Friday, May 25, 2007

Big Ern, bulls and fat boys

Did you ever have one of those days where random things just appear repeatedly (or twice but it's still so random it makes you think) and you wonder "what does it mean?" I had one of those yesterday.

First, I fell a little bit more in love with Ernest "hey did you all know I was hot in my youth" Hemingway. I was kicking back in the yard after a most hellacious day of work (not spent as NSI, but I was remote desktopped into their system so it was just like being there) and I decided what better way to scrub off a crap day than kick my heels up with my go to tome, The Complete Short Stories of Ernest Hemingway (finca vigia edition, of course [I actually have no idea what that means]). Let me just reiterate, the man is a genius. There, done.
See? Finca Vigia appears to be meaningful doesn't it ?

So Anyhoo...I opted for some shorter than short stories as after a day spent running around in 4 different virtual machines I had the attention span of a shell shocked WWII vet so I read the Good Lion and The Faithful Bull. Opening line of the faithful bull= "One time there was a bull and his name was not Ferdinand and he cared nothing for flowers." (note: this is the exciting part) Ernest knows Ferdinand!!! (actually in poking around online for the picture of the book cover, apparently a lot of people know Ferdinand. Who'd have thunk?) Anyway, if I didn't love Ern before (and I did, I'm just saying) it would totally be cemented now, as Ferdinand is one of my all time favorite fictional bulls.

Does anyone here know The Story of Ferdinand? It's a lovely little story about a giant bad ass bull who loves his mother and the smell of flowers. It was one of the first books I actually remember having and I still have a copy. Not the original one I got, but I have subsequently bought another copy as an adult, because I love it. I'm pushing 30 and every trip I take I bring 2 books. The Story of Ferdinand and Harold and the Purple Crayon.
Note:Harold is not part of the excitement from yesterday, but as a classic and a personal favorite, I thought he deserved a little shout out.

And since we're on the subject of things I should probably be over by 30 but amn't let's show some love for Jolly Roger Bradfield. Basement storyteller extraordinaire!


So anyhow, back to the excitement (and apologies for the tangent. It's Friday, it's sunny and apparently my attention span has not recovered from the week's torments yet) To recap: I was excited because Ernest Hemingway knows Ferdinand, and gave him a little shout out and I was reminded to re-read Ferdinand and was all happy and weird. Because that's how I roll.

then after discovering that my radiator is in fact royally fucked, a friend and I were cruising up the Avenue trying to find some grub and we wandered into some fancy place where I was contemplating the menu vs the fact that the restaurant was 100 degrees CELSIUS and we noticed they have a bookshelf so we cruised over to check it out and what does my companion pull out FIRST BOOK but The story of Ferdinand!! Being the dork that I am I got all "ooh ooh ooh, wanna hear what Hemingway said today?" and he did, so I told him, and then we discussed Ferdinand, of whom said companion is also a fan. I don't know what it means but it seems auspicious. Or should I say, I choose to view it as auspicious, because I am like that and convincing myself of good things is my personal speciality. Anyway, I just thought it weird and exciting for my fave bull to me thrust into my consciousness by 2 hot men in one hot day.


The fat boys in the post title refer to the peas in my garden. I have been able to keep my paws off their yumminess long enough for them to get f'ing HUGE! and I'm psyched. I've got pictures of them somewhere (because I know you are all dying to see) but I can't find the cable to my camera so you'll have to trust me. They're big.

there's more to tell, but this post has gotten long and my muffins are done so I'm off to grub a little. If you're lucky I'll be back later to finish the brain dump.

and if I'm not, happy long weekend everyone!!

1 comment:

Ichiro A said...

Suuuuure, "Lost the cable for my camera"... good excuse. ;) what are those strange things you posted..."booooks" what do you do with these "booooks"? Can I turn it on? Does it need to be defraged every few weeks?