Poem for Saturday

Garage Sale
By Laure-Anne Bosselaar

     I sold her bed for a song.
A song of yearning like an orphan’s.
Or the one knives carve into bread.

     But the un-broken bread
song too. For the song that a river
sings to the ferryman’s oars — with

     that dread in it.
For a threadbare tune: garroted,
chest-choked, cheap. A sparrow’s,

     beggar’s, a foghorn’s call.
For the kind of song only morning
can slap on love-stained sheets —

     that’s what I sold my mother’s
bed for. The one she died in. Sold it
for a song.

--------

Adam got home at lunchtime from three days of outdoor education, hoarse, muddy and quite cheerful -- apparently the food is quite good at Summit Lake, there was enough of an ice storm for an improvised snowball fight, they had s'mores without having to sit outdoors in freezing temperatures at a bonfire, his best friend was in his cabin and there was a reptile show with several snakes including a Burmese python that they got to touch. And he survived at Predator & Prey even though he was a herbivore, who often get eaten by the carnivores. Of course everything he brought with him had to go into the laundry as soon as he got home, so my afternoon was mostly comprised of washing and folding it all, plus writing a review of "Contagion", a fun episode if not a really profound one.

fridayfiver: The Only Nasty Thing I Like
1. What's the last movie you saw? Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix on DVD.
2. Are you gentle? In the sense of lion vs. lamb, yes. In the sense of gentlewoman, not at all.
3. Do you sleep with your bedroom door shut? Even if I wanted to, the cats would not permit it.
4. What's your middle name? Erica.
5. Friday fill-in: I could learn to like ___. I could learn to like being pampered head to toe.

thefridayfive: Many people make a big deal about not being "labeled." And yet, we all are, constantly.
1. Pick one label that you think does describe you (race, religion, hobby, etc.). Short.
2. Pick one label that is often put on you, that you really think is inaccurate. MEAN. (This is by my kids; when other people say it, it's probably true. *g*)
3. Pick one label you wish could be put on you. Fascinating.
4. What is one kind of label that you think is universally wrong to use (race, gender, height)? I don't see how this question can be answered -- I mean, race in terms of racial profiling, sure, or gender in terms of essentialist characterization, but people self-identify with all sorts of labels and I don't see how that can be "wrong."
5. Labels, used intelligently, can be a convenient rhetorical shorthand for identifying how a given person will fit into (or react to) a given situation. Labels, used incorrectly, can be an excuse for dismissing the differences still inherent in the people to whom the label is applied. Discuss. Um...whatever.

fannish5: Name five characters who should die, or should have died sooner.
This is hard for me, because if I hate a character this much, I generally stop reading/watching whatever they're in. And I tend to love women disproportionately more than men, so I tend to be disproportionately more disappointed by them. Hence:
1. Nymphadora Tonks, Harry Potter's woman who can't live without a man.
2. Anakin Skywalker, Star Wars' villain who was vastly more interesting in the Vader suit than out.
3. Nathan Petrelli, Heroes' most selfish hero. Not that I expect him to stay dead for long.
4. Bareil, Deep Space Nine's Vedek who turned Kira into a meek lapdog in the name of romance.
5. Lana Lang, Smallville's damsel in perpetual, pathetic distress.


David Beck's wonderful 2006 Mvseum on display at the Smithsonian American Art Museum.


This is an interactive sculpture, though the protective glass discourages interaction...


The miniature museum contains art galleries, fossils, a planetarium...


...reptiles and sea creatures, plants and butterflies, stained glass and skylights.


The whole thing is 32 x 55 x 50 inches (81.3 x 139.7 x 127.0 cm) at the base.

We had dinner with my parents and my father's brother who is visiting from Los Angeles, whom I think felt neglected that we left fairly early but Adam wanted to be home after three days away and Daniel has a chorus concert early tomorrow morning at a local bookstore that is going to require us all to be out of the house at 9 a.m. So we watched part of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix and sent the kids off to bed early, then watched a bit of the Appalachian State-Delaware championship game (Blue Hens, hee -- I was hoping they would play the Spiders). Oh, and I got lots of holiday cards in the mail! Yay!