By Ellen Bryant Voigt
"Like a boy," she said,
and opened her robe to show him
the plate of bone and its center flower
of black thread.
Only flesh, he thought,
the breast cut loose from its net of skin.
And if she could not dote on him,
he'd answer her bell in the bedroom
where she is lodged among the pillows,
her spread hair weightless,
but now he knows how heavy her head is,
how it rolls on her shoulder
when he pulls her off the floor,
how, as they stumble toward the bed —
old woman, old man, —
the still air records two threading voices,
and the one he attends, hand
on his chest, is his.
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I had lunch with Perkypaduan, who brought me an aquamarine, lace agate and pewter bead necklace for my birthday when we met at the surprisingly uncrowded mall. We did a little holiday shopping (yay, See's Candy samples!) and got food to bring back to my house. Then -- yes, I know this is becoming a theme here -- we watched a bunch of Merlin episodes. Hey, she had never seen any -- it was practically a civic duty on my part! Adam came home and discovered that there was leftover sushi, which he ate before his tennis lesson while Daniel was at robotics. I took the computer to the tennis lesson to enjoy free wireless but only got a single e-mail answered.
A railroad family's kitchen, with iron stove, recreated at the Brunswick Railroad Museum.
A well-off Victorian family's turn-of-the-century parlor decorated for the holidays, with Victrola and musical instruments as well as food.
A recreation with original furniture and heater of an East End Elementary in the 1920s.
A display of B&O Railroad signal lanterns...
...and B&O Railroad record books, keeping the hours and miles of the crewmembers.
The city of Brunswick's centennial quilt. Its original name was Berlin, but there was already a Berlin, Maryland when they applied for a post office, so the name had to be changed.
A display of local and holiday memorabilia...
...on the first floor where Santa Claus was visiting with kids in the train playroom.
We've spent the evening watching two specials on public television -- one on the art of Washington National Cathedral, including some background on the gargoyles, stained glass, and statuary, plus the Cathedral cat, and a longer version of the short film Pompeii and the Roman Villa: Art and Culture around the Bay of Naples which is playing at the National Gallery of Art to accompany the exhibit of the same name. I like that 20 minutes of the feature is about the architecture, gardens, and lives of the weathly Romans before Vesuvius erupted, like the exhibit; I've seen plenty about the volcano and what it did, less about the many years of peaceful life beforehand.
I interviewed Majel Barrett Roddenberry three times -- in 1998 about Star Trek, in 1999 about Earth: Final Conflict, and in 2001 about Andromeda. I know the word "gracious" is being used a lot about her tonight, but what interested me was that she could also be cuttingly critical and very funny -- not gracious in the phoney-baloney sense that a lot of actors I've talked to have been, gushing about their love for their fans and appreciation for the producers in the midst of diva-like antics, but determined to have a positive influence over the shows and to remain loyal to what she perceived as Gene Roddenberry's legacy whether her views were popular or not. She was very much a unique spirit, irreplaceable. I feel like the Star Trek era has truly come to an end.
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