Frazz by Jef Mallett for August 25, 2021

I derive quite a bit of pleasure from stocking up for the winter. Plus I get to lick the pans…

I like the Muppet version where the grasshopper ends up driving South for the winter and runs over the ant during his getaway.

Larry McMurtry had a tendency to write that way, as well.

Caulfield says “At least the grasshopper had a life first” which implies that the ant did not. I would argue that Caulfield, in this case, is wrong in a couple of ways: 1. The grasshopper fiddling – maybe temporary (but passing) enjoyment – but not a “life”. 2. The ant stockpiling food – not particularly fun – but accomplishing something (even if/though he didn’t reap the final benefit) – a life. 3. Life is not all about having a good time.

Ant is farmer culture. grasshopper is hunter gatherer lifestyle. Which means the bad winter that wiped both out in areas of the world is called an Ice Age.just my take.

For some perspective let’s turn to a bit of life science and fact about the relative life cycles of insects.

https://www.vedantu.com/biology/grasshopper-lifecycle, https://askabiologist.asu.edu/individual-life-cycle

For a better perspective let’s turn to Knight and Day. Someday .

I’d be happy for a “hard winter” for a change. Hasn’t happened in over five years and the damn insects are driving me and my garden nuts … hasn’t done much for the squirrel and chipmunk problem either.

In Jean de La Fontaine’s version it’s “La cigale et la fourmi”, The Cicada and the Ant. I think a cicada is a better fiddling representation. I like de La Fontaine’s versions as well because they are usually written in verses and rhymes. We had to learn them by rote in grade school, I can still rhyme this one off beginning to end.

Sam knows the real story https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pJAYsKjJtM4

Fables like this are often repeated to teach a moral. I enjoy them but a number of times, I have wondered if there’s a moral about an insect or similar species that embodies both frugality and enjoyment. Are humans the only group with workdays and fun days?

And here I was finally just getting past how depressing it was reading “The Road”.

No one knows what life will bring but planning for tomorrow at least gives you a better chance of seeing it.

I like read authors in their entirety, in order of publication, and am always looking for someone good to read.

So, the last time Jef mentioned Cormak McCarthy, I decided to check him out. I got his 1st book from the library. I read it. I threw away the list of his other work.

I honestly do not think I have ever read a worse writer. On the last page, I had no more idea what he was trying to say than I did on the first page, And getting to the last page was sheer labor, as I had to read almost every page several times to see who was saying what & what was narration, because McCarthy apparently was never taught what a quotation mark is.

I have no problem with deep; I have no problem with convoluted – but this was just flat-out inept.

If you enjoy a good read, avoid him like the plague!

with Caulfield’s first line , what came to mind was ‘leave the gun, take the cannoli’

Of course Caulfield scoffs at a good work ethic.

If we bothered learning to communicate, the ants would do our mining in exchange for seeds.

Could be a metaphor for a lot of the millennials that are being ants, giving up having fun and buying houses to stockpile money to retire in their 30’s on limited incomes from savings accounts and perhaps some stock dividends. Many of them will find out that they will live longer than they thought, and that the money they thought would support them for a life of not working will likely not keep up with inflation. Only to have to start careers in their 50’s or 60’s with no recent work history, except maybe picking up some seasonal store work for extra spending cash. A few may luck out and have blogs that they can make an income from, but most will not.

While their friends that they laughed at for getting jobs, going out and, buying houses, going on vacations, weekend trips, out to dinner, and such, as well as saving money over a longer time, will be getting ready to retire. Many of them with pensions, or some kind of 401k, and a maxed out Social Security payment, and will have lived life to the fullest their whole life.

… and so we have the problem in the retirement planning business of people who simply assumed in their life that something would wipe them out, and then realizing when they are at retirement age that nothing did and not in any way being prepared for it. I have no issues with people doing whatever it is that they like within reasonable limits of impacting others – that is what freedom is about. Be a grasshopper, if you choose. But when you realize that life didn’t kill you early enough – don’t knock on an ant’s door.

My friend used to tell a great one about Cormac McCarthy’s books: in the Westerns, the mules get shot; in the Southern books, the mules get sodomized. I’ve only ever read The Road, and I’m pretty sure if there were any mules left, they’d have been eaten.

I always have the same problem. “The Ant or the Cormack?”

When I typed Corm into Google search, and Cormack McCarthy popped up, I don’t feel so bad for not knowing WTH he is..Now, I think I saw the movie “No Country For Old Men” I don’t think Frazz and I have the same taste in books.

In my life, being efficient and organized just means I have much more free time to do what I want. In the ant/grasshopper story, stockpiling is a necessary chore. Ant probably doesn’t like it, but he probably takes a certain sense of pride and satisfaction in it. To not do it because there MIGHT be a hard winter that wipes everyone out makes no sense. You can be prepared AND have a meaningful, enjoyable life. It doesn’t have to be either/or.

For what it’s worth, the reality is grasshoppers die in the Fall after they’ve laid their eggs. So stockpiling for the Winter makes no sense for them. “Most species of ants consume large amounts of food in the autumn to put on fat, thereby allowing them to go without much food through the winter. As winter passes, ants enter a dormant stage in which they lay low, feeding off the fats, carbohydrates and proteins they stored the previous fall.” Life is never as simple as it seems.