"welcome to the freakshow, here we go"

Felicia came to entertain me in person.

Some offhand goofy comments (stemming from her belief that i aspire to be her, because our reader responses papers are on similar topics) led to an extensive speculation about my future life in which i move to Ohio to park illegally. I have 4 children -- Fluffy, Muffy, Buffy, Joanne (of course -- though apparently my having offspring frightens Fefe). I coach Buffy (isn't that a funny image) in soccer, and Buffy is male, and i suffer (near) death by soccer ball. I marry Emma (this is the part that frightened me -- and i was reminded of Allie's recoiling in horror at the idea of us dating) who's a bad influence on Muffy. And Joanne is normal and therefore refuses to believe we're her parents, so she goes to Oberlin to find Felicia, whom she believes is her real mother. (Felicia's teaching at Oberlin; that's why i moved to Ohio -- to follow her.)

[P.S. I would never suspect Emma of cheating on me! *smites Felicia*]

"Kick chalk off campus. Chalk kills manatees and puppies."

Tammy Bruce is speaking at UMass this Wednesday (7pm, Student Union). If i'm gonna grow up and be the child of Tammy Bruce and Eugene Volokh, i think Tristan Taormino should be my crazy aunt, for the balance, 'cause otherwise my radical queerness (such as it is) seems rather out of left field (though i blame most stuff on my lineage, and it's a left-fielder in actuality too). I'm jealous of Brown for getting her "My Life as a Feminist Pornographer" lecture (this Tuesday. 5pm). And Wooster in Ohio gets "Sexploration on College Campuses," which title makes me wonder what Tristan thinks of Katie Roiphe.

Emma was complaining about her history teacher offering a perspective not usually heard at Smith, which Ruhi said was "refreshing." Normally i'd be inclined to agree (see above re: Tammy Bruce), but having listened to Emma, it didn't sound like he was presenting a particularly reasoned perspective, which made me sad. Speaking of: a reminder that Canada is not perfect. (No i'm not deeply interested in a discussion about whether Canada is on the whole better than the USA, i just get irked when it -- or any other country -- gets presented as Heaven on Earth, and also when the USA gets presented as Worstest Baddest Nation Evar.)

redredshoes talks about the fact that bullimia is what really killed Terri Schiavo and how this isn't getting any media coverage.

The Marines wanted my brother, though he's disqualified due to his unfortunate gene pool. We're gonna have interesting and very disparate lives whatever happens (and yet i expect we will continue to get along well) but that would have been particularly interesting and disparate. I am now deprived of the chance to say, "Hey, my brother's a Marine and he's not scary." ( from my mother's e-mail )

MAT class tonight, Meg presented on Elizabeth Bishop's "One Art" and gave us a copy of a first draft thanks to another prof (you can read most of it via this essay). Generally i think the published version is a better poem (though it's very different) but there are some bits i wish could have been left in. ( cut for spoilers? )

I haven't read much Elizabeth Bishop, but poking around i find i really like "In The Waiting Room".

Ernest Hemingway was once challenged to write a story in six words. The result: "For sale: baby shoes, never used." It's rumored that Hemingway thought it was his greatest work, and it's invariably offered as the standard to which micro-fiction should aspire.

Other 6-word-story attempts here.