The Wheels Within Wheels

I was recently asked to specify my first New Year’s Resolution, which was to “Be more romantic.” I find romantic a difficult word to define; happily, a few lexicographers have done the job for me. Their entries are quite poetic in themselves, I think.

Oxford English Dictionary

romantic, adj.
b. Mus. Characterized by the subordination of form to theme, and by imagination and passion.
3. Of projects, etc.: Fantastic, extravagant, quixotic; going beyond what is customary or practical.
4. a. Having a bent or tendency towards romance; readily influenced by the imagination.

romance, n.
3. A fictitious narrative in prose of which the scene and incidents are very remote from those of ordinary life …
6. An extravagant fiction, invention, or story; a wild or wanton exaggeration; a picturesque falsehood.

Penguin Dictionary of Literary Terms & Literary Theory

Romance. … In the 13th c. a romance was almost any sort of adventure story, be it of chivalry or of love. Gradually more and more romances were written in prose. … It is usually concerned with characters (and thus with events) who live in a courtly world somewhat remote from the everyday. This suggests elements of fantasy, improbability, extravagance, and naïvety.

I suppose, then, that I want the improbability and wildness without the falsehoods and naivete. While acknowledging the practical and what is real, I want to be prone to flights of fancy and whimsical extravagances.

Apparently we locked Neighbor Cat inside our apartment this morning. We found this upon our return. A pox upon you, Neighbor Cat!

And sometimes nature makes art out of our arts, and we wake up to find that our sidewalks have become negative prints of what had been upon them. Here, rainstorms leave behind shadows like aftermath of autumnal atomic bombs. Fallen but not yet forgotten.

PROVIDENCE [Fr. : Providentia, Lat.] Foresight; timely care; forecast: the act of providing. Sidney. The care of God over created beings; divine superintendence. Raleigh. Prudence; frugality; reasonable and moderate care of expense. Dryden. —Samuel Johnson’s Dictionary of the English Language, 1775 [here]

WINDOW [from ON. vindauga, f. vindr WIND + auga EYE] 1.a. An opening in a wall or side of a building, ship, or carriage, to admit light or air, or both, and to afford a view of what is outside or inside. —Oxford English Dictionary, 1989 [here]

The iconic IBM logo, which is about 50 years old, was designed by the legendary Paul Rand. These boxes were for Typewriter Ribbon, Composer Ribbon, and Film Ribbon, respectively. Delightful!

In the future, our archaeology “digs” will take place in warehouses. Specialists will unearth old machines, clean them carefully with dustless cloths, and take them to their labs. There, they will be examined and sometimes taken apart completely. Before being stored in the museum collection, they will be labeled with something like — Year: 1980-2000?; Author: Xerox; Model number: PSC1390xz; Purpose: printing and duplicating documents on ‘paper’, connected to ‘personal computer’ with ‘wires’; Of note: see ancient document crumpled in back of artifact. Specialists unable to extract document; possible reason for disposal of artifact.

Photos from The Black Hole shop in Los Alamos, NM. Summer 2009.

Today at lunch, Nate & I heard a tiny bell jingling outside the door. Upon opening it, I saw a grey blur dash past me in a flurry of furry paws and whiskers. Neighbor Cat had arrived.

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