Loose Leaf Notes

1. Although my father was 75% Irish with a mother born in County Cork, his paternal grandfather was born in Sweden and stowed away on ship to come to America as young man. A shipmate on the same ship with the surname Redman died on the way and my great grandfather ended up taking his name. My last name should be Lundquist.

2. One of my Irish lines has the surname Dinneen. Upon a quick search, I learned that “The family was famous for having supplied generations of court poets to their overlords in the ancient kingdom of Corcu Loigde in West County Cork.”

3. Four flat tires/ and the lights went out / The body simmered and stewed /but was still cold… Read “The Last Resort” in its entirety HERE.

4. How do you flu?

5. Fever broke: I sewed a button / I found myself humming / vacuuming would be asking too much.

6. Fever broke: I listened to all my past answering machine messages, all 25 of them.

7. As someone with dyscalculia, the time change is especially difficult because there’s a big component of directional and number impairment with the disability. Not only do I have to calculate every clock I see, I have to remember if the time went forward or backwards and which clocks have been changed and which ones haven’t.

8. Seen on Facebook: Daylight Saving Time is increasingly hard to notice when my digital are devices are like, “What? Nothing happened. We know what time it is.” And my stove is left blinking and screaming, “IT HAPPENED! TIME SHIFTED UNNATURALLY! THEY’RE ALL LYING! ONLY I KNOW! ONLY I REMEMBER!”

9. When we vomit / we’re all Linda Blair / possessed by otherworldly contagions / that take supernatural flight / when exorcised from our gut / And if you’ve recently eaten cabbage / you have an especially gory prop / that will bring you so low to your knees / you’ll want to call a priest / I think Linda Blair had the flu… Old early ‘90s poem posted in A Museletter.

10. What are people with dyscalculia good at? People with dyscalculia are fast problem solvers, have the ability to think outside of the box and can reflect on past experiences. This provides unique insight and methods for solving problems. Love of words – people with dyscalculia are often exceptional at reading, writing and spelling. People with dyscalculia often have strengths such as intuitive and strong strategic thinking. Some people are born with dyscalculia, others acquire it after a stroke, or head injury, or as a result of another neurological condition.

11. I recently learned that all good speeches and arguments use logos, ethos and pathos.  Logos: The speaker appeals to the audience’s sense of reason, using logic, facts, and statistics. Ethos: The speaker tries to show the audience that he or she is reliable, credible, and trustworthy. The speaker also tries to build a bridge to the audience by using first-person plural pronouns (we, us). Pathos:  The speaker appeals to the audience’s emotions, using emotional language, sensory images, and anecdotes.

12. “Everybody knows that the dice are loaded / Everybody rolls with their fingers crossed / Everybody knows that the war is over / Everybody knows the good guys lost / Everybody knows the fight was fixed / The poor stay poor, the rich get rich / That’s how it goes / Everybody knows.” -Leonard Cohen

13. Even Tuesday morning’s Blood Moon lunar eclipse was red or red-ish.

___________Thirteen Thursday