Democracy will not come
Today, this year
Nor ever
Through compromise and fear.
I have as much right
As the other fellow has
To stand
On my two feet
And own the land.
I tire so of hearing people say,
Let things take their course.
Tomorrow is another day.
I do not need my freedom when I’m dead.
I cannot live on tomorrow’s bread.
Freedom
Is a strong seed
Planted
In a great need.
I live here, too.
I want freedom
Just as you.
Things that have been sitting on my bookshelf forever that I’m dying to get to, but I keep getting diverted by one or the other book clubs I’m in. I think I may have to let one of them go, much as I hate the idea. I might have to be the women’s book club, since they seem to be switching the time to the evenings. When I joined, one of the attractions was that they met on Sunday afternoons.
My Life, by Bill Clinton
Ella Minnow Pea
Jane and the Ghosts of Netley
The Devil in the White City
An Instance of the Fingerpost
Everything is Illuminated
A Short History of Nearly Everything
Pattern Recognition
Infinite Jest
The Girl with Curious Hair
Master and Commander
Second Glance is the book our women’s book club chose for August.
My co-worker’s book club is still deciding on what book to read for July going to read In Cold Blood by Truman Capote.
For no real reason, except that I happened to click on it on someone else’s site, a really nice photo of Lynda Carter as Wonder Woman. Which is coming out on DVD on June 29th, BTW. You’ll want to pre-order that right away. I did.
So I spent the whole weekend moving at a leisurely pace, which was very refreshing after months of whirlwind activity.
Friday night was Girl’s Game Night at Vic’s/Outword Bound, which is always very fun. I bought The Truth About Jane and Tipping the Velvet on DVD from Outword Bound, which now has an online store, by the way. Check it out and buy something. We played Apples to Apples and Catchphrase, which are fun standards. I brought one of my games, Teams of Enemies, but we had too many people to play it. Next month’s Very Special Girls Game Night will be held at my house for change of scenery.
I finished The Eyre Affair on Sunday, and last night wrapped up The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time, which I’m reading for one of my book clubs. Both are highly recommended.
Granta and the New York Review of Books are two publications that I’ve always wanted to subscribe to, but could never quite find the money for in my budget. Now they’re free as a bonus with my subscription to Salon Magazine. That’s so cool. I love Salon and read it everyday anyway… all the bonuses are icing on the very yummy cake.
I’ve read a great deal from others about Naomi Wolf and her revelation that while at school she had been sexually harrassed by famed professor Harold Bloom, but I had not, until today, read the story in her own words.
Treppenwitz, AKA “L’esprit de l’escalier”
Literally, ‘the wisdom of the stairs’. The striking reply that crosses one’s mind belatedly when already leaving, on the stairs. People are often angry because they did not have the fitting answer directly during a conversation. The term is old, but it was made popular by W. Lewis Hertslet who published his book in 1882 entitled ‘Treppenwitz der Weltgeschichte’. In that book, he writes: ‘Like to a petitioner who is just leaving after an audience, a piquant, striking words occurs to history almost always delayed.’
Yep, that’s always when I think of the really witty zinger… half an hour too late.
College Application essay by Hugh Gallagher, author of Teeth:
3A. ESSAY: IN ORDER FOR THE ADMISSIONS STAFF OF OUR COLLEGE TO GET TO KNOW YOU, THE APPLICANT, BETTER, WE ASK THAT YOU ANSWER THE FOLLOWING QUESTION: ARE THERE ANY SIGNIFICANT EXPERIENCES YOU HAVE HAD, OR ACCOMPLISHMENTS YOU HAVE REALIZED, THAT HAVE HELPED TO DEFINE YOU AS A PERSON?
I am a dynamic figure, often seen scaling walls and crushing ice. I have been known to remodel train stations on my lunch breaks, making them more efficient in the area of heat retention. I translate ethnic slurs for Cuban refugees, I write award-winning operas, I manage time efficiently. Occasionally, I tread water for three days in a row.
I woo women with my sensuous and godlike trombone playing, I can pilot bicycles up severe inclines with unflagging speed, and I cook Thirty-Minute Brownies in twenty minutes. I am an expert in stucco, a veteran in love, and an outlaw in Peru.
Using only a hoe and a large glass of water, I once single-handedly defended a small village in the Amazon Basin from a horde of ferocious army ants. I play bluegrass cello, I was scouted by the Mets, I am the subject of numerous documentaries. When I’m bored, I build large suspension bridges in my yard. I enjoy urban hang gliding. On Wednesdays, after school, I repair electrical appliances free of charge.
I am an abstract artist, a concrete analyst, and a ruthless bookie. Critics worldwide swoon over my original line of corduroy evening wear. I don’t perspire. I am a private citizen, yet I receive fan mail. I have been caller number nine and have won the weekend passes. Last summer I toured New Jersey with a traveling centrifugal-force demonstration. I bat .400. My deft floral arrangements have earned me fame in international botany circles. Children trust me.
I can hurl tennis rackets at small moving objects with deadly accuracy. I once read Paradise Lost, Moby Dick, and David Copperfield in one day and still had time to refurbish an entire dining room that evening. I know the exact location of every food item in the supermarket. I have performed several covert operations for the CIA. I sleep once a week; when I do sleep, I sleep in a chair. While on vacation in Canada, I successfully negotiated with a group of terrorists who had seized a small bakery. The laws of physics do not apply to me.
I balance, I weave, I dodge, I frolic, and my bills are all paid. On weekends, to let off steam, I participate in full-contact origami. Years ago I discovered the meaning of life but forgot to write it down. I have made extraordinary four course meals using only a mouli and a toaster oven. I breed prizewinning clams. I have won bullfights in San Juan, cliff-diving competitions in Sri Lanka, and spelling bees at the Kremlin. I have played Hamlet, I have performed open-heart surgery, and I have spoken with Elvis.
But I have not yet gone to college.