Monday miscellany

Thanks to MLK, who has given the working world a much-needed day of respite after everyone goes back to work after the holidays.  I hope, like me, you are taking the day slowly, in robe and slippers. Of course, as Larry says about retirement, “It’s great not to be able to tell the difference between regular days and holidays.”

I was reminded, via a poem about a martini sent by a friend, of Ogden Nash. I can remember reading his “light verse” in the New Yorker when I was 10 or 12, thinking it was brilliant. He’s pretty much forgotten now, but if you think of him in context, only one generation older than Pound and Eliot, and remember the straight jacket most poets were struggling to get out of, the weight of his lightness is more impressive.  Here are two short samples:

A Word to Husbands

To keep your marriage brimming
With love in the loving cup,
Whenever you’re wrong, admit it;
Whenever you’re right, shut up. 

Biological Reflection

A girl whose cheeks are covered with paint
Has an advantage with me over one whose ain’t.

Ogden Nash

By the way, do you know anyone else with the first name Ogden?

In other news, I wrote an article for the Stanford Neuroscience Blog this week, about a study that demonstrates bias against women in the sciences, and also was accepted along with Melissa Burke, to read at Bay Area Generations in San Francisco on January 27. This event pairs artists of different generations who submit their work to read or perform together.  I’m excited to be doing this with Melissa!

In farm news, one of my hens definitely turned out to be a rooster. Lila named him Lucky, an apt moniker, as I wanted a rooster, and this one is soft voiced, protective of his hens, and happy to do his job.

And for those still following up on New Years’ resolutions, I have ordered a copy of the Constitution, but it hasn’t arrived yet.