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Rosemary graphic taken from Mulberry Creek Herb Farm, which has a wonderful selection. If I still gardened, I'd definitely be placing an order.

Comments by: YACCS

Tuesday, October 08, 2002

Last weekend I flew to Ohio for a writers' conference. The highlight for me was a workshop with Jennifer Crusie, author of Welcome To Temptation. In person, Crusie is as snarky, intelligent, and widely read as her books would make you think.

I learned a lot; I was reminded of things I'd already forgotten. I'll try to do a list later, after it's all had time to jell. But I felt fed, spiritually, for the first time in a long time.

posted by Jonquil 9:00 AM
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Monday, September 30, 2002

And in the lighter news department, Big feet, big boots. Oh, well. We'll all have to go back to picking dates by their personality, not their shoe size.
posted by Jonquil 9:50 AM
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In the good news front, we happened on the Musée Mecanique Sunday. Just stumbled on to it after eating lunch at the Cliff House. It had been rather a fraught day; we went to the Egypt exhibition in the Legion of Honor palace (mostly bas-reliefs; I had forgotten how incredibly delicate Egyptian carving was), and our 9-year-old son had complained the whole time. He then complained all the way through lunch. Then we left the Cliff House, I went downstairs to check out the view, and I insisted that the whole very crabby family come downstairs. After which we spent a happy hour or so (and many, many quarters) playing with mechanical wonders from the late 19th and early 20th century. Peep shows! An animated hanging! "The Drunkard's Dream"! Orchestrions!

My favorites are the fortune-telling machines whose eyes move, who breathe, and who pass their hands over cards. (Grandma tells me that "My marriage life will run more smoothly when I overcome my inclination to jump to conclusions.") Those are really disturbing toys. I want to work one into a story, even though I'm sure it's been done. Just imagine if the card said something like "You will die tomorrow" or "Duck when you leave the Museum."

In not-so-light news, I've had double vision at distances for a week. Optometrist's appointment today at two. I suspect middle age has just landed me another clout on the head. Fortune's a right strumpet.
posted by Jonquil 9:46 AM
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Monday, September 23, 2002

I walk into the room to find my husband holding a ruler. "I've got six inches. I can't decide if eight inches or ten inches would be better."
"Wouldn't ten inches be hard to maneuver?"
"Babe, if you've got ten inches, you don't HAVE to maneuver."
So he gets out the ruler and he measures.
And decides he'll have to visit a cutlery store before he decides what size of chef's knife he wants for his birthday.
posted by Jonquil 8:49 PM
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Tuesday, September 17, 2002

Hindu Finger Puppets. Is this a great country, or what?
posted by Jonquil 10:15 AM
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Friday, September 13, 2002

Pajamas On Parade This sounds like fun.
posted by Jonquil 9:19 AM
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Thursday, September 12, 2002

Apparently President Bush wants to call September 11th "Patriot Day". This is wrong on so many levels. Let me count the ways:

• Massachusetts and Maine already have a perfectly serviceable Patriot's Day. It's April 19th, the anniversary of the battles of Lexington and Concord. Nowadays best remembered for the Boston Marathon.
  
• We didn't call Pearl Harbor or Gettysburg or Armistice Day Patriot's Day. We remembered them by the names that were specific to the occasion. "September 11th" has power; "Patriot Day" is generic. September 11th is the day I spent huddled on my living-room floor clutching my husband. Patriot Day is when the linens go on sale.
  
• Many of the dead weren't Americans. They were illegal immigrants working at Windows On The World, or foreign businessmen with appointments at the World Trade Center or the Pentagon, or vacationers visiting America. If they were patriots, it wasn't America that made their hearts beat faster.
  
• The people who died didn't die for their countries. They were ordinary people, going about the business of their ordinary lives. Making phone calls, cleaning offices, flying to visit family. They were murdered; they didn't volunteer.
  
• Most significant to me: September 11, 2001 punched us all in the gut. What we did with the punch was individual. Some of us grieved for the dead. Some of us raged at the murderers. Some of us waved the flag. A friend of mine, a New Yorker, refers to it as "Happy Fucking Birthday"; instead of celebrating a personal event, she lived through universal horror. September 11th fills me with grief and anger, but not patriotism. Patriotism, for me, celebrates something we do right, not the wrong we were done by somebody else.