She wears diapers. She eats with her fingers, and wears a bib. When prompted she will use a fork or a spoon, but often the food ends up on her clothes or the floor. She’s mostly non-verbal. She can’t walk, although with assistance she can take a few steps. She spends most days sitting [...]
Archive for the ‘Death’ category
Remember, remember the 5th of November
On my first Halloween after I moved to the U.S., it took me at least half a day before I realized there was neither a priest nor a nurse employed at my workplace.
I had not understood that (a) Halloween could include any fancy dress costume and that (b) one might wear such attire to work. [...]
DFW delays
I imagined it would go like this:
He was late. I was dressed up. Sorta. Clean jeans. Hair down. He came into the restaurant – linen table cloths, candles, no salt, no pepper on the table ’cause the chef knew the food’d be just right. He spotted me, came over, a sea of apologies that quickly [...]
Dead stop
I stay late to avoid traffic. If I leave after 7:30, traffic may be slow going, but at least it doesn’t come to a complete standstill.
Tuesday last, it was about 8. I scooped up my left over lunch and left the office. Belted myself in for what should at that hour be a 20-minute breeze [...]
A new season
Listen,
all creeping things -
the bell of transience.
- Issa
It was not wise to go back. You could have warned me. But he wanted to know how to care for the grapevine. And potted plants had been placed on the stoop. That was reassurance.
I could not assume the new people would take up the [...]
Danse macabre
Bob Fosse made five films between 1968 and 1973. The first, Sweet Charity, he had directed and choreographed on the Broadway stage in 1966. Fosse won his fifth Tony Award for the choreography of this show, which starred his wife, Gwen Verdon. I was surprised to learn that the book by Neil Simon was based [...]
Pure murderous fun
There’s nothing the English like better than a good murder mystery. We have produced the kings and queens of the genre from Sherlock Holmes, Agatha Christie and Dorothy L. Sayers to Ruth Rendell, P.D. James and Dick Francis. In fact, on Amazon there is a sub-category of British Detectives. We are also [...]
In memoriam ad infinitum
As someone who’s a little death-obsessed, I’ve spent a fair amount of time contemplating the mourning process. I’ve wondered about its origins: is it a natural reaction (as some suggest is the case with many species) or a social construct? I’ve also thought about whom it serves: should it be a private or [...]
The other shoe to drop
This should be a good time. Hillary finally conceded and Our Guy could be seven months away from his inauguration.
And yet. And yet.
I am filled with an impending sense of dread and doom. Darth Vader music is playing in my head each time I think of what’s coming.
It’s not the idea of McCain taking office [...]
Thursday Playlist: Sydney Pollack RIP
A.O. Scott wrote a great piece on the director Sydney Pollack who died last week, of cancer, at the age of 73. He noted how Pollack had been involved in a type of film known as “the A picture.”
“In both capacities he worked, comfortably and with conviction, within the parameters of the Hollywood ‘A [...]
