By Ciaran Carson
Irrevocable? Never irrevocable, you said,
picking me up wrong through the din of the coffee machine.
We were in the Ulster Milk Bar I think they blew up back
in the seventies. We must have been barely acquainted.
Noise is what surrounds us, I’d said earlier, gesturing
to the wider world of disinformation, the dizzy
spells that come when someone you know might have been in a bomb
as the toll has not yet been reckoned except by hearsay.
I’d have my ear glued to the radio, waiting for what
passed for the truth to come out, men picking through the rubble.
Some of the victims would appear in wedding photographs
blinded by a light forever gone. Graveside by graveside
I shake hands with men I have not shaken hands with for years,
trying to make out their faces through what they have become.
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I spent a lovely afternoon with Dementor Delta playing with moose puppets, seeing Juno and having kabobs at Village Green Grill. I liked Juno a lot, though I will admit that my very favorite aspects were spoilers: 1) Allison Janney, 2) the soundtrack and 3) the fact that Juno has a sister named "Liberty Bell." I liked it best when it was more real and less Heathers...well, Heathers is the wrong analogy because Juno is relentlessly upbeat about everything, but the ultra-clever teen dialogue that adults can't keep up with and the wise-beyond-her-years girl having to be strong for everyone reminded me of that genre of teen films.
I liked the scene where she decided to have the baby (absolutely no moralizing, pure gut instinct) and I loved the fascination with the ultrasound and the things pregnancy does to her body, but while I appreciated Paulie not butting in to her decision-making, I also thought that as Dementor Delta said, it was really great to be the boy -- he got the love of the girl without having to suffer much besides a bit of the usual teen angst. And I'm really ambivalent about the happy ending...to be real, we should have gotten a flash-forward where the little boy is unhappy growing up without a father, Juno is miserable that she asked for a closed adoption and can't find out how the child is doing and Paulie is resentful even if he knows intellectually that he has no right to be.
After Dementor Delta left, I wrote a review of "The Emissary", the first K'Ehleyr episode of TNG where Worf pretends to be captain, of which I am pretty fond. Saw that white-tailed jack rabbits are apparently extinct now in Yellowstone National Park and its surrounding ecosystem, which sucks more than I can say, and that Boston has ordered Mike Huckabee to stop playing "More Than a Feeling," which rocks. Paul said he wondered whether anyone on the Obama campaign had looked closely at the lyrics to U2's "City of Blinding Lights" which some of Obama's ads use: "The more you see the less you know/The less you find out as you go/I knew much more then than I do now."
Friday Fiver: When the Sun Beats Down
1. Favorite shoes? Merrell Jungle Mocs.
2. What time does the sun set near you? At this time of year, still before 6 p.m., which is a bummer.
3. Do you like spending time in the sun? Not practically nude on a beach because I have skin cancer all over my family, but I like being outside on sunny days.
4. Do you burn or tan? Burn.
5. Monopoly: yay! or no way! Yay!
The Friday Five: Your Senses
1. Do you ever wonder if the way you see things visually aren't how other people see them? When I have a migraine aura, I'm certain of it.
2. What kind of sounds are the most annoying? The kind your kids make with their mouths when they are trying to drive you insane. Also, dripping sinks in the middle of the night.
3. When walking through a store, do you shop with your hands by touching/feeling the texture of things? Depends, for instance, on whether I'm shopping for fruit or stones or clothing (yes) or pottery or glass or artwork (no).
4. If you could only smell three scents for the rest of your life, what would they be? Vanilla, cloves, pine.
5. What sorts of things do you savor when eating them? Chocolate, nuts, cheeses, cream sauces, soups, stews...pretty much anything that isn't a vegetable, really.
Fannish5: What are the five love stories that you love the most, in canon or fan sources (fanfic, vids, other)?
1. Kira/Odo, Deep Space Nine.
2. Valentin/Molina, Kiss of the Spider Woman.
3. Eowyn/Faramir, The Lord of the Rings.
4. Fergus/Dil, The Crying Game.
5. Mulan/Shang, Mulan.
Birds decorating the sculpture outside the Air & Space Museum...
...and reflected in the museum's windows.
A sparrow near the National Gallery of Art's East Wing, with the Capitol Building behind.
A starling outside the National Museum of Natural History, one of many that wait in the bushes near the popcorn cart.
And a gratuitous shot of the Washington Monument through the Smithsonian Castle.
Watched Stargate: Atlantis, haven't watched enough SG-1 to have the proper appreciation for Teal'c (with or without hair, though I think based on my very limited exposure that in this rare instance I preferred without) but he and Ronon playing Klingons made me smile particularly after watching "The Emissary" a day before. Spoilers: It wasn't one of my favorite episodes -- very guy-heavy, without Sam getting to do much to save her command, and lots of shooting and fighting. The ending was pretty priceless, though, and I have to admit that since I don't like Rodney and he is apparently going to be tossed at young women whom he will treat condescendingly, I am quite willing for John and Ronon to pair up, joke about killing their teammates and get in each other's faces. Even Teal'c wants Ronon's gun! But that spoiler in the preview for next week: did everyone already know that but me?!
Saturday: Farpoint for interviews for TrekToday, then in-laws for husband's father's birthday. Maybe Gettysburg. My mother's mother would have been 102.
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