Ryan at Twomey
Yesterday: Bloch Wing, Nelson-Atkins, Kansas City, MO.
Six of one, half dozen the other
Little Girl Lost
Wilma had two versions of her favorite saying. I wish I could go back and ask her about that. I’d be quick, not greedy with any time travel favors. I would give her a serious hug and ask, “Why did you say ‘I’ll swan’ sometimes and ‘I’ll swanee’ other times?” Also, “What exactly does that mean?” In truth, this would be a cover for hearing Wilma laugh. For a while, we lost Wilma’s laugh.
Wilma had a little daughter, who played with my sister. Wilma’s son was my brother’s friend. One day, the little girl got sick, went into the hospital and never came out. She had an enlarged heart. No one knew.
We went to the funeral. The brother cried hard. Then, we watched the doctor walk down the steps of the church. He was sobbing. This was the country doctor who took care of everyone for miles around in a clinic where you did not make appointments. You showed up and sat with the farmers and the women with babies and the grandmothers and waited to be called. Then, you picked up prescription bottles from the same front desk where you signed your name. No one had ever seen the doctor cry.
For a long time, Wilma’s laugh was absent in the neighborhood. And the doctor was even quieter.
Years later, my father had heart problems, and the doctor insisted that he travel to see a cardiac surgeon who helped to pioneer life-saving procedures at a university hospital where people came from all over the world for surgery. This physician and his team knew the country doctor well.
It was obvious to me what had happened. The country doctor poured himself into learning everything he could about the heart because so many, including his own, had been broken when the little girl was lost.
dear clusterflock
Anybody know what I mean when I say Red Headed Jesus?
OFFER: 2 Gallons Purple Sherwin Williams Paint
I have a friend who wanted to paint her master a light purple color, but she didn’t like it. Let me know if you’re interested asap! Thanks!
Must be willing to drive to Dubuque.
Today
me and Ricky Cameron (Neece) looked at 1,345 stoneware cups.
A type of local gentleman
Texas Grumpy.
from the spam
Whence to me the nobility?
that’s an expensive vase
A Chinese vase from the Qianlong Dynasty sold at auction recently for $69.3 million.
People from countries like China, Iran, Eygpt and India, who have lost large tracts of their visual heritage – either through wars, government decree or simple plunder by Western collectors – are desperate to buy back their artefacts at whatever cost.
Art works from these countries are being revalued, not according to what price tag the seller puts on them, but what the increasing number of foreign billionaires are happy to pay to buy a link with their past.
The vase had been estimated at $1.5 million.
quote out of context
Everyone wants to know why I’m not in my cube. Everyone seems to think I spend all my time in the glass cube, but I live in the entire museum.
quote out of context
Possible signs of demonic possession include scratching, cutting, biting of the skin; profound displays of strength; and a strong or violent reaction to holy water.
Update:
Dear Clusterflock
Female names that are presidents’ last names.
e.g. Madison
single speed bicycle for the 14 feet tall
Saw this while sipping on some suds in the Delmar Loop. Apparently, Regions Bank is trying to tap into the cyclist demographic.
Time and tide
Munchausen by Internet
I have a hard time believing that people lie on the internet:
…[T]he anonymity and lack of accountability of modern technology aids people who, in the olden days of mere telephone and in-person contact, would have had trouble getting attention or weaseling out of a commitment by pretending to be at death’s door.
Dr. Marc Feldman calls this phenomenon “Munchausen by Internet,” a term he coined, which applies to people who go online to fake terminal illness and/or death.
He says the syndrome goes beyond a need for attention to “an undeniable element of sadism,” one that feeds off the concern and outpouring of sympathy from readers, especially those in online support groups for the terminally ill.
from the spam
If I could just have your talent, I’d hang it on a bench and forget it was there then eat it later.
Two Memories I
I have had two memories in my head for about a week. I wanted to write well about them, but right now I just want them out of my head.
When I was younger, perhaps 12 or 13, my dad brought home a used dirt bike in the back of our old Ford Taurus wagon with the faux wood panel sides. It was yellow. He said it just needed a couple of repairs and some paint, it’d be good as new. He was just taking it down to a friend’s auto shop to do the work. We didn’t have much, but he was good with his hands.
I’m not sure if it was sold or if it had never been purchased to begin with. Maybe it was a wreck not worth fixing and I wouldn’t notice, or borrowed from some other boy I didn’t know. Maybe he was trying to postpone my disappointment until after my birthday, keep that expectant hope alive a little longer. All I know is that I never saw that bike again.
That’s pretty draining. I’ll have to tell the other story later.
from the comments
I should also point out that the main reason I haven’t mentioned which marriage broker we contract with is that there’s a small chance that their competition might try to assassinate us if they knew who we were.
This study shows that our mental lives are pervaded, to a remarkable degree, by the non-present
“A human mind is a wandering mind, and a wandering mind is an unhappy mind,” wrote psychologists Matthew Killingsworth and Daniel Gilbert of Harvard University in the journal Science.
Subjects reported being happiest while having sex, exercising or having a conversation. They reported being least happy while using a home computer, resting or working.
Subjects tended to be most focused on the present, and least prone to mind-wandering, during sex, the study noted. During every other activity, minds were wandering no less than 30 percent of the time.
from the comments
You have made your own cheese, Joel. There can be no grater accomplishment.
dueling blowjobs
Cadillac Man (1990):
Molly: …you have no respect for women.
Joey: I guess dinner and a blow job’s out of the question.
Molly: I guess.
Joey: We’ll forget dinner…
Hot Resort (1985)
Chuck: I don’t suppose you’d like to go to the movies tonight?
Jane: Oh, fuck off.
Chuck: Well, I guess a blow job would really be out of the question then?
quote out of context
“It was very difficult, especially because the smells were unbelievable,” she said. “It seemed almost like every floor we went up there was a different odor.”
Also:
The casino was closed and, for a time, so were the bars.
the classroom reinvented
Slate ran a contest to reinvent the American classroom. Greg Stack and Natalia Nesmeainova won with their “Fifth Grade Exploration Studio.” If features an outdoor story circle, a “teacher base” and crops:
headline of the day
Gurnee Woman Accused Of Assaulting Cop With Sex Toy
New Colbert Word
Downtrickler.
