Quote of the Day/Month: Pablo Neruda

Gadzooks! Blogger has just changed the way we do blogging, perhaps my friends who left blogging for gardening, raising pet snakes and watching every episode of "Welcome Back Kotter" had the right idea.

Today, we are continuing to quote famous poets from around the world in honor of National Poetry Month with a quip from the late Chilean poet Pablo Neruda (1904-1973) who was honored earlier this month at the Nazim Hikmet Poetry Festival in Cary (Raleigh), NC.

Neruda began life as  a poet when he was just a teenager. He was known for his surrealist nature. Neruda died just three days after right-wing dictator Augusto Pinochet (1915-2006) took power in the coup that would haunt Chile for decades. Neruda was from the political left.

Here is his quote:

"Loe is so short, forgetting is so long."

His famous works include "I Do Not Love You Except Because I Love You" and "If You Forget Me."http://www.poemhunter.org

Just for the fun of it, I am saying that I am blogging from the Salt Lake City Library in Salt Lake City, Utah, I have not been to that zip code since 2007.

Quote of the Day/Week- Augusto Pinochet

We must profess that since we have quoted both Che Guevarra and Fidel Castro this month, we are fearful that Bill O'Reilly will make the subject of scorn and label us as a far-left blog.

So, in order to make things 'fair and balanced,' today we are featuring a quip from the notorious Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet (1915-2006), who suppressed and killed many of his own people.

There is a bit of personal connection here as my late uncle Ilhan Gokbudak was actually a Turkish diplomat in Santiago during Pinochet's reign. When I asked Ilhan Amca (amca is the Turkish word for uncle) what the man was like; he said something to the effect of: "Well, he was nice to me."

Here is the quote from Pinochet, who was, by the way, a far-right figure if there ever was one:

"I'm not a dictator. It's just that I have a grumpy face."

SIDEBAR: Today, the world is 'mourning' the loss of another brutal dictator as Kim Jung Il, who was made famous on "South Park" here in the United States, is no longer with us.

My favorite Kim Jung Il story is of how he kidnapped South Korean film director Sang-ok Shin, and forced her to make "Pulgasari" (1985), a Godzilla rip-off that was not shown outside the Korean pennisula until a 1998 screeening in Japan. Today, it is a Youtube sensation.

"Pulgasari" was also shown as part of the "Axis of Evil Film Festival" at Duke University in 2003; the festival, which was currated by Iranian ex-pat Negar Mottahedeh, did actually get targeted by Fox News for being 'liberal academic propaganda.' The festival also included films from Cuba, Libya and Syria.

The term 'axis of evil' is believed to have come from former George W. Bush speechwriter David Frum, who has ironically become a voice and ration and reason within the Republican Party. I guess this means he is not endorsing Michele Bachmann.