Elinor Nauen

I don't often write it up after the fact, but I have to say this was one of my all-time favorite readings. Two good writers with real subject matter, who were enhanced by the pairing.

Bob Sullivan (born 1 day after me) led off with a section from My American Revolution, his almanac/history of some of the byways of that war, such as the (very bad)  Read More 

I had no idea that there are currently 12 monarchies in Europe right this very minute. They are (alphabetically & not by plausibility):
1) the Principality of Andorra
2) the Kingdom of Belgium
3) the Kingdom of Denmark
4) the Principality of Liechtenstein
5) the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg
6) the Principality of Monaco
7) the Kingdom of the Netherlands
8) the Kingdom of Norway Read More 

I gave Annabel a cowgirl's cookbook. She was excited to find a recipe for buttermilk pie that her Texas aunt used to make. So she made it! She whipped up half a dozen mini versions, although I don't know that if you can tell the size from the muscle man & Derek Jeter. We already shared two (with a slice to our waitress at Eisenberg's diner where we had soup this afternoon, Eisenberg's “Raising New York’s Cholesterol Since 1929") & she sent me home with two more. Annabel!  Read More 

I have been listening to a podcast on the "easy" Norwegian news station, & catching very little. I recognize quite a few words but can't remember what they mean in time to string them together. At best, they're so obvious ("California, USA") that I can't help but get them. It's a little discouraging, to say the least. I can read the language better & better (& love it more & more!) but hearing it, not so much.  Read More 

I do know that when you are talking about the capital of South Dakota it's pronounced "peer" not like the French name. I suppose I knew back when we studied the state's history in 5th grade how it got its name but I've looked it up again more recently.

Pierre Chouteau (1789–1865) was a fur trader (beaver, deer, buffalo) and son of one of the founders of St. Louis, some 800+ miles down the Missouri from Pierre. The fort named after him was built in 1832, a strategic spot for  Read More 

Here we are—me, Annabel, Randy (harmonica), Ellen (toy piano)—at the 42nd Annual Poetry Project New Year's Day Benefit Marathon (& I feel like it might have more words in its name). I have never before cut loose singing like I did at that mike. I was channeling my inner Aretha!  Read More 

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║╔╗║╔╗║╔╣╔╩╗╔╝ ★ NEW YEAR ☆ 2016!!
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The American Apparel store on Houston is empty except for these mannequins.

Maybe this picture will one day help me answer my all-too-frequent question around the neighborhood: "What used to be there?"

When I'm not sleeping
I'm waving a knife

I'm looking forward to January 1, 2016, when the Double Yews (me, Annabel Lee, plus Randy Weinstein on harmonica and Ellen Waterscheid on piano and vocals) will perform two short poems, by Susie Timmons & Frank O'Hara, set to music, as part of the Poetry Project's 42nd annual New Year's Day 12-hour marathon. This is the most fun day on the poetry calendar,  Read More 

Depressing that there are people who spend all their time thinking about money. Depressing that $30 million is a billion dollars short of a seat at the big kids' table. Depressing that people believed they could get a big-ass house for no money. Depressing that the banks never think about money as originating in or  Read More 

Christmas in the city, as quiet as it is post-snowstorm. Long walk, deserted streets, closed stores. Mesmerized by the BBC's quiet reindeers of the twilit Arctic. Crappy dinner with Johnny, Tara, & Eric. Poetry in the New York Times. Line halfway down the block to get into Katz's. Christmas in the city.

"All month long, temperatures have been so unseasonably warm up and down the East Coast that it’s broken the National Weather Service’s anomaly scale. December 2015 is on pace to become one of the most anomalous months—hot or cold—ever measured in the United States." [Learn more by clicking on the caption.]

I'm starting to worry that the only snow I'm going to see any time soon will be in a globe. Read More 

That's how long we've been married, 8,767 days, or 24 years.

You just have to keep going, we decided at our annual review over dinner. It's the only time we talk about our relationship, & we usual keep it to:
Everything good?
Yep.

We've known each other approximately 13,280 days, since the summer of 1979.

People seem to either get more irritated by each other as time goes on, or less. We are fortunate that for us it's the latter. Still the lovelight.  Read More 

The thing I showed on December 15 was for sale, so it had "value" even if I couldn't figure out its utility.

This, however: no idea. It's a couple of feet high & there are nails pounded into all those sticking-out bits.

It seems no more functional than the yellow crate but not necessarily art.

The mysterious East (Village).  Read More 

Empty matchbooks from places that no longer exist.

This 24 Days of Discard isn't so hard.

Brunch at Rosie's, the Mexican place on 2nd & 2nd, with Johnny & Tara.

An hour-long business phone call.

Norwegian study.

Read (reading) several books: Elizabeth Bishop, Adam DeGraff, John Le Carré.

Threw out a pair of tights, a shirt, & a few more shards of glass from the giant mirror I accidentally broke on Friday.

Thank you notes to Paul for the party, Willis for the calendar, my sister for the shortbread.

A medium-long walk, trying to get up to the 6,793 steps I vowed to take today.

Maggie's & my weekly meet-up, where we analyze how the previous week has gone & what we plan to do in the days to come.

It might seem like a lot but it didn't seem like a lot.  Read More 

It suddenly occurs to me that I am fond of snow globes mostly because of the word "snow" in their name. If they were called "picture shakers" or something like that, I wouldn't care.

I was in the security line at the airport a couple of years ago, & the sign along the way warned us that snow globes were not allowed in carry-on. Maybe we were supposed to already know that guns and explosives weren't, because the only specific caution was for snow globes. I asked the guy checking tickets, who finally saw my point and kind of laughed but had no explanation.  Read More 

That would be me. I got a popup warning on Safari that I couldn't click out of so I called the (toll-free!) number on the screen. After 40 minutes of "diagnosing" my computer's ills—no security! high risk! needs cleanup!—the "certified Apple technician" asked for $215 to fix everything.

At that point, finally, I saw the light & got off the phone. Then I  Read More 

This menorah made of challah by Eli Zabar was a generous & unexpected gift from him & his wife as thanks for my work & help.

Immediately after I took this picture, I turned it into bread pudding (eggs, milk, coconut milk, apricot jam (also from Eli), mascarpone, raisins, cinnamon, a little honey). Let me tell you, it was really good. Eli knows bread!  Read More 

If it's a coffee table, I wouldn't want to put anything down on it. If it's a sculpture, it's big, heavy, & extravagantly nonfunctional. What else might it be? It was at the ABC Home store on Broadway, across from Paragon. The tag said $75 but that was the tag off an ashtray or something—this really cost more than $3,000.

All their stuff is expensive. Who pays $1,000 for an uncomfortable chair? I suppose people who trust only in what things cost—who know the price of everything & the value of nothing, to quote Oscar Wilde.  Read More 

Yossi & Mukshi got married in August. We're unlikely friends, given that we come from such different worlds that only affection connects us. But friends we are. I suppose it's in part because Yossi is one of the few Chabad emissaries I've ever met who has an interest in the non-Jewish world.

You can't tell from this photo, but Mukshi—who teaches math—has the brightest eyes I've ever seen.  Read More 

In an otherwise meticulously researched text, our closest ally doesn't know an important fact about us.

Could I put all the English counties on the map in the right place? Probably not. For that matter, I don't know that I could rattle off the Canadian provinces in geographic order. And I still can hardly believe there's a country in Europe called Moldova.  Read More 

OK, sure, yeah yeah, 60° mid-December is pleasant but I am so jonesing for the neighborhood to look like this.

The antidote to that feeling: work.

Work harder, work better, pour yourself into it.


Also, get more sleep & take B vitamins.

Can you tell which one looks like me? Or which one I look like?

Varda's in town monopolizing me, hence these very short posts!

I kind of have moved on from bioluminescence to the purest shine: glitter! Please click on the caption to find out all the things you never would have thought to wonder about. We love glitter because we are creatures who need water! Glitter wasn't invented till 1934! The military has tried to throw off radar by glitter bombing! Detectives love glitter because, yeah as we all know, it never goes away!  Read More 

Who doesn't like cheery tomatoes with their eggs salad? One more reason to love B&H.

My friend Steve goes here for breakfast every day when he's in town—it's across the street from us. I wonder if they wonder about him appearing and disappearing, although with his strong South Carolina accent, I suppose they either assume he's visiting, or they can't understand him at all.

* A folding chair I never once opened. I think it was here when I moved into this space in 1993.

* A non-working electric pot.

* Some raggedy washcloths. The dirty ones to the trash, the clean ones to the textile recycling bag, which will get dropped off at Tompkins Sq Park on Sunday.