Blah, Blah, Blog

It has been days since I’ve posted anything to my blog and in order to forestall any recriminatory comments, I need to write something. But what should I write about. Write what you live. There is a little notion that living is interesting and if you write about your life, that by extension should be interesting as well.

Bah, humbug.

Yesterday I was asked my opinion about another person’s writing. It would have been easy to answer if I had actually liked the other person’s writing. However, I did not like it and was horrified at having to say so. In fact, I wanted to ignore the whole thing but was told that it was not an option. When one is asked, one needs to answer and to answer honestly. It made me a little pukey.

Then, I had to work on my own writing. After my less than stellar critique of another person’s efforts, I felt just a tad nervous to take on the task of writing something myself. But since I now list “author” as my occupation, I must at least attempt to “auth” on a daily basis – or something close to a daily basis.

What did I learn yesterday in my attempt to write? I learned that the brilliant and influential nineteenth century cartoonist, Thomas Nast, was essentially illiterate. He influenced Presidential elections, fine tuned the political cartoon into a national past time, gave us the pictures we hold dear to us – both Uncle Sam and Santa Claus – and instituted what we consider many of the norms of Christmas. He was the person who moved Santa to the North Pole and gave him a bunch of elves to make all the toys. He based his Christmas drawings on Clement Moore’s poem, The Night Before Christmas. But he couldn’t read the poem, his wife had to read it to him.

I also learned that islands have been forming and breaking up for a long time and that geography is no stable thing. Storm tides in the North Sea have changed the coastline on various occasions destroying towns that were quite large for the times and sometimes taking out whole fairly large islands.

I also learned that the clarinet, an instrument I played for about seven years in grade school and high school bands, was invented in 1690 and the typical clarinet that comes to mind when the word is spoken is just one of a whole family of clarinets. Like the piccolo and flute, there are mini-clarinets and various other instruments in the family.

I learned that “Freedom Fries” isn’t the first time the US lost its mind during a war. During the second world war, when France was an ally but Germany was not, Frankfurt and Vienna both came to be despised and foods named for the area had to be renamed to not offend the sensibilities of god alone knows who. But frankfurters and wieners became “Victory Sausages.” Proving that stupidity is nothing new.

I also did something constructive with my day. I visited the library which is always a pleasant way to spend time. With the whole writing thing comes a love of words. While I find my own words comforting, I find other people’s writing entertaining as well. At least sometimes that happens. Please see above.

I also did laundry yesterday which is a necessary and loathsome task. Wearing dirty clothes is really unappealing, but doing laundry just lacks a certain pizzazz. It is one of those things that simply must be done. I did it.

I also dropped off an application, two pages, to be a volunteer at a local hospital. The application to give away my time was actually longer than some applications I have filled out in the hopes of being hired and paid a living wage. In fact, I’ve gotten jobs without ever filling out an application at all. I don’t really know what happens next. I know that they have to do a background check and perhaps they will also check my reference. I guess it is essential to know that people in a hospital are not drug addicts stealing the narcotics, but if I remember correctly, those are kept locked away with only a nurse holding the key. I’m not sure what other heinous things they look for, but I am confident that my history check will produce no subversive type behaviors.

As I said, life is interesting. Maybe.