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NauenThen

Feet

September 4, 2013
My foot in one of my favorite pairs of shoes
Along with some others in my family, I have what you might call an anti–foot fetish. We can't stand seeing people touch their feet and find those toe shoes that are all the rage nauseating. Herewith, some FootFacts as I try to replace disgust with fascination):
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l'Shanah Tovah

September 4, 2013
Tags: Rosh Hashanah, New Year 5774
Peaceful & healthy New Year, everybody.
Back on Sunday
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Abandoned

September 3, 2013
vacant lot, Lower East Side
What is so appealing about shabby? I hid on the flat roof of our garage to read. To be left alone.
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Why do you smell like the ocean?

September 2, 2013
Tags: Kevin Baggott
Kevin with a poster of his wonderful early film, The Green Green Fields of Coney Island
Got the chance last night to see Kevin Baggott's new movie, Why do you smell like the ocean?, in an intimate setting (his apartment). Mysterious, beautiful, disturbing. The main character, a cop named Bobby Tierney (played by Kevin) isn't attractive or likeable, but you can't help but empathize with him, maybe even root for him. In a discussion afterwards, Kevin quoted James Cagney, who said either a character pets the dog or kicks the dog, and that's how you feel about him. Johnny said, in this case Tierney tried to kick the dog but missed.  Read More 
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New Orleans

September 1, 2013
Tags: Katrina, Treme, Hurricane Sandy
Late to the party, I’ve been catching up with Treme. Its post-Katrina New Orleans hits close, when I think about September 11 and last fall’s Superstorm Sandy. NOLA had it so much worse, but the East Village knew what it was like to be Little North Korea, cut off from services and concern.  Read More 
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Rabbits!

September 1, 2013
Tags: English superstitions
On the first of the month, you say Rabbits (or Rabbit, Rabbit) to ensure good luck all month. My mother is from Lancashire, where this superstition originates. My siblings, cousins and I have spread it in lots of non-English areas.
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British e-literature

August 30, 2013
Tags: Ford Madox Ford, World War I, Jonathan Skinner
Joyce, Pound, FMF, random dude (some rich guy, says Johnny)
My favorite novel is Parade's End, by Ford Madox Ford. I re-read it every couple of years and about it occasionally. Even though we own 3 copies, Johnny got the Everyman edition out of the library, with an intro by Malcom Bradbury. He mentions several WWI novels, most of which I'd never heard of, among them Futility by William Gerhardie, Disenchantment by C.E. Montague, R.H. Mottram's Spanish Farm trilogy, Death of a Hero by Richard Aldington, Middle Parts of Fortune by Frederic Manning (originally published in 1929 by "Private 19022," so incendiary was it), and Read More 
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Does anyone know what time it is?

August 29, 2013
Tags: watch, dinosaur
I’m wearing an orange watch with a T-rex face that a young poet who was in my 2011 workshop gave me. A good poet with odd & brilliant synapses. Neither of us can figure out how to set the time.
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Among the Eskimos

August 29, 2013
Tags: Inuit, Greenland, Jean Malaurie
"No one had any money left. X kept coming to see me all the time, I noticed—and then, one day, he stalled more than an hour until finally he told me what was on his mind: he would offer me his wife in exchange for ten Gauloise cigarettes." —The Last Kings of Thule, Jean Malaurie Read More 
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Art oh dear

August 28, 2013
Tags: Fringe Fest, galleries
I wanted this blog to be the means of encouraging myself to do stuff like go to the theater and look at paintings. How'd that work out? I missed the entire Fringe Festival this month both here & in Scotland, where I was invited by my cousin Meg—who is from Aberystwyth, Wales, but lives  Read More 
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The guys that are cats

August 27, 2013
Tags: cats
Buster Maurice, thinking about his next meal
How much do cats vary in personality? I've been close to two in recent years, one who loved only me and one who only loves food. Are they as simple as guys?
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And another one

August 27, 2013
Tags: cat
Dante
The one who loved me
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SoDak girl

August 26, 2013
Tags: South Dakota
Nils, who I went to high school with, gave me this flag (photo by June Hony)
I was born & raised in South Dakota, and am a big booster for the state to this day. Since there are so few people who live there (half as many as in Manhattan alone), I suppose I feel SoDak needs me on her side. Otherwise, people tend to assume it's still a Wild West: Did you have electricity growing up, I've been asked. My husband grew up in Manhattan and calls himself a "New York provincial," saying being a kid trumps being a kid in any particular place. Read More 
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She done her in

August 25, 2013
Tags: trainer, Exercise
I already almost couldn't walk for the last two days, thanks to intermittent bum knee(s), but my brilliant, wonderful, skilled, supportive trainer Jill—who is her own best advertisement, wow—got me through an hour of mostly upper body stuff. What fun to work out down at the track on the East River, on one of the nicest days imaginable. Just hope I get stronger & not break into a million pieces.  Read More 
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With a 1969 bonus

August 23, 2013
Tags: tolerance
One little thing. Another little thing. And then everything is totally different.

Maybe when you compliment a person for being tolerant, it’s just that his prejudices don’t clash with yours. —March 11, 1969
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The Ezra Pound

August 23, 2013
Tags: East Village
I've lived at the Pound since January of 1977; Maggie since the fall of '79. We named it because all those pretentious buildings had names—the Van Gogh, the Burgoyne—why not our tenement? The Ezra Pound because we like saying we live at the Pound. The Pound now has a Wall of Fame on the top floor, to honor its famous and infamous residents. A lot of artists have lived there and a few ne'er-do-wells. Not Ezra Pound, however.  Read More 
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By way of intro

August 22, 2013
Tags: high school, Sioux Falls
In high school, I wrote a column, called NauenThen, for the school newspaper, the Orange & Black. My two-years-younger brother went on to write NauenAgain, and my youngest sister didn’t write NauenForever. Forty years later, it occurs to me to revive that rubric for a more frequent outpouring. I’ve been wanting a deadline, to take a stand, to be interesting. Let’s see how it goes.  Read More 
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