If at first you don't succeed, blog, blog again!

Writer's block is a lot like standing at a urinal and being unable to relax enough to pee. And it's all well and good for people to advise one to "go with the flow", but what about when the flow won't "go"? I mean, really! Are there no self-help books to get people's pens upright and functioning again? Of course there are! But who uses those old things these days? What about us technology junkies who have to stare at a blank screen? In my first blog I may have indicated a certain disdain for bloggers because of how easy it is to talk trash or simply vent. But for some of us, whose imaginations are vivid and whose aesthetic sense isn't easily satisfied, writing anything more than a terse e-mail is something of an onerous chore! One can hardly fathom that Mark Twain is the first author ever to have submitted a typed manuscript, but it seems to be "true". But the way that sports commentators and other pundits carry on about steroid-abusing ballplayers, I'm surprised they haven't concluded that lots of people have used any number of methods and methodologies to reach whatever lofty heights to which they aspire! Would Edgar Allan Poe have been such a mystical writer if he hadn't been a substance abuser? Would Tennesee Williams have been able to write A Streetcar Named Desire if he hadn't experienced certain intoxications? Would Caligula have been such a mighty emperor--uh.... Don't get me completely wrong, I certainly don't condone performance enhancing drugs (with the possible exceptions of Levitra, Cialis or Viagra that help E.D. sufferers score), it's just that I find it strange how accepting people are of the eccentricities of authors, movie stars, rap singers and former Presidents! Yet, if a baseball player is in a slump and looking to get a leg up, a corked bat or some cockamamie chemical concoction is frowned upon and considered to be "cheating". (My second blog, that mentioned Bernard Suits' excellent book, The Grasshopper: Games, Life and Utopia, didn't bring up the topic of cheating, but if you look back at the quote that defines a "game", you can imagine that cheating defeats the purpose of the rules, because the rules exist to make the playing of a game as inefficient as possible, whereas cheating, because it circumvents the rules, makes the ultimate aim of a game more easily attainable.) So, if it's cheating for an athlete to bulk up or use some kind of super-equipment, why is it acceptable for authors, painters, and other non-sports-related entertainers and luminaries to dope themselves silly, get drunk, whore around, and generally debauch themselves? Why is it acceptable to use a calculator to calculate pi to the umpteenth decimal, but wrong for an accounting firm to have two sets of books? Come to think of it, here's a question that many of us would like an answer to: Why the heck is it acceptable for consenting adults to copulate without a license (I'm thinking unwanted pregnancies, STDs), but in order to own a dog or ride a motorcycle, a number of obstacles are put in one's way before the ultimate goal is realized? Anyway, if a baseball bat is a tool, what's an aspirin tablet? If word-processing software is a tool, what's a glass of scotch? And if a condom is a tool, what are collars and leashes? Don't feel bad, the logic of all this escapes me, too, but hasn't it been fun? And I bet I'm not the only one who likes to let loose with a steady, steaming stream. I'm just not quite so embarrassed about letting mine loose in public!