Wallingford, Connecticut, November 10, 2008, 4:53 p.m.

Art in Massachusetts

One afternoon after a rainy morning, a former acquaintance and I were driving around somewhere near Boston;―looking for Walden Pond, I think,―and accidently drove up into an estate.

And after a bit, there was this huge column, 25 feet tall, of garbage. Multicolored, plastic, mostly laundry bottles,—garbage.

Me: That's art.
Her: No, it can't be.
Me: Yes, they mean it to be.
Her: Don't be ridiculous, it's garbage.
Me: I know, but they think it's art now.
Her: You're pulling my leg.
Me: Well, what else can it be? It's not recycling.
Her: Stop it, it's not art. They haven't sunk that low yet.

So, we looped the house, realized it was closed and that we probably shouldn't be there and that there were several other piles of arranged garbage on the property. When she saw the other piles, she started giggling that she thought I might be right.

On our way out, we passed through the gates, where there was a sign, "DeCordova Museum."

And we laughed all the way to Walden Pond.

Rhode Island, New York and Connecticut

Napatree Point, Rhode Island, on August 10, 2008. The point is in the center, Fisher's Island, New York, on the left horizon, Stonington, Connecticut on the right horizon.

College Class Reunion Notes

---------- Message ----------
From: jsmith@wam.ubc.edu
Subject: Anything for the class notes?
Date: Wed, 01 Oct 2008 12:40:58 -0700

Hello, classmates!
Since we all donate on line now, I never get sent those little envelope flaps with our news. While I'm perfectly happy to update you on my former housemates, I'm sure that you have some hip happenings of your own that need to be reported to the class at large. So send me some news. Of course, the deadline looms, so drop me a line today or tomorrow.

Remember: you don't need to have gotten a promotion or been made partner to submit class notes! Run a race? Bumped into a friend? Read any good books lately?

Thanks! Caroline

---------- Reply Message ----------
From: Jaime Souviens
Subject: Re: Anything for the class notes?
Date: Wed, 01 Oct 2008 18:21:33 -0700

I am currently hiding from Provincial authorities in the vicinity of Stony Plain, Alberta. They are interested in me for three branch bank holdups in the greater Edmonton area, (well, three banks and a Wawa convenience store, which I swear I was never near). Other than that, I'm fine as long as the cash holds out.

Jaime Souviens.

Archaeological Expedition to New York, (II - 2008)

The Taconic State Parkway; Ghent, New York. This is a panoramic view of the Catskill Mountains, seen on the horizon across the Hudson River Valley.

September 11th

It's almost futile to write about September 11th. The topic is too big, too much has already been written, and it will always be too soon. Nevertheless...

I can barely deal with the topic anyway. I still too readily choke up seeing video footage and photographs. There's something at the center of it which is just solid, pure grief, and it pays to stay away from it. Whenever some televised idiot mentions the subject, I tense up, ready to pitch a fit if it's even remotely disrespectful or exploitative.

But I did recently realize something. It's not the deaths. 3,000 people is a lot of people, but a natural disaster, a good earthquake, say, could kill 3,000, and that wouldn't affect me the same way. Nor is it the attack by foreign enemies and the security issue aspect; I'm not afraid.

And then I realized what exactly it was. It's that anyone would DO such a thing.

I mean, anyone can daydream about a plane crash, and maybe you would want some awful thing to happen to a despised opponent.

But to actually do what they did... take innocent men, women and children, and use them as human weapons, and smash them in their jetliners, into other people, to create such carnage, and to do it four times... to actually do what they did, it means that what we, as humans, are capable of horrific things.

Such mindless hatred, such unutterable cruelty...what a yawning, bottomless chasm there is in us. What a psychotic depravity.

I look at the photos of the second plane before it hits the tower, just an instant before, and I am completely undone trying to concieve how they could possibly do such a thing. How could a human being be so utterly inhuman?

I've seen the video now a thousand times, and still gape at it, thinking it can't possibly be true that they are going to fly it straight in.

And then they do.

Before then, I would have thought that no people anywhere could really do such a thing. But I'm wrong, they can,--we can. And that's why I still shed tears.

Think of the cruelty beyond our comprehension, as amongst the screams and the anguish of the innocent, those hijackers drove at full throttle planes laden with fuel into buildings where tens of thousands of people work. They have no moral inhibition on the slaughter of the innocent. If they could have murdered not 7,000 but 70,000, does anyone doubt they would have done so and rejoiced in it? — Prime Minister Tony Blair.

Pell Bridge, Newport, Rhode Island

The List of Things Not to Pay Attention to in Life

I've long known that there were many things in life, that, if you simply ignored them, vast amounts of time opened up to you. These things are the list of things to ignore. I do not say that these things are worthless. There are apparently reasonable people who seem to derive pleasure from—at least some of these things. But I do say that the total possible joy derivable from these things, the total possible joy, is less than the amount of work required to be invested in the first place. Here then is The List of Things Not to Pay Attention to in Life:

Opera
Golf
Teen sensations
Wine connoiseurship
Methodist theology
The N.B.A.
George Stephanopolous
Bond films
Entertainment Tonight
Horseracing
Harry Potter
Newsweek
Phlogiston
Joseph Biden
New Jersey
Isreali-Palestinian relations
Physiocracy
Survivor
Scientology

DuBois Park, Stonington Point, Stonington

I haven't been...

I haven't been listening to enough Bach lately.

Canada: Very Little News from the Northland

Many people are unaware of this, but, officially, from June 3, 1896 to March 28, 1928, nothing happened in Canada. Not a thing. There literally was no news. It actually set a record for the longest period in human history where, among a given population, no newsworthy event of note occured. (The prior record of 23 years, 4 months and 5 days was set by Finland.) For more than 30 years, all across Canada, the newspapers printed blank sheets of paper; (no ink, they just ran paper through the presses and packed them up for delivery).

The "newsless period" was only broken on the morning of March 28, 1928, when Lady Tweedsmuir accidently dropped half a buttered scone on the head of a seated Prime Minister Mackenzie King. The resulting embarassment almost forced a Parliamentary election, but for the fact that the newsless period had almost entirely depopulated Canada of journalists, and there was no one to write the scandal up.

Canada has had several other periods where nothing happened for extended periods of time. Professor Oliver Heepheeppatah of Ryerson has published a theory that short intervals of nothing happening occur irregularly and simultaneously across Canada on an almost continuous basis. And that, therefore, it is literally true to state that "in Canada there's always nothing happening somewhere." Others, however, claim that Heepheeppatah should not be taken seriously because he has almost certainly been boozing again.

If a future period of nothing happening Canada-wide breaks out, we promise not to report it until after things begin to happen again.

Cuil

I don't like it.

First, it doesn't seem to recognize anything. It can't find "The American Minerva." Now, we may overestimate the importance of The American Minerva, but Google finds it. Second, the three column article layout is not conducive to seeing a lot of hits.

And third, the name is stupid.

Cuil, not cool. Indeed.

Base Camp, Archaeological Expedition to Vermont, (I - 2008)

Praying to Al Haig

I was told, by a woman that overheard, that once when I was deeply asleep, I sat bolt upright and said in my sleep, very calmly and firmly, "I do what I can, with what I have, I do what I can;—that, and pray to Al Haig."

I assume she misheard that last bit.

But I'll always wonder what it was I really said instead of 'Al Haig'.

Squirrels

After a lovely Sunday drive, I have to report that there was one fatality.

But, for those who did not know, I'll note that squirrels are surprisingly crunchy.