A most Happy Mother’s Day to you all, to all you mothers. I know the origin of Mother’s Day, do
you? The internet is wonderful – if you
googled a Wikipedia entry for “Mothers Day” you’d be there quick as a link. If you want the origin, this is where you’ll
end up: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anna_Jarvis
This is perhaps the most primary reason I love the
internet. Someone talks about anything
you can think of. Or they think about
anything you can talk about. It’s an
invisible ocean. Any question can be
answered or echoed – okay, not any but almost any. I wonder how to fix something, look it up, and
someone will have just figured out how to fix one.
But I’ll tell you – one of the simplest requests I’ve asked
has always been denied. I have never
found One of these things. No one has
one to sell. Yet we all know this object
– we have all heard the story. It’s a familiar thing, one we can picture in our
minds. Every person I’ve asked has
answered in the affirmative (though some needed to focus a little first). Do you know what an Aladdin’s lamp is? What it looks like, or what you think it looks
like?
Here we go: http://tinyurl.com/mdoxmkt
Here we go: http://tinyurl.com/mdoxmkt
You get the idea; they were brass whale-oil lamps. In a certain shape. I wanted to buy one – hopefully an old one – but
they all turned out to be miniatures, incense holders or whatever – none were the
foot-long, simple, soldered household items of long ago, which I loved and
wanted to get. I liked the way their
magic was hidden beneath a humble appearance.
That was over a decade ago.
Everyone knows what they are, but you can’t find one on the
internet. Prove me wrong - fine. I’m just saying. If you do find one, I’ll bet they haven’t been
available long. I’ve searched many
times. I mean, I don’t spend every day searching
for that – I search for an average of twenty other things. Roughly.
The news, the weather, my mail, and I have Facebook friends. I also have real friends. Some are both. They say real friends will help you
move. One of my Facebook friends
actually helped me move this last year.
(Thank you, Kevin.) Other friends
helped too. Let me buy you all a
drink! You know who you are…
I just got a call from a young man with a heavy Indian
accent, telling me he was calling about my Windows computer. He said mine was very badly infected, and
that he would help me. I had heard about
this scam, so I finally answered a few questions. Are you
in front of the computer? Yes. Is the
computer on? Don’t you know? Silence.
Off-script. Then he said my computer was badly infected, that he was
a support person from Microsoft and I should follow his instructions. I said, you’re going to tell me what to do on
my computer? He said yes.
I said, I’m sorry, I have to get back to something, but you have a nice
day and thanks. He sputtered and dug
into his bag of tricks as I hung up.
Poor guy. Needs a new job.
Today I walked in the sun on Church Street, walked through
the farmers market on their first outside day since last Fall, did my laundry,
cleaned things up, cleared things up, took a walk by the Lakefront and casually
interacted with strangers briefly, stared into the glare of the sun on the
lake. No trees have leaves yet, so on a clear
day like this, the sky is extra bright and unhindered. And it was 75 degrees. By dawn it is to descend to 50. I enjoy the lake breeze, when it blows. (What else is it going to do?)
AND now for my previous blog-piece, being published
now. We are going back in time! Which reminds me of the wonderful last line
of The Great Gatsby. You book people,
especially those with a sense of humor, please read William Kotzwinkle’s The Midnight
Examiner, or Queen of Swords, or The Fan Man.
Three fine and funny, wise novels.
Great literature is to be shared, like great food. Which reminds me – check the supper!
It’s okay.
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