The wind was going all night, and it’s still going—not raging now, so much as drunkenly stumbling around, banging into things as the light starts to show. There’s something squeaking out there—a porch swing or something, I haven’t heard it before. I’m tempted to go out and investigate, but I can’t find the energy…and anyway, there’s stuff to be done.
Apple Music, for reasons of its own, is serving up Tom Waits croaking something about a downtown train—wait, did he write this song? Jesus…he did! I only knew the Rod Stewart version—and I’m seeing now that Stewart’s cover came out four years later. That was the only one the local stations ever played. Not surprising, maybe. Stewart had the voice for songs like this. Waits sounds like a grizzly bear; not a voice crafted for sensitive ballads.
Anyway, I was wandering through my photos earlier and I ran across this one: the last thing I’d see every morning before heading into my office, at least if the sky was clear and the wind was right. Vassar may be a “left-wing Ivy-League whorehouse,” as our Westboro friends phrased it, but we still retain some nominal measure of national pride. I’ve heard there are a few people in campus who know a thing or two about American history, and they would no doubt be happy to explain how the traditional American values currently bandied about by various conservative ogres began as—and continue to be—radically liberal ideas. Religious freedom? Choosing one’s leadership? Human rights? Imagine what King George might have said about that on Fox And Friends.
I miss that flag. Guessing it’s in a different position on that pole right now.