United Crushers

Last week, I stopped and took a couple of pictures while riding through Minneapolis. I had been wanting an opportunity to take a picture of some buildings near the University of Minnesota, along the InterCampus Connector bike trail, being a bright and cloudless day, it seemed nearly providential.
United Crushers must be the local grain millers union, I can't imagine how or why a graffiti artist would go to the trouble.

Also last week - cleaned the apartment, solved a couple sudoku puzzles, watched some ice climbers and finally read Firestarter, by Stephen King.

Here are my raw, unedited reading notes on Firestarter:

The realist versus Stephen King.

The Shining - Detoxification.
Firestarter - Custody battle.
Cujo - Rabies.
It - Sandusky.
The Stand - AIDS.
Carrie - Harlotry / zealotry / austerity of religion versus hierarchy of society.

As per Firestarter:
- Steig Larson
- Mystic River
- Road to Perdition
- Gladiator
- Jacob's Ladder
- Leon (The Professional)
...continued
- RD Laing and experimental psychology, as per acid.
- Huxley and Doors of Perception.
- Shop as various unethical industries, Charlie as any innocent child whose potential may "...light the world on fire..." and her father's passion to protect her.
- Possible research into The Psychopath Test and history of deprivation experiments designed to trigger psychological madness, psychopathy and undermining of "...acceptable..." human behavior given response and behavior to controlled stimuli - eventually the discussion could obviously revolve around to Nurture Versus Nature and James Kakalios.

Besides the killing of horses, dogs and people, a fictional premise based on fictional military history suburban kids use to demand government accountability for their own drug experimentation, a bad attempt at an old story.

There could also be a Richard Harris / Hannibal / Red Dragon tie in with the anecdote a young Hanibal Lecter relates to somebody, (Clarice?) about a young college student he destructively manipulated into hurting himself, while the undergrad was under the influence of drugs - as a revenge tactic. Relates to Andy's ability to "push", the power of suggestion and "dominant personalities in psychology", which probably ties into the media, PR and sales.

Naturally, the more emphasis placed on validating Andy's psionics, (the ability to "...push..." a person through suggestion), the more non-fiction the story becomes and one may be led into the same pasture as The Shining, wherein a strong argument for alchohol withdrawal induced hallucinations, madness and psychosis converge with cabin fever in the mind of Jack Torrance and bad things happen to good people- slightly more plausible than the devil inhabiting the furnace of the hotel, or the hotel being the devil, (or whatever), though in the case of Firestarter the English Professor, (Torrance was also an educator), is presumably not actually presenting psionic powers but rather massive, undiluted psychosis, narrated through the lens of the same, while undergoing some marital discord...the killing of Vicky is a frequent catalyst throughout the book, utilized before and after its description as well as in and out of chronological order.

The weather has turned, an acceptable snowpack is now melting and re-freezing into icy sidewalks and brown golf courses. Meh.