what a beautiful welcome
the magnolia trees gave me
their path of petals
leading me back
into my quiet town
—
“you are welcome as the flowers in may.”
-charles macklin
May4
Author Archives: beth
May3
eel good.
An Aquarium in Japan Wants You to FaceTime With Its Shy Eels
“Many people have turned to video chat as a way to continue socializing while in quarantine, and the Sumida Aquarium in Tokyo, Japan, is asking you to help its eels do the same.
After the aquarium closed its doors to the public on March 1, its population of 300-odd spotted garden eels became increasingly bashful, burrowing into the sand whenever staff members were around. Although that isn’t abnormal behavior for wild garden eels, the ones in captivity at Sumida had adapted to the consistent, non-threatening presence of human visitors, and no longer tried to hide whenever someone approached.
This return to reticence is making it hard for employees to monitor their health, so they’ve devised a plan to reacclimate the tiny creatures to the existence of people: a three-day “face-showing festival” from Sunday, May 3, to Tuesday, May 5. During that time, the aquarium is requesting that people FaceTime the eels, waving or calmly calling out to them for up to 5 minutes before disconnecting.
Since they’ll be using FaceTime, you’ll need an iPhone, iPad, or other iOS device to call in. Staff members will be accepting calls on five tablets around the tanks, so there are five different email addresses you can try if you’d like to chat with the eels:
helpchin001@gmail.com
helpchin002@gmail.com
helpchin003@gmail.com
helpchin004@gmail.com
helpchin005@gmail.com
The lines will be open each day from 10:30 a.m. to 2 p.m JST, and because Tokyo is 13 hours ahead of EST, participants in the U.S. will technically need to call in the night before; i.e. from Saturday, May 2, to Monday, May 4, between the hours of 9:30 p.m. and 1 a.m EST.In other words, it’s the perfect time to read a very short bedtime story to a very small eel.
“i don’t mind eels. except as meals.”
-ogden nash
—
credits: ellen gutosky, mental floss
May2
little ponies.
with the return of the beautiful weather
it seemed like a good time
to also return to shorter pants and smooth legs
in my enthusiastic state
no need for directions
no need for glasses
i quickly replaced the blade cartridge in my razor
tried it, and nothing.
looked more closely and realized
i had put it on upside down
so rather than
fixing it and turning it the right way
my go-to move
was to go in the opposite direction
shaving from ankle to knee
with great results
until
i noticed some blood
apparently this technique
is not quite as efficient and gentle
as i had imagined
then there was even more blood
and more
luckily
i had my little pony bandaids at the ready
patched up all my places that needed patching
set off for my walk
thanks, ponies
luckily i am not a barber.
—
“education is when you read the fine print. experience is what you get if you don’t.”
-pete seeger
and
“just because I’m a lady doesn’t mean that I cannot handle myself in a sticky situation.”
– Rarity the Little Pony from the “Dog and Pony Episode”
–
May1
today is may.
may day
—
“when april steps aside for may,
like diamonds all the rain-drops glisten;
fresh violets open every day:
to some new bird each hour we listen.”
-lucy larcom
Apr30
be merry.
walking by the heidelberg
a place that brims with happy noise
now sitting silent and empty
their words remind me –
‘be merry’
we need more of that.
—
“the world i believe is far too serious, and being far too serious….
it has need of a wise and merry philosophy.”
-lin yutang
—
-ann arbor, michigan, usa, april 2020
Apr29
construction and creation.
very clever move
to close the roads and do construction
when people have nowhere to go
what a dramatic opening it will be one day
a fine gallery unveiling
i hope there is champagne.
—
“the whole difference between construction and creation is exactly this:
that a thing constructed can only be loved after it is constructed;
but a thing created is loved before it exists.”
-charles dickens
Apr28
walk like a dinosaur.
The T-Rex Walking Club parades in Ferndale,MI
The T-Rex Walking Club takes a stroll to bring joy during the coronavirus pandemic. A silly and secret club formed during the pandemic is on a quest to bring smiles to the faces of kids, and a few adults, while under Michigan’s stay home order.
On Friday, when Governor Gretchen Whitmer extended Michigan’s order, there was parade of a pink unicorn, followed by a gentle giraffe, a ferocious bear, a swinging stegosaurus, Scooby-Doo and a shark too, a tall pterodactyl, a trotting triceratops, a black-and-white penguin, the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man, a friendly T-Rex, another penguin, and a one-eyed Minion.
This motley crew, which calls itself the Ferndale T-Rex Walking Club, takes its unannounced strolls through neighborhoods. There are other characters, too, and a few members have costumes on order. On their next walks, you might see an additional unicorn, more sharks, a polar bear, a gorilla, a Godzilla, an alligator, a hippo, a flamingo, a zebra, and an upside-down clown.
Most members of the club are also members of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks.The point of the parade, is to cheer up the community during otherwise gloomy times and get children and adults to smile, said Oscar Renautt, who heads the Elks public relations committee.
The T-Rex club has its own set of rules. You must be invited; have an enclosed, inflatable costume; wear a face mask; and you can never, ever tell anyone where — or when — the group is going to go walking.
The founder, Ms. Ignash, received her pink unicorn costume one Christmas, has had it for years, and she’d occasionally show up somewhere in it for a laugh. Then, she posted the article in Facebook for local residents and they thought it was a good idea. Folks asked her to organize an event, so she did. It was right after the stay-at-home order, and within two hours, close to 200 people were interested.
Ignash decided that it was a totally crazy idea, and irresponsible to create crowds of people during a pandemic, so she canceled the event, and started over. Instead, she created a private group and invited just a couple of friends to join her. They went on a walk in costume, and then another, and another, adding a few friends — and characters — each time.
The costumes are so big that they naturally require the walkers to space out about six-feet apart, a social distancing requirement of the governor’s order. They also don’t want to spread the virus so they wear masks.Visibility inside isn’t so good either, and it can get hot inside the costume. So they don’t walk for too long. “But, it’s fun because kids really freak out,” Ignash said. “They see us coming, or they hear other people talking about us coming, and kids freak out. Its fun, just so much fun.”
—
credits: Frank Witsil- Detroit Free Press, Ferndale Elks Club
—
“a procession is a participants’ journey, while a parade is a performance with an audience.”
– Rebecca Solnit, Wanderlust: A History of Walking
Apr27
primavera.
watched a live cooking lesson
with chef isabella
working from her home kitchen
making pasta primavera
she’s italian, passionate, spirited, direct
naturally hysterical
i learned some techniques
as well as
her recipe, hand gestures, italian numbers, and lots of improv skills
at one point in the lesson
part of her burner broke
she just cursed and moved to another
there was a live feed for the 500 of us who were watching
at one point, her husband, pazzo, who was helping
made his own funny comment to the viewers on the feed
pazzo to everyone:
“omg, lmao. $100 says that stove is gone when the quarantine is over…if not sooner!”
no wonder they are married
no wonder it was all so fun
no wonder i’m going to make pasta primavera
brilliant, every minute.
“i’m not sure I’d write a good cookbook, but I might make a good cooking show.”
-christopher walken
Apr26
left.
old and rusted
i wonder about the day
when the child
left the bike here one last time
never to enter that tiny house again. .
—
“what do we leave behind when cross each frontier?
each moment seems split in two:
melancholy for what was left behind
and the excitement of entering a new land.”
-che guevara
Apr25
both.
both thoughtful and wonderful gifts
both ways to mark my days
both things i like
whimsical animals
whimsical heroes
which to choose
easy decision
both.
it’s always good to get a second opinion about what day it is.
think victor hugo would be proud of my skills.
—
“concision in style, precision in thought, decision in life.”
-victor hugo
I didn't have my glasses on.... 