Moonbird; volto di donna; cul-de-sac; a scent of jasmine; old-school romance and horror

You know that painting, The Snake Charmer, which decorates the cover of Said’s book, Orientalism? My boys appear to have been regarding it as a fashion directive. … Samuel, first; then, Daniel, imitating Samuel (“following suit”).

A bookish lad

I suppose it was inevitable that, in my second year as a father, this blog should have become an inventory of children’s books (and children’s music, movies, and TV).

Yesterday, reading “The Sneetches” to the boy, I had an epiphany:

This is the story that explains the oeuvre of George Saunders.

He has long been producing variants of “The Sneetches.”

I also knew why the actor Kurtwood Smith has always looked familiar. He is the spitting image of the Zax. Even his nude scene in Cedar Rapids owes a great deal to the Zax.

We went to the library this afternoon. Samuel loves it there. His face lit up when I took him to the sale aisle. Then he cried when I took him away, but he forgot his sorrow when Karin permitted him to explore the stacks.

Walkabout (the book)

It’s been cold and very snowy, and I’m sick. This is what comes of walking outside without a coat.

Happily, tomorrow is the semester’s last day, and the stream of tutees has pretty well dried out. I sit at my work table and read. One book I’ve finished is Walkabout, the classic Outback story by James Vance Marshall. In tone, it’s very different from the movie that was made after it.

Spoiler alert!

In the novel, the death of the “bush” boy is less bleak than it is in the movie. The white girl looks at the “bush” boy with terror because he’s naked. The “bush” boy infers from her terror that he’s going to be visited by the spirit of death. Then he catches a cold from the white boy. Coupled with auto-suggestion, this is enough to kill the “bush” boy.

The white girl feels remorse and allows the “bush” boy to die with his head upon her lap. In death, then, the “bush” boy is comforted.

Still, it isn’t what one would wish to read while suffering from a cold.

End of spoiler.

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Karin & I took Jasper to his annual veterinary check-up. He weighed 14 lbs., approximately 133% of his ideal weight. Karin & I have reduced both kitties’ rations. We’re also policing Jasper so that he doesn’t steal food from Ziva.

Thank you Uruguay, thanks Bolivia

… for defeating Paraguay and Chile, respectively, which is all that’s keeping Ecuador in the hunt. The Venezuelans helped us, too, drawing with Argentina in Buenos Aires.

(I feel like Alanis Morissette in her “Thank U India” video: chastened and nude.)

No thanks to ourselves. Last night, the Peruvians defeated us in Quito. We were bad.

It’s hard to know what, or whom, to blame. Our players? They’d do better if things weren’t so dire. Our coach? Certainly, his tactics are bankrupt, or else they aren’t suited to our personnel; but I’m not sure what tactics to suggest instead. The groundskeeping? That was a problem last night. The grass was cut short to make the ball roll quickly. But our players kept failing to control the ball.

The altitude? Last night, it didn’t help us. I think Peru may have used more “highland” players than we used.

I’d be in utter despair – I was all through the night – except that Argentina and Chile are playing badly, too, and they’re our closest qualifying rivals, and they’re whom we will play against in our last two games. I thought the Peruvians would be easier to beat, but now I’m not so sure. The Argentinians have looked tepid under all three of their world-class coaches. And the Chileans, well, they’re a disaster. And so are we. The three teams are punch-drunk and knocked down. Whoever can stand up just a little will be admitted to the World Cup.

More and more weddings

The raccoon went away during the night.

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David is in town for E&S’s wedding.

David: “I just passed my comprehensive exam. Now, all I have to do is write the dissertation.”

JP: “I just wrote a section of my dissertation. The section contains some nudity. I ask the reader to consider a thought-experiment about the world’s most famous clothing-optional swimming pool.”

David: “Um.”

JP: “I’m a character in the thought experiment. It goes like this.”

David (pretending to quote me): “‘Imagine me, nude …’”

JP: “No, no. I am not nude. But I am exposed to people who are nude.”

David (pretending to be a member of my thesis committee): “‘Your degree is withheld.’”

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JP: “What book is that?”

David: “Ian McEwan.”

JP: “Which Ian McEwan?”

David: “The newest one, The Children Act.”

Martin: “Is he the writer of Atonement?”

David: “Yes.”

JP: “He’s also the writer of A Horrible Wedding Night at the Beach.”

(David chuckles.)

Martin: “Is that what it’s called?”

JP: “It’s called On Chesil Beach. But I call it A Horrible Wedding Night at the Beach.”

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Martin & Mary just got back from Florida, where Martin’s brother and Martin’s brother’s wife had a “destination wedding” on the beach. I stayed home and took care of Bianca. In homage to M&M, I bought Finding Florida, one of those liberal, revisionist histories about how awful the United States is. The prose is mighty good. The content is less than charitable (and, I gather, somewhat untruthful). I highly recommend it.

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E&S’s wedding is tomorrow.