bookofjoe

To be of use — by Marge Piercy

The people I love the best
jump into work head first
without dallying in the shallows
and swim off with sure strokes almost out of sight.
They seem to become natives of that element,
the black sleek heads of seals
bouncing like half-submerged balls.

I love people who harness themselves, an ox to a heavy cart,
who pull like water buffalo, with massive patience,
who strain in the mud and the muck to move things forward,
who do what has to be done, again and again.

I want to be with people who submerge
in the task, who go into the fields to harvest
and work in a row and pass the bags along,
who are not parlor generals and field deserters
but move in a common rhythm
when the food must come in or the fire be put out.

The work of the world is common as mud.
Botched, it smears the hands, crumbles to dust.
But the thing worth doing well done
has a shape that satisfies, clean and evident.
Greek amphoras for wine or oil,
Hopi vases that held corn, are put in museums
but you know they were made to be used.
The pitcher cries for water to carry
and a person for work that is real.

 

 

What are they?

Answer here this time tomorrow.

Identical twins do not have identical fingerprints

If that is true — and it is — then how can they be identical?

"Identical: Agreeing exactly."

Danielle Liubicich, then a Ph.D. candidate in the laboratory of Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) investigator Nipam H. Patel, Department of Integrative Biology at the University of California, Berkeley, explained the details in a 2007 article on HHMI's "Ask a Scientist" website; the piece follows.

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More here, here and here.

Echo Side Table

By Jonas Damon.

'Everything we are is at every moment alive in us' — Arthur Miller

I wonder if Miller — whose work tried to demonstrate this simultaneity, in an attempt to "cut through time like a knife" — ever crossed paths with Hugh Everett, whose 1957 "many-worlds" interpretation of quantum mechanics turned physics on its head.

'This product is an umbrella and should not be used as a golf club'

Oh.

Too bad.

"This quirky umbrella was inspired by designer Sebastian Errazuriz's rainy day golf outings. While living in Scotland, he and his friends often found themselves carrying golf clubs and umbrellas simultaneously, which struck inspiration in the young designer."

Steel, fiberglass, polyester and rubber.

44"Ø x 41"L.

$65.

[via tolin]

Air Bed & Breakfast: Where would you like to sleep tonight?

Featured in the New York Times "T" magazine supplement on May 17, 2009, this new company"... hooks up locals with visitors looking for a place to crash."

"Nearly 3,000 listings in 72 countries."

Tell 'em I sent you to open exclusive doors.

So exclusive I don't even know about them 'cause I just made that up.

But then, I make most of it up as I go along, anyhow, so what's the big whoop?

'It's all around you all the time'

Hula Hoops by Keetra Jean Dixon.

[via PAN-DAN]