Mush | The Bleat. 11/8/13, 8:54 AM ABOUT Search And then it was Tuesday Why not work? Work is hard RECENT COMMENTS polymathamy on 06.14.12 Bleat MUSH Amanda from Michigan on Boo. Hiss on DECEMBER 1, 2010 · 93 COMMENTS · in DOMESTIC LIFE, THE SIXTIES Julie on Testing the new RSS feed idea shesnailie on Autobots and Bruckner “You’re lucky,” my daughter said over breakfast. “You get to stay home.” Wagner von Drupen- Sachs on Autobots and Bruckner “Not always,” I said. I usually go to the office daily, but I’d decided – in my head! – to work at home today, and she read my mind. “But it’s not that great. It gets cold in the house. It’s lonely. Just me and the radio.” And the low 140 OR SO moans of the Black Dog, crouched outside in the snow, grinning horribly. But Error: Twitter did not respond. Please wait a few that goes without saying. minutes and refresh this page. “Still, I wish I could stay home.” CLICK – AND SAVE! “Go to school and learn about Indians.” She went off to school to learn about Indians, and I got to work. Over the lunch hour I took a break to clean out a closet. The dreaded Closet of Shame, the storage closet where things just pile up, no matter how I winnow or sort. Of course, sorting is not helpful; just rearranges the crap. I dug through a box of old journals the other day, looking for something, and was heartened to see that almost half have been seized by mold and rot. Gives me all the more reason to burn them. I can’t stand knowing they’re down there – volume after volume of sophomoric navel-interrogation, combined with hapless and needlessly attenuated love affairs, spiced with the occasional dalliance that soured or died or blew up in my face. I’ll be responsible for everything after 1983. Before that, it’s another country. Population, Emo English Major. A BOOK I RECOMMEND Oh, and I’m so much better now! Well, more “grounded,” perhaps, but you http://lileks.com/bleat/?p=8398 Page 1 of 13 Mush | The Bleat. 11/8/13, 8:54 AM could say that about a fellow in an electric chair for a triple murder, too. Or do they not ground them? Something has to be grounded there. Anyway. Job One for the lunch hour was going through the drawers of electronic stuff, again. Did this a few years ago, put everything in bags with helpful labels. Since then I’ve accumulated duplicates of everything. I have no idea how. You buy a box of cereal, it comes with RCA plugs red-white-yellow. You buy a Child 44 Tom Rob Smith camera, it comes with all sorts of useless cables intended to hook up the Best Price $0.01 or Buy New camcorder to the TV. The HDMI cables I set aside; they’re precious. But never once in my life have I attached a camcorder to a TV. Never had anyone ask me to do it. Never found myself sitting around someone else’s house, and Privacy Information thought hey, why don’t you hook up your camcorder to the TV and show us some recent unedited shaky footage? THE PAST AT YOUR FINGERTIPS Adaptors? I got a million of ‘em. No idea what they’re for. Out they go. Here’s NOVEMBER 2013 what I was dealing with: S M T W T F S 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 « Jul THE DISTANT PAST July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 Yeah. So I reduced that by 2/3rds, got back to work. Daughter came home December 2012 from school as I finished; I was sitting on the warm radiator in the living November 2012 room (it has a stone cover, which get toasty; Jasper used to sit up on it before he couldn’t make it up there anymore) and playing Mah Jongg on the iPad October 2012 when the bus came. She walked up the sidewalk, bent into the wind, and as September 2012 usual I wondered what she was thinking. I could probably guess, but you August 2012 never know. It’s one of those things a parent thinks about now and then: I July 2012 wonder what it’s like to be her. She’s not a secretive child, and she shares her interests with me, but you know what I mean. The running fugue that June 2012 bubbles in your brain all day long. You know the tune. No one else does. May 2012 April 2012 The Rudolph special was on tonight; didn’t watch it, because we had a piano recital. Natalie played “Mission: Impossible,” which is pretty tricky, and did November 2011 “Carol of the Bells” on a vibraphone. She sat down and muttered “That was October 2011 horrible. Fail.” I was torn, somewhat; she had messed up the ending of September 2011 Mission the first time, but the second time she nailed it. On the “Carol” she hit http://lileks.com/bleat/?p=8398 Page 2 of 13 Mush | The Bleat. 11/8/13, 8:54 AM some wrong notes. So what do you do? If your instincts lean towards building August 2011 self-esteem above all, you lavish praise. If you want to be stern perfectionist July 2011 father who thinks “she will thank me some day” as you castigate the smallest June 2011 error, you castigate the smallest error and withhold dessert, I suppose. Having set up two extremes to reflect well on my moderation, I will now May 2011 reveal my reaction and hope the self-serving nature of my framing isn’t too April 2011 obvious. March 2011 Crap, the mike is on. You heard that. Anyway, I just said that she messed up February 2011 the end of the first run-through, did great the second time, and hit some January 2011 wrong notes on “Carol.” Could have been perfect, but it wasn’t, and it was December 2010 fine, and certainly not Horrible or deserving of the FAIL stamp. It was your first vibraphone piece! Relax. I’m proud of you. November 2010 October 2010 Is this bad? I don’t think so. If your criticism isn’t true your praise means September 2010 nothing. August 2010 Then Perkins, for breakfast. It’s the tradition before or after a recital. The July 2010 same clown was there. She’s always there. I could go at 3 AM and she’d be sitting in the corner. June 2010 May 2010 “Don’t make eye contact,” Natalie said when we walked in. “Just don’t.” April 2010 Clowns! They can smell fear. March 2010 So we didn’t watch Rudolph, because we were busy, and it’s on disk, and it February 2010 was still November, and because . oh, because she’s ten, maybe, and ten these days is different. When I was a kid there were four cartoons at night January 2010 per year, and two of them were Charlie Brown, and one of those had a December 2009 bizarre sequence about Snoopy going behind enemy lines to have a root beer November 2009 with Bill Mauldin, or something. Takes the kids right out of the story these October 2009 days, that does. The Charlie Brown Christmas special was different, because it had a tidy story, music that made you feel safe and happy and warm like September 2009 nothing else you heard all year long. Then there was Grinch, which was August 2009 great, and planted little seeds that would bloom years later – it was drawn by July 2009 Chuck Jones? June 2009 That was Boris Karloff? The song was sung by the voice of Tony the Tiger? WOW. May 2009 April 2009 But Rudolph was the best, for reasons I’m sure I’ve discussed here on an March 2009 annual basis. Drama. Terror. Suspense. Those Burl Ives songs. (My Dad had the Burl Ives February 2009 album from which they were taken; it had no connection to the Rudolph January 2009 show on the liner notes. When I was very young I found the resemblance between the snowman and Burl Ives to be very mysterious, as though there HOST WITH THE MOST was some marvelous synchronicity at work here.) The 60s archetypes among the elves. The way it all ended and it was over and then after the last commercial there was MORE! as all the Misfit toys were sent off. It was perfect. I even remember the commercials: http://lileks.com/bleat/?p=8398 Page 3 of 13 Mush | The Bleat. 11/8/13, 8:54 AM Safari Power Saver Click to Start Flash Plug-in UNTOLD RICHES AWAIT YOU This is just a fragment of the site, you know. Head HERE for the full menu. Enjoy! BLEAT PREMIUM Go HERE to join - for as little as you like. You'll get an email with your passwords. The page for your An earlier version: bonus-secret ulta links is HERE! Safari Power Saver Click to Start Flash Plug-in Was it better then because there were only a few shows and the commercials were distinctive for having stop-motion animation that mirrored the Rankin- Bass productions, and everything was happy and snowy and magical? Of course not.