blah- My niece is fascinated by Kung Fu Panda. When she saw him in person several weeks ago, she kept asking to hold his hand. "It's so little," she'd exclaim, but I couldn't help noticing how relatively big it was, compared to her 3-year-old hand. He's a growing baby!
- My neighbor Adele is back, and now she wants to talk about the baby every time I pass her. She keeps asking me, "What are you feeding him?" I don't know if that's so that I have to keep calling "Breast milk" across the lawn to her or if she really is forgetting. Apparently, although I thought she had moved, she was actually in a home recovering from a stroke. Yesterday, she showed me a kitten she just brought home. I urged her to make sure she gives it plenty of water in this heat. Hopefully, she'll remember to feed it.
- Thumbs are great! KFP has gained enough muscular control to be able to self-soothe by putting his fingers into his mouth. Where before he might have fussed, now he goes for the thumb. It is truly a blessing, because unlike a pacifier, it doesn't fall out!
- I'm in the process of putting together the Summer issue of Wild Violet. I know, I know, it's September, but technically, it's still summer for a couple more weeks. While sorting through the submissions, I came up with some new pet peeves:
- Writers who show disdain for their characters. If you write about your main character as if s/he is an idiot who deserves scorn and is destined for disaster, it only makes me wonder if you have a deep-seated inferiority complex. I have no interest in watching you torture your hapless prey.
- Starting a poem with a description of the sky. About 95 percent of all poems I receive that have the moon or the sun in the first stanza are indigestible pablum.
- Simultaneous submissions that have clearly been bulk-mailed to more than five literary magazines. Even though we accept simultaneous submissions, that does not mean I want you to spam me. I actually created a special filter for one poet who continues to do that, despite my warnings. His work now goes directly in the trash.
- I'm very glad we have developed the new format for Wild Violet. As soon as my rundown is complete, I'll be able to start plugging the text into pages and work on the graphics when I have time.
- Every time I see a story about hoarders, such as this unfortunate woman, it makes me want to clean and organize. As soon as I get finished with the WV summer ish, I'm going to do some serious sorting and reorganizing, including finally donating or selling the items I've already separated out, which have been sitting in boxes on the porch since before KFP was born.
- Nothing beats a baby smile on a hot day. Kung Fu Panda now smiles easily, and he gurgles and laughs when I speak to him. It does help to get my mind off the hot weather!
Moral:
The heat bakes brains.
