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Oh Dear. Now I’ve gone and done it.

Doc Smartypants, in her Bomba Room, having fallen prey to a meme, of course had to perpetuate it. My resistance was low, and now I have to pay the piper.

1) Reply with your name and I’ll respond with something random about you.

2) I’ll tell you what song/movie reminds me of you.

3) I’ll pick a flavor/color of jello to wrestle with you in.

4) I’ll say something that only makes sense to you and me.

5) I’ll tell you my first memory of you.

6) I’ll tell you what animal you remind me of.

7) I’ll ask you something that I’ve always wondered about you.

8) If I do this for you, you must post this on your journal. (If you haven’t got somewhere to post this that’s fine. I don’t care if you do.)

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Local color

The weekend before the one just past, we went to the Edward Gorey House in Yarmouthport to see the exhibit of the original artwork for the Gashleycrumb Tinies. It was delightful to visit the house a second time, and the Tinies are truly amazing to see. The exhibit has been extended into December, and I highly recommend taking it in if you’re anywhere near the Cape. His house has a magnificent magnolia tree growing beside it.

Goreymagnolia

And this past Sunday we were showing around a new two-stepping friend, so we went to two favorite spots, Walden Pond in Concord and Halibut Point on Cape Ann.

Waldenpond

Waldenstump

Halibutpointquarry

Halibutpointrocks

August2005

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Act of Uniformity

Samuel Pepys recorded in his Diary on August 17, 1662, the last service conducted by Dr. William Bates (a Puritan minister) before the Act of Conformity took effect:

He pursued his text again very well; and only at the conclusion told us, after this manner: “I do believe that many of you do expect that I should say something to you in reference to the time, this being the last time that possibly I may appear here. You know it is not my manner to speak any thing in the pulpit that is extraneous to my text and business; yet this I shall say, that it is not my opinion, fashion, or humour that keeps me from complying with what is required of us; but something which, after much prayer, discourse, and study yet remains unsatisfied, and commands me herein. Wherefore, if it is my unhappiness not to receive such an illumination as should direct me to do otherwise, I know no reason why men should not pardon me in this world, and am confident that God will pardon me for it in the next.” And so he concluded. Parson Herring read a psalm and chapters before sermon; and one was the chapter in the Acts, where the story of Ananias and Sapphira is. And after he had done, says he, “This is just the case of England at present. God he bids us to preach, and men bid us not to preach; and if we do, we are to be imprisoned and further punished. All that I can say to it is, that I beg your prayers, and the prayers of all good Christians, for us.”

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The Knitting Way

I was so excited about The Knitting Way: A Guide to Spiritual Self-Discovery by Linda Skolnik and Janice MacDaniels. It was delayed from the original publication date; I even called the publisher to find out when it was shipping. I ran right out and bought it.

Never have I been so disappointed. I bought it months ago, but set it aside in disgust before I finished it. Having just read Two Sweaters for My Father, I thought I should just bite the bullet and skim to the end.

Maybe there are just too many barriers between the authors (and their experience) and I. From the introduction: “I [Skolnik] had married when I was a junior in college, working toward a BA (read: Mrs.) degree in psychology at Brooklyn College.” An Mrs. degree? Come on.

From the first chapter, “Knitting into Awareness: Escape versus Care for the Soul,” one sees that apparently “spiritual” means bad poetry:

Knitting defies a
Mass-produced culture that shuns
subsistence, handmade clothes,
clothes which will be kept forever.
This sort of activity does not
improve the GNP.

There are five more stanzas. You get the picture.

Then the chapter launches into free-association writing:

Hear the wind, the sea, and the rolling hills. Listen to the sky. Let your hands dance with the wool. Your fingers see the sheep on the gren hills. The smell of the earth that produced the grass that fed the sheep who gave their fleece lies int he wool. The sound is in the wool. Hear the waves, the sea air, the salt spray that nurtured the wild sheep in the Shetlands and Hebrides. The harmony is found there. It calls us to remember and reach for the comfort of the work of our hands.

And there’s not always much original thought. On pages 10–11:

graph 1: original writing
graph 2: quote from Brenda Ueland in Strength to Your Sword Arm
graph 3: quote from Sherry Anderson and Patricia Hopkins in The Feminine Face of God
graph 4: quote from Rene Dubos’s “masterpiece” A God Within
graph 5: “The opposite of the holy is the superficial,” according to Marc Gafni in Soul Prints. . .“
graph 6: quote from Maurice Nicoll in Living Time and the Integration of the Life
graph 7: quote from Thomas Moore in Care of the Soul
graph 8 (incomplete): continuation of Moore.

It just never got any better as far as I’m concerned. Maybe it’s just what someone else has been thirsting for.

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Two Sweaters for My Father by Perri Klass

Two Sweaters for My Father: Writing about Knitting satisfies on several levels, and is amusing on another (unintended, I’m sure). This is a wonderful collection of essays, mostly published in Knitter’s Magazine. Perri Klass writes about an experience I share: Knitting can calm the mind and help it to be fully present in the moment–including being present to a speaker or other activity. This satisfied me as a knitter and as a religious person.

The unintended amusement is mine as a magazine editor. This book is so obviously the product of magazine publishers. There is the inevitable repetition of essays on a common subject collected from a variety of original settings, which is to be expected in any such collection. But it’s the design that strikes me as odd. There’s a title page, but no half title page, no publication page (it’s in the back, and more on that later). The table of contents has tiny little type, and then each essay opens on a page with the same even, grey “color” as every other page.

The crowning touch is that publication page in the back, where you finally find the copyright and ISBN, acknowledgements and credits, and, of all things, a masthead!

But I quibble. This is actually one of the more rewarding books on the subjective experience of knitting I’ve read.

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You’ve gotta love this lede

From Wired 13.08: The Big Gulp.

People head to Reno for all sorts of reasons. Some want to gamble. Others are looking for a hasty wedding or quickie divorce. I’ve come to the Biggest Little City in the World to drink my own pee.

It’s a story about water purification and its applications in space and on Earth. Not only is the lede great, the story is interesting as well.