Algebra Demon

Posted on 03/02/2025 by chick

Just before Livia’s bus was due to arrive Tuesday morning, she came into my office and asked me for help. She was going to have an algebra test that day, and there was a type of problem that she still didn’t know how to solve. OMG, really? She had several whole days in which to figure this out, but she waited until five minutes before she had to leave? Kids. Anyway, I never learned algebra properly, so I wasn’t the best person to ask, but I came up with an equation that she said later had been helpful. Whew.

Meanwhile, being suddenly on the spot like that brought up bad memories from high school math, and I realized just how mad I still am about why I never learned algebra properly. But, I know math well enough for my everyday life, apparently even well enough for random early-morning algebra emergencies, so what difference does the past make? I think it’s time I finally told my Algebra Demon to fuck all the way off.

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Nutty

Posted on 02/25/2025 by chick

True story: I don’t like coconut very much. I like coconut water, though. And when I buy coconut water, I like to get the kind with the little pieces of coconut in it. Meanwhile, my husband likes coconut, but he doesn’t like the little pieces in the coconut water. Go figure.

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Small Price to Pay

Posted on 02/24/2025 by chick

The vaccines took their toll on me Saturday. My arms hurt, and I felt tired and flu-ish. By late afternoon, I’d curled up in my daybed. I watched some TV and did some reading, then went to bed early. It was an unproductive day. But, I figure that having one unproductive day is a lot better than a bad case of flu or Covid, and I’m calling it a small price to pay.

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Goose, Goose, Duck

Posted on 02/23/2025 by chick

I decided to go for a walk on the driveway this evening. When I opened the front door, I spooked some birds that had been hanging around the edges of my yard. More of them flew away when I walked outside.

At first I thought they were geese. But, as I walked down the driveway, they flew over the trees, then passed directly overhead. They quacked angrily at me, sounding very ducklike. As they made their way back to the spot they’d been before, they waddled by a light at the corner of the house, throwing giant bird shadows on a rock. Once they were past the light, I was surprised to see how small they actually were. Definitely not goose-sized. And though the light was dim, I could see that the birds looked more like ducks than geese. So, though it’s odd to see ducks in my yard, that must have been what they were. (Now that I think about it, “odd ducks” are not uncommon around here 😉 .)

I watched for a minute or so as they started digging into the leaves, presumably hunting for food. That part of the yard is probably one of the few places around here not covered in ice and snow right now. The only noise was the whispering of the moving leaves.

I walked up and down the driveway a few times without the ducks noticing, but then I accidentally startled them again. They flew right over my head, wave after wave, too close for comfort. I put my head down and squeezed my eyes closed, thinking, “Don’t poop on me. Don’t poop on me. Please don’t poop on me.”

They did not poop on me, I’m happy to say. But I couldn’t help thinking about bird flu, and that spoiled any wish I had to be outside. I went back inside without finishing my walk.

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2/21/2025

Posted on 02/21/2025 by chick
  • It’s been really cold lately, and there’s a lot of ice on the driveway. As Marshall was leaving this morning, I said, “Bye, kiddo. Watch out for ice!” As I closed the door behind him, it occurred to me to wonder if there were other moms out there saying the same thing to their kids, only not because they were worried about slippery surfaces, but rather immigration enforcement (ICE).
  • Today I got two vaccines: Covid and flu. I debated whether it was worth getting them this late in the season, and I especially hesitated over the Covid shot. But though “flu season” only lasts through May, viruses circulate year-round, and I’d rather not have a nasty bout with either of these two. Like a lot of people, I worry about the potential side-effects of the Covid shot. I thought it over, though, and decided that I worry about the potential side-effects of Covid more.
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What to Do about You-Know-Who

Posted on 02/20/2025 by chick

Neil Gaiman’s name also came up at work recently, but not in a good way. We’re no longer allowed to reference him in our publications. Having read about the accusations against him, I not only approve that decision, but I’m half-tempted to erase him from my personal life by throwing away all my Neil Gaiman books. A few other people that I’ve talked to have considered doing the same.

My hubby, on the other hand, argued that my opinions about the author shouldn’t matter. He said, “You shouldn’t look beyond the book.” I applaud his pithy wording. In theory, I agree with him and have said similar, less-pithy things myself.

But, these days, thanks to the Internet and social media, we learn more about authors than we ever could in the past, and we begin to think that we know them. It’s only a one-sided connection, those of us who are sane and non-stalkery agree, but that doesn’t change how we feel. If those people then do something truly awful (that is, outside of the normal range of human failings), we can’t help but take it personally. Rowling was a hero–a single mother who saved herself from poverty and brought forth one of the most wonderful children’s series ever written. Gaiman was also a hero–a staunch feminist, champion of books and literacy, the man who wrote The Graveyard Book, a remarkable tale with the power to break a reader’s heart and put it back together again.

The thing is, I haven’t been able to enjoy Harry Potter much since finding out how mean J.K. Rowling can be, and her meanness is a small thing compared to Gaiman’s alleged sins. I believe there is a chance that I could divorce my feelings about her from her books someday. I hope I’ll be able to manage that. Otherwise her books will have been wasting precious space on my shelves for years.

As for Gaiman, though I might be able to forget the details from the article, I doubt I’ll ever forget the absolute disgust and sense of betrayal that I felt while reading about them. But, for now, I’m also leaving his books on my shelf. Future Me will have to decide whether she can stomach rereading them. If she can’t, she’ll know what to do with them.

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Regrets and Resemblances

Posted on 02/19/2025 by chick

Hoagy Carmichael, whose name came up at work recently, was a songwriter, very successful, particularly in the ’30s and ’40s. He wrote hundreds of songs, including the music for “Heart and Soul,” “Georgia on My Mind,” and “Stardust.”

According to Wikipedia, in his late life he once said, “I’m a bit disappointed in myself. I know I could have accomplished a hell of a lot more. . . . I could write anything any time I wanted to. But I let other things get in the way.” It seems crazy to me that he thought so, given how much he had done, but I read it as a warning. I dread having similar feelings someday, when it’s too late to do anything about it. If that’s something that I truly hope to avoid, then now is the time to take action.

Also–and this was the most surprising thing that I learned about him–Ian Fleming compared James Bond’s appearance to Hoagy Carmichael’s in two novels. So if you ever want to know what 007 really looks like, you need search no further than that Wikipedia article, which contains his picture. I wish sometimes that I’d had access to this kind of information when I was younger. It could have made the study of history and historical figures a lot more interesting!

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Sleep? What’s That?

Posted on 02/18/2025 by chick

It took a while, but sleep deprivation finally caught up on me again. I had kept myself as well-rested as possible during the summer, but summer doesn’t last forever. Before I knew it, the new school year had begun. Getting up at 6:20 a.m. nearly every weekday since, and lucky if I don’t lie awake for hours before, I’m now thoroughly exhausted, making me easily distracted, confused, and prone to crying, not to mention slow to understand and learn. Fantastic.

But there is one bright side to getting up so early in the morning: it makes the day seem vast. I start work as soon as Marshall leaves for school. Consequently I finish my work in the early afternoon, and there’s oodles of time left over for other things. As a lifelong fan of the “wee hours,” at first I could only resent the loss of that time. Now I understand that it has a daylight counterpart which, though not as good for creative pursuits or pondering the deep mysteries of the universe, nevertheless has its uses.

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Informative

Posted on 02/17/2025 by chick

Last year I read an NPR article about new DNA evidence of the victims of Pompeii. Over the years certain assumptions had been made about the victims based on their proximity to one another, their jewelry, etc. The DNA now proves those assumptions to be false. For example, a pair of bodies thought to be a mother and her child were actually a man and a biologically unrelated child. Not only is this interesting, just because Pompeii itself is fascinating, but it’s a lesson in not jumping to conclusions. Notable quote from the article:

Instead of establishing new narratives that might also misrepresent these people’s experiences, the genetic results encourage reflection on the dangers of making up stories about gender and family relationships in past societies based on present-day expectations.

David Reich, Harvard genetics professor
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Reading Report: Mid-February 2025

Posted on 02/16/2025 by chick

I finished my second book for the year, The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman. In this mystery set in England, four senior citizens living in a retirement village investigate a series of local murders. I would tell you more of the details, but I just don’t have the energy for it. Suffice it to say that the four main characters (Elizabeth, Ibrahim, Ron, and Joyce) are delightful, and the structure of the book (short chapters interspersed with diary entries from one of the main characters) makes the story super easy to dip in and out of. Loved it. A Netflix adaptation is said to be coming soon

Currently reading: Cartographers by Peng Shepherd. On the cover, a blurb from The Washington Post describes it as “An enjoyable, fast-paced, (and fantastical) thriller. . . . It’s brilliant.” Twenty pages in, it’s looking good, though the author is playing coy, alluding to the main character’s 7-years-prior fall from grace without having yet explained what happened. If she keeps that up much longer, I’m gonna get pissed.

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