Day 2 of Retirement

Well, things are looking up. My cough is disappearing again--after not being in the office for two and a half days. I've quit eating everything in sight, and I've actually done a lot of work clearing out clutter in my condo.

Best of all, because I had some of my windows wide open today--the air was so fresh and wonderful--I've got a NEW BUG visiting by my nightstand: I KNOW this is a skipper butterfly, but which one??

My guess is that it's a Sachem (Atalopedes campestris), which is pretty common around here--especially in North Carolina, the second state down, but there's been a lot of WIND the past couple of days, and maybe this guy (it looks to be a male, but I'm not sure) caught a good updraft and wound up in my back yard.

Here's an authenticated Sachem from this wonderful website, Jeff's North Carolina Butterfly Page.

And here's my visitor: I'm calling him Fred (after the names for peace on the front of our hotel in Ravello). Fred is Norwegian for "peace."




So, woddya think? Is it a Sachem? Skippers are some of my very favorite butterflies. They're very fast and can be quite colorful. And I love their eyes and antennae.

Our Own Daily Digest, Final Edition

"All the news that fits, we print!"

Snooze-o-rama
Our managing editors (only one now, but still with double vision) is happy to announce that she has put this, her final edition of Our Own Daily Digest, to bed, and high time it is, too. It's been napping in her office chair for too long. Maybe now it will catch up on its sleep. (And no, it's not just after lunch, either. Before lunch is another favorite time for 15 winks.)

Families Not Only Count, They're Just Crazy About It
Sales of FC Year A are right up there with those of "What's that? Speak up!" Ronald Reagan and Those Dad-Gum Hearing Aids. Is anyone surprised? Fun-loving families are lining up in droves to give up happy hours, leisurely suppers, televised night games of the Boston Red Sox, and a couple hours of Law & Order reruns or X-Box to come back to school for lukewarm pizza and math games. OODD is happy to announce that a special commemorative issue of Year B will be available in 2036, the 100th anniversary of her birth. (Yeah, well, you're no spring chicken, either.)

PICK A NEW PRESIDENT!
The newly rearranged Gollyurdef University Board of Trustees (GUBOT) has announced the exciting PICK A NEW PRESIDENT edition of DEF LOTTO! Players can purchase their tickets from any faculty member at 4:30 p.m. every Friday at the Rathskellar's ASL-O-RAMA. Players mark the tickets with combinations of their favorite candidate's year of birth, year of graduation from Gollyurdef, hearing loss profile, position played on the Gollyurdef football/volleyball team, and year of death. This final category has been added this year to expand the pool of suitable presidential candidates to include posthumus recipients. Five matches guarantee the ticketholder a bottomless martini at the Rat.

Gollyurdef Administrator Wins Coveted Tonka Mighty Truck with Hard Hat and Tools
Gollyurdef's VP for Endless Construction, Kaul Pelly, has won Tonka Trucks' highest award for nonstop tearing down, building up, and water main replacement: The Tonka Mighty Truck with Hard Hat and Tools. The award also comes with a personalized lunch pail and a pair of those cool steel-capped work boots!!

Well, that's all, folks. Good night and God bless.

Well, that's that!!

It's official. Today is my last day at the Clerc Center. I'm finally retiring. Gonna go in, clean out my desk, enjoy a little fun with my coworkers at lunchtime, and get the hey outta there!!

Thanks to all my coworkers over the years, especially Ivey and Dan, Glenda, Bill, Gwen, Mary from Iowa, Yinka, Linda, Missus McDowell (is that how you spel it?), Cole's mom, Anita, Marteal, Tim, and the ineffable Cathryn. Thanks, too, to all the printers, designers, and photographers who have been so generous with your knowledge and patience: John, Del, Andrew, C.J., Bill, Joe, Brian, Lynda, Gretchen & Bob, and the other Bob. You've been a huge part of my education, enrichment, and enjoyment.

And if I've forgotten anyone, please don't take it personally. You'll be old and funny yourself some day....

Prairie Ghosts??

While researching the Native American northern Minnesota/Wisconsin/Canada spirit called the Wendigo, I discovered a website devoted to Prairie Ghosts, as in plural. My goodness.

It seems to me the only naughty spirit on the prairie has always been dear old Jack Frost (and occasionally, and spectacularly, Flash Flood), but apparently there are many more.

Note to DN: a lot of this stuff is in Illinois!!

Bug Week at Chez Moi

This past week, I sent my friend Paula the following email:

T'other night, I looked at my nightstand, and there was a ladybug crawling around the base of my water glass. I figured she was thirsty. (I'm always having to rescue bugs when they fall into the glass at night and swim around frantically trying to escape.)

So I dipped my little finger into the water a couple of times and made a nice big drop of water close by the bug. She hustled right over and started drinking it!

I could see the drop of water pulsing as she sucked/swallowed (?). She drank up the whole thing, so I made her a second one, which she drained, too.

Then she proceeded to nibble on the edge of the cork coaster upon which the water glass rested. There probably was a little sugar from a spilled beverage on it.

Who needs a dog when you have bugs?

Today, Paula sent me the lyrics of one of her favorite songs: Burl Ives's "The Ugly Bug Ball." I've never heard or or heard OF it until now. A quick search of You Tube found it right away, so here it is, over at the right.

Paula also said that once I'm retired and having to do without a lot of money (??), I can put my brain to work discovering all the things I can do for fun that DON'T require money. Paula does that herself. Among other things, she's a lawyer, and she spends her blessedly free time--now that she doesn't go to the office every day-- working on various committees to help others. If that sounds like a lot of work and not much fun, Paula is one of those people who ENJOY committees. She loves the give-and-take and the opportunity to speak truth to power in her quiet, gracious way.

Thanks, Paula, for your advice and example and for introducing me to the "Ugly Bug Ball."

Miscellany for August 21, 2008

If I could be anything at all in the world, it would be an architect. An engineer I know says, "Architects are assholes." That doubtless has something to do with the fact that she feels the architects she's met have had vastly overinflated opinions of themselves and in reality (i.e., her opinion) know nothing at all about how a building should work. Perhaps. Architects and engineers are both needed, I'm sure....especially nowadays.

I'm wondering, however, how an engineer would perceive Antoni Gaudi, the famed architect of Barcelona, which is so wonderfully revealed in "Vicky Christina Barcelona," my one of my favorite Woody Allen movies so far. Hmm...lots of people think Woody Allen is an asshole, too. There seem to be many assholes, eh?

And here are our fine rowing boys once more. Aren't they beautiful?

Stu's phat!

Typos, typos everywhere! Ole Phat Stu, blogger extraordinaire residing in Germany, sent a comment to Kay's Thinking Cap this past week, and I responded, referring to him as "Ole Fat Stu." How wrong can anyone get? In addition to being brilliant (he's quite a mathematician) and exceptionally kind and thoughtful (he rode his motorbike to the town where my grandmother is buried to see if her grave was still in the churchyard), he's reputedly quite slim & trim. The word I wanted to use was "phat," but I just got careless and typed "fat."

Here's what Dictionary.com says about "phat":

Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1)
phat - adjective Slang. great; wonderful; terrific.

Wikipedia also says that the term started in the 60s as an admiring "backronym"--"Pretty Hot And Terrific."

Phat--that's Stu, all right!

(And in honor of my upcoming retirement in two weeks, here's the Dixie Chicks singing "Wide Open Spaces.")

US 8 Wins GOLD at Beijing!!

That's the US WOMEN's 8, for all those delirious Canadians--their men's 8 rowing team beat the Brits and the US to win a gold medal after a 35-year drought.

Grandnephew Matt and his US men's 8 teammates came in third. I know how much his Mom & Dad, his Grandpa Dwyer, his Grandma and Grandpa Schnobrich, and other family members (Anne and Maria??)--all of whom travelled to Beijing to cheer them on--would have loved to see the team come in first. But it was a thrilling race. The US boat leapt from last place at the start to third at the end. Third is excellent, too, considering their competition.

WAY TO GO! And congrats to the women!!

And seeing as it's Sunday and all, enjoy the Bad Vicar....

Matt's own blog...

Here's a link to grandnephew Matt's SJU blog. He has several posts from China, where he's competing in the rowing event at the Beijing Olympics. He's really enjoying himself.

Finishy Sentencey Meem....

(Found at Wrath of Dawn)

1. My uncle once: refused to leave Germany, so my grandfather got him drunk and hauled him to Rotterdam, where he woke up on the boat to the USA.
2. Never in my life: have I met any of my grandparents.
3. When I was five: I was very excited about starting school. Then I met my teacher. Who hated little kids. Of which I was one.
4. High school was: excruciating and fun.
5. I will never forget: my mother calling me to come see the partridges dancing in our back yard.
6. Once I met: Thomas Merton. He was wearing slacks and a sport shirt, and he walked into the office where I was working.
7. There’s this girl I know: who could probably finish this one, but I’m stumped.
8. Once, at a bar: They turned off the outside lights at 2 a.m. and kept the party going inside.
9. By noon, I’m usually: IMing with Peggy.
10. Last night: I reaffirmed my love for the real Spanish cuisine at Jaleo.
11. If only I had: sold my condo in 2006.
12. Next time I go to church: you’ll hear the lightning striking, trust me.
13. What worries me most: I’ll never get over the vow of poverty.
14. When I turn my head left I see: a picture I painted three years ago.
15. When I turn my head right I see: My bicycle and a table stacked with photos I'm sorting.
16. You know I’m lying when: I do my best not to lie, but telling the truth has gotten me into a lot of trouble.
17. What I miss most about the Eighties is: that pink vinyl record of Dolly Partin's disco version of "Baby I'm Burnin..."
18. If I were a character in Shakespeare I’d be: Cordelia...that's the sweet and loving one, right?
19. By this time next year: I hope Bush and Cheney are in the dock at the Hague.
20. A better name for me would be: Janet Evanovich. Just deposit the royalty check in my account....
21. I have a hard time understanding: people who buy what the Vatican is selling.
22. If I ever go back to school, I’ll: Study a useful trade, like computer repair.
23. You know I like you if: I blog about you.
24. If I ever won an award, the first person I would thank would be: Whoever was responsible for nominating me, helping me, whatever applies.
25. Take my advice, never: Fry a herring in the house.
26. My ideal breakfast is: Hot tea with two sugars and a bagel with butter.
27. A song I love but do not have is: Waltzing in Venice.
28. If you visit my hometown, I suggest you: Keep going.
29. Why won’t people: Relax.
30. If you spend a night at my house: be warned, there's no TV.
31. I’d stop my wedding for: Two tickets to Paris.
32. The world could do without: Neocons.
33. I’d rather lick the belly of a cockroach than: Wear hose to the office.
34. My favourite blonde(s) is/are: Robert Redford and the new James Bond guy, Daniel Craig.
35. Paper clips are more useful than: Q tips.
36. If I do anything well it’s: Make pie crust.
37. I can’t help but: Read.
38. I usually cry: Rarely.
39. My advice to my child/nephew/niece: Remember that bill your elderly relative tucked in your birthday card? Write a thank you note.
40. And by the way: Don't forget to floss.

Feel free to consider yourself tagged. Or not. Whatever.

How many have you read?

I found this on Kay's Thinking Cap. I've read quite a few, but only because I got a very early start.

The Big Read reckons that the average adult has only read 6 of the top 100 books they've printed."

1. Look at the list and bold/colourize those you have read.
2. Post the list on your site.
(This can also remind you of some great books to read.)

1. Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
2. The Lord of the Rings - J.R.R. Tolkienn
3. Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
4. Harry Potter series - J.K. Rowling
5. To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
6. The Bible
7. Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
8. Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell
9. His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
10. Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
11. Little Women - Louisa M. Alcott
12. Tess of the D'Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
13. Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
14. Complete Works of Shakespeare
15. Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
16. The Hobbit - J.R.R. Tolkien
17. Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks
18. Catcher in the Rye - J.D. Salinger
19. The Time Traveller's Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
20. Middlemarch - George Eliot
21. Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell
22. The Great Gatsby - F. Scott Fitzgerald
23. Bleak House - Charles Dickens
24. War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
25. The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
26. Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
27. Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28. Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
29. Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
30. The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
31. Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
32. David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
33. Chronicles of Narnia - C.S. Lewis
34. Emma - Jane Austen
35. Persuasion - Jane Austen
36. The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - C.S. Lewis
37. The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
38. Captain Corelli's Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres
39. Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
40. Winnie the Pooh - A.A. Milne
41. Animal Farm - George Orwell
42. The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
43. One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44. A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving
45. The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
46. Anne of Green Gables - L.M. Montgomery
47. Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
48. The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood
49. Lord of the Flies - William Golding
50. Atonement - Ian McEwan
51. Life of Pi - Yann Martel
52. Dune - Frank Herbert
53. Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
54. Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
55. A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
56. The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57. A Tale of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
58. Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
59. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
60. Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61. Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
62. Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
63. The Secret History - Donna Tartt
64. The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
65. Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
66. On the Road - Jack Kerouac
67. Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
68. Bridget Jones's Diary - Helen Fielding
69. Midnight's Children - Salman Rushdie
70. Moby Dick - Herman Melville
71. Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
72. Dracula - Bram Stoker
73. The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett
74. Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson
75. Ulysses - James Joyce
76. The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
77. Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
78. Germinal - Emile Zola
79. Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
80. Possession - A.S. Byatt
81. A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
82. Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
83. The Color Purple - Alice Walker
84. The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
85. Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
86. A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
87. Charlotte's Web - E.B. White
88. The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
89. Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
90. The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton
91. Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
92. The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery
93. The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
94. Watership Down - Richard Adams
95. A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
96. A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
97. The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
98. Hamlet - William Shakespeare
99. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
100. Les Miserables - Victor Hugo


I've read parts but not all of the Bible, Shakespeare's works, and Rushdie's Midnight's Children. Also parts of Sherlock Holmes.

O Canada.....

My grandnephew Matt's hometown newspaper, the St. Paul Pioneer Press, quoted Matt and his fellow St. Paul native Micah Boyd--US men's 8 teammates--in the following story in its online edition today:

U.S. men's crew team hopes to surprise Canada
By Sean Jensen
sjensen@pioneerpress.com
Article Last Updated: 08/12/2008 01:10:07 PM CDT


BEIJING — They may be the defending Olympic champions, but the United States men's eight enters Sunday's final as a decided underdog.

In the four years since the 2004 Athens Olympics, Canada has emphasized that particular boat, loading it with their top rowers, even at the sake of the small crews.

"That was their thing," St. Paul native Micah Boyd said. "I mean, they've got some really good rowers in that eight (but) other boats suffered for that."

Indeed, the Canada has developed into the dominant nine-man crew in the world, winning each race it has entered over the past 18 months, including the 2007 World Championship, most of them by the length of a boat.

"It will be hard," Boyd said of his team's chances. "We'll have to execute the perfect race.

"The goal is to surprise Canada. I mean, in my mind, they're the clear favorites."

On Monday, despite a minor equipment issue, the Canadians won their heat by several boat lengths, crossing the finish line in 5 minutes, 27 seconds. Times can be deceiving because of conditions, but the U.S. won its repechage on Tuesday in 5:38.

This is not an unfamiliar position for the U.S. In 2004, the Canadians were also favored to win gold, going undefeated for two years. But not only did the U.S. win in Athens, the Canadians weren't even close, finishing nine seconds behind for fifth place.

"If we win in Beijing, we still finished fifth in Athens," Kevin Light told the Canadian Press. "That doesn't change.

But we are using that experience to help us."
The Canadians don't lack experience; six of them rowed in 2004. By contrast, the U.S. returns three from their gold-medal crew; Boyd and fellow St. Paul native Matt Schnobrich are among the newcomers.

But Schnobrich said the team clearly has a solid "framework" in place.

"If you win an Olympic medal in anything, you obviously did something right," he said. "So you'd be at a loss to reinvent the wheel and try something different."

The U.S. team appeared to attempt a tweak in their opening heat on Monday, when they stuck to their pre-race game plan, even after another team passed them.

"The Brits took a length out of us, in the second 500, and we just sat and let that happen, because we were staying in our race plan and hoping to make things work when we wanted them to," Schnobrich said. "But you can't race that way.

"We made some good changes (Tuesday), but there's still things to work on."

The U.S. led after 1,000 meters on Tuesday, but the Australians gained a slight edge after 1,500. Over the final 500, though, the U.S. recovered and finished nearly one second ahead of the Aussies.

"We wanted to practice our sprint," Boyd said.

Schnobrich said his team is confident but they expect a "dogfight."

"I think the Canadians and the Brits and the Aussies are going to bring their best races," he said. "It's the Olympic finals. It's what everybody thinks it is.

"We're going to come and lose consciousness with about 250 meters to go...(and) keep going. So, hopefully that puts us in the right place."

Atop the medal stand may be difficult — "gold's going to be hard," Boyd said — but the U.S. definitely hopes they can repeat their performance in Athens.

"We'll have to execute the perfect race," Boyd said. "The goal is to surprise Canada. I mean, in my mind, they're the clear favorites."

This must be what Ex-Shammickite was warning me about...she said that she'd cheer for Matt's team as long as it wasn't rowing against Canada.

The shadow knows.....

I've spent only about 1/3 of my life seeking the sunlight of conformity and good intentions; my shadow has run the rest of it. My shadow continually impels me into--besides chaos and mischief, that is--art: painting, sculpture, drawing. I don’t pretend to be a serious artist, but art keeps popping up in my life.

Further, my shadow has left all kinds of traces of its influence in my photos. In fact, one recent photo reveals the likeness of my shadow itself! It looks innocent enough, don't you think? A little chocolate syrup artfully decorating the foamed milk on a glass of cocoa. The shadow is not really the monster we imagine, fear, and run from.

The following is a perfectly good photo--ha, naturally I didn't take it!--but the black smudges added by the muralist--what are they? emerging pixels, a tree, wings?--reveal the shadow's power. In the old days, before they largely banished turpentine as too toxic, the simple smell of a painting studio was enough to lift me off the pavement, to make me feel as if I had come home. Despite the fact that I've spent a lot of my time on earth doing what many people would consider running away from various manifestations of home, in reality the shadow has been leading me there.

Not all of us are created to be "normal." It takes a pretty big stick whanging away on our skulls to draw our attention away from the siren call of "fitting in." In my case, the shadow, despite the enormous challenges it has confronted me with, has been kind and gentle...an agent of merciful, all-loving LIFE.

Happy Birthday, Annie!

Annie has always been an amazing bundle of sweetness, beauty, and intelligence. Here she is on Cape Cod a long time ago amusing herself by popping up in a nearby window whenever she heard someone outside talking. Now, of course, she is too grown up to drag her blanket around and play 4-year-old tricks. She's training her new puppies and following her longtime interest in fashion.

Happy birthday, Annie....

It happens to the best of us....YES, IT'S MATT

Here's a picture Matt sent back to his folks from California, where the US Rowing team stopped for processing on their way to China. Notice the little guy in the middle? Admit it. You thought he was larger than life, too, didn't you? That's ok, Arnold. Matt's grandpa used to be the tallest one in our family. Now his oldest grandson towers over him.

Go, Matt!! - updated with rowing schedule, more

Here are some of my brother Bob's grandchildren sitting on his front step one Minnesota summer day in 1992. Matt, the sweet boy in green, is putting a bunch of flowers on top of his cousin Molly's headband. Anne, his sister, is holding Madeline, another young cousin. For lively, good-looking wholesomeness, the little group could be part of a family gathering in a Bergman movie.

Of course, they're all grown up now. The sweet boy in green no longer has braces on his teeth, and he's an imposing 6'5", 205 lb. athlete who is going to be competing in the upcoming Summer Olympics in Beijing.

My brother is going to Beijing along with Matt's parents, Ellen and Dana, and sister, Anne, and his Schnobrich grandparents to cheer him on. Bob's a homebody--he still lives in that house and keeps it up himself like the engineer he is--but he loves to travel when the occasion presents itself. This occasion is irresistible.

A whole bunch of Matt's relatives relatives and friends will be glued to their TV sets sometime during the August 9-17 competitions. I can't find the specific schedule for Matt's events, but if someone supplies it, I'll post it here. Good luck, Matt! May the wind and the current be with you!!

UPDATE: Thanks, Lu (Molly's mom), for sending the following links to the US Rowing schedule next week:
Sports Illustrated complete rowing schedule

NBC's local station finder for coverage by sport

UPDATE: Thanks, too, to Jim Feeney for finding these bios on the USRowing and NBC sites.

Jim mentioned that it took a while before he could get the NBC interview to work. I second that! I had to download Silverlight software to play it, but it's available free on the site. Good luck. Matt does have a very nice Minnesota (Minnesota nice) accent.