“Leisure” is the name of this oil painting by Agnese Kurzemniece:

And you, dear reader, can buy the original, at least according to its page here, for a measly $1600!
Seriously, this chic is going places, and this seems to me like the bargain of the… century?… uh, no… year?… uh, no… month?… uh, yeah… that’ll do! The bargain of the month.
I would send an e-mail to Ms. Artist and offer to buy it myself, but then I wouldn’t feel right tossing the entirely relevant image atop this post. Plus I have an account to settle with the Bank of Vodka. My personal rule is that I never spend more than $1000 (one grand!) while heavily intoxicated. Five grand if I had two drinks or less.
Alas, tonite I have traveled into territory where my spending limit has decreased down… down… down… well into the hundreds.
But I digress…
Ms. Kurzemniece describes her painting as:
debauchery as a lifestyle and attitude towards life
And I’m totally down with that! How does she feel about said “debauchery”? Is she commenting on The Age of Onanism? What the fuck is Onanism anyway? Am I mocking myself by linking to her painting? Am I mocking myself by linking to masturbation-free Ferd? Is this Polish Vodka, supposedly endorsed by Bruce Willis, any good? Oh, the questions, dear reader… I am overwhelmed by all the questions… The fucking questions!!!
Ya’ know…
The Founding Fathers of the mighty United States of America were very much into leisure. They generally agreed that only a leisured man, unburdened by concerns about his daily bread, could have the necessary detachment to serve as an effective democratic representative in their fledgling Republic.
During the American Revolution, the second leader of the Continental Congress was a South Carolinian named Henry Laurens. Laurens began curtailing his merchant activity in the 1760s, embracing an enlightened slackerhood as he pointed himself toward a career in leisure politics. In 1789 he offered:
How hard it is for a rich or covetous man to enter heartily into the kingdom of… patriotism.
And that quote, dear reader, seems like it was telegraphed from more than two centuries ago, forward to this very day… to be embossed over a photo of our dear Republican nominee for President:

But the finest expression of the supremacy of leisure came from the Commonwealth of Virginia. In 1776 the Virginia Revolutionaries chose this as their state motto:
Deus nobis haec otia fecit
That’s Latin for “God bestowed upon us this leisure”. Of course now we can look back and mutter, “No, you dumb-asses, it was your fucking slaves who bestowed your leisure upon you, not God.” …but that’s not the point.
In any case, Thomas Jefferson nixed the motto. He reminded his colleagues that such a slacker mentality was perhaps not the wisest thing to advertise in the midst of a war. The Virginians went with Perseverando (By Persevering) instead.
Still, thanks to Gordon S. Wood, we here in modern world can reflect on their original choice and chuckle. Or, perhaps, we can nod in agreement…?































