radiant fracture

On Wednesday, immediately before I had to invigilate my first in-class assignment, I lost the button on my trousers.

I wore a longish cardigan: my gratitude for this bit of contingency knows no bounds. Empirically, mine was not the sort of zip that just stays up using its patented antigravity function. It was definitely subject to the forces of the Earth. I kept ducking down behind my computer station to hoist.

It was a strangely alert two hours.

I admit, though I do not like to, that the sedentary nature of my current profession(s) and the accumulation of seasonal candy may have been related to this alarming event.

* * * * * *

Great gouts of punctuation taught last week. All the little fiddly bits -- hyphens and apostrophes, the extra washers and odd screws left in the bottom of the plastic bag of punctuation. My colleagues, otherwise much more precise persons than I am (and generally better people), have agreed that it is all right to use apostrophes to make plurals of letters-as-letters, numbers-as-numbers, and words-as-words -- a construction I abhor.

S's, 14's and lost's. Ugh. "There are 14 lost's on this page." Ugh.

For my preference: Ss, 14s, and "lost"s.

Going over earlier lessons for tomorrow's grammar review, though, I can see that my knowledge has already improved (or ossified, depending on how you look at these things.)

{rf}

Thanks to stitchinmyside's example, I finally downloaded some CBC Radio 3 podcasts to my Palm. Then my Palm's battery died. It won't even turn on. It lies there, inert, blank, full of untranslateable beauty. I had time to listen to two of the R3-30s and a really interesting discussion with an American poet on "Writers & Company". The end.

My two new favourite songs are:

Christine Fellows - "Vertebrae"

Clear the doorstep of flowers
Throw open the blinds in his empty room
Avert my eyes from his fingerprints
Is there something I'm forgetting...

and

Knock Knock Ginger, "Love Renee"

I'll quote here, though you can't get the full feel without the bouncy, almost anthemic rock sound of the song:

All the misuses
Of the comma by your hand
Made the closing "Love Renee"
Seem like another order or command

In all uppercase
You wrote "LOVE LOVE LOVE"
Like I would change
My mind
If the Ls were bold enough

Now I'm listening to Radio 3 on headphones in my dad's basement office in Gibsons after 8 hours of travel, some quite good sushi in West Van, some quite good delivery pizza right here in Gibsons, and a raucous game of InGenius.

{rf}