The 2019 MacArthur Genius Grants Will Be Awarded the Day After Tomorrow

Once again, I'm in great suspense. (Please don't ask, "You? A genius grant, Steven? For what?" Please just don't.)

Donald Trump insists that he deserves the Nobel Peace Prize, but that the selection process is rigged against him.

Which one of the two of us is more of a sad, apelike dude? Which one of us is less like Theodore Roosevelt (won the Nobel Peace Prize, may have been considered for the Literature Prize as well)?

I've posted more than 1,790 posts on the blog over the past 10 years. In addition, I've written 2 unpublished novels, an unpublished play, several published short stories (you've never heard of the periodicals there were published in, which today are probably defunct), many more unpublished short stories, drafts of several more, unfinished novels and a buncha miscellaneous stuff.

Trump compiled a list of of his accomplishments as President earlier this year in which the word "accomplishments" was misspelled. He has breathed tremendous new life into feminism, environmentalism, stand-up comedy and political journalism -- all unintentionally. He has been known to pose as his own nauseatingly fawning publicist. He quite recently claimed to weigh 239 pounds. He claims to have huge hands and to draw record-size crowds. Trump university. Trump Steaks. Trump commemorative plates.

I'm comparing myself to this guy. I guess I'm having severe doubts about myself and whatever it is I do.

Nuggets

We're in that awkward in-between time of the year, those few days between when the MacArthur Foundation has disappointed me again and when the Nobel Committee, most likely, will disappointment me again. Get it together guys, this is getting old, and so am I.

I've tried to just take it easy today, because it seemed like I should. Taking it easy is not something which comes naturally to me. I'm always struggling to help the world break on through: past Trump, past two-party systems, past the GOP, past petroleum, past capitalism... Past silly notions that I somehow don't deserve the Mac and the Nobel.

I almost took it so easy today that I didn't blog at all, but I couldn't quite.

Past nationalism, I almost forgot to add. I struggle to get people past the notion that there's something wrong with someone being from somewhere else, the notion that someone should automatically be distrusted because he or she is from somewhere else.

We haven't quite yet gotten to the point where the general public has really faced the fact that capitalism is anti-social, that it calls for sociopaths. Those times when Trump ripped off those he did business with, because he could, and when he and Mitt paid no taxes, because they could, and when that AIDS medication douchebag almost got away with those price hikes -- they were all just being good capitalists. When someone gives someone a break, for that moment they're not being business-savvy. The public has sort of halfway faced these things when they acknowledge that it's dog-eat-dog in the business world.

Anyway. One step at a time: past Trump. Past two-party systems. Past big oil. Keep on strugglin' against that big bad ol' entropy. Get me that damn Nobel...

Have yrselves a nice evening, pardners and cowgirls. A nice lunch, cobbers. A nice every other part of the day or night, every other part of the big spinning blue marble. Don't shoot! Be nice! Play with a kitten, or a doggie or a baby elephant or a human whom you happen to adore and the feeling's mutual, ya lucky cobber!

You see: when I write "mee r munkee. mee luv yu" on this blog, I'm striving. I don't love everybody all the time with the unconditional love you sometime get from well-treated animals. But I admire being able to love like that. I know, monkeys aren't always nice. Sometimes in real life a chimp will rip a person's face off, or so I've heard. On the other hand, sometimes monkeys and people can be nice.

I'm Not Going To Complain About Not Having Won A 2015 MacArthur

That would be neither dignified nor constructive. It's true that as I write this, the tagline of my blog reads, "I didn't win a 2015 MacArthur grant." But that should be construed in no way as a complaint. It's a simple statement of fact, and no more than that. I didn't win one -- that's the truth, no more and no less.

Of course, if OTHER people want to complain -- if they want to tell the MacArthur Foundation that I'm a tremendous genius and that they blew it again this year, and that aiding me would only be to aid mankind and other friendly animals and to make the universe better and more beautiful -- if others want to complain, then, naturally, there's nothing I can do about that.

Nothing at all.

John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation
Office of Grants Management
140 S. Dearborn Street
Chicago, IL 60603-5285

Phone (312) 726-8000

Fax (312) 920-6258

TDD (312) 920-6285

General inquiries 4answers@macfound.org

Website www.macfound.org

???

About an hour ago, within the space of 2 minutes my blog got more pageviews than it usually gets in a week. Since then the traffic has been normal again. Wherever those pageviews came from, the source seems to have masked itself from Blogger's stats-gathering page. Any theories about what happened?

Mysteriousness.

PS: I also found out within the past hour that I didn't get a 2015 MacArthur grant. A total coincidence in timing? What would Nostradamus say?

As Far As I Can Tell, The 2015 MacArthur Fellowships Have Not Been Announced Yet

The suspense is killing me. If I win one, it will greatly increase my chances of winning this year's Nobel Prize in Literature. It would practically guarantee my getting at least a half-decent book deal. see Tom Petty "Ab-So-Lute-Ly Backwards" Law of Microeconomics.

A need a break. A huge one. Several huge breaks all at once. I need and deserve them. I'm brilliant and exhausted and seething with frustration and greed.