Kaya & Lil Try To Pin Me Down

(Only one succeeds, however...)

First, kaya wanted to know:

If you could sum up your life in one famous quote or one song lyric, what would it be?

This sounds so easy... until you get thinking and realize it's actually a pretty nasty question.
"One, Jz... just one..."
So I thought and hemmed and hummed for quite some time -- until at last I recalled this:

"I'm learning to fly, but I ain't got wings"

(thank you for saving me, Tom Petty!)

Then lil asked:

Favorite book of all time?

No, really, this is too much!

You can't pick five for me and I have to select one for you?? 

Well, I'll just fix your little red wagon… 
Here... I have Categorized!!!  HaHa!!

  --for "pushes all my buttons" enjoyment, "O Jerusalem" (Laurie R. King)

  --for atmospheric historical mystery, "Fever Season" (Barbara Hambly)

  --for elegant, understated prose, "Persuasion" (Jane Austen)

  --for sheer wordsmithing genius, "The Papers of Samuel Marchbanks" (Robertson Davies)

  --for grand adventure and romance, "Outlander" (Diana Gabaldon)

  --for steamy sex, "Sin City" (Lacey Alexander)

  --for deep thought thinking, "Self-Reliance" (Ralph Waldo Emerson)

  --for being wowed by human inventiveness, "The Discoverers" (Daniel Boorstin)

  --for curing insomnia, "The Republic" (Plato)

  --for laughing myself silly, "Fillets of Plaice" (Gerald Durrell) 

Brick Laying

or maybe, "if anyone..."

I A a couple of Q's

Since it's still early March (and I find it unlikely that enough people will ask me questions that I'm forced to answer one person a day,) I'm going to space these questions out.

Sofia had the first hat in the ring, so I'm going to answer a couple of hers today.

That will also help me stagger the vanilla and the not-so-vanilla questions.

So, to begin:

What type of clothing are you most comfortable wearing?

I don't often get to wear what I feel best in, unfortunately. The requirements of my job don't allow me to indulge.

In winter, it's because I am simply constrained by the need for warmth and sensible shoes. (I absolutely refuse to huck computers in and out of buildings, along icy walkways, while wearing heels. I know, call me picky…) Jeans, long cardigans, and scarves win the day. (Mostly in "dark and darker" colors.)

Summers are capris and the coolest T-shirts available.

And sandals. Lord, I love me some sandals…

Given my druthers (and a desk job) however, I'd wear what I like…

Which is not "put together, with nails done." I can do that look, but I don't look or feel like myself when I sporting it. (This has been friend-verified, as well.)

Rather, I prefer a somewhat ethnic bohemian look -- I'm much more of a fuss-budget about the actual material I'm wearing than the cut of the cloth or how it lays on my body. I want soft, natural fabrics and bright, clear colors. (I'm not big on "muted" and I rarely like a color with muddy undertones, altho' there have been exceptions made…) 

Think big, flow-y cotton skirt and some form of cotton T-shirt draping over the top.

:-) 

What era of history would you most liked to have lived in?

This is a tough one. I am tempted by the romance of by-gone ages, but I really, really, really can't see me doing well in any time where independent females are not reasonably accepted. Of course, with enough money, you could always punt around that, but I honestly cannot envision a life where I have enough money. (Not because my requirements are so high, just that the "elegant sufficiency" is a concept out of my grasp…)

But…

Let's bracket all that and answer your question in the spirit in which it was asked…

I think maybe the Age of Enlightenment.

Those were some seriously heady days. You couldn't hardly turn around without being smacked in the face by something new. 

New facts, new ideas, new ways of seeing the world...

It was a complete overthrow of what had been the accepted world view for hundreds of years. (Can you say, "Think Different"? ;-p) Logic, skepticism, discourse, and the willingness to base your beliefs on facts, not dogma, became the driving forces.

No more post-Nicene angels dancing on the heads of pins, now they contended with empirical brass tacks…

It must have been exhilarating, fascinating, and petrifying, all at once.

(And never, ever boring!) ;-)

"Wha'cha Readin'?" Wednesday

This week, I'm reading "Folly" by Laurie R. King.

Rae Newborn has lived under the shadow of mental illness for more than 50 years. Institutionalized several times for attempted suicide -- most recently after the deaths of her beloved husband and young daughter -- Rae moves to a deserted island in the San Juans, determined to either get well or finally succeed in taking her own life. As she works to restore by hand the house that her mysterious uncle built in the 1920's, Rae seems to find the grounding she needs to rebuild her life. 

But things may not be quite as they seem on the island. Is the skin-crawling feeling of being watched all in her mind, or is it a subconscious warning to beware?

It sounds miserably grim and creepy, but it's not. What it is, is a genuinely good, suspenseful mystery with a nice touch of skin-tingling to it -- which makes sense, because this book is by Laurie R. King, who is easily one of my Favorite Writers Of All Time.

I have been a fan of Ms. King since I first discovered "The Beekeeper's Apprentice" (the first of her Mary Russell-Sherlock Holmes mysteries) back when it was first published in 1993. I have read just about everything she's written since (haven't hit the sci-fi stuff -- or short stories, but everything else has passed through these optic nerves…) and can honestly say I've never been disappointed.

Ms. King writes excellent stories, with tight plots and a real sense of setting, but I think her most outstanding gift is for character development, She handles humor, darkness, diversity, and incisive intellectualism all with an equally deft hand, yet even in the darkest moments, she never lets us lose sight of her characters' ultimate humanity.

She is superb.

(And, as her website points out, "probably the only writer to have both an Edgar and an honorary doctorate in theology." -- But she did earn the BA and MA's the regular way…) 

LRK writes three very different types of series (see here for descriptions, cuz I'll never finish this if I start raving about each one) but "Folly" is one of a number of stand-alones.

Altho' I have read this before, it was quite a while ago and I've forgotten just enough that I get to discover the book anew. Again, I'm still near the beginning, so we still haven't met all the characters, or fully revealed all the puzzles, much less the clues. But I don't think you're going to be able to read this one along with me, cuz I'm having trouble putting it down!

How about we just compare notes afterwards?

I Am Reminded

that March is Question & Answer Month...
     So if there's Anything Bitchy that you've wondered about, have at it!

Operators are standing by to take your calls.  :-)

I'll Take American Poets for Two Hundred...

Because this man can nail a feeling like nobody's business...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

               what Got him was Noth

               ing & nothing's exAct

               ly what any

               one Living(or some

               body Dead

               like

               even a Poet)could

               hardly express what 

               i Mean is

               what knocked him over Wasn't

               (for instance)the Knowing your

               whole(yes god

               damned)life is a Flop or even

               to

               Feel how

               Everything(dreamed

               & hoped &

               prayed for

               months & weeks & days & years

               & nights &

               forever)is Less Than 

               Nothing(which would have been

               Something)what got him was nothing

                                    -E.E. Cummings

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Will No One Rid Me of These Troublesome Plants?

I love poinsettias at Christmastime.

Every year, I sneak out late on Black Friday, when the mobs have dispersed, and buy myself a scarlet-leaved beauty to admire for the season.

The problem is that poinsettias are a bit like orchids for me. I can kill 'em quicker than you can say "Boo"… Usually, they're nothing more than a collection of barren, leaf-less stalks by New Year's.

Except for this year, when all I want to do is forget about the frickin' miserable "festive" season. (It wasn't just BG, there were also family issues and work issues that all joined forces to make my holidays one big suppurative mess.)

So naturally, this year, my poinsettias are flippin' thriving.

Poinsettia à Becket

  

I don't water them.

I give them the evil eye daily.

I whisper curses in their general direction.

Yet they remain, even now, on March first -- two relentlessly cheery reminders of a lousy time. 

Spiteful things...

I could actively kill them, of course.

But, much like Henry, I cannot bring myself to do the deed. 

Knights?

(Bueller? Bueller?)