This Paul Welcomes That Paul

________________________________________________________________________________________________

CHRIS PAUL

reunites with the Clippers

for his 21st season

in the NBA

***

 Equal welcome for Bradley Beal

________________________________________________________________________________________________

Once You Had A Lasso ... Once You Had A Heart

________________________________________________________________________________________________

Once you had a lasso

once you had a rope

corralling cute tomatoes

but not one had hope

To be in your future

because your heart

had a suture

 

You loved 

but three:

the Ma

the Pa

and 

the Sister

 

You always wanted

to kiss her

 

Which you do

every Yesterday

and it is fun,

dating back

to 1971

 

So you live

and you learn

and you think

"Hey pretty girl"

but all do is

wink

then reach for

a drink

***

 

© PAUL OLIVERIO © 

________________________________________________________________________________________________

Empty Volleyball Courts Soon To Draw Worldwide Attention

________________________________________________________________________________________________

 

***

© PhotoVerio #917.5

________________________________________________________________________________________________

It Ain't Bragging If It Is True

________________________________________________________________________________________________

This is one handsome dude

The titled quote is from

"YOGI BERRA"

 

The bragging rights

belong to

PAUL OLIVERIO

  who is 

eternally grateful to

DONALD BARTLETTI

 

He photographed me

in 1987

and

I still have 

the same amount

of hair

on my head

in 2025

 

My hair has

never been

chemically treated

but 

all my teeth are

born-again

dentures  

________________________________________________________________________________________________

Margaret Forgive Me For I Have Sinned

________________________________________________________________________________________________

Lock me

in that Nunnery

so those

who have none

will have one

 

Allowing

REALITY

to intervene:

in this image

I am reddened 

with guilt and shame

 

Here's why:

I had read 

almost 150 pages

of this book

within two days

and 

was totally enthralled

by the story

 

The following week

I read no more than

six pages,

doing more 

head-scratching

than reading

****************

 

I put the book aside

with Page 153

highlighted

 ****************

 

NOW:

Let me say this

about that

 

Atop

the book image,

I underlined

"Worldwide Bestseller"

and I hope the author

made a gazillion dollars

as a result

 because

 in my opinion

no one alive today

—writing in English—

is more talented 

than Margaret Atwood

 

When you read 

a dozen books

by the same writer,

you have enough 

mental lumber

to build

such a conclusion

 

Novels, short stories, poetry,

and social criticism:

 

Margaret does it all

with such ease, wit, 

wisdom, shock value

—and best of all—

very dark humor

 

She writes 

like someone

whose next book

can be written

while the author

is blindfolded

and the result

will still be

wonderfully 

brilliant

****************

 

 My favorite title is

"The Edible Woman"

(1969)

and 

Penelopiad

(2005)  

is an updated version of

ODYSSEY

written from

a different perspective

 

The original version

was written by 

Homer

and his tale is told

over the course of

one thousand pages

Not until I am locked away

in a nut house

would I attempt to read what

the first modern novelist

penned 

almost

 ten centuries ago

 

Penelopiad

is 224 pages 

****************

 

Margaret Atwood

is 86-years-old

but sometimes

she can pass for

a 33-year-old

****************

 

My secret hope

is that 

between the time

you read this page

from top-to-bottom,

Margaret Atwood makes

another gazillion dollars

+

and hires Mrs. CarPeo

to do the artwork

for her next

book 

****************

 

© PAUL OLIVERIO ©

 

 

________________________________________________________________________________________________

GO MATH ... With Profound Words From Ultimate Johnson

________________________________________________________________________________________________

Every elementary school teacher

financed by

the State of California

was tuned in

to the image

of Don Johnson

 

But 

this was three years

before the image above

was taken

 

Though he had

the same name as

a very handsome actor,

this Don Johnson

physically resembled

Lou Costello

!!!

  

Our Don Johnson's

 nickname 

is given in the title

and the words 

he spoke

were soundtracked by

Beethoven's 9th Symphony

profundity

We are not 

smart enough

to teach math

but we can 

make our students smile

with a glow

dwarfing

Pacific Palisades 

sunsets

 !!!

 

 

Throughout

the state of California,

the

celebratory

cheering sounds

created by

these teachers

was equivalent to

the tsunami effect

of a 

7.1 earthquake

*******

*

 

© PAUL OLIVERIO ©

 

 

To

Be

Continued 

________________________________________________________________________________________________

The 218th Bullet: Literature + Simple Arithmetic

________________________________________________________________________________________________

 Dystopian Novels

are equal to

Utopian Novels

multiplied by

Negative One

***

________________________________________________________________________________________________

Footnote

THE 218th BULLET

is 

the copyrighted property

of LCSoL

________________________________________________________________________________________________

 

Frank Needs Better Table Manners (Comic Relief #6438)

________________________________________________________________________________________________

GARY LARSON

__________

__________

***

 

 

This

Far Side Cartoon

is approved by 

the 

Steatopygiac 

Thingima Jiggy

 Society

________________________________________________________________________________________________

PhotoVerio #917: Marina Sunrise

________________________________________________________________________________________________

 Exactly three years hence,

the lucky residents

of this Long Beach Marina

will have easy access to

eleven 

2028 Summer Olympic Events

 

© Oliverio

________________________________________________________________________________________________

Tilted + Truncated Legs ... And Then Some

________________________________________________________________________________________________

***

George Harrison Soundtrack

+

Dedication

To 

Larry CarPeo

*** 

       ©PhotoVerio #916.5       =Image Only         

______________________________________________________________________________________________

PhotoVerio #916: Purple Maze

________________________________________________________________________________________________

Downtown Long Beach

At Midnight

***

© Oliverio ©

________________________________________________________________________________________________

What I Learned From This Crappy Photograph

________________________________________________________________________________________________

Put a baseball cap

on a senior citizen

+

he will look 

young enough

to play 

in the 

Junior League

A Review Of His Long Beach Concert

________________________________________________________________________________________________

In December, 2005 ... I Walked More Than Ten Miles In Italy

________________________________________________________________________________________________

But 

this is how

it appeared to me

in a dream

© PhotoVerio # 915.5

________________________________________________________________________________________________

FOUR OF A KIND

________________________________________________________________________________________________

There is no debate:

 

THE GODFATHER

+

THE SOPRANOS

present classic stories

about 

the Italian Mafia

 

Nor 

is their debate about

the brilliance of

Marlon Brando

+

James Gandolfini

as Mafia Dons

 

But

another film

and another

cable series

belong on this list

 

 In 

PRIZZI'S HONOR,

William Hickey

upstages 

both

Don Corleone

+

Tony Soprano

 

In 

TULSA KING,

Sylvester Stallone

is stellar

as a Mob boss

and is the only

one of the four

set in 

the 21st Century

 

Italians

+

Non-Italians 

eagerly await

season Three of

 Stallone's Rocky

morphing 

with

Brando's 

Godfather 

________________________________________________________________________________________________

I Wouldn't Pay A Penny For This Photograph

________________________________________________________________________________________________

It is nothing personal about 

BETTYE SWEET

 

She is a teacher

who was a personal friend 

of mine

 

My higher concern

here is the student

facing Ms. Sweet:

   

LAKEISHA GARBUTT

is a former student of mine

with a

much higher developed

sense of Logic

than her classmates

+ 

a snob attitude

that privately appealed

to this Math teacher

The year she was

my student,

Her mother appeared

at my classroom door

four hours before

Parent-Teacher Night

and 

was delighted 

with the praise

I had for Lakeisha

We spent most of our time

talking about 

the mother's

 beautiful beret

 

The Los Angeles Times article

is a worthy read

for numerous reasons

and 

I will leave it

to YOU

to figure out

which drug-addicted 

mother inspired

the Lakeisha Garbutt story

that is

soon-to-be-a-screenplay,

according to Bettye Sweet

 

HOWEVER,

if anyone who can get

Ms. Garbutt

to contact her former

Math teacher...

 

I will pay that person

the price

Getty-Images is asking

 for the photo

(maybe)

________________________________________________________________________________________________

High Quality PAUL SIMON Photographs ... Are Not Here

________________________________________________________________________________________________

Mrs. CarPeo

is responsible for

an HQ video

[to be posted on Yelp]

 

Many audience members

are certain to post

HQ photographs

of Paul Simon

The image posted below

is not one of them

but it does include

a qualifier

After hearing

Paul Simon perform

Seven Psalms,

all I can say is:

 

If this is the closest

I ever get to

Heaven,

there will be 

no complaints

from me 

________________________________________________________________________________________________

Rest In Peace, 2025 ... W/No Hyperlinks Or Anyone Named Paul

_______________________________________________________________________________________________

 

_______________________________________________________________________________________________

Not Every Page Has To Do With Someone Named ... Paul

________________________________________________________________________________________________

RUSSIA

is just 

a Communist Front

for people

who know 

how to spell

FYODOR DOESTOEVSKY

***

 

Laugh-In

Season1

Episode 1

________________________________________________________________________________________________

Paul Simon's Audience Began The Long Way Home ...

________________________________________________________________________________________________

Fifteen of us

 

[Equal to .5% of full audience]

 

boarded

a very secure

"balcony"

elevator

The first one to speak 

was Mrs. CarPeo

 

[With no memory of her words]

Ultimately 

everyone

spoke 

or chuckled

except for

the woman

with

double-silicon 

bazongas

 

The names mentioned 

in a conversation

shared by

five of us

were

Lightnin' Hopkins

+ 

Elmore James

 

The latter was 

"slide-fully delicious"

according to 

a very young man

with 

two other men

saying

"I'm Gonna Dust My Broom"

 

Mr. CarPeo

commenced that discourse

when he suggested

Lighnin' Hopkins

would be

an excellent duet singer

with 

Paul Simon

who has

husky + dusty

coffee-stained

 83-year-old

vocal cords

Seemingly,

everyone agreed

with the suggestion

+

Mama Bazonga

winked at me

________________________________________________________________________________________________

How Good Was The Long Beach PAUL SIMON Concert?

________________________________________________________________________________________________

It ended 

with 

a 10-minute

standing ovation

[Mrs. CarPeo clocked it]

followed by 

a double encore:

 

3 songs w/full band

+

ONLY

Paul Simon with guitar

singing

Sounds of Silence

________________________________________________________________________________________________

PhotoVerio #915: Rock Concert

________________________________________________________________________________________________

Oh Crap!

I forgot to crop

upper-right

text

© OLIVERIO ©         2x

________________________________________________________________________________________________

This Image Is Posted Only Because Of That Image

________________________________________________________________________________________________

 

The "Beer Belly"

I inherited from

that man

sent my vanity

into outer space

BUT

once upon a time

I was slim and trim

 

Photographed by Mrs. CarPeo

________________________________________________________________________________________________