Heard By a Bird, November 2008
Sparrow
November 30, 2008 "Afternoon is the new morning."
- Aston Kutcher
Leaf-feet
"I saw 17 leaves running down Fox Hollow like schoolchildren's feet," my neighbor Dave told me.
Bumper sticker:
DICK CHENEY'S
THE ANTICHRIST
(AND HE KNOWS IT)!
A Letter
Dear News-gatherer:
I'm writing a book about sisters of scientists who won the Nobel Prize. What were the stresses on their lives? What were their secret satisfactions?
The book is entitled Nobel Sisters.
A. B.
Did you see the cloud resembling a one-winged flamingo over Mount Tremper last Thursday?
Beating The Clock
"In the last three years," Sarah Petress told me," I've only aged two years and seven months!"
A Second Letter
Dear Collector-Of-Assorted-Tidbits:
I saw a guy on the UCAT bus reading "Go Deep," a column in the New York Post about football. Dadaji Daneshananda, my spiritual adviser, often gives me that same advice (about meditation): "Go deep!"
Z. A.
Scent Scrapbook
"My mother had the only scent scrapbook I've ever seen," Doris Breamer recalls. "She'd save anything aromatic and glue it in there -- pressed flowers, incense, a stick of chewing gum, the butt of a smelly cigar. On Sunday nights, we'd look through the scent scrapbook and reminisce."
Shandaken Poetry Festival
Tiny Century
We're living
in a tiny century.
- Andy Germain
Nocturne
My bicycle is awake
while my car sleeps.
- Mary R. Glevow
Interview with a Sunglasses Inventor
I spoke to John Dolkin in his garage/studio in Mt. Tremper.
Sparrow: I understand you make sunglasses.
Dolkin: Yes.
Sparrow: What kind of sunglasses?
Dolkin: You've heard of "wraparound" sunglasses. I make "wraparound-and-around" sunglasses.
Sparrow: What are those?
Dolkin: Ordinary wraparound glasses only go part of the way around the head. Mine have "glass" -- actually plastic -- 360° around.
Sparrow: Why?
Dolkin: It's a fashion statement, mostly. You appear to have "eyes in the back of your head." These glasses look best on people with long hair. From the rear, they appear to be mystic bearded hill-gnomes. And bald people resemble extraterrestrials.
Also, my shades are remarkably comfortable. Most people say they're gentler than real wraparounds.
Sparrow: You get fan letters, then?
Dolkin: Yes, especially from Iceland. We're popular there with a group of people who listen to a type of music called "subatomic Techno."
Sparrow: How fortunate!
Dolkin: Our Icelandic success is gratifying.
For more information see www.wraparoundandaround.com.
Saddle Party
I went to a saddle party last week in Big Indian. Each guest brought a saddle, which was ingeniously set on a stool. Dinner was Western-style: mesquite yams, pheasant, corn soup -- which we ate "in the saddle."
A Third Letter
Dear Mr. Sparrow, Sir:
I oppose these "power drinks" like Red Bull which assault their drinkers with caffeine and sugar. In fact, I want to market "weakness drinks." (The first one will be dilute linden tea.) Instead of giving one "energy," my drinks will create a subtle, tidal calmness.
"Lester"
An Antique Speaks
"Americans value antiques, but not old people," observes Barbara Friss. "One day I realized, 'If I were a lamp I'd be worth alot of money!'"
Tags: Sparrow , Phoenicia , Heard , Bird , Poet
