Evolution of the peepshow? in A small but passable life.

Sunday before last I was up 2.2 lbs. in mass. This Sunday I was up .2 lbs. Not sure what happened there with that nearly three pound weekly loss a few weeks ago. I eat and defecate about the same every day.

Anyway, about a week ago there were a few days when the high temperature hung around just above freezing. Then it warmed up to yesterday’s high of 87 degrees. And then this morning I woke up to thunder intense enough to shake the house. And then rain. It is supposed to rain for a few days.

I’m still amazed at how benign the weather was that March of 2015 I spent out in the woods. It was slightly more warm than normal, sure, but still calm and steady.

This March not so much. Temperature extremes. Thunderstorms. And much warmer overall than normal.

I just finished re-reading “Timequake” by Kurt Vonnegut.

An excerpt:

“What we have created instead, as customers and employees and investors, is mountains of paper wealth so enormous that a handful of people in charge of them can take millions and billions for themselves without hurting anyone. Apparently.”

The book was published in 1997. Prophetic I’d say, since now those people have taken over the US government twenty years later.

I took the Alvarez book back to the library yesterday and ordered two more books off my list. I also have a brand new King, Barker, Gresham, and Koontz on hold.

Something to wake up each morning for I suppose.

I finally remembered what it is. And the match is almost perfect. In my military days there were all manner of ways in the base towns to part a soldier from his money. Always. And one I’d stumbled into out of curiosity and boredom was a “peepshow”. And that’s exactly what it was. You were faced against a shutter in a wall. After shoving a number of quarters in the slot the shutter would raise to expose a window beyond which was a human female. The roundish (octagonal?) room she was in was surrounded by maybe half a dozen windows. The windows were one-way. She could not see out and those looking in couldn’t see out after looking in. Like seeing in the window across from yours.

The women would start with a slow strip tease and progress from there. How far you wanted to see her go depended on the amount of quarters in your pocket.

Those “peepshows” are now the cam girls “rooms”. And the most successful are those who’ve re-created the art form. And it is an art. Probably the most ancient art. Probably older than cave painting.

Any woman (like last nights pale, dark haired, Generation Z, Canadian of Italian descent named Catnip) that can rake in just about a thousand dollars in eighty-four minutes with an audience of over 12,000 has got the art of the tease down pat.

I’ve heard it said that the best paid prostitutes are the ones who insist on doing only what they wish. Sure, a customer can pay for the privilege of asking, but that doesn’t guarantee they’ll get it. That’s how this modernized system works.

At least for now. Until facial recognition software is perfected and used by the fascist christian right to outlaw that particular industry and start publicly shaming or rounding up all those “modern” women. Christians wouldn’t torture and burn women at the stake would they?

Damn, that would be a good plot line for a dystopian thriller, eh?

Anyway, I need to scour through the books up here and see if I can find another fiction to re-read. It’s either that our dive back into that summary of philosophy tome where I’m up to the end of the 1600’s. And getting bored of the whole “god” argument.

Oh, that reminds me of the bumpersticker I saw yesterday:

“EVOLUTION:
Fairy Tales for Adults”

I noticed in the back seat and hatchback of the car various religious yard signs. So obviously, a mentally disturbed person.

No judgment here.

Which brings me to another point.

A person can believe whatever they want.

I can believe they are mentally ill or stupid.

If they insist on vocalizing their beliefs so can I.

Right?

I better get to the news sites. Curious to see if Drumpf has nuked North Korea or Syria yet.

Last updated March 21, 2017