Today is Tuesday, July 18, the 199th Day of 2006 with 166 to Follow.

The moon is waning. The morning stars are Mercury, Venus, Uranus and Neptune. The evening stars are Jupiter, Mars, Saturn and Pluto. Those born on this date are under the sign of Cancer.

On This Date in History:


In 64, fire destroyed nearly two-thirds of Rome.
In 1925, seven months after he was released from jail, Nazi leader Adolf Hitler published the first volume of his personal manifesto, 'Mein Kampf.'
In 1939, MGM had a sneak preview of 'The Wizard of Oz' after which producers debated about removing one of the songs because it seemed to slow things down. They finally decided to leave it in. The song: 'Over the Rainbow.'
In 1977, Vietnam was admitted to the United Nations.
In 1984, a gunman opened fire at a McDonald`s restaurant in San Ysidro, Calif., killing 21 people.
In 1994, a car bombing in Buenos Aires, Argentina, killed some 100 people in or near a building that housed Jewish organizations.
In 2003, NBA superstar Kobe Bryant was charged with one count of sexual assault stemming from an incident involving a 19-year-old female employee of an Edwards, Colo., hotel.
In 2005, Eric Rudolph was sentenced to two life terms for a deadly 1998 bombing at an abortion clinic in Birmingham, Ala. He also faced later sentencing in Atlanta for bombings at the 1996 Olympics and two other sites.


A Thought for the Day: Federico Fellini Said, 'all Art is Autobiographical. The Pearl is the Oyster`s Autobiography.'


.....................................

i have often [well, okay. not oftenoften, but once in a while] wondered what would happen to this blog if i died. and my email accounts. and facebook, and yes, even a blogspot account. what about my online banking [which i cant ever figure out how to work anyway] and phone bill and instant messenger all of that stuff. as far as i know, my passwords are fairly private [?] and although my roommate from freshman year may have known my password to my email account, i would hope that by now she has put that brain space to better use. so how would anyone know that i had died? unexplained long absences may have been a good indicator in the past, when posting happened more frequently, but as of late my fingers have moved much slower than my thoughts, something like trying to keep up with the speed of light in my little red corsica, which by the way, still needs to have the air conditioner charged. [that is something im desperately looking into in a while, before i drive six hours to the lake. i was going to hold out--i made it to july and whats another month of heat, and what did they used to do before air? but im a baby and its soo hot, and oatmeal cream pies, cheez-its, bottled water and good music only allieveiate the heat so much, you know.]
and what would happen to these words? probably not much. its hard to say. but im not sure anything should happen to them, either. but maybe it should? again, its hard to say.
[see also: this and this.]

almost two weekends ago now i slept deeply and unconsciously in my bed in my town as my grandfather was brought back to life in an ICU room in his town. i imagine it was something like gray's anatomy--they called code and everyone was rushing around, being heroic. and there were heroic people there, my mother tells me. everyone from the doctors [one of them could complete an entire crossword puzzle in 10 minutes using an inkpen.] to the physicians assistant who almost never left the ICU. even this guy in the waiting room who was blind from being shot in the face by his stepfather. you see, his stepfather was molesting children or maybe it wasnt children, but women, who knows, and the guy told his stepdad he was going to turn him in cause it wasnt right; dad said if he did, he would shoot him. he told the police anyway, and now he is blind.
jack [yes, we call our grandfather "jack," because when my oldest cousin and i were little and they asked him what he wanted to be called, he said jack because we would be able to say it before "mamaw" and jack, by the way, is not even his real name.] anyway, jack was, insofar as i can understand was actually dead, and then actually alive again. my grandmother was sleeping, and so was mom, and mom had to wake mamaw up. and i was sleeping here.
[really, im scared to live by myself. ill sleep through the rapture. and the fire alarms. it used to be that the number one requirement for the boy was something like "must love God" or "should be tall" or "teeth a requirement" or "must be interesting and very cute." but i dont think so anymore. the number one requirement is definately "must wake up." and if he wakes up to the fire alarm, he must wake me up too. [one or two requirements besides that of course, "must love God, be insteresting and cute" are still up there. anyway. very besides the point.]]

this is remarkable, in mostly ever sense of the word. in one weekend, there was nearly a funeral, [indeed, perhaps there was one for someone else on that very ICU floor, and most certainly there was one for more than one someone in the world.] that weekend i served at a wedding. and more than one baby was born to waiting parents all over the world. i duly note the irony, in a writerly fashion--

" ...but i do this believeing
somewhere it is happening, to someone else,
as surely as i know that somewhere two
people are screwing, in some distant country
the spikes of new cattails cut a pond's surface,
and whitecaps pitch their tents, ready
the siege in a broad gulf where my many selves
will have to face each otherm port and starboard,
no room for shoulders against the narrow transom."
[-from "horns unknown" by ralph sneeden]

currently playing: emiliana torrini // sunny road

Posted 7/18/2006 9:26 AM