The Visible Woman...May 9, 2003

Newspapers are meant to be read right away. News may really be rumor, news is seasonal, news is sometimes speculation. It loses it's punch a lot of times if left to sit.

If you let the papers pile up on your office floor then, one day in May, you may learn that Dolly, the cloned sheep, died (February) and was stuffed and put in a museum (April). It seems unseemly to discuss Dolly over cocktails now. I did know she died, by the way, but the being stuffed part? I learned that a month after it was in the paper.

Yeah, you will miss things. Like speculation that the universe is shaped like a donut (March.) Or Lady Bird's 90th birthday (December 22). In the article on Lady Bird, it said that her granddaughter had a standing Tuesday night date to dine in or eat out. Yes, I saw her dining with her daughter and granddaughter a few Tuesdays ago at Zoot. But I read about her birthday today.

If you save the old papers, you will pause over stories you remember, even read while they were current and were occupying the breakfast table or some other flat surface in the kitchen. If you didn't get them to recycling, however, you may pause over them again. Al Hirschfeld died. He was 99 and seemed immortal. The New York Times ran a picture of him side-by-side with a self-portrait. "Mr. Hirschfeld continued to work and drive his own car virtually until his death." I saw the article originally. But I pause over it today, marveling at his long life. [He's the guy who drew all those caricatures in The New York Times.]

This just in: 'Bush gives Saddam 48 Hours to Leave Iraq." Very large type in the Austin paper. Oh, but that's a March 18 paper.

On March 21, The New York Times shows a woman in a bunny suit protesting that Kmart was selling GI Joe stuff for Easter baskets. Someone is quoted in that article as saying that in Texarkana, Texas military toys are "the only thing that's selling."

And on March 25 the Times quotes Hussein (dignified with last name now) saying "Victory is Close and at Hand."

In an April 16 business section, I read that Swissair's Successor (they became Swiss International Air Lines in the wake of 9/11) is struggling in the travel slump, suspending flights and using smaller airplanes.

Finally, in the Sunday New York Times from May 4, I learn that Caviar d'Aquitaine, sturgeon roe from France is finding a rise in its market. Those French. We were trotting out our war gear and its miniature versions at Kmart and they were preparing the gourmet table, trying to take this gourment niche from those pesky Russians even if they did agree about the war.

Yeah, papers are meant to be read in real time. But it can be amusing to attack a stack at once. Can't it?

Corkey Robinson and his late wife...FFP interviewed him today...how I'd do removing the reflection on his glasses? "The Press is too much with us: small and great; We are undone of chatter and on dit, Report, retort, rejoinder, repartee, Mole-hill and mare's nest, fiction up-to-date." Henry Austin Dobson, Invective Against Printing	this just in A day in which I confront the piles of newspapers that threaten my office. Newspapers are meant to be read right away. News may really be rumor, news is seasonal, news is sometimes speculation. It loses it's punch a lot of times if left to sit. If you let the papers pile up on your office floor then, one day in May, you may learn that Dolly, the cloned sheep, died (February) and was stuffed and put in a museum (April). It seems unseemly to discuss Dolly over cocktails now. I did know she died, by the way, but the being stuffed part? I learned that a month after it was in the paper. Yeah, you will miss things. Like speculation that the universe is shaped like a donut (March.) Or Lady Bird's 90th birthday (December 22). In the article on Lady Bird, it said that her granddaughter had a standing Tuesday night date to dine in or eat out. Yes, I saw her dining with her daughter and granddaughter a few Tuesdays ago at Zoot. But I read about her birthday today. If you save the old papers, you will pause over stories you remember, even read while they were current and were occupying the breakfast table or some other flat surface in the kitchen. If you didn't get them to recycling, however, you may pause over them again. Al Hirschfeld died. He was 99 and seemed immortal. The New York Times ran a picture of him side-by-side with a self-portrait. "Mr. Hirschfeld continued to work and drive his own car virtually until his death." I saw the article originally. But I pause over it today, marveling at his long life. [He's the guy who drew all those caricatures in The New York Times.] This just in: 'Bush gives Saddam 48 Hours to Leave Iraq." Very large type in the Austin paper. Oh, but that's a March 18 paper. On March 21, The New York Times shows a woman in a bunny suit protesting that Kmart was selling GI Joe stuff for Easter baskets. Someone is quoted in that article as saying that in Texarkana, Texas military toys are "the only thing that's selling." And on March 25 the Times quotes Hussein (dignified with last name now) saying "Victory is Close and at Hand." In an April 16 business section, I read that Swissair's Successor (they became Swiss International Air Lines in the wake of 9/11) is struggling in the travel slump, suspending flights and using smaller airplanes. Finally, in the Sunday New York Times from May 4, I learn that Caviar d'Aquitaine, sturgeon roe from France is finding a rise in its market. Those French. We were trotting out our war gear and its miniature versions at Kmart and they were preparing the gourmet table, trying to take this gourment niche from those pesky Russians even if they did agree about the war. Yeah, papers are meant to be read in real time. But it can be amusing to attack a stack at once. Can't it?
JUST TYPING time warp what if you got up one day and they delivered last year's papers? last month's? last century's? What if they delivered history not news?
		Food Diary. cup of coffee another couple of cups water 11:45 Baked potato with non-fat yogurt, cheese, brocolli, green onions. 4:30 Nachos with cheese, jalapenos and onions. 7pm Stiff Crown Royal and cocktail pre-ballet 10:30pm (after ballet party) several small but tall cocktail sandwiches some olives and pickled okra several brownie 'triangles' water
		Time flies.... Got up about 7. Was awake earlier. Smelled coffee FFP was making. Lie in bed, analzing dream. I have this really good story, about a guy in a hospital who knows something no one else does about a world event and I'm trying to tell it to people trying to ford a stream by stepping from rock to rock. Dad calls. Tells me his schedule. Tell him to come over for Mother's Day with the in-laws. Take another call. It's a radio rep, telling FFP he has something 'important' to tell him. Get dressed, let the dog out, finish putting away clean dishes, make coffee. Delete junk mail. Finish yesterday's journal. 8:25 Consider going to club. How crowded is it this time of day? I try to remember. Clean up some e-mail, answer phone while FFP is in shower. Consider going to club 8:44 Make another cup of coffee. Decide to go to club. 9:12 Go to club. Had to clean up a few things in kitchen, make another cuppa, go to the bathroom, take out some more recycling and get in the garbage can. 9:22 Arrive at club. 10:54 Arrive home from gym. Check e-mail, answer some. Listen to phone messages since FFP isn't home. 11:10 Decide to take shower. Shower, brush teeth, dress, sort and start laundry, make a baked potato, eat it while reading paper. 12:18 FFP returns from interviewing someone with pictures for me to scan. I had thought about going to the UT Press book sale but decided that it was time to attack the mountain of newspapers in earnest. But, of course, I have to scan the pictures. And I end up having to boot the scanner and the computer. And the mail comes. I have to edit the pictures I scan and in one I have to try to make an eye appear where light glinted off eyeglasses. Finally, at 1:15 I finish that but rather than start on the papers, I surf ebay. I surf other stuff. (OK, I admit it...I look in my Amazon 'gold box' where I never buy anything but like to see what they are pimping.) I surf some journals. I'm looking at Austin Stories to see what journals are looking like these days. What they look like is message boards in a lot of cases. Most don't grab me. But I do start trying to control the papers. I divide them into those sections I'm really going to look (mostly science, computers, food, Arts, life style, book sections), those that I want to jot something down from and the recycling. I discard a bunch of business sections and Metro State and Front Page sections. Not without a glance, but pretty quickly. Why don't I separate these papers this way in the first place? Because, I run into this office with towers of paper, trying to make other areas of the house look presentable and there is no time then to sort. Nevertheless, I'm determined that today more stuff will be scheduled to leave the house than came in. So one thing I do is throw away several annual reports. In one package I find that if I go find out the details on our ownership of these shares I can stop them sending paper reports and proxies. Wouldn't that be great? So 3pm finds me with my hands covered with newsprint and a couple of decent journals from Austin read. I take a break at some point to wash my hands, fold laundry, make a plate of nachos and eat them and drink water whiler reading an article FFP pointed out to me in today's New York Times about Cabaret music. By five I'm back to tackling the stacks of papers. Around six, we decide to get ready to go to the ballet. We are supposed to have reserved parking and, indeed, we get parked and get there at 6:40. Have a drink, talk to people. Ballet begins a little after eight and is over at 10:30. It's an amazing ballet of A Midsummer's Night Dream is fun with the michief of Act I and the glory of Act II. Puck is so funny and athletic. We leave as the backstage party winds down at 11:30. Bed.

		Reading. I am now reading Robert Massie's Peter the Great in earnest...on the bike and at stop lights. I am still reading bits of Journey Through Genius. I glance at a bunch of old newspaper sections including checking out Obits pages I failed to read. I read part of the latest New York Magazine while waiting for the ballet to start.
		Hmmm....I don't really write anything but this stupid journal and e-mail, do I? Must get on with it.
		Exercise 10 minutes bike abs (20-15-15-15) upper body workout 22 minutes bike (200 calories)
		Feel pretty good physically. Stomach a little upset at end of day. (Imagine that, given my diet.) 116/66 77 103/72 86

Friday, May 9, 2003

A Journal from Austin, Texas. A Project of LBFFP Stealth Publishing.