tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-107095072024-03-14T03:25:31.959-04:00The View From the Last House in AmericaKim Velkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06729808121762572706noreply@blogger.comBlogger487125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10709507.post-74026820297611067232018-06-28T22:26:00.000-04:002018-06-28T22:26:34.762-04:00Pet Loss Lessons - Or Memento MoriThis is day one after the death of my dog, Maisy.<br />
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I took her to the vet yesterday after work and they gave her two shots and she died in about two minutes. This came after four months of decline - so she died slowly, then all at once. During those four months she had a fever that never quit. She hardly ate. She stopped begging with those bright eyes. She stopped barking at the birds outside.<br />
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We tried antibiotics and when those failed I told the vet not to pursue more elaborate diagnostics. If it was cancer (and the vet who gave those shots said last night she thought it was) we weren't prepared for cancer treatments. Partly - mostly - this was a financial decision, but there was also the question of stressing my dog with a lot of scary procedures that might have done nothing more than stress her out. I'm not sure we did the right thing there. If we were rich, I would have chased a cure. As it was, we took her home after those antibiotics and hoped for a turn around that didn't come. By the time we got to yesterday Maisy couldn't get down the stairs or walk beyond our driveway. Her eyes had sunken in their sockets and were rimmed with a black crust. She was bones, half the weight last night that she had been when we first suspected something was wrong back in March. She went peacefully last night, thank God. I watched her go. That was a first f<span style="text-align: center;">or me. I've never stood by and watched anything or anyone die. The way we live now and all. </span><br />
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<span style="text-align: center;">We did the right thing there, I feel sure. </span><br />
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But I am bereft. And it all has me thinking.<br />
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I'm embarrassed to say it - but losing Maisy is worse for me than the deaths of the few relatives who have thus far departed. The grandparents were expected to go, of course. They were all over 80 and so it wasn't a terrible shock when they died. The two aunts, they went too soon and I cried for them. The cold fact, however, is that they were distant and Maisy was near, She was near to me almost as the vein in my neck. She was a presence in my every move in the house for the last 10 years. She slept in my room every night. She was for me like the daemon of Philip Pullman's<i> Golden Compass</i> - the animal embodiment of a human spirit, separate but not separable from the human being.<br />
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I would have scoffed once upon a time at extravagant outpourings of grief for a pet. Even now I'm not sure they're appropriate but I understand the depth of the feeling, the sense of loss.<br />
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Maisy's death comes as two other relatives are fighting for their lives in the hospital. I'm at that middle age, where you start to know dead people and dying people. It's a scales-falling-from-the-eyes kind of experience. If I'm embarrassed that I'm mourning my dog than the people I've lost (and I am) I'm more embarrassed about the general foolishness with which I have approached life to date. My fundamental misapprehensions of how things <i>actually are</i> here on planet earth for mortal beings has been becoming clearer to me these last few years. The reality of our situation has been brought into focus by this fresh, unvarnished encounter with death. Not just Maisy's - I was at a memorial service for my Aunt Maryanne two weeks ago. I stood by her cremains in the cemetery and made a little choking speech before she was lowered into the grave next to her parents. Another first for me.<br />
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And so here, perhaps, is the beginning of wisdom. How shall we spend our short time here in Creation? I've had it all wrong for so much of the time. I still have a long way to go, I know - I'm hardly Erasmus. But I understand or at least have a feeling for that old truth, that in the midst of life, we are in death and we really shouldn't forget that for a moment.Kim Velkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06729808121762572706noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10709507.post-26188583809668745242018-05-25T21:28:00.000-04:002018-05-25T22:14:20.279-04:00Today I Was Bitten on the Ass by a Dog<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Do not be deceived...</td></tr>
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I'm ok! Don't panic. The damage seems to be just a few little vampire-style tooth marks on my right butt cheek. The event was so startling, however, and it has never happened to me before, so I thought I should write about it.<br />
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Here's what happened.<br />
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At lunchtime today I walked out from the Magesterium, where I work for the government. It was a hot day and breezy. I had forgotten my phone so I wasn't listening to music as I would normally do. I was enjoying the birds and glad for the wind which cut the heat a little.<br />
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There's a walking trail that passes behind the Magesterium. My fellow workers and members of the public are free to walk along this trail. It follows a river and through a corn field - actually a field of dirt just at the moment. The path terminates in the cemetery of the white clapboard church on Main Street.<br />
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The cemetery is old and pretty. It has tall trees and paved paths. It bristles with weathered obelisks. It has a tombstone that says "Lease" in big letters (q.v.). There's someone named "Almond Hills" buried with his head pointing at the Magesterium. There are many Moodys. There is one Holy Mary at the far edge, a wandering Catholic apparently. All food for thought and reflection.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-r46pxygnNm8/WwilQM9M-FI/AAAAAAAAFXA/h9t6ryYb188pxwfwJBlgsX8vKJmNkO4YwCEwYBhgL/s1600/IMG_1810.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="320" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-r46pxygnNm8/WwilQM9M-FI/AAAAAAAAFXA/h9t6ryYb188pxwfwJBlgsX8vKJmNkO4YwCEwYBhgL/s320/IMG_1810.JPG" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Here's one tombstone that caught my eye on a day when I wasn't bitten by a dog.</td></tr>
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No dogs are allowed in the cemetery, as is appropriate.<br />
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Welll....<br />
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As I left the corn field today and walked into the cemetery I saw two older gentleman getting water from a hose. The hose seems to be related to a community garden which occupies a small field at the nether end of the cemetery. (Not sure how I would feel about eating those vegetables).<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Not quite yet, thanks</td></tr>
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One of these was wearing a ball cap and shorts and was attentive to something in his hands, a phone I think. He looked like someone who'd lost his way from the betting window at a harness track.<br />
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The other was getting water from the hose or trying to. The water-getter looked like Dumbledore after a few rough years and a defrocking. He had a nice-looking dog on a rope leash. (The rope should have been a clue to me but I missed it on my first approach).<br />
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The dog barked as I came up out of the cornfield. Dumbledore was struggling with the leash and the hose. I was interested in the dog because it looked like a fox hound and I'm curious about those. It barked more so I stopped walking and waited for it to settle down. It stood and stared and barked.<br />
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I like dogs and until today I thought they all pretty much liked me. I gave dog and man a minute to compose themselves and then stepped forward, prepared to ask if the dog was a fox terrier as I passed. I didn't get to ask. The dog barked some more pulled away from Dumbledore and with one simple twisting maneuver was off the rope. I could see that it was going to slip out of its red collar and said, "He's getting out of his collar..." and in the next moment the dog had leapt up behind me and bit me on the ass.<br />
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Dumbledore managed to grab him straightaway.<br />
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"Did he bite you?!" he asked.<br />
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"Yes." I said. I couldn't quite believe it.<br />
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"I've only had him two days," Dumbledore said. "He loves people when he gets to know them. He's a rescue dog. Blah Blah."<br />
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It's surprisingly awkward to be bitten by a dog while the owner is watching. I ventured one discreet pass of my hand over my bum. The dog hadn't gotten through the fabric of my stretchy pants. Had he drawn blood?I wasn't about to do a lot of probing - any probing at all in fact. My ass hurt. It hurts now as I sit here in my surplus office chair at home telling you about this. I had the presence of mind to ask if the dog had its shots. Race track bettor looked up and said "yes."<br />
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I kept walking. I think Dumbledore was still talking but I just walked.<br />
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I'm a lawyer and I've worked with law enforcement for years. I decided about 10 seconds after the bite that I wasn't going to make a thing about it - except maybe as a story for my coworkers and you all. It was too minor. Anyway, I had no way to make such a report without another half hour of walking by which time the three culprits would have vanished. I also knew exactly what would happen if I did. The cops would want to see my injury...<br />
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I was thinking how every dog gets one free bite as I walked past Almond Hills and all those Moodys. This means, of course, that until a dog bites someone the owner doesn't know if it might be dangerous. After that first bite, though... It's a handy, weary metaphor for lots of shabby human behavior. I suspect from the way Dumbledore was struggling with that leash that the fox hound was a known trouble maker. Of course it wasn't the dog's fault he'd been brought on a rope to a graveyard where he had no business being. If Dumbledore wasn't on notice before, he is now.<br />
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Kim Velkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06729808121762572706noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10709507.post-62155071570107424532018-05-13T09:29:00.002-04:002018-05-25T21:59:55.458-04:00The Last Saturday Night at the Bull and BearShe lives!<br />
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And by "she," I mean me. Dear old blog, still waiting here for me to show up and care for it. Sorry for the neglect. I have no excuse. <br />
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I was driven back because it occurred to me the other day that I might just have been a witness to history recently and I should probably write that down. Somewhere. Like here. So, here goes.<br />
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For the last four years, my daughter and I have traveled down to NYC for one weekend in February with another mother-daughter pair. We have been doing this just long enough for a few traditions to have developed. The main one is that we have stayed at the Waldorf-Astoria.<br />
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You may have taken note of the news that the Waldorf has <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/the-waldorf-astoria-is-closing-2017-1/#the-waldorf-astoria-was-originally-two-separate-hotels-that-were-created-because-of-a-feud-between-two-cousins-william-waldorf-astor-and-john-jacob-astor-iv-the-two-hotels-were-next-door-to-one-another-on-fifth-avenue-and-33rd-street-eventually-the-cousins-came-to-a-truce-and-they-connected-the-hotels-with-a-hallway-the-hotels-were-demolished-in-1929-to-make-way-for-the-empire-state-building-and-the-waldorf-astoria-name-was-sold-for-1-to-lucius-boomer-who-began-construction-on-the-hotels-current-location-1" target="_blank">closed for three years</a> for renovations. Most of the enormous building (it was the biggest hotel in the world when it opened in 1931) will be made over into condos by its owner, a Chinese insurance company. The outside of the building has landmark status and can't be monkeyed with. The inside - at least some of the public spaces - are (as I understand things) a topic of discussion. The last guests checked out on Wednesday, Wednesday March 1. 2017. We checked out on Sunday, February 26, 2017. Which mean, of course, we were guests at the Waldorf Astoria for the last Saturday night of its operation.<br />
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We had made our reservations months before which was a good thing because the impending closure filled the place. It was mobbed the whole weekend. Lots of people seemed to be taking guided tours of the public spaces. The wait at check-in was painful. The crowd (and in this I include myself) was not glamorous. I saw one guest checking in wearing a faded sweat shirt that said "Rebels 85" on it).<br />
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The big money hotel consumers and celebrities are at newer, sleeker places - hence the renovation. The Waldorf was owned by Hilton before the Chinese bought it and, being a Hilton, it was affordable for us. The place had been panned by more than one Trip Advisor review for being past its prime and shop worn, but I didn't mind that the chair cushions in the room were a little spavined and the base boards scuffed. I still loved it - built like a fortress enormous rooms, by NYC standards. We have rented three rooms that connected and had a kind of mini palace. It has atmosphere that can only come with having been around as a Park Avenue landmark since before World War II. It is the product of imagination and of people who were doing their best to make something extraordinary.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Just off the lobby of the Waldorf-Astoria before the doors slammed shut - something kind of "The Shining" about this. Blame the photographer.</td></tr>
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On that last Saturday night, my friend and I went for a cocktail at the storied Bull and Bear Restaurant. We had been cadging cocktail certificates all weekend. The Front Desk was looking after us...<br />
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The Bull and Bear was crowded and a little chaotic. We managed to find a table and order something. First drink requests were not available. The bar was using up its stocks. We had our drinks and took in the atmosphere - the fabulous square bar with a sculpture in its center, the milling crowd. It was dark and you could practically feel the old money that was being chased out by the new. When we were done we went back to our big rooms for the last night in the Waldorf.<br />
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This year we went back and stayed at a perfectly serviceable Omni in midtown. It was fine. It was even nice - but it was just a hotel.Kim Velkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06729808121762572706noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10709507.post-4985731867379697272018-05-13T09:20:00.000-04:002018-05-13T09:20:01.211-04:00Tchaikovsky String Quartet Op. 11 - II. Andante cantabile (Kontras Quartet)<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="270" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/lDQuWlz37iw" width="480"></iframe>Kim Velkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06729808121762572706noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10709507.post-17757628926016823472018-01-14T13:59:00.001-05:002018-01-14T13:59:36.954-05:00Mom's Vulgar Little SandwichI just came home after a morning out at church and the annual meeting at church. I had planned to go from there to the Old Last House, which is about an hour to the north, but these last three days of wild weather (snow, thaw + melt, followed by subzero temperatures) had left many treacherous stretches on Vt Route 100.<br />
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I got as far as the Morrisville Price Chopper and decided to retreat back home after provisioning a bit.<br />
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There's nothing more pure as a Vermont experience than the Morrisville Price Chopper at noon on a freezing, bright sunny Sunday in January. We, the rubber-booted, ball-capped, fat coated (or no coated) shoppers of northern Lamoille County were a Vermont reality that doesn't get into the brochures. It was all bad hair, cheap clothes, dry skin, all highlighted by the supermarket lighting. No. We were not Vermont life material - maybe not even open casket material - but we are the reality. A bit of a sad one.<br />
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My daughter, who turns twenty years old today and who now lives in Montreal, has a complicated relationship with Morrisville. She grew up in the vicinity and she likes the Chinese buffet and the McDonalds (blessedly, for her purposes, there's a drive-thru).<br />
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I bought things that were on sale and drove home carefully. The sun was doing its thing for route 100, but icy stretches will need I came in and made a vulgar little sandwich.<br />
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I had this particular sandwich in mind as I passed up the McDonald's in Morrisville.<br />
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I had bought the "Buffalo chicken breast" deli meat that my son likes in preparation for the storm (at the Shaws in Waterbury - happier place to shop). In the Price Chopper I added some American cheese, though at least this was made in Vermont. I skipped the 99 cent version of near-American cheese food slices, so I guess it could have been worse. I had a loaf of "hearty white" waiting on the counter - another concession to my son. I'm not sure what made it "hearty." It looked like the white bread of my childhood. Not an artisanal molecule - except maybe the Polish mustard by husband brought from Montreal.<br />
<br />
I will use the Uber Eats app on my phone shortly to send my daughter something from a middle eastern restaurant in her neighborhood for her birthday. I'm sorry not to be seeing her today but I'm glad she's up there.Kim Velkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06729808121762572706noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10709507.post-50716068702520564202016-10-29T20:31:00.000-04:002016-10-29T20:31:11.567-04:00Scribble, Scribble, Scribble (A Play, A Menu, And a Top Tip).<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-yGk0L9QysLU/WBU5oY2YrjI/AAAAAAAAFHY/DxwGJqZ2m7wGBYwT7-QHKBehclgGwtV6gCEw/s1600/SK-A-4214.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-yGk0L9QysLU/WBU5oY2YrjI/AAAAAAAAFHY/DxwGJqZ2m7wGBYwT7-QHKBehclgGwtV6gCEw/s640/SK-A-4214.jpg" width="475" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Everybody Sing!</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<h4>
#AmWriting</h4>
<br />
Hello there! Sorry I've been away - mostly sorry for myself. I'm not sure how much this writing drought of mine has mattered to other people. I have missed it, however.<br />
<br />
So, what's the problem, you ask? Last year I had to give up half-time work for full-time work. (Read, "kid going to college"). Like the song says, you gotta serve somebody, and for money. <br />
<br />
If I were sturdier and not so lazy I wouldn't be making excuses of this sort, but you can't get words from a turnip. My brain is crowded with work stuff. Also, we bought a couch that reclines and I have a Roku.<br />
<br />
<h4>
The Play</h4>
<br />
But enough about me. Except for about that Play. That is also about me. I wrote one! A radio play, for a contest, that I was intending to win. But I did not win, place, or show. <br />
<br />
This was the last project I could really dig into in my part time idyll. BBC didn't like the play, apparently, but I kind of did and I really enjoyed writing it. So I have put it up on <a href="http://figment.com/books/1003417-Daughter-of-a-Brave-Country" target="_blank">Figment </a>, which is a website for high school girls with Aspirations, but also Margaret Atwood. I posted the first two scenes tonight but the rest will appear within the week. It's called "Daughter of a Brave Country" if that link doesn't you have to go hunting for it. (I'm really sorry if that happens. I'm honored by your willingness to click. If the play is performed in even one head I'll be happy).<br />
<br />
In one or two of my brighter moments lately I have had thoughts for new stories etc. These moments are fugitive, however, (see <i>supra</i> note, "work-crowded brain"). All I have for you tonight that is <i>really</i> new is the Halloween Meal Menu I've been mentally concocting this week. <br />
<br />
<h4>
The Menu</h4>
<br />
The main dish will be "Slathery Jack." I'm not exactly sure what this is but it's horrible. It was served <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Bricks-Flowers-Memoirs-katherine-everett/product-reviews/B000NVRX1U/ref=dp_db_cm_cr_acr_txt?ie=UTF8&showViewpoints=1" target="_blank">to a writer I admire</a> during a sea voyage because the Captain had sold the actually edible provisions.<br />
<br />
So we'll have that, along with apple solids, pumpkin spears, and German lashings for dessert! The mulled zinc will also be flowing. Halloween party at my house!<br />
<br />
<h4>
The Top Tip</h4>
<br />
Speaking of writers I admire, I have been thinking lately about how simple it is for really wonderful work to be invisible. If you click the link to my Amazon review of the Slathery-Jack-eater's book, you'll get a sense of what I mean. (Katherine Everett is her name and she was an amazing person and a really good writer). This is <u>not</u> a back door way of promoting my obscure self. I've accepted obscurity. But I routinely run into things that I think are wonderful that no one seems to know about.<br />
<br />
Granted what follows is a pretty crap example of this because in England the song I'm about to recommend and the band responsible for it are HUGE stars. The band is Elbow (awful name, I agree) and the song is "One Day Like This." <br />
<br />
Michael Caine introduced this song to me in his <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006qnmr" target="_blank">Desert Island Discs</a> interview, (DID was an earlier top tip here, as you'll know if you're an old friend). I had never heard of the band or this song before stumbling into Caine's interview. There must be an issue with US distribution for Elbow or some other stupid reason why it took Michael Caine to play this for me instead of my local radio station. So here's the song. FYI, I bought the record and I play this song on Fridays, on my way home from work.<br />
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Thanks for stopping in and for reading to the end. <br />
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<br />Kim Velkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06729808121762572706noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10709507.post-28823887511707651192016-07-18T19:42:00.001-04:002016-07-18T19:42:46.853-04:00Just a Little Something for Stopping in: Book of Love-Peter Gabriel<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="344" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/6nZGv8VTBVE" width="459"></iframe>Kim Velkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06729808121762572706noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10709507.post-63629287262871572662016-07-11T10:44:00.001-04:002016-07-11T10:44:55.057-04:00The World of Quarter Sessions: Brilliant Animation Brings 1931 Back to Life<a href="http://quartersessions.blogspot.com/2016/07/brilliant-animation-brings-1931-back-to.html?spref=bl">The World of Quarter Sessions: Brilliant Animation Brings 1931 Back to Life</a>: I'm hoping to convince this genius, who's doing WONDERFUL things with his computer in Russia, to do a book trailer for me. (I think...Kim Velkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06729808121762572706noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10709507.post-61925759152200914602016-06-29T20:38:00.001-04:002016-06-29T20:44:01.105-04:00Come to our Fark! (Someday)Hold on a minute while I hoist the banner.<br />
<br />
There we go. Hello! <i>I'm here!</i><br />
<br />
And before you ask, rest assured that the paucity of posts here on ye olde blogge has not been due to anything worse than the Roku my sister got me for Christmas two years ago. Now - no matter what - there is <i>always</i> good TV to be had, or at least a good-TV search effort in which to engage.<br />
<br />
Also there is social media. I stare at my phone all the time like the rest of us. (Except for you high quality individuals who still read blogs and probably listen to CDs and don't have internet TV or Twitter accounts). Query- is there a relationship between this (tedious) vogue for zombies and phone-staring? <br />
<br />
My old blogging friend <a href="http://lettersfromahillfarm.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Nan</a> recently decamped from Facebook and retreated to her own dear old blogging project. I don't know if I'm ready to cut the FB cord, but I must say that there is something in the rhythm of this that is nice and actually it feels like the Library of Congress in terms of stability and substance next to Twitter and FB.<br />
<br />
Enough about that now. I actually sat down to write here tonight because I had a thought that wouldn't fit into 140 characters. The thought doesn't deserve much more than that but I write things down.<br />
<br />
I was driving home from work today and thinking that someday, perhaps, as a retirement project we might actually farm the old farm that we have owned, lo these many years (since 1993). <br />
<br />
We have always rented the farm land to an actual farmer and made do with our catastrophic (mostly) gardening and lawn mowing or crouched in the old house there. But who knows? Maybe I'm a future farmer. My next thought was, "well, I wouldn't really want <i>all</i> the land to be fields - I'd like some of it to be landscaped, like a park. This is what I will do with my lottery winnings." Then I thought, "well, maybe some farming and some parkland is what my future (rich) self should aim to achieve. A 'fark' that's what I'm after." That will make you want to come visit, won't it?<br />
<br />
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<br />
Here's a picture of the old fark as it currently appears. Not bad.<br />
<br />
Cheers. Thanks for not completely abandoning the last house. (By the way, my Twitter handle is @woolfoot if you want to follow along there...)<br />
<br />Kim Velkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06729808121762572706noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10709507.post-79962032904591373932016-05-26T07:22:00.000-04:002016-05-26T07:23:26.500-04:00Get InspiredI'll be running a promotion over the next week <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Up-Back-Away-K-Velk-ebook/dp/B00CHCP95U?ie=UTF8&keywords=up%20back%20and%20away&qid=1464261548&ref_=sr_1_1&s=digital-text&sr=1-1" target="_blank">in the US</a> and <a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00CHCP95U/ref=s9_simh_gw_g351_i1_r?pf_rd_m=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE&pf_rd_s=desktop-1&pf_rd_r=K3ARF7CM8SFSC99N2RZK&pf_rd_t=36701&pf_rd_p=867551827&pf_rd_i=desktop" target="_blank">the UK</a> for that e-book of mine. It starts tomorrow and runs through June 3. I'm giving stuff away (see sidebar) and generally having a good time. If you haven't read it yet, for what are you waiting?<br />
<br />
A key plot point in the book involves an elaborate padlock. It was inspired by a real door lock that I saw in the collection of the V&A in London some years ago. It was so cunning and artful I knew I'd want to make use of it someday.<br />
<br />
Maybe it will inspire you. Here's the video. In the meantime, tell your English reading friends about this e-book bargain this week, will you? Thanks. Of course all are welcome to buy a paperback as well. <br />
<br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="480" mozallowfullscreen="" src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/16613314?color=bbe3fa&title=0&byline=0&portrait=0" webkitallowfullscreen="" width="640"></iframe><br />
<a href="https://vimeo.com/16613314">Detector lock by John Wilkes</a> from <a href="https://vimeo.com/vamuseum">Victoria and Albert Museum</a> on <a href="https://vimeo.com/">Vimeo</a>.Kim Velkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06729808121762572706noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10709507.post-72077042961080271112016-05-16T22:24:00.001-04:002016-05-16T22:25:02.374-04:00Go, Click, Win!<a class="rcptr" data-raflid="880aff041" data-template="" data-theme="classic" href="http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/880aff041/" id="rcwidget_sosh73qv" rel="nofollow">a Rafflecopter giveaway</a><br />
<script src="https://widget-prime.rafflecopter.com/launch.js"></script>Kim Velkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06729808121762572706noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10709507.post-33760722907476217672016-04-11T22:41:00.003-04:002016-04-14T07:39:00.075-04:00Radio 4, Where Have You Been all my Life?Duh.<br />
<br />
England.<br />
<br />
Radio 4 is one of the nine radio stations run by the BBC. There's Radio 1 (pop hits), Radio 2 (adult contemporary), and on like that. Radio 4 is mostly talking and it's where I spend most of my time - at least so far. There's so much BBC radio that I haven't had time to venture deep into the other stations - yet.<br />
<br />
And may I just say, we have crappy talking radio here in the US, if you ask me, which you didn't but it's my blog.<br />
<br />
I'm not even talking about the Saharas of sportstalk and know-it-all political blowhards and the religious folk on our dial. I have zero interest in that. I listen to music and occasionally NPR. NPR is the closest thing we have to BBC-style radio in this country and it is a poor, sad, pushy, begging enterprise. Plus NPR is irritating. Aside from Cokie Roberts and Ira Glass (once in a while), and Terry Gross (most of the time) it is middle-brow forced-jollity earnest superior blah beige boring. <br />
<br />
When I was a kid, WGY in Schenectady played <i>Mystery Theater</i>, hosted by E.G. Marshall each weeknight. I would "work" cleaning the kitchen for the whole hour of <i>Mystery Theater.</i> Thinking of that sole survivor of radio drama (in my day) I am reminded of the remains of those dwarf mammoths they found somewhere - physically shrunken holders-on - last of their species, dying out on some island . That was what <i>Mystery Theater </i>was back in the 70s. It wasn't genius but it was fun and it exploited one of the things that radio is good at - telling stories. When I stumbled into Radio 4 I realized how starved I was for programming that takes full advantage of Radio's (note capital "R") potential to be fun, informative, interesting, creative.<br />
<br />
I'm not looking for a radio revival to suit me here in the States anytime soon. Our airwaves follow the money. They must. I understand that. The Beeb is publicly funded and even if Bernie Sanders gets elected no one in the States is going want to throw tax money at radio. Podcasting has filled the void, largely, that's true. But Radio is still a special thing. We don't have to hunt it out. It flows. It's a friend. Thankfully, we now have the internet. And the British taxpayer.<br />
<br />
So here, for your listening pleasure are links to my favorite shows Radio 4 shows, with a nod to Radio 3. (Actually this is the tip of the iceberg my favorite shows but it's bedtime). <br />
<a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006qnmr" target="_blank"><br /></a><a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006qnmr" target="_blank">Desert Island Discs</a><br />
Are you interested in any famous people? They have probably been interviewed on this show. There is an archive stretching back to 1942. Famous people, including Bill Gates, the late Princess Margaret and all kinds of movie stars, musicians, writers and other achievers - the kind that would only get radio time in England (e.g., a landscape designer, a nonagenerian allergist, a supermarket magnate) discuss which eight records they would take if marooned on a desert island. It turns out that this is a great way to get biography. I am addicted. The theme music sounds like a Monty Python joke - at first I thought it must be. I quickly understood, however, that they were playing it straight. The theme is a holdover from the show's 1940s origins. I love it now: living strings, squawking seagulls. Please Aunt Beeb, never change it.<br />
<br />
Desert Island Discs was my entree to Radio 4. I have since become enamored of <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006qtlx" target="_blank">Book at Bedtime</a> - <u>so many</u> great adaptations there. And lately I've been dipping into the venerable <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b007qlvb" target="_blank">Woman's Hour</a>, which is as old or older than DID. There's comedy. There's all kinds of drama. On that point, I have to give shout out for dRadio 3, I listened to a brilliant creepy adaptation of the famous play <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b07454g5" target="_blank">The Skriker</a> there recently. Give that a listen if you can. You will never hear the like on the radio in the US.<br />
<br />
Really, there's too much to detail here. Just go poking around the <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio" target="_blank">BBC Radio website.</a> If you don't find much to love, check you pulse. Kim Velkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06729808121762572706noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10709507.post-65931183845694180692016-03-05T10:02:00.003-05:002016-03-05T10:05:35.452-05:00Real Names That I've Heard Recently That I Like and Want to Remember"Nish Kumar." He's a comedian in England. I like that his name seems like it might be a nickname for "Danish" or "Finish" or something.<br />
<br />
"Penny Cleverly." Need I say more? I wish this had been mine name.<br />
<br />
"Luke Fortune." How lucky can you get? I'll bet the good fairy came to his christening too.Kim Velkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06729808121762572706noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10709507.post-85910690963856791312016-03-01T13:22:00.002-05:002016-03-01T13:22:40.800-05:00Off the Turnip Truck<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Sundown tonight in <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/centralpark?src=hash">#centralpark</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/nyc?src=hash">#nyc</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/nofilter?src=hash">#nofilter</a> <a href="https://t.co/oRsQUNryXI">pic.twitter.com/oRsQUNryXI</a></p>— Kim Velk (@woolfoot) <a href="https://twitter.com/woolfoot/status/703344949186662400">February 26, 2016</a></blockquote>
<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>Kim Velkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06729808121762572706noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10709507.post-61444238989206399082016-02-11T17:20:00.001-05:002016-02-15T10:33:24.878-05:00A Good Time to Be Pretty & She Was Kind to Cars<br />
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<br />
I got a call from high-school-senior daughter this morning. Our 1994 Toyota Camry with 260,000 miles on it - the one that she drives because we are people who think it is enough that she has any car to drive at all- was making bad noises. She managed to make an appointment with the local garage for after school to check out the noise. The gents of the local garage are, as per me, a bit of a shifty bunch. I told her to have them call me before any repairs got authorized. <br />
<br />
Fast forward to 3 PM. The young mechanic to whom she handed her iPhone said "it's a spring and a strut." I pitched him a softball: "Don't you have do both sides?" He said (are you sitting down?) "No." <br />
<br />
I'm not sure that's right but did I mention 260,000 miles? He told me it was going to be about $300. I said, "fine."<br />
<br />
My daughter then had a friend come fetch her at the garage. The two of them were returning here just as I was pulling into the garage in the State of Vermont fleet vehicle that I have this evening (more on that in a minute).<br />
<br />
She and I began discussing the transportation dilemmas that will be caused by not having Ye Ancient Camry tomorrow. This being Vermont, my kids' whole school skis on Friday (tomorrow). No Camry means trouble to-ing and fro-ing for both my kids. I have to leave at 6 AM tomorrow in the aforementioned fleet car to get to a court hearing two and half hours from home . Turns out, however, that we might not actually have a problem.<br />
<br />
"The guy said he would come in at six tomorrow morning and get my car fixed in time for Friday program," my daughter said as we made our way up to our kitchen. "It pays to get up and put on make up every day," she added. <br />
<br />
Right. Never having been pretty myself I never learned how it can pay. (Not bragging or anything but that's her up there. A colleague, seeing this picture on my desk once said, "no offense but she obviously hit the genetic jack pot." Yes. That's true). <br />
<br />
But I'm not here to totally disparage myself. Why? Let me tell you a heartwarming little story.<br />
<br />
I had to leave my own car in the vast Siberian parking lot at the state office campus just now in order to pick up the fleet car. I was resentful for a bit, thinking that my poor little car was going to have to suffer the winds and subzero temperatures in the parking lot tonight instead of in its home in our garage. Then, however, I thought of how the fleet car doesn't properly belong to anyone, how no one loves it, how it is part of no one's family. It never goes anywhere fun. The people in it are never making happy memories. When it's time for it to go it will be nothing but a cold calculation - how many miles, what repairs etc. So. I'm like a foster mother tonight to the orphan car. I thought, well, you enjoy that garage, you unloved utilitarian Ford you. So, maybe a beautiful soul if nothing else.Kim Velkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06729808121762572706noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10709507.post-62458180641903554842016-01-31T15:00:00.001-05:002016-01-31T15:00:42.012-05:00Another Top Tip - Desert Island Discs<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-pkrFx3fIGVI/SGONJXaVAII/AAAAAAAAArM/pjA6ov5Hy5w/s1600/escherpalm.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-pkrFx3fIGVI/SGONJXaVAII/AAAAAAAAArM/pjA6ov5Hy5w/s1600/escherpalm.jpg" /></a></div>
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A couple of months ago I stumbled onto the venerable BBC Radio 4 Program, <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006qnmr" target="_blank">Desert Island Discs</a>. Since then I have been listening to the new shows each week and combing through the archive. It is not too much to say that I can't get enough. Fortunately, it is an almost inexhaustible listening resource.<br />
<br />
I defy anyone to show me a more genius idea for an interview program. The format is simple: interviewees are asked which eight discs (well, it started in 1942 so "discs" it remains) they would take if marooned on a desert island. While they talk about their choices, they also talk about their lives. There are famous people, celebrities, etc. but also, crucially, people who aren't famous except in their own fields. To wit, a pioneering allergist, a prize-winning landscape designer, a supermarket magnate.<br />
<br />
If you have a favorite actor, writer, singer, scientist check the archive and you may well find that he or she has been interviewed. My favorite interviews so far have been the ones with Michael Caine, Roger Waters, Princess Margaret, and Robert Hardy.<br />
<br />
One more tip, sometimes the programs aren't available to stream, but I have found I can download those as MP3 files and play them that way.<br />
<br />
One of the things I like best about the show is that it doesn't appear to be tied in any way to the current marketing efforts of the guests. That is, they aren't asked on because they have a new book/album/movie are are making the rounds of the chat shows. The focus is on entire careers and biography. Brilliant. <br />
<br />Kim Velkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06729808121762572706noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10709507.post-31199175997309818672015-12-07T21:14:00.002-05:002015-12-07T21:14:53.793-05:00The Truth HurtsOh Francis Bacon. You know it.<br />
<br />
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<i>Doth any man doubt that, if there were taken out of men’s
minds vain opinions, flattering hopes, false valuations, imaginations as one
would, and the like, but it would leave the minds of a number of men poor
shrunken things full of melancholy and indisposition, unpleasing to themselves?</i><o:p></o:p></div>
Kim Velkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06729808121762572706noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10709507.post-30671269103239910672015-11-27T23:03:00.001-05:002015-11-27T23:04:39.686-05:00In the City <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-5u4gn-3CScc/VlkjB5Cg-HI/AAAAAAAAEts/Xf9T4JEeK8Y/s1600/IMG_1447.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-5u4gn-3CScc/VlkjB5Cg-HI/AAAAAAAAEts/Xf9T4JEeK8Y/s400/IMG_1447.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A fine, wet night</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
I'm in Montreal tonight, on my own. I came to town with the Infanta but she jettisoned me ASAP in favor of one of her friends here. Really, I don't mind. It takes me back, being here on my own as I was so often in college and law school days.<br />
<br />
I bought a ticket to <i>The Martian</i> and watched it in one of Montreal's best movie theaters. I liked the film a lot - for the story, the acting, the production values and also because it was born of a book originally self-published by Andy Weir. Let us never forget the great lesson taught by Peter Gabriel: "all of the buildings, all of the cars, were once just a dream in somebody's head."<br />
<br />
Andy Weir had an idea, realized it, next thing you know Matt Damon and Kristen Wiig are learning their lines and I'm leaning back in a comfy seat half way up. It's almost as miraculous as the story of <i>The Martian</i> itself.<br />
<br />
The film ended just before 10 PM and in the two and a half hours that I was in the theater the temperature had dropped about twenty degrees. The odd-for-November warm wind that buffeted the car on the way into town had changed. It was appropriately cold and the rain had turned to fat snow snow flakes. I walked home to Whusband's apartment in the McGill Ghetto through the dark McGill campus. I had an umbrella as a shield from the wind and wet snow, which was helpful as I was wrongly dressed. I didn't mind that either, however. It was just the right amount of wind and cold: bracing without being freezing. I don't have to go anywhere tonight and as Adam Gopnik once told me, Montreal is most itself in the cold. The picture above is one that I snapped of St. Catherine Street just after I exited the drugstore across the street from the theater: Montreal looking fine with rain slicked pavements and Christmas decor. <br />
<br />
This isn't a real snowstorm, but it has me thinking of the ones I lived through here all those years ago. In student days I could get where ever I had to go on foot. I didn't have to worry much about snow. A hush would come over the city on those snowstorm nights - only taxis still out and about in the small hours. I loved to watch the snow pile up on those nights, falling fast passed the yellow streetlights...<br />
<br />
I have been, unaccountably, in a bad mood for the last few days. Thanksgiving was OK but I was irritated, mostly with myself but with others too. This night and this cold wind seem to have blown that feeling away. Kim Velkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06729808121762572706noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10709507.post-46502912626238129312015-10-18T18:15:00.000-04:002015-10-18T18:15:23.367-04:00Yoo Hoo! Still Upright, Breathing, and Occasionally Writing <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-PBe7nzsr1x4/UEKdvXzcEgI/AAAAAAAADis/dm8Lr97eyDQ/s1600/dryer%2Bcord%2Band%2Btypewriter%2B005.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-PBe7nzsr1x4/UEKdvXzcEgI/AAAAAAAADis/dm8Lr97eyDQ/s400/dryer%2Bcord%2Band%2Btypewriter%2B005.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Write to Win! (Or Not...)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
I've been away. You may not have noticed but I'll forgive you. You're here now and that's what matters. How about a nice cup of tea and a sit down?<br />
<br />
As Bob Dylan taught us all long ago, you gotta serve somebody and the somebodies I serve (for a salary and health insurance and all that) are now paying for more of my time. Not much is left for this kind of thing these days.<br />
<br />
I'm back at the keyboard this Sunday afternoon - as you will have noticed- having gathered a little strength, thanks to my weekend schedule, the aforementioned tea, and sushi takeout for dinner.<br />
<br />
The one bit of writing I've done for fun in the last month (well, for fun and dreamed-of glory) was in response to a contest by T<i>he Guardian</i>. I admire the entrepreneurial spirit of the <i>Guardian</i> book people. They have started offering writing classes to the world's hopefuls. To promote these courses they threw out a writing prompt. It caught my eye and my imagination and so I entered.<br />
<br />
With what result?<br />
<br />
The usual one I'm afraid. I have been staggeringly consistent in not winning contests. I was pretty good at musical chairs once but since then...<br />
<br />
Anyway, having put forth the effort, I'm reproducing my entry here for your consideration. The task was to write a story of between 500 and 750 words beginning with the sentence:<br />
<br />
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<!--StartFragment--><span style="font-family: Cambria; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "MS 明朝"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="color: #cc0000;">He spent his last £30 on a plate of oysters and
a glass of champagne. </span></span><!--EndFragment--><br />
<br />
Here's my entry. Below that is a link to the winning entries. Thanks for stopping in. I'll be back, one day soon I hope. <br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-wOHFj4tTgds/SgoLXB-C7fI/AAAAAAAACKI/iuRtK7I5Tg8/s1600/Tower_of_London_from_the_river%255B1%255D-tiltshift.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="230" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-wOHFj4tTgds/SgoLXB-C7fI/AAAAAAAACKI/iuRtK7I5Tg8/s320/Tower_of_London_from_the_river%255B1%255D-tiltshift.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">“He spent his last
£30 on a plate of oysters and a glass of champagne.” Inspector Digget looked up
from his battered notebook and met the eyes of his reluctant hostess. “Or so we
believe.” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“And why is that Inspector?” Ms. Fields-Hall said.
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Well, the waiter - the one who called 999
last night - reported that the bill for…” Digget held the notebook at arms-length
and read, “ ‘<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">one glass of Duval-Leroy
Brut and one small plate of mixed oysters with spicy boar sausage’ </i>came to
£31, before VAT.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">“So, with the VAT
it would have been, what, £37.20?”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Digget was
impressed by the speed of the calculation. “Right. However, when the bill was presented, your
brother had only,” he read again, “‘<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">A
twenty pound note, a five pound note, four pound coins and some change</i>.’<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He told the waiter it was all he had.’” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“So he ordered his last meal knowing he
couldn’t pay for it. No one could say he wasn’t consistent.” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Digget was pleased that Constable Jonas, who
had been sent along to shadow him on this delicate interview, remained silent. Digget
was to do the talking.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“The waiter was going to call the manager,” he
continued, “but your brother said: “‘<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">it
was these trainers, Mate. Do you know how much these things cost? Seventy Eight
pounds.</i>’” Digget read this with no intonation. He thought he sounded like
Michael Caine, which embarrassed and pleased him a little.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">“He wouldn’t know what
things cost, would he?” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Ms. Fields-Hall’s
posture in the wingchair – one of a pair whose cushions might once have cradled
the buttocks of George the Third - was not one of ease, like some Bond villain.
Still, it conveyed entitlement - along with authority and dignity. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As she spoke she turned her gaze to the
Staffordshire spaniels by the fireplace. Her chin puckered then and Digget’s heart
went out to her, despite it all. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">“But… what was he
doing wearing trainers?” There was a spark of hope in the question. “In his
twenties his bill for Lobbs would have supported a third-world village. I don’t
think he would have agreed to be cremated in a pair of trainers.” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Yes,” Digget said, surprised at the clumsy
cremation reference, “Well, the waiter had noticed that they weren’t in keeping
with the rest of his, uhm, presentation.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">“Quite a noticing
sort of waiter, wasn’t he? A veritable Sherlock.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">“I suppose, yes.” Was
she thinking that it would have been better, easier perhaps, if her brother had
bubbled under unnoticed? “And, your brother replied, ‘<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">I need shoes that will waterlog quickly and be impossible to slip off
underwater</i>.’ <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Silence. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“The waiter told him to hold on – went to get
his manager, but when they got back, your brother had gone.” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The silence deepened.
It was too much for Jonas. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">“We’re quite sure
it was him, Ma’am, if that’s what you’re wondering. Of course you’ll have to
come and ID the body, but he had his wallet on ‘im when they fished ‘im out.”
Digget winced. “Only thing in it was his driver’s license.” Jonas handed this from
the sofa where she and Digget perched to the wing chair. “And he still had on
the basketball shoes,” Jonas said. She felt Digget’s little nudge and trailed
off, “brand new.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Ms. Fields-Hall regarded
the license, with its postage-stamp sized photo of “Oliver F. Hall, 13
Acorralado Way, Unit 17B, Las Vegas.” A big horn sheep gamboled above Oliver’s right
ear. “Nevada” was printed in type meant to suggest tree branches.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">“Yes,” Ms.
Fields-Hall said flatly. “That’s him.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Digget had grown
up seven miles from where they all sat now, in the beeswax-smelling drawing
room of Boald Park. He remembered his mother saying once that the Halls of
Boald had “blood so blue a spoon would stand up in it.” He’d wondered at the
time if that were literally true.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>All
the locals knew that Oliver had got to daggers-drawn with the rest of the
family years ago and left the place. People had stopped asking about him, it
had been that long.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“You didn’t know he’d come back to England
then?” Digget was all softness.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">“No, Inspector. He
didn’t contact me.” Ms. Fields-Hall smoothed her dungarees – she’d been gardening
when they arrived. “He wouldn’t have, though.” She turned back to the spaniels.
“He’d left a long time ago and the distance he’d gone was too far for returning.”
She paused, “oysters and champagne as a last meal notwithstanding.”</span><o:p></o:p></div>
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And so that is how not to win a masterclass from the Guardian. The winning entry and runners up (and don't try to tell me that the winner's real name is "Geoff Lavendar") <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/guardian-masterclasses/guardian-masterclass-blog/2015/oct/12/short-story-competition-results" target="_blank">can be read here.</a></div>
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<br />Kim Velkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06729808121762572706noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10709507.post-67612543777051358192015-08-12T20:37:00.001-04:002015-08-13T09:04:35.817-04:00C'est Moi, La FlaneuseI went walking yesterday after <i>Jeopardy</i> ended. That means not only that I am incipient old fart but also that it was 7:30 pm before I got out the door. This time of year here in Vermont that means the light is going fast. <br />
<br />
I almost didn't go because darkness was falling and because I'm lazy. As usual, however, my minimal exertion was richly repaid. It was such a fine experience I thought about it again today, while I was out on another walk which was also nice but not so crowded with unexpected pleasures. I thought I should go home and write about my nice walk last night for the record. <br />
<br />
It's not much really so feel free to leave now if you are easily bored. <br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-fh0Cp2-OT_I/VcyUL_S_XZI/AAAAAAAAEps/FOEP5U2F68Y/s1600/IMG_1168.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-fh0Cp2-OT_I/VcyUL_S_XZI/AAAAAAAAEps/FOEP5U2F68Y/s320/IMG_1168.jpg" width="304" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">More on this is a minute...</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<br />
Still here? Here's how it went.<br />
<br />
I walked down my driveway to the dirt road on which we live and from there onto the paved road which is only three houses away. The paved road is not heavily traveled so it is pleasant for walking.<br />
<br />
The houses in our neighborhood are all different, having been added piecemeal over about the last 150 years. A derelict apple orchard was repurposed as building lots for several of them and the apple trees are still here, though not tended. I grabbed a small sour apple as I passed the first house on the paved road and took two bites. It was good but I didn't want to risk bowel trouble so I stopped there. I then remembered a pledge I made to myself earlier this summer to pick some wild flowers and August tis the season for wildflowers. I wanted to pick them because this summer I bought (for one dollar at Goodwill) a little flower press.<br />
<br />
Wildflowers, of course, grow in profusion on the roadside. I grabbed a few as a I passed, aiming for varied colors and shapes. I don't know the names of the things I picked. There were some little daisy-like things, a purplish number that I believe might be a cornflower, buttercups (I think, they were smaller than the buttercups I remember from childhood), and those orange bell-shaped flowers that grow on something like a small bush... People of New England, you know what I mean.<br />
<br />
I carried these as I walked toward the red barn that was my turn-around point. When I got to the barn (actually just short of there as night was getting more serious), I turned and faced the mountains - well, significant hills - that make a wall at the end of this particular road, about two miles distant.<br />
<br />
It had rained during the day and as dusk gathered there were pools and tatters of mist in half a dozen places on the dark green hillsides. Mists also swirled around the hilltops. I hadn't noticed the mists til just that moment. They were very beautiful and a lovely surprise.<br />
<br />
The Japanese have a word for this - my kids give me grief about the fact that I say this, "The Japanese have a word..." every time I see such mists. I can't remember their word. I will look it up later.<br />
<br />
I listen to music while I walk. I can't remember what was on, Squeeze, I think, when a jogger and her giant white dog came up behind me. I was picking another apple at that moment, thinking fine thoughts of our misty hills and trying to remember the Japanese word, when the dog woofed. Having been caught picking an apple (they are wild, but still) I started. I took a bite and, finding it corrupted, threw it out and had no courage to pick another with a witness.<br />
<br />
The jogger was a fellow fattie, though much younger than me. She gave me a kind, rather embarrassed smile as she wobbled by. The dog - who hadn't scared me a bit really, he was clearly a gentle giant - was on a leash. As they passed, the dog kept looking back at me, slowing his owner.<br />
<br />
After the jogger had gotten about twenty yards ahead of me, the dog just sat down in the middle of the road as if to say. "I've had enough of this f---ery. Why aren't we on the couch where we belong? I want to stay with that apple picking broad." The jogger, embarrassed, patted the dog's head. She then gave him a stiff pull on the leash and started jogging again. He was defeated and trotted along behind her like a furry ball and chain.<br />
<br />
To her credit, the runner kept at it til she was out of sight. It was uphill so I was impressed. No doubt she waited to go jogging until the road was likely clear of observers and, then, damn, there I was.<br />
<br />
I walked past the old barn that comes up just before our dirt road. It is weathered and brown but has a shiny new tin roof. It is a barn for a <i>Vermont Life</i> photo shoot. I felt I cut a romantic figure, walking past it with my bunch of wild flowers in my hand.<br />
<br />
I put the flowers in the press as soon as I got back into our dining room. I felt sort of bad about pressing them - something so 'pit and the pendulum' about tightening the screws. I'll take a picture when they're done in two weeks. I will want to remember this.Kim Velkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06729808121762572706noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10709507.post-4881264148854500402015-08-07T13:53:00.000-04:002015-08-07T13:53:55.442-04:00Francis Bacon is Calling Me Out
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<h4>
<i><br /></i></h4>
<h4>
<i>The Original Baconator</i></h4>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-r2tlXrkYS6E/VcTuMsKtoAI/AAAAAAAAEow/VWZHPJm1z-c/s1600/Pourbus_Francis_Bacon.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-r2tlXrkYS6E/VcTuMsKtoAI/AAAAAAAAEow/VWZHPJm1z-c/s320/Pourbus_Francis_Bacon.jpg" width="266" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: #f9f9f9; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 12.3199996948242px; line-height: 18.4799995422363px;">Portrait of Francis Bacon, by </span><a class="mw-redirect" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frans_Pourbus_the_younger" style="background: none rgb(249, 249, 249); color: #0b0080; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 12.3199996948242px; line-height: 18.4799995422363px; text-decoration: none;" title="Frans Pourbus the younger">Frans Pourbus</a><span style="background-color: #f9f9f9; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 12.3199996948242px; line-height: 18.4799995422363px;">(1617)</span></td></tr>
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<h4>
<i><br /></i></h4>
<h4>
<i>"Doth any man doubt that, if there were taken out of men’s
minds vain opinions, flattering hopes, false valuations, imaginations as one
would, and the like, but it would leave the minds of a number of men poor
shrunken things full of melancholy and indisposition, unpleasing to themselves?"</i></h4>
<div>
<i><br /></i></div>
<div>
<i>- <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_Bacon" target="_blank">Francis Bacon</a> in his essay, "<a href="http://www.bartleby.com/3/1/1.html" target="_blank">Of Truth</a>."</i></div>
<div>
<i><br /></i></div>
<div>
I came across this tidbit in a <a href="http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/07/27/joe-goulds-teeth" target="_blank">New Yorker article</a> recently and stopped to copy it out. </div>
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<br /></div>
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Francis, how did you get so smart? ouch. Is that my mind shrinking?</div>
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<!--EndFragment-->Kim Velkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06729808121762572706noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10709507.post-66251905130067077462015-07-31T21:16:00.001-04:002015-08-07T13:53:55.450-04:00Ron Howard, Paul Giamatti, and My DadWhat do they have in common?<br />
<br />
Well, Ron Howard was one of the producers of National Geographic's "Breakthroughs," coming to the National Geographic channel in November. Paul G. is one of the directors. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brett_Ratner" target="_blank">Bret Ratner</a> is directing the episode featuring my Dad, John Schenck, (who, it must also be noted, is the dad of my brother and sister as well) will be featured in one of the six episodes for his work as a pioneering scientist in MRI.<br />
<br />
We've always been proud of Dad, of course. But now he's going to be on a fancy TV show and, well, let me tell you, let's talk about reflected glory. Kidding (sort of). Actually, he's a got a great life story of dairy farm boy to the heights of science (not sure if they're telling any of that) and his work has probably made a difference in your life. You'll find out all about it this fall. <br />
<br />
Here's the trailer. There are just a couple of pictures in it of my dad (one shot of a silent guy in tie, another of a guy looking at a big brain) but if tune in this fall you'll see a lot more. I daresay the other scientists featured might also be kind of good at what they do.<br />
<br />
<script height="495px" src="http://player.ooyala.com/iframe.js#ec=c0MzdrdjpKP_i1zxgaHwSJO7QCq4SZf2&pbid=2076cd5a24df4d2ab33846809627e836" width="880px"></script>Kim Velkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06729808121762572706noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10709507.post-58839595075793538402015-07-16T09:32:00.000-04:002015-07-16T09:35:19.237-04:00The Stanchion Workstation: Coming Soon?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<h2>
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 20.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Designers Tout Benefits of Employee
“Stanchions”</span></b></h2>
<h3>
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Employers Agree</span></i></b></h3>
<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ovl-UYCu2hI/VaepBDIfDhI/AAAAAAAAEnI/ti0guH5p0gg/s1600/Stanchion.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="328" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ovl-UYCu2hI/VaepBDIfDhI/AAAAAAAAEnI/ti0guH5p0gg/s400/Stanchion.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Space saving, production enhancing</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Office workers may soon find a piece of
equipment standard in dairy barns adapted for human use and
incorporated into their own workspaces.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;">The designers responsible for the widely-used “open office
environment,” which features low-walled cubicles arranged in “pods,” have designed an even more space-saving and employee-production-enhancing office model.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;">“Square footage comes at a premium in today’s office
buildings,” said Gerhard Voldemort of Germany’s VolksBüroWerks. “Phones and
computers are much smaller now. It’s time for the desktop to be re imagined. It should
be much more compact.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A surface no wider
than the average person’s width, calculated with arms akimbo, is more than
adequate. Also, these new workstations can be arranged in simple, straight
lines. We estimate that this new configuration will quadruple the number of
employees that can be accommodated with no addition of floor space.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<h3>
<span style="font-size: large;"><i>Distraction Reduction Measures</i></span></h3>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;">The new workstations also include soundproofed side panels
and a heads-up computer display that will occupy the entire field of vision of
the user.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Many of us older people
remember with fondness the phone booths of yesteryear,” Voldemort said, “an
island of privacy in a minimum of space.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>That’s what we’re going for with this design: cozy, friendly, and
ergonomically correct. It goes without saying, of course, that all our stations
will be designed for standing as we now know that sitting equals death.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;">One controversial aspect of the </span><span style="font-size: large;">VolksBüroWerks </span><span style="font-size: large;">design are
the optional “focus enhancement” features.</span>
<span style="font-size: large;">These include foot straps and a “focus halo.”</span> </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;">“Recent psychological studies have found that gentle pressure about the head increases eye-time on computer screens by as
much as 78 percent,” Voldemort said.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He
added that the foot straps are not designed, as one critic suggested, ‘to trap
employees in these upright caskets’ but to prevent harmful “shifting.” “Shifting
weight from foot to foot has a negative impact on
focus and proper ergonomics,” Voldemort said, adding that the focus features are “a perfectly
natural, non-chemical approach to enhancing employee productivity.” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;">VolksBüroWerks</span><span style="font-size: large;"> also recently announced that a
nose-operated food pellet and water delivery system will be available as an
upgrade on the stanchion units by early in the new year.</span><o:p></o:p></div>
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Kim Velkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06729808121762572706noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10709507.post-16868601830285699332015-06-15T20:45:00.002-04:002015-06-15T21:08:31.141-04:00Now, In Other News<h2>
Hello Earth!</h2>
Sorry I've been away <i>so long</i>. When I started this blog in 2006 I'd never heard of Facebook or Twitter. They are the enemy of ye olde blogge.<br />
<br />
I do have a soft spot, however, for the Last House. In fact, I spent a pleasant day-and-a-half there this week cutting grass. This is what it looks like in the back fields just now. Those hills in the distance are in Quebec (which is why, for you uninitiated, I call it the Last House. It's the last one in the USA at that particular point in America). <br />
<br />
Nice, no?<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-4HfCSSygo3k/VX9ooCidbAI/AAAAAAAAEk8/e3lU5XscvCI/s1600/IMG_0944.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-4HfCSSygo3k/VX9ooCidbAI/AAAAAAAAEk8/e3lU5XscvCI/s640/IMG_0944.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">It's June!<br />
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Though I waste most of my time on social media these days, I have been doing a little writing from time to time. I'm working on the sequel to that book I've been going on about for years - but it's hard to write a book, and long. <br />
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When inspiration strikes for something offering more immediate gratification (like a tweet or a Facebook update) I fold up like a cheap umbrella. Occasionally, I write something that falls in between 140 characters and a novel. I started following a funny women's web magazine called <a href="http://reductress.com/" target="_blank">The Reductress </a>this spring and one day I gathered up my own ideas for some Reductress stories and pitched the editors.<br />
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They didn't like any of them. So much for gratification. </div>
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But when I have let rejection stop me from foisting my writing on the public? Never, that's when. </div>
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<br /></div>
<div>
So, rather than leave all this comedy gold sealed up in my Macboook, here it is for your reading enjoyment. Thanks for coming by. </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<h2>
<span style="color: red;"><i><b>Reductress Headlines, DOA, Revived Her</b></i>e:</span></h2>
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<br />
<h2>
<b><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Local Mom Finally
Admits Go Pro Purchase was “Waste of Money”</span></b> </h2>
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<i>“All I’ve managed to
get are videos of my own confused face,” says Shelly Jenks, 47. I can’t figure
out how the hell to erase them. Neither of my kids can be bothered to learn how
to use the damn thing and it has provided zero motivation for them to do fun
sports anyway.</i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p> --------------------------------</o:p></div>
<h2>
<b>UK Researchers Locate
Kate Bush Receptor Gene</b></h2>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>Yowling cat or
shimmering genius? There’s a basis in biology.<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>---------------------------------</b></div>
<h2>
<b>Paul of “Paul’s
Pickin’s” Announces Restaurant Re-Branding Contest</b></h2>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>“Every one knows I
didn’t mean <u>that </u>kind of “pickin’s” said Paul Steptoe, a native of Tennessee. Steptoe says his dream of introducing “alt hillbilly” cuisine to Brooklyn has been
sidelined by the fact that his restaurant has a gross name. “You would think the very
obviousness of the jokes would make people embarrassed to make them. But no. I overestimated my potential
clientele.”<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p> --------------------------------</o:p></div>
<h2>
<b>Amy Poehler Coming to Terms With Fact that Tina Fey’s Book was Just Better Than Hers</b> </h2>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>A source close to the
pair says this has been a no-go area for months.<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
--------------------------------</div>
<h2>
<b>BRCA Gene Mutation
Holders Enjoying Jolie “Prestige Bump”</b><b> </b></h2>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>“I’m not saying I’m
actually related to Angelina Jolie, said local woman and BRCA gene support
group founder Lana Joseph, “but we do have the same gene mutation, and the same
eyebrows, so who knows?“<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<br /></div>
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<br /></div>
<div>
[Lest you think that last one is just in terrible taste I have the BRCA2 mutation myself and I'm OK with a BRCA joke, obvy.]<br />
<br />
Here's another Last House picture as a reward for reading to the bottom.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-6P-HQYdckYI/VX9vuUbv-_I/AAAAAAAAElM/x04GrRZSRAE/s1600/IMG_0942.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-6P-HQYdckYI/VX9vuUbv-_I/AAAAAAAAElM/x04GrRZSRAE/s640/IMG_0942.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Maisy likes it there too</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br /></div>
</div>
Kim Velkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06729808121762572706noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10709507.post-14588548121247472552015-03-09T16:58:00.000-04:002015-03-09T16:58:30.755-04:00On My Way to the University Library...True story... (UVM = University of Vermont).<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en">
Overheard (two guys) at <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/UVM?src=hash">#UVM</a> today: "The only reason I'm not doing well in that class is I don't go to the class or do the reading."<br />
— Kim Velk (@woolfoot) <a href="https://twitter.com/woolfoot/status/575030823835033601">March 9, 2015</a></blockquote>
<script async="" charset="utf-8" src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script>Kim Velkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06729808121762572706noreply@blogger.com0