Good at Something - 2024

A proficiency in billiards is the sign of a misspent youth. - attributed to Herbert Spencer, English philosopher after losing 50-0 to a pool shark.

Back room at the 169 Bar 2024

I can hold my own only because I'm lucky with the eight-ball.

The Sin of Banality

"There is nothing more awful, depressing, and depressing than banality.”— Anton Chekhov

This quote was posted on Instagram by Eric Mitchell, famed B-Movie actor and self proclaimed Pittsfield slumlord. Contemporary counter

"Banality is an unappreciated virtue along with hypocrisy." - James Steele - fugitive

Banality statue by the king of banality, Jeff Koons

Newspapers Versus TVs and Cellphones

TV and cellphones will never replace a newspaper. You can’t swat a fly with a newspaper. - Pascha Ray - traveler

Gun Freedom - James Steele

Gun freedom stems from the need to repress the freedom of the others. - James Steele - unrepentant counterfeiter

The Words of Sinatra

1956 "Get your hand off the suit, creep." To House Speaker Sam Rayburn, at the Democratic National Convention, as Rayburn requested Sinatra sing The Yellow Rose of Texas.

1963 Asked about his religious beliefs, Frank Sinatra tells Playboy magazine: "I'm for anything that gets you through the night, be it prayer, tranquilizers, or a bottle of Jack Daniels. But to me religion is a deeply personal thing in which man and God go it alone together, without the witch doctor in the middle."

1966 "I finally found a broad I can cheat on." Commenting on wife Mia Farrow.

According to Mia Farrow's biography, 'What Falls Away', he offered to have Woody Allen's legs broken when he was found to be having an affair with her adopted daughter, Soon-Yi Previn.

1966 Glen Campbell performs as a session musician for "Strangers in the Night." Sinatra inquires: "Who is the fag guitar player?"

"I'm next. I ain't scared, either. Everybody I ever knew is already over there." After the deaths of Sammy Davis Jr., Ava Gardner, Jilly Rizzo, and Dean Martin."

"A fella came up to me the other day with a nice story. He was in a bar somewhere and it was the quiet time of the night. Everybody's staring down at the sauce and one of my saloon songs comes on the jukebox. 'One for My Baby,' or something like that. After a while, a drunk at the end of the bar looks up and says, jerking his thumb toward the jukebox, 'I wonder who he listens to?"

Sinatra was a man who knew his place in time.

To do is to be - Plato

To be is to do - Descartes

Do-be-Do-be-Do - Sinatra