On AZBlogX this morning, the short short story (under a thousand words) “He kissed me” from 1/16/96, intended for a volume of such stories that was never published, perhaps in part because of the sexual explicitness of this story. The story is also one piece of my fiction about the characters Sundance and Butch (index to these here); it’s a short story about Sundance and a t-room kiss. (Explicit mansex in street language, so the story is entirely unsuitable for kids and the sexually modest — but none of that in this posting.)
Archive for the ‘My life’ Category
Fiction: He kissed me
January 1, 2019Rice and beans for New Year’s
December 31, 2018Yesterday I felt impelled to cook rice and beans for the New Year’s holiday — some association with Hoppin’ John (Carolina peas and white rice) for New Year’s Day, I guess, though back in the old days (the 60s through 80s in Columbus OH), Ann and I mostly did red beans and (white) rice, with fried cornbread, on New Year’s Eve; and I had Moros y Cristianos (black beans and white rice, served at spring festivals in Spain, re-enacting the expulsion of the Moors — African Muslims of Arab descent — from Spain in 1492) in mind as well. What I produced wasn’t any of these, but a multicultural extravaganza I think of as Black and Brown: dal (Indian black lentils) and brown rice, cooked in miso soup. Yesterday I served it with tuna fish, fresh lemon juice (bounty from neighbors suffering from the annual December citrus glut), and (French) spices. Raw material for today’s version, whatever that turns out to be:
(#1) Black and Brown, in a Chinese bowl
Diminished with age
December 27, 2018A Mike Shiells cartoon, passed on on Facebook by Karen Chung, for its entertainment value as a burst of puns:
But what caught my eye in this cartoon of a pencil funeral was the fact that the deceased had been so diminished with age, worn down to a nub by use. I’m being worn down myself. For decades, I was 5′10″, but in recent years I’ve lost over 3 inches in height, a tangible decline: I can no longer reach things on top shelves, in stores and in my own home. I was prepared for some of the physical ravages of age, but nobody told me about this one.
O croquembouche, my croquembouche
December 25, 2018In the tradition of my 12/7/18 posting “O rosemary, my rosemary”, this Christmas tree from bon appétit magazine:
(#1) Savory Cheese-Filled Croquembouche
[ba‘s text:] This croquembouche is constructed with cheesy gougères [baked savory pastry, made of choux dough mixed with cheese] and an herbed cheese filling. It’s the showstopping holiday appetizer you didn’t know you needed.
And then ba‘s call to earnest self-improvement for the holidays:
(#2)
Seasonal thanks
December 24, 2018A juxtaposition of two sets of greetings for the season, each expressing thanks for the recipient’s work.
Item A, two pieces of e-mail to Emily Menon Bender, from completely unfamiliar organizations, thanking her for her publications in computational linguistics: some new cross between holiday cards from commercial associates (maintaining the business relationship) and what Margalit Fox calls “demented p.r. releases”, what amount to cold calls (by electronic means or ordinary mail) soliciting the recipient’s business.
Item B, a brief e-mail to me from a complete stranger thanking me for my blog postings. Thanks to the fact that the sender has a name even rarer than mine, I was able to verify that he was not only a real person but a very interesting scholar — and the note moved me far more than he could have imagined, coming after a long dispiriting week. (What’s more, it turned out to latch onto my morning name from the 18th, (Lady) Ottoline Morrell.)
O rosemary, my rosemary
December 7, 2018From Kim Darnell today, a Christmas tree, which she then decorated to suit my household:
(#1) O rosemary, my rosemary
I’d admired these little rosemary bushes at Whole Foods: pretty, wonderfully scented, useful in cooking, and an excellent evergreen container plant for my patio garden (rosemary shrubs are widely used as border and filler plants locally).
Giving thanks with Roz Chast
November 22, 2018A Roz Chast New Yorker cartoon from 11/22/10, “The Last Thanksgiving” — how could I possibly please them all? — and now her cover for the latest (11/26/18) New Yorker, “Thankfulness”, for the Technology Issue of the magazine.
Teddy Bears’ Picnic Day
November 17, 2018On Facebook today, Anneli Meyer Korn posted this Bizarro cartoon from 11/17/14:
(#1) (If you’re puzzled by the odd symbols in the cartoon — Dan Piraro says there are 2 in this strip — see this Page.)
I was moved to declare November 17th Teddy Bear Picnic Day, in honor of Anneli and her husband Peter, but it turns out that (by whatever obscure mechanism these things happen) July 10th is already taken for this occasion, according to the Days of the Year site.
Well, of course, if you don’t know the song, you won’t find the cartoon particularly funny. (Suppose that the teddy bear’s message were “I’m sorry, the teddy bears are conferencing at Davos today”. That would be absurd, and so to some degree humorous, but nowhere near as funny as “I’m sorry, today is the day the teddy bears have their picnic”.)
News for penises: salt and pepper
November 12, 2018A bulletin from Coral Gables FL, with penis pepper mills in gorgeous hand-turned wood; and a patriotic phallic (salt/pepper) shaker, standing tall for US Veterans Day (today). Photos under the fold (so the phallically averse among you can avoid engaging with these simulacra)…
On the doo-wop gender train from the past
November 11, 2018Going the Facebook rounds:
the song that was number 1 on your 14th birthday defines your life
(pretty clearly intended: #1 in the US — though you could certainly carp about that)
Hey nonny ding dong: it’s “Sh-Boom (Life Could Be a Dream)” as recorded by the Crew-Cuts in 1954.
(#1) Trading card photo of The Crew-Cuts. In 1957, Topps gum cards issued a series of movie stars, television stars and recording stars.
