Single Entity

So, again, I'm just jotting down a short little blurb about stuff that I really want to do. Right now, that is sew something. This has been a trend for about, oh, two months. I got desperate enought that I said, "shit, I'll just handsew something!" This would have stopped about a week in, in all likelihood. Instead, I have been sequining fabric for a skirt, which will be put together as soon as I get home. I really love the feeling of wearing things that I've made, and I really have a hankering to make that JPeterman dress that Jules posted the other day (the short-sleeve cotton one), if only I could find a pattern.

The other things I want to make:
http://www.voguepatterns.com/item/V2903.htm??tab=list/vintage_vogue&page=all
-This dress, the green version, but without the sleeves.
http://www.simplicity.com/dv1_v4.cfm?design=2843
-Something inspired by the red plaid or brown outfits (a bit more adult though).
http://www.simplicity.com/dv1_v4.cfm?design=4032
-The purple coat (it's made of fleece, how cool is that!?)
http://www.simplicity.com/dv1_v4.cfm?design=4032
-Also maybe this dress. The one in the real picture. I have cranberry colored wool that is begging to be made into a jumper-dress.
http://www.simplicity.com/dv1_v4.cfm?design=4072
-And this dress. I have a combination of white polka dots on black ground, white kitty faces on black ground, and turquoise geometric rondel things with black.

I'm going to stop there, before this becomes much more time consuming than I expected.

I am recently obsessed with Doctor Who. I love it. It's thought provoking, funny, and it's made me cry. Those of you who know me personally (and that's most of you) know that me crying...is not common. Particularly from things meant for entertainment. (Fact: The only book to ever make me cry is All Creatures Great and Small.)

I think what I really like is that there are constsant moral dilemnas. Life isn't morally clear, and neither is this show. Even better, The Doctor's set of morals are completely different from the human characters', which makes sense, as he is an alien. It's really about people, and how they relate to each other.

I also really like that there are things that carry through the whole season, trends that lead up to the season finale. The first season, they point this out. The second season, I think I've found it. Also, there are episodes that are just epic. Like, I have already watched some of them more than once because of the sheer epic awesomeness.

In some ways, it reminds me of Firefly. Like, this is how Firefly should have gone -- four seasons in and a dedicated fanbase. (Granted, Doctor Who is the longest running sci-fi series on television, if not the longest running series all around. 1963-89, and then 2005-now.)

So, that's my babble. Sorry for the long break between posts; spending Thanksgiving break with no computer access does that. Hope y'all had a good holiday!

So, in an attempt to keep us from getting too sophisticated and artsy over here, some naughty riddles! Well, there are non-dirty options. But the dirty ones are so much more fun! :D

Riddle 42:
A small miracle hangs near a man's thigh,
Full under folds. It is stiff, strong,
Bold, brassy, and pierced in front.
When a young lord lifts his tunic
Over his knees, he wants to greet
With the hard head of this hanging creature
The hole it has long come to fill.

Riddle 43:
I heard of something rising in a corner,
Swelling and standing up, lifting its cover.
The proud-hearted bride grabbed at that boneless
Wonder with her hands; the prince's daughter
Covered that swelling thing with a swirl of cloth.

Riddle 60:
I am the hard punch and pull of power,
Bold thrusting out, keen coming in,
Serving my lord. I burrow beneath
A belly, tunneling a tight road.
My lord hurries and heaves from behind
With a catch of cloth. Sometimes he drags me
Hot from the hole, sometimes shoves me
Down the snug road. The southern thruster
Urges me on. Say who I am.

Riddle 52:
The young man came over to the corner
Where he knew she stood. He stepped up,
Eager and agile, lifted his tunic
With hard hands, thrust through her girdle
Something stiff, worked on the standing
One his will. Both swayed and shook.
The young man hurried, was sometimes useful,
Served well, but always tired
Sooner than she, weary of the work.
Under her girdle began to grow
A hero's reward for laying on dough.

Riddle 23
I am a wonderful help to women,
The hope of something to come. I harm
No citizen except my slayer.
Rooted I stand on a high bed.
I am shaggy below. Sometimes the beautiful
Peasant's daughter, an eager-armed,
Proud woman grabs my body,
Rushes my red skin, holds me hard,
Claims my head. The curly-haired
Woman who catches me fast will feel
Our meeting. Her eye will be wet.

Riddle 36:
This strange creature, a stripling boy,
Sought sweet pleasure pumping joy.
His nourishing Bess gave him four
White fountains-murmur and roar
To the boy's delight. A bystander said,
"Alive, that boy will break the downs;
Dead, he'll bind and wrap us round."

Riddle 59:
Sometimes a lady, comely and proud,
Locks me up, boxes me tight--
Sometimes draws me out on demand
And hands me over to her pleasing prince
Who shoves his hard head in my hole,
Slides up while I slip down--
A tight squeeze. If the man who seizes me
Presses with power, something shaggy
Will fill me up, muscle me out--
A precious jewel. Say what I mean.

So, as it's been obvious this week that Jules and I fail at this kind of thing (me more than her), some thoughts:

There's an art show in the Kenyon library that's vaguely disturbing to me. It's a bunch of vintage clothes and zippers encased in rubber, some of it colored. Her artists statement at has some bullshit about the inevitability of gendered sterotypes in clothing or something (well no shit, clothes are made to fit our bodies, and women's bodies look different from men's bodies), but it almost seems like a thing you'd do just because it's possible. I don't know; I'm not an artiste.

What I am, however, is someone who loves vintage clothes, and the quality associated with certain eras. I'm also someone who loves history, and the very personal aspect inherent there (ask me about my geneaology sometime). There was someone who wore all the clothes in this art before, someone who bought that beautiful blue dress for her junior prom, someone who sewed that tiny nightgown for her first child. There are stories associated with the garments, stories that you can read, looking at a dress that's had all it's seams moved out so a little girl could keep wearing it when she was growing.

The thing is, with the clothes encased within rubber like this, you can't see those details. You can't see the little things that make these clothes special, you can't feel them. Fabric is physical thing -- the way it feels is a huge part of if a garment gets worn until it's falling apart, or left in the back of the closet until it's given away.

The over all feeling I get looking at this art is that I'm in a mortuary, looking at things that have been preserved, taken into an unnatural state. There are hundreds, if not thousands, of people in this country who would have gladly bought those clothes to be worn, who would have let them live again. I'm not saying I hated all of it -- the zipper art was really cool, and some of the rubber clothes pieces worked really well -- there were some little boys' dress shirts in rubber squares, with the front ruffles sticking out, and some little girls' dresses with the skirts free from rubber, displayed on a wall like a class photo.

This piece doesn't bother me so much, perhaps because the clothes are freed a little bit from the rubber? But it also had a factor of cute, and amusing about it -- look at them all arranged like they're in thier first class photo. It has an idea behind it.

The pieces I really didn't like were a few full-skirted party dresses whose bodices had been crushed and encased in dyed rubber circles, with the skirts spread all around them. These dresses were meant to be worn. Simply keeping them on the floor like this, they've been denyed thier purpose, thier existence. I wanted to pick them up, hold them up to my shoulders, swirl them around like I was dancing, I wanted to love them. These dresses feel abandoned.

It also kind of killed me that she had some of the best quality and prettiest vintage clothes that I have seen, and you can't just buy that stuff anymore -- it's really expensive. So to see it encased in rubber, where sure, it will be preserved, but it won't ever be worn again, it was saddening.

Here are a few links to look at more pictures and a review -- the children's nightgowns are particularly sad, to me.

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9901E3DD1E31F934A25750C0A9609C8B63

http://cowlesgallery.com/archive/weinstock06.html

http://www.davidsongalleries.com/artists/weinstock/weinstock.html

Yes, I’m alive and still have things to say. Last week was kind of crazy with the papers and the ridiculous Latin poetry. But this weekend, I got to relax and cook medieval food with friends! Pictures (by Carolyn) and recipes:

First, a picture of me with glasses, which most people have not seen before, since I don’t wear them regularly. My eyes are getting worse, though, so I figure I should start, you know…actually using them. Carolyn says I look "matronly" in them. Do I really?


This is my medieval cookbook with…almonds in it? Don’t ask me why there are almonds. I wasn’t responsible for those. Note the Middle English text above the modern English interpretation of the recipe. Awesome, no?


The mushroom and leek soup was very good. To make: chop 1 lb. mushrooms and 3 leeks and combine with 1 cup beef broth, a pinch of saffron, ¼ tsp. ground ginger, ½ tsp. ground cinnamon, ¼ tsp. ground white pepper, and ½ tsp. ground cloves. Simmer for about 10 minutes.


Rastons! This is a stuffed bread loaf that is very, very good. It makes an excellent appetizer, even for non-medieval meals. To make: get a bread loaf (the recipe says a round loaf, but as you can see, ours was not round and it worked perfectly well), cut off the top third of the loaf and tear out the soft bread on the inside. Tear the soft bread into pieces, toss with two tablespoons of melted butter and dried herbs (we used rosemary and basil; at the Bors Head, they used poppy seeds. Both were good.), and place back in the loaf. Bake for about ten minutes at 350°.


Chicken in rose sauce (note the awesome garnish, handiwork of moi). This was our masterpiece, and it turned out better than I expected. It did taste like roses! It had some very interesting flavors: it’s made with almonds, sugar and rose petals, so it was a very sweet dish, which is unexpected for an entrée, but good. It actually went really well with the buttered greens, surprisingly. The sweetness and the butteriness were quite tasty together. Wifey even had two servings of the vegetables, and she never eats vegetables!

Today we've been procrastinating by taking the Myers-Briggs personality test to find out our types. You can take it here

I'm an INFJ, which according to this site means I'm introspective and insightful and I understand the inner processes of peoples' minds. It's actually weirdly accurate, I think.


this site shows how different types work in relationships. Wifey (an ESFJ) and I have an "Illusionary" relationship, which is kind of true. We "do not understand the reasons and motives of each other's actions". We do have different motives and ways of thinking. But the highlight of the description was this: "The introverts seek independence. The extrovert partner wants to make their introvert partner into what they consider to be a 'normal person'."

So now Wifey's trying to crush my spirit and creativity and suck away my SOUL.


That's what we've been up to today. Take the test yourself and tell us what personality type you have!

I love dance. I love it with a depth that is hard to convey. I just got back from a dance, which is a) why this post is so late, and b) why I'm going to babble about dancing.

This wasn't just any dance -- it was at the celebration for the dedication of the new-old dining hall, since it was extensively remodelled in the past two years. What this means is that in the Grand Dining Hall (second choice for the Hogwarts movie dining hall), they had a 16 piece swing band, like they would have had for a similar dance in the 1940s. It was amazing. My boy showed himself to be a paragon of gentlemanlyness -- he danced for quite a while without complaint! Most interestingly was the enthusiasm of the people dancing, as opposed to the typical college party. These people liked to dance, liked the music, not just "almost-sex-but-we-have-clothes-on", which is what you see in 99% of high schools and colleges. There were professors there (including my awesome-beyond-belief English prof), and administrators, and lots of trustees or alums. It was really cool to see a broad spectrum of people all dancing and having fun doing it! I am very strongly tempted to send an email to the president of the college, or someone in charge of Student Activities and say "Hey, can we have a dance like this every Trustee/Alumni weekend?" See, they'll get more interested people on those weekends, since the adults like it too.

So, it was an awesome dance. I wish I had been more dressed up. But that's okay. I'm still in the glow of awesome dancing in the greatest atmosphere ever.

Oh, and they had a replica of the building done in cake. It was five feet long. Unfortunately it was not for eating. :( But there were chocolate-covered strawberries. And kiwis. But not dipped in chocolate.

And the dancing was awesome. :D