I remember several years ago 'Jungle Lips' (his street name) submitted a poem that was published in "The Homeless Grapevine". One FOUR LETTER WORD in the title of his poem outraged some of the stand operators at Cleveland's West Side Market so much that they threatened action not to permit the sale of "The Homeless Grapevine" on the property, a violation of the Fifth Amendment of The Constitution. Also, the West Side Market is publicly owned and the newspaper vendors have permission to sell the paper on the property.
The news stand at West Side sells "Playboy" and "Hustler". "The Free Times" with it's respectable investigative reports on Cleveland and regional corruption isn't banned because of the ads for sex phone services. Neither is "Scene" but a few vendors had their noses bent out of shape over a word in a poem that they were afraid that some adolescent might see.
Henry Koerner was one of my painting instructors at The Art Institute of Pittsburgh and if anyone enjoyed FOUR LETTER WORDS it definitely was Henry. Being a native of Austria, American (English) profanity was hysterically funny to him because, in his home language THOSE FOUR LETTER WORDS didn't translate; had no meaning. Henry used them proficiently, keeping the class in stitches for 6 hours. He was everyone's favorite teacher; outrageous, eccentric and pure genius. And I am certain John Kennedy, Bobby Kennedy, Spain's Don Juan, Julie Harris among others heard a few F-BOMBS when they were sitting for him for the "Time" magazine covers.
So, keeping this one 'offensive' word in mind; doubting that anyone under the age of consent would ever read my blog (they probably have said THE FOUR LETTER WORD more than three times in any one sentence anyway) and knowing that a majority of people in my age bracket (give or take a decade either way) have seen George Carlin LIVE and own at least one Cheech and Chong album I think everyone can handle THAT FOUR LETTER WORD.
Well, Gary and I have had a bad week too dealing with 'do we or don't we have adequate Medicare coverage' - if we have any at all. We aren't sure and neither is Medicare!
Jungle Lips aimed his frustrations at 'The World'. Whoever wrote this on one of the benches at the RTA Eastbound side at the Tower City station just specified Everybody. I guess if the Rapid is coming and there are security cameras pointed at you, why elaborate?
I have neither the time or the energy to list all of my month's worth of frustrations with the system (and those telemarketing calls too) so I guess the following photo expresses my sentiments towards everyone involved including the manufacturer of all the red tape.
If you care to comment with your own specific list, feel free to do so. Just remember tho' YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!
The news stand at West Side sells "Playboy" and "Hustler". "The Free Times" with it's respectable investigative reports on Cleveland and regional corruption isn't banned because of the ads for sex phone services. Neither is "Scene" but a few vendors had their noses bent out of shape over a word in a poem that they were afraid that some adolescent might see.
Henry Koerner was one of my painting instructors at The Art Institute of Pittsburgh and if anyone enjoyed FOUR LETTER WORDS it definitely was Henry. Being a native of Austria, American (English) profanity was hysterically funny to him because, in his home language THOSE FOUR LETTER WORDS didn't translate; had no meaning. Henry used them proficiently, keeping the class in stitches for 6 hours. He was everyone's favorite teacher; outrageous, eccentric and pure genius. And I am certain John Kennedy, Bobby Kennedy, Spain's Don Juan, Julie Harris among others heard a few F-BOMBS when they were sitting for him for the "Time" magazine covers.
So, keeping this one 'offensive' word in mind; doubting that anyone under the age of consent would ever read my blog (they probably have said THE FOUR LETTER WORD more than three times in any one sentence anyway) and knowing that a majority of people in my age bracket (give or take a decade either way) have seen George Carlin LIVE and own at least one Cheech and Chong album I think everyone can handle THAT FOUR LETTER WORD.
Well, Gary and I have had a bad week too dealing with 'do we or don't we have adequate Medicare coverage' - if we have any at all. We aren't sure and neither is Medicare!
Jungle Lips aimed his frustrations at 'The World'. Whoever wrote this on one of the benches at the RTA Eastbound side at the Tower City station just specified Everybody. I guess if the Rapid is coming and there are security cameras pointed at you, why elaborate?
I have neither the time or the energy to list all of my month's worth of frustrations with the system (and those telemarketing calls too) so I guess the following photo expresses my sentiments towards everyone involved including the manufacturer of all the red tape.
If you care to comment with your own specific list, feel free to do so. Just remember tho' YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!
Photo by Cindy Miller 2007
