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NauenThen

Sweet dreams at last

March 17, 2017
Tags: Amazon, Lasership
New sheets!
Yesterday I spent hours trying to track a package. Not only was I on hold for a total of almost two hours over two days with the carrier, the horrible LaserShip, they gave me different information every time I called. It will come this afternoon, it can't come till this evening, it'll probably be tomorrow, it was lost (they didn't tell ME this, Amazon did), & so on. This is after they already hadn't delivered the package for a week.

Naturally, a supervisor couldn't be found to speak with me & no one returned my calls. At one point I said, This is when any trained customer service rep would apologize. And he just said, Ma'am, this is the information, in the most irritating passive-aggressive manner imaginable.

Contrast this to Amazon,  Read More 
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A little memory

March 16, 2017
When I was a kid I was given a record, a 45, that played “Happy Birthday.” I wondered how they would know to say “Happy Birthday, Dear Elinor” and was disappointed & chagrined that they merely sang “Happy Birthday, Happy Birthday.” Was it that they weren’t following the format? Or that I hadn’t anticipated how they would manage? I think I thought they cheated, more than I was disappointed not to hear my own name.  Read More 
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The Dark Years IV

March 15, 2017
Tags: Jean Guéhenno
French garden.
Since the 18th century, the means of subjugating people have made the same progress as the means of killing them.

If I knew something useful to my country which was ruinous to another, I would not propose it to my prince, because I am human before being French (or, rather, because I am necessarily human and only French through chance. —Montesquieu

The new great men of these new times—Hitler, Stalin—are great mass men. Back when I studied Lenin, I was struck by that character. A great man in civilized times was great precisely because of what set him apart from the mass: intelligence, willpower and culture, the delicacy of his mind or heart. These new great men  Read More 
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A bust

March 14, 2017
Tags: snow
Snow plow, Union Square.
This was my Facebook post:
East Village report: gym is closed, dentist is closed, laundry is closed, B&H (wheatgrass, baby!) is closed, Block is closed, & I am exfoliated from walking around in the icy pellety wind finding out.

Came home exhausted & didn't go out again all day. Whew!

WillisWeather® [Spartanburg, SC] explained: It was looking so promising, but it's weather. A storm yes, a blizzard  Read More 
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For real?

March 13, 2017
I almost gave up hope when it was in the 60s last week, but I didn't, & I believe amen. Blizzard tomorrow! The New York City schools & my dojo & lots of other places are already closed, & I'm going with the crowd on this one. Of course it won't be official till I hear from WillisWeather®...

Disclaimer: I know many people hate the snow & slip & break bones & have heart attacks from shoveling. But I take great pleasure I walking around hardly breathing till I get too cold then drinking tea & looking out the window as the world becomes a new one (just what we need, right?). My personal pleasure isn't caused by, or causing, your suffering, OK?  Read More 
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Politics here & there

March 12, 2017
Why is it that in the United States one "runs" for office & in England one "stands" for office?
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Snow

March 10, 2017
Every Friday they predict snow, & every Friday it never snows.

However! Despite it being 60° yesterday, it IS snowing right now. Nothing major but gosh, so friendly to have the air around me filled with silent white.
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Horrified

March 9, 2017
I found out that a longtime (now former!) friend is a Holocaust denier. He posted a long rant that said there weren't enough Jews for 6 million to have been killed, that those skinny prisoners were all actually Russians, & it's only because the Jews control the media that this lie hasn't long since been exposed.

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International Women's Day (prize edition)

March 8, 2017
Tags: International Women's Day
I sat here staring at this hed & wondering what to say about IWD & mostly thinking about its being the birthday of my niece. Decided I would go downtown & get my big reward for being an official Senior Citizen: my half-price metrocard. Whoopie!

Ha ha, my favorite story: I was on the subway a few months back & noticed a handsome young man making eye contact with me. Exactly at the moment I was telling myself, Yup, you've still got it!, he said,  Read More 
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From the Vault: XIV

March 7, 2017
Pierre, or, the Poets


Pierre or the what?

The ambiguities

What’s that supposed to mean?

Ron: “The first 10 pages were so great I couldn’t read anymore.”

Ben: “Jack says I don’t have to read it.”

Simon: “Yes! That’s all.”

That's all.
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Fun fact

March 6, 2017
Tags: Spearfish SD
Spearfish, South Dakota, holds the world record for fastest recorded temperature change. On January 22, 1943, at 7:30 in the morning, it was 4° below zero. A Chinook wind swooped in and TWO MINUTES later it was 45°.
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Respair

March 5, 2017
2 months into the year & I have been running out of steam (pep, joy, optimism). Went on a long walk yesterday with my friend & accountability buddy, & decided I need to plan a 5-minute (or longer) fun break every day. I have been compiling a list of things I like so that I don't fall into the slough of despond without being able to respair myself. (Respair being  Read More 
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Prose Pros

March 3, 2017
Tags: Quincy Troupe, Hettie Jones
I don't know why I don't write more frequently about the series Martha King & I have been hosting for 10 years now. Last night the readers were Quincy Troupe & Hettie Jones. Quincy read from his memoir Miles and Me (he also wrote Miles Davis's autobiography) & a short piece about doing the last interview with James Baldwin. He's a wonderful writer & reader, and the nicest person. I have read with him a couple of times & always enjoyed talking about our midwestern roots (South Dakota, St Louis) and poets & poetry.

Hettie read from her new book of letters between her & the artist Helene Dorn. Even though Hettie emphasized  Read More 
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Joel O

March 2, 2017
Tags: Joel Oppenheimer, Anne Waldman
Happy to have been present at the Poetry Project for the launch of Lessons: selected poems by the late Joel Oppenheimer (1930–88). He was underappreciated in his day & is neglected now, with most or all of his books out of print, so it's particularly wonderful to have his substantial collection.

Joel was a big reason I moved to New York. I was living in Maine, at loose ends, while he summered there. He famously didn't drive & I was a car guy, so somehow I ended up driving him around. He was more than 20 years my senior (to the day!) & I see now was amused by my being  Read More 
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Tunnels of New York

March 1, 2017
Near the East River.
One thing I like about Manhattan is that everything—a storefront, a bit of sidewalk—has fans. My favorite tree, for example, is sure to be thousands of other people's favorite tree. We New Yorkers share. But there are also views & buildings that I feel belong to me in particular, like this, maybe because I never see anyone else when I walk down there. I like that moment of solo possession too.  Read More 
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My landlord

February 28, 2017
Who thinks it's a good idea to glue rubber to every step but one?

Who thinks it's a good idea for a novice bricklayer to build us a convex front stoop?

Who thinks it's a good idea to paint my festive door baby-poop brown?

Who thinks it's a good idea to hire an incompetent non-electrician non-plumber non-carpenter to do renovations & repairs?

Why do I still love my building so much? Read More 
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Poem

February 27, 2017
Poem


Smitten





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Proof

February 26, 2017
Tags: Veterans Stadium, Brooklyn Bridge, fireworks, ballparks
The photo caption says these men are painting the Brooklyn Bridge...
I have no memory of ever having gone to Veterans Stadium in Philadelphia. Maybe because someone else drove? Maybe because, as I wrote in "The Philadelphia Story" (1998), "how boring Veterans Stadium was, with a bunch of soon-to-be-cut rookies." There's the proof but it triggers nothing. No "right! how could I have forgotten?"

Near as I can tell, I've been to games at 22 Major League ballparks:  Read More 
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Hidden Figures

February 24, 2017

Not the least of it was playing hooky to see it during the middle of the day. So much I liked about this movie about black women at NASA in the 60s: their struggles as both women and African Americans, the heart-stopping space race, the historical footage (my god, Kennedy's HAIR), that it's a movie about people being smart, a movie about WOMEN being smart, Kevin Costner at his most likable as a white man in the early 1960s who learns to step outside his assumptions.

The astonishing fact that all the computing for sending a rocket into space was done by hand. No mechanical computers till well into the project.

That all of this really happened.

It's not great—none of the main characters have flaws, for example, & it's too tidily wrapped up—but inspiring & totally worth seeing for this unknown-to-me splash of history.

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Private disappointment (now known only to my 3 readers)

February 23, 2017
Somehow I blew my 534-day streak of language learning on DuoLingo. I guess I spaced out & missed a day. Actually, I must have missed 2 days because I had a "streak freeze" option in place, but it's only good for 1 day. It makes me a little sad to have to start over with a 1-day streak. I'm sure there's a lesson in this. Ego or somesuch.  Read More 
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Found on 5th Street (back)

February 22, 2017
My Spanish is far from good enough to fill in this splotched handwriting. Can anyone help me out here?
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Found on 5th Street

February 22, 2017
Actually, I found this photo on the steps down to my office.

There's text on the back that I can't read. (See second scan.)

Why do I like this? The randomness of picking it up from my stairs is part of it. I like what's on the TV, which is likewise random. I like that he's (unconsciously?) mimicking the portrait. I like knowing enough but not enough.

I wish I could make out what's in the round frame.  Read More 
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Books books books

February 21, 2017
Many of Van Loon's illustrations are more geographical than this.
Someone put boxes and boxes of amazing books outside my door today. I rescued a volume of Virginia Woolf’s essays & a bound volume of Outing: The Gentlemen’s Magazine of Sport, Travel and Outdoor Life, Vol IX Oct 1886–March 1887, which covers archery, ballooning, pedestrianism, the wheel (bicycling). sparring, winter sports, & more. Since I have way too many books, I made myself walk away but was glad to see a mom trying to drag off her young son, who was engrossed in the books.

Later … Couldn’t stop myself: went back & got A Book of Anecdotes, a selected Robert Penn Warren, a 1926 book of essays about marriage, & most wonderfully, Van Loon’s Geography: The story of the world, 1932, with gorgeous drawings, many in color.

I bypassed a few thrillers, some college political textbooks, and a few books in German, and overlooked a nice paperback of Henry James's Italian Hours.  Read More 
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An experiment

February 20, 2017
Random photo with old car.
I'm going to bitch a little & see if it makes me feel better or worse to get it all down.

Actually, now that I'm not in the thick of last week's woes, they don't seem so terrible. I had a root canal, but it went fine & very quickly didn't hurt, & the tooth that hurt no longer bothers me. Johnny was in ER for the second time in 3 weeks, but got a stent in a blocked artery & is much much better. My home phone is  Read More 
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That was yesterday

February 19, 2017
I loved hearing from friends & acquaintances far & wide, both geographically and in time—from Europe, Asia, Australia, everywhere I've lived and beyond; from someone I've known since kindergarten to someone I met this year.

Now I pass The Birthday Hat to Lynn, Nyssa, cousin Markos, & Smokey Robinson.
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My Life

February 17, 2017
Tags: Dan MacLeod
My Life


That wafting white dove

Was a plastic bag


Update: My friend Dan MacLeod in Montreal, writer & journalist, gave me the perfect next lines, to make this both sadder & more hopeful:

And if I'd turned my head sooner—

If I'd not looked—

It would still be a dove
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Me mum

February 16, 2017
Here's Joyce at the Phoenix airport, enroute to her new home in St. Paul. Ooops, she forgot her shoes!
At the age of 93, my mother is taking on a new adventure. At the long-time urging of her kids, she is leaving Arizona for warm, sunny Minnesota. She's so positive about the move, being near her kids, getting back on her feet. I hope I'm half as sharp if & when I hit her age. I wish I were half as sharp right now, for that matter.  Read More 
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Shabby

February 15, 2017
When I took the bus in 1981, with my cousin, at the start of our two-month trip through Mexico & Central America, I loved the scrubby landscape from San Antonio to Laredo. I thought I would be happy driving a bus that route, back & forth, day after day, seeing nothing but rundown, non-majestic south Texas. These subway pillars make me happy in the same way. They're not glitzy or renovated or facelifted. They look like they've lived their years.  Read More 
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As Maureen Owen called it, "no travels journal"

February 14, 2017
The day after I marveled at seeing birch trees, quite a few of them, in New York City (well, Queens), I saw these on 5th Street, one block west of my office. I've probably walked past them a thousand times without them ever registering
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I go to Queens...

February 13, 2017
... Where I see birch trees and chocolate sculptures I'm asked not to lick, & find out about something called the "W" train. Birch trees seem only like Maine to me, not New York, but I couldn't summon that forest feeling. I was reminded of my two favorite trees on Flying Moose Mountain in East Holden, where I lived for a few months. They were two double birches, & probably my favorites because I could always recognize them & they meant I wasn't lost. I was afraid of everything in the outdoors.  Read More 
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