Cooperative Scrabble
Say YES to socialism!
Fight Corporate Power!
Play COOPERATIVE on-line Scrabble:
Make symmetrical patterns,
Ignore the score!
Work together, mutual satisfaction–
Down with competition!
Share information! Power to the People!
(K & S below used all letters but one.)
SUCCESS!
– Steve Shoemaker, Urbana, IL, July 10, 2015
Wisteria around post
How does the tendril sense
a post is near? How does
it know to wrap clockwise?
A plant knows more than we
and we can even see!
We close our eyes, we’re lost–
we’ll run into the post…
– Steve Shoemaker, Urbana, IL, July 8, 1015
Lillian Weaver’s
College Class
Her eyes would glint below grey hair,
she’d lift the book so we could see
the Fine Art illustration. Her
gold wedding ring was a ruby,
even though her spouse ran a bank.
“A diamond seems so cold,” she’d say.
The Matisse to her point she’d link:
her Bible lesson for Sunday.
We students would set our alarms,
and even though we’d stayed out late
the night before, her wit, her charms
with words, her humor, made us wait
impatiently for Sunday School.
– Steve Shoemaker, Urbana, IL, July 6, 2015
Steve (Shoemaker) and Alexander Sharp, ordained clergy advocates for the medical use of marijuana, wrote a guest commentary published by the News-Gazette to set the record straight on medical marijuana. Click Weeding Out Editorial Inaccuracies to read their critique of editorial’s mischaracterizations of the Journal of the American Medical Association study of the medical use of cannabis.
Verse — Tour Guides in 1962
at the Mansion of the late
Col. Robert R. McCormick,
former Editor/Publisher
of the Chicago Tribune
We said “Cantigny” like “Cubs-Wrigley.”
“Can-TIG-knee,” after all, was west of
Chicago, and we Midwestern guys
from Wheaton College were the best of
hires, for boss, Mrs. J, knew we would
not steal Colonel McCormick’s books or
swords, silver, furniture or liquor,
since we were honest Christian boys.
She was from Europe, Austria, and
knew France would shudder if the town would
hear how we mispronounced “CAHN-tee-neigh.”
The Colonel fought a battle there, or
so we were told originally by
wise Mrs. J. But foolishly, she
let us pass all the information
on to the other guides, and as we
played “telephone” the tales would then grow
until our Colonel was the hero…
(“And after Fox Hunts, he was always pleased
to set buns on the porch and cut the cheese.”)
– Steve Shoemaker, Urbana, IL, July 1, 2015
Climate Change is still my tune,
Everyone will know it soon;
It’s rained just twice,
And that is nice:
Once all May, and once all June…
[“LIKE” if you wish water could
be shared with the West!
Flooded bean field – Champaign, IL
– Verse and photograph by Steve Shoemaker, Champaign County, IL, June 29, 2015
(The Bus Has A Restroom)
Seniors on the bus
The bus carries seniors, yes, 50 or more.
To see the Cubs play, to see the Cubs score!
We ride for 3 hours,
But then come the showers,
And thunder and lightning–it’s starting to pour!
Some start in to pray, and the ones who have doubt,
They cross all their fingers, and begin to shout
“The Cubs are now winning!”
“We haven’t been sinning!”
(But one woman singing:
“You win some, you lose some, and some
are rained out.”)
Chicago hot dog
We walk into Wrigley–be careful don’t slip!
Our ponchos, our rain hats, our jerseys all drip…
But we drink some good beer,
And are of good cheer,
The Chicago hotdogs make this a good trip!
– Steve Shoemaker, Urbana, IL, June 25, 2015
This tweet caught Steve’s attention, as well it should!
Socialist Jew Quote
How do you explain this? Watch and read Steve’s explanation.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gj2TjGFrqFo
Verse – We Serve & Protect
Sadly, some white policemen
serve themselves, their deepest fears,
on the streets American,
by protecting their ideas:
they think they hear their wives say,
I choose a black man today.
(Only this sort of a Freudian analysis, I think, can explain the extreme anger and violence.)
– Steve Shoemaker, Urbana, IL, May 1, 2015
Sweep, Vacuum, Dust
(with presbyopia)
We’re not in a health club–we have no cool shirt.
We don’t go to yoga–nor live in a yurt.
In our house, we clean,
And try to stay lean,
But now with our old eyes, we see much less dirt!
– Steve Shoemaker, Urbana, IL, April 24, 2015
Views from the Edge 