dougabaird@earthlink.net

“Cornithaca County” Book Preview – “[The new normal]” Poem

A short poem. Take from it what you will.

“Cornithaca County” Book Preview – “Find the Original Virus”

This simple puzzle is intended as a change of pace so the reader can bring a refreshed attention to the book.

“Cornithaca County” Book Preview – “Cornithaca Billboards 4”

“Doctrine, Doctrine everywhere, and not a drop of love.” to paraphrase the poem. Cornithaca’s Elite have run a relentless hate and fear campaign since I can remember — and as to their love; any examination of the county’s poor and needy shows that it must have evaporated decades ago.

When I wrote to the local college where the noted Rural Sociologist Janet Fitchen taught and authored Poverty in Rural America, requesting their help in publicizing the county’s current rural poverty and neglect: The response I received was; “She lived in simpler times.”

A year ago, Cornithaca gave a quarter of a million dollar tax let-off to the largest privately owned corporation in the US. Why? The corporation said they needed it.

What’s complicated about that?

It’s OK: they’ll simply increase our taxes to make up the difference.

“Cornithaca County” Book Preview – “Cornithaca Billboards 3”

Early Harvest is an idea whose time has come in Cornithaca County. This week the Common Council voted to eliminate rental payments by tenants and place the burden on “people or entities who have greater resources to solve the issue.” They themselves will, of course, be the ones to decide who those entities are, what resources will be needed, and what further issues need to be addressed.

It’s notable that the University, by far the richest and most powerful entity; one whose expansionist policies have driven out the original residents and turned their College Town into one of the twenty most expensive cities in the US to live in, is not one of the entities they have decided to burden. They will target the old, the poor, and those they can separate from the herd.

There’s not much sympathy that this issue can squeeze out of rural poor living three generations in an old wood frame house that they’re trying to keep in the face of ever-rising assessments and taxes: not for upscale urban renters having a hiccup in their six-figure salaries — but then they don’t write stories about the rural poor in Cornithaca County.

“Cornithaca County” Book Preview – “Cornithaca Billboards 2”

I have a couple of more songs to write before putting together a storyline and working on the interior of the “Bigotry” Paybill.

It’s been months since I’ve been in the Pub; drinking pints with a pizza to die for. When it reopens, I think I’ll call myself “Doug the Beloved” and see how that plays . . .

“Cornithaca County” Book Preview – “Cornithaca Billboards”

As leaders in the New Religion; Cornithaca billboards may seem strange to people in many other parts of the country: but you had better get used to them . . . you had better!

There’s more to fear than the Yellowstone Supervolcano. “Not with a bang but a whimper.”

“Cornithaca County” Book Preview – “The Hierarchy of Righteousness”

To put this page in proportion: Googling the CDC’s COVID-19 Provisional Death Counts for the US for the week of April 11-18: Aged 24 and under = 14, and Aged 65 and over = 12,818. This ongoing trend never even rated an emotional story in the College Town media. What is the big story? “Police brutality protest draws hundreds to downtown”

In Cornithaca’s “One thought-One Taught – One Voice-One Choice” dictatorship: Doctrine is everything.

It’s a doctrine of privilege and hate; and they never miss the chance to procure more of the first and loudly express the second.

For them; the tens of thousands of elderly who have died so disproportionately in New York is not even an issue. Their pretense of compassion is only skin deep: and they have a very thin skin.

There is no time for love in Cornithaca — they’re too busy hating everyone and everything that’s different.

“Cornithaca County” Book Preview – “The Government Courtyard Puzzle”

Trying to put the fun into Bureaucracy is like trying to lift yourself up by your bootstraps: but I hope you will have fun completing this coloring page/puzzle. The type of fun, and the way you finish it; depends on you — and what could be more un-bureaucratic than that?

“Cornithaca County” Book Preview – “The Helpful Bureaucrat Puzzle”

Which is the helpful bureaucrat? This puzzle contains a simple solution to a question that is often difficult and frustrating in everyday life.

Bureaucracy is a labyrinth that only grows over time. Without help; you can toil around a great circle of government employees [many of whom are out of the office, on vacation, or seemingly unreachable] to arrive back at the same desk you started at . . . and be sent on another journey.

In Cornithaca’s Kafkaesque environment; “Finding the Helpful Bureaucrat” is a puzzle that may have no solution.

“Cornithaca County” Book Preview – “Write Your Own Story” Coloring Page

One of the best ways to avoid indoctrination is through creative and imaginative thinking. The stasis imposed by Cornithaca County’s doctrine, which allows only one “correct” answer to any question; is shattered by independent thought.

The figurative elements in the coloring page can be used to create a story. I won’t impose the “doctrine” of saying the writer must use all of the elements; or even “as many as possible.” You could write any number of stories and use only one, or none.

Creative work is not an exercise — it’s a necessary and rewarding part of being a human being.