Sorn just left a comment in the last Open Thread asking if there would be a new one today. I’d been leaving them to get to about the 50-comment mark, but the last one is fairly buried at this point, and it’s at 42 or something — and Sorn asked so nicely! So: New one it is!
For an explanation as to why I’m hosting an Open Thread, click here; for rules, click here and/or here; for the mothership, click here. If you started a conversation in that most recent Open Thread (or any of the others before it) and want to continue it here, please do so.
And don’t forget: If you’re a new commenter or using a new email account – I have to moderate all first comments. If it doesn’t show up immediately, it will soon! I promise!
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dmf
/ July 30, 2010The house of waters
I came here, looking for food. A metal I could push into my opening: the first stoma, pink
around the edges, able to rotate slightly.
(Speaking of the future: a blue tongue, from sucking on
gumballs. A yellow palm, from licking sherbert–6 ounces for 6p, in a white paper bag no
bigger than my hand–)
I went in, asking to see the jars they kept on a high shelf. Remembering myself a
girl, stained with elements.
THE COLORS OF THE WORLD ARE ITS ELEMENTS.
(They said.)(a girl’s hand.)
(a real girl.)
Instead, when they opened the door and sucked me in, it was a room I’d been in
before: a waiting-room: (the faint smell of vinegar and baking soda, and a chewed-up chart
of the body, tacked to a peeling wall. A green line goes under, resurfacing in the eye. What
passes for the eye. No speckled jelly as such.)
A room
With no obvious exits. Even the walls
Were loosening their valences, beginning to waver, turning to gold.
Off gold.
(“Reduced to spotless.”)
Mud walls whose surfaces belonged to the plantar surfaces of human hands. I could see
finger marks, whorls. Once, I was a living being, embellished with skin: fortunate and blighted
in turns. I turned. In circles. In the adventure playground, which was concrete. When I fell,
the nurse would daub me with yellow smears, that stang.
IODINE, ASPHALT, the crisp white underbelly of the woman above me. Already, I knew it.
Could see it coming: (her apron fused to her thighs.) The differential between the outer-
metal, or linen, husks, and the converse-organs, the under-tender: diminishing.
Gone. I am here now. A bit hungry. When I go in to eat. When I am offered by strangers.
I am a little bit I am rather
It goes like this: I open the door. I knock on the door. Someone comes, or does not come.
I go in. To some extent, I am a woman. Who are you?, they say, when I give them what I
have. And then it breaks. Falls vertically from their mouths, no spaces. And in one version
of what happened to me in the house of waters, I’m able to breathe in
the absence of oxygen.
Bhanu Kapil Rider
anibundel
/ July 30, 2010OMG! Nigel IN! Ellen OUT! J.Lo IN! Kara OUT! Steven Tyler IN!?!
My poor little idoloonie head is SPINNING…………….
emilylhauser
/ July 30, 2010I have watched American Idol precisely once. So. I’m not your audience, I know. BUT, I like that Ellen said (essentially) that she couldn’t stand to hurt people’s feelings…! She’s a good egg, that Ellen.
anibundel
/ July 30, 2010Ellen was also a terrible judge. The rest of her career is too dependent on being liked by America. She couldn’t afford to give bad critiques. By the end of the season she was reduced to “it was good”,
it was great” or “it was pretty great.” I’m glad she recognized the conflict of interest and withdrew.
Josh Jasper
/ July 30, 2010Is anyone other than me finding themselves wishing TNC would share his opinion (if any) about the anti-Islam sentiment that’s going around, especially as it relates to the proposed Cordoba Community Center in NYC?
emilylhauser
/ July 30, 2010I kind of always wish people would express themselves on the topic of anti-Islam sentiment, but I think TNC is all kinds of busy right now and can only do so much. (Now, should he choose to call me in as a guest blogger…! Lord. How many kinds of awesome would that be? But I digress. Sorry Josh Jasper!) It should certainly be addressed more often, and more loudly, by people who set the tone of the conversation in this country.
I’d be interested to see some kind of study comparing where the Japanese-American community stood just before WWII, during the war, and after. Those were different times, when racism and xenophobia were more expected and accepted, but it would be interesting to see how long after Pearl Harbor it took for an entire community of loyal citizens to shake the suspicion that landed them in internment camps.
dmf
/ July 30, 2010@JJ, something like this?
http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/closeread/2010/07/live-from-ground-zero.html
ee, not sure that you will get your fair shot now that the conspiracy has been revealed:
http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2010/07/lee-smith-ups-the-ante.html
Sorn Jessen
/ July 30, 2010You’re going to be a guest blogger at TNC’s place? Awesome sauce. Congratulations.
emilylhauser
/ July 30, 2010@ Sorn Dude, nonono…. I WISH I could be a guest blogger at TNC’s place! No, I was just idly wishing, is all.
BUT DO YOU SEE THE POWER YOU WIELD?! You ask, I grant! And within mere moments, BOOM — people chit-chatting away! I hope you only ever use your power for good.
Sorn Jessen
/ July 30, 2010Whoops, sorry I read too fast. I do promise though to only use my powers for good though……
emilylhauser
/ July 30, 2010@ dmf I WAS ONE OF THOSE READERS! The funny thing is that, to some of the lefties in the Jewish blogosphere, the email that Sullivan quoted appeared to have come from a powerful Jewish member of the media/apologist for the occupation. You know: me.
No, really: http://mondoweiss.net/2010/01/i-divine-the-israel-lobby-in-an-anonymous-letter-im-wrong.html
carlosthedwarf
/ July 30, 2010Have you heard yet that the ADL has come out against it, because…just because?
http://www.adl.org/PresRele/CvlRt_32/5820_32.htm
Josh Jasper
/ July 30, 2010makes me proud to be Jewish.
Josh Jasper
/ July 30, 2010… that was sarcasm, BTW.
emilylhauser
/ July 30, 2010@carlosthedwarf – Isn’t that just stunning? The ADL is quite the little group. I mean, honestly. WTF?
@Josh Jasper #2 – We knew it was sarcasm, don’t you worry! Because we’re the ones who make you proud to be a Jew! We know that.
Though you force me to link to my own post, wherein a different Jew might also make you feel proud, etc. http://emilylhauserinmyhead.wordpress.com/2010/07/28/clarification-re-the-spectres-of-feminism-and-egalitarianism/
(PS @carlos – did you see that I gave an entire post over to that article? And that one of the rabbis quoted in it commented? Did you see?) (Ahem. Smooths apron).
carlosthedwarf
/ July 30, 2010@Josh–yeah, the sarcasm shone through bright and clear.
@E–Appreciated that!
Kylopod
/ July 30, 2010I once was making fun of a book on my blog, and the author actually appeared in the comments section to call me nasty names.
emilylhauser
/ July 30, 2010@ Kylopod Wow. That is really, really unfortunate! Sheesh. At least you can take comfort from the knowledge that you are not that person.
Kylopod
/ July 30, 2010Unfortunate? Not really. I thought it was amusing! I just never expected it to happen. Just a few months after this incident, I posted a positive review of a book on DKos, and soon got an email from the author thanking me. Both these experiences drove home for me how connected the web is. We’re all public figures now, even though we don’t realize it most of the time.
emilylhauser
/ July 30, 2010@ Kylopod Oh, well then: Awesome! I suppose ne woman’s “get it away! Make it stop!” is another man’s “Dude, totally cool!”
(and shabbat shalom!)
emilylhauser
/ July 30, 2010I appear to be the only person on Planet Earth who likes Jon Stewart’s goatee. Which has me worried that it’ll be gone by Monday.
anibundel
/ July 30, 2010Untrue! Colbert gave a shout out for his love for Stewart’s new goatee last night.
The Daily Show With Jon StewartMon – Thurs 11p / 10c<td style='padding:2px 1px 0px 5px;' colspan='2'Daily/Colbert – Jon’s Beardhttp://www.thedailyshow.comDaily Show Full EpisodesPolitical HumorTea Party
anibundel
/ July 30, 2010ACK! here here’s the link, since embed failed:
http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/thu-july-29-2010/daily-colbert—jon-s-beard
Sorn Jessen
/ July 30, 2010Because it’s friday.
On His Blindness
John Milton
When I consider how my light is spent
Ere half my days in this dark world and wide,
And that one talent which is death to hide
Lodg’d with me useless, though my soul more bent
To serve therewith my Maker, and present
My true account, lest he returning chide,
“Doth God exact day-labour, light denied?”
I fondly ask. But Patience, to prevent
That murmur, soon replies: “God doth not need
Either man’s work or his own gifts: who best
Bear his mild yoke, they serve him best. His state
Is kingly; thousands at his bidding speed
And post o’er land and ocean without rest:
They also serve who only stand and wait.”
silentbeep
/ July 30, 2010Yesterday was tough for me. I let a certain personality quirk come out and it got me into trouble. I can be oversensitive and I didn’t catch it this time. My question: I know everyone has faults, but does anybody else recognize a certain “achilles heel” type quirk that you try to ameliorate or at least, find yourself having to corral? How do you deal with this trait? I hope these questions make sense!
Sorn Jessen
/ July 30, 2010I haven’t found any ways to deal with it yet but I recognize my achiles heel which is something I didn’t before. It’s crazy how what a person doesn’t know he or she doesn’t know ends up causing problems.
anibundel
/ July 30, 2010I am completely unable to communicate face to face. it screws up a lot of shit.
I find that admitting to it helped a lot. Finding a solution is a whole ‘nother problem.
enstar
/ July 30, 2010this is mine, too. only for me it’s more like being open and candid; i can conversate about anything else.
dmf
/ July 30, 2010perfect sense, i have a whole laundry list, my motto is along the lines of fail better and apologize often.
also asking for corrective feedback, we all need some help in these matters of un-conscious habits
@anib social ease is a skill like any other that just takes attention and practice
Sorn Jessen
/ July 30, 2010It’s been an interesting week around these parts. Next week I get to go to the archives up in bozeman to continue research on my honors thesis. Archives = fun, but on a different note continuing the original thought I can say that as per the post over at my place sometimes it seems that growing up takes a hell of a long time.
Do we ever finish?
silentbeep
/ July 30, 2010lol! No not really (meaning we don’t ever finish, unless you are like an enlightened bodhissatva type person, but thats IMHO). In my own experience, I literally started feeling like I had grown up when i turned 30, in a good way. What I mean by this, is that I felt like I sort of “arrived.” I felt like I wasn’t the “baby” at work anymore, I felt a little bit established in my career, I got a place to live that I really liked, school was over, and I felt that for the first time since I was 18 I didn’t have to keep on “clawing my way” out. Like I had a semblance of true self-sufficiency so it was really nice. But, personally, in some ways if “growing up” means never being open to new experiences and losing a childlike wonder over the weirdness of life, then no I don’t want to grow up, and I don’t think I have to.
anibundel
/ July 30, 2010I think i felt grown up for the first time when I was completely on my own, in my own apartment, supporting myself.
For the record, I was 30.
K_Commenter
/ July 30, 2010I’ve felt like, at work and such, *other* people perceive you as a real grown up when you (a) have kids, (b) get married, or (c) turn 30, whichever one comes first.
I started to feel like a real grown-up when I hit the era where I wanted a real roasting pan and wooden furniture and the plastic crap I’d hauled around since I was 17 just wasn’t good enough. I was in my mid-20s I think. Of course now I’m married and have real stuff and a real job and sometimes I still feel like an errant teenager who’s playing house.
Really, this nails it: http://hyperboleandahalf.blogspot.com/2010/06/this-is-why-ill-never-be-adult.html
emilylhauser
/ July 30, 2010@ Sorn When she was in her late 50s, my mother assured me that there is no such place as “up” — As in: “We never grow up, ellaesther.” (No, she actually calls me Emily, but in this crowd, I feel rather more ellaesther-ish!)
@ K_Commenter That hyperbole and a half!! OMG, I almost keeled over dead from the laughing when I first saw it! It’s the Truth with a captial T-R-U-T-H.
K_Commenter
/ July 30, 2010It’s not that I don’t love you all and still love TNC’s digs, ’cause I do. And were I at work, I’d be relying on you all you get me through the workday, as always.
No, it’s that I’m on the Outer Banks this week, sleeping until I damn well want to get up and eating Krispy Kreme and BBQ (eastern north carolina style, because that’s what my husband an in-laws eat) and generally marveling at being surrounded by the cousins-in-law, the majority of whom are this year somewhere between 13 and 16.
On the up side, there are 3 sisters who are totally into Doctor Who and Torchwood and it amuses me greatly to see budding young fangirls in the making. They are very much a set of someones I used to be…
Back to the grind next week.
silentbeep
/ July 30, 2010sounds like a wonderful time!
Paul in KY
/ July 30, 2010I’ve been to the Outer Banks many times. Lot’s of fun there. Hope y’all are havin a blast.
emilylhauser
/ July 30, 2010I don’t have anything to say about the Outer Banks, or about a vacation that I wish I were on so I’m too jealous to say anything (…) but: Paul in KY! So good to have you!
Craig
/ July 30, 2010I cannot motherhumping believe that Sully posted that “Mel Gibson’s ex broke her own teeth” email.
taylor16
/ July 30, 2010Yep. I had minimal free time today due to work, and after I spent a couple minutes reading that drivel, I decided that was a sign that I should devote today fully to work. I will never understand why I am supposed to read that guy’s stuff.
enstar
/ July 30, 2010so all of my free time this week–and a lot of my supposed-to-be-sleep time–has been eaten up by starcraft 2.
i don’t even think i felt this teenaged when i was actually a teenager. only it’s work i’m nodding off at, rather than school. eesh.
but totally worth it.
dmf
/ July 30, 2010ha ee, who new that you were a powerbroker and galpal of a-sully, you left that off of your resume/list!
i liked this comment from wondering jew January 12, 2010 at 5:33 pm
“If Emily Hauser wishes to preach “listening to the other” as her bottom line sermon, she certainly has come to a hostile church.” amen brother wondering
emilylhauser
/ July 30, 2010I know, right? I’m too humble to mention it usually, but it’s true: I CONTROL ANDREW SULLIVAN.
I confess, though: I didn’t read the comments there. One doesn’t need such voices in one’s head! (Though I certainly would have liked that wondering character. I should go seek him/her out!).
dmf
/ July 30, 2010yep “liberal zionist” caused their minds to seize-up like a dry engine block, whereas i having eyes to see the signs now get the message, when did you ZOG folks relocate to chicago to start the obama gambit and whose genius idea was it to pretend to be against the motherland to rally the faithful?
speaking of which @carlos-t-d adl and palin a marriage made in heaven.
ps i was wrong about this openthread idea which turned out to be a lovely klatch
carlosthedwarf
/ July 30, 2010I’m glad you didn’t. They’re a cesspool.
emilylhauser
/ July 30, 2010Oh my, you must go look at this collection of photographs from the early 1900s, in color. Just stunning. Almost shocking, really, to see these people in color!: http://citynoise.org/article/10598
dmf
/ July 30, 2010B&W
http://www.fredericbrenner.com/flashMX.html
emilylhauser
/ July 30, 2010PLEASE NOTE: NEW OPEN THREAD NOW OPEN! Snoopy dance! http://emilylhauserinmyhead.wordpress.com/2010/07/30/weekend-open-thread/
(But I won’t be moderating during Shabbat, about 8:00 pm Friday – 9:00 pm Saturday, CST)(But you all have fun!)