zirconium

* I am a novice at lap swimming, and today was my first experience both with the long course at the sportsplex and with sharing a lane. The guy I shared the lane with during most of my workout was very nice. I was glad I had the lane all to myself, however, when my right calf cramped up (about an hour in), because it meant I didn't have to hurry to get out of the way.

* Karen E. Summerly's photo of a cat delights me.

* There are new blossoms on the bean vines.

Current Music: Maroon 5, "Misery"

The snarling: The local mainstream daily has endorsed Romney. This is not a surprise: it reported Tuesday's debate as a draw, and the Monday Opinions page (the op-ed page was replaced by full-page ads a couple of years ago) is little better than a hash of advertorials (masquerading as "Tennessee Voices"), a so-called Teachable Moment (Monday's was on Nietzsche), and 3-5 letters.

My main encounter with the paper is on Mondays, since I'm part of the Talking Library team that reads it aloud. Mornings like this, I wonder whether my two hours (+ commute) should be applied to something else.

The cursing: My friend Marissa Lingen has published a fun story with the title of "Cursed Motives." It features a princess of the non-helpless variety. There are links to the podcast and text versions here.

The splashing: Today's Google Doodle is in honor of Moby Dick.

Current Music: Tommy Womack covering "Eve of Destruction"

I'm in the thick of reviewing a client's responses to copyedits, a process that has included some muttering under my breath at Microsoft Word (which I get along with for the most part, but there have been a couple of spots where a random style seems to have suddenly imposed itself -- on random phrases, of course -- and that is Not Okay).

That said, it is so nice being able to deal with all the slicing, deleting, and repositioning by merely tapping and scrolling and clicking (and swearing). Here's another look at Miss Welty at work, as described by Suzanne Marrs:

By the time she was at work on Delta Wedding in 1945, Eudora had become an ardent revisor, using a method she would ever afterward follow--typing a draft chapter, spreading it out on the bed, or on the dining room table downstairs, cutting paragraphs, or even sentences, out of a page and attaching them with straight pins in new locations, before preparing a new typescript and starting the process again.

And here's Eudora writing to Bill Maxwell in 1953, after reading a draft of one of his stories:

I do see from this how elegant rubber cement is. I'm so used to writing with a pincushion that I don't know if I can learn other ways or not, but I did go right down and buy a bottle of Carter's. The smell stimulates the mind and brings up dreams of efficiency. Long ago when my stories were short (I wish they were back) I used to use ordinary paste and put the story together in one long strip, that could be seen as a whole and at a glance -- helpful and realistic. When the stories got too long for the room I took them up on the bed or table & pinned and that's when my worst stories were like patchwork quilts, you could almost read them in any direction. No man would be bemused like that, but Emmy [Maxwell's wife] will understand -- and on the whole I like pins. The Ponder Heart was in straight pins, hat pins, corsage pins, and needles, and when I got through typing it out I had more pins than I started with. (So it's economical.)
What There Is To Say We Have Said (Houghton, 2011)

Current Mood: busy

Today's post is by Kristine Ong Muslim, brought to you by Couplets: a multi-author poetry blog tour. It is part of Kristine's daily series during National Poetry Month on poetry she likes.

On Arlene Ang’s “Living Without Water”

Arlene Ang is one of my favorite poets. She has an amazing eye for turning the most innocuous of objects to menacing things, and vice versa. That, in itself, is a unique skill. She has a remarkable sense of humor, too. Her early poems, which I’ve read and reread, exhibit wit, sensuality, and grace.

So, for this Couplets post, I will share with you an Arlene Ang piece. It was a toss up between another Ang poem called “Want” and “Living Without Water.” I chose the latter.

( Here's why )

I am catching up on last Friday's NYT over breakfast. It doesn't mean anything, but I am nonetheless amused that the obituaries for Murray Lender (of Lender's Bagels fame) and Samuel Glazer (a co-creator of Mr. Coffee) are side by side on page B13.

Lori-Lyn Hurley is welcoming submissions to Spirit Voyage; the theme is "birth, nurture, and the Divine Feminine" and she's seeking "poetry, prose, visual artwork, or works that defy genre." The deadline is March 31.

Nathalie Boisard-Beudin: Things you do not expect to find in a cemetery

Current Mood: sore

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Hard, lustrous, silvery . . . but will burn in air. - Emsley, THE ELEMENTS

Entries tagged with recs

new things, nice things

snarling, cursing, splashing

redlines and revisions, continued

Kristine Ong Muslim on Arlene Ang's "Living Without Water" (guest post)

some days it's the small coincidences

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