Sunday

I woke on time. I wrote some posts. I listened to Backwoods on WMBR. I called for a taxi last night thinking there would be thunderstorms. No thunderstorms. The taxi came early.

I went to work. I got a ride home. No thunderstorms, still. But with my luck... there would have been if I walked.

Snoozed when I got home. Woke up and walked down to McClure's to get a bottle of cola.

Back in the room, I went through my email.

"Colonel Tom" remains unwanted:

Thank you for sending us "Colonel Tom". We appreciated the chance to read it. Unfortunately, the piece is not for us. Good luck elsewhere.

Sincerely, 

Annie, Hannah, Michael + Philip

Nixes Mate Review

 During my shower and dinner, I listened to this Henrik Ibsen documentary That led me to Why Tallulah Bankhead Never Became a Movie Star and that led me to Why Myrna Loy Never Got an Oscar Nomination. All three were interesting but maybe most interesting was the Ibsen documentary - old Hendrik was more than I knew. They also took up most of night. Oops. I had other things planned.

I skimmed The Dangers of Psychological Projection. In prison, when I was re-examining my life, I came to see that I had let stand people projecting their own problems onto me. I see this fed my depression. I had a tendency to be hung for a sheep than for a lamb. Before my arrest I found one point where I would succumb to this thinking. That I still thought myself a bad person was not affected by this. One person I knew I saw had consistently projected her own craziness onto me. I am resolved never to speak to her.

I read ‘Despondency’ by Attracta Fahy twice. I would like to think mine brought me wisdom. Lovely poem, all the same.

I read all of On Roving, Writing, Reading, Teaching, and Navigating Worlds: Nkiacha Atemnkeng Interviews Téa Obreht - it is short. I read Obreht's The Tiger’s Wife in prison. I think it is a brilliant. In the interview she had interesting things to say about writing.

I got thinking about worsh and wash while dishwashing  today. My mother daid worsh, worshing, Worshington her entire life. Which was strange. She had no patience for verbs not matching their nouns. Once she let loose a broadside of virulent derision against a politician on TV using ain't. I think she kept using worsh to annoy her older sister. In prison, I was surprised to find it used by some of the  Pennsylvania guys. I thought it an Indiana thing. An old Indiana thing. I do not use it. Television has standardized our language. But I did google "worsh wash" and got the following at Where does the intrusive R come from in “warsh”?:

According to John Kelly of the Washington Post (Catching the Sounds of the City), he claims:

"warsh" is the predominant characteristic of what linguists call America's midland accent. The accent can be found in the swath of the country that extends west from Washington, taking in Maryland; southern Pennsylvania; West Virginia; parts of Virginia; southern Ohio, Indiana and Illinois; most of Missouri; and Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Oklahoma, much of Kansas and west Texas.

With the help of Barbara Johnstone, of Carnegie Mellon University, he traces it back to Scotch-Irish immigrants at least a couple hundred years ago.

That makes sense to me.

I got a letter about my cpap that I need to call about tomorrow. I also got a file-stamped copy of my petition to modify.

Work comes early tomorrow.

I need to sleep.

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