Day 2 of Retirement

Well, things are looking up. My cough is disappearing again--after not being in the office for two and a half days. I've quit eating everything in sight, and I've actually done a lot of work clearing out clutter in my condo.

Best of all, because I had some of my windows wide open today--the air was so fresh and wonderful--I've got a NEW BUG visiting by my nightstand: I KNOW this is a skipper butterfly, but which one??

My guess is that it's a Sachem (Atalopedes campestris), which is pretty common around here--especially in North Carolina, the second state down, but there's been a lot of WIND the past couple of days, and maybe this guy (it looks to be a male, but I'm not sure) caught a good updraft and wound up in my back yard.

Here's an authenticated Sachem from this wonderful website, Jeff's North Carolina Butterfly Page.

And here's my visitor: I'm calling him Fred (after the names for peace on the front of our hotel in Ravello). Fred is Norwegian for "peace."




So, woddya think? Is it a Sachem? Skippers are some of my very favorite butterflies. They're very fast and can be quite colorful. And I love their eyes and antennae.

Our Own Daily Digest, Final Edition

"All the news that fits, we print!"

Snooze-o-rama
Our managing editors (only one now, but still with double vision) is happy to announce that she has put this, her final edition of Our Own Daily Digest, to bed, and high time it is, too. It's been napping in her office chair for too long. Maybe now it will catch up on its sleep. (And no, it's not just after lunch, either. Before lunch is another favorite time for 15 winks.)

Families Not Only Count, They're Just Crazy About It
Sales of FC Year A are right up there with those of "What's that? Speak up!" Ronald Reagan and Those Dad-Gum Hearing Aids. Is anyone surprised? Fun-loving families are lining up in droves to give up happy hours, leisurely suppers, televised night games of the Boston Red Sox, and a couple hours of Law & Order reruns or X-Box to come back to school for lukewarm pizza and math games. OODD is happy to announce that a special commemorative issue of Year B will be available in 2036, the 100th anniversary of her birth. (Yeah, well, you're no spring chicken, either.)

PICK A NEW PRESIDENT!
The newly rearranged Gollyurdef University Board of Trustees (GUBOT) has announced the exciting PICK A NEW PRESIDENT edition of DEF LOTTO! Players can purchase their tickets from any faculty member at 4:30 p.m. every Friday at the Rathskellar's ASL-O-RAMA. Players mark the tickets with combinations of their favorite candidate's year of birth, year of graduation from Gollyurdef, hearing loss profile, position played on the Gollyurdef football/volleyball team, and year of death. This final category has been added this year to expand the pool of suitable presidential candidates to include posthumus recipients. Five matches guarantee the ticketholder a bottomless martini at the Rat.

Gollyurdef Administrator Wins Coveted Tonka Mighty Truck with Hard Hat and Tools
Gollyurdef's VP for Endless Construction, Kaul Pelly, has won Tonka Trucks' highest award for nonstop tearing down, building up, and water main replacement: The Tonka Mighty Truck with Hard Hat and Tools. The award also comes with a personalized lunch pail and a pair of those cool steel-capped work boots!!

Well, that's all, folks. Good night and God bless.

Well, that's that!!

It's official. Today is my last day at the Clerc Center. I'm finally retiring. Gonna go in, clean out my desk, enjoy a little fun with my coworkers at lunchtime, and get the hey outta there!!

Thanks to all my coworkers over the years, especially Ivey and Dan, Glenda, Bill, Gwen, Mary from Iowa, Yinka, Linda, Missus McDowell (is that how you spel it?), Cole's mom, Anita, Marteal, Tim, and the ineffable Cathryn. Thanks, too, to all the printers, designers, and photographers who have been so generous with your knowledge and patience: John, Del, Andrew, C.J., Bill, Joe, Brian, Lynda, Gretchen & Bob, and the other Bob. You've been a huge part of my education, enrichment, and enjoyment.

And if I've forgotten anyone, please don't take it personally. You'll be old and funny yourself some day....

Prairie Ghosts??

While researching the Native American northern Minnesota/Wisconsin/Canada spirit called the Wendigo, I discovered a website devoted to Prairie Ghosts, as in plural. My goodness.

It seems to me the only naughty spirit on the prairie has always been dear old Jack Frost (and occasionally, and spectacularly, Flash Flood), but apparently there are many more.

Note to DN: a lot of this stuff is in Illinois!!

Bug Week at Chez Moi

This past week, I sent my friend Paula the following email:

T'other night, I looked at my nightstand, and there was a ladybug crawling around the base of my water glass. I figured she was thirsty. (I'm always having to rescue bugs when they fall into the glass at night and swim around frantically trying to escape.)

So I dipped my little finger into the water a couple of times and made a nice big drop of water close by the bug. She hustled right over and started drinking it!

I could see the drop of water pulsing as she sucked/swallowed (?). She drank up the whole thing, so I made her a second one, which she drained, too.

Then she proceeded to nibble on the edge of the cork coaster upon which the water glass rested. There probably was a little sugar from a spilled beverage on it.

Who needs a dog when you have bugs?

Today, Paula sent me the lyrics of one of her favorite songs: Burl Ives's "The Ugly Bug Ball." I've never heard or or heard OF it until now. A quick search of You Tube found it right away, so here it is, over at the right.

Paula also said that once I'm retired and having to do without a lot of money (??), I can put my brain to work discovering all the things I can do for fun that DON'T require money. Paula does that herself. Among other things, she's a lawyer, and she spends her blessedly free time--now that she doesn't go to the office every day-- working on various committees to help others. If that sounds like a lot of work and not much fun, Paula is one of those people who ENJOY committees. She loves the give-and-take and the opportunity to speak truth to power in her quiet, gracious way.

Thanks, Paula, for your advice and example and for introducing me to the "Ugly Bug Ball."

Miscellany for August 21, 2008

If I could be anything at all in the world, it would be an architect. An engineer I know says, "Architects are assholes." That doubtless has something to do with the fact that she feels the architects she's met have had vastly overinflated opinions of themselves and in reality (i.e., her opinion) know nothing at all about how a building should work. Perhaps. Architects and engineers are both needed, I'm sure....especially nowadays.

I'm wondering, however, how an engineer would perceive Antoni Gaudi, the famed architect of Barcelona, which is so wonderfully revealed in "Vicky Christina Barcelona," my one of my favorite Woody Allen movies so far. Hmm...lots of people think Woody Allen is an asshole, too. There seem to be many assholes, eh?

And here are our fine rowing boys once more. Aren't they beautiful?

Stu's phat!

Typos, typos everywhere! Ole Phat Stu, blogger extraordinaire residing in Germany, sent a comment to Kay's Thinking Cap this past week, and I responded, referring to him as "Ole Fat Stu." How wrong can anyone get? In addition to being brilliant (he's quite a mathematician) and exceptionally kind and thoughtful (he rode his motorbike to the town where my grandmother is buried to see if her grave was still in the churchyard), he's reputedly quite slim & trim. The word I wanted to use was "phat," but I just got careless and typed "fat."

Here's what Dictionary.com says about "phat":

Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1)
phat - adjective Slang. great; wonderful; terrific.

Wikipedia also says that the term started in the 60s as an admiring "backronym"--"Pretty Hot And Terrific."

Phat--that's Stu, all right!

(And in honor of my upcoming retirement in two weeks, here's the Dixie Chicks singing "Wide Open Spaces.")

US 8 Wins GOLD at Beijing!!

That's the US WOMEN's 8, for all those delirious Canadians--their men's 8 rowing team beat the Brits and the US to win a gold medal after a 35-year drought.

Grandnephew Matt and his US men's 8 teammates came in third. I know how much his Mom & Dad, his Grandpa Dwyer, his Grandma and Grandpa Schnobrich, and other family members (Anne and Maria??)--all of whom travelled to Beijing to cheer them on--would have loved to see the team come in first. But it was a thrilling race. The US boat leapt from last place at the start to third at the end. Third is excellent, too, considering their competition.

WAY TO GO! And congrats to the women!!

And seeing as it's Sunday and all, enjoy the Bad Vicar....

Matt's own blog...

Here's a link to grandnephew Matt's SJU blog. He has several posts from China, where he's competing in the rowing event at the Beijing Olympics. He's really enjoying himself.

Finishy Sentencey Meem....

(Found at Wrath of Dawn)

1. My uncle once: refused to leave Germany, so my grandfather got him drunk and hauled him to Rotterdam, where he woke up on the boat to the USA.
2. Never in my life: have I met any of my grandparents.
3. When I was five: I was very excited about starting school. Then I met my teacher. Who hated little kids. Of which I was one.
4. High school was: excruciating and fun.
5. I will never forget: my mother calling me to come see the partridges dancing in our back yard.
6. Once I met: Thomas Merton. He was wearing slacks and a sport shirt, and he walked into the office where I was working.
7. There’s this girl I know: who could probably finish this one, but I’m stumped.
8. Once, at a bar: They turned off the outside lights at 2 a.m. and kept the party going inside.
9. By noon, I’m usually: IMing with Peggy.
10. Last night: I reaffirmed my love for the real Spanish cuisine at Jaleo.
11. If only I had: sold my condo in 2006.
12. Next time I go to church: you’ll hear the lightning striking, trust me.
13. What worries me most: I’ll never get over the vow of poverty.
14. When I turn my head left I see: a picture I painted three years ago.
15. When I turn my head right I see: My bicycle and a table stacked with photos I'm sorting.
16. You know I’m lying when: I do my best not to lie, but telling the truth has gotten me into a lot of trouble.
17. What I miss most about the Eighties is: that pink vinyl record of Dolly Partin's disco version of "Baby I'm Burnin..."
18. If I were a character in Shakespeare I’d be: Cordelia...that's the sweet and loving one, right?
19. By this time next year: I hope Bush and Cheney are in the dock at the Hague.
20. A better name for me would be: Janet Evanovich. Just deposit the royalty check in my account....
21. I have a hard time understanding: people who buy what the Vatican is selling.
22. If I ever go back to school, I’ll: Study a useful trade, like computer repair.
23. You know I like you if: I blog about you.
24. If I ever won an award, the first person I would thank would be: Whoever was responsible for nominating me, helping me, whatever applies.
25. Take my advice, never: Fry a herring in the house.
26. My ideal breakfast is: Hot tea with two sugars and a bagel with butter.
27. A song I love but do not have is: Waltzing in Venice.
28. If you visit my hometown, I suggest you: Keep going.
29. Why won’t people: Relax.
30. If you spend a night at my house: be warned, there's no TV.
31. I’d stop my wedding for: Two tickets to Paris.
32. The world could do without: Neocons.
33. I’d rather lick the belly of a cockroach than: Wear hose to the office.
34. My favourite blonde(s) is/are: Robert Redford and the new James Bond guy, Daniel Craig.
35. Paper clips are more useful than: Q tips.
36. If I do anything well it’s: Make pie crust.
37. I can’t help but: Read.
38. I usually cry: Rarely.
39. My advice to my child/nephew/niece: Remember that bill your elderly relative tucked in your birthday card? Write a thank you note.
40. And by the way: Don't forget to floss.

Feel free to consider yourself tagged. Or not. Whatever.

How many have you read?

I found this on Kay's Thinking Cap. I've read quite a few, but only because I got a very early start.

The Big Read reckons that the average adult has only read 6 of the top 100 books they've printed."

1. Look at the list and bold/colourize those you have read.
2. Post the list on your site.
(This can also remind you of some great books to read.)

1. Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
2. The Lord of the Rings - J.R.R. Tolkienn
3. Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
4. Harry Potter series - J.K. Rowling
5. To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
6. The Bible
7. Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
8. Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell
9. His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
10. Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
11. Little Women - Louisa M. Alcott
12. Tess of the D'Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
13. Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
14. Complete Works of Shakespeare
15. Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
16. The Hobbit - J.R.R. Tolkien
17. Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks
18. Catcher in the Rye - J.D. Salinger
19. The Time Traveller's Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
20. Middlemarch - George Eliot
21. Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell
22. The Great Gatsby - F. Scott Fitzgerald
23. Bleak House - Charles Dickens
24. War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
25. The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
26. Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
27. Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28. Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
29. Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
30. The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
31. Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
32. David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
33. Chronicles of Narnia - C.S. Lewis
34. Emma - Jane Austen
35. Persuasion - Jane Austen
36. The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - C.S. Lewis
37. The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
38. Captain Corelli's Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres
39. Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
40. Winnie the Pooh - A.A. Milne
41. Animal Farm - George Orwell
42. The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
43. One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44. A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving
45. The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
46. Anne of Green Gables - L.M. Montgomery
47. Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
48. The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood
49. Lord of the Flies - William Golding
50. Atonement - Ian McEwan
51. Life of Pi - Yann Martel
52. Dune - Frank Herbert
53. Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
54. Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
55. A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
56. The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57. A Tale of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
58. Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
59. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
60. Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61. Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
62. Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
63. The Secret History - Donna Tartt
64. The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
65. Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
66. On the Road - Jack Kerouac
67. Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
68. Bridget Jones's Diary - Helen Fielding
69. Midnight's Children - Salman Rushdie
70. Moby Dick - Herman Melville
71. Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
72. Dracula - Bram Stoker
73. The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett
74. Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson
75. Ulysses - James Joyce
76. The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
77. Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
78. Germinal - Emile Zola
79. Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
80. Possession - A.S. Byatt
81. A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
82. Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
83. The Color Purple - Alice Walker
84. The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
85. Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
86. A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
87. Charlotte's Web - E.B. White
88. The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
89. Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
90. The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton
91. Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
92. The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery
93. The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
94. Watership Down - Richard Adams
95. A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
96. A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
97. The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
98. Hamlet - William Shakespeare
99. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
100. Les Miserables - Victor Hugo


I've read parts but not all of the Bible, Shakespeare's works, and Rushdie's Midnight's Children. Also parts of Sherlock Holmes.

O Canada.....

My grandnephew Matt's hometown newspaper, the St. Paul Pioneer Press, quoted Matt and his fellow St. Paul native Micah Boyd--US men's 8 teammates--in the following story in its online edition today:

U.S. men's crew team hopes to surprise Canada
By Sean Jensen
sjensen@pioneerpress.com
Article Last Updated: 08/12/2008 01:10:07 PM CDT


BEIJING — They may be the defending Olympic champions, but the United States men's eight enters Sunday's final as a decided underdog.

In the four years since the 2004 Athens Olympics, Canada has emphasized that particular boat, loading it with their top rowers, even at the sake of the small crews.

"That was their thing," St. Paul native Micah Boyd said. "I mean, they've got some really good rowers in that eight (but) other boats suffered for that."

Indeed, the Canada has developed into the dominant nine-man crew in the world, winning each race it has entered over the past 18 months, including the 2007 World Championship, most of them by the length of a boat.

"It will be hard," Boyd said of his team's chances. "We'll have to execute the perfect race.

"The goal is to surprise Canada. I mean, in my mind, they're the clear favorites."

On Monday, despite a minor equipment issue, the Canadians won their heat by several boat lengths, crossing the finish line in 5 minutes, 27 seconds. Times can be deceiving because of conditions, but the U.S. won its repechage on Tuesday in 5:38.

This is not an unfamiliar position for the U.S. In 2004, the Canadians were also favored to win gold, going undefeated for two years. But not only did the U.S. win in Athens, the Canadians weren't even close, finishing nine seconds behind for fifth place.

"If we win in Beijing, we still finished fifth in Athens," Kevin Light told the Canadian Press. "That doesn't change.

But we are using that experience to help us."
The Canadians don't lack experience; six of them rowed in 2004. By contrast, the U.S. returns three from their gold-medal crew; Boyd and fellow St. Paul native Matt Schnobrich are among the newcomers.

But Schnobrich said the team clearly has a solid "framework" in place.

"If you win an Olympic medal in anything, you obviously did something right," he said. "So you'd be at a loss to reinvent the wheel and try something different."

The U.S. team appeared to attempt a tweak in their opening heat on Monday, when they stuck to their pre-race game plan, even after another team passed them.

"The Brits took a length out of us, in the second 500, and we just sat and let that happen, because we were staying in our race plan and hoping to make things work when we wanted them to," Schnobrich said. "But you can't race that way.

"We made some good changes (Tuesday), but there's still things to work on."

The U.S. led after 1,000 meters on Tuesday, but the Australians gained a slight edge after 1,500. Over the final 500, though, the U.S. recovered and finished nearly one second ahead of the Aussies.

"We wanted to practice our sprint," Boyd said.

Schnobrich said his team is confident but they expect a "dogfight."

"I think the Canadians and the Brits and the Aussies are going to bring their best races," he said. "It's the Olympic finals. It's what everybody thinks it is.

"We're going to come and lose consciousness with about 250 meters to go...(and) keep going. So, hopefully that puts us in the right place."

Atop the medal stand may be difficult — "gold's going to be hard," Boyd said — but the U.S. definitely hopes they can repeat their performance in Athens.

"We'll have to execute the perfect race," Boyd said. "The goal is to surprise Canada. I mean, in my mind, they're the clear favorites."

This must be what Ex-Shammickite was warning me about...she said that she'd cheer for Matt's team as long as it wasn't rowing against Canada.

The shadow knows.....

I've spent only about 1/3 of my life seeking the sunlight of conformity and good intentions; my shadow has run the rest of it. My shadow continually impels me into--besides chaos and mischief, that is--art: painting, sculpture, drawing. I don’t pretend to be a serious artist, but art keeps popping up in my life.

Further, my shadow has left all kinds of traces of its influence in my photos. In fact, one recent photo reveals the likeness of my shadow itself! It looks innocent enough, don't you think? A little chocolate syrup artfully decorating the foamed milk on a glass of cocoa. The shadow is not really the monster we imagine, fear, and run from.

The following is a perfectly good photo--ha, naturally I didn't take it!--but the black smudges added by the muralist--what are they? emerging pixels, a tree, wings?--reveal the shadow's power. In the old days, before they largely banished turpentine as too toxic, the simple smell of a painting studio was enough to lift me off the pavement, to make me feel as if I had come home. Despite the fact that I've spent a lot of my time on earth doing what many people would consider running away from various manifestations of home, in reality the shadow has been leading me there.

Not all of us are created to be "normal." It takes a pretty big stick whanging away on our skulls to draw our attention away from the siren call of "fitting in." In my case, the shadow, despite the enormous challenges it has confronted me with, has been kind and gentle...an agent of merciful, all-loving LIFE.

Happy Birthday, Annie!

Annie has always been an amazing bundle of sweetness, beauty, and intelligence. Here she is on Cape Cod a long time ago amusing herself by popping up in a nearby window whenever she heard someone outside talking. Now, of course, she is too grown up to drag her blanket around and play 4-year-old tricks. She's training her new puppies and following her longtime interest in fashion.

Happy birthday, Annie....

It happens to the best of us....YES, IT'S MATT

Here's a picture Matt sent back to his folks from California, where the US Rowing team stopped for processing on their way to China. Notice the little guy in the middle? Admit it. You thought he was larger than life, too, didn't you? That's ok, Arnold. Matt's grandpa used to be the tallest one in our family. Now his oldest grandson towers over him.

Go, Matt!! - updated with rowing schedule, more

Here are some of my brother Bob's grandchildren sitting on his front step one Minnesota summer day in 1992. Matt, the sweet boy in green, is putting a bunch of flowers on top of his cousin Molly's headband. Anne, his sister, is holding Madeline, another young cousin. For lively, good-looking wholesomeness, the little group could be part of a family gathering in a Bergman movie.

Of course, they're all grown up now. The sweet boy in green no longer has braces on his teeth, and he's an imposing 6'5", 205 lb. athlete who is going to be competing in the upcoming Summer Olympics in Beijing.

My brother is going to Beijing along with Matt's parents, Ellen and Dana, and sister, Anne, and his Schnobrich grandparents to cheer him on. Bob's a homebody--he still lives in that house and keeps it up himself like the engineer he is--but he loves to travel when the occasion presents itself. This occasion is irresistible.

A whole bunch of Matt's relatives relatives and friends will be glued to their TV sets sometime during the August 9-17 competitions. I can't find the specific schedule for Matt's events, but if someone supplies it, I'll post it here. Good luck, Matt! May the wind and the current be with you!!

UPDATE: Thanks, Lu (Molly's mom), for sending the following links to the US Rowing schedule next week:
Sports Illustrated complete rowing schedule

NBC's local station finder for coverage by sport

UPDATE: Thanks, too, to Jim Feeney for finding these bios on the USRowing and NBC sites.

Jim mentioned that it took a while before he could get the NBC interview to work. I second that! I had to download Silverlight software to play it, but it's available free on the site. Good luck. Matt does have a very nice Minnesota (Minnesota nice) accent.

Good stuff to read!

Rock Creek Free Press - August issue is out now!
The new August edition of my favorite DC newspaper, The Rock Creek Free Press is in the honor box at Dupont Circle North Metro exit now--hopefully. Last month, the July copies disappeared in a flash, and the opportunistic Washington Examiner--on my sh*t list already for running a prominent ad for handguns the day after the shooting at Virginia Tech--took to filling the box with its own freebee paper.

A Chronicle Review article this week,"The Science of Satire" by Harvard University psychology professor Mahzarin R. Banaji, spells out just what's wrong with that New Yorker cover, why it's far from "just satire," and why Remnick's incredulous response to the outcry is so embarrassing.

Excerpts:

The brain, Blitt (artist) would be advised to understand, is a complex machine whose operating principles we know something about. When presented with A and B in close spatial or temporal proximity, the mind naturally and effortlessly associates the two. Obama=Osama is an easy association to produce via simple transmogrification. Flag burning=unpatriotic=unAmerican=unChristian=Muslim is child's play for the cortex....There is no getting around the fact that the very association Blitt helplessly confessed he didn't intend to create was made indelibly for us, by him.*

***

What made Blitt (artist) and Remnick's response to the public outcry even more problematic were their justifications that tumbled out in response to challenges about the cover. Remnick showed off other covers by the same artist that were, in his mind, similarly offensive. In one cover image, Vice President Cheney is shown to be the boss of President Bush; in anther, there's a flood in the Oval Office, with the administration afloat..When the artist's intention was to depict Cheney as the boss, he faithfully drew Cheney as the boss. That's satire? When the artist's intention was to depict the drowning of the administration, he sketched the drowning of the administration. Far out!

I said that Remnick's response was embarrassing. Why? Because it was so freakin lame and because as the editor of the New Yorker and thus presumably knowledgeable and sophisticated, he should have KNOWN BETTER.

If you can't access the Chronicle Review online, perhaps your local liberry will have a copy in the print edition. It's well worth your time and effort to go read it.

*(Doesn't this also make you think of this week's ad mashup--Obama and the two starlets?)

Just for fun....

the concert to the right is a funny thing i found on another blog i liked. Wot is it about those young british empire women that is soooo funny? by british empire i mean she's canadian. i found her blog when she commented on whoopee, which is a riotous blog belonging to a most beautiful, polished young londoner who keeps her outward self well hidden in her blog.

i am still befuddled, but my temperature is what would be normal in a normal person. my normal temperature is more reptilian. maybe this is why i liked ravello's little green lizards so much?

July 28, 2008...Happy Birthday, Peggy!!

Peggy is another year older, wiser, and lovelier today. In case she's forgotten, here she is with her birthday present around her neck (not in her hand...tsk).

She's put in quite a year: Diving in the Red Sea at Christmastime, visiting Budapest with pals this spring, and then a fambly holiday in the south of France (with a couple of jaunts over the border to Spain and Andorra) just this month. That's in addition to being mom to her three strapping sons, working full-time, and doing the animal & vegetable husbandry bit on her microestate in Scotland.

She takes incredible photos and shares it all on her wonderful blog. Please pay a visit and wish her a happy birthday!

Sparkle on, baby...You're doing a fabulous job!!

xo, ma

Feed a fever....

I'm still feeling sick as a dog (well, not the dogs i know, anyway...they're all bright-eyed and tail wagging), but these are the things that have made me feel better all day:

* squeak came to visit, and he was on his best behavior. He insisted on sitting RIGHT NEXT TO ME. gee. and i was fresh out of bacon for him, too. i know he was dying to get up on one of the couches or my bed, but he only tried it once. (CULTURAL NOTE: in the culture in which i was raised, dogs didn't even get to come in the house except under dire circumstances. my dad brought his dog lady in the house when the tornado hit fargo back in the 50s. It was a good thing, too, because the tornado lifted the roof off lady's doghouse and sucked out all the straw and her water dish. the roof was sitting right next to the doghouse, as if my dad had lifted it off himself, but lady would have gone for a looong swirling ride if she'd been in there and not in the basement with mom and dad as they prayed the rosary.)

* Cathy brought back some laundry she captured from me last night. It was all nicely folded in one of those beautiful African baskets they used to sell last year at the Dupont Circle Farmers Market. I couldn't believe I let her take my laundry and do it for me, but she did, and it was VERY KIND of her!! Typically very kind, I should say.

* A fabulous ripe peach from some place called Brown's, probably a farmer's market (it belongs to a farmer named Brown, actually) north of Baltimore. As luck would have it, Cathy drove her Aunt Ruth (let's see...she has two Aunt Ruths...this is the 88-year-old...the other one is 92) to Brown's on the day I was having my HOT HOT fever. She dropped off two peaches, six apricots, and a pint of huge sweet blueberries on her way home. She tried to force me to drink regular orange soda on the theory that real sugar was much better for a sick person than the diet kind. But i convinced her that since that diet sweetener stuff is so much like pesticide, it would help kill the bug.

* A hot dog from 7eleven down the hill. Just a plain one this time. Usually I get a Spicy Big Bite.

* A Haagen-Dazs Vanilla ice cream bar with dark chocolate and almonds.

* At least four big glasses of water. Cathy did not believe the glasses hold 12 oz. of liquid, so I dragged myself from my sickbed, got out my measuring thing, and tada...it actually holds like 14 oz., but that's filled right to the brim.

Nothing else in terms of food or drink has appealed to me.

I found two very cool blogs today, though: Nailing Jello to the Wall, which is an outlet/safety valve publication by an educator in Maryland, and Suburban Lesbian Housewife. The last one just goes to show that they're here, they're queer, and we should all get used to it.

Malaria....

When I was a kid with my nose in a book, I always wanted to get malaria....all the best people had it--Charlemagne; Sts. Augustine and Teresa of Avila; Genghis Khan; Christopher Columbus; US Presidents Washington, Monroe, Jackson, Lincoln, Grant, T. Roosevelt, and JFK; Jane Goodall; Mother Teresa. There were NO tropical diseases to speak of in North Dakota where I grew up, and it seemed very romantic to suffer from a disease, one of the salient symptoms of which--high fever--meant I'd be HOT all the time instead of half frozen.

Since i got back from Italy, the jet lag has really lagged! I've been feeling more and more punk and tired for the past two weeks. Today that finally segued into a splitting headache, high fever and chills, aches, cough, pains in the stomach: all symptoms of malaria.

It's highly unlikely that I have malaria, but I remember how voracious the mosquitos were in Capri. and I don't get headaches often--just when I've come down with a spectacular bug. They have home tests now for malaria. I wonder if they have them at CVS?

The Amalfi coast, Naples, Capri in ancient times had lots of cases of malaria. Now, with new pesticides and antibiotics, cases are rare to nonexistent. But they say global warming may cause malaria to come back. Gee....

Farewell to the Hotel...and my hat

The front of our hotel in Ravello celebrates peace.



(I wonder in which language "fred" means "peace"?)




The inside of the hotel is hung with lithographs by a friend of the hotel owner. In fact, the whole hotel, inside and out, is virtually his personal art exhibit. He created the Peace works on the front of the hotel, and he created every picture in the place--in the public rooms, the hallways, and the private rooms. At the moment, I do not know the name of the artist. Like the owner, he is in his 80s. The owner is on the job every day. Nothing escapes her attention.

The artist rarely puts just one thing in his pictures. He specializes in life forms of all kinds. The many death images are not at all macabre, being part of life and expected in such a vital place.










Rainieri, the youngest son of the hotel owner, and Cathy picked me up at the Naples airport when I arrived, and he drove us back there when we left. Here he is posing for our last photo in Italy. All of the owner's children work at the hotel. Rainieri says his mother still thinks of him as age 8, his brother as 15, and his sister in the middle. He says she doesn't dare take a day off and leave the care of the hotel to such kids.



When we changed planes at the Paris airport, a rather officious security person made me take off my orange Positano hat. "Take off your hat," she said. No please, no thank you. There were two colors of hats--orange and yellow--at the little shop in Positano where I went to get something to shade my eyes. Oranges and lemons...their colors are pervasive on the Amalfi coast. And of course, since the hat wasn't on my head, I lost it in the Paris airport. I lost the umbrella, too, scusi, but I was glad of that. It was always in the way. I'll have to go back to get another hat. It was comfortable and did a great job of shading my eyes.

More Capri

And here is Carey climbing the stairs to the street of our hotel. It's really interesting for a flatlander like me to experience the mountains firsthand. You can look up or down the mountain at something and realize it's very close. But you can't always just go out of your building and walk straight up or down to it. It often involves walking up or down a switchback street for a couple of blocks.

Carey has visited Capri several times, so she volunteered to take us to Capri's only industry (other than tourism): a perfume factory. We got on the funiculare to go up to Capri town.


Here, Carey is telling us about the Carthusian monastery near the perfume factory.


Here's a view of the formal garden next to the monastery.


The monastery itself is called the Certosa (charterhouse) di San Giacomo (St. James), and the perfume factory is on the same street where I'm standing to take this photo. There are no monks left in the monastery now, although part of the garden is in use by a very fancy hotel as a swimming pool. Looking at the monastery's murals, other artwork, and buildings joins the Blue Grotto as things to do on our next visit. Carey told us of the local story that says the monastery originally was built by a nobleman and his wife with eight daughters in thanksgiving for the birth of a son. The German industrialist Friedrich Krupp spent a lot of money restoring the place in the early 20th century and also constructing a road down to the smaller harbor, Marina Piccola, which is on the other side of the island from Marina Grande.


Also on the same street, just very short stroll from the perfumery, is this snack stand. I don't know if the lemons and oranges are for sale, but the small glass bottles of limoncello are for sale--and they are everywhere, not only on Capri but also in Ravello, Amalfi, and Positano. Limoncello, the famous liqueur of this part of Italy is very....lemony, but it has none of the punch of Grand Marnier, which is made from oranges.


Statues in the Augustini gardens:




Our always animated tour guide...


Fambly statues


This is looking down from the Belvedere (a formal overlook, usually on top of a cliff in these parts) in the gardens to Marina Piccola. If I had been more enterprising, I'd have snooped around until I could see the Via Krupp for myself.

Capri...with more coming soon

The day after the big walk from Ravello to Amalfi, Cathy and I rode the bus down to Amalfi, where we boarded the hydrofoil to Capri. The last time we rode a ferry was on the way home from Cape May a day or two after the last Harry Potter book came out. The ferry lounge was full of pre-teen Hogwarts fans deeply engrossed in their reading and totally ignoring the TV over the bar.

There was one feeble TV on the Amalfi-to-Capri hydro, no HP readers, and no bar, either. The trip took less than half an hour, and the older gentleman who kept trying to tune in an Italian football game gave up very soon. By the time he realized the TV signal was too weak, we already were in sight of Capri. People over there pronounce this COP-ree instead of the usual yankee cuh-PREE.

The fuzzy picture at the top shows the three Faraglioni rocks that are Capri's trademark. The one closest to Capri's western shore (and actually joined to it) is called "Stella." The middle one is Faraglioni di mezzo, and the outermost is called "Scopolo" or Faraglioni di fuori.

The following photo, taken from the Augustini formal gardens in Capri town, shows the sparse vegatation on these rocks--dwarf pine, most visibly. Scopolo also is home to a rare blue lizard, doubtless the cousin of all the little green lizards we saw on our walk down the mountain. Perhaps living on the rocks so close to the sea, they've taken on the beautiful blue coloration from the surrounding water. Capri, by the way, is home to the famous Blue Grotto. Since it involved another boat trip, we did not see it.



We dropped our bags at the hotel and rode up the funiculare from the harbor area to Capri town. By the time we got to the town square, it was raining, and a nice waiter at the sidewalk cafe was using a broom handle to arrange the umbrellas and awnings so that the water would run off the canvas, not drip down in between onto the customers. Italian men work hard, and the ones we encountered were very kind and friendly, too. This man was there in the morning when we sat down for a cup of coffee at his cafe. At night, about 9:30 p.m., when we were going back to the hotel after dinner, we passed back through the piazzetta, and he was STILL THERE!! They are no strangers to the art of sweeping, either. I saw only one woman sweeping the streets with those ubiquitous brooms made from twigs, the manufacture of which has been going on since medieval times or before.



It was not raining hard, but it was enough to make these two nuns hurry to shelter. I just barely had time to snap this picture before they were out of sight.


We started to shop a bit (i.e., enter shops, look around and smile, and go on to the next one--the American peso does not go very far in Euro Land), but since it was after 1 p.m., we decided to get in out of the rain and have lunch. The place was jammed, so we sat at the bar. It's always fun to sit at the bar because not only can you avoid waiting for a table, you get to see what's going on. Here is
the salad guy making DOZENS of caprese salads: fresh buffalo mozzarella, RIPE tomatoes, basil, and other little greens and veg for color. Of course, we had to have one:
The head bartender was emptying this bottle into a glass with the young woman watching him fill it too full. With her dark hair and eyes and sensitive face, she made me think of Gemma when she was that age.


Boats coming to Capri land at Marina Grande, Capri's main harbor. Here is the scene at the docks. I took these photos from our hotel room balcony. I don't know what kind of cactus this is, but I found it fascinating that such a watery place could have so many cacti!




Standing outside in the street and peering through this window, we watched this chef filet a fresh fish, cut it into chunks, flour and season it, and fry it in hot oil. Next, he added some chopped peppers and onions, prepared by his helpers at the tables along the back wall, then he added a ladle of broth and a splash of wine (from a big jug that he kept on the floor). He tasted his cooking frequently with a small spoon that he kept in the pocket of his chef's jacket. After each taste, he dipped the spoon into the boiling water and slipped it back into his pocket. Then he'd add a pinch of salt and a sprinkling of fresh herbs. While the fish & vegetable dish was cooking, he went to the big stainless refrigerator to the right and took out a portion of fresh noodles. He dropped the noodles into the well of boiling water on the right corner of the stove nearest the window. He also tossed TWO HANDfuls of salt into the water. When the noodles were cooked, he lifted out the basket and added them to the fish & vegetables. He let it all cook for a little while longer, then he plated it and stuck a sprig or two of basil on the side. We clapped our hands, to which he grinned, and then we left to walk back to the funiculare.



These highly ornate tiles decorated the waiting room at the top of the funiculare. They show a bit of Capri's salient points, including a Saracen pirate (maybe the famous one who wrecked the Carthusian monastery in the 1500s) and the Blue Grotto.



As much as we loved the food and the people watching, however, the highlight of our trip to Capri was a visit from my niece Carey, who lives in Naples. Carey was always smart as a whip even as an infant. She was less than a year old when she could say simple sentences--especially after being coached by her late, beloved Uncle Jim-- "Jimmer boom deers!" "Jimmer 'mash cars!" She called us Saturday morning about 9 a.m. and said she was taking the hydro from Naples. Our hotel looked down on the harbor, and maybe 15 minutes later, Cathy pointed out this one at the dock.
It was too soon to expect Carey's boat, but then a few minutes later, we spotted a very fast ferry approaching from the east.


And there she is....

the delusion of privacy

i applied for a job at a major jesuit university listed on monster.com inc, last week, and three days later, i received a Monster.com NEWSLETTER for....i kid you not....ELDERLY and DISABLED readers.

Um, huh?

i happen to BE elderly and disabled by certain standards, but who told MONSTER.COM that?

pas de moi!!!

and i'll let you guess....do you think i've also heard from the major jesuit university department advertising the job for which i applied??? Is to laugh!!

i had everything they wanted--in spades--and i live very close to the place, too. i could roll 1 block down the hill most mornings to the bus stop across from the likker store, and 10 minutes later, hop off at the MJU front gate!

and i'll tell you this, too: i may be old and funny, but i can still work circles around all the young punks i currently work with.

my point is, i know i've been a bit sniffy about old crocks who complain about not getting hired, but hey....i was thinking the playing field was still level...that nobody would know how old or stoopid we were just from looking at our resumes (and covers letters with exquisitely correct speling an gramer).

i was wrong. i apologize. the spies have found out all about us, and they're spreading the word.

eff the spies!!!

wot in hey do they know about ANYTHING???

Happy Birthday, Sam!

Boys do grow up...and have birthdays. Tomorrow, July 1, is the birthday of Samuel Robert Woodruff, the handsome guy on the left in both pictures. He's always been the second son, but he's taller than his brother, Joe, now. He's still the life of the party and one hell of a drummer. Whatever life offers you this year, Sammy, TAKE IT!! Meet it with your wonderful smile and spirit. Never forget that your brother loves you to pieces. And so do we all. Happy Birthday, Sam! Lots of love, Gran.....(P.S. the check is in the mail)

More Iowa flood pictures

Peggy's blog has some photos of the Iowa floodwaters on the Cedar River south of Mt. Vernon, where we used to live.

The bridge at Sutliff that she features has its own website, too.

She also refers to her friend Tom's blog that in turn cites a blog in the Boston Globe's website. Boston.com's blog, "The Big Picture," has collected some of the best photos yet of the flood in Cedar Rapids.

i wanted to scan a photo i have of peggy with the famous sunburn, but while i can see it very clearly in my mind's eye, i can't find it. i think i'm gonna hire one of those clutterbuster people to come and organize all my photos! that'd be worth the $500 or so it'll cost.