Needles
By Ronald Wallace
My father said he thought I was a baby
for fearing needles, he whose body'd been
invaded by all manner of contraption:
hypodermic, catheter, intravenous tube--he
took them all with matter-of-fact de-
rision. They were nothing. But a son
who, at the very sight of needles, whined
and blubbered like a two-year-old-- that he
couldn't stomach. And so I said, to spite
him (though I told myself that I was lying),
that yes, I was a baby; he was right.
And to this day refuse all novocaine,
a full half-hour of exquisite live pain
better than the needle and the numbing.
--------
Tuesdays that feel like Mondays always throw me off so much. I got quite a bit of work done in the morning -- had to, as it appeared for a few minutes like the Star Trek world was having a meltdown, with SFX reporting the imminent demise of Enterprise and Rick Berman protesting too much that of course the eleventh movie is going to get made, just not until he sucks up successfully to the new head of Paramount Pictures. The part of me that cares, sadly enough, is the part of me that wants TrekToday to have something to keep reporting because it would be really sad if it went away, and I can't see how viable a daily Star Trek site is going to be if there's no television show in production or on the horizon and no movie in the works. A five year hiatus would probably be a good thing for Trek but it would suck for me on a number of levels.
So all you people who told me to watch Veronica Mars? You were so right, and your timing was so awesome because UPN reran the pilot this week! What a wonderful character and what an interesting show. I had been afraid from the plot description that it would be a little too Twin Peaks for me but it's not at all, or at least it's understated, keeps its sense of humor and of the absurd low-key. I had a little trouble believing the flipness of Veronica's tone after the series of unfortunate events packed into this one episode -- the way rape was (not) dealt with really, really bugged me -- but overall I adored her as a character and liked the setup very much.
Alexander fans, or anyone who's a fan of stunningly pretty men, really: go visit Kim Schultz's page, scroll down and look at her drawing of Jared Leto. I am weak in the knees. And tomorrow I am getting pimped into Highlander fandom! (At least, if it does not snow enough to warrant my kids' schools being closed/delayed, which will throw the entire day into chaos. It is very very cold tonight and I am not sure how that bodes for precipitation.)
To whoever nominated us: thank you and *hugs*. I am still resistant to fannish awards, and the snarking and competition and resentment that can go on surrounding them, so I do not want to pimp or name the place, but I really, really do appreciate the fact that you enjoyed the fic enough to nominate it.
Probably everyone knows this already but I saw it in surprisingly few places so in case you didn't know, if you have a paid account, LiveJournal is giving all paid users two free weeks to make up for the weekend problems. Click to get your free time. And one more Goddard pic...
This is the Explorer XXXIII test unit. Launched at the Goddard Space Flight Center in 1966 atop a Delta Rocket, the actual Explorer XXXIII was sent up to study interplanetary magnetic fields and is still in an orbit that takes it past the moon. Past it you can see the grounds of Goddard, a huge wooded site with deer and hawks.
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