Gonna dive into a dive I've dove into before

I was listening to a radio interview with Lu Jiamin, the author of the controversial Chinese novel Wolf Totem. Criticizing the majority Han people as sheeplike and weak, he said, "The Han want only a full belly and a peaceful life, and do not demand freedom or representation."

I got news for you, Lu old buddy. The American people want only something really dumb on television, a full belly, and cheap oil, and you can shove all the fascism you want down their throats. We're no different.

***

My father's back in the physical therapy/rehab center he was in for three weeks earlier this year. Hopefully, he can eat, get rest, be properly medicated, build up some muscle, come home, and stay off the monkey tranquilizers. He asked my mother if she was going to meet him for lunch tomorrow, and she said probably not --- "don't they have lunch at some ungodly hour like noon?" My mother isn't an "early bird."

***

The T-Bones, Friar and I went to some dive honky-tonk way out northeast, where we heard a local country band made up of other acts on Friar's label. We played shuffleboard and I drank a lot of vodka. Between sets, Friar and I turned on the jukebox and he played that ubiquitous Beyonce song about putting a ring on the single ladies' fingers and I played Green Day's "Armatage Shanks." I'm sure the rednecks gave us dirty looks, but I was too liquored up by then to give a shit.