Poem for Friday

The Answer
By George Herbert

My comforts drop and melt away like snow:
I shake my head, and all the thoughts and ends,
Which my fierce youth did bandie, fall and flow
Like leaves about me, or like summer friends,
Flyes of estates and sunne-shine. But to all,
Who think me eager, hot, and undertaking,
But in my prosecutions slack and small;
As a young exhalation, newly waking,
Scorns his first bed of dirt, and means the sky;
But cooling by the way, grows pursie and slow,
And settling to a cloud, doth live and die
In that dark state of tears: to all, that so
Show me, and set me, I have one reply,
Which they that know the rest, know more then I.

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Reminder to self: take Advil ahead of time next time expecting to have eyes dilated. I can handle the sting from the drops, but the headache from trying to focus on things my eyes are absolutely incapable of focusing on and from everything seeming too bright for the next couple of hours is really unpleasant. Fortunately it went away with Advil after the fact, and then I had a nice day: lunch with whom I dragged to Lenscrafters so I could order the new glasses that the opthalmologist said I need for reading, which probably explains in part why I get headaches at other times; finding a Happy Feet game for younger son which comes with four plastic penguins based on characters from the movie; getting older son's Maryland School Assessment scores from last year, which were excellent; and writing a couple of Trek articles.

Then I worked with younger son at his school Fun Fair, and it's a good thing the Advil was working because his assigned job was to man one of those things where people swing a hammer to try to make the bell at the top ring, which more of the kids could do than not, so there was lots of loud ringing! And we had Armand's Pizza, which was selling from a truck there, and the kids had make-your-own Pixie Stix which was one of the Fun Fair games, while I came home and had mint chip ice cream.


Tip-a-Troll at the Fun Fair...


...and my son's station, the Whack-a-Bell.


Pick a duck, any duck.


Make your own Pixie Stix!


There was even a mini pumpkin patch...


...and a moon bounce, caterpillar slide, Strike Zone baseball pitch, life-size Tic Tac Toe, Dippin' Dots, splatter painting and impromptu soccer!

In the evening we watched "Wink of an Eye" because I have to review it -- really, other than Kirk putting his boots on after sleeping with the enemy, the only redeeming moment is the one where Spock turns up accelerated and instead of Kirk being all, "Oh no! Spock is in danger!" he gives him a great big grin -- and Shark, which I keep saying I'm going to stop watching but it hasn't actually happened yet...again I had issues with how the issues were presented, and particularly the suggestion at the end that yeah, smart women DO lie about being raped to get ahead. I want to believe that Bitch Associat's story was true and she simply didn't want to have shared it with Sleazo Lawyer, but I think we're supposed to believe she made the whole thing up. Older son was awake doing Sudoku, and I thought he was not paying attention, but it turned out that he was...and really there was quite a bit of stuff not appropriate for his age, but I don't think it's a terrible thing for him to get the "no means no" message at 13 (some of the guys he goes to school with seem to have problems understanding that you are NOT allowed to touch girls inappropriately and call it teasing), not to mention the "plagiarism will get you kicked out of school" message. But before all that, we watched Smallville, where Oliver is my new imaginary boyfriend and there need to be lots more scenes of him and Lionel snarking at each other very soon.

Second best line of the episode: "I'm glad Lois has found someone who can overlook her personality." Because Lois puts her foot in her mouth so charmingly, and is so unfazed and doesn't lose any of her self-confidence...she's the anti-Lana, she always assumes she can handle things herself, and even when she discovers that she can't, she doesn't go around blubbering "I believe in you!" the way Lana does to Lex (right after explaining to Lionel that Lex needs someone to save him from himself). It is such a relief to know that canonical Clark is going to end up with Lois, not Lana. Of course, he should be with Oliver now that he and Lex are so distant, but that's a different story and anyway Lex is still hotter with Lionel than with anyone else...even for the few minutes they're NOT snarking but working together, there's such lovely chemistry! But John Glover has chemistry with everyone. "I haven't seen you since the world was falling down around us, and I hear that you got yourself a new landlord," he says to Lana, reminding her that the last time they spoke, they were discussing which one of them was going to kill Lex, whee! Lana simpers, "He wasn't himself," and Lionel reminds her, "But you were completely yourself!" A whiny pathetic lipstick princess who couldn't do what she promised to do when the entire city depended on her, in other words.

And, you know, I don't require women to be able to kick ass physically like Lois can or intellectually like Chloe can...but I do expect them to recognize their limitations and learn from their mistakes on occasion, and Lana seems congenitally incapable of doing either. And even that would be fine if she were a really minor character like she should be at this point, but she still gets more screen time than Chloe and that drives me nuts. Lois had screen time but she also had damsel in distress time, which is okay for one week because it's not her M.O., but it's a pain that the men on this show are perpetually allowed to know things the women are not because they're the real movers and shakers. I mean, Chloe's been unique among Clark's peers in that she knows his secret, and now Oliver does too, just a few weeks in...

Which I can live with because I really like Oliver, who calls Lois a fascist when she calls him a bleeding heart pacifist...and then she refuses to be his beach bimbo because she's spending the weekend looking for a guy in leather! Hee! The best line in the episode was "If you boys are done marking your territory, which incidentally is not me..." It's not just that she has better lines than Lana, it's that she delivers them with a range of wit and snark and bitterness and glee! Oh and I like Clark saying to the Green Arrow, "I hope you enjoyed your cult status while it lasted" -- he and Oliver snark nicely! And I love Clark discovering Oliver's Bat Cave. "Oliver Queen! You owe me one!" Clark's not sure Lois would understand why her new boyfriend leads a double life, and Oliver's not sure she'd understand why "Smallville" does the same thing. And then Oliver suggests that Clark is obviously obsessed with him and he and Lois should start a Green Arrow fan club! Hahahaha! And wants Clark to join him in saving the world! This is the same guy who just legalized gay marriage in the comic books, right? I'm voting for him over Lex, over Lionel, maybe even over Martha...that remains to be seen.

"Professor funded for virtual Shakespeare world." This pleases me, though I can't say why exactly because I'm not going to get to play! At moments like this, I do wish I'd finished my Ph.D. though it always passes because it's not like U of Chicago graduates were landing plum jobs no matter how insane they went trying to finish there during my era. I did meet a woman unexpectedly online who had run into an essay I wrote and it turns out she's a Modernist and interested in Jewish Wiccans and we have all sorts of other things in common...she works ten minutes from where I live so I am planning to meet her next week! Let us hope that the discovery that I write smutty fanfic does not scare her off.