October 8, 2006 at 11:29 pm (Holidays)
HAPPY COLUMBUS DAY
This is the Columbus Memorial obelisk at Penn’s Landing. It was near the last place I lived in Philadelphia, and I used to walk the dog by it every day. And every day it irritated me. Why, you ask. It looks perfectly normal (for a phallus), right?
At the base of the shaft, below the balls, there is text about Columbus. Each side has different descriptors for the Genoan supporter of the round earth theory (which could explain the balls at the base of the shaft). They are as follows:
Explorer * Visionary * Naturalist
Mathematician * Cartographer
Charismatic Leader * Navigator
Why “Charismatic” Leader. Why? Those people at VSBA need a proofreader. Here’s a little lesson in agreement for all writers of public art text. If you’re going to use a descriptor for one of your nouns, you should use it for all of them. So, if you insist on Charismatic Leader (which I don’t recommend, since it’s somewhat redundant) but if you insist, then to make the rest of the text agree, go with Crafty Navigator, Bold Explorer, Hippie Naturalist….you get the picture.
Ah, well, it’s too late. I suppose Columbus wouldn’t care. He was a seat-of-the-pants kind of guy. Some would even say bold and charismatic. I wouldn’t, but some would.
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October 8, 2006 at 1:50 am (Uncategorized)
Tags: Humor, Jokes
I’m finishing book 2, which means I’m deep in punctuation rules.
This is me, only I say, “ask me something about commas.”
And here’s the word-dork joke:
Edit #1:
I want a man who knows what love is all about. You are generous, kind, thoughtful. People who are not like you admit to being useless and inferior. You have ruined me for other men. I yearn for you. I have no feelings whatsoever when we’re apart. I can be forever happy–will you let me be yours?
<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>
Edit #2:
I want a man who knows what love is. All about you are generous, kind, thoughtful people, who are not like you. Admit to being useless and inferior. You have ruined me. For other men, I yearn. For you, I have no feelings whatsoever. When we’re apart, I can be forever happy. Will you let me be? Yours,
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October 8, 2006 at 12:15 am (The Hard Way)
People have been asking me about my first book – The Hard Way – so I’d like to tell a little story about it (that is in no way comprehensive). The truth is that it started with Helga when I was 16, years before I knew I wanted to write books.
I fell in love with Andrew Wyeth’s paintings of Helga. They were revealed in 1985, but I saw them in 1987. I was 16 and hopelessly romantic. I’d loved art all my life, and at a fairly young age I had been entrance by Christina’s World. That painting brought to the forefront of my mind the connection between artist and model – something I’d never given much thought.
When Wyeth revelaled the Helga paintings in 1985 the rumor was that he’d kept them a secret from all, including his wife…especially his wife, because he loved Helga. It may have been a media ploy, but I believed in that love. Here was this ordinary woman, in my eyes, who was so carefully rendered that she became beautiful to me. And I would never again be able to look at art without considering the artist-subject connection.
I’ve stared at this painting long and hard. She is just so ordinary and at the same time flawless. She makes my heart ache.
And that idea, that connection, was the seed of inspiration for the protagonist in The Hard Way.
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