I decided to post weekly on all the minor matters that may not deserve an entire post, but are still worth mentioning. So, here you go.
1. My 5-year-old niece to the neighborhood boy who had been harrassing her all day: (with fists up) "Hey buddy, do you wanna piece of me?"
2. Watching PBS's Do You Speak American? Robert MacNeil (talking about Texas metaphors) said he heard LBJ say during the Vietnam War: "If we get 'em by the short and curlies, their hearts and minds will follow." We should never elect presidents from Texas.
3. After ranting to a friend about how annoyed I am by the egos of young twenty-somethings, I realized I am becoming my mother--who we lovingly call "the dream squasher." I am now embarking on a path of recovery. My name is Melissa and I am becoming my mother.
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7 comments:
I tell Dr. Write that she is becoming her mother. Especially in this regard: both Dr. Write and her mother like chant a list of things they need to do for the day.
As to LBJ, (to use a little vernacular) you gots to give him his props on the 1964 Civil Rights Act and the 1965 Voting Rights Act. LBJ bullied and threated Southern racist legislators in ordered to get both passed. He may not have been pretty to look at or listen to, but he was effective--which is more than we can say about many of today's Democrats.
LBJ would have appreciated, I think, your niece's exclamation.
We all become our parents in one way or another. It's inevitble, it's our most feared destinate, but it will happen. I've spent a lifetime trying to be unlike my father who is blue collar and anti-intellectual, but my wife reminds me that I am my father's son in many ways.
I've got to try that chant thing. Does she get in the lotus position? Maybe I could do extra chants for the things I really don't want to do and never get accomplished--like paying a weber parking ticket I got but don't want to pay.
"Dream crusher." Ouch.
I'm probably more like my mom--giving but reclusive and undesirous of attention but that is where my Dad comes in--an attention hog and life of the party. Man am I mixed up.
I like to get a nice late-night buzz on and work on projects, just like my Pops.
I must second middlebrow on the LBJ action. To me, he is a completely compelling character, and even in a limited way a tragic figure. If you've read any of the stuff from Caro's massive multi-volume tome of a biography, you'd have to be impressed with someone who knew a thing or two about power. The tragedy, of course, is that he wasted so much of it on Vietnam, then realized, of course, that he had squandered the possibilities. (Perhaps I've revealed too much in this overzealous comment?)
In most ways I don't mind becoming my mother (which I do indeed see happening), but I'm already realizing something much more jolting: I married my father! While they are plenty different, Mr. Tart has some of the very same qualities and mannerisms as my dad.
I like MacNeil's observations on language very much.
Lest I seem like an ungrateful daughter, I should say that my mom is a remarkable woman and in many ways, I am happy to be becoming like her.
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