Poem for Saturday

Endnote
By Hayden Carruth

The great poems of
our elders in many
tongues we struggled

to comprehend who
are now content with
mystery simple

and profound you
in the night your
breath your body

orbit of time and
the moment you
Phosphorus and

Hesper a dark circle
of fertility so
bloodthirsty for us

you in the world
the night breathing
asleep and alive.

--------

Cidercupcakes and I had another installment in our Merlin fest, this time episodes ten through twelve, again with CalTort chicken tortilla soup and homemade chocolate chip cookies. "To Kill the King" is pretty much all about Morgana/Uther -- oops, I mean Morgana and Uther -- no, actually I think I mean what I said -- anyway, this is one of my very favorites of the season. And before that we watched my other favorite, "The Moment of Truth," a.k.a. "Merlin, Arthur, Morgana and Gwen play footsie and Mom gives Merlin her blessing to shag Arthur" -- okay, not really, but close enough for me. I am convinced the reason I am enjoying this show even more on second viewing is that I have been pretending that there is no big organized fandom, so there is nothing I associate with it that pisses me off...I really should rewatch all of Crusoe, because in the case of that one, I might even be right!

I wrote a review of Next Gen's "Identity Crisis" before dinner with my parents (chicken with Cumberland sauce, mmmm). Watched The Sarah Connor Chronicles -- loved Cameron's arc, liked Sarah's, disliked Riley's, despised Jesse's, but except for the fact that everyone talks about John incessantly, this show regularly passes the Bechdel Test and there's certainly not more violence against or despicable behavior from women than men. Unlike my other Friday night show, BS-Gee, which I am watching like the train wreck it is, knowing that the end is so near.

Spoilers: Most of the time I hate the way Starbuck is written, but when she has a great line, it's the kind I quote all week, like "Regularity. That must be important when you're full of crap." Caprica scored pretty well off Baltar too saying she won't join his harem. I cracked up that Laura actually said to Bill what we were all saying last week, that he's going to say goodbye to both of his women at once, and I can't help loving Bill, who claims that neither of his women are dying, they just need more care and attention...well, I can't help loving Bill until he fails to correct Laura when she guesses that he loves the ship more than he loves her, which, based on his tears, I'm thinking may be true. Also, Ellen's jealousy that Saul loves Bill more than he loves Ellen would be somewhat entertaining if it were not symptomatic of the irrelevance of what women want on every level of this series. Lastly, I'm surprised people can smoke on basic cable.

The Friday Five: What would you do?
1. If your car/bike is wrecked (if your mass transit service goes belly-up), do you know what you would do to replace it, perhaps even have the car or bike you want already picked out? No idea, other than our next vehicle will be a hybrid and won't be a minivan.
2. A client/friend gives you a lottery ticket, which wins you a prize worth (after taxes) ten times as much money as you earned/received last year. What will you do with it? Take a trip to Europe, then pay for my kids' education.
3. Fight or flee? Depends on whether it's an armed mugger or a government trying to take away my constitutional rights.
4. Someone performs a random act of kindness that is exactly what you need on a bad day. If you wish to pay them back, would you write a poem, bake, buy something, or what? Depends on the person. If a homeless person performs a random act of kindness that makes my day, I bet he'd rather have a meal than a poem. If it's an online friend, I bet he'd rather have a thank you note than anything I could cook.
5. Your manager commands you to pick a charity to contribute to. Do you resist? If not, which charity would be your first choice? Charity that is compelled isn't charity at all. I give regularly to several environmental and civil rights charities; no one is going to command me to contribute to anything in particular.

Fannish 5: Describe or invent five fannish drinking games.
1. Every time the Doctor says, "I'm the Doctor" on Doctor Who.
2. Every time Denny Crane says "Denny Crane" on Boston Legal.
3. Every time Heroes rewrites or reverses its own mythology.
4. Every time Rodney McKay says something arrogant, insensitive, self-serving, or panicked on Stargate: Atlantis.
5. Every time someone dies on Battlestar Galactica...oh wait, we'd be dead of alcohol poisoning before the end of an episode like this week's!


Here is South Mountain Creamery last fall. I always wonder whether the "Ask Yourself: What Would Jesus Do?" sign is meant for the cows.


Here are calves in the barn anticipating their feeding...


...with their companion chickens, who provide the farm's eggs.


The farm has enormous grain and milk containment facilities -- everything the cows eat is grown locally, and they free-feed with no added hormones or antibiotics.


They have a great deal of space to roam; I love seeing them wandering in the fields and under the trees.