By Troy Jollimore
The poppies grow, between the crosses row
by regimented row, and as they bob
pathetic Tom bobs too (I mean sym-
pathetic, for our man is overcome
and only refuge he can find is in
corrective fantasy: 1916
with Thomson gun in one hand, Thomson girl
in other, doffs his cap he, take his leave,
and head to France to shoot up several Germans.
(Ignore the fact that he’s a pacifist,
and closest he has come to shoot a gun
is his excessive use of bullet points;
it’s his fantasy, for Christ's sake!)) Tom,
he linger for a while, then go home.
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We had a quiet Monday after our busy weekend. My major exciting activity was folding laundry while (re)watching Xena's "Lyre, Lyre, Hearts on Fire," if you want to know how uneventful it was. Adam went to the pool for several hours. Daniel worked on his online health class homework; apparently this week one of the assignments is for the kids to pretend they've had a child and write about all the changes in their lives. Daniel also went hunting for YouTube clips of Paul McCartney from Saturday night -- of course there were several, since plenty of people snuck in cameras with recording capabilities -- and we watched lots of old clips from Live Aid and Wings-era concerts.
Here are some of the many happy people eating under the big trees at Union Mills last Saturday. Former Maryland Governor Bob Ehrlich had just arrived when I took this photo.
Lunch was fried chicken, applesauce, tomatoes, dinner rolls, and all the fresh roasted corn you could eat. They kept bringing around more ears on big platters.
The line at one point had nearly 100 people waiting to get their tickets.
Adam rested by the well after eating three ears of corn with lunch. (He had more corn later, after the shaved ice.)
The Standard Delivery Jazz Combo played throughout the afternoon.
The Artist Guild of Carroll County had a display outside the barn, where there were vendors selling candles, Amish home decor, and imported tea...
...plus locally canned vegetables and jams. Tomorrow I'll post pics of the 8th Virginia Infantry encampment.
We watched Due South's "Letting Go" and "North," both of which I liked much better than "Victoria's Secret" -- Laurie Holden improves everything, and the former at least was much less caught up in generalizations about what makes a man and what macho code men should live by; the latter is all about that, with the ghosts of everyone's fathers all over the place, but Ray in particular is so dismissive of that mindset that it really cuts through the paradigm (and wow did I think he was going to tell his father that he loved Fraser). Plus the "California Dreamin'" scene is an absolute classic. Is there any substantive feminist criticism or meta about this series, does anyone know?
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