Before You're Sixty-Four.

[Diane]

John, I was always rubbish at maths, and I imagine I am missing something here, but are you looking in the right columns ?

Over here, no cop stops you for speeding, giving you a chance to grovel and get away with it. It's all done by machines .

Diane

[John K.]

post deleted

[Diane]

YdF has a soft centre. I detect a hint of it every once in a while.

Sorry, Andrew, I know this has nothing to do with your poem. It must be like having a class of unruly children.

Diane

[lizzytysh]

That's what I get for not doing my own research ~ Well, Mr. Banker Guy, maybe we could talk about a loan, if you can slant those math errors my direction .

MMMmmmm... singing your song. Now, that sounds like a jolly good idea



~ Lizzy

[Andrew McGeever]

Dear Andrew -
You are a school-teacher who has sexual fantasies involving couples meeting behind their partners' backs at a bed and breakfast place. The imagined details are subsequently written down, as was the case with the work that initiated this thread; a squalid incident concerning two people indulging in a filthy night of carnality under assumed names. I had reservations against your story, not because of the double life you lead (on one hand doing a responsible job working with children, while on the other delving into a make-believe world of gratification of the flesh) - but because of how deception is portrayed as having only a positive side. Unless a person does not know the difference between right and wrong, or is completely void of conscience - this is misleading. Also, and here I am not talking specifically about your '64' poem: can a man write about immorality and dedicate it to a lady of virtue? Maybe you can, I don't know - but the association would have to be mostly negative.

Geoffrey,
I can write about anything I want: there is no taboo subject-matter in poetry. You mentioned the "double life" I lead. Well, here's some facts;
my wife, daughter, son were present at the Shore Poets that night.
My son, Daniel, provided the music. My daughter brought along some friends. My wife invited some of her friends too. Yes, "64" was dedicated to Judith Fitzgerald, "a lady of virtue" (sic). Her virture lies in her writing.
Maybe shreds of virtue will remain on the next poem I haven't yet written

It's getting late; I have work tomorrow,
Andrew.

[Geoffrey]

Andrew McGeever wrote:
>Yes, "64" was dedicated to . . .


One lady posted over twenty messages to you, all positive and encouraging. Another wrote only two. Yet you dedicated your poem to the latter. Why?

[~greg]

Andrew McGeever wrote:
>Yes, "64" was dedicated to . . .


One lady posted over twenty messages to you, all positive and encouraging. Another wrote only two. Yet you dedicated your poem to the latter. Why?

I had my hand up first!

~~

It is nothing less than the central technique of all seduction.
As practiced, quite consciously, by Giovanni
Jacopo Casanova, Bill Clinton, Leonard Cohen, etc..

It is this:

That the most effective way to reinforce
any kind of behavior isn't to always reward it,
and it isn't to always frustrate it.

There is always exactly one resonance-frequency
regimen of reward vs non-reward that is guaranteed
to most strongly addict a person to any particular
mode of behavior.

This is called "schedules of reinforcement",
and everybody knows about it. (But nobody
remembers about it, when it counts.)

from
http://www.wordiq.com/definition/Operant_conditioning

Accident allowed Skinner to uncover one
of his most important contributions, the
intermittent reinforcement schedule.
Initially, the free operant procedure
involved the delivery of one food pellet
per press of the lever. However, the food
dispenser often broke down, allowing lever
presses to occur unfollowed by food. Skinner
found that the animals would continue
working for some time before stopping.
This technique was exploited both to save
food pellets (which Skinner then made
himself), and later to uncover now well-known
properties of behavior under different
schedules of reinforcement. These are
commonly classified as interval or ratio
and fixed or variable schedules - with
interval schedules only giving out reinforcers
upon the first response after some period
of time, ratio schedules only giving out
reinforcers every so many responses, fixed
schedules having the same interval or ratio
throughout, and variable schedules enforcing
different intervals or numbers of responses
before each pair of reinforcers. Skinner's
initiation of this area of research, and
his surprisingly varied findings on the
effects of these different schedules on
the rate of a response, has led to broad
advances in our understanding of behavior
like gambling, drug use, piecework, or
waiting for the bus. Likewise, knowledge
of reinforcement schedules is essential
for animal training and forms a crucial
part of behavior therapies.

[Geoffrey]

Greg preceded a quotation with:
>I had my hand up first! . . .

Thank you for this allegory, Greg. I can accept Andrew as Skinner and his dedication a food pellet, but the ladies nothing more than animals?

[Geoffrey]

Diane requested:
>Geoffrey, please would you be so kind as to pm me the contact details of the membership secretary of your fan club?


Dear Diane,
While meditating upon Andrew's poem I considered our Redeemer's words from Matthew: "Whosoever looketh upon a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart!" I wondered why Jesus had addressed only men. He does not stipulate that women commit adultery by lusting after men. Therefore you may fantasize about me with a clear conscience.


Goodnight (dedicated to Diane)

God robbed the darkness
when he set fire to the sun.
The blaze is pillaged nightly
by the thieving moon.
Sparkles in your eyes
are burgled from raids
to the lunar surface -
so it is natural for me
to want to steal a kiss
from you.

Geoffrey

[Geoffrey]

John K. wrote:
>I'd like to congratulate everyone who has kept this thread alive for so long.

Thank you, John, but we've hardly started, you know. I like to think that I, in the role of provocateur, have been 'primus motor' in this thread - although any nourishment has been reaped from Andrew's work. Emphasis has been given to posting quality rather than quantity, a pattern I would like to see upheld, if possible. At the moment the discussion has turned to whether it is an honour to attach a lady's name to an immoral poem - or whether it is as insulting as writing it her name on a toilet seat. Please feel free to join the discussion.

[Diane]

Diane requested:
>Geoffrey, please would you be so kind as to pm me the contact details of the membership secretary of your fan club?


Dear Diane,
While meditating upon Andrew's poem I considered our Redeemer's words from Matthew: "Whosoever looketh upon a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart!" I wondered why Jesus had addressed only men. He does not stipulate that women commit adultery by lusting after men. Therefore you may fantasize about me with a clear conscience.


Goodnight (dedicated to Diane)

God robbed the darkness
when he set fire to the sun.
The blaze is pillaged nightly
by the thieving moon.
Sparkles in your eyes
are burgled from raids
to the lunar surface -
so it is natural for me
to want to steal a kiss
from you.

Geoffrey

Dear Geoffrey,

I appreciate you giving me permission to lust after you. I was containing myself until you sanctioned it. Your posts in this thread have made me laugh until there are tears in my eyes. I'm so sorry; I know you are engaged in the serious task of trying to protect moral standards on this board.

In the same of spirit of wishing all to be proper and correct, I'm sure you won't mind me pointing out that you have mis-spelt 'fantasise'.

What a lovely poem you dedicated to me. Thank you, G. I can see that your love for me is pure.

Always,

Diane

[Andrew McGeever]

Well, what can I say?
It seems that some posters are lusting after each other (to date, in cyberspace).
This, of course, was the intention of placing "64" on the L.C. Files: to facilitate mature adults getting off ("Come Together, right now, over me", as John Lennon sang on Abbey Road).
"Before You're Sixty Four" is providing a social service for those who'd like to do it, but have insufficient ink in their pen.
If you believe this, you'll believe anything
Yet I now know what's missing in my life.....'a lady of virtue", oh aye, and that'll be right

Andrew.

[Diane]

Andrew: young Geoffrey has been on a wind up since the beginning of this thread... I'm not sure whether you realise this or not. But he is rather funny I think.

You could always post some of your other poems in a new thread...

Diane

[Andrew McGeever]

Diane,
Does that mean "young Geoffrey" (sic) doesn't fancy you?
Still, I agree he's funny, in a funny sort of way.
As regards "on a wind up", this has left me shocked, surprised, gob-smacked, dumb-struck,tickled too
Oh well, I could always post some of my other poems on another thread...Diane, are you serious?
My next offering will extoll the virtues of monogamy: bet they're all waiting for that one
Diane, I almost know what's going on, and off, and vice-versa.

That's all for now,
Andrew.

[~greg]

cat.jpg (78.84 KiB) Viewed 1687 times

lost in thought...


an old cat loved is like a garbage can
with one half-full, and one half-empty
can of tuna, and you have to choose