” by Laurie.

Words of Wisdom

It was over, that was obvious. The band was falling apart. He sat despondent in the empty studio, feeling spent, empty, without ideas, uninspired. Clearly he would never write again, never move others as he'd always done before. He felt grief at the thought. “Woe is me,” he mumbled, tinkling the keyboard in accompaniment, “woe is me.” He repeated the words, voice rising, voice falling, again and again, lamenting. 

      After several hours Mary, the kindly old cleaning lady, looked in from the hall. “Oh Paul,” she whispered. “Poor darling! Just let it be.” 

      McCartney startled and straightened at the piano . . .

Inspired by The Full MAPL. Image from a photo by Max Scheler.

The full MAPL

Those few years before my girlfriend realized that she and her last boyfriend weren’t meant to be still gave him more than enough time to move his band up the Canadian charts, culminating in a wildly successful song of his love for her. Of course it mentions her by name—over and over and over. He even gave her a share of the royalties.

     His love for her still plays on the radio all summer long. His love for her still brings in a few hundred dollars a year.

     And how the hell am I supposed to compete with that?

Inspired by Ton front est ceint de fleurons fanées! and Claire. Full MAPL logo adapted from this partial MAPL logo by M-Greco.

Ton front est ceint de fleurons fanées!

Yesterday, we realized on our way to the subway that neither of us brought masks. Also, Rich flew our Canada Day flag for the first time since the pandemic. It’s all Time and Context. We are a relatively young country so collectively, we behave like four-year-olds: We want to do the right thing yet keep forgetting or reinventing what that means. Then we feel bad, buy a T-shirt, listen to CBC, and start again. But I am grateful to be here, to be born under Treaty 2. It’s sure complicated, being Canadian, but it’s still our home on native land.

Inspired by The Canada Day Convoy. Image by desifoto with graffito by Roy, using a font by Tepid Monkey Fonts.

The Canada Day Convoy

Canada Day, and there it was, a two-truck convoy of flag wavers, headed towards Ottawa. I immediately thought of last year’s lengthy occupation on Parliament Hill. I angled through traffic for a look at the flags, expecting them to propose, with a four-letter Anglo-Saxonism, an act of fornication with the prime minister; or to attack David Suzuki and his ilk for their annoying obsession with science. But no, this was no protest. It was a Canada Day love-in, in more ways than one. Both trucks proudly flew the Maple Leaf rampant and, beside it, a banner that read “I❤️Hot Moms.”

Inspired by stuff you see on the highway and Woodland Protocols for Canada Day.