On my recent quick trip home, I was working the local coffee shop and I seemed to recognize this handicapped girl, and then later she came up and said hi. She was a freshman when I was senior in highschool, and I hadn't seen her in over a decade. She wears her hair short now, lives by herself in town a walkable distance from everything, and holds down a job at the library. Good for her! Isn't it nice to see how handicapped people can blossom in the right environments?
She also had a very good sense of humor... When we were talking about how old we were, she was like, "I'm 26 now," and when I said that I was 30, she was like, "I'm not quite there yet, and I'm glad. I need time to prepare myself."
Saturday, March 27, 2010
Friday, March 26, 2010
From the memoir of J.D. Salinger's 18-y.o. lover...
...when he was 52! - she was a precocious writer that he wooed by letter, and she dropped out of Yale and lived with him for a year though they never had sex because she suffered from constricted vagina - in this section leading up to where they are about to try to make love for the 1st time, she reflects on how at that time she knew so little about sex (from Joyce Maynard's "At Home in the World: A Memoir", pp. 119-121):
Sex is the movie they show us in seventh-grade gym class, about the miracle of menstruation, and my own terrible shame when, a couple of years later, the miracle finally happnes to me, and I cannot bring myself to tell my mother. So a full year goes by, until the day she confronts me, having cleaned my closet, and found, at the very back, a brown paper bag filled with a year's worth of sanitary napkins, now crawling with bugs. "How could you?" she says. Now I am more ashamed than ever.
J.D. Salinger was a fucked-up little puppy. He loved young girls that had this innocence about them, but he wanted them to be sexually precocious. He would be very nice at 1st and fill their minds with his eclectic Eastern religious stuff, and then eventually begin to criticize them, telling them not to take things personally, and finally end up accusing them of belonging to the world and saying that he never really knew them. So fucked up.
Sex is the movie they show us in seventh-grade gym class, about the miracle of menstruation, and my own terrible shame when, a couple of years later, the miracle finally happnes to me, and I cannot bring myself to tell my mother. So a full year goes by, until the day she confronts me, having cleaned my closet, and found, at the very back, a brown paper bag filled with a year's worth of sanitary napkins, now crawling with bugs. "How could you?" she says. Now I am more ashamed than ever.
J.D. Salinger was a fucked-up little puppy. He loved young girls that had this innocence about them, but he wanted them to be sexually precocious. He would be very nice at 1st and fill their minds with his eclectic Eastern religious stuff, and then eventually begin to criticize them, telling them not to take things personally, and finally end up accusing them of belonging to the world and saying that he never really knew them. So fucked up.
Thursday, March 25, 2010
Section antics (3 of 3): A topical story.
So, for the last section of the year, one of the articles we read was this feminist article discussing the rape and dismemberment of the Whore of Babylon in the book of Revelation (the prof likes to assign a range of types of scholarship for students to critically interact with, to get a sense of the contours of the field).
Anyhow, most every student loved to trash the article, which was a bit loopy at times, but there was this one evocative paragraph talking about how scholars feel free to treat the rape as a symbol, but if it was a male prostitute getting raped, the symbolism would break down and they would feel compelled to treat it as an actual event.
So, I read that, and when people were like, "So?", I told a story about my one friend's 2nd-wave feminist mother who wears muu-muus and smokes a lot but has a gentle, soothing voice and a comforting presence, and about how one time she was telling me about when she first saw "Deliverance", of course when it was out in theaters (I of course explained what the movie was about, adding, of course, that I never saw it).
"So," I was like, "She told me that she was deeply bothered for 3 days after seeing the rape scene. And, it was only after that she really thought about it that she realized that she had seen a lot of different women graphically raped and even murdered on screen a lot of times and never gave a 2nd thought about it, but here the reason that she was so bothered by a man getting raped was simply because he was a man, and she was like, 'See, it's the patriarchy in my head!'".
(Saying that last bit, I tapped the side of my head with my index finger, but I kept a grave face.)
A few people nodded seriously and in total agreement - actually, there were 2, and they were both men! - but people in my section didn't know what to say, mostly, so, after a pause, I was like, "And you know, she's right," and saying that, I shrugged and nodded, gravely.
Anyhow, most every student loved to trash the article, which was a bit loopy at times, but there was this one evocative paragraph talking about how scholars feel free to treat the rape as a symbol, but if it was a male prostitute getting raped, the symbolism would break down and they would feel compelled to treat it as an actual event.
So, I read that, and when people were like, "So?", I told a story about my one friend's 2nd-wave feminist mother who wears muu-muus and smokes a lot but has a gentle, soothing voice and a comforting presence, and about how one time she was telling me about when she first saw "Deliverance", of course when it was out in theaters (I of course explained what the movie was about, adding, of course, that I never saw it).
"So," I was like, "She told me that she was deeply bothered for 3 days after seeing the rape scene. And, it was only after that she really thought about it that she realized that she had seen a lot of different women graphically raped and even murdered on screen a lot of times and never gave a 2nd thought about it, but here the reason that she was so bothered by a man getting raped was simply because he was a man, and she was like, 'See, it's the patriarchy in my head!'".
(Saying that last bit, I tapped the side of my head with my index finger, but I kept a grave face.)
A few people nodded seriously and in total agreement - actually, there were 2, and they were both men! - but people in my section didn't know what to say, mostly, so, after a pause, I was like, "And you know, she's right," and saying that, I shrugged and nodded, gravely.
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
Section antics (2 of 3): A joke.
A few weeks ago in section we were discussing the story in Acts of Ananias and Sapphira, where they keep money from the church and both end up falling dead.
So, I told the story of how like 3-4 years ago when I was on an archaeology trip for my masters, me and this doctoral student kept bitching about how obnoxious everyone was taking pictures that they could one day use in lectures - it made sense to do that, but they were taking pictures of *everything* and weren't even taking time to consider what they saw, and oftentimes would even step in front of you and other tourists rudely!
Anyhow, when we were on this acropolis in Turkey with a really well-preserved Athena temple, the Turkish tour guide was sure to point out this steep cliff by the temple, and said to be careful taking pictures, since a few years ago this German tourist woman was taking a picture and backed up right off the cliff and fell and died.
At that, my doctoral student friend started giggling and nudging me and being like, "Punishment miracle, punishment miracle!".
At that, the kids in my section laughed.
So, I told the story of how like 3-4 years ago when I was on an archaeology trip for my masters, me and this doctoral student kept bitching about how obnoxious everyone was taking pictures that they could one day use in lectures - it made sense to do that, but they were taking pictures of *everything* and weren't even taking time to consider what they saw, and oftentimes would even step in front of you and other tourists rudely!
Anyhow, when we were on this acropolis in Turkey with a really well-preserved Athena temple, the Turkish tour guide was sure to point out this steep cliff by the temple, and said to be careful taking pictures, since a few years ago this German tourist woman was taking a picture and backed up right off the cliff and fell and died.
At that, my doctoral student friend started giggling and nudging me and being like, "Punishment miracle, punishment miracle!".
At that, the kids in my section laughed.
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
Section antics (1 of 3): A crack.
A few sections ago I had to do some major shit like right after section, so I convened section 10 minutes earlier so I could end it 10 minutes earlier, and 3 minutes before we were ending, I already started to gather up my stuff.
As I wrapped things up and put on my coat to leave, I was like, "Look, when I have some place to go, section ends on time."
No one laughed.
As I wrapped things up and put on my coat to leave, I was like, "Look, when I have some place to go, section ends on time."
No one laughed.
Monday, March 22, 2010
...leaving...
...I've been time-delaying posts, since I'm so busy and am leaving my neighborhood this week...
2 weekends ago was my last trip to the grocery store.
I had told the 2 of the (black) cashier women I like that I was moving, and so I made sure to tell them that this was my last time through the store. They said they were going to miss me, and to come by and visit them!
2 weekends ago was my last trip to the grocery store.
I had told the 2 of the (black) cashier women I like that I was moving, and so I made sure to tell them that this was my last time through the store. They said they were going to miss me, and to come by and visit them!
Sunday, March 21, 2010
Addendum.
The next day after writing up a saddened review on Yelp, the karaoke host from hipster karaoke sent an email out to his list saying it's the 2nd time in his life he's done a St. Patrick's Day show, and he's regretted it both times...
He also said that he's worried about the crowd, and from now on will stop advertising on his site, and just sending out emails to his list to announce shows, so people brought in over Yelp can't easily figure out when to come.
I wonder if this was independent of my two-star (out of a possible five) Yelp review.
He also said that he's worried about the crowd, and from now on will stop advertising on his site, and just sending out emails to his list to announce shows, so people brought in over Yelp can't easily figure out when to come.
I wonder if this was independent of my two-star (out of a possible five) Yelp review.
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