what have you read in Persian poetry?

Probably not much. I think poetry from the Islamic world is fairly accessible, especially if you count the whole of the Quran. But Persian is fairly specific, and rather antiquated to boot.

So, I came across a small collection by Scholastic (circa 1975) at the local Goodwill. The book was a translation of poems of an 11th-century philosopher and scholar, and since it was cheap and uncommon-seeming I bought it. I was pleased, and suprised. Let me share a bit with you.

The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam:

Myself when young did eagerly frequent
Doctor and saint, and heard great argument
About it and about: but evermore
Came out by the same door where in I went.

The worldly hope men set their hearts upon
Turns ashes -- or it prospers; and anon,
Like snow upon the desert's dusty face,
Lighting a little hour or two--is gone.

Alike for those who for to-day prepare,
And those that after some to-morrow stare,
A Muezzin from the tower of darkness cries,
"Fools! your reward is neither here nor there."

Why, all the saints and sages who discuss'd
Of the two worlds so wisely -- they are thrust
Like foolish prophets forth; their words to scorn
Are scatter'd, and their mouths are stopt with dust.

'How They Eat in Heaven'

I just finished reading The Bean Trees by Barbara Kingsolver this week. One of the best passages tickled my fancy for human decency and thoughtfulness and intentional living, and now I am going to share the parable with you:

'How They Eat in Heaven' is the title of Chapter 7, wherein is found this story:

Transcribed text found at:
http://web.mit.edu/norvin/www/somethingelse/kingsolver.html

Turtle, wielding a chopstick in each hand, had managed to pick up a chunk of pineapple. Little by little she moved it upward toward her wide-open mouth, but the sticks were longer than her arms. The pineapple hung in the air over her head and then fell behind her onto the floor. We laughed and cheered her on, but Turtle was so startled she cried. I picked her up and held her on my lap.

"Tortolita, let me tell you a story," Estevan said. "This is a South American, wild Indian story about heaven and hell," Mrs. Parsons made a prudish face, and Estevan went on. "If you go to visit hell, you will see a room like this kitchen. There is a pot of delicious stew on the table, with the most delicate aroma you can imagine. All around, people sit, like us. Only they are dying of starvation. They are jibbering and jabbering," he looked extra hard at Mrs. Parsons,"but they cannot get a bite of this wonderful stew God has made for them. Now, why is that?"

"Because they're choking? For all eternity?" Lou Ann asked. Hell, for Lou Ann, would naturally be a place filled with sharp objects and small round foods.

"No," he said. "Good guess, but no. They are starving because they only have spoons with very long handles. As long as that." He pointed to the mop, which I had forgotten to put away. "With these ridiculous, terrible spoons, the people in hell can reach into the pot but they cannot put the food in their mouths. Oh, how hungry they are! Oh, how they swear and curse each other!" he said, looking again at Virgie. He was enjoying this.

"Now," he went on,"you can go and visit heaven. What? You see a room just like the first one, the same table, the same pot of stew, the same spoons as long as a sponge mop. But these people are all happy and fat."

"Real fat, or do you just mean well-fed?" Lou Ann asked.

"Just well-fed," he said. "Perfectly, magnificently well-fed, and very happy. Why do you think?"

He pinched up a chunk of pineapple in his chopsticks, neat as you please, and reached all the way across the table to offer it to Turtle. She took it like a newborn bird.

Summary found at:
http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/beantrees/section5.rhtml

Estevan tells a story. He says that in hell, people sit around a big table with plenty of food, starving to death because they must eat with long-handled spoons and cannot manage to get the spoons in their mouths. Heaven, he says, looks just the same: same table, same food, same spoons. But in heaven, the people use the long-handled spoons to feed one another. Estevan demonstrates by feeding Turtle a new piece of pineapple.

tutoring and Robin Hood

I have taken it upon myself to try and encourage my young 2nd grade nephew/cousin. I found a young reader of Robin Hood stories. I think it's a great beginning. We read the first chapter yesterday. The first chapter was about 8 pages long. And actually, since this was his last week of school (and he whined that "summer means fun, not schoolwork"), I talked him into me reading to him and then quizzing him on reading comprehension. Later, I'll have him read to me.

He's behind where his potential lies, and I can see it. He's smart, but unpracticed. At his age, I read books on an 8th grade level, like Swiss Family Robinson and Robison Crusoe and Lord of the Rings. Granted, I was too young to fully apprecaiate many things in those books, but still I did. And here he was complaining that this childish reader was above his level.

He knows practically nothing of medieval Europe and castles and knights. At least he knew what a bow and arrows were. He hadn't heard of England before.

Well, he hasn't seen the old Disney Robin Hood (he's sadly deprived like that) and I don't want to introduce him to it until he's finished the book.

Robin Hood and Little John, walking through the forest...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cx_4C1cyUZA


Intro credits "The Story of what really happened..."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GouLP2GE1M8

Mountain Music

Appalachain Folk music, rather. Or, rather, the unique Appalachian blend of many worldwide folk music traditions.

I was talking to a friend about my distinction between country music (which I am not fond of) and what I call "mountain music." I'm not sure what the distinction is, if any, between mountain music and Bluegrass, but I would think there is. I suppose the instruments of the fiddle and the banjo are common to both, and perhaps the dulcimer. The Cedar Flute and the Jaw Harp are mixed in there somewhere.

I also was saying that I don't own any CDs of this mountain music, which I suppose is sloppy of me.

Well, I was curious to find some, and here it is:





see also:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cVMi3MH0uRU&feature=related

What do you think the difference is, if any?
Something I learned a while back is that "mountain folk music" is not really preserved in an original form. Much of mountain music popularized has been cleaned up, made very PG, whereas true mountain music is quite... well, not.

do you know the word "pulchritudinous"?

I didn't until I ran across it recently. Well, I guess that's sorta the way all words are learned. "I didn't know about it until I knew about it!" Ha ha.

Anyway, it means "physically beautiful" (usually associated with female outward beauty) although I would think it could apply to waterfalls as well.

After I looked it up, I suspected there might be a derivative noun. At first I thought "pulchritudite" but it is really "pulchritude". There is also "pulchritudity" interestingly enough.

A quick (Safeseach off) google image search suggests that "pulchritudes" has become a sophisticated euphamism for soft-core artistic porn.

JHW: forgive the executioner?

Job Hunt Woes
Well, I should've probably posted while my emotions were fresh, but at the same time perhaps it's better I've cooled off.

I'm not a man with a temper generally, so quite probably my "angry" is not recognizable as such to many other than myself and others near me.

Story to follow: but my immediate quetion for you is: if some manager fires you wrongly or company representative treats you dishonestly, should you be mad at them? After all, they are only doing what they are told. They have a job to do, after all. It reminds me of the old custon of an axe-weilding executioner being forgiven by the prisoner before a beheading. I don't recall if it was a commonly practiced custom or not.

For me? It's hard to say. Bottom level flunkies I am more likely to forgive but middle managers I am more likely to reserve hard feelings for. Like a few days ago.

On to the story (for anyone wishing to read this far). Anyways, stage one, a few days ago I had a call from a job posting I'd found via Craig's List. (and this is not a critisism of that website; if anything, it has proven an unexpectedly useful resource) They said if I could be to a town nearby in 10 minutes they could see me about a job opening. I asked what the job was for, not recalling the company's name, but I was misdirected with talk of "setting up displays". I wasn't fooled with the clear euphamism, and despite resevations, I agreed, despite the inconsiderate timing. But it turned out I could only fill out the application and talk to a receptionist as a pre-screening. I was told I would be called (a nebulous and inconsiderate allowance) at some point to set up an "real" interview the following day. I was misled to apply, and further still misled by having my requests for a job description denied. A kind soul in the company did recommend I highlight "sales" in my application.

Stage two, I wait and keep myself open all morning, inconveniencing my family. More inconvenience to my family, especially my sister. Finally a call: I had to be there (30 min away) in an hour and a half. Pretty inconsiderate, but not as bad as yesterday. I imagine the company is "testing" applicants to find out who has few to no prior commitments and is at the company's beck and call. A single mom? A caregiver for aging parents? Have a part-time job? Share a car? Ride a bus? You won't be able to just drop everything. To continue, I get there at the expense of my sister's kindness and I give a great accounting of myself. I am head-and-shoulders above average applicants, prepared and having letters of recommendation. My interview is with a middle manager who I haven't met before. (As an aside, unsuprisingly, he asked my birthdate, showing either an ignorance of law or a disregard for law, or both.) However, the man will still not tell me what the job is. I ask, twice. His line (and a line I've heard before) that in the name of equality all answers are addressed in a group orientation. I have to come to this orientation tomorrow, and for once I have a clear time to show up. I ask two questions further: is the orientation paid traing? No. Have I just been offered a job at this point? No, there will be another interview after the orientation where final hires are made. This is disgusting. I have explained to friends and such that if confidentiality was the reason, that could be explained as such, and I could accept that. But this? Screaming scam, or at best a horrible job with a worse company to back me up. I theorize they don't want applicants to know the reality because it's rather bad and few people would apply. They want people to get in so deep, like I was feeling, they can't leave without feeling like they've wasted a good deal of time and effort.

Stage three: I leave, knowing that I am walking into a disaster of a job, but I want a job badly. Do I show up tomorrow? Talking to a nearby store owner, I learn the company has something to do with vacuum cleaners and maybe shampooing carpets and maybe hiring illegal Mexicans for the labor. I think of the situation as one very common: It's like an aging car: you keep fixing it, dumping money into it, and you wonder when it's time to stop, and you feel like you've spent this much you might as well keep going. Well, about two hours later I reach a decision. I propose laying down an ultimatum, although I won't announce it for propriety. I call the company, ask for the middle manager I'd spoken to earlier, and once and and for the last time ask: "Can you please tell me some more about this job I am applying for" He replies: "Well, let me just take you off the list for orientation" The bastard! I give him a few choice words, but nothing extravagant and quite breif. I wish I had gone on longer. This job is taking advantage of the down-and-out and abusing people without the intelligence and/or will to stand up for themselves.

So, I am glad, but I am also rather upset at the state of things in this latest installment of Job Hunt Woes.

Paul: quasi-scifi movie

It has taken me a while to get around to posting this, but I saw Paul the other weekend and I was both pleased and disappointed. More pleased than disappointed. And I applaud the genre it falls into: scifi about scifi fans, following in the footsteps of Galaxy Quest and quite a few others.

Other than the fact that Big Bang Theory isn't scifi, it represents part of the trend and its popularity.

Speaking of which, there were no references to Big Bang Theory in the movie. I mean, I grant that it was impossible to include references to all popular sci-fi icons, but at the same time, I thought there was too much empahasis on certain aspects and little outside of those 3: classic Trek, classic Star Wars, and E.T. Not even modern Trek or modern Wars. I have to say, that while I very much applaud the movie generally, I noticed many areas that I wanted to see. I accept that copywrite issues might have carried a lot of concern, but ways were possible. No Stargate references. I mean, just one measly Egyptian headress would've covered it. And Egyptian headress certainly aren't copywrited. And although the Gorn references were spectakularly funny to me, whatever happened to "Amok Time" and associated fight music and gladiator blugeons? I'm not terribly familiar with Dr. Who, but I didn't see that, either. Planet of the Apes? Spaceballs? Godzilla? War of the Worlds? What gives?

Oh, but tossing in the actress from Alien was a nice touch. But why weren't there more?

I really want to see the DVD extras to catch all the obscure references that I missed.

The ultimate and saddest irony is that this preview I found on YouTube has the only reference to 2001: A Space Oddysey I recall: