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Outlaws and Bankers
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Dreams
- Hits: 1354
The image of a banker, well dressed at his desk in a fit of imagination holding a pencil in his hands as if it were a gun, on an imaginary crime spree, imagining himself holding up the bank, saying "pew, pew, pew" as he fires his pencil pistol menacingly at invisible tellers...
(Inane, I know, but upon waking from it I reminded myself to remember it, it seemed to acquire a disproportionate importance, the idea of a banker imagining himself to be an outlaw, when the profession of banking offends every law already, only the suit lends it legitimacy...)
The Source - Extended Warranty
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Other
- Hits: 2380
Now last year, last summer, in the midst of the prospecting season and into a couple of weeks of homelessness I had need of a cellphone.
I'm morally opposed to cellphones. I, I don't need a cellphone. But when you're living out of your car and people want to keep in touch, children, family and such, a cellphone or some means of contact becomes a necessity.
I went to "The Source". Set up with a new phone, phone number, all to be billed later on my bill. And they up-sold me on their extended warranty - if anything went wrong, for $70 extra bucks, I could just bring in my phone and exchange it for a new one.
From everything I've heard things go wrong. Mostly screens breaking, occasional dips in water, I'm going to be off in adverse circumstances in the bush, generally I'm aware that the extended warranty is a scam, but in this instance it just seems prudent. I buy the extended warranty.
On Monday my phone doesn't charge. A connection issue. I fiddle with it, screw around, it's not working, time to cash in on the extended warranty, back to The Source. Thank god for the extended warranty.
The clerk requests a receipt - by some miracle I have it, and by another it's survived a year and a half in my car's trunk without (mostly, in essential parts) fading, they print these receipts like this on purpose, I swear, cheap thermal fax paper that is unlikely to survive even a week of your extended warranty...
...and he pulls up my account, hums, haws, acknowledges the extended warranty, then explains that they'll return it to the factory for refurbishment, it'll take 2-4 weeks,....
I can't go 2-4 weeks without a phone. Who can?
OR - I can upgrade my cell-phone plan, pay out the balance, get a new phone....
I choose the latter. More fiddling, swapping out the sim card, 10 minutes and $150 dollars in unanticipated charges later I have a new contract, a new phone....
"Would you like to buy the extended warranty?" the clerk suggests..."Only $70.00...3 years, anything goes wrong with your phone and you can just swap it out for a new one...."
Uh-huh. NO. The Source, Extended Warranty, Zero out of 5 stars.
Tsunami Treasure
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Found
- Hits: 1561
The title says it all, really:
Montague Summers
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Books
- Hits: 1591
Reading, at the moment, “The Werewolf in Lore and Legend” by Montague Summers.
And, I must say, it’s absolutely brilliant.
In the spring I read his “The History of Demonology and Witchcraft”, as well outstanding, and the incentive to read anything by him I can come across.
He is, first and foremost, erudite and well informed upon his subject matter, quoting hundreds of references. He presumes upon the reader a similar level of education, quoting his sources in the original Greek, Latin, Italian, German, Russian, etc. footnotes provided not to translate the quotes but merely clear up some obtuse point that might confuse one. When he condescends to argue a point in English there is no paragraph in which you can’t find occasion to open a dictionary. He writes as a Catholic clergyman, and as such occasionally references the pleasures to be found in more classical Man-Boy relationships (his first book was a book of verse dedicated to the subject). When describing the trials of witches he uses phrases like “subject to the most exquisite torture…”, which, in the strictest sense of the word, is true, but perhaps a little less zeal might be appropriate? Nonetheless he is highly entertaining, and to add to it all he professes to believe what he writes - that the Devil is a real being, who wreaks his supernatural agency amongst the living through witches, werewolves, and vampires. A curious point of view, especially given the time that he writes at and his formidable knowledge of the subject.
And a very curious individual, arguably his reasoned (reasonable?) assurances on the existence of evil and devilry might be better founded upon the organization that he represents and the causes he champions than by the demons and witches he so mercilessly flays, but that’s part of his charm…a must have guest, along with Aleister Crowley, to any dinner party of historical figures.
For a short (but entertaining) biography and list of published works read the wiki:
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