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Mitigation
I rode along on my son’s middle school science field trip last week. Because I’m a great mom, of course, and I wanted to do my little bit for the schools before my work schedule ramped back up, and because you learn something about your kids and their lives if you spend some time seeing […]
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Layover Butterflies
Sometimes the butterfly matches its flower. Or the rest stop accommodates the traveler, opens just the right amount of space, offers tasty cookies with that watery free coffee, anticipates what might seem like nectar in the middle of a journey. This is us making the most–the best–of a 7-hour layover in Chicago, enjoying the […]
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In memoriam (decedent unknown)
Unknown to me, that’s all, or only slightly known. Familiar, but not close. I expect (I hope) she was better known to others. There’s an assisted living home down the hill from us, close to the stop where I catch the bus to work. Ours is a neighborhood of hills and uneven sidewalking–sidewalks seem to […]
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Words of the Day
Looking for some background on the bandoneon (more on that in a week or two) I came across the word bandoline: “a mucilaginous preparation made from quince seeds and used for smoothing, glossing, or waving the hair.” (Random House Dictionary of the English Language). Yes, it was that mucilaginous that pulled me in to read the full definition. […]
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Charla con Angélica Gorodischer en Rosario
Many thanks to the Colegio de Traductores de Santa Fe, in Rosario, for the kind invitation to present Trafalgar, in conversation with Angélica Gorodischer.
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Open Space
A colleague, now several years retired, recently cleared out the office he had occupied for more than twenty years. It’s lighter now, without the file cabinets, the bookcases lined up two deep against the walls. Just a couple of old computers, an older desk, a fan. I miss seeing him day to day on campus–we […]
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Reading Trafalgar (Small Beer Press Podcast 17)
Readers of this blog know I love reading aloud. So I jumped at the chance to read for Small Beer Press‘s podcast series. More than jumped–I asked for the chance. One of those self-invitations. Then I hesitated at the suggested story. Yes, the story’s in English now, but some of the words are still hard. […]
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Unit Analysis
‘Tis the season to stop and smell the daphne, rich and perfumey but not overpowering, maybe because it’s dispersed outdoors, or maybe the cool air filters it. If I’m walking in the neighborhood or across campus, suddenly there it is, a shifting cloud of deliciousness from an invisible shrub, a siren song of scent. Am […]
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Noticing
Doesn’t look quite real, does it? But it is, this clerodendron growing beside my parents’ driveway. I don’t know a lot about plants, though I look the names up often–for translations, for poems, for no good reason. Wikipedia tells me clerodendron’s common names include “glorybower,” “bagflower,” and “bleeding-heart,” which don’t seem real, either. Seem, at […]