Elinor Nauen

This happened many years ago but I was reminded of it by last week's Health II story of Johnny punching out a kid who tried to mug him. I bet (& hope) the kid will never try that again. I was riding the #7 out to Queens, writing in a little notebook. I was aware of a man standing near me but not that the train was emptying out. I hunched over my notebook, quite sure he was trying to snoop on what I was writing & steal it for his own. I paid no outward attention but I was getting pissed off. When my stop came, I waited till the last second & stood up as the doors opened. Which was when I realized he wasn't reading over my shoulder but patiently waiting for me to see that his stupid dick was hanging out. I roared with laughter at my misapprehension (NO ONE IS INTERESTED IN STEALING YOUR POEMS, EL!) & jumped off. I didn't look back but I can only imagine that that was not the reaction he had been anticipating for the last 20 minutes. I also bet (& hope) he never did that again & spent the rest of his life doubting himself in the manhood department. 

I ran into phrenology recently in Walt Whitman: The making of the poet, by Paul Zweig. More quack science? Phrenology is the study of the skull to understand mental faculties and character traits. It was very credible to such 19th century thinkers as Hegel, Horace Greeley, Horace Mann, & many others. Whitman saw a connection between his "chart of bumps" & his poetical character and used phrenological concepts in his work; Fowler & Wells, leading phrenologists, sold the first edition of Leaves of Grass in their store & published the second. 

I can't help but wonder if a century from now people will look at psychology as we do at phrenology, a big advance in many ways but largely worthless. 

Here's a terrific article on a modern study of phrenology. While it couldn't find any correspondence between the skull & what's inside, it did find "a very strong positive association between the trait "amativeness" (the arousal of feelings of sexual desire) and "words." Which is to say, the more sexual partners a person has had, the higher their verbal fluency in a word naming task. 

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This is part 5 (the final one) of a themed week on the blog. I was feeling like I've been spinning my wheels here & am eager to try something new. Love to hear feedback or ideas. 

There's a family story about my parents going to the Twin Cities for a weekend, where they took in a play. Just as the would-be murderer was creeping up on his victim, my dad let out one of his enormous sneezes. I believe the villain dropped his knife. The next week, a client said, "Hans, I have to tell you what happened last weekend up in Minnesota...." My dad didn't say a word. 

One thing I've inherited from my dad is an astonishingly loud sneeze. Just the other day, someone started & turned from half a block away. 

What accounts for the volume? The sound of a sneeze comes from the air escaping from your mouth or nose. The average sneeze is about as loud as a lawnmower. According to Richard Harvey of St Vincent's and Macquarie University Hospitals in Sydney, the loudness depends on a person's lung capacity, size and how long they hold their breath. "The longer you hold your breath, the more dramatic you make it."

Advice for turning down the volume includes sneezing into a thick handkerchief, holding your breath right before you sneeze, coughing while you sneeze, & clenching your teeth and jaw (messy!). 

Here's the best part. According to the UK's Daily Mail, a loud sneezer "is often marking his position as an alpha male, while an elbow sneezer likes to follow the rules and may not be an individual thinker."

I love those "what your X says about you" quizzes. When I worked at women's magazines, we were always trying to come up with personality quizzes like this: what the way you wear down your lipstick, the way you park, the way you answer the phone says about you. 

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This is part 4 of a themed week on the blog. I was feeling like I've been spinning my wheels here & am eager to try something new. Love to hear feedback or ideas.

I'm a modern gal so it's a little shocking that people are going back & finding value in old ways like leeches & cupping. Cupping is a simple technique that involves pressing a suction cup into the skin. A recent experiment found that rats injected with SARS-CoV-2 DNA, which on its own quickly degrades in the body, followed by moderate suction had an immune response 100 times stronger than injection alone. This matters because vaccines that don't require refrigeration are easier to distriute in poorer countries, & if they can be more effective with a simple technique like cupping, all the better for everyone. 

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This is part 3 of a themed week on the blog. I was feeling like I've been spinning my wheels here & am eager to try something new. Love to hear feedback or ideas.

Johnny was walking home on 2nd Street east of B when a teenager demanded his money. Without pausing, Johnny hauled off & hit the kid. Half a block later he looked behind him & the kid was only then getting up. Don't mess with an Irish boxer, even if he's 78 years old & walks with a cane!

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This is part 2 of a themed week on the blog. I was feeling like I've been spinning my wheels here & am eager to try something new. Love to hear feedback or ideas.

Those who think they have not time for bodily exercise will sooner or later have to find time for illness.

~ Edward Smith-Stanley

Hmm, there are quite a few gentlemen of this name in 19th-century England, all with colorful histories, divorces, and accomplishments (many bird-linked). The one who said this could be one of the Earls of Derby or a clergyman. 

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This is part 1 of a themed week on the blog. I was feeling like I've been spinning my wheels here & am eager to try something new. Love to hear feedback or ideas.

Really happy to go out & to a reading/event, to shake hands & hug people I know, look directly in their eyes, listen with a listening audience. Yuko was especially compelling but so was everyone. On the phone earlier, Andrei told me he'd thought the reading was yesterday & so ended up listening to a bunch of Filipino poets. That conversation, then much of the reading, was about language & translation. I tried doing a little simultaneous translation while I was listening. Another reading the next day at the Tompkins Square Park library, starring Maggie. Little by little the world creaks open. I hope. 

Prepositions are crazy in every language. Norwegian, for example, has different ones depending if you are talking about continents, countries, cities (i); directions (for); or islands, parts of cities, or individual mountans (på). And those are just some of the prepositions of place. A couple of people I know who are almost natively fluent in a second language still make mistakes. Someone explained that prepositions are difficult because there are so many of them & each can have many meanings & nuances ~ they've been in use a long time & had plenty of chances to mutate. And they're not consistent. We're on the train, Germans are in them. We read books by an author, while in many countries books are from a writer. My teacher said a woman dropped out of her class explaining, I have met the prepositions, & the prepositions won. 

Journey

I met upon the road
A woman and a man,
And a tree that genuflected
Before the wind;
Farther on, a browsing burro;
And farther still, a heap of stone.
And in three thousand leagues of my spirit
There was no more than these:
A tree, a stone, a burro,
A woman, and a man.

 ~ Leopoldo Lugones, translated by Muna Lee
 

 
El hastio
 

Encontré por la senda
Una mujer y un hombre,
Y un árbol que al viento
Hacía genuflexiones.
Más lejos un asno que no hacía nada,
Y más lejos una piedra informe...
Y en tres mil leguas de mi espíritu
No había más, entonces,
Que un árbol, una piedra, un asno,
Una mujer y un hombre.

Leopoldo Antonio Lugones Argüello was an Argentine poet, writer, historian, and journalist, and the author of many collections, including Lunario sentimental (Arnoldo Moen y Hermano, 1909) and Filosofícula (Editorial Babel, 1924). He was born on Yeats' birthday & died on mine: June 13, 1874 – February 18, 1938. 

Muna Lee (1895-1965) was an American poet, writer, translator, and political activist. She published one book of poetry, Sea-Change (The MacMillan Company, 1923), and served as the translator for the June 1925 issue of Poetry, which exclusively featured Latin American poets.

Thanks to the Academy of American Poets for their Poem-a-day email. 

I was dispirited before the election at all the misinformation, disinformation, & stupidity I heard from many sources (& even more so at the outcomes). Do people know they're wrong, in which case is it a con? or do they believe & repeat without understanding or study? I've been an uninformed voter, I'm ashamed to say, who used to believe my civic duty began & ended in the voting booth. Now I know better, & too much is at stake to ever go back to merrily pulling the lever (ha ha) without boning up on the issues & candidates. 

When I was born, Sioux Falls was not quite a hundred years old, & South Dakota had been a state for fewer years than I've now been alive. People who had been born in Dakota Territory were not uncommon. 

Not sure what else to say. Maybe that I shouldn't have eaten so much candy corn today. I scored the last bag at Rite-Aid, which has already stocked the seasonal shelves with Christmas candy. 

Nature is a Haunted House – but Art – a House that tries to be haunted.

~ Emily Dickinson

Happy Halloween to all those who celebrate late. Or are still celebrating. 

I fed her worms, though not this one. This is the first Farrah that spent the winter indoors. Usually they replace her when she hops away to hibernate. Does she appreciate them? Recognize them? How much i don't know! 

And now I'm home from Spartanburg & ready to do urban things again, where I have a fighting chance of knowing things.

From Lewis, the aged dachshund, to one Farrah the frog after another, the place is casually full of fauna as well as flora. Wild boar, armadillos, deer, groundhogs ~ the guys have seen all of them or the signs of their presence. Mockingbirds, cardinals, & many other birds. My city instinct is to flinch or startle but I relax after a few days. I'm going home today but I always come back. 

They did it! 30 years together & able to take this step only in the last 5 years. Never thought I'd see the day. It was lovely. The justice made everyone comfortable, it only took a few minutes, & they were pronounced Husband & Husband. The first wedding of two men I went to, the officiant simply pronounced them married. Becca, do you remember the language in Brooklyn? Any wedding is moving, & when it's a surprise & you're lucky enough to be in town, all the better. 

Little-known fact: Steve & I were once engaged, me to be his beard. But I would have gone through with it if he'd wanted, I who vowed to never get married. That's how much I love him & have his back. But much better Wayne than me!

Didn't manage a good picture of Sylva but I wanted to mention this little town that we often go through between Spartanburg & Murphy. We've gotten familiar with the main street, & usually have lunch here. I try to always buy a book (on Monday headed west, a little anthology of Black Mountain poets) at City Lights bookstore & today I also bought a book (H.D. Trilogy) at a used bookstore a block away. Sylva is the home of Western Carolina College, I believe, & has 2 good bookstores, 1 lousy one, & some decent restaurants. 

We came back pretty much the same route ~ & just two days later, a lot of color was gone from the Blue Ridge Parkway.

Almost not minding that Forrister doesn't have wifi (!) except that I'm typing this post on my phone and forgetting the sentence because of the one-by-one words. Not minding because I'm truly relaxing. My resting pulse has gone down 10 points. 

It takes all natons to keep the peace, but it only takes one to start a war.

~ Robert A. Heinlein

It takes all people to be sensible, but it only takes one lunatic to destroy truth. OK, not as good a quote but I'm thinking of a NY Times article "Where Facts Were No Match for Fear: Civic boosters in central Montana hoped for some federal money to promote tourism. A disinformation campaign got in the way.". One person with no facts destroyed a long-planned project that had no drawbacks and would have helped the area. Repeat lies enough & people will begin to wonder & then decide it's safer not to proceed when there are still "questions."

We walked on the Cottonwood Trail, which made me mash together Carolina words with cowboy songs. Cottonwood seems like such an out west tree. We did what we do, ate where we always eat, walk around Steve's four acres. I love it here. 

I'm here in South Carolina. This is the lake I've been visiting for 50 years. This is the place where I can breathe. 

Yay, going away for a week! You, Faithful Reader, will soon be seeing photos of fall foliage from the Blue Ridge Parkway & the delights of Wade's Meat+3 of Spartanburg. I'll leave with a work joke because I'm hoping not to think about semicolons for a week; or if I do, only briefly. 

Such a basic pleasure, to bask in a courtyard next to a fountain on a fall day that feels like summer, with people I've known for a long time & really, really like, eating the odds & ends each of us brought, chatting about books & our merry lives. Laughing plenty.

James Maher, as you can see, is a pretty terrific photographer. He sent a link to download this picture along with this: "The potential uses for the technology for art are fascinating and promising but right now my belief is that it's currently abusing art, putting an overly monetary focus on it, and turning into a scammy pyramid scheme."

So he offered this download-to-print giveaway, then continued: "I also want to use this print giveaway as a way to get everyone to print more ... And there you have it, a .jpeg is a wonderful thing. Now if only I could sell one for $30,000."

How art is commodified is so interesting. Luckily it's nigh-impossible to commodify poetry, although Lew Welch famously (& questionably?) came up with Raid Kills Bugs Dead.

When I used to go caroling, always on the Saturday night before Christmas Eve, always the same route around Columbia, & the same people, & the same flask, & always Chris's flashlight in his nose during Rudolph, & Sheila's beautiful voice, & Ethiopian food at the halfway point, I had a little problem that so many of the Christmas songs referred to Christ. I don't know why it is, but Jews have far less issue with saying "Jesus" than with "Christ." When I came up with the idea to substitute "Chrysler" for "Christ" I could sing loud 'n' lusty. 

Even now, at this late day, a blank sheet of paper holds the greatest excitement there is for me — more promising than a silver cloud, prettier than a little red wagon.

~ E. B. White

I feel so exactly the same. The one place I want to be, am happiest to be, is with a pen in my hand & a notebook on my lap. I could forget to bathe, do my work, clean the cat litter, but I never forget to write. 

Over a year since I'd seen Mike, formerly the most popular cook at B&H. He's now managing a cute place called Matto downtown. Everything, including specialty coffees, is $2.50, $2 if you order in the app. I finally managed to jump on my bike & go down there. Why does everything seem far away that you don't go to every day? Even crossing Houston Street seems impossible a lot of the time, & I live 1/2 a block away. Anyway, we had a beautiful reunion. So great to see him thriving, & already the most popular man on John Street. That man has the gift of friendship. 

Here's another example of how the long lockdown has addled my brain. I went out to eat last night with a friend, to Divya's Kitchen. We had a nice outdoor table in a roofed but windowless shed. Food & conversation were just what I needed. Then came the bill. I totally forgot how to tip. Double the tax & round up? A third of the bill for tax & tip? Those pretty much come out the same. Or do they? Then my math skills deserted me. I couldn't add or multiple even the simplest numbers. I still don't know if I undertipped (no such think as overtipping). And it was only 2 people. I am so out of practice! Imagine if I had to recover my flirting skills! 

It's not jacket weather in the least, being in the 70s, but it is indeed Jacket Weather if we're talking about Mike DeCapite's terrific book, out at last from Soft Skull. Has any other novelist been able to break your heart at the exact same moment he's making you laugh till you almost throw up?

Read it! 

This "Make Your Own Brainard" is totally great & makes me realize (1) how really good at this Joe was & (2) how impatient & unimaginative I am when confronted by directions, let alone images rather than words. 

My wise & kind friend Liza just said (slightly edited): 

The death of a loved one, especially one's mom or someone terminally ill, is the ultimate example of that thing about which one thinks "That will be HARD" [& they] are HARD, despite and regardless of how much you "knew" it would be. Like the criteria for "hard" is that you cannot be inoculated from the pain sadness rawness simply by anticipating or knowing people or whatever.

This feeling of heaviness stays despite knowing why or that it will eventually disperse or whatever. 

I feel like one of those teens who has to carry an egg in a pretend pregnancy. You know it isn't real but it's bothersome & distracting nonetheless. 

Thoughts, like fleas, jump from man to man, but they don't bite everybody.

~ Stanislaw Jerzy Lecs

Hmm. I think I would just as soon not get bitten by a lot of the ideas that are hopping around.