Good People, a Friend!

/ J. Thorp / 3 Comments

Yeah, so I’m plugging another blogger. Just found out my children’s author friend and coach Jacqui Robbins (mentioned in a another post last fall) is now blogging in public where we can see it and observe her madness firsthand.

Excellent.

Two things: one, her blog sounds just like she does, which makes me pretty happy, because we don’t cross paths that often, and two, I predict that some of you folks (Ephelba, Minnie … Jinglebob, even) will really enjoy it. Read the May 13th entry first. I’m still laughing.

So take a minute to visit Jacqui’s Room, right next door to Hubba’s House in the menu at the right. And go ahead and comment. It’s great fun. Really!

Like Cats and Dogs

/ J. Thorp / 2 Comments

Blogger’s Note: Old Boomer spent much of this morning asleep on the fresh-cut grass as I mowed. He doesn’t look for trouble — never has, really, but once when Jodi and I lived in South Dakota, he snapped his dog-chain in a successful bid to kill a stray orange tom cat that liked to hang out in our driveway and stare at him. He’s never cared for cats — but his killer instinct is reserved, it seems, for those felines he actually sees. And when you’re partly blind and mostly asleep, that’s a pretty small number … but even in his younger days, he generally missed them.

the cat
i saw her earlier,
before supper,
westbound through the clover.
boomer was asleep, I think,
or too busy parading about,
bone in his jaws,
to notice
the cat, slate and white
and obvious on the grass—
she crossed over and
vanished in the weeds,
hunting gophers.

and again at sundown,
a ripple in the stems—
she reappears,
slips narrowly
between the high grass
and cement foundation,
close to the house.
boomer lies,
great and soft and
keeping watch,
the wrong direction,
from the porch.

she stops abruptly, yellow
eyes trained upon the dog—
natural adversary, and
a terrier to boot.
he’s killed, she’s sure—
birds, yes, and more recently
a ground squirrel.
once, an orange tom.
she proceeds,
slinks wide of the stoop,
silent and unseen,
save by me.

and later,
the airedale tosses skyward
a bloodied gopher;
cocks his great head
at its unlucky stripes and
wonders how it died.

J. Thorp
08 June 01

Trevvy Logic

/ J. Thorp / 4 Comments

I could hide out under there
I just made you say underwear …
– Barenaked Ladies, “Pinch”

Our youngest, three-year-old Trevor, applies a certain, consistent logic to the new words he’s learning in order to figure out what they mean. For example, out of the blue he will proudly announce, “Mom, I know why we say toothbrush – because we clean our teeth with it, and because it’s a brush … toothbrush!”

He applies this equally to simple and compound words, so that the results are often unintentionally nonsensical and funny, e.g. “I know why they’re called suckers … because you suck on them, and because they’re ers!”

So last night we’re enjoying a small dish of ice cream, and he begins: “I know why we say ice cream … because it’s really cold, and because it’s cream – ice cream!”

“That’s right, Trevvy!” says Jodi, and I ask, “Trevor, why do they call it chewing gum?”

“Because you chew it, and because it’s gum!” he says proudly.

“And why,” I ask, “do we call it underwear?”

He stumbles a moment, working it through in his head.

“Because it goes under your pants,” he says, “and then it’s like it’s gone!”

* * * * *

Blogger’s Note: If you aren’t laughing, don’t worry – it took us a moment, too. Homophones are great fun, aren’t they?

Additional Note: On a mostly unrelated note, this morning, Trevor approached Emma, placed his palm on top of his head, and said, “Emma, this is how tall I am. I’m this tall!”

Still More Friends and Good People

/ J. Thorp / 1 Comment

I’ve added more links to the various menus on the right. While I make no guarantees as to the content of the sites, I have been amused, thought-provoked, educated, or touched by them on a fairly consistent basis.

Today, I’ll highlight one in particular, in part because he drew folks’ attention to my blog the other day, but mostly because his most recent post is authentic, funny, and beautiful.

So pay a visit to Hubba’s House in Elm Springs, South Dakota. (Population: 6, and 10 on the weekends, as Matt likes to say …)

Tuesday Evening Stream of Consciousness (or, Chilly Versus Chili …)

/ J. Thorp / 1 Comment

Been kind of a cool, wet spring. Don’t get me wrong: I like the cool weather. I much prefer the coldest days of winter to the hottest days of summer. But it’s mid-May now. Time for sunshine and leafing and stuff.

* * * * *

I enjoyed some edible warmth today in the form of the best Thai noodle dish, Drunkard’s Noodles from True Thai in Minneapolis. A friend and colleague who spends her vacations in Thailand volunteering at an orphanage calls True Thai the real deal. I don’t know about that, but I promise you that pain has never tasted better! Noodles, chicken, basil, onions, and plenty of dried chilis, seeds and all. Wow.

* * * * *

A dear friend of mine who is actually a Minnesota native is my weather opposite. She lives for the hottest, most humid days of the year, when the air’s too thick and wet to breathe and you break a sweat sleeping. Kind of a tropical flower. Why she stays in the great white North, I’m not sure. But I’m grateful.

She loves the heat, and she plays the cello, and one day I got to thinking:

cello as chile
arms al fresco
slick with inspiration
she plucks and slices
the summer sun abundant
thick air ripe with possibility
her cello the fruit
resounding red
her bow a horsehair knife

j. thorp
10 june 04

It’s not the right time of year, perhaps, but her birthday was Sunday, and she likes Thai, too. So there. Belated happy birthday, my friend.

* * * * *

Jodi went to visit another dear friend in Colorado a couple weeks back, and brought me home a surprise: a cookbook called The Red Chili Bible. Looks like great recipes. Another reason for warm weather: the chilis need sunshine!