Or, Notices: 09/01/2009

9.30.2009

From the UW Archives:
Women's Archery

1915

9.29.2009

9.28.2009

9.27.2009

9.26.2009

9.25.2009

From the UW Archives:
Gradient

Sailing on Lake Mendota, n.d.

9.24.2009

9.23.2009

"By Poverty I mean distressed, not narrow Circumstances; and being, with a large dependent Family, in a Situation in Life that you know not how to go out of, and yet are not able to support; and when you pay Cent. per Cent. for every Necessary of Life, by being obliged to buy every thing by retail: when, if you endeavour to keep up a fair Out-side, and paint not your Poverty in the most ghastly Shape, your nominal Friends will call you extravagant; whilst, on the other hand, if you set your Poverty in full View, such Friends will generously think you too low for their Regard; and comfort themselves that you are too impotent to hurt them, even in the Eyes of the World. Then it is but watching over every minute Circumstance of your Life, exaggerating every human Failing, and it will be easily believed, you deserve your Fate, and they do right in abandoning you to it."

-Sarah Fielding, The Adventures of David Simple. Volume the Last

9.22.2009

9.21.2009

"If, indeed, a short Man would think himself tall, without being actuated by that Fancy, there would be no great matter in it; but if that Whim carries him to be continually endeavouring at Things out of his Reach, it probably will make him pull them down on his own Head, and those of all his Companions; and if the looking as if you did not believe he is quite so tall, as he is resolved you shall think him, will turn him from being your Friend into your most inveterate Enemy, then it becomes hurtful: And I never yet knew a Man who did not hate the Person, who seemed not to have the same Opinion of him as he had of himself; and, as that very seldom happens, I believe it is one of the chief Causes of the Malignity Mankind have against one another."

-Sarah Fielding, The Adventures of David Simple

9.20.2009

9.19.2009

"This was Generosity--this was being a true Friend--for the Man who will bear another's Frailties, in my Opinion, is the only Person who deserves that Name. Those People who let their Pride intervene with their Tenderness, enough to make them quarrel with their Friends for their mistakes, may sometimes make an appearance of loving another, but in reality they never enter into Engagements from any other Motive than Selfishness: and I think the Man who forsakes his Friend, only because he is not perfect,is much upon the same footing with one who will be no longer faithful to his Friend, than while Fortune favours him."

-Sarah Fielding, The Adventures of David Simple

This is the epigraph to my new chapbook, What I Hate About My Friends, in which I explain what I hate about each of my friends.

9.18.2009

9.17.2009

[originally written as part of a facebook message to Kate Corby while she was in H1N1 isolation]

We're VERY excited about the new fall season on TV. Now that cable's out of the picture, we're fascinated – riveted— by the possibilities offered by the major networks.

E: Oh, you know-- I'd give that cougar show a try.
K: The new Courtney Cox?
E: No, the one about the baby, set in San Francisco.
K: Oh, Jenna Elfman.
E: And I'd try blackout as well...
K: You mean "Flash Forward" from the network which brought you "Three's Company?"
E: Yup.
E: The Jenna Elfman—it looks like such a disaster, but I have an odd feeling about it. As if it could be the inverse of the Cheryl Hines motherhood show, which brimmed with potential but was so tone deaf and awful.
K: Any interest in "Eastwick?"
E: Oh, I'd try that.
K: Why aren't more Updike novels made into TV series?
E: I’d watch Rabbit before I’d read it.
K: You know I'm more excited about TiVo-ing things than I am about watching them.
E: Oh I know (sigh)*

* The sigh recognizes that I, on the other hand, will likely watch all this shit.