We're going camping at Mount Shasta this weekend (leaving any minute now... after I get some coffee in me), and hope to spend most of the weekend swimming in Lake Siskiyou, with a view, oh the view, make sure to look at that view.

"When I first caught sight of Mount Shasta over the braided folds of the Sacramento Valley, my blood turned to wine, and I have not been weary since."
John Muir, 1874

Apparently, I have enormous power this week.
ha ha haa.

GEMINI (May 21-June 20)
Week of June 28, 2001

"Your life in the coming week or two may have similarities to the description that journalist Peter Kaplan
gave of his tenure at America's premier newspaper. "Going to work at the [New York] Times," he told Time magazine,
"is like getting into a Sherman tank. You can't go more than 10 m.p.h. You can't see anything.
But you know you have this enormous power." So how will you use your ponderous clout, Gemini?
Given your limited range, what destinations should be your priority?
And which of your big visions should you probably divide into small chunks, allowing you to pursue a pragmatically piecemeal strategy?"

I'm still reading Stacy Schiff's biography of Vera Nabokov. It's pretty great; I'm not sure why it's taking me so long long to read it. (ok, well, I am sneaking in a bunch of other books and I decided to keep my subscription to the New Yorker, which takes up most of my public transportation time.) I read most of my Nabokov so long ago that I fear I must start over soon... I've reread Ada so many times; now I need to go back to some of his earlier work. oof, I need to quit my day job.

When, exactly, did I become a Giants fan? I mean, I'm not exactly following them around like the Dead, but last night I turned on the t.v. just in time to see Jeff Kent hit a home run at Pac Bell Park and I let out an involuntary whoop and a holler. I even found myself referring to the Dodgers as "the hated Dodgers," and I don't even know anything about them. I just know they're hated.

snore
snooooore

der mond ist aufgegangen
die gold'nen sternlein prangen
am himmel
hell und klar-
der wald steht schwartz und schweiget-


the moon is come up the gold'nen asterisk flax prangen in the sky brightly and clear that forest is schwartz and being silent
--ok, so the Altavista translation service doesn't work very well. but it helps; if you need more just visit.

the moon has risen-
the golden stars glitter
in the heavens so bright and clear-
the forest is still and silent-

my mother used to sing this to me when I was little. I still tear up when I hear it.

friday morning catastrophe:
have just managed to spill orange juice all down my front, and am now sweating away in a sweater, hoping the juice doesn't stain my favorite shirt.

drama queen

my people are people so passionate they go to sleep early to get rested so-
what?
I didn't write it down and it's gone.
early so
early which I never manage because I'm always awake thinking of what I
didn't
write down
but that could certainly change now.

Main Entry:
1. driv·el
Function: verb
Inflected Form(s): -eled or -elled; -el·ing or driv·el·ling
Etymology: Middle English, from Old English dreflian; perhaps akin to Old Norse draf malt dregs
Date: before 12th century
intransitive senses
1 : to let saliva dribble from the mouth : SLAVER
2 : to talk stupidly and carelessly
transitive senses
1 : to utter in an infantile or imbecilic way
2 : to waste or fritter in a childish fashion
- driv·el·er

Eli, who doesn't resemble James Spader, emailed me this:

"If you ever thought you might want to pick up the New York Review
of Books, now is the time; the most fun I had all week was reading
Joan Acocella's article in the December issue, about a study of
Italian hand gestures:"
"...you must contextualize [the 'mano cornuta'] with the
appropriate facial expression, so that you send the correct message.
When your daughter is going to the dance in a new dress, you want
your 'mano cornuta' to be signaling 'amulet' [against bad luck] and
not, for example, 'I will poke your eyes out' or, God forbid,
'phallus.'"