flattery..............

ok, so this morning. one of our 70-ish customers stopped by to ask me what 2 things i would do in paris on a rainy day................he and his new wife were leaving this afternoon for 2 weeks in an apartment on the quai grenelle....which is between musee d'orsay and tour eiffel................i first suggested lunch at musee jaquemart-andre...in the lovely dining room with the frescoed ceiling.......or lunch at musee d'orsay in the ballroom.............i was so flattered that this person sought me out for francofile tips.......................of course.....my january encounter with rick steves at st. sulpice has already been reported in the paper....so even those who have no idea that i have been to paris 11 times at least knew i had recently traveled to my favorite place................

barbara walters...............

ok, so nobody in this household will be watching barbara's special tonight....the one that makes it seem like a baby is up for grabs in a reality show......where some 16 year-old will decide, or not decide to give her baby up to the bestest couple..............for starts...this would be an open adoption......of which i have regular proof of flaws...................the less mean side of me tells me that this is for the best, but the rest says that openness has only led to unnecessary confusion and misplaced allegiance................and misplaced idolatry......................

the comment......

ok,so i have been freaked out about the comment on my blog pertaining to the rnc..........as best that i can tell, this guy's email is from foo.com. which is a subsidiary of digimedia.com out of oklahoma somewhere........he must have been trolling the web for rnc comments.......although when i went to blog search sites, i could not find my own blog using rnc as a key word.........surely he lacks the gumption to slog through my blog on a regular basis..............for the record, i blog for my own personal enjoyment....and occasionally for the annoyance of others...............and i fear no one when it comes to my personal right to free speech..............

curtains for bob

ok, so i decided to bring my portable tape player/radio to work this morning so i could listen to bob edwards final story, at 8:50 am......but i neglected to change out the batteries, so by 8:15 my reception was sketchy........luckily, my fruit and vegetable guy joe davis delivered not only my produce order but also 2 fresh batteries...so that i could listen with unwavering attention............bob interviewed the same guy this morning as he signed off that he did 24.5 years ago on hios first broadcast.........i personally respect closure in all things...........

no rose today.......

ok, so it is the last day of april, and traditionally i have had at least 1 rose in bloom.....maybe just one bloom, but a bloom nevertheless........i have been watching two prospects.........therese bugnet (the one in the back) and stanwell perpetual..........but this morning it was cold and rainy, and not the sort of day on which a rosebud bursts forth..........ah well.....there is always next year...........

bob edwards.......

ok,s o tomorrow morning i will wake up to bob for the very last time........friday will be his last day achoring morning edition, after nearly 25 years in this time slot.......i emailed my discontent to npr.....i signed the petition.......i did not stage a sit-in at npr..........but then i am getting too old for these things.........i am saddened that age has become a factor...he certainly doesnot sound old to me............

rnc............

ok, so the newest joke at trc is the rnc, which sent my partner an 'autographed' photo of gwb, along with an invitation to join at the $50 through $2000 level.............gentle readers, my partner is many things, but a republican is not one of them........especially since the photo of gwb makes him look like he is plotting something.................

beyond dangerously blonde..............

ok, so there is something to be said for women who have not brains enough to have scruples...................from cnn.com.......

Jessica's Political Favors
They say politics makes strange bedfellows, but when does "strange" veer off into "wacky"? Here's the answer: Preternaturally perky starlet Jessica Simpson is pals with Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, one of the least perky government officials ever, reports Us Weekly. And the "Newlyweds" star plans to exploit their friendship for all it's worth (value still to be determined).

Joe Simpson, Jessica's exceedingly involved dad and manager, tells the mag that he's asked Rumsfeld to cameo as himself on his daughter's still-untitled ABC sitcom pilot ('cause when we think comedy, we think Rumsfeld). Another Republican asked to appear: California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. "We're friends with Donald Rumsfeld and with Schwarzenegger," Joe explains, adding that he hopes they'll agree to "tongue-in-cheek" interviews with Mrs. Nick Lachey's TV reporter character. The Simpsons are also pursuing Donald Trump, who owes them a sit-down as payback for subjecting Jessica to Omarosa's antics on "The Apprentice."

ok, so i forgot.......

ok, so i forgot how small danville is......i picked up cayle after wednesday night activities at lexington avenue baptist.....only to run into a chi omega alumnie (sp) who was helping to pick up after the pot-luck.........she knew all about our visit to cambridge because her son dates chris's oldest sister. (chris is the fellow from danville who showed us around harvard last month....) .......also a chi omega......and she suspected that we were not in love with cambridge...not like chris, who is a true marvel......or at least according to his family.............and so she asked what scw's plans are.....which i do not know......beyond governor's scholar's this summer...............though i mentioned princeton in passing....as a way top deflect from any other assumptions..........who knows where he will be accepted.................

even more about will shakespeare...................

ok,so will once wrote, in romeo and juilet..............'in a minute there are many hours................'.....................this is so true when one is waiting for a message, or a score, or a check,or a complement/censure.................or a kind word...........or for a lottery payoff.........................so many things wait these days..................

to kill a mockingbird............

ok, so this book is the basis of my friendship with gail.........we spent the day talking about who-said-what........and abouthow harper lee's parent's bankrolled a solid year after she graduated college for her to write her book..................which makes me think of acw......who is so talented a writer.....i wish that i could personally bankroll an entire year somewhere for him to write short stories.............maybe when i win the lottery..................

harper lee

ok, so i copied this from mpr......harper lee was a chi omega, by the way...........

It's the birthday of the woman who wrote To Kill a Mockingbird (1960), Harper Lee, (books by this author) born Nelle Harper in Monroeville, Alabama (1926). She grew up in Monroeville, which had a population of about 7,000, and it was the model for the town of Maycomb in To Kill a Mockingbird. Lee wrote, "It was a tired old town when I first knew it. In rainy weather the streets turned to red slop; grass grew on the sidewalks, the courthouse sagged in the square. Somehow, it was hotter then: a black dog suffered on a summer's day; bony mules hitched to Hoover carts flicked flies in the sweltering shade of the live oaks on the square. Men's stiff collars wilted by nine in the morning. Ladies bathed before noon, after their three-o'clock naps, and by nightfall were like soft teacakes with frostings of sweat and sweet talcum."

Her father was a lawyer, and she spent much of her free time hanging around the courthouse and playing golf with the children of other lawyers. She thought it seemed like a pretty good way to live, and for a long time she wanted to be a lawyer when she grew up. She went to law school at the University of Alabama, and after she graduated she worked as a reservation clerk for an airline in New York City. She spent all day at work, and then came home to write for four hours every evening. In the mid '50s, Lee started working on a novel about the trial of a black man in a small town in Alabama.

In December of 1956, she wasn't able to get back to Alabama to celebrate Christmas with her family, so instead she celebrated with a family she knew in Manhattan. On Christmas morning, Lee and the family gathered around the tree to open gifts. Most of them were for the children of the family, but when everything under the tree had been unwrapped, the parents asked Lee to open an envelope that was resting on the branches. Inside was a note that said, "You have one year off from your job to write whatever you please. Merry Christmas." The couple gave her a loan to devote an entire year to nothing but writing, and it was during that year that Lee wrote most of the first draft of To Kill a Mockingbird.

She sent the manuscript to a publisher in New York, and they told her that it had potential but that it was too much like a collection of short stories and not enough like a novel. She spent the next two and a half years rewriting it, and To Kill A Mockingbird was published in July of 1960. It was priced at $3.95, and it sold more than two and a half million copies in less than a year. It was selected by the Reader's Digest book club, the Literary Guild book club, and the Book-of-the-Month Club; and it was immediately published in more than a dozen languages. It won the Pulitzer Prize in 1961.

To Kill a Mockingbird tells the story of Atticus Finch, a lawyer who defends a black man named Tom Robinson, who is accused of raping a white girl. The title of the novel comes from something Finch says to his daughter: "Mockingbirds don't do one thing but make music for us to enjoy. They don't eat up people's gardens, don't nest in corncribs, they don't do one thing but sing their hearts out for us. That's why it's a sin to kill a mockingbird."

To Kill a Mockingbird sells about a million copies every year, and it's sold over thirty million copies since its publication. In 1963, just three years after its publication, it was taught in eight percent of U.S. public middle schools and high schools, and today that figure is closer to eighty percent. Only Romeo and Juliet, Macbeth and Huckleberry Finn are assigned more often.

tour of georgia............

ok,s o some of my spouse's bike-riding cronies drove to georgia over the weekend to try to see lance and his postal team compete in this first ever t-de-g.........they have great pictures.....of lance climbing an unclassified hill within arm's length...of sheryl crow leaning out of the team car......of bob roll of oln/trek.....they were quite stoked to see lance up close........makes us all back home look forward to the t-de-f..........................

more about my millionaire friend gail.........

ok, so my friend gail presented me with a key to her car this morning as soon as she walked into work......which would seem like an unusual move, unless you had been at work with gail for the past week.........when her keys were locked in her car, either here at at her house....off and on for 7 days...........monday morning, the midst of a full-throttle thunder storm, she called me at work....kathy, come get me......i locked my keys in my car again..............she found a ride home on monday, and another ride to work on tuesday......finally shw convinced the father of her children to come over from harrodsburg and open her door (she bought her car from him........) ..........then by thursday she had locked the keys inside again, at work....in our lot......and she got the father of her children to come over again to get them out.........so by sunday, when we were serving a baby shower.......and she came in to me and said.....you'll never believe what i have done................well, i knew exactly what she had done......................she finally got a locksmith to come and pop her lock............bless her heart..............

window tinting.......

ok, so this young guy is standing in my darkened lobby this morning at 8:00 am.........when i asked how i could help him, he replied....'I am here to get my windows tinted......you do that here, don't you?'...................there must have been a long pause on my end...because he asked me again...............'No, this is a restaurant..........'......well, where can i get my windows tinted?'......................oh, my.............i have been mistaken for many things before in my life, but not for someone who tints windows..........

two 'road cafes'

ok, so this morning a guy called asking for my partner.......he's not here i replied........well, is he at the other cafe? the caller inquired................what other cafe? i asked.......well, i thought he owned 2 road cafes..............i guess i misunderstood...............nyuck, nyuck........

i should have been there.....

ok, so there was a pro-abortion-rights rally on the national mall today...estimated at between 600,000 and 800,000 people.......and i should have been there.....to lend my support for this just cause........i say this as a mother........no woman should be forced to have children until she is ready and able..........and no government should hold last say on a woman's reproductive choices...................

more about my new baseball obsession

ok, so the last time the mm took an interest in baseball, it was in the early 80's, and it was about the indians....so i could have something to talk about when i called my grandpa broughton in cleveland......i have fond memories of my grandpa, out on the screened-in porch, listening to indians games in the dark while he smoked cigars..........whenever the indians are in the playoffs or the world series, we still drag out his picture and set it on the tv for good luck......it hasn't brought the indians any luck thus far, but you never know.............anyway, the redsox beat the yankees 2-0 today...for a 3-0 sweep in nyc.......and now the yankees are trailing badly in the overall standings.......the best team that money can buy, in the toilet, or almost...............i guess you get what you pay for.................

le jardin

ok, so mm's garden, usually a source of solace has been a disappointment this season.........not for the current show of phlox, poppies, iris, money plant, iberis, etc, but for the cloud of doom that hangs over it and dampens my enthusiasm for improvements........the septic system contractor has not yet drawn the definitive plans for pipes, etc.....and so i do not know just which sections of established perennial beds will be utterly destroyed..........and thusly i just sit back and do nothing....no weeding, no mulching, no dreaming of plant movements that will enhance the color scheme. etc.........will i have to dig up rosa constance spry, or grandma broughton's old pink rose (my brother-in-law the rosarian thinks it might be called belladonna......) and if i do have to dip up constance's bed, there are 5 other roses in that bed that will also have to moved......and to where?.............not every part of my yard has enough soil depth to grow roses..............nor enough sunlight, etc.............the plans include running the lateral lines into the 'wood' lot that blocks our view of the neighbors..........there is not much soil depth there either....which means that fill dirt will have to be trucked in..............hopefully the wildflowers are numerous enough to prevent extinction if the lines and dirt end up on top of a few.........it is just the principle of the thing at this point......so much flora, so much potential for a moonscape at this address.....i am depressed...............

the beloved disciple......

ok, so today's sunday school lesson dealt with john chapter 21 verses 1-19....a passage that includes the following 'that disciple whom jesus loved said to peter, it is the lord...' we had quite a discussion about the disciple that jesus loved.......john is the only gospel writer that mentions this unnamed person.......most notably in chapter 21 when peter asks jesus about his relationship with the beloved disciple and jesus tells him to mind his own business........on-line references were varied........there is a gay christian website named the beloved disciple.....this option had already occured to me........how do we know that jesus was heterosexual.........we don't..............there was a web mention of the beloved being john the guy who wrote the gospel......kind of like......jesus loved me best.........and then there was the mary magdeline theory.....some guy from egypt identified mary as the beloved in the second century.......of course, i like the mary magdeline theory.....why couldn't jesus' beloved be a woman?...........this really makes sense in davinci code terms.......peter took over the church, and peter black-washed mary as a prostitute or worse.......some jealousies run deeper than faith...........anyway, there was a person in my sunday school class, raised catholic but now southern baptist, who took great umbrage at this notion...............she even admitted that she was having a hard time finishing the davinci code because she could not get by the 'fiction' ............at the very least, the gospels are themselves fictions..........personally edited accounts that leave in and leave out details based on an agenda of some sort..........for us to say that the gospels are the truth, without taking this reality into account is simple-minded............does that mean that i lack faith.....not at all, in the same way that martin luther did not lack faith when he had the courage to go up against the catholic church over ethical issues.............oh my......at this late date i am so amazed to find that there are people who take everybit of information that comes along as 'gospel' and do not feel empowered to question any of it...........

tour de france.....oh yeah.....

ok, so when mm noted in the previous blog that she was not much of a sports fan, she completely forgot about bicycle racing...............every july i sit with my spouse and watch taped coverage of each stage (the only reason we would ever get cable would be to have open access to oln, which airs bicycle racing........but as long as my mother has a sattelite dish and is willing to tape these programs.........)anyway, last night we watched coverage of the tour of georgia, where part of the us postal team is racing........and highlights of other european classics (paris-rubaix, etc.)..........lance is not the only american that races.....there is also george hincappie, bobby julich, levi leipheimer to name a few........though none except george race with lance......they race with other teams in hopes of being the top dog and supported in bids for stage wins........lance's #2 guy from last year, roberto heras, is now with his own team, and will surely give lance a run for his money this year........the other nice thing about watching taped segments?...we can ff through the commercials..........

boston 3 yankees 2

ok, so mm has never been much of a sports fan, except for when osu plays michigan......or during wimbledon......but i am reinventing myself as a redsox fan.........i am enjoying their winning season...thus far...their wins over the evil yankees, and the possibility that this year's team may just break the curse.............not that i have watched more than 1 game....but i do follow along on-line as the games progress.......

more about will.......

ok, so mm has a few words to say about will s...............i watched shakespeare in love......again.....on vhs......in the whirlpool bathtub.....again.......and i have decided that it is one of the finest films made..............so much passion......so much love denied........so much love expressed in beautiful words....both in the play romeo and juliet that the back story about will and viola............on another note.....................i am so proud of scw's national merit letter.....................he is still in the running for at least a commendation............with at least 3 at dhs............who knows about boyle county high school.......maybe nobody considering grade inflation.....................waiting for scw, i talked with his sr. year english teacher.....they will read j. austin's pride and predjudice.........a book that i have read yearly since my middle child was born, and have watched yearly since it came out from a&e................it is a story he knows well..........................

words from will........

ok, so today is supposedly will shakespeares birthday.......harder to tell these things when people were born at home.........i enjoyed reading the following on mpr's daily blog.........He used one of the largest vocabularies of any English writer, almost 30,000 words, and he gave us many of our most common turns of phrase, including "foul play," "as luck would have it," "your own flesh and blood," "too much of a good thing," "good riddance," "in one fell swoop," "cruel to be kind," "play fast and loose," "vanish into thin air," "the game is up," "truth will out," and "in the twinkling of an eye."

some people just have a way with words................

maurice clarett and his mamma

ok, so the supreme court denied a request from maurice clarett, and presumedly from his mamma as well.....to allow him to participate in the nfl draft this weekend.............gentle readers who may not be OSU fans.....maurice clarett led the OSU BUCKEYES to their recent national championship...as a freshman....and then his career when down the tubes from there...........he and his mamma were involved in some sort of financial scandal...which got him kicked out of osu because such things are verboten with the ncaa.................he then started into litigation with the nfl with regards to the draft 'early'.............like 2 years early................this fellow is a tad older than acw............who is a true sophomore in college as opposed to someone who may not actually know the way to class on OSU's campus...........no matter what they say.........OSU football players do not attend class.............I was in a psychology class with Archie Griffin's younger brother...and he never showed up..............I would bet the farm that he got a passing grade..........anyway, back to maurice clarett..............who was 'lent' money by a football booster....and the money was spent by his mamma on who know's what......one oculd argue that OSU corrupted him, with promises of riches despite the ncaa rules............but it looks like he and his mamma got greedy, and now they may have lost all that they counted on........................ha! so many young black athletes have this fantasy that they will strike it rich in the pros....and so they neglect their lessons......and go downhill from there..........i saw about 6 of dhs's finest football players walking to school yesterday, after dropping off scw..........not one had a backpack...which means not one found the time to do any homework...........or felt inclined to read the lessons.............ironic, as scw had a backpack filled to the point that his french ap novel and the accompanying french dictionary were in hand because there was no other room in the zippered compartments..............so I say...too bad, maurice clarett..................you blew it....the scholarship...the classes you likely did not attend.....the team you thought were too good to play with......and now you are lucky to find a job in columbus saying............'do you want fries with that?'...................

princess diana

ok, so the mm has her limits, and princess diana is at the top of her list...............cbs is set to reveal photos of princess diana taken at the wreck scene...........even access hollywood was about to 'reveal' these photos as i shut down the tv set....................this is a level of curiosity/nosiness to which i will not stoop..............i rose before dawn to watch her get married (just 1 month after my own wedding, which was a bit less formal....)...i bought every magazine in which she was featured.................. i wept when i heard that she died.....i watched the entire broadcast of her funeral...i have the single cd of elton john's remake of candle in the wind..........i light candles for her whenever i visit paris cathedrals..............but i will not gawk at her mangled body just because this image can be produced for me.............the dead have their ultimate right to privacy..................

slow children at play

ok, so i really like this poem by cecilia woloch

Slow Children at Play

All the quick children have gone inside, called
by their mothers to hurry-up-wash-your-hands
honey-dinner's-getting-cold, just-wait-till-your-father-gets-home--
and only the slow children out on the lawns, marking off
paths between fireflies, making soft little sounds with their mouths, ohs
that glow and go out and glow. And their slow mothers flickering,
pale in the dusk, watching them turn in the gentle air, watching them
twirling, their arms spread wide, thinking, These are my children, thinking,
Where is their dinner? Where has their father gone?

there is a sign on our circle that says slow children at play............which is only slightly true, as the only cayle and lena are at the age of play....the others are under age 2 and don't get out much..............as for whether they are slow children is anybody's guess .....and as for me being a slow mother...................

meanness is as meanness does............

ok, so the mm is feeling especially mean today..........possibly because i worked inside all day when the weather was lovely.......maybe because i am just plain mean............

a brief treatise on aging

ok, so the plethora of new grey hairs that plagued my spring break trip seem to have receded (no pun intended)....and i appear to back to the usual hair color...who knew that driving 2000 miles would turn a few hairs grey? since this episode i have been more attune to hair color/growing out of hair color............and frankly, it does not appear to be useful in the long run to color grey............so many women i have noticed do not quite keep up with this covering of grey, and therefore look worse than they might have looked...........i am amused to read on line that there is a group offering a 'voice' lift to those who feel that the aging process has somehow affected voice quality..............hahahaha........should my voice sound too old to certain listeners..........there are many hand gestures that speak volumes with a meaning that remains ageless.............

sunburn

ok, so between cayle's soccer game, and a few moments spent on the deck reading the newspaper, i have come up with a nasty sunburn on my face, lower arms, and neck...........oh, my......i did not see this coming on a day that wasn't all that hot.........my face is so red it even hurts when i look at myself in the mirror.............

closure......

ok, so last night the mm took advantage of an opportunity to find closure and peace with her brother-in-law........the one she has not seen in 2 solid years....not since the unfortunate probating of her mother-in-law's will 2 years ago.................i was really pleased to see him at my sister-in-law's house.....and my first words to him were genuine................i told him that i was most sad when osu won the national football championship, and i did not feel welcome to call him to relish in the success..............he gave me a big hug, and told me that he celebrated for both of us..............and that he also celebrated when xavier made it to the round of 8...........................family distress is more than distressing...............it is downright disabling.....................even when it is not quite your family..................

tom bombadil.......

ok, so on the way back from cincinnati this morning, we listened to nickel creek, a bluegrass trio produced my alison krauss............they are quite good, with fiddle, mandolin, and guitar...........anyway...they played a song about tom bombadil..................which may seem natural to those literati who have actually read the tolkein trilogy...............sadly, neither my spouse nor my daughter had read the books...and therefore had no idea about tom bombadil.......................i can recall...the first time i got wind that someone was filming the trilogy.................i looked online to see who was to play tom bombadil............i am still dismayed that this character was left out......................he and his lovely companion represent all that is good and earthy about this life we lead..............and peter jackson decided that he would rather spend hisd on-screen time on orcs and falling wizard flashbacks................ah well.................

governor's scholars

ok, so the mm is proud of her child who was accepted for the annual ky governor's scholar's program, that will take place for 5 wweks this summer at either centre college, eku, or bellermine.............there has been much press about our republican governor's failure to pass a budget in this session, and that there may not be funding for governor's scholars.......scw's acceptance letter even mentions the possibility of no money..................this acceptance also carries with it the reality of a 4-year full-ride to u.k.................should scw want a full-ride at u.k............frankly, I don't see u.k. as the premier school for romance languages.................... therefore my child has my permission to pursue other options...............

isak dinesen

ok, so today is isak dinesen's birthday......and her life was so tragic.......she fell in love with the son of a count, but he refused to marry her, so she married his twin brother as a way to get revenge..........and from him she caught a std.........and left her on her own in their african coffee plantation...............where she wrote the stories that would become out of africa.................when hemingway won the nobel prize for literature, he commented that the prize should have gone to her...........a quote i appreciate..........Dinesen said, "All sorrows can be borne, if you put them into a story."

book on tape..............

ok, so mm so enjoyed listening to books on tape during the trip up east, that she has gone out and gotten yet another one to listen to whilst walking/working.............this one is a sequel of sorts to the talented mr ripley, by patricia highsmith...........i had not realized that she wrote several books using my ripley as her imperfect hero......so far, this book is quite good, especially since i have seen the movie and know what preceded this book, both the good and the bad...............

www.savebobedwards.com

ok, so i have gone to the web site noted in the paper tonight, even though i have already emailed npr about the disappointing switch in early morning host.................i cannot imagine waking up to anybody except bob edwards...............on npr, that is................

slavery revisited........

ok, so the mm just got back from catering a 'casual' event at the home of a local 'doyenne', whose pre-civil war home has slave quarters in the backyard.........we arrived 1 hour early to set up.........and were greeted with dismay that we brought no appetizers.......gentle readers....be aware that no appetizers, nor coffee, nor any else other than 2 casseroles, salad, bread, soft drinks, and cookies were requested................anyway........when we were set up and waiting for guests, the hostess starting in talking about the slave quarters out back, and reminisced 'chauncey(her late spouse) used to say that he was the last slave on this plantation'....................she then turned to gail, my friend and coworder, and said.....'i imagine you know all about that'...................there was a long pause...........as gail is black...and whether or not she knows all about that is her business.......i could not believe that our hostess would say such a thing..............well, yes i can believe it, because she gets by saying worse to so many people..............anyway, at 8:00 pm, the only people there were her paid housecleaners (working overtime) and us.....we waited until 9:00.....in case someone might come late.......finally, the hostess asked me why i was so anxious to leave.....i replied that i was concerned that gail was ill, and i wanted to get her home.........................actually, gail had mentioned in passing that she has an upset stomach, and i just ran with it.................i will remember this ploy in future, gentle readers..............

alias withdrawal............

ok, so mm is more than an alias fan.....she is an alias fanatic..................i have already looked up the next week's scenario on both the abc website, and the fan site........and i cannot wait...................my family struggles to watch with me....as i talk to the television about how vaughan must surely know that his wife is a double agent......and now jack is withholding valuable evidence that could free the man who may just be the real father of his daughter....got it?......it is like soaps for adults.....but on sunday night when they can settle in with a cold one for their weekly fix...................

wsj......

ok, so trc got a pretty decent mention in the wsj on thursday april 8....in the personal journal section, in a small piece about wine and liqueur pairing dinners........very nice publicty, though most of our clientele do not take the wsj....however, we have already received a lovely framed copy of our piece from a patron who lives in stanford..............

nick and jessica....

ok, so the mm took time out today to email abc to complain that 1) alias was pre-empted by nick and jessica's comedy hour and 2) nick and jessica's comedy hour was a tragic rehash of sonny and cher, which was pretty stupid the first time around.........at one point i was certain that poor jessica was lip-synching her love ballad/tribute to her spouse........and i was also afraid that her breasts would explode from so much pumping up..........yes.....i will admit that the mm is quite the little alias fan...........but really.......nick and jessica?

iraq as the new viet nam...

ok, so last night we got together with some book club people and watched the quiet american, starring michael cain and brendan fraiser.......a chilling tale of american duplicity in the years leading up to the viet nam war......one of our group mentioned a quote that npr had recently featured....by ho chi min (sp)........he was asked how he thought that he could beat the best army on earth....he replied.......they will kill many of us....we will kill some of them......and they will tire of it first.............i have pondered this quote today as i read of still more u.s. casualities.....yes, we will tire of it first when the cause is not just.......at princeton, yale, and harvard, we saw entire rooms filled with the names of war dead...cicvil war....wwI and wwII....korea.........the lists of names got really lean when the viet nam war was remembered........an unjust war that few were willing to die for....................the politics of iraq, the factions are so intractable that we were complete fools to think that we could just bring in democracy and think it would 'take', like fabric takes dye................we need gwbush to fade into the sunset this november............

top 5 lists...#1

ok, so here are the best and worst things about middlebury college...in no particular order...

Best things 1. language program is tops......campus has a french 'house' called the chateau for french majors 2. two thirds of students study abroad...language majors are expected to study abroad 3. the student body is especially left-leaning politically........4. students/campus administration is dedicated to recycling......even unsorted trash is sorted after pickup to remove recyclables .....5. students clearly love this place...when we arrived too late for the tour...we kind of hung around reading literature.....and a tour guide who had finished with her group saw us looking forlorn...and offered to take us around herself...she even picked up a family of three she saw looking around on campus.......that kind of hospitality/loyalty is telling of the way students must be treated by staff/faculty/administration

Worst things 1. this college is at best 19 hours from car, and not only is it not near any cut-rate southwest hub, it is at least 45 minutes from any airport in an area where there are no public transportation options.....2. this college is located in an area that still had traces of snow in early april........my child tends to lose things like coats, gloves, etc....he will surely freeze to death......3. security seemed lax.......our guide took us into her dorm and into her room........and there were no locked doors of any kind...no key pads.....no infra-red sensors......no codes.......though there are security guards that know the student body, there seemed to be an openness that appeared too trusting in these troubled times.....4. cell phones are out of range until you get closer to the new york state line.......5. some dorms don't offer upper classman housing, even though students are expected to live in their dorms 4 years.......i may have misunderstood, but that is what i think i heard.......

a resurrection poem

ok, so in our easter sunday school literature, the following poem was synopsized.............

Manifesto:
The Mad Farmer Liberation Front

by Wendell Berry

Love the quick profit, the annual raise,
vacation with pay. Want more
of everything ready-made. Be afraid
to know your neighbors and to die.

And you will have a window in your head.
Not even your future will be a mystery
any more. Your mind will be punched in a card
and shut away in a little drawer.

When they want you to buy something
they will call you. When they want you
to die for profit they will let you know.
So, friends, every day do something
that won't compute. Love the Lord.
Love the world. Work for nothing.
Take all that you have and be poor.
Love someone who does not deserve it.

Denounce the government and embrace
the flag. Hope to live in that free
republic for which it stands.
Give your approval to all you cannot
understand. Praise ignorance, for what man
has not encountered he has not destroyed.

Ask the questions that have no answers.
Invest in the millenium. Plant sequoias.
Say that your main crop is the forest
that you did not plant,
that you will not live to harvest.

Say that the leaves are harvested
when they have rotted into the mold.
Call that profit. Prophesy such returns.
Put your faith in the two inches of humus
that will build under the trees
every thousand years.

Listen to carrion -- put your ear
close, and hear the faint chattering
of the songs that are to come.
Expect the end of the world. Laugh.
Laughter is immeasurable. Be joyful
though you have considered all the facts.
So long as women do not go cheap
for power, please women more than men.

Ask yourself: Will this satisfy
a woman satisfied to bear a child?
Will this disturb the sleep
of a woman near to giving birth?

Go with your love to the fields.
Lie down in the shade. Rest your head
in her lap. Swear allegiance
to what is nighest your thoughts.

As soon as the generals and the politicos
can predict the motions of your mind,
lose it. Leave it as a sign
to mark the false trail, the way
you didn't go.

Be like the fox
who makes more tracks than necessary,
some in the wrong direction.
Practice resurrection.

"Manifesto: The Mad Farmer Liberation Front" from The Country of Marriage, copyright ® 1973 by Wendell Berry, reprinted by permission of Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Inc.


just thought you would enjoy this take on easter.............

tabouli....

ok, so i indulged my cravings yesterday, and made a special trip to the kroger's for tabouli ingredients......bulgur, lemon, parsley, green onions, cherry tomatoes......etc.........we had it for supper along with lemon-roast chicken........and now i have the priviledge of several days of tabouli leftovers.....tabouli for breakfast, tabouli for a little snack when i get home from work........bulgur bliss.........life is good..............

back home......

ok, so we are back home, after a marathon drive from upstate new york......we had a leisurely breakfast with my husband's sister....then set off toward home on the new york thru-way.........thankfully we had company for the trip........dan brown's angels and demons...on 15 cd's.........quite compelling piece of fiction............enough to keep up alert and intrigued for 15 hours.........i had heard that this book was better than davinci code........i cannot go that far with my praise.....but it is an excellent mystery/thriller with lots of really interesting historical elements, conspiracy theories, cutting edge technology, and a virtual tour of the eternal city, rome.........the climax lasted from cleveland to cincinnati, or so it seemed........we pulled into the garage sometime after 1:00 am......

too many colleges to choose from......

ok, we have officially toured 4 colleges in 4 days.......for the record, i loved princeton and middlebury, and basically disliked harvard because of the crowds, noise level, etc.....and have no real opinion on yale.....

east coast culture shock

ok, so.......toto, we aren't in kentucky anymore......for starts....there are no left turns off of route 1.......just u-turns in designated areas.......and it is illegal to self-serve gas......and the restaurants in princeton seem to be byob......and the sun rises earlier here that at home...i should have known that one....and i seem to be allergic to something...i woke up with my eyes swollen................

final two...

ok, so mm is so glad that duke is out..........anybody but duke can be national champ......ever since duke beat uconn....the year i had a perfect bracket bet in a multi-state pool......with uconn to win, and duke won instead....i have no use for duke...til the end of tme....

moonlight over hogwarts

ok, so the hotel in princeton has internet...on the tv, or a price dearer than cybercafes in paris and barcelona combined.....but no worries....iam on vacation.....we drove through snow today in west virginia.....and through incredible crosswinds.....thankfully we had jane with us.....jane eyre, in numerous tape cassettes.......we are on chapter 27.......and the house has not yet caught on fire......don' tell scw......he is unfamiliar with story line.....we should be finished by the time we hit new haven on tuesday.....anyway.......we arrived in princeton in time to have a quick thai meal before meeting ivan.......princeton really looks like hogwarts, with all of the buildings looking gothic with stone arches, and stained glass......especially tnight under a full moon.......with the wind howling cold.......scw will stay on ivans couch tonight, and go to class with him in the morning.....i will meet scw for the tour, and then will see the art museum in the afternoon.......

character names

ok, so in my novel/screenplay someone must be named lucky hoskins and/or waddy peytona......................both are memorable exits off major interstates, and both struck me as clever names for colorful characters................maybe the filmmaker fron downunder can be waddy......i think i will make this guy part-aborigine......and maybe have him fall for my friend gail..........

blogless in boston?

ok, so mm may be out of blogging range for the next few days.....unless she can locate a cybercafe in these quaint college towns.....my instincts tell me that there will be none, as students have their own pcs/laptops/handhelds.................it will be frustrating to know that i could blog home from bilbao, but not from boston............

not writer's block at all......

ok, so mm has determined that her lack of progress on writing down all of the images in her head are due solely to lack of adequate materials.........what i really need is a roll of paper.....a continuous roll like that which was used to write 'on the road'..................which will later sell for millions at auction................that is all i appear to require.......................

the baby is safe............

ok, so the news at trc was about the baby, abducted from the little hospital down the road by a woman wearing scrubs...........and found somewhere by bowling green.....however did that woman think she could get away with this.....it appears that she was pretending to be pregnant, and just needed a live infant to complete the scenario.............the stolen baby's parents are 'honor' students at another high school just down the road.............the photos of them are just as pitiful as the pictures of the alledged abductor..........'so po-dunk kentucky' was the term used by my lunch time waitress meg...........so very sad...................

packing for paris...........

ok, so as much as i love alliteration.......i am so much better at packing for paris than i am for any other locale.........this is so obvious when one sees photos of my trips to paris........as i am usually wearing similar outfits...............my legendary photo with rick steves.....i am wearing the same outfit i am wearing now..................go figure.....................i like khakis, white turtlenecks and black sweaters..............i have looked at the forecast.....the up-east coast will have highs of 45 and lows of 33..............which might as well be paris weather..............but i do not feel like wearing black and white. and tan.....because it is spring break.......i should be wearing pink....................most people that we know are driving south to the beach..............gentle readers......the c-w's did just one beach vacation....when scw was but 6 months old.................it was hot, it was muggy, and we vowed that we would never do that again.................so our vacations are either to visit kin , or to gain enrichment of some sort.....................therefore, we have been to d.c. on numerous spring breaks.........i regret, by the way, that i will not be visiting my own brother this spring break, but he is rarely available, and he is stewing over my ingratitude that the p.c. he sent us for xmas lacked a dvd burner.....................i will leave our movie camera at home on this trip because i cannot download the images...........that was a mean, low blow....but then i am the mm.......make no mistake..............or maybe i am just cold, and in need of some warmer clothing...............

along those same lines......

ok, so gail and i win the lottery, and within a year we have spent it all, mostly on good projects like scholarships and church mission works, and we are asked to do an interview for an australian documentery on gambling......which allows russell crowe to be the introduced character...........who seems perplexed how we could have had all of this money, and yet remain at trc......working 8-3:30......................

road rage

ok, so the mm has experienced road rage before ever making it out of boyle county.......there is something about friday afternoon in little downtown danville...............first, there is no turning either left or right onto main from church street...........and when the opportunity arises, the quick left into the lot that ecw shares with save-a-lot is ripe with danger........at this point, scw has already walked from the high school, but there is cayle to pick up........scw called on the cell phone, from the moment we left trc.....and by the time we arrived at danville bike and fitness, we had learned that she had walked to the library.................on through the save-a-lot lot.....we could not turn left, as the dumpster in front of the new subway blovks the view....so we turned right, and had to double back to the library....which had no open spots out front....so we had to cut through the hospice lot, and back around......and parked in front of stith funeral home...................i ran into the library while scw kept a look-out in case she came out after i went in...........she was in the basement......as pointed out by katherine backer's little sister........no one is incognito in danville............but she wanted to check-out a book....which meant that she had to wait in line......we drove up to the door to pick her up, but had to wait yet again at the light for the rescue squad to pass........and wait again at the third and lexington light.......gridlock...........by the time i made it onto gwinn island road, i felt like i had been driving all day, rather than for 20 minutes.............however will i handle real traffic up-east.........................

a better mousetrap.......

ok, so the mm has readers of exquisite taste.......the following was part of an email.....

Hi Kathy,
I was thinking about your plot problem if you lose the Oprah idea...(who knows why one's mind latches onto things?). Anyway, I was thinking that if your protagonist wins the lottery (or do two people win the lottery together or does the whole cafe staff split the pot...) that it allows the introduction of a writer character who wants to interview them to do either a movie script or a sit-com/drama pilot This allows stories to be told in sequence through multiple meetings, offers your characters opportunities to mull over what is made public vs. what is part of private life and keeps you from having to tell the whole thing within a one-time interview.

Has anyone written an e-mail correspondence novel yet? (Like the epistolary form, but short and ungrammatical.) Anyway, I have no ambitions to write anything more than an occasional note or letter, so more power to you.


I really wish that i had thought of that story line myself..............

the money pit..............

ok, so remember years ago when the movie called 'the money pit' out came out...i cannot recall who starred, but i can recall the concept of a house draining you of all worldly goods............well, our sleeping dog of a dream home is looking to drain usof our worldly goods............the new septic system will likely cause us to dig up our entire front yard, including the planting beds, brick walks, miniature boxwood edgings...old roses, that have stood these many years.........my spouse has promised that they will spray paint on the grass just where the digging will take place, to give me time to move things.............likely in the way is the redbud we planted in honor of his deceased sister.........i do not know just how we will move a tree...............

out of the woodwork.........

ok, so the half of danville that did not eat at trc on martini madness night...showed up for lunch today.......and my octogenarian host started seating people at tables that had neither been cleared nor wiped off.......mm would like to raise sincere thanks to the father of the l.o. and his dining companion for not 'seeing' the mess...quite gracious of you both...my friend gail thanks you, too.............