Saturday, February 13, 2010

Poem for Saturday, 'True Q' and Ice

Tornado
By Dorothea Lasky


I remember he was bent down
Like a whirlpool
I was yelling at him
He looked scared and backed away
Another time, I squinted my eyes to see
And he said I looked ugly
The funny part was when
My sister asked me where he went to
And I just didn't know
He just disappeared one day into nothing
I am rotting and rancid
Each day, rotting, but I am water, too
I am a watery nymph that is hot and wet
Like a wetted beast
I saw the man walking, hunched over
And thought it was him
"Father!" I yelled after the man
Who was hunched, he was going somewhere
He turned but the face was green
It is a black life, but I don't want to die
I don't want to die, I don't ever want to die
God damn you, don't you shoot me in my sleep
Let me rot on this earth forever
Like a carrot I will be everything God can't see
Oh, what do I mean
God can see everything
I mean the angels, I mean the half-gods
I mean the flowers, don't ever let them see me live forever
Don't you ever let them see
That I am all root here in the ground

--------

From this week's New Yorker.

We finished our quiet snow week with a relatively quiet snow day -- I say "relatively" because even though Paul went to work in the office for the first time since a week ago when the first storm began, I had three boys here for most of the day and they were not particularly quiet whether they were down the basement playing Brawl or upstairs discussing the math homework their teachers posted on Edline so they don't fall too far behind. I wrote a review of "True Q", went to dinner with my parents who got us all chocolate for Valentine's Day, and ran late in the evening trying to get all four Cupid hearts on Superpoke Pets so I could get the Cupid's Palace habitat, hee. Here are a few photos Paul took of this morning's sunrise through the ice, which has now been knocked down so it doesn't crash right through the deck when it falls as has happened to some of our neighbors...







The Friday Five: Clothes!
1. What if your favorite piece of clothing and how does it make you feel?
It's a pair of big fuzzy Grandma Pants that are warm and soft and the most comfortable thing ever.
2. What was the most expensive article of clothing you ever bought? Probably my wedding dress, which I didn't pay for myself. I'm a cheap date where clothing is concerned -- anything designer I've ever owned, it was because it was on sale very inexpensively and was something I needed for the season.
3. What is a current fashion trend you think look horrible? Pre-teen girls dressing like provocative adult women.
4. What decade do you think had the best clothes? The '60s. Give me tie-dye and sandals forever.
5. If you friends/family could throw away a single piece of your clothing, which do you think it would be and why? My kids would probably get rid of one of my more embarrassing fannish t-shirts, though I don't know whether Snape or Barbie would win.

Fannish5: Five canon moments that turned a character into a favorite character.
1. "She's the captain.
Chakotay, "Caretaker," Star Trek: Voyager
2. "In a pig's eye." Leonard McCoy, Star Trek
3. "There's no room in justice for loyalty or friendship or love. Justice, as the Humans like to say, is blind. I used to believe that. I'm not sure I can anymore." Odo, "Necessary Evil," Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
4. "You don't have to do this any more. There must be something else, not just killing. What else is there? What do you want?" Rose Tyler, "Dalek," Doctor Who
5. "It's a test that we failed." Helena Russell, "Brian the Brain," Space: 1999

In the evening we watched Smallville, which I adored completely -- any episode set at a sci-fi convention in which Lois dresses as Xena gets automatic thumbs-up from me, and I love watching Oliver and Chloe get closer. Then we all watched the Winter Olympics opening, which I really enjoyed too, though as with all events of such duration, there were high points and "what were they thinking" moments. Some things I really appreciated: the Mounties marching the flag out, the First Nations dancers, the giant ice sculptures, the moose on the US team hats, the polar bear, the Cape Breton fiddling, the Sacred Grove, Joni Mitchell, Loreena McKennitt, Sarah McLachlan, k.d. lang (though "Hallelujah," while admittedly a phenomenal song, is as weird a choice for the Olympics as it was when Justin Timberlake sang it at the concert for Haiti). My kids were dubious about the Harry Potter business with the wand, and the experience was almost ruined at times by the NBC announcers over-interpreting everything while failing to identify some of the people and places we really wanted to hear about, but I found it all pretty uplifting and I loved seeing the athletes taking photos and sending text messages with big grins on their faces.

Enjoy the weekend, the Olympics, the Chinese New Year, Valentine's Day, preparations for Mardi Gras or whatever else you may be celebrating!

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