Fall

The Coin

Into my heart's treasure
I slipped a coin
That time cannot take
Nor a thief purloin,-
Oh, better than the minting
Of a gold-crowned king
Is the safe-kept memory
Of a lovely thing.

~Sara Teasdale (1920)

Lost in Translation

I dig using chopsticks. They're fun and handy - working your brain and fingers a bit more than a boring old fork. Paul and I even have travel chopsticks. We take them to our favorite sushi restaurant all the time. So both of us are well versed in chopstick usage. We ran to go buy groceries and stopped at China Sun for dinner (because every one knows its a bad idea to shop when you're hungry, right?) and had to use some throw aways this time because we were without our cool Snow Peak chopsticks.

I follow directions as much as the rest of the world. But I think somewhere along the line some bits got lost in translation here. I was a afraid to follow these directions at the table for fear of indecent exposure. Perhaps with a bit of practice at home? Next time I will try to uphold glonous Chinese history and use chcosticks the way they were apparently supposed to be used - by tuking them under my tnufnb.....um.....wherever that is.

Camera in Hand

“Whether he is an artist or not, the photographer is a joyous sensualist, for the simple reason that the eye traffics in feelings, not in thoughts.” - Walker Evans (American Photographer 1903-1975)

“Photography is a way of feeling, of touching, of loving. What you have caught on film is captured forever... it remembers little things, long after you have forgotten everything.” - Aaron Siskind

“When I say I want to photograph someone, what it really means is that I'd like to know them. Anyone I know I photograph.” - Annie Leibovitz

Happy Birthday Nathan, oh taker of pictures, and subject of few. Exciting plans await in '08!

The ruins of Bell Tavern, KY - 2007

A Bit of Maudism

I saw Harold & Maude for the very first time about a week and a half ago. Its a movie that I'd imagine a person would either HATE or LOVE. For me - it stuck. It seems to be a sick, twisted, dark humor, laugh out loud, hysterically ridiculous, poignant, heart-wrenching, loving, brilliant reminder to live life, not just exist - LIVE! - with a big fat exclamation mark after it!

Maude: That little tree. It's in trouble. Come on. [They walk over to a tree growing through the sidewalk in front of a building]
Maude: Look at it, oh. It's suffocating. Well, it's the smog. You know, people can live with it, but trees — it gives them asthma. They can't breathe. The leaves, look, they’re turning all brown. Harold, we have got to do something about this life.
Harold: What?
Maude: We'll transplant it. To the forest.
Harold: You can't do that
Maude: Why not?
Harold: This is public property.
Maude: Well, exactly.

Harold: Maude.
Maude: Hmm?
Harold: Do you pray?
Maude: Pray? No. I communicate.
Harold: With God?
Maude: With Life.

Harold: This is real nice. Makes me want to do somersaults.
Maude: Well, why don't you?
Harold: I'd feel stupid.
Maude: Harold, everyone has the right to make an ass out of themselves. You just can't let the world judge you too much.

Collector of Quotes #2

My Mom and Dad always remind me to not "burn the candle at both ends" just about every other night on the phone. The phrase "burning a candle at both ends" had existed long before Edna St. Vincent Millay (1892-1950) wrote the poem below in 1922; the phrase was only translated into English from the French by Randle Cotgrave, an English lexicographer, in 1611. (The original 17th-century French the expression was "brusler la chandelle par lex deux bouts") So I wonder if it was translated into English in 1611 how long did it exist before then? How long has man been burning the candle at both ends?

The phrase has two connotations nowadays (1) you're working too hard and sleeping too little and (2) you're leading a hectic social life--and maybe trying to work as well--and sleeping too little. Millay's poem is in reference to the second. They say that American's Live to Work and that European's Work to Live. I hope to take on a bit more European styling, even if I do have to singe the hind end of my candle. I'll sleep when I'm dead.

FIRST FIG

My candle bums at both ends;
It will not last the night;
But ah, my foes, and oh, my friends--
It gives a lovely light!

-Edna St. Vincent Millay

So, Why is a Raven Like a Writing Desk?

Well, Carrol's formulated answer play out thus:

"Because it can produce a few notes, though they are very flat and it is never put with the wrong in front."

Why is a Raven Like a Writing Desk?

One of the books I am currently reading for the first time is a combined volume of Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (originally published in 1865) & Through the Looking Glass and What Alice Found There (1875). Sure, I've seen the Disney movie, but it doesn't hold a candle to Dodgson's work on paper. It is truly a work of art, as history has proven. If you've never read the original books (the Golden book version doesn't count either!) I would highly suggest it just for a flight of fancy and fun.


In Carroll's forward he tells of his most asked inquiry - Is there an answer to the Mad Hatter's riddle?
He goes on to explain that when he wrote it, there was no answer in mind, but eventually he came up with an answer to satisfy his fans.

So, Why is a Raven Like a Writing Desk?

(answer tomorrow)

Collector of Quotes #1

I love quotes, and fancy myself a collector (if one can indeed collect words). I have a hand-written book just for quotes that I have kept for about 10 years. When I stumble upon one that makes me laugh or smile or makes me just think, I write it down and then copy it later into the book. My favorite quotes are the ones that get under your skin, the ones that you ponder and repeat and mill over in your head for an entire day, only to find them again teasing your brain as you drift off to sleep. A little Kat gave me one just this morning:

"Are you breathing just a little and calling it a life?" - Mary Oliver

Something to think over on a Friday. The weekend it almost upon us all. Try something new and different this weekend. If you're right handed brush your teeth with your left hand. Go somewhere you've never been, start a project, finish a project, cook something different for dinner, pick a place on the map an hour away and just go there to see what's there!