Monday, October 31, 2005

Poem for Tuesday


Oracle
By Tom Sleigh


Because the burn's unstable, burning too hot
in the liquid hydrogen suction line
and so causing vortices in the rocket fuel

flaming hotter and hotter as the "big boy"
blasts off, crawling painfully slowly
up the blank sky, then, when he blinks

exploding white hot against his wincing
retina, the fireball's corona searing
in his brain, he drives with wife and sons

the twisting road at dawn to help with the Saturday
test his division's working on: the crowd
of engineers surrounding a pit dug in snow

seeming talky, joky men for 6 a.m., masking
their tension, hoping the booster rocket's
solid fuel will burn more evenly than the liquid

and keep the company from layoffs rumored
during recess, though pride in making
chemicals do just what they're calculated to

also keys them up as they lounge behind
pink caution tape sagging inertly
in the morning calm: in the back seat, I kick

my twin brother's shin, bored at 6:10 a.m.
until Dad turns to us and says, in a neutral tone,
Stop it, stop it now, and we stop and watch:

a plaque of heat, a roar like a diesel blasting
in your ear, heatwaves ricocheting off gray mist
melting backward into dawn, shockwaves rippling

to grip the car and shake us gently, flame
dimly seen like flame inside the brain confused
by a father who promises pancakes after,

who's visibly elated to see the blast shoot
arabesques of mud and grit fountaining up
from the snow-fringed hole mottling to black slag

fired to ruts and cracks like a parched streambed.
Deliriously sleepy, what were those flames doing
mixed up with blueberry pancakes, imaginings of honey

dripping and strawberry syrup or waffles,
maybe, corrugated like that earth, or a stack
of half-dollars drenched and sticky...?

My father's gentle smile and nodding head --
gone ten years, and still I see him climbing
slick concrete steps as if emerging from our next door

neighbor's bomb shelter, his long-chilled shade
feeling sunlight on backs of hands, warmth on cheeks,
the brightness making eyes blink and blink...

so like his expression when a friend came
to say goodbye to him shrunken inside
himself as into a miles-deep bunker...

and then he smiled, his white goatee
flexing, his parched lips cracked but welcoming
as he took that friend's hand and held it, held it

and pressed it to his cheek... The scales, weighing
one man's death and his son's grief against
a city's char and flare, blast-furnace heat melting

to slag whatever is there, then not there --
doesn't seesaw to a balance, but keeps shifting,
shifting...nor does it suffice to make simple

correspondences between bunkers and one man's
isolation inside his death, a death
he died at home and chose...at least insofar

as death allows anyone a choice, for what
can you say to someone who's father or mother
crossing the street at random, or running

for cover finds the air sucked out
of them in a vacuum of fire calibrated
in silence in a man's brain like my father's

-- the numbers calculated inside the engineer's
imagination become a shadowy gesture as in Leonardo's
drawing of a mortar I once showed my father

and that we admired for its precision, shot raining
down over fortress walls in spray softly pattering,
hailing down shrapnel like the fountain of Trevi

perfectly uniform, lulling to the ear and eye
until it takes shape in the unforgiving
three dimensional, as when the fragile,

antagonized, antagonistic human face
begins to slacken into death as in my own
father's face, a truly gentle man except

for his work which was conducted gently too --
since "technicals" like him were too shy for sales
or management, and what angers he may have had

seemed to be turned inward against judging
others so the noise inside his head was quieter
than most and made him, to those who knew him well,

not many, but by what they told me after he died,
the least judgemental person
they'd ever known -- who, at his almost next to last

breath, uncomplaining, said to his son's
straining, over-eager solicitation,
-- Is there something you need, anything?

-- That picture -- straighten it...
his face smoothing
to a slate onto which light scribbles what? a dark joke,
an elegant equation, a garbled oracle?

--------


Ah, Halloween is as much fun for parents as it is for kids, I think. Though that may be the excess chocolate talking. After writing up news bullets in the morning and organizing a project to make goofy glasses out of foam cut-outs with stars, bells, ribbons and the like, I went to the elementary school and helped set up for my fourth grader's party. Unlike last year when it rained so hard that the parade had to be held inside the school, it was another gorgeous day -- almost too warm, as the temperature was in the 70s and all the kids in latex masks and velvet capes were overheating! (I bailed on both my Starfleet uniform and my witch's cape and hat when I discovered the weather and only wore my Sirius Black Azkaban shirt.) The parade, which my husband and mother attended, was extremely entertaining as there are a wider range of costumes than when my older one was there -- no dozens of Pokemon and Power Rangers. Then, in the classroom, the kids made gingerbread houses using school milk cartons as a base, ate cupcakes and other junk, worked on the glasses and were all set to play bingo but we ran out of time.

I had to walk home without my son, who had Mad Science in the afternoon, carrying his gingerbread house, costume and the Sally Foster wrapping paper which always gets delivered on Halloween because so many parents are in the school anyway. Older son arrived home in a good mood because he and one other boy in his math class had won some competition and received Einstein glasses with attached noses and moustaches. When got home not long after the kids, we carved the main pumpkin, toasted its seeds, put it and the candles on the stoop, filled the bowl with candy and had our first trick or treaters before 6 p.m. as it was already dark -- woe! But if the clocks have to go back, one day before Halloween is really a nice time for it, since the kids are waiting for dusk so they can go circle the neighborhood. Hubby took them around one cul-de-sac and I took them around the other, the put them in the van and took them to my parents' so they could see the kids' costumes and they could see their grandparents (who have been out of town for a week visiting west coast relatives; the other set of grandparents are also on the west coast now). By a little after nine, the deluge had stopped -- we gave out six bags of candy, had only six or so pieces left over, mostly peppermint patties which makes me happy -- and we watched Monday Night Football.


A rock star, a werewolf, a shark, a pirate...as you can see it was gorgeous weather but I bet some of these kids were melting.


My son's cluster of desks at school is right in front of the teacher's desk and, perhaps not unsurprisingly, is all male.


Here is the whole class. There are still some alarmingly traditional trends among costumes according to gender.


Too young to be a student but OMFG CUTE. (This is the same little boy from the pool party.)


Once a year I post a photo of my children that is not locked. Here is this year's installment. *g*


This year's main pumpkin out in front of the house.


Tuesday the county has no school so teachers can prepare report cards -- ! I have no idea where my brain was when I said I could have lunch! So I will have my children with me to celebrate my anniversary with , whom I met in line at Best Buy the day Attack of the Clones came out -- we must get Revenge of the Sith together! (Of course my real reason for being at the store that morning was to get the extended Fellowship of the Rings, as was hers, but if she had not set my slashdar off by mentioning Highlander I might have left her to the hottie in line instead of getting her phone number, heh.)

Sunday, October 30, 2005

Poem for Halloween


In View of the Fact
By A. R. Ammons


The people of my time are passing away: my
wife is baking for a funeral, a 60-year-old who

died suddenly, when the phone rings, and it's
Ruth we care so much about in intensive care:

it was once weddings that came so thick and
fast, and then, first babies, such a hullabaloo:

now, it's this that and the other and somebody
else gone or on the brink: well, we never

thought we would live forever (although we did)
and now it looks like we won't: some of us

are losing a leg to diabetes, some don't know
what they went downstairs for, some know that

a hired watchful person is around, some like
to touch the cane tip into something steady,

so nice: we have already lost so many,
brushed the loss of ourselves ourselves: our

address books for so long a slow scramble now
are palimpsests, scribbles and scratches: our

index cards for Christmases, birthdays,
Halloweens drop clean away into sympathies:

at the same time we are getting used to so
many leaving, we are hanging on with a grip

to the ones left: we are not giving up on the
congestive heart failure or brain tumors, on

the nice old men left in empty houses or on
the widows who decide to travel a lot: we

think the sun may shine someday when we'll
drink wine together and think of what used to

be: until we die we will remember every
single thing, recall every word, love every

loss: then we will, as we must, leave it to
others to love, love that can grow brighter

and deeper till the very end, gaining strength
and getting more precious all the way...

--------


Sunday was as gorgeous as Saturday, clear and not too warm. Unfortunately there were many chores to be done, and why does the day after Daylight Savings Time ends always seem too short even though we gain an hour? I was up too late last night (1 a.m. though it was 2 a.m. as far as my body was concerned, we'd just turned the clocks early) looking at Mars, and then wide awake at 7:30 even though I could have slept another hour before the kids had to get ready for Hebrew school. I'm working in my younger son's classroom tomorrow with a Halloween project, forgot to buy glue today, must do that in the morning; had to get some stuff ready for that, and do some cleaning since we will have people in our hall all evening Monday evening -- we usually take turns trick-or-treating with the kids and giving out the candy at home. We haven't even carved the pumpkins!

In the evening I went with to a lovely Samhain celebration at 's house -- first Pagan ritual I've been to since I left Chicago more than ten years ago (since I've had children I've been more focused on the Jewish part of my Jewitchery). I really need to do that for the eight major holidays a year. I had a brief moment of wondering this morning whether I might be sending my kids a confusing message by going, since I keep telling them that I think the practices of Christianity and Judaism are incompatible when they ask whether we can be "both" so they can get Christmas presents -- the issues for them are completely materialistic, not theological -- and then this very morning Aish.com (which is far more traditional than I have ever been) posted an article on Witchcraft and Judaism that made me remember all the reasons Wicca and Judaism are not incompatible except in the names by which the God and Goddess are addressed. So when everyone else said Cerridwen/Hecate/Pomona, I said Shekinah, and all was well -- the people in the group are very friendly, supportive and welcoming and I felt very centered and whole afterward.

I have missed visiting for Highlander pimping -- the moment I walked into her house and smelled the candles I immediately thought of Adrian Paul. *g* I have also missed her cooking; tonight she made fantastic chicken gumbo and there were cupcakes and cheeses and chips and chocolate...I ate very well. *g* also decorates her house for Halloween more than anyone I know, and I love it! She showed us her new "TEH CLEX" license plates and then offered to show us the Smallville third season blooper reel (in which Michael Rosenbaum leans in to kiss John Glover) and it made me very nostalgic for our TV Wednesdays. I missed The West Wing because we were still in Virginia, and the kids were waiting for me when I got home so I put off watching Rome till Wednesday night.

In honor of Halloween, here are photos of the "Blair Witch Project" church and graveyard near Burkittsville, Maryland. This is the creepiest cemetery I have ever walked in, because the stones have been so ravaged (some have been uprooted from the ground entirely, some cracked, while some are jutting up with their bottoms visible). The ground was very soft this weekend after all the October rains and my feet kept sinking into the ground. I was terrified of stepping into an unmarked grave and left very quickly. The state is definitely aware that people stop here as a tourist destination, though, because while there was nowhere to park for a quarter mile last time we were up this way, there is now a pull-off with signs about the Civil War marches along Gapland Road directly across from the church.


Ceres Bethel AME Church, built in 1870 by freed slaves, now a part of South Mountain State Park to protect it from the vandalism that has been rampant since the movie.


Behind this 1871 tombstone, you can see others propped against the tree, no longer standing at the heads of the graves they once marked.


Of the 1800s stones, this one is in the best shape. There are some much newer stones -- servicemen from the two world wars and civilians buried as late as the 1960s.


This has nothing to do with the church -- it's 's awesome license plate. *g*


And while I'm behind a cut, quizzes:

minstrel
MINSTREL

You are the Minstrel, the
artistic and introspective personalitys in
fantasy. Minstrels can range from court bards
to wandering performers willing to play their
instruments or sing in any inn they come upon
just to earn some money. Minstrels are very
creative and are naturally artistic. They are
often deep, quiet, and philosophical. Their
thoughts and ideas can be very profound.
Minstrels usually have a way with words or
music. These artists see the beauty around us
or delve within themselves and produce
something new that is truly
wonderful.

Color: Azure
Animal: Horse
Gem: Sapphire
Symbol: Harp
Image: http://www.deviantart.com/view/7352128/

Who would you be if you were a character in an epic fantasy? (beautiful pictures)
brought to you by Quizilla


's Halloween party:



99andrising dressed as Paris Hilton.

_bellacosity dressed as a nice noose, and it suited them disturbingly well.

_boof dressed as the spirit of their dead grandmother Ella, though it looked more like a Level 2 wizard.

_guestage_ dressed as a turkey.

_inbetween_ dressed as a character from Harry Potter and the Jaw of Bone.

_lore dressed as a junior bastard operator from hell.

_nightelf dressed as Optimus Prime.

_redpanda_ dressed as a disturbing self-made character called "Cheeseball Stinkerbiscuits".

_slytherin_slut dressed as the King of Tuvalu.

acidic_lipstick dressed as a bottle of Celergran.

adpacaus dressed as Marge Simpson.

aerama dressed as Tom Clancy.

aerynsunx dressed as a dog.

aesc dressed as a Level 4 wizard.

affectedmangoo dressed as Abraham Lincoln.

agentirish dressed as Osama bin Laden.

alex_voy dressed as a Level 1 barbarian.

alexabond dressed as Matt Damon, and it suited them disturbingly well.

altair_dragon dressed as the Governor of Alaska.

altariel1 dressed as the Beat Power Ranger, and it suited them all too well.

amalfi dressed as the Cardinal of Old Meadow.

amara_1783 dressed as a data entry administrator.

amchau dressed as Gabrielle Reece's grandmother.

amedia dressed as someone called "Mable Pugh", but you've never heard of them before.

amyth71 dressed as a catcher for the Astros.

anananubia dressed as a pimp.

ancarett dressed as Uhura from "Star Trek".

anglachel1 dressed as a perky devil.

anglepoiselamp didn't dress up, spoilsport.

anjalicat dressed as the Governor of Arkansas.

ann_tara dressed as a conversion.

annathepiper dressed as a valley.

anneline dressed as a giraffe.

anniemaclean dressed as the love child of Bill Gates and Meg Ryan.

anonymousfour dressed as a deer.

anorienbean dressed as a ghost, though it looked more like Tom Cruise.

anothersuperboy dressed as the Bottom Power Ranger.

antychan dressed as a cavity.

apaulled dressed as the Drunk Power Ranger.

apiphile dressed as Lt. Cmdr. Data from "Star Trek".

araliesse dressed as Jessica Simpson.

archet dressed as Comic Book Guy.

ariestess dressed as a 1960's hippie child.

arionrhod didn't even show up and doesn't get any candy.

arysteia dressed as a character from Harry Potter and the Elf's Javelin, though it looked more like a mummy.

ash_llelo dressed as a Southeast Pennsylvania Evening-Daily employee.

asherahs dressed as a ghost.

asynje dressed as O. J. Simpson.

atanvarne_lj didn't dress up, spoilsport.

atarau dressed as a zombie.

athenakt dressed as Tinkerbell.

atorable didn't even show up and doesn't get any candy.

atrata dressed as the President of Costa Rica.

aubadere dressed as Worf from "Star Trek", and it suited them all too well.

aubrem dressed as a Oklahoma ConsultantsCooperative employee.

avari_elf dressed as a bottle of Topnex.

ave_ebony dressed as the King of Taiwan.

bantha_fodder dressed as Martha Stewart.

beautiful_rain_ dressed as Tiffani-AmberThiessen.

beckyo dressed as Woodrow Wilson.

beeej dressed as a can of Coke.

being_here dressed as Jennifer Lopez.

bellonagoddess dressed as a 1990's grunge child.

beruthiels_cat dressed as the Lethargic Power Ranger.

bethbethbeth dressed as Salma Hayek.

bethfrish dressed as a mortician.

bethos dressed as someone called "Lois Ritchie", but you've never heard of them before.

beyond_invictus dressed as Mary-Kate Olsen with her very own conjoined Ashley.

bicyclette dressed as Sir Ian McKellen.

bithysith dressed as a 1970's disco child.

bits_n_baubles dressed as the spirit of their dead grandmother Mariah.

blnkfrnk dressed as a bottle of Topreprobic.

bloodraven77 dressed as a bottle of Burnpenovir.

blue_raven dressed as a new superhero: Beta Fox.

boggartmoonhead gets drunk, strips naked, and somehow emerges dressed as a 1990's grunge child.

bohemian_rose90 dressed as Mary-Kate Olsen with her very own conjoined Ashley.

bon1138 dressed as Counselor Troi from "Star Trek".

bonesm dressed as a devil.

bookofdays dressed as Gwen Stefani riding a moose.

born2rumble1st dressed as Elvis Presley.

boxer_ferret dressed as Optimus Prime, though it looked more like a substitute sheet spreader.

bri_chan dressed as a cup of coffee.

brieza dressed as Oprah Winfrey riding a turkey.

brightbeak dressed as Mary-Kate Olsen with her very own conjoined Ashley.

brimstoneangel dressed as the spirit of their dead grandmother Robin.

bronzelionel dressed as the Spotted Power Ranger.

caffyolay dressed as Elvis Presley.

cain1999 dressed as Optimus Prime.

candie_113 dressed as a victim.

caorann dressed as your uncle.

captainjames dressed as a alternative wookie.

captaintinuviel dressed as a new member of the Wu-Tang Clan, Drunken Genius.

cara_chapel didn't even show up and doesn't get any candy.

carlanesses dressed as Grandpa Simpson.

cassievalentine dressed as something active, but what, specifically, you can't tell.

cdkobasiuk dressed as Counselor Troi from "Star Trek".

celandineb dressed as a third baseman for the Mets.

centricity dressed as a linebacker for the Raiders, and it suited them disturbingly well.

chalcedony dressed as Julia Roberts.

championlurker dressed as Michael Jackson.

chases_the_moon dressed as your mother-in-law.

chazzbanner dressed as the main character of "Double Indemnity".

cherry_glitter dressed as a Level 6 paladin.

chesnutella dressed as the Cardinal of Lexington.

chessie_reeves dressed as a skunk.

childeproof dressed as Yu-Gi-Oh.

chlaal dressed as Mary-Kate Olsen with her very own conjoined Ashley.

chrismm dressed as a KQUE-TV Channel 8 employee.

chyna_rose23 dressed as Mary-Kate Olsen with her very own conjoined Ashley.

ciaran_draco dressed as Oprah Winfrey.

cionaudha dressed as Woodrow Wilson.

col_kira_nerys dressed as someone called "Mary Scrimpshire", but you've never heard of them before.

communicator dressed as Captain Kirk from "Star Trek".

copperbeech dressed as Nadja Auermann.

cordelia_v dressed as the Marquis of Zidoratdyne.

cordeliadelayne dressed as Saddam Hussein.

corialis dressed as a tasty angel.

covenhouse_cat dressed as Optimus Prime, and it suited them all too well.

cps250 dressed as a character from Harry Potter and the Busy Mage.

cream_rose dressed as a cup of coffee.

creativepseudo dressed as the Vicount of Thycade.

crossbow1 dressed as the Lord of Ritophex.

cutecoati dressed as the Governor of North Carolina.

cybermum dressed as Michelle Branch.

cykie dressed as a rabbit.

cyn_ful dressed as the Vicount of St. Hoskins, and it suited them disturbingly well.

d0minique dressed as the love child of Michael Douglas and Halle Berry.

danachan gets drunk, strips naked, and somehow emerges dressed as something large, but what, specifically, you can't tell.

dancerin036 dressed as a disturbing self-made character called "Oprah Stinkerbuns".

dancingbarefoot dressed as Captain Kirk from "Star Trek".

darchildre dressed as Jessica Simpson riding a badger.

dark_cygnet dressed as a 1960's hippie child.

darkrhiannon dressed as the love child of Robert Downey Jr. and Janet Reno.

darkrosetiger dressed as a pirate.

dawning_star dressed as Halle Berry.

daylyn dressed as a fox, and it suited them disturbingly well.

deborah_judge dressed as a bottle of Epimax.

deidrecorwyn dressed as a FentonCorporation employee.

delica dressed as the Duke of Burcit.

dellastarr dressed as a character from Harry Potter and the Cauldron of Salem.

dernhelm_3019 dressed as a new member of the Wu-Tang Clan, Friendly Commander, and it suited them all too well.

desdemona_snape dressed as a raccoon.

dirtyminx dressed as James Garfield.

discord26 dressed as a character from "Scarface", and it suited them all too well.

divineway dressed as a new member of the Wu-Tang Clan, Annoying Demon.

dock_leaf dressed as Chester A. Arthur.

dorothy1901 dressed as a WKME-FM 92.0 employee.

dory_gray dressed as a junior system administrator.

dphearson dressed as a Level 2 barbarian.

dr_jekyl dressed as Chewbacca.

dragonelle_fics dressed as Liv Tyler's brother.

dreamplum dressed as a pimp.

dryada dressed as Mary-Kate Olsen with her very own conjoined Ashley.

dudielebasei dressed as a third baseman for the Giants, though it looked more like a character from "The Conversation".

dylant dressed as a dead witch.

ealgylden dressed as a quarterback for the Falcons.

eemilyvr1 dressed as Kate Hudson riding a rat.

egretplume dressed as a zombie.

eileenlufkin dressed as a pirate.

eiluned dressed as something annoyed, but what, specifically, you can't tell.

eklisiewicz dressed as a character from Harry Potter and the Harp of St. Petersburg.

el_wing dressed as Rutherford B. Hayes.

elanor_isolda dressed as a yawn.

elanorkat dressed as the Governor of Arizona.

elfflame dressed as the Marquis of Abigail Gulch.

eligyah dressed as a linebacker for the Giants.

elistaire dressed as a character from "Amélie".

elladans_witch dressed as the King of Libya.

ellbee804 dressed as a pimp.

elspethsheir dressed as a disturbing self-made character called "Oprah Toadbrains".

empress_wu dressed as Martha Stewart.

empy dressed as Princess Leia.

enora dressed as Madonna.

eponis dressed as Hurricane Jeroen.

eruthiadwen dressed as Dick Cheney.

esteliel dressed as a Eshleman-Eriksensoft employee.

esteven dressed as the Frightened Power Ranger.

ev_vy dressed as a red carpet.

eva_rosen dressed as a Brooks & Simmons Gizmos, Incorporated employee.

eveline725 dressed as Martha Stewart.

evildrem dressed as your mother, though it looked more like a new member of the Wu-Tang Clan, Erratic Wanderer.

evilleaper dressed as the spirit of their dead grandmother Eva.

experiment627 dressed as Osama bin Laden.

eyebrowofdoom forgot to put on clothes!

fairy_armadillo dressed as a volume.

fanaddict didn't dress up, spoilsport.

fangirl_lizzie dressed as a new member of the Wu-Tang Clan, Shrieking Desperado.

fannore dressed as a gate.

fantasticmuse didn't even show up and doesn't get any candy.

faramir_boromir dressed as James Monroe.

ferretgm dressed as LeBron James's aunt.

fiamaya dressed as the love child of Rush Limbaugh and Kathie Lee Gifford.

fictionbya dressed as someone called "Samuel Firth", but you've never heard of them before.

fictualities dressed as Chewbacca.

fileg dressed as Wolfgang Puck.

finealine dressed as a new member of the Wu-Tang Clan, Friendly Conqueror.

firefly_quill dressed as something transparent, but what, specifically, you can't tell.

firefrorefiddle dressed as a skeleton.

firiath dressed as a skeleton.

firiel77 dressed as James Buchanan.

follicks dressed as Bruce Willis.

frahulettaes dressed as a screwdriver.

freedomfry dressed as Tom Cruise, though it looked more like a Washington & Co., Incorporated employee.

freedomrhodes dressed as a character from "Monty Python and the Holy Grail".

freelove dressed as a first baseman for the Red Sox.

french_hobbit dressed as a character from Harry Potter and the Strength of Fire.

frickabrandis gets drunk, strips naked, and somehow emerges dressed as Frylock.

friede dressed as a pirate.

froda_baggins dressed as a bottle of Rivaura.

furor_scribiend dressed as a absence.

fuschia dressed as a diplomat from Sao Tome and Principe.

gblvr dressed as Franklin Pierce.

gblvr_lite dressed as a new superhero: Caped Fox.

gernblandston dressed as Ricky Martin.

ghazalah didn't even show up and doesn't get any candy.

giddyupnow dressed as a compound ghost.

girlfromsouth didn't dress up, spoilsport.

glimmer_glass dressed as the Cardinal of South Murstin.

goat_song dressed as an external hard drive.

goddessofwords dressed as Reese Witherspoon.

gotham_syren dressed as J.K. Rowling, though it looked more like the Marquis of Yellow Grove.

graculus dressed as a character from Harry Potter and the Mage of Darlington.

greedy_dancer dressed as something tender, but what, specifically, you can't tell.

guanin dressed as someone called "Louis Silberstein", but you've never heard of them before.

guinan gets drunk, strips naked, and somehow emerges dressed as a Level 12 wizard.

gullygilly dressed as Manny Ramirez's mother-in-law.

hak42 dressed as the Giant Power Ranger.

half_elf_lost dressed as a new superhero: Cosmic Witch.

hammerxsword dressed as a zombie, though it looked more like Optimus Prime.

hannahdiana dressed as a zombie.

heidi8 dressed as a 1970's disco child.

helens78 dressed as your sister.

hibernate didn't dress up, spoilsport.

hiddendaze dressed as a disturbing self-made character called "Slimy Gigglebuns".

hiddenhibiscus forgot to put on clothes!

hill_ dressed as a deficiency.

hipolyta_d dressed as a bottle of Optilog.

history_geek dressed as a investment.

history_spork dressed as Connie Chung.

honey_child dressed as the Marquis of Leptjella.

honoria dressed as a new superhero: Squirrel Mane.

howlingmojo dressed as Satan.

hurrymyway dressed as Monica Lewinsky.

hydaspes dressed as the President of Croatia.

iandiinthesky dressed as Mandy Moore.

iibnf dressed as the love child of Dan Fouts and Meg Ryan.

immora dressed as a bear, and it suited them disturbingly well.

improperlydone dressed as Mary-Kate Olsen with her very own conjoined Ashley.

ingrid_m dressed as a halfback for the Dolphins.

innusiq dressed as your grandmother.

insidian dressed as the Governor of Georgia.

ios_pillow_book dressed as Optimus Prime.

istalksnape dressed as Matt Damon riding a bear.

istima dressed as the Duke of Levograf.

ithilwen dressed as Ozzy Osbourne.

jack_aubrey dressed as a elk.

jacquesmoineau dressed as James Patterson.

jalitha dressed as a bottle of Corovir.

jamestkirk dressed as a Brandon's Restaurants employee.

janezy dressed as a disturbing self-made character called "Pinky Girdlebutt".

jasminetook dressed as a character from Harry Potter and the Alchemist of Aurora.

jassanja dressed as something lost, but what, specifically, you can't tell, and it suited them disturbingly well.

jeanne_dark dressed as a gross devil.

jedi_penguin dressed as Optimus Prime.

jen_the_crazy dressed as the Marquis of Itanwarg.

jenna_the_pagan dressed as a computer.

jennandanica dressed as a new member of the Wu-Tang Clan, Profound Scholar.

jenniferlupin dressed as Krusty the Clown.

jenreads gets drunk, strips naked, and somehow emerges dressed as Chris Rock.

jenwrites dressed as a KnippenbergDot ComCompany employee.

jetami dressed as a substitute dead chicken waver.

jiffy_spiffy dressed as a hungry zombie, though it looked more like Space Ghost.

jjtaylor dressed as the Marquis of Craasperpimus.

joanne_c dressed as a continuous pixie.

jommy dressed as the Earl of Favmax.

julietlaw dressed as a 1980's yuppie child, though it looked more like a assistant information technology department head honcho.

julifolo gets drunk, strips naked, and somehow emerges dressed as a outfielder for the Diamondbacks.

juonetar didn't even show up and doesn't get any candy.

k_crow_fiction dressed as a rust angel.

kaiwinnadami dressed as a Skillman-Gonschorek ServicesCompany employee.

karasu_hime dressed as a quarterback for the Cardinals.

karelian dressed as Tom Cruise.

katfusion dressed as the Earl of St. Carwile, and it suited them disturbingly well.

kathryne_deanna dressed as a disturbing self-made character called "Oprah Rhinohumperdinck".

kay_wray dressed as the Lord of Glucobeewar.

kaytee4ever dressed as a ferret.

kazzik dressed as a ghost.

keelywolfe dressed as a halfback for the Chargers.

kellyfaboo dressed as Winona Ryder.

kijikun dressed as Michael Jackson.

killabeez dressed as a character from "Braveheart".

kimberleigh_ dressed as something stiff, but what, specifically, you can't tell.

kirana_44 dressed as the Successive Power Ranger.

kirby_crow dressed as a new member of the Wu-Tang Clan, Arrogant Contender, and it suited them all too well.

kissesago dressed as a character from "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind".

kitsune dressed as a linebacker for the Browns.

kontiki dressed as Tiffani-AmberThiessen.

krabapple dressed as Nicole Richie.

kristara63 dressed as Counselor Troi from "Star Trek".

kryptonstar18 dressed as Steven Spielberg riding a deer.

kudra2324 dressed as a linebacker for the Bills.

lady_of_asheru dressed as a Green Maple Press employee.

ladybluelove dressed as Winona Ryder.

ladyjaida dressed as a evil human resources manager.

ladymalen dressed as the Vicount of Yellow Walnut.

ladysorka dressed as a character from "Brazil".

ladyvyola dressed as a new superhero: Mademoiselle Lad.

lamath dressed as a piston.

lance_nerd dressed as a skeleton.

lanna515 dressed as Herbert Hoover.

lannamichaels dressed as a obedient paragraph.

lanning dressed as the main character of "Laura".

lasergirl69 didn't dress up, spoilsport.

lastrega didn't even show up and doesn't get any candy.

lastscorpion dressed as the King of Solomon Islands, and it suited them disturbingly well.

laurakaye dressed as a disturbing self-made character called "Doofus Gorillasquirt".

laurieannhaus didn't even show up and doesn't get any candy.

lavingaround didn't even show up and doesn't get any candy.

ldybastet dressed as a vampire.

lee_dragon dressed as a first baseman for the Expos.

legate_damar dressed as Ted Williams.

leni_jess dressed as a new member of the Wu-Tang Clan, Gentlemen Scholar.

lesadoreyl dressed as a Haeffner, Conely & Asher, Inc. employee.

liars_dance dressed as Mary-Kate Olsen with her very own conjoined Ashley.

lillian78 dressed as Michelle Trachtenberg's mother.

lisaofdoom dressed as something reciprocal, but what, specifically, you can't tell.

littledrop dressed as a diplomat from Qatar, though it looked more like the President of Argentina.

lizblackdog dressed as Martin Van Buren.

logovo dressed as Sandra Bullock riding a buffalo.

lohowarose dressed as a assistant.

lost2mercy dressed as the love child of Fidel Castro and Kathie Lee Gifford.

lotusmoppet dressed as a cup of tea.

lreissner102 dressed as a Level 11 ranger.

lunasv dressed as a ferret, though it looked more like a hedgehog.

lurvesnape dressed as a can of Mountain Dew, though it looked more like a compound ghost.

luthorlover dressed as Andrew Jackson.

lvtngrl dressed as Calvin Coolidge.

madame_manga dressed as the King of Slovenia.

madlori dressed as your brother.

maggiehoneybite dressed as a character from Harry Potter and the Mermaid of Roberts.

makamu dressed as a nuclear vampire.

mamadracula dressed as Optimus Prime, though it looked more like the love child of Michael Jackson and Milla Jovovich.

manavilins dressed as a bottle of Ickvanlog.

mandrill dressed as a character from Harry Potter and the Calamity Dwarf.

mareel dressed as a party knight.

margueritem dressed as a disgruntled vampire.

mariemisu dressed as Lt. Cmdr. Data from "Star Trek".

masb1987 dressed as a outfielder for the Cubs.

max_und_moritz dressed as a Mesa Northern-Star Newspaper employee.

meanarose dressed as a cup of tea.

mechaieh dressed as the Governor of West Virginia.

mecurtin dressed as a pair of pliers.

megthelegend dressed as Rebecca Romijn.

melange428 dressed as a copper surprise.

melina123 dressed as a New BerkleyVillage & Company DesignLtd. employee, and it suited them disturbingly well.

melissalj dressed as something teflon, but what, specifically, you can't tell.

melissaukgirl dressed as a diplomat from Iran.

mellificent dressed as a Rasmus Pitts Networking employee.

memorablefancy dressed as the King of Tajikistan.

meneathiel dressed as Mary-Kate Olsen with her very own conjoined Ashley.

meninaiscrazy dressed as Dr. Crusher from "Star Trek".

meri_oddities dressed as LeAnn Rimes, though it looked more like a lion.

miladyhawke dressed as Osama bin Laden.

milochka didn't dress up, spoilsport.

mimbulus dressed as Optimus Prime.

mimine dressed as Hurricane Orion.

mimm_ didn't even show up and doesn't get any candy.

minxkat dressed as a The Daily-Inquirer-Bulletin Newspaper employee.

mirabile_dictu dressed as a wreck.

mirrormuse dressed as a new member of the Wu-Tang Clan, Lucky Ambassador.

mischacat dressed as Osama bin Laden.

misfit_girl dressed as Richard Nixon.

miss_pryss dressed as Paris Hilton, though it looked more like Mary-Kate Olsen with her very own conjoined Ashley.

missgaunt dressed as Chevy Chase.

missizzy dressed as the spirit of their dead grandmother Phyllis.

missparker dressed as O. J. Simpson.

mistress_kabuki forgot to put on clothes!

mistressmarilyn dressed as Butt-head.

mme_antoinette dressed as a Level 2 bard.

moldava dressed as a new superhero: Spider Girl.

mon_starling dressed as a constant anvil.

moonanddogstar dressed as a Level 2 fighter.

moonfruituk dressed as Ted Williams.

moonprincessnat dressed as Madonna riding a camel.

mordelhin dressed as a bottle of Remaadiol.

mos_self dressed as a rat.

mrkinch dressed as a character from "A Clockwork Orange".

mssfinc dressed as the Cool Power Ranger, though it looked more like a kicker for the Steelers.

muccamukk dressed as Butt-head.

mulberry_fields dressed as a Level 6 fighter.

musesfool dressed as a intersection.

musigneus dressed as Wesley Crusher from "Star Trek".

myhappyface dressed as a quarterback for the Falcons.

mysala dressed as Carmen Electra.

nadjalee dressed as something quick, but what, specifically, you can't tell.

nasturtium dressed as Osama bin Laden.

natalierichards dressed as a disturbing self-made character called "Lumpy Bananasquirt", and it suited them all too well.

nativemoon dressed as Tiger Woods.

natoth dressed as someone called "Mindy Croy", but you've never heard of them before.

ndmzero dressed as the Marquis of Memphis, and it suited them disturbingly well.

neotoma dressed as the Governor of Oklahoma.

niciasus dressed as a interrim corporate spy boss.

norie47 dressed as Aquaman.

notthequiettype dressed as the Earl of St. Terry.

noukran dressed as the Marquis of Vantlevagan.

nullabona dressed as a new superhero: Shadow Tornado.

obelix dressed as the spirit of their dead grandmother Blanche.

obeythebunny didn't dress up, spoilsport.

office_ennui dressed as a hockey.

oh_contraire dressed as a nucleus.

onebitchficrecs dressed as a 1980's yuppie child, and it suited them disturbingly well.

oulangi dressed as the love child of Elvis Presley and Julia Roberts.

ozarque dressed as a elk.

ozcmom dressed as Venus Williams's aunt.

ozfille dressed as David Blaine riding a squirrel.

pakeha dressed as a executive bug terminator.

pat_t dressed as Richard Nixon.

paulamcg dressed as a 1970's disco child.

peak_in_darien dressed as a liquid frost.

pegkerr dressed as a new superhero: Captain Wizard.

pekeana dressed as a can of Coke.

pen_and_umbra dressed as the love child of Donald Trump and Britney Spears.

penguingal dressed as your mother-in-law.

pepperjackcandy dressed as Judge Judy Sheindlin.

peregrinuscanus dressed as Optimus Prime.

perkypaduan dressed as your uncle.

permetaform dressed as a highway.

phantomas didn't even show up and doesn't get any candy.

pictishqueen dressed as a police officer.

pipyn dressed as Marvin Monroe.

pitchblackrose dressed as the Governor of Michigan.

pocketrocket dressed as a new member of the Wu-Tang Clan, Expert Hunter.

pre_expansion dressed as the Yellow Power Ranger.

proscription dressed as a Randal Fair Design, Corp. employee.

przed dressed as Jack Welch's sister.

psu_jedi dressed as Charlize Theron riding a camel.

quentelin dressed as a vampire.

quine dressed as a new superhero: He- Nova.

quondamquadrat dressed as Saddam Hussein.

ragtime_to_time didn't even show up and doesn't get any candy.

rakshi dressed as a Winston & WoelkLtd. employee.

raneclowd dressed as a interrim sheet spreader.

raviahmad dressed as Martha Stewart.

rectacular dressed as the spirit of their dead grandmother Ollie.

redjeweled dressed as Al Gore.

resonant8 dressed as a Level 4 fighter.

ribby dressed as a disturbing self-made character called "Booger Bubblebrains".

rinsbane dressed as a disturbing self-made character called "Zippy Bubbleshorts".

robinwest dressed as a penguin.

rochefort dressed as a associate webpage designer.

rocky_t dressed as a 1990's grunge child.

rohandove dressed as Beavis.

roitelet dressed as a cat.

rose_whispers forgot to put on clothes!

rosedemon dressed as Barbra Streisand.

rosemont1021 dressed as the Governor of North Dakota.

rs_scouting dressed as someone called "Greg Tesi", but you've never heard of them before.

ruedifference dressed as a camel.

ryhasso dressed as a Level 1 bard.

rynne dressed as a pirate.

sadiethenymph dressed as a can of Pepsi.

saimhe dressed as Richard Nixon.

saintrobert dressed as someone called "Pearl Belcher", but you've never heard of them before.

sakurazukakami didn't even show up and doesn't get any candy.

sambre dressed as a flaming vegetable.

samson28 dressed as Ralph Wiggum.

sandrainthesun dressed as J.K. Rowling's brother, though it looked more like the King of New Caledonia.

sandrine didn't even show up and doesn't get any candy.

sangerin dressed as Nicole Kidman.

sarcasticchick dressed as your mother.

saturn92103 dressed as a goblin.

savageseraph dressed as something queasy, but what, specifically, you can't tell.

scaffold dressed as the spirit of their dead grandmother Carmen, though it looked more like the Governor of North Dakota.

scarlettmoon dressed as Bono.

schemingreader dressed as a character from Harry Potter and the Giant of Cleveland.

scieppan didn't even show up and doesn't get any candy.

scribblinlenore dressed as Optimus Prime.

scribbulus_ink dressed as Peter Jackson's cousin.

seascribe dressed as a turkey.

sebastiane dressed as a goblin.

seemag dressed as a pitcher for the Braves, and it suited them disturbingly well.

seki_raku dressed as a alternative cleavage, and it suited them all too well.

seleneheart dressed as the Governor of Vermont.

settiai dressed as William Henry Harrison.

sex_and_tea dressed as your uncle.

shariot dressed as a new superhero: Future Beast.

shayenne dressed as a Global NetworksCompany employee.

sheafrotherdon dressed as someone called "Marion Grimes", but you've never heard of them before.

sheeplass dressed as Optimus Prime.

shehasathree dressed as a third baseman for the Royals.

sheldrake dressed as a Leona Munoz Ambulance Chasers employee.

shieldmaidenelf dressed as a giraffe.

shoeless_girl dressed as a pimp.

shortofserenity dressed as the Vicount of Henfluuline.

shota_hunter dressed as a Care Bear, and it suited them disturbingly well.

shrinetolust dressed as Chekov from "Star Trek", though it looked more like the main character of "Groundhog Day".

sienamystic dressed as your cousin.

silentmorgan didn't even show up and doesn't get any candy.

silver89kitten dressed as the spirit of their dead grandmother Della.

silverysnow dressed as a disturbing self-made character called "Poopsie Gizzardchunks".

sinisterf gets drunk, strips naked, and somehow emerges dressed as a will.

sio dressed as a Clinton Ridge & Co. FarmsLtd. employee.

siriaeve dressed as a angel.

sirius723 dressed as Mel Gibson riding a dog.

siriusblackout dressed as Connie Chung.

sistermarysith dressed as Kirsten Dunst riding a cow, and it suited them all too well.

sivib dressed as a bottle of Metatesvir.

sizequeen dressed as a member of Van Halen.

skandrae dressed as a diplomat from Swaziland, and it suited them disturbingly well.

skuf dressed as something rotting, but what, specifically, you can't tell.

slemslempike dressed as a skunk.

slytherinboyz dressed as Ozzy Osbourne.

sm_malfoy dressed as a 1960's hippie child.

snarkyducky dressed as Chester A. Arthur.

soggyoptimist dressed as Mary-Kate Olsen with her very own conjoined Ashley.

sombras_azules dressed as the Lord of Cormax.

spacenewt dressed as a abdomen.

sparowe dressed as someone called "Russell Jockish", but you've never heard of them before.

spiderboots dressed as the Bouncy Power Ranger.

spiritspeak dressed as Mary-Kate Olsen with her very own conjoined Ashley.

squeeful dressed as a devil.

starfishchick dressed as a chicken.

stella_by_moor dressed as a character from "Braveheart".

stewardess_lotr dressed as a fullback for the Redskins.

stexgirl2000 dressed as a junior four-color glossy publisher.

stiffleaves dressed as the spirit of their dead grandmother Janice.

stillcaenis didn't even show up and doesn't get any candy.

stone_princess dressed as someone called "Grace Starnes", but you've never heard of them before.

strawberriezgrl dressed as the main character of "The Great Escape".

sugata dressed as Amanda Bynes, though it looked more like Kylie Minogue riding a chicken.

sundancetango dressed as Nicole Kidman's cousin.

swatkat24 dressed as a institution.

syredronning dressed as a character from Harry Potter and the Candle of Austin.

tabiji dressed as a executive network administrator, though it looked more like a third baseman for the Brewers.

tammylee dressed as Andrew Johnson.

tarnished_raven dressed as Jessica Alba.

tarzansgirl dressed as Naomi Watts's brother.

telesilla dressed as a rabbit.

terri_coco dressed as a pirate.

thaisa dressed as a skeleton.

thawrecka dressed as Martin Van Buren, and it suited them disturbingly well.

the_reverand dressed as the equator.

thedivinegoat dressed as a third baseman for the Pirates.

thefourthvine dressed as a bear, though it looked more like the Cardinal of North Josephinedale.

thehighbrow dressed as Cameron Diaz.

thelovehater dressed as a skeleton.

themostepotente dressed as the Earl of Eastfield.

thepiratequeen dressed as Frylock.

thesnapelyone dressed as a ghost.

thespacesbtween dressed as a partner.

thetinydemon dressed as a twin ghost.

thetreacletart dressed as a 1980's yuppie child.

thia didn't even show up and doesn't get any candy.

thingsunseen dressed as the Oval Power Ranger.

thistlefics dressed as a rotting capital.

thistlerose dressed as Mary-Kate Olsen with her very own conjoined Ashley.

timberwolfoz dressed as a Level 9 wizard.

timetiger dressed as George Washington.

tinwoodsman dressed as Optimus Prime.

tipgardner dressed as Martha Stewart.

titagale dressed as Ronald Reagan.

todayiamadaisy dressed as a new superhero: Shatter Dude.

toooldnotto dressed as a new member of the Wu-Tang Clan, Bitter Pupil.

totallykate dressed as the love child of Arnold Schwarzenegger and Oprah Winfrey.

trekkiegrrrl dressed as the love child of Bono and Queen Elizabeth, though it looked more like a diplomat from Finland.

trexphile dressed as a WYHA-AM 959 employee.

tryllian dressed as James Monroe.

twinkledru dressed as a outfielder for the Brewers, though it looked more like Luna Lovegood.

twjudy didn't even show up and doesn't get any candy.

tyellas dressed as the love child of Saddam Hussein and Oprah Winfrey, though it looked more like a Level 9 bard.

ubervirgin dressed as Counselor Troi from "Star Trek".

uchethegirl dressed as a help desk secretary.

uisgich dressed as a third baseman for the Pirates.

unanon dressed as the spirit of their dead grandmother Irene, and it suited them all too well.

undomiel_ dressed as a diplomat from Saint Pierre and Miquelon.

undonne dressed as Franklin D. Roosevelt.

undunoops dressed as the Nasty Power Ranger.

unen2gemismasin dressed as Tipper Gore.

untappedbeauty dressed as a new member of the Wu-Tang Clan, Thunderous Lover.

ureima dressed as James Garfield.

valerienne dressed as a new superhero: Gorilla Djinn.

valis2 dressed as a angel.

vamptinkerbell dressed as a advice.

vaverine dressed as the main character of "It Happened One Night", though it looked more like a character from Harry Potter and the Union of the Shield.

vejgeta92k dressed as a brave breakfast.

vejgeta9 dressed as a kicker for the Dolphins, and it suited them all too well.

venivincere dressed as Kelly Hu.

venusian_sage didn't even show up and doesn't get any candy.

vertigo66 gets drunk, strips naked, and somehow emerges dressed as a SidneyCitytech employee.

vily dressed as Barbra Streisand.

viola_dreamwalk dressed as your sister.

violet_quill forgot to put on clothes!

virgofolkie dressed as the Governor of Massachusetts.

vissy dressed as a ghost.

voxarcanum dressed as a Clone Trooper.

voyagerina didn't dress up, spoilsport.

vulgarweed dressed as the Lord of San Foote.

walkerminion didn't dress up, spoilsport.

watergal dressed as a angel.

wednesdayschild dressed as a 1980's yuppie child.

wee_minxy dressed as a character from Harry Potter and the Union of the Harp.

weetanya dressed as a bottle of Exevance.

weightymatters dressed as the Earl of Hagsensonboro.

weiwei007 dressed as Claudia Schiffer's father.

whoisus dressed as a vampire.

wildcardgal dressed as the spirit of their dead grandmother Joanna.

wildreality dressed as a Harrod-Staebler, Ltd. employee.

windsweptaway dressed as a intersection.

wolfma dressed as Julia Stiles, and it suited them disturbingly well.

wolkendunst dressed as a Level 4 sorcerer.

wyoming_knott didn't even show up and doesn't get any candy.

wyomingnot dressed as someone called "Dana Wagner", but you've never heard of them before.

xavantina dressed as a Blue Screen of Death.

xochiquetzl dressed as Andrew Johnson.

y2jai dressed as the Governor of Texas.

yeungmaisu dressed as a halfback for the Cowboys.

youngest_seeker dressed as Bette Midler.

yukipon dressed as a cat.

zagara dressed as a llama.

zaneetas dressed as a disturbing self-made character called "Slimy Girdlenose".

zasjah dressed as a Blue Screen of Death.

zavoot dressed as the love child of Jerry Seinfeld and Kathie Lee Gifford.

zipudding dressed as a vampire.



Throw your own party at the Hallomeme!
Created with phpNonsense

All you people in Star Trek costumes rock (I said I was going as Captain Janeway). Two Barbra Streisands at one party, who would have expected that! I am absolutely terrified that my alter ego dressed as Tom Cruise, though. Just proves that RPS is evil! *veg* , thank you very much for your support of my team.

Poem for Sunday


Cuckoo
By Manhae
Translated by Francisca Cho


The cuckoo cries its heart out.
It cries and when it can cry no more,
It cries blood.

The bitterness of parting is not yours alone.
I cannot cry even though I want to.
I'm not a cuckoo, and that bitterness can't be helped either.

The heartless cuckoo:
I have nowhere to return, and yet it cries,
"Better turn back, better turn back."

--------

From Poet's Choice by Robert Pinsky in The Washington Post Book World. "One of the fathers of the Korean independence movement was Manhae, an important figure not only in poetry but also in religion, culture and politics. An American poet reads with a gasp that Manhae, a monk who profoundly influenced Buddhist thought and practice, was also a coauthor of the Korean Declaration of Independence," Pinsky writes. "As Han Yong-un, he was also a founding modern poet. So here are significant accomplishments comparable to those of Thomas Jefferson, Walt Whitman and Ralph Waldo Emerson, all credited to someone born in 1879...Manhae's poems are sometimes read allegorically; couched as love poems, they are traditionally interpreted as being about Korea as well."

Longing is expressed in the negative in Manhae's poems, adds Pinsky. "Regret, exile, discomfort. Manhae dramatizes these feelings by the way his poem expels its own terms in a series of negations: 'I'm not a cuckoo,' '"I have nowhere to return,' 'I cannot cry.' The situation can be understood as personal, erotic, historical or all of the above, but always negation is near the expressive center...the negative, in certain ways, is near the heart of poetry itself. By implication of tireless yearning, the art of poetry says to politics: No, you are not all there is, there is also the human body. To the human body, poetry implicitly dissents: No, you are not all there is, there is also spiritual yearning. And to spiritual yearning: No, you are not all there is, there is also sexual pleasure. And to sexual pleasure: No, you are not all there is, there is also politics."


Saturday was possibly the most perfect day of the year -- at least by my standards of "perfect" since my children informed me that it was too cold to count, since the temperature never got above 65. After younger son's soccer game in the morning we drove through Frederick to the borders of the county, to Gambrill, Gathland and Washington Monument State Parks, which are among the most glorious places to see the leaves changing in this part of Maryland as they all have a good mix of maple, oak, poplar and evergreen. (Here are last year's photos.) We went first to Gambrill, which we discovered ten years ago when someone worked with reserved the High Knob tea room at the top of Catoctin Mountain. One side looks out over the city of Frederick and the other looks toward Middletown, which we drove through on the way to Washington Monument Park, which is just over the border in Washington County a few miles east of Boonsboro. The trail from the parking lot up the mountainside crosses the Appalachian Trail and approaches the monument built in 1827, before the one in Washington, DC. The tower atop South Mountain overlooks the Cumberland Valley, which at this time of year has many migrating raptors -- we saw several, as well as several serious bird watchers with their telescopes -- and at the base of the trail is a great playground and shaded field.

Next to the entrance to Washington Monument Park is the historic Dalgren Chapel, an 1881 church adjacent to the path of Lee's invading army headed toward Boonsboro. The first battle of the Civil War fought on northern soil, the Battle of South Mountain, took place on September 14th, 1862; the north end of South Mountain State Battlefield is Washington Mounument State Park while the South end is Gathland State Park, which is across the road from the Crampton's Gap battlefield. George Alfred Townsend aka GATH, a famous Civil War correspondent, journalist and novelist, built a huge estate there, mostly in ruins now but his Civil War Correspondents Arch dominates the Civil War historic markers and the standing lodge is now a museum. Not far down the road is Ceres Bethel AME Church, built in 1870 by freed slaves, made famous as the church from the first Blair Witch Project and the subject of so much vandalism by fans that it has been incorporated into South Mountain State Park. The graveyard is still in miserable shape and many of the tombstones have been cracked. From there the road passes through Burkittsville, also made famous by the movie, which still has cobblestone streets in the center of town. We drove home via the farms of Frederick and Montgomery Counties and had soup because it was a soup kind of day. I took 100 photos, shall spread out the posting, here are some of the highlights in terms of the sites if not photographic brilliance:


South Mountain from Gambrill State Park.


The tea house atop Catoctin Mountain at Gambrill's High Knob.


The leaves at this altitude have turned a gorgeous range of colors.


The titular feature of Washington Monument State Park casting long shadows from the sun directly behind it.


A hawk swoops past farms in the valley as seen from the top of the monument tower.


The trees up here are pretty amazing too.


The War Correspondents' Arch at at Crampton's Gap, where a delayed Union assault on the Confederate line allowed Lee's army to escape and reorganize.


And mwahaha, my one late news article for the day: Shatner Slashes Self, Spader. He just can't resist, can he? Now I must go out and see Mars during this close approach to Earth.


The bright spot near top center is Mars; the small kite-shaped constellation on the left is the Pleiades. I do not swear it but I believe the red star at far left may be Aldebaran, the eye of Taurus. I love my Nikon and really wish I knew how to use it properly.

Saturday, October 29, 2005

Poem for Saturday


I Saw His Round Mouth's Crimson
By Wilfred Owen


I saw his round mouth's crimson deepen as it fell,
Like a Sun, in his last deep hour;
Watched the magnificent recession of farewell,
Clouding, half gleam, half glower,
And a last splendour burn the heavens of his cheek.
And in his eyes
The cold stars lighting, very old and bleak,
In different skies.

--------

For , who pointed out that if I had posted a Siegfried Sassoon poem, I should post a Wilfred Owen poem. I had known the two men were friends and Sassoon had Owen's poems published posthumously but I did not know that Owen went to the front to take Sassoon's place when the latter was wounded.


Have just watched Kingdom of Heaven with my entire family -- the kids were supposed to be finishing their computer games and going to bed, but they got interested and since we were watching on our very ancient, small television with the crappy sound I knew that most of the details of the bloody battles, Baldwin's leprosy-ravaged face, etc. would be lost. Both sons revealed an astonishing level of knowledge about the weapons, apparently gleaned from playing Age of Empires, and were quite observant about which scenes seemed like direct riffs on Gladiator and The Two Towers. (They are familiar with nearly all the big actors in the movie -- Orlando Bloom, Liam Neeson, David Thewlis, Jeremy Irons, Alexander Siddig, et al -- and I hadn't noticed Kevin McKidd, who has been much more noticeable to me since Rome.) Older son also revealed quite a bit of knowledge about the situation of the Jews in the region under the Christians and Muslims respectively, not sure how much from social studies where they are doing the Middle Ages now and how much from Hebrew school. That is not a movie I had really intended to watch all the way through with the kids given the level of violence and I am not sorry that I did, though I am glad the bloodiness was so muted (and I stand by everything I said before). My initial impression that Bloom is underrated in the film continues; he holds his own onscreen with Neeson and Thewlis and is considerably better than poor Marton Csokas' overwritten and overplayed Guy de Lusignan.

Otherwise I had yummy Lebanese food and beauty shopping with whose leftover hummus I inadvertendly took home with me, wrote a review of "A Taste of Armageddon" while distracted trying to keep up with all the Takei threads (at the time I posted the article last night, neither the official site nor TrekWeb had the story up and I thought about waiting till morning to ask the site owner whether he wanted the whole personality or the inevitable "guess who came out" spin, went with my instinct and the non-sensationalistic headline and by afternoon today both those other sites and a host of others had gone with the "guess who came out" spin which made me certain I had made the right decision). Am glad I did, too, because I didn't see the site owner all day! Saturday we are planning to take our annual trip to Gambrill, Gathland and Washington Monument State Parks to see the leaves and ladybugs so I will not have a lot of time to write Trek news, so I am glad I got that done.


Seneca Schoolhouse Museum on River Road near Poolesville, Maryland taught 25 students in one room -- boys on one side, girls on the other.


It was heated by a pot-bellied stove whose coal had to be carried in by the older students. Students learned geography, grammar, arithmetic, history, some natural science...and manners.


The school closed in 1910 but now visitors and class field trips can put ink in these old inkwells and practice being students from 1865.

Friday, October 28, 2005

Poem for Friday


October
By Siegfried Sassoon


Across the land a faint blue veil of mist
Seems hung; the woods wear yet arrayment sober
Till frost shall make them flame; silent and whist
The drooping cherry orchards of October
Like mournful pennons hang their shrivelling leaves
Russet and orange: all things now decay;
Long since ye garnered in your autumn sheaves,
And sad the robins pipe at set of day.

Now do ye dream of Spring when greening shaws
Confer with the shrewd breezes, and of slopes
Flower-kirtled, and of April, virgin guest;
Days that ye love, despite their windy flaws,
Since they are woven with all joys and hopes
Whereof ye nevermore shall be possessed.

--------

For , to whom I owe dark chocolate...well, honeydust/chocolate flavored massage oil. Oh, she knows what I mean. *g*


My afternoon today was taken up with a fourth grade class field trip to a local stream so the kids could see what plants and animals they could identify and try to determine how healthy it is. We walked to the stream, which is the same one that runs through the woods behind my parents' house, along which we often see deer and over the years have found snakes, turtles, frogs, toads, rabbits, raccoons, opossums and many other animals living along it. It's about a half-mile walk from the school to the spot where we did our observations, down a steep muddy hill where there was much ruination of clothes, though that hardly mattered because the kids waded into the stream to stir up the mud at the bottom and see what invertebrates could be directed into their nets. There were three groups -- I went with my son's group along with another mother, and for the most part we were left on our own, as the classroom teacher and both guides were with the other groups.

This was fine, however, as our group found several salamanders and small fish -- a more impressive catch than the other groups managed. Nobody caught a crayfish or a turtle, which was of some disappointment, but I don't think it's the best season for either and we were only there for an hour and a half or so. The group we were with was both fearless about getting wet/muddy (I gather that some of the kids did not want to get cold/dirty) and extremely excitable and enthusiastic not only about creek invertebrates but also spiders, lichen, mushrooms, downed logs, dog poop and other discoveries. I had my ear talked off about volcanoes in Hawaii walking in one direction by a child I had never met before, and about how you can visit the Mayflower and Plymouth Rock in the other direction. I really had a lovely time.

In regard to my earlier post, I have found the Frontiers interview with George Takei in its entirety, and wrote it up tonight since none of the other Trek sites appear to have tracked it down yet. It's a wonderful interview -- he talks about his new production of Equus and a bit about parallels between growing up gay and growing up in a Japanese-American internment camp (which I did not mention before because I knew it from his autobiography but he is a fascinating man with an amazing personal history). The full interview is here or, if you want my abbreviated version, please visit TrekToday!

And now, on a shallow note, I must squee about this week's Smallville, which is one of the guiltiest pleasures ever and one of my favorite episodes of all time. Michael Rosenbaum and James Marsters snarking at one another -- HOT! Lana biting Chloe's neck after earlier long lesbian vampire kiss -- HOT! I have always vastly preferred Evil!Lana, who has a sense of humor and a wicked twinkle in her eye, to Good!Lana aka Blahna, and tonight was no exception. And those clothes! Black leather corsets and dark red lipstick, yum! I knew she was going to return to the side of good when her lipstick went back to pink, which is a shame on both counts. But oooh, that Clark/Lex confrontation and Lex giving it up to Clark! (No not that way, unfortunately, but such a nice change anyway after the Aquaman debacle.) And then there were all the vampire movie references -- they were playing "Bela Lugosi's Dead" at the party, that is Catherine Deneuve and David Bowie's song from "The Hunger"! And the sorority leader named Buffy, and Clark staking Lana with the kryptonite injection, and Carrie Fisher (OMG CARRIE FISHER) at the Daily Planet saying she didn't want stories about slaying Buffy the Vampire...and the secret project was called Project 1138! I was howling for the entire hour. What a delight!


A fourth grader looks for specimens in a creek in the woods about 100 yards from the nearest road.


Here is one of the little salamanders we found...


...and a fish...


...and a spider...


...and lichen.


Specimen-hunting is serious business.


After Slashville I watched "A Taste of Armageddon", yet another original Trek episode which holds up rather beautifully and which ends with some beautiful Kirk/Spock bonding, though the main four all have great lines in this one. Plus and I wrote some more porn! I have yet another ridiculously early morning tomorrow so am bailing on comments tonight, sorry -- hope everyone else had a fun Thursday too!

Thursday, October 27, 2005

Out of the Closet

George Takei discussed his sexual orientation with an interviewer, perhaps following the lead of Sheryl Swoopes.

This makes me very happy for him, as he is apparently finally comfortable enough with himself to talk about his personal life in public, and it also makes it a lot easier for me not to wonder whether I should dodge the question when people ask me whether he's gay, which has never been a secret among Trek folk but has also never been public news.

Poem for Thursday


Epitaph
By Eric Pankey


Beyond the traceries of the auroras,
The fires of tattered sea foam,
The ghost-terrain of submerged icebergs;
Beyond a cinder dome's black sands,
Beyond peninsula and archipelago,
Archipelago and far-flung islands,
You have made of exile a homeland,
Voyager, and of that chosen depth, a repose.

The eel shimmers and the dogfish darts,
A dance of crisscrosses and trespasses
Through distillate glints and nacreous silts,
And the sun, like fronds of royal palm
Wind-torn, tossed, lashes upon the wake,
But no lamplight mars or bleaches your realm,
A dark of sediment, spawn, slough, and lees,
Runoff, pitch-black, from the rivers of Psalms.

--------


Again a distracted post while watching the World Series -- how did I start caring, when I haven't even lived in Chicago for more than ten years? Partly it's not just that I want Chicago to win but I want Houston to lose. Last World Series I was so happy that the Yankees had fallen, it seemed almost anticlimactic, but I hate the Astros as much as the Braves and more than the Giants! I even missed Veronica Mars and didn't "miss" it.

Had a birthday lunch with ...okay, so I was more than ten days late for her birthday, I tried! But I hadn't seen her in ages so it was lovely, and we had tom ka gai and pad see ew which always make me very happy. Spent the afternoon helping kids with homework (well, the younger one; I can no longer help the other one with math) and writing with which is an addictive habit. *g* (Not even crackfic! Real fic!) Five days till NaNo and I am thinking, November is such a stupid month for this, I have family coming for Thanksgiving, I have school and holiday stuff to deal with, who picked November rather than January anyway, arrgh, it's not worth it. But I reserve the right to change my mind, again.

Y'all remember what I said about how I would take people who were loudly and vocally anti-choice off my friends list and good riddance? That goes TEN TIMES for people who want to defend the poor innocent Iranian president for calling for Israel to be wiped off the map. I go batshit when I read headlines like "Iran Has Tough Words For Israel". Can you imagine if any country had called for the annihilation of the United States on grounds of imperialism and a newspaper called it merely "tough words"? ("The establishment of the State of Israel was an act of aggression" -- much less so than the establishment of the colonies by European invaders of North America from which the United States arose. Raise your hand if you're from a spot in the world whose population has never in history been culpable when accusations of imperialism started flying.) I am already sick of listening to oh so politically correct leftists rationalize how Israel's fury at these remarks is just an excuse for Bush to make more war in the Middle East; to those people I say, you can take your anti-Semitic rantings and go where I don't have to listen. (And no, you can't be the sort of anti-Zionist who believes Israel should be wiped off the map without being an anti-Semite. The Jews living in Israel were not involved in the Balfour Declaration, the UN vote of 1948 or the process to partition the British Mandate of Palestine. Many of them are the descendants of Holocaust survivors and Eastern European Jews who literally had nowhere else to go.) You know that saying about how if you want peace you must work for justice? There is no justice in defending anything about a government that promotes The Protocols of the Elders of Zion and calls for genocide. Read your history books.

Wow. Some rants really are necessary. Sorry if that was really incoherent; I read some crap and I was too mad to be articulate. And while I was ranting, the White Sox won the World Series! Whooo! Icon from , isn't it great? ST:TMP, that most underrated of K/S films!


Cinnamon grooms . She never does this to me, but every time he lays down on the floor to read or sits back on the couch, she comes over and licks and bites his hair, holding his head still if necessary with her paws. *g*

Wednesday, October 26, 2005

Poem for Wednesday


Rosa
By Rita Dove


How she sat there,
the time right inside a place
so wrong it was ready.

That trim name with
its dream of a bench
to rest on. Her sensible coat.

Doing nothing was the doing:
the clean flame of her gaze
carved by a camera flash.

How she stood up
when they bent down to retrieve
her purse. That courtesy.

--------


Today I had an unexpected attack of nostalgia -- unexpected because I was looking for a photo in an old album, and I had thought I had removed all my photos from PVC pages but I discovered that I was wrong and some of my most important photos -- photos of me, , our kids and friends at fannish events from the mid-1990s -- were turning horrific shades of yellow and brown, so right then I stopped everything and stripped down the album to put the photos in acid-free boxes. (I used to think my friends who got obsessively into scrapbooking were so frustrating, spending hours on end gluing those little corner-edge photo holder things in place with all those borders until I never saw some of them like my husband's former office mate because she was always too busy hosting Creative Memories parties and putting her own books together, but oh how I wish I had listened more attentively when they warned about what the popular "magnet" photo albums of the 1980s did to pictures.) Anyway, it was impossible to strip my main personal Star Trek album without looking at the photos, , some of which date back to high school and a girl and I both knew with whom I attended my first convention, who died in college in what seems to have been a suicidal traffic accident...then there were photos of my friend Karen from grad school, whom some people reading this probably met at the KMAS meeting with Kate Mulgrew at the convention in Chicago that I couldn't attend because I'd just had a baby, where Kate brought her mother -- Karen is no longer living, she died of cystic fibrosis at 33, and Kate's mother is in the last stages of Alzheimers, and having gotten maudlin from looking at these photos I flipped through the rest of them.

In addition to this toxic album with the dangerous pages, I have 12 small guaranteed non-PVC albums that hold 100 4x6es apiece -- that's right, 1200 or so photos of conventions and appearances by Kate and a smattering of other Trek stars. I went to file some of these personal photos in with the convention photos and started with the first one from KMAS, Kate at Grand Slam in 1996. I've seen these photos a bazillion times, though not for years, so I don't know why it suddenly struck me anew how beautiful she was or how much my mental Janeway, the one in all my fic, looks so much more like Kate herself than like the character onscreen with the bad makeup and hairdos -- I remember when I started working on "Home" (which none of you who haven't seen already should bother to look at since it's unfinished), I was adamant that Janeway was wearing a very particular white dress, and I realized today that it was based on what she was wearing at that first convention. That was probably the pinnacle of my relationship with Kate Mulgrew, anyway -- before I'd ever spoken to her or even her publicist, a total stranger sending me a bunch of photos of her with a copy of the first issue of Now Voyager in front of her. (Kimberley Junius, if by any chance you are reading this under some unexpected alias, please tell me, I would love to find out how you are...)

Anyway, I went through all these photos -- not just of Kate, and of Robbie McNeill with and Robert Beltran with and someone else reading this who would probably rather remain anonymous (but I have very pretty pictures of you, Miss Maquis) and people's family photos and baby photos and holiday greeting cards and things they sent in, some to the fan club, some to me as a representative of sorts of Kate, and some to me personally though they ended up sorted in with fannish stuff like the first photo I ever saw of because I had met her in that capacity...photos Christmas cards from Alexander Siddig and Chase Masterson together with those from Eric Stillwell and Lynda Foley with those from people I never met and people whose names I can't even associate now with an online handle, an address, anything to remind me of who they are. It's so strange to realize the sheer numbers and feel badly about how many people I let get past me, people I wonder how they're doing and it's probably too late to ask because of how often e-mail addresses and physical locations change. (I've also been tagging my old entries here -- I decided to work from 2002 forward so I'd be able to figure out which tags I'd need, rather than from now backward -- and I have run into myself apologizing about three dozen times for not being able to get through my whole friends list, and these days I never even try to load my whole friends list, I read local people and people I know personally on the days when I can manage it and never even get to favorite writers because there are just too many...it's the same problem only expanded.)

Anyway, as I was going through all these Kate photos, I thought, I should send some of these to , whom I thought might be mad at me because I haven't seen her in far too long (mostly because we haven't been to my in-laws' and they are on the west coast for the next month, then coming here for Thanksgiving, so it might have to wait until Christmas week). And I would not have met her without Kate. Of anyone who might have had reason to cut me out of her circle after I walked away from KMAS, she is the person who would have had the best excuse to do so -- unlike some of the people I considered my friends who vanished, she is someone where I really would have understood if she felt like there was a conflict of interest running an official web page for someone where I'd thrown up my hands and walked away amidst what I considered not-very-fair protests of betrayal from Kate herself. Yet we still talk, and in fact the mailing list of the remnants of the board of directors of KMAS still exists, though it's pretty dormant these days -- sometimes we still do some celebrity gossip and "Mwahaha, know what I heard?" but pretty much everyone there has at this point met my extended family and knows how boring I am and we talk anyway. *g*

And wow, I don't know what just set me off on this whole *sniffle*fest -- I'm at that point with HP fandom that I have hit with every single other fandom, where I feel overinvolved and unable to keep up and unsure that I want to keep up because it just takes up too many hours of my life, but I panic because I know there are people who are going to fall out of my life if I let the fandom slip away -- I feel like I'm in the death throes with a couple of people I really, truly adore from LOTR fandom but we don't live near each other and without that interest binding us together we just don't talk all that often and it's scary, I am not ready for that to happen with my friends from Harry Potter, I don't know how anyone juggles work, kids, serious writing, hobbies and fandom and I seem to be incapable of giving up any of the last three, I don't know where to start reprioritizing.


Hey, can someone explain icon fine art to me? I don't understand why there are so many icons that win awards in icon tutorial contests with words on them that are too small for anyone but the icon's creator to have any idea what they say. I keep thinking it's my eyes, but then I read comments where people ask what the hell the icons say and I feel better knowing it's not just me, but then I am baffled: what is the point of making a public icon with a teeny tiny semi-private message on it? Do I just chalk this up to my inability to appreciate Rothko and other modern artists where no matter how it is explained to me in intellectual or artistic terms I just don't get it? I think I must be very shallow, because give me an icon I can glance at and have some clue what it's about without having to struggle -- the 100x100 art form as art form eludes me!

Hmm, I didn't talk about today at all. It rained. Younger son had an all-day field trip from which I expected him to come home tired and cranky, as it was very cold and wet, but they showed Wallace and Gromit shorts on the tour bus they had chartered for the trip and he apparently had a great time in the Native American encampment where they had a campfire and he was perfectly happy. Older son's stomach is still off but he went to school all right and I picked him up so he wouldn't have to walk in the rain. Commander in Chief was as always -- damned mediocre dialogue, lots of bluster and some overacting from the supporting cast, but Mackenzie Allen Mackenzie Allen oh my god Mackenzie Allen. And Boston Legal -- did Alan ask Denny to marry him or just recite lots of quotes on how a good friend is better than a wife? I know I heard Shatner say, "I won't have sex with you"! The previews make it look like they are going to have a rift next week, and I sincerely hope it's just a one-episode thing, because I am coming to depend on my Alan/Denny love-fest. I cannot believe I am enthusiastically watching a David E. Kelley show and I really cannot believe I am not more ashamed of myself.


I always hear Michael Crawford singing Barnum rather than Jim Dale because of Torvill and Dean, hence the icon. (And if you understand that connection, drop me a note!) Meanwhile, a boy practices the tightrope with Baltimore's skyline as backdrop. That must be intimidating, knowing that you can be seen from the Inner Harbor.


And here's the daring young girl on the flying trapeze, all at the Maryland Science Center circus exhibit where you too can make a fool of yourself in front of dozens trying these things!


A juggler walks through the exhibit on stilts.


It's a lot easier for kids to do these contortionist exhibits than adults!


Against my better judgment, am watching to see whether the White Sox can pull this out. They were winning when we were watching other shows so I feel like we should be watching other shows again! I had a political rant but am thinking I should just have a blog for political rants instead of ranting politically here. I don't want stress in my LJ -- not fannish stress and certainly not impotent rage about the latest idiocies of the Bush Administration. And I was going to say something about Rosa Parks, but I will let the poem stand for itself, as Rita Dove says most things so much better than me. Must get up early as has an early meeting. Yeah, I'm going to go to bed.

Tuesday, October 25, 2005

Poem for Tuesday


On Dreaming, After Falling Asleep Watching TV
By Isabelle Di Caprio


'Twas Brillo, and the G.E. Stoves,
Did Procter-Gamble in the Glade;
All Pillsbury were the Taystee loaves
And in a Minute Maid.

"Beware the Station-Break, my son,
The voice that lulls, the ads that vex!
Beware the Doctors Claim, and shun
That horror called Brand-X!"

He took his Q-Tip'd swab in hand;
Long time the Tension Headache fought--
So Dristan he by a Mercury,
And Bayer-break'd in thought.

And as in Bufferin Gulf he stood
The Station-Break, with Rise of Tame,
Came Wisking through the Pride-hazed wood,
And Creme-Rinsed as it came!

Buy one! Buy two! We're almost through!
The Q-Tip'd Dash went Spic and Span!
He Tide Air-Wick, and with Bisquick
Went Aero-Waxing Ban.

"And hast thou Dreft the Station-Break?
Ajax the Breck, Excedrin boy!
Oh, Fab wash day, Cashmere Bouquet!"
He Handi-Wrapped in Joy.

'Twas Brillo, and the G.E. Stoves
Did Procter-Gamble in the Glade;
All Pillsbury were the Taystee loaves,
And in a Minute Maid.

--------

From by way of because it made me howl. I assume people are familiar with "Jabberwocky"!


Relatively uneventful day. Wrote up Connor Trinneer's Q&A from TrekTrak at last month's DragonCon, discovered that he has a great sense of humor, is very smart and will slash Archer/Tucker with aplomb, all of which makes me happy. Also, he hated the Mirror episodes as much as I did! And I got so much hate mail for not thinking they were the greatest thing since Jeri Ryan in a catsuit. Heh. I thought I might miss Enterprise once it was gone, but I will tell the truth: rewatching the original series is much more gratifying on nearly every level. Whichever rerun I review on any given week is frequently my favorite television hour for that week. Of course I may be singing a different tune when it's "And the Children Shall Lead," but for now I am just loving it.

I got a phone call from older son's school nurse just before school ended for the day telling me that he had a bad stomachache. He wanted me to come pick him up at school, but given the beltway traffic it would have taken longer for him to get home that way than if he just took the bus, so I persuaded him to do that and picked him up at the first bus stop rather than making him ride the extra half hour to the one nearest our house. He was sort of droopy when he got home but revived after he finished his social studies homework, ate dinner and felt well enough to go to fencing in the evening.


The trees by my son's bus stop are showing distinct signs of it being autumn.


Younger son had Mad Science after school so he got home slightly later, sat down and did his homework with the utmost devotion because Adventure Quest has some Halloween special this week online and I had told him that he could play after all his work was done. He has an all-day field trip to Historic St. Mary's tomorrow, leaving school at 6:45 a.m. and getting back at 5 p.m., so he will be pretty fried! No baseball tonight but there is Monday Night Football which I have been haphazardly watching while reading The Washington Post Magazine from the weekend and organizing some stuff. I am watching Commander in Chief tomorrow no matter who is winning at 9 p.m. *g*