Poem for Saturday

Living Room Altar
By Catherine Barnett

Except for the shirt pulled from the ocean,
except for her hands, which keep folding the shirt,
except for her body, which once held their bodies,

my sister wants everything back now--

If there were a god who could out of empty shells
carried by waves to shore
make amends--

If the ocean saved in a jar
could keep from turning to salt--

She's hearing things:

bird calling to bird,
cat outside the door,
thorn of the blackberry against the trellis.

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For a Friday the 13th, it was a fairly unremarkable day either in terms of great luck or terrible luck. I wrote a review of "Plato's Stepchildren" and filled out a couple of part-time job applications, the one which sounds by far the most desirable comes with a big catch -- it's a vegan food company and they prefer someone vegan, so I am hoping having a brother-in-law who owns the highest-rated vegan restaurant in L.A. gets me bonus points. Also I rearranged the books in my bedroom, an activity which caused much consternation for the cats, who sat on the bed taking turns trying to intimidate each other into leaving and rubbing their faces over any book I put on the mattress.

: Its All Local:
1. The time: 11:44 p.m.
2. The weather: Cool and a little overcast.
3. The big news story: "Gallaudet Students Arrested In Protests"
4. Your favorite hangout: Borders at White Flint Mall.
5. The must-have accessory: My MDA.

: On Work:
1. What job do you have, and why do you like/hate it? I'm a freelance writer. Love the hours and the creativity; hate making almost no money.
2. As a kid, what did you want to be when you "grew up?" A lyricist for Broadway musicals.
3. Is the job you have now anything like what you imagined as a kid? Not so much most days, other than the erratic hours.
4. Do you have a five-year career plan? In five years my older son will be in college, so my plan is to have a career.
5. In order to get the job of your dreams, is there anything you wouldn't do? Why? I wouldn't sleep with the boss. No, seriously, I am not a corporate workaholic -- I have never found ultimate fulfillment in working for anyone else.

: In honor of Friday the 13th, five times characters in your fandom(s) had really bad luck:
1. Flung into Delta Quadrant
2. With ship of enemy insurgents
3. Without dog
4. With very attractive fugitive who's the logical choice for first officer
5. Meaning that no matter how many times you get stranded, attacked, saved, etc., you only get to have sex with holograms.

With parents out of town, we had dinner at home and had a lovely long evening of sci-fi TV, starting with Doctor Who, which is closely rivaling Boston Legal for Top Show I Simply Cannot Live Without. We have been watching the Tom Baker Doctor Who in late-night reruns on public television, and one of the ones from last weekend was actually referenced by tonight's episode! I absolutely loved how Rose went from screamingly jealous over this Sarah Jane Smith whom the Doctor never mentioned to both sympathizing and identifying with her, and all the female bonding -- one of my very favorite things about this series is how much Rose likes women and how even when she's competitive, she isn't nasty. Of course I loved Giles the Vampire Non-Slayer, and poor Mickey who finally figures out he's the tin dog, though that doesn't stop him from laughing over the Doctor's dilemma having the missus and the ex meeting one another, and gloating over the Doctor having had other women like any other bloke when Rose thought she was so special.

I'm a rather wary 'shipper -- I know how this season ends -- but I found it so poignant how Sarah Jane couldn't figure out how to get on with her post-Doctor life even as she was denying a romantic bond. "You were my life! We get a taste of that splendor and then we have to go back!" And his sincere pain at having had to leave, which he explains to Rose rather than to Sarah Jane: "I regenerate, but humans decay...you wither and you die, imagine watching that happen to someone that you..." I never really thought about how much the curse of a Time Lord and the curse of an Immortal have in common and am now craving Highlander crossover fic. No, seriously, there are some lovely parallels, and the Doctor is like Duncan without a Methos or Amanda -- no one else he can count on to be there for a good long time.

Anyway, I loved seeing the once and future K9 (and Rose asking why he looks so disco), and Sarah Jane and Rose trying to impress one another with where they've been and what they've seen until Sarah Jane stumps Rose with the Loch Ness Monster and they end up falling about in giggles that mystify the Doctor. Plus I loved Giles tempting the Doctor with saving his planet and being with one woman throughout eternity. And I also loved that Mickey gets to save the kids and join the crew, over Rose's misgivings, and that Sarah Jane gets the most perceptive lines of the episode, with rather the same theme as the underrated Star Trek V: The Final Frontier, about how pain and loss define them and they have to move forward, even if it's to death. Which is why she can't go with the Doctor this time, though I was so glad they invited her, and so glad she made him say goodbye properly. ("Some things are worth getting your heart broken for.")

Then we all watched Battlestar Galactica which was a lot faster-moving than last week, and though I loathe the Starbuck storyline with a passion, I might as well admit that I could probably keep watching for Lucy Lawless and Mary McDonnell alone. They were why I left the TV on, at least. And then, although I had only intended to record it and pick up in a few weeks with the previously unaired episodes, we watched the first episode of Threshold on Sci Fi and I really, really enjoyed it...had forgotten how great the cast is, especially Carla Gugino.


A tin cup owned by Jewish businessman Samuel Etting, bearing the signatures of himself and his comrades at the Battle of North Point, which during the War of 1812 briefly made ethnic and racial prejudices irrelevant.


A basket made by a slave at Woodlawn Plantation in Prince George's County, Maryland, around 1860.


Annapolis clock bearing the stamp of the maker.


18th century Maryland silver.


Room from the Burns Family dollhouse, made around 1870 by an unknown cabinetmaker for Isabella Burns Berry and her daughter Isabelle Burns Berry.

The Festival of the Sea is going on in Baltimore's Inner Harbor on Saturday and the Maryland Science Center is having Rockets and Robots Day, so after soccer, that is where we are going with 's parents!