how democratic of them!

among all the "good" and "bad" judgments offered up to the reader of this tripe in the supermarket check out, i spied one tiny note: "you decide" next to Jennifer Hewitt's butt (I leave out her middle name since the addition of the middle name is no more than a branded trademark which we "consumers" somehow feel we need to repeat. But I do not say "please pass the Campbell's Fully Loaded Hearty Soup." I say, "pass the soup."). In other words, after the august debate recently over whether her body was indeed "fat" or not, this tabloid is generously witholding judgment. We Americans Will Decide. Ah, freedom.

"fully loaded" (1)

"fully loaded" (2)

Flo and Santa Claus

92 year old Flo, a Jewish woman living in the old folks' home I work at, wore in the week before Christmas several Santa Claus earrings. On Christmas, as I shuffled feebly about the dining room, I noticed she had on a bright sweater decorated with a dozen Santas. I wish I had had my camera.

"People ask me, why do you like Santa Claus," she said to me. "Well, he's a great guy. He gives you presents, and you don't have to sleep with him!"

Oh Lordy. Her humorous, and refreshing, lack of prudery says something about a difference between Jewish and mainstream attitudes toward the body. Also, her embrace of Santa as a (secular) symbol of mainstream society, even as she proudly asserts her minority identity, is a powerful act. At the same time she is asserting membership in a particular ethnic identity and refusing to let it be defined solely in opposition to the mainstream. Part of her Judaism is the generous and hearty embrace of a good guy among the Goyim -- Santa. Flo is an example of identity that does not devolve into walls of exclusivism. Oh Flo!

zigzag rocks

beetle-headed men

Isn’t there a way you can
help us get out said the woman
in the elevator everything’s
gone dark and still
and you’re a man after all
Isn’t there something you can
something you something
a beam of light broke in
anything at all
Rescuers hammered outside echoing
Down the shaft

Aren’t you happy to be
rescued she asked their faces
came into view they had peed politely
in a corner rescued at long last she
I feel so alive aren’t you
she said happy to be
she said Who are these
men he asked I was
content to die together in our
little place content oh so
It was so dark she said recoiling
letting go the warm arm embarrassed
at the reek of piss

Perfect he said it was unscarred
by light I am so Get those beams
outta my face get those beams
Gleaming beetle-heads
dragged him out outta
my face he said
It was discovered he
had sabotaged the
elevator he had
done an excellent job in
marketing research they said the woman
makes a superb egg nog on the
holidays isn’t she just the isn’t she aren’t we all so lucky she said

Eyebrows arched earnestly
The poor man she said saying It’s a shame
she said We just love your
egg nog we’re all just so lucky to
have to have been and to just
so so wow yeah my eyes did
hurt right at first eleven hours
you know it’s a long time long she
didn’t say With him she didn’t

But now I’m oh so she didn’t
let on how close she’d felt to
the guy who’d trapped her he
well he won’t be back at his desk she
shivered and dealt the cards
shivering he Die together here he'd said and oh how
you know it all was so she cries and
Can’t explain to her husband this
ominous weight of weeks so she
just smiles she smiles she
that’s right a real
trouper a thing like that can you even
imagine! Oh if only oh
but how could I ever I mean
he’s crazy but she doesn’t
ever doesn’t ever say it she
builds a new smile she
Yes.

December 27, 2007

an "internet wow"

http://freelanguage.org/learn-arabic

I just had an "internet wow." I was browsing around looking for websites from which to improve my arabic, a language that has haunted me like a white whale since the early nineties. I came across the one above. It is a language learning site -- but it does this by pairing people all over the world. So, the old idea of the language exchange is suddenly going global. Berlitz is toast (in my imagination). By using Skype technology, I can potentially meet someone far away who can answer my questions about the dad-blasted Arabic article I have spent days poring over. And help them learn something as well. Or I could pay him or her. WWWWWWWWWWWOOOOOOOW.

It is almost as if the whole earth suddenly were becoming crystal, transparent below my feet. . .as if I could look through at faces peering through from the other side, just below me. Imagine everyone in the world being able to talk over the internet for very cheaply! For a myriad of aims! (yes, bad ones too). A Yemeni woman wants to know how to make pumpkin pie out of jack o lanterns? Here I am. I want to henna my nose? She is there for me. Oh, the places we can go. . . .