My First Ten
1. The pink puff flower of the Cat Briar vine; I was in a sand pile in the back yard (I don’t think I was yet two) and saw my parents walking around toward the front of the house. I thought I was being abandoned.
2. The surprise of punishment (belt), and reaching for comfort from the one delivering the punishment.
3. The green coolness of deep clover in the vacant lot next to our house, and the feeling of being absolutely hidden while lying in it under a blue sky.
4. Sitting on the floor in a diaper in front of a little round TV, watching The Arthur Godfrey Show. There was a dead tree branch in a vase on the TV that had gumdrops stuck on the ends of the twigs–a gumdrop tree–and I wanted to get at it bad.
5. Realizing that I could read! And thinking that I would never have to depend on others to give me the stories I wanted.
6. Astonishment when kids lit firecrackers–and later that night, dreams of power.
7. The blonde and white puppy I found (Beagle-ish) and hid in the garage under a tub.
8. Seeing several older boys fighting (I was about six I imagine), and one of them picked up a brick and threw it hard into the back of another boy. Now that image always comes to mind when I hear the phrase “he got the wind knocked out of him.”
9. Trying to jump from my bed to the hallway in the dark, aiming to get to Mama’s protection after having simply heard the story of the movie The Blob (I had fallen asleep at the Drive-In, and then cried when I learned I had missed the movie–so they told me the plot).
10. Swinging on the swing set in the back yard with my sister–and swinging so hard that the metal pole legs began to lift off the ground..
Ten
Climbing in the apricot tree wearing my pink dress.
Sitting on the back fence, stealing tangelos.
Wrapping my hand in tape and saying I broke it to the babysitter.
Wanting more than anything to break open the snowman piñata in the garage. When we finally did, it was disappointing.
Hearing soldiers marching down the street, looking for them and never seeing them.
Playing by myself and mom grabbing my arm, realizing finally that I actually could not hear a word she was saying.
Playing Mario with the neighbor boy and his aunt saying “you’re hurting mario’s head busting open those blocks.”
Flying off the top of the house like a Pterodactyl.
Watching the 1992 Olympics.
Mom hanging up the phone when dad said he bought a new car.
Sundance 2011
I’m going, for my third time. One of the best and most exciting places for film I’ve ever been. Everyone forgets about the dour and focuses in on the excitement.
My First Ten
1. Standing over my first birthday cake. Daddy beside me, Mom taking the picture from a Kodak box camera hanging from a cord around her neck looking down into the view finder.
2. Being carried, legs astraddle Daddy’s neck. The ground so far away down there.
3. In a car seat in the middle of the front seat between Mom and Daddy, helping Daddy drive with my steering wheel affixed to the seat. The steering wheel was white plastic with a soft rubber, bright yellow horn in the middle. I remember thinking it looked like a [fried] egg. I remember beeping the horn.
4. Sitting in a radio station watching, through the sound proof glass, Daddy sing with a gospel quartet he was a member of.
5. The radio, that used to play gospel music on Sunday mornings, when we lived in the little trailer, getting ready to go to church. I remember the radio vividly. The rest is vague.
6. Telling in Nursery School, in show-and-tell about my new Hushpuppies.
7. Taking tap-dancing lessons in Nursery School. There was a recital once. I was a “Legionnaire.” I remember seeing Mom and Daddy in the second or third row. They were both laughing. Mom was crying, wiping her face, at the same time. I asked about it later, the laughing and crying. I don’t remember her answer.
8. My first grade teacher, (who also taught my Mom to play the piano years earlier, when Mom was in her teens) the night she sold my folks a set of Compton’s Encyclopedia. The set is still in my parents’ house, along with, I don’t know, about 30 “year-books” they purchased every year, meant to update the original set. I don’t know what I’ll do with them when/if they come to be mine.
9. Ooo, the tuna casserole that was occasionally served for lunch at Nursery School. There were rubbery things in it I later came to know were the mushrooms in a can of Campbell’s Cream of Mushroom soup. Once, they made me eat it all, and I promptly barfed it onto the floor beside my chair.
10. Falling asleep, on nights before Christmas, with visions of good things coming in the morning. Anticipating I could scarce contain it, let alone fall asleep, but sleep I did. The morning never disappointed.
James Brown Teaches You to Dance
Dear Clusterflock: Obsessions of your early years
Did you have any? Perhaps up to the age of 14 or 16?
I had two that spring to mind. The first is centred around swimming. I loved to swim and was a strong swimmer. I was particularly good at swimming underwater and used to sit holding my breath to train myself to swimming further and further. I think the furthest I managed was about 50 yards. I found the sensation of my lungs exploding kinda put me off of pursuing this as an adult!
The other was my obsession with eating and the desire to be in the Guinness Book Of Records. I wanted to hold the record for eating pickled onions and would eat as many as my parents would allow in preparation. The other eating obsession was stones, pits as you guys call them I think. I wanted to swallow as big a stone as I could – my aim was to swallow a peach stone – I came close a few times, but, as you can imagine it induced a vomit! Every time I eat a peach it flits through my head, should I try again? Thankfully common sense kicks in.
Black Eyes
A young Tweedy from 1996.
tag line of the day
today’s comic was written in part by a man yelling on the bus
My first ten.
1. Watching steam trains from my push chair
2. Digging tunnels in the snow of 1963 and being so cold that I cried
3. Hallucinating following a dose of the sun – I still see those colours and patterns to this day.
4. Feeding a horse on a caravan holiday.
5. Being gassed for a tooth extraction
6. Playing with a torch in the smog of autumn – the bastards cleaned the city up!
7. Laying in bed and listening to the clanking of shunted train carriages whilst watching the lights of cars paint shapes on my bedroom ceiling.
8. Shooting a sparrow and realising the consequences
9. Hiding porn under a railway bridge
10. Eating something that grew by the river every summer holiday.
Papa
My First Ten
1. Vomiting on the wood floor in the dark room
2. A pink pebble in the driveway
3. Slipping on the play structure made of railroad ties, my chin cut open
4. My friend’s house smells different
5. Cows are enormous and terrifying
6. I don’t want to get in that boat
7. Toothbrushes are pretty
8. Where did this statuette come from?
9. The imp carved out of wood is leering
10. That is a whole BOX of CANDY
time is only a trick of memory
by Jason Overby
My first ten
In order, from age 1.5 to 5
1. Sitting in a highchair at the back of a dark room, watching someone’s home movies.
2. My father walking into the room with a large watermelon that he placed alongside me in my playpen.
3. Bees on purple sage blossoms.
4. Banging on a pot with a spoon while watching Romper Room.
5. The recognition, at age 3, that all around me was alive and I was part of it.
I hope Izzy remembers…
The other day Izzy, who probably watches a little too much Go, Diego! Go!, was asking for my help climbing up on a chair:
“Help me, daddy.”
…
“Help me.”
…
“Help…”
…
“¡Ayúdeme!”
My First 10
I remember almost nothing from when I was young. All of these are, likely, inaccurate.
1. Getting dropped off at my Grandma’s so my mom and Dad could go for a walk and having them return with my newborn sister.
2. Playing hide and seek and hiding between the upright piano and the wall, for what felt like hours, before being located by my mother and informed that everybody else had gone to bed.
3. Knocking my infant sister out of the car we thought was burning.
4. Expelling the air from my lungs and allowing myself to sit, legs crossed, on the bottom of the kiddie pool.
5. The ring on my grandma’s built-in, that when pulled would unlatch the desk, stocked with crayons.
6. Brown, dark images, as if I’m looking in from the other side of a screen door, of our old house on Elm Street.
7. The click of the turn dial on my grandma’s TV.
8. The floor at the foot of my mom’s bed.
9. The smell of sheetrock.
10. Eating a bowl of Salsa, with a spoon, at a Mexican restaurant as my parents chatted with some friends.
Antarctica
(via cyclelicious)
headline of the day, II
A boring drill builds an exciting tunnel
My first ten
I don’t think I have any memories before the age of four. My first ten:
1. Rolling off a table at preschool and hitting the floor pretty hard.
2. After getting upset at two girls in my neighborhood, running back to my mom for comfort and instead being told to toughen up.
3. Playing with Legos on my living room floor in an attempt to delay my family’s move from our house.
4. Grasshoppers and the clear plastic container I kept them in.
5. My grandfather poking fun at me and asking why I was eating fungus while I was eating raw mushrooms.
6. Going to bible class one Sunday, not understanding any of the references, and hating every minute of it.
7. Pink monkey and banana shorts my mother sewed for me.
8. An enormous wrapped present, the size of me, without a name tag under the Christmas tree. Mine? Mine? Mine? Mine?
9. Writing a story based on Zelda.
10. Going over to our friend Mark’s house and watching him and my brother play Nintendo, then finally getting to play the Duck Hunter game.
In Search of the Maltese Falcon
The Rent Is Too Damn High Party
As a karate expert I will not talk about anyone up here.
headline of the day
Rented Chevy Corvette not the best for doing beach donuts
quote out of context
While your neighbors are struggling to find food, you will be dining on lasagna, beef stroganoff, and a variety of other delicious entrees. What’s more, this food will retain its nutritional value and freshness for up to ten years.
My first ten
1. Bending over to pick up an Easter egg ‘hidden’ along a baseboard, losing balance, and knocking a tooth.
2. Looking through the bars of the crib until they looked over the blanket and said my name.
3. The neighbors had a German Shepherd. The man was missing the nail on his thumb and could fit a penny in the space.
4. Dad holding the length of a king snake between his hands.
HTML Giant’s New Literary Magazine Club
HTML Giant has announced the launch of its own version of the online book club.
The Literary Magazine Club will ask members to read and discuss a single work together. It’s just that instead of reading a book, participants will read and discuss a single issue of a literary magazine. And . . .
first up is the current issue of New York Tyrant. The issue that includes works by flockers Brandon Hobson, Daryl Scroggins, and Cooper Renner.
So go buy a copy now if you haven’t already.
(Thanks to Brandon for the tip.)
Lights, Quantum Dots, Action!
Amy Chyao, a sixteen year old high school student from Richardson Texas, taught herself chemistry in order to enhance an existing chemotherapy treatment by making it photosensitive. Did I mention she was sixteen? Oh, and she got to present her experiment with eleven other students at the White House.
Chyao explained her idea for a way to improve the treatment, allowing the drug to penetrate more deeply through photosensitizing.
Obama asked how she started the project.
“It was actually basically from scratch,” she said, adding that “when I started this project, I didn’t know any chemistry.” After learning some basic general chemistry, she began making nanotubes based on the drug at a nanotechnology lab where she worked.
