“Taught from infancy that beauty is woman’s sceptre, the mind shapes itself to the body, and roaming round its gilt cage, only seeks to adorn its prison.”
— Mary Wollstonecraft, reformer and writer (1759-1797)
My tiny, beautiful daughter has taken to saying “I’m fat!” lately. Not just once or twice, but at least four or five times. And those are just the times that her dad or I have heard her mention it.
“Love is a snowmobile racing across the tundra, which suddenly flips over, pinning you underneath. At night the ice weasels come.”
— Matt Groening, “Love is Hell”
“I loathe people who keep dogs. They are cowards who haven’t got the guts to bite people themselves.”
— August Strindberg
All these warm, sunny days make me think of being 12 years old, cool and happy watching television for hours in our dark, cocoon-like basement. No exercise, no running around sweating at the park, just Froot Loops and the tube. We’d watch my sister’s favorite, Speed Racer, then Gilligan’s Island, the Brady Bunch was next, I think, followed by Star Trek, then Emergency…
Ah… Johnny Gage, you fox you. But Star Trek, that was the best. The comforting theme music, the Troglodytes, the Tribbles. The sexy girls, the fake rocks, the fights.
Star Trek quote of the day:
“There’s a way out of any cage.”
— Captain Christopher Pike, “The Menagerie” (“The Cage”),
stardate unknown.
Not if you’re at the zoo on a field trip with 40 kids and EIGHT THOUSAND OTHER PEOPLE and it’s NINETY G.D. DEGREES.
Have you gotten that chain e that’s been going around the last few years? It’s usually headed “And we Lived to Tell About It.” (WM has received five copies, and counting. Honest to God, if I wanted to hear a granny rant, I’d pick up the phone and call her.) The e is all about “our parents used lead paint in the nursery, and we lived,” “We got to play outside for hours — and were fine…” etc. and ends with “…kinda makes you run through the house with scissors, doesn’t it?”
No, it doesn’t, and here’s why:
“When you wake up in the morning, Pooh,” said Piglet at last, “what’s the first thing you say to yourself?”
“What’s for breakfast?” said Pooh. “What do you say, Piglet?”
“I say, I wonder what’s going to happen exciting today?” said Piglet.
Pooh nodded thoughtfully. “It’s the same thing,” he said.
What we’re reading at Wacky House:
Kids:
1) The “Fudge” books by Judy Blume (too funny) and the Babysitters’ Club series.
2) Anything with dinos.
3) Anything with helicopters, planes, monorails and other “Things that Go.”
Grown-ups:
1) Ethan Canin — “Carry Me Across the Water” — This made me cry it was so good. All about a grandpa’s memories of World War II and how it changed his life.
2) “Babyville” by Jane Green — Great chick lit. And I mean that as a compliment.
3) Anything by Philip Roth, especially his new one, “The Plot Against America.”
4) Mona Simpson, Mona Simpson
5) Alice Munro
6) The New Yorker and The Nation
ttfn, and have a great weekend!!!
WM
“The willingness to accept responsibility for one’s own life is the source from which self-respect springs.”
— Joan Didion
Complaints about Wacky Mommy (and Wacky Boy), by Wacky Girl:
1) Doesn’t let me sleep.
2) They (WM & WB) always tell me to watch Boohbahs and Teletubbies.
3) Wakes me up too early.
That’s it.
, Barnes and Noble or Powell's Books.
Also available for Kindle
.
