April 10, 2003
The Fallen Berlin
The shawl border is complete!! I won't bore you with another photo, it looks the same as the last one, only longer and without a needle still attached to one end! Isn't it always the case that by the time you've completed something you've finally attained the ability to do it without the chart and with a large amount of distraction going on in the background?
Now I have to negotiate with myself on whether I will finish the Ogee lace shell first or forge on with my mourning and its accompanying shawl.
While waiting for the optometrist yesterday I spun a while using the Katherine's cup. This spindle doesn't have a notch, and this wasn't a problem at first. But I notice that the more yarn I get spun up (the bigger the "cop" of thread on the shaft) the harder it is to keep the yarn from sliding around the whorl when I start the spinning again.
Imagine my surprise yesterday when Brad came into my office and excitedly announced that Berlin was falling. Rushing through my head were thoughts of diversionary attacks in Iraq while major forces invaded Germany and took Berlin for some unknown (but presumably noble) cause. However, my thought-bubble was shortly burst when he noted the look of confusion and revised the announcement to read "Baghdad".
I think the best fiction starts out that way-- take some facts and change a subset of these slightly. Embellish these and add more unrelated facts, somehow coming up with a connection. Create a character or two that will engage the sympathies of the target audience or reader, transform an otherwise bland character into a villain and voila! bestseller! I once had a sister who could come up with great stories using just this technique. The problem was that she would start believing that they were true. (My mourning shawl is partly for her, as she was murdered in 1997.)
I noted last night while hearing Rumsfeld for the umpteenth time that every time he speaks he sounds defensive. This is what annoys me about him. If he and the administration are doing their best for the country and have only the good of the Iragi people at heart, then there should be no reason for him need to cowtow to the critics. Unfortunately (I had to remind myself), he is the Secretary of Defense, so I guess speaking in a defensive tone of voice is a good indication that he's the right man for the job.
Some of you might be confused by the title of yesterday's blog entry "Blue Book". Movable Type software has a little "feature" that drives me crazy. That is, when you upload a picture, the default option is "create a new entry using this picture". If I accidentally accept the default, all my previous writing vanishes *poof*. My original entry actually did contain content related to the blue book.... here I will try to recreate it.
Watching Antiques Roadshow again Tuesday evening, one item that caught my interest was a little book, probably about 4" by 6", published in the early 1900's called "The Blue Book". This was a guide to Storyville's "ladies", the Of-The-Night variety of ladies, if you know what I mean. It included advertisements as well. One said "For Men Of Brains", advertising a whiskey bottled by the Einstein Whiskey company. I found myself wondering whether Kelly's Blue Book of used-auto-pricing fame was reminiscent of an earlier Blue Book for which Kelly might have had a fondness...
I saw that episode of AR too but somehow I saw it on a Saturday night... Sometimes Emily has gone off to play in the kitchen and doesn't notice when I click off her 'moomie' and click on something Mommy wants to see. I wondered exactly the same thing about today's blue book.
There was a hilarious sequence of comments last week at Wendy's blog about who thinks Rumsfeld is hot and who thinks they are nuts for thinking Rumsfeld is hot. I am definitely in the NOT camp... Give me Liam Neeson instead, any day of the week... (as if anyone would ACTUALLY give me Liam Neeson...)
I went to college with a woman who created wonderful fabrications that way - she was so funny and so good at it, that even those of us who were actually PRESENT at the event she was embroidering and rearranging would laugh till we cried and never say, 'But that didn't really happen...'
Posted by: CarolineF on April 10, 2003 08:22 AMRumsfeld? Hot? You've got to be kidding! Now, give me Wesley Clark any day of the week, he has stolen my heart (or at least he's next in line after my own dear Brad).
I'm sure AR was a re-run, but I hadn't seen it before. It makes me want to buy antiques, but I staunchly resist and go for fiber instead.
Posted by: Sheila on April 10, 2003 08:36 AMHave you noticed that AR is concentrating more and more on high-value items lately? Gone are the days of Grandma's $250 glass vase... It makes me want to get my hands on all the stuff that Grandma had, that has vanished into the ether, and all the stuff stored in my parents' barn.
Posted by: CarolineF on April 10, 2003 08:59 AMMT :I've got into the habit of saving as draft before I upload anything.
I really enjoy your blog. You write so well.
Yes, that annoying little adage "save your work often" would really come in handy, wouldn't it :-)
Posted by: sheila on April 10, 2003 10:25 AMOoh, someone else who's picked up on the Defensive Defense Secretary! I thought it was just me... I actually saw a whole press conference, with the reporters asking questions and all, and he seemed to think every single question was an implication of untruth on his/the government's part. Or an allegation against his wife and daughters. Or something! Usually he didn't even answer the question because he was so busy denying whatever he thought he heard. Anyway, glad to know that I'm not the only one who picked up on that!
Posted by: Sarah on April 12, 2003 02:01 PM