Poem for Wednesday

For Cavafy
By Bruce Williams

The poems are sad and short: love half-remembered,
history--beautiful, closed and Greek.
But what I like best
is the blank three-quarters page,
white as a statue's marble eyes--

a space to write or cry.

--------

The kids had no school Tuesday so the teachers could do report cards, which made things only slightly more hectic than they would have been anyway. I took them to Circuit City to get Happy Feet because of course we had to get that the day it was released (in fairness, partly so younger son would watch it and not need to stay up all night on the plane to Heathrow watching it...now older son must be convinced not to stay up all night watching Casino Royale and we'll be doing well). We also had to stop at Build-a-Bear to get stuffed Mumble a new hat and shirt. And I bought underwear, having concluded that I should probably throw out the really icky underwear before traveling with it.


The plane we will be flying across the Atlantic won't bear much resemblance to this one, which I think is the prettiest in the Smithsonian's Udvar-Hazy Center. There is a virtual tour of the model here.


This is Pan Am's Boeing S-307 Stratoliner Clipper Flying Cloud, the last of its kind, fully restored to flying condition. A civilian plane when she launched in 1940, she was mobilized as a transport during World War II.


Here is a rear view of the Flying Cloud, with the Pou du Ciel Crosley Flea beside her. Designed to be an aircraft that anyone could build and fly himself, this was the first built and flown in the US, here restored with a wooden model of her original engine.


And because I think it's pretty, here is a gratuitous photo of the walkway from the parking lot to the museum, which vaguely resembles a runway. I have posted photos of some of my other favorite items from the museum here, here and here.

What percentage of British electrical outlets are the round two-prong as opposed to the rectangular three-prong? How do I know which kind of plug I need for what? We're taking the red-eye Wednesday night so I ought to be around till tomorrow afternoon, if anyone desperately needs to talk to me. (I know I was discussing with someone in Birmingham possibly hooking up when I was over there, and now I can't find the exchange of comments even though I was sure I had put it in memories...if that was you and you still want to see about maybe meeting up, perhaps at the Dudley Zoo, let me know!)