Tuesday, July 29, 2008

Damn, it's hot outside . . . and a visual found poem


The high today was an unbearable 104 degrees. My favorite thing is when the Weather Channel also give us the "Feels Like" temperature as well, because when that bad-boy reaches 111, like it did today, I'm not leaving the house. Enough, I say.

I know, I know. I'm actually old enough to remember when scads of people had no AC at all down here in Arkansas. In the evening, the attic fan would suck the living room curtains right up to the ceiling. People spent more time outside than in because the inside of a late-July Arkansas house was a steam bath. At least you could get a little breeze on the porch, even if it did smell like bubbling road tar.

I remember once watching my grandmother's black hair rinse sweating all around her face in little back rivers from this kind of heat. She was also deathly afraid of rain and that made perfect sense. I use permanent color deftly and regularly applied at Athena's Salon, and so have no fear of melting.

This heat is making me wander off-topic.

And since I'm whining about the weather, I guess I'll indulge myself a bit and whine about mosquitos as well. They are numerous and biting. Sooner or later we're going to have to experience Winter down here just to put a dent in the mosquito lifecycle. We could sure use a break on that.

For your summer viewing pleasure, a visual/found poem I call Skeeters. I couldn't add music, so you'll have to just hum something while you watch it. Just let me know what song came to mind.

Saturday, July 26, 2008

Itsy Bitsy Spiders and Capturing Arkansas

Let me begin by saying this is NOT the spider I found crawling out of my shoe last night. No. The one I found was black and fast and leggy and THIS big. With fangs and such. If a diamond spider had wriggled willy nilly across my floor, I'd have killed myself to snatch it. I wasn't so inclined last night when the creepy one came calling. And it haunted me all night, because an unkilled spider in the bedroom is the stuff nightmares are made of.

I know there are some who understand spiders to be Ecologically Important and such, but I'm not one of them. In England, it appears folks go to great and expensive lengths to catch and release their little in-house arachnid friends. Can you imagine? This little contraption from Eurocosm swears spiders will be snagged unharmed so they can then be released out into the garden where they become Quite Beneficial.

Are they kidding me? I can still remember a few Sherman, Texas tarantulas capable not only of wrestling the business end of that catcher away from a grown man, but also chasing him around the house with it.

I'll admit the spider that climbed out of my shoe and into God Knows Where last night wasn't a tarantula. It was big, though, and alive and crawled hastily under my antique dressing table. Like any good Southern woman, I blindly blasted hairspray under there. Laugh all you want, but it works. I've killed many a creeping and flying varmit with aerosol hairspray and they drop in their tracks, as I'm assuming this one did.

Not knowing for sure made for some uneasy sleeping last night, though. A woman can get tired of killing her own spiders.

On a more positive and self-promoting note, there's a little photography contest going on right now called Capture Arkansas. The winners are chosen in a variety of ways, but mostly by viewer votes and I've decided to play. Winning photos will be published in a coffee-table book, so you've got to take a minute or two to vote and look at some of the pictures. Anyone out there unfamiliar with Arkansas will find this an interesting visual vacation. Those of you from around here need to throw your own pictures onto the heap. It's just good clean fun, folks.

You can either click on one of the photos over <------there, or click HERE to vote and admire. Note: my girlfriends from the Branson Trip have no idea I've done this, so sshhhhhhh...

Monday, July 21, 2008

A Bunch of Writers, a Pot of Coffee, and a Box of Donuts walk into a bar . . .


The month-long Writing Project Summer Institute is over. I'm still overwhelmed by the stunning teachers who came, who wrote, who conquered. We began as a class and ended as a writing family. Sandra, Becky, Carolyn, Verlyn, Renee', Janice, Barabara, Nan, Jennifer, Janet, Stephanie, Jane, and Mary have all become my sisters and favorite aunts. Mike, bless your only-man-in-the-room heart, you're the scribbling brother I never had.

That's what the NWP Summer Institute does. It wears us out, it makes us dig and find our words. It makes us forever connected as teachers and writers. We're scribbling kin now.

It also makes us eat food we shouldn't. Good Lord. I've got four weeks until classes begin and it'll take every last day of that to undo the Sugary-Donut Damage. And then some. I suspect there are only a couple of us - the strong ones - who came out on the other side unscathed.


Tuesday, July 15, 2008

More Ultimate Shelf-Cleaning Book Giveaway...and such


We have a winner! Hillbilly Gal aka Sweet Tea Mama (love that) has won a little Samuel Beckett, a little Benet, and The Mists of Avalon. The Perfect Grandson, who has a birthday very soon, perfected his pincher skills and this time didn't even put the paper in his mouth. Success! Congratulations, Sweet Tea, and slide me an email so I can get these wonderful books to you.

So we begin yet another round. I have to say that summer is a terrible time to clean out book shelves. They just seem to walk in the door faster than I can send them out. I've thinned out one of my Miscellaneous Bookshelves to add a bit this time, so look closely. I've tucked them in here and there on the list.

Be sure to leave a comment in this post telling me which three books from the list you'd like to have for free, and on July 31 you might be the lucky winner chosen at random from slips of paper in the salad bowl, hand picked by The Perfect Grandson. He loves doing this and he's quite decisive.

As always, this giveaway is only for those in the lower 48 states because just the gas to get to the mailbox is dipping into my typewriter fund. God knows what shipping to Mongolia or Perth would cost. And don't include a shipping address in your comment because - let's face it - the world is full of folks with ill-intent. We'll find each other after the drawing.

Choose three books from the list:

Mr. Sammler's Planet, Saul Bellow (HB)
Little Big Man, Thomas Berger (HB)
Memoirs of a Geisha, Arthur Golden (PB)
Leaving Cold Sassy, Olive Ann Burns (HB)
Passion of the Mind, A.S. Byatt (HB)
No Country for Old Men, Cormac McCarthy (PB)
Evelina, Fanny Burney (PB)
Death of a Confederate Colonel: Civil War Stories and a Novella, Pat Carr (PB)
Babel Tower, A.S. Byatt (PB)
The Teachings of Don B., Donald Barthelme (HB)
Possession, A.S. Byatt (PB)
The Life of Samuel Johnson, James Boswell (PB)
The Silence of the LLano , Rudolpho Anaya (PB)
Divining Women, Kaye Gibbons (PB)
Lucky Jim, Kingsly Amis (PB)
Until I Find You, John Irving (PB)
Cat's Eye,Margaret Atwood (HC)
Angels and Demons, Dan Brown (PB)
Bastard Out of Carolina, Dorothy Allison (PB)
Blue Diary, Alice Hoffman (HB)
I am Anastasia;: The Autobiography of the Grand-Duchess of Russia , Roland Krug von Nidda, translated from the German by Oliver Coburn, 1958 (HC)
Don Juan, Byron (HB)
The Rector of Justin, Louis Auchincloss (HB)
Three Lives, Louis Auchincloss (HB)
False Gods, Louis Auchincloss (HB)
Trout Fishing In America, The Pill vs. The Springhill Mine Disaster, and I Watermelon Sugar, Richard Brautigan (PB – 3 in one vol)

Remember - these are used books. They're not meant to look like new because they've been loved and actually read. They're free. Who cares if they're perfect.

Help a girl out - choose some free books.

Friday, July 11, 2008

Letter on the Fridge to Emily


How is it possible? Twenty-two years ago right this minute I was screaming at some unsuspecting night-nurse to BRING ME MY BABY NOW. And she did. You were three hours new and a tiny Snow White blinking up at me. I spent the rest of that night memorizing you. It was the finest night of my life, just you and me and the occasional night-nurse making sure I wasn't post-partum crazy. I wasn't.

I spent a lot of time that night wondering about the woman you'd become, and here you are that woman. I'm proud of everything you've become and I'm thrilled to see what's next. I'm a spectator and your biggest fan, gal. Always have been, always will be.

I love you high as the sky, deep as the ocean, as long as a mile. YOU are my sunshine.

Happy Birthday, sweetie.

oxoxoxoxox

Mom

Monday, July 7, 2008

Woman with Head Cut Off Resurfaces

I think it should be "like a chicken with its head cut off," but I don't like chickens much. Unless they're on a plate and I didn't have to cook them.

The point is, I'm Entirely Too Busy. Those of you out there who for even a fleeting moment considered teaching because "you get summers off" should hang out with me for a week or so in July. Or June. And August.

The National Writing Project Summer Institute is going beautifully and I love every single second of it. I just haven't had a minute to gather my thoughts for a while. I haven't done the laundry, either, which is what I'm going to do right this very minute.

In the meantime, I've found this video on killing creativity in the schools. Yes, it's long. Yes, it's worth it. My little gift to you while I separate handwashables from the towels.













Tuesday, July 1, 2008

The Ultimate Shelf-Cleaning Book Giveaway Continues

The books are dwindling and it's glorious! I can't thank all of you enough for helping me clean out my book shelves by relocating a few volumes to your house. I've added some more and we begin again.

This time The Perfect Grandon's little pincher fingers picked W.E.B. Adamant from the salad bowl. Congratulations, gal! You've won Things Fall Apart, Bacon's Essays, and Cyrano. I'm also including a couple of Bonus Mystery Books, because that's the kind of girl I am. I did the same last time for David, and I'm convinced the only thing better than choosing and winning free books is getting a couple more as a surprise.

It's time to start again, and this round continues with a little Auchincloss and Brautigan. What a combo. Be sure to leave a comment in this post telling me which three books from the list you'd like to have for free, and on July 15 you might be the lucky winner chosen at random from slips of paper in the salad bowl.

As always, this giveaway is only for those in the lower 48 states because just the gas to get to the mailbox is dipping into my typewriter fund. God knows what shipping to Mongolia or Perth would cost. And don't include a shipping address in your comment because - let's face it - the world is full of folks with ill-intent. We'll find each other after the drawing.

Choose three free books from the following list:

Mr. Sammler's Planet, Saul Bellow (HB)
Selected Works of Stephen Vincent Benet, 2 vols, Poetry, Prose (HB)
Dream of Fair to Middling Women, Samuel Beckett (HB)
Little Big Man, Thomas Berger (HB)
Leaving Cold Sassy, Olive Ann Burns (HB)
Passion of the Mind, A.S. Byatt (HB)
Evelina, Fanny Burney (PB)
Babel Tower, A.S. Byatt (PB)
The Teachings of Don B., Donald Barthelme (HB)
Possession, A.S. Byatt (PB)
Mists of Avalon, Marion Zimmer Bradley (PB)
The Life of Samuel Johnson, James Boswell (PB)
The Silence of the LLano , Rudolpho Anaya (PB)
Lucky Jim, Kingsly Amis (PB)
Cat's Eye,Margaret Atwood (HC)
Bastard Out of Carolina, Dorothy Allison (PB)
I am Anastasia;: The Autobiography of the Grand-Duchess of Russia , Roland Krug von Nidda, translated from the German by Oliver Coburn, 1958 (HC)
Don Juan, Byron (HB)
The Rector of Justin, Louis Auchincloss ((HB)
Three Lives, Louis Auchincloss (HB)
False Gods, Louis Auchincloss (HB)
Trout Fishing In America, The Pill vs. The Springhill Mine Disaster, and I Watermelon Sugar, Richard Brautigan (PB – 3 in one vol)


Help a girl out - choose some free books!

On the Shelf

2009

The Psychology of Creative Writing
Teaching the New Writing: Technology, Change, and Assessment in the 21st-Century Classroom
Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die
The Butcher Boy
Crossing to Safety
The Memory Keeper's Daughter
Prodigal Summer: A Novel
The Brief History of the Dead
Genius
The Bookmaker's Daughter: A Memory Unbound
Ines of My Soul: A Novel
The Artful Edit: On the Practice of Editing Yourself
The Iron Whim: A Fragmented History of Typewriting
Auntie Mame
The Girls Who Went Away: The Hidden History of Women Who Surrendered Children for Adoption in the DecadesBefore Roe v. Wade
Dancing at the Edge of the World: Thoughts on Words, Women, Places


Monda's favorite books »

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