Laments of a Broken-Hearted ...

...HARLOT.

Yes, Whore. Prostitute.
More subtly: Butterfly in the night.
But for the man-in-the-street -
Whose definition? - : The oldest profession in the worlde.

No, Desiderata has not done any survey to report the findings of this highly controversial profession. Liberal societies like Australia and some European countries have even legalised the trade, and some businesses deemed it fit to have their vehicls listed on their country's stock exchange.

Today's references to the word used by the song lyricist "whore" is just Desi's interpretation of a writer's words and ideas. So please you can beg, or beggar not, to differ! VOLTAIRE's dictum of "I may disagree...." ah, you know it by heart by now. If now, you aren't Desi's fave disciple, which is alright, I've already got a legfool!
Proceeding to counting the kisses under the MisTheToes, ''member!
He only thoroughly examined, word by nerdy word, the lyrics of
Yes, the journey from Sunday's INTER:LUDEin trying top fathom
What constitutes Paradise?
and Have You Fiund Paradise?

continues because Desi has declared TODAY that special PRIMEDAE that is occasionally aloud at DEsi's Place, to be implemented on a more formal basis come arrival at
spirite
D
estination.

Meanhwhile, to preface this moUrn's visitation to Normalcy Land,aka BolehLand -- complemenatry or complimentary, YOU DECIDE!
Desi sumtimes thinks ONLY FOR HIMSELF. You're too heavy, I ain't your munda'e's thinkt'ank's keeper.let's get Da News which is NOT DESI'S NU'ES outa da way!

NEWS INTERRUPTUS STARTS HERE:

~~~~~~~
From the New Straits Times, frontpage, reading like a General Elections due 2009 poster, is jest around the PWTC C'rner!:)

IT'S WAR
ON PROFITEERS

SUBSIDIES
'Due to lack of information,
people think that the Government
will no longer provide subsidies
for petrol and gas. This is so wrong...


CONSUMERS
'They should do more to prevent
prices of goods and services
from spiralling out of control.


OPPOSITION
'The Opposition can come and see us
to learn why it was necessary to
impose the 30-sen increase. We have
nothing to hide.


*4.5 million being mobilised
to keep an eye on prices

*Mammoth drive under way to prevent
traders from arbitrarily jacking up
prices of goods and services

*PM reiterates concern over
unnecessary price hikes

>>P2

Drive to prevent profiteers from succeeding


KUALA LUMPUR, Sun.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A mammoth drive is under way to prevent traders from arbitrarily jacking up the prices of goods and services.

Barisan Nasional is mobilising its 4.5 million members to monitor the situation nationwide and to explain the rationale for the Government’s move to increase fuel prices by 30 sen per litre.

Cases of profiteering will be immediately referred to the Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs offices for action.

Prime Minister and BN chairman Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi announced the initiative today after he reiterated his concern over unjustified price hikes.

"I don’t understand why prices of goods increase. For instance, we control the prices of sugar and milk, so the price of teh tarik should not be greatly affected.

"I also learned that some car park operators were increasing their charges. For what? What is the rationale for doing this?" he told about 4,000 BN leaders who attended a briefing on the matter at the Putra World Trade Centre.

Abdullah took to the rostrum about 10.15am and addressed the Government’s decision to raise fuel prices.


DESIDERATA's shortest news comment:

Tell it to the marines!



~~~~~~~ NEWS INTERRUPTUS DISPENSED WITH, @ Desi's command! ~~~~~~~

Back to that PARADISE TRAIL.......

Two snippets, from theSUN, which may escape your lazy eye's attention, but nevertheless, Desi's hawkeyes, or isit Seagull"s? Ne'er min(d)e, even Joe.Psc sent BIRDdae Congrats to Desi YESterdae, which I humbly accpeted before dime/time on the, contratsing with JeffOoi's famous Little, Big Bird's, behalf.

Gem1:

Oscars petitioned to
disqualify 'Paradise Now'

LOS ANGELES: Some 36,000 people have petitioned
Oscars organisers to urgently disqualify
the Palestinian entry Paradise Now,
claiming it glorifies suicide bombers.
An Arab-American peace activist delivered
the petition to the Academy of Motion Picture
Arts and Sciences on Friday, 48 hours before
the show at which Hany Abu-Assad's film could
win the Oscar for best foreign language film.
"Giving an Oscar nomination to this film
glorifies inxcusable actions," said peace
activist Nonie Darwish. "It may even encourage
future homicide bombings."

Gem2:

::PARADISE LOST, Desi's re-headlined:(

ORIginal heading, page 14, WORLD

Stock investors end up in hospital

DUBAI: Many Saudi investors have ended up in hospitals
with high blood pressure and acute stress due to the losses in last
week's stock market plubnge in Saudi Arabia.
The Dubai-based Gulf News newspaper quoted a Saudi
doctor as saying "many people were thoroughly disappointed at the
thought of losing their whole investments".
Mohammed Al humid, consultant psychiatrist at a Jeddah
clinic, said the majority of cases he handled during the
last (Desi's non-oral interruptus: lust?) week were
that of shocked stock investors. Most were hysterical
and complained of acute physical pain and distress, he said.
The Saudi market posted a huige loss of more than 2,000
points in a week (weak?), and the blow was too severe for most investors,
some of whom were too young and inexperienced to
handle unexpected losses, the paper said. - dpa

The above reported news-breaks provide two more views of what could constitute PARADISE PATHWAYS and the wondrous/hideous fruits strew along its smoothORstony trails, depending on the whims and fancies of Man-Woman-inbetween him-, her-, it-self.

Trail rested at 10.22AM for Desi's trip in heading for his OPIS to earn his B&B, with some kaya thrown in, but minus tehtarik, only H2O, not because of any discernible price rise. Watching his blood pressure!
Seya later at lunctime when I chat with my Harlot Friend.

Resuming Sundae's rumination on PrimeDae noon,
Desi said Laments because (ah, da rationale!)of the HIGLTED (bolded-lah) part in the opening stanza:

I've Never Been To Me
( Charlene )

Hey lady, you lady, cursing at your life
You're a discontented mother and a regimented wife
I've no doubt you dream about the things you'll never do
But, I wish someone had talked to me
Like I wanna talk to you.....

It's an expression of "regrets" from a woman, or advanced age, to all those youngones -- especially SweetYoungThings in one SHTan's vocab,(remember him, that "(C)cheeky"-one of Malay Mail fame? DESI BENEFITED from one of his Press Training Programmes, ah, eons lightyears ago, butt it seems like yesterdae...):) aka Li'l red Riding Hoods in Desi's vocal.

This Harlot has a BIG heArt with a cApital A! She wants to prevent other girls from going down her path she had trodden before their time -- because she learns, with much regret but quite unavoidable because she did not have anyone to teach her well -- hence, "I wish someone had talked to me"...

How many of us adults would care to share lessons on the hard knocks of life with the YoungOnes?
Search deep within you -- do you care, my ER, enogh to find the time, and heArt, like my Harlot Friend.

And do you think it's wrong to have a Harlot for a fRiend?

Let's take a mid-morn tehtarik break, because this question is an uncomfrortable" one to ask of mf. I left out the G because I know how mGf feel, butt for those I know knot so well, let me 'ear it from YOU!
I know You Have Been to Paradise,
But Have You Been to YOU?


Resumed at 11.45AM:

Retracing the two posts on Sunday, which latecomers are adVICED to visit in order to understand this Converse-ation with a Harlot Friend --Desi finds Joe.Psc's echoes with his heart-beats, with the emphasis added by Desi:

"The most difficult line, yet the most "heart-wrenching" part, in the song is "I've Been To Paradise, But I've Never Been To Me".
My take is this: "I have been everywhere, searching for that elusive Paradise, but NEVER have I searched within MYSELF"
The elusive "Paradise" in within ourselves - when we understand our own predicament and accept it, and live as happily as we possibly can, then we have found our "Paradise". The main gist of the song lies in one subsequent verse:

"Hey, you know what paradise is?
It's a lie, a fantasy we create about people and places as we'd like them to be
But you know what truth is?
It's that little baby you're holding, it's that man you fought with this morning
The same one you're going to make love with tonight
That's truth, that's love......"

Inevitably, Paradise is some territory nigh to Love, as attributed in
" it's that man you fought with this morning
The same one you're going to make love with tonight
That's truth, that's love...",
and well illustrated by the famous Paradise Lost, written in non-conventtional English by John Milton...A recent summary's extract from MICHAEL McGOODWIN has this warning:

"It is written in a difficult not-truly-English Latinate style, which brought Samuel Johnson to comment, "PL is one of those books which the reader admires and lays down and forgets to take up again. None ever wished it longer than it is..." and Keats, "[PL] though so fine is a corruption of our language..." Although Milton was strongly religious, he opposed the Church of England and the Catholic church on many issues and acted as a de facto church of one. The theology in PL is idiosyncratic and the work cannot be used as a standard religious source. Many, including Blake, were offended that Satan (along with Eve) seems to get the best lines and appears to be the epic hero for much of the work--also that A&E seemed to enjoy sexuality so much even in prelapsarian Paradise. Milton's theology is unorthodox, particularly in the private voice of the poem. Eve (women) is portrayed as weaker and less rational than Adam.

This is becoming like a Master's class in Enghlish literature. I feel quite at home, Desi's sincere apologies to some ER who may wander off to join SweetSpirit in zzzzzland!, even at 3.30PM Oz time/chime!

In between gulping up/down a TaPau Nasi Kampong at Amog Restron in SJ,
Desi thinks Charlene's rendition of the Harlot's Laments are also equalised by her adventures into Paradise, even "Making love under thew sun...", with a preacher man. ...

Desi recalls The Thorn Birds, starring another wonderfool OzGal -- Rachel Ward -- caught in a dizzy, stolen bites of the flesh in Satanic (?) rendezvous with another Preacher Man, so well acted by ............ (I'd have to check this out, from one TV Doctor series fame, yes?)The torture endured for the forbidden love of a woman, the Faith beguiled in a Warm Embrace of natural Eve, the Question of Redemption and Salvation --
yes, THE ETERNAL CONFLICT BETWEEN THE *AGONY AND THE *ECSTASY.

So let's be sympathetic with the Harlot singing of some good times, of:
"I've moved like Harlow in Monte Carlo and showed 'em what I've got
I've been undressed by kings and I've seen some things that a woman ain't supposed to see..."

which gives an insight to yes, a Harlot's (ADD)ventures,
including being "undressed by kings"
and that expensive trip to Monte Carlo.
BTW, Harlow intimates of Jean Harlow, the ORIGINAL persona from which sprang forth Marilyn Monroe?
And she too had been undressed by Presidents, yes?


So DESI's closing, on a shy and humble note:
It's okay to converse with a preacher man;
Then it's more than okay to converse
With my Harlot Friend.
Human in all his/her frailties.
So Let's be not judgmental,
Desi -- like you -- is jest another man.
Yes, I Have Sometimes Been to Paradise
Have Only Caught some glimpses of
Having Been To Me.

Hence, Milton's focus on the Satanic forces surrounding planet Good Earth actually has a basis in RealLife ...
ask any Man: where does the greatest source of temptation come from?
Desi's CONfess: in the amrs of an Eve, since the Original Sin whixch I'd be inadequately equipped to enunciatre on. Maybe bro Joe.Psc -- as mGf Mr Coww away now in a faraway land -- and sisdar Yan, will do it better. I was hesitating on Bread and Butter as in Manna from Heaven, butt I don't know whether I'm treading on unfamiliar territory.
Desi's only Poet Aspirant, NOT A PREACHER MAN!

So finally, from my most times Mentor, sometimes mentee, nigh Catsville, Yan, I received a late Email last night, short but succint:

"Hi, Desi,

Sorry I am late. Have been in "paradise". Why not? Youngest brother and family from Sing-Land is here in Sibu. So, we have a gathering - gatherings of brothers and sisters, it's like paradise.

~~~~~~~~
and to end on an apt -- childlike nore which sometimes leads to wrong signals, like Desi's much rumoured BIRDdae yesterday, -- akin to Huckleberry's mcuh rumoured "death" and funeral service before time, but that'd be a li'l ego-istic, no? --Ah ne'er min(d)e my digression, it's addictive like FHarisdas'...-- I think you'd rather have this at Lunchtime: from
Yan's Corner - In Touch,
I stole this
Gem3:

Sunday, March 05, 2006
As A Little Child

"Unless you are converted and become as little children,
you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven."
Matthew 19:3 (NKJV)


The first step towards entering into the kingdom of grace is to become as little children - lowly in heart, knowing yourselves utterly ignorant and helpless, and hanging wholly on your Father in heaven for a supply of all your wants. It is further true that unless you are turned from darkness to light, from the pwoer of Satan to God, except you are entirely, inwardly changed, renewed in the image of God, you cannot enter into the kingdom of glory. Thus must everyone be converted in this life, or he can never enter into life eternal.

~~~~~~~~
LAST UPDATE @ 12.40PM
And now, my ER-conversationists,
You think you want to chat with
A Harlot Friend?

DHL Express-edFe-mail:

Yan said...

Desi,

I am the late comer, sorry.

Do you know paradise is third heaven? Here is the Scripture -

I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third heaven -- whether in the body or out of the body I do not know, God knows. And I know that this man was caught up into paradise -- whether in the body or out of the body I do not know, God knows -- and he heard things that cannot be told, which man may not utter. (2 Corinthians 12:2-4 RSV)

It was Paul (the author of this book in Bible)himself who experienced this. However, here it is written as a third person. Perhaps only God knows, or Paul himself knew why it was written as third person! Wish I could interview Paul. In Verse 7 of the same chapter, Paul made it clear that it happened to him. Here is verse 7:

To keep me from becoming conceited because of these surpassingly great relevations, there was given me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me.

See, the ecstasy and agony? The ecstasy of being in paradise and the agony of a thorn in the flesh!

Paul pleaded the Lord to take away the thorn, but the Lord said,

"My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." (v. 9)

Back to paradise, the "third heaven" was a reference to the Jewish belief about the structure of the universe. There were three heavens, they believed. The first was the atmosphere around the earth, the clouds, etc. Then beyond that they could see a second heaven where the stars, the sun and moon were. The third heaven was the invisible realm where God's throne was, therefore, it was called Paradise.

1:33 PM