Housekeeping at Ana Verse (Page)

Entries de-posted at Ana Verse (saved in draft form):

75 titles or sub-titles in Texas Was Better (1985–1999) and Clarity or Enough (2000–2012).

02 entries related to The Argotist Online and OtherStream Facebook groups, August 1, 2012, posted at Ana Verse on August 10 and 13, 2012, and later de-posted at the request of Bobbi Lurie.

29 self-censored entries, as partly defined in "Writing in the Open," excerpted below.

07 entries of poems included in dog barks up a tree at the apple left in it under a deerslim moon, Dusie Kollektiv, 2008 (2009).

02 Index and List of Publications, now available as pages at Ana Verse.

Entries taken out of draft form may, depending on the age of the posts, republish to the top of the weblog.  I note the original posting dates in republished entries if the order shifts.

Posts that relate to my de-posting (saving in draft form) entries at Ana Verse, past and present:

¶—"Housekeeping," July 16, 2007:

http://annbogle.blogspot.com/2007/07/housecleaning.html

¶—"Writing in the Open," November 4, 2008:

 http://annbogle.blogspot.com/2008/11/writing-in-open.html

Excerpt:

 My reasons when I de-post:

1. Exigencies of print and online publication in journals and books
2. Distinction between self- and other publishing where other-publishing offers more esteem, privacy, and closure, closure in more than one sense: internet self-publishing is even more like hiding in the open than underground print publishing -- print books and journals have to be special-ordered or purchased at readings and book fairs and are therefore much more difficult to access
3. A quest for writing in privacy
4. Fear of revealing too much personal information
5. Hesitancy to identify people except in a formal way
6. Self-censorship of other types
7. Job seeking regardless of type of job
8. Timing and placement with regard to other posts
9. Other aesthetic considerations
10. Proprietary guardianship of writing as work

¶—"May is MeHeWriMo," May 1, 2009:

http://annbogle.blogspot.com/2009/04/may-is-mehemo.html

Lily Tomlin and Cher Bono

http://www.videosurf.com/video/lily-tomlin-cher-bono-gossip-10008553

Journey of Man

An internet friend, Seamus, writes:

When I was 14, I hoped that one day I would have a girlfriend.

When I was 16 I got a girlfriend, but there was no passion, so I decided I needed a passionate girl with a zest for life.

In college I dated a passionate girl, but she was too emotional. Everything was an emergency; she was a drama queen, cried all the time and threatened suicide. So I decided I needed a girl with stability.

When I was 25, I found a very stable girl but she was boring. She was totally predictable and never got excited about anything. Life became so dull that I decided that I needed a girl with some excitement.

When I was 28 I found an exciting girl, but I couldn't keep up with her. She rushed from one thing to another, never settling on anything. She did mad impetuous things and made me miserable as often as happy. She was great fun initially and very energetic, but directionless. So I decided to find a girl with some real ambition.

When I turned 30, I found a smart ambitious girl with her feet planted firmly on the ground, so I married her. She was so ambitious that she divorced me and took everything I owned. I am older and wiser now, and am looking for a girl with big tits.

On greatness

There once was a man from Rochester
whose poetry marched with a feather (1)
I'd ask the man flat
(if I still had a hat)
whose spines would be covered in leather


(1) Compete

one entry found

Main Entry:

com·pete

Pronunciation:

\kəm-ˈpēt\

Function:

intransitive verb

Inflected Form(s):

com·pet·ed; com·pet·ing

Etymology:

Late Latin competere to seek together, from Latin, to come together, agree, be suitable, from com- + petere to go to, seek — more at feather

Date:

1620

: to strive consciously or unconsciously for an objective (as position, profit, or a prize) : be in a state of rivalry <competing teams> competing for customers>

Writing in the Open

I love keeping a blog. I love the reverse chronological nature/order of writing and reading within a blog. I love the convenient circularity of reading "around" at a blog, in an order determined by sudden bursts of interest. I love the one hand clapping.

Many readers & writers ignore blogs. Blogs are discounted for quality, accuracy, and relevance by the very fact of their context as blogs unless they are maintained by a news organization owned by a major company or conglomerate -- these do seem like billboards -- or unless the ethos of the blogger has helped to establish the blog as valuable. The blogger of blogs of serious inquiry -- political and aesthetic and journalistic -- partly establishes his ethos by refusing the personal or quotidien. Avoidance of, lack of interest in, shuddering at the thought of so many people exposing themselves "to the planet" and their sheer number, especially when faced with more important reading duties or possibilities, create an underlying privacy. At my blog there are 18 international and domestic visitors per day. Most of them stay for 00:00 minutes. Rarely, someone stops to read at the blog or comment. Comments remain on the internet permanently and can be like bird droppings to reread later except the most formal and impersonal of them.

Readers of blogs are like birds at a feeder in a yard where a cat lives. They don't nest. They flit from tree to tree. The openness of the blogosphere is like air to a bird. I love birds. I love being a cat trying to espy a bird or a mother who feeds them. I love the openness of the blogosphere.

The difference between an internet journal and a blog is sometimes only technical, like stepping over a chalk line for a door, like flying over a telephone line.

To date, I have "published" 277 posts, of which 48 are draft posts -- including a few photos -- that I have voluntarily and subsequently "removed" while yet preserving them in "draft" form -- "taken down," as if a post were a yard sign or bulletin board or picture hanging at an exhibit instead of a letter with a postage stamp -- concealed from view, really, after having revealed them once or at one time, usually for the sheer pleasure, sense of eagerness, and accomplishment in it. I preserve them for the same reasons.

I view my blog as a book under construction. I don't view myself as a writer captured on the jumbotron. I view myself as someone who paints portraits on the street instead of privately in a studio. Or as a street musician.

At one point, I asked for donations but thought better of it. I tried advertising for Google at the blog and thought better of that.

My blog has a formal appearance with its images of nature. It is a formal experience to work in the blog form. I typically use the word "weblog" to reinforce that formal feeling. Typographically, I have limited options: flush left, center, flush right or right-left justified, bullet lists and block quotes. That affects poetry most.

My reasons when I depost:

1. Exigencies of print and online publication in journals and books
2. Distinction between self- and other publishing where other-publishing offers more esteem, privacy, and closure, closure in more than one sense: internet self-publishing is even more like hiding in the open than underground print publishing -- print books and journals have to be special-ordered or purchased at readings and book fairs and are therefore much more difficult to access
3. A quest for writing in privacy
4. Fear of revealing too much personal information
5. Hesitancy to identify people except in a formal way
   
6. Self-censorship of other types
7. Job seeking regardless of type of job
8. Timing and placement with regard to other posts
9. Other aesthetic considerations
10. Proprietary guardianship of writing as work
    

Other reasons and feelings occur in the process of revision just as in the less immediate ways of writing.

I love the convenience of the entire machine, right down to the template, the generous free hosting, the reliability of the mechanisms, the dailyness of it, the visitations, the sense of audience, the google search lines. One of the search lines yesterday was for "sex in hotel beds ettiquette," a query that led to a post I wrote in Jan. 2006 called "First Sex"; "bondageservice" led to the same post the next day. One from today contains a typo: "sexual prosetics for men." I plan to bring that to the attention of my writer-editor-friends when I next correspond.

Calling Michael Semora

who will recall that I did not say, "don't write."

How to Reach Me

Waterways of Russia
July 21 to August 3, 2008

Yale Educational Travel
Association of Yale Alumni

Hotel National Le Meridien
July 22 to 24 (2 nights)
15/1, bld. 1 ul. Mokhovaya
125009 Moscow, Russian Federation
Phone: 011-7-495-258-7100
Fax: 011-7-495-258-7100

M.S. Volga Dream
July 24 to 31 (7 nights)
Phone/Fax: 011-7-906-750-2011
Email: info@volgadream.com

Please note: the ship may not receive incoming calls while cruising.

Kempinksi Hotel Moika 22
July 31 to August 3 (3 nights)
Address:
Moika River Embankment 22
191186 St. Petersburg, Russian Federation
Phone: 011-7-812-335-9111
Fax: 011-7-812-335-9190

If you encounter difficulty reaching the ship or hotel or your party, please call Thomas P. Gohagan & Company at (800) 922-3088 for assistance.

Power & Control v. Equality

V = Violence
E = Equality

1V. Using Intimidation

Making partner (ex-) afraid by using looks, actions, gestures; smashing things; destroying property; abusing pets; displaying weapons

v.

1E. Non-threatening Behavior

Talking & acting so that s/he feels safe and comfortable expressing herself and doing things

.....................................................................................

2V. Using Emotional Abuse

Putting partner (ex-) down; manipulation; name calling; making the partner think s/he is crazy; playing mind games; humiliation; creating feelings of guilt

v.

2E. Respect

Listening to her non-judgmentally; being emotionally affirming and understanding; valuing opinions

.....................................................................................

3V. Using Isolation

Controlling what partner (ex-) does, sees, talks to, reads, where s/he goes; limiting outside involvement; using jealousy to justify actions

v.

3E. Trust and Support

Supporting her goals in life; respecting her rights to her own feelings, friends, activities and opinions

.....................................................................................

4V. Minimizing, Denying, and Blaming

Making light of the abuse and not taking concerns about abuse seriously; saying the abuse didn't happen; shifting responsibility for abusive behavior

v.

4E. Honesty and Accountability

Accepting responsibility for self; acknowledging past use of violence; admitting being wrong; communicating openly and truthfully

.....................................................................................

5V. Using Children

Creating guilty feelings about the children; using the children to relay messages; using visitation to harass the partner (ex-); threatening to take the children away

v.

5E. Responsible Parenting

Sharing parental responsibilities; being a positive non-violent role model for the children

.....................................................................................

6V. Using Privilege

Treating partner (ex-) like a servant; making all the big decisions; acting like the 'master of the castle'; being the one to define men's and women's roles; rigid gender roles

v.

6E. Shared Responsibility

Mutually agreeing on a fair distribution of work; making family decisions together

.....................................................................................

7V. Using Economic Abuse

Preventing the partner (ex-) from getting or keeping a job; making partner (ex-) ask for money; allocating an allowance; taking partner's (ex's) money; not informing or limiting access to family income

v.

7E. Economic Partnership

Making money decisions together; making sure both partners benefit from financial arrangements

.....................................................................................

8V. Using Coercion & Threats

Making &/or carrying out threats; threatening to leave, to commit suicide, to report partner (ex-) to welfare; making partner (ex-) drop charges, do illegal things

v.

8E. Negotiation & Fairness

Seeking mutually satisyfing resolutions to conflict; accepting change; being willing to compromise

.....................................................................................

This list is adapted from two wheels (pie charts) distributed by:

Domestic Abuse Intervention Project
Duluth, Minnesota

"Vital Signs: Hysteria is calmer than you think"

Discover: Science, Technology, and the Future, November 2007, p. 32-33.

by Frank Vertosick

"[...]The emergency room had just admitted a 22-year-old convenience store clerk, whom I will call Rachel. She had awakened several hours earlier with a rather annoying problem: She could not move her legs. [...]'Does anything hurt?' I asked. 'No,' she said, shrugging. [...] 'Are they numb?' I continued, stroking her bare shins with my index finger. 'Nah, I feel that. They just feel funny, you know, heavy. Do you think this is serious? When can I go home? I have to open the store at 6. [...]'

"Further interrogation revealed little. Rachel was healthy, no illnesses, no medications, no surgeries. A smoker since 14, she used marijuana sporadically, but there was no other history of drug use. No traumas, no chance of pregnancy (her boyfriend had abruptly dumped her six months earlier, and she still seethed when discussing him), no history of depression or other mental illness, no significant family history. She was in good health. Except for the 'leg thing.'

"In addition to lacking any obvious pathology, she also lacked health insurance. The ER had already set up an MRI of her entire spine and summoned the technician from home to do it. This might yield an answer -- but I suspected the truth about her condition already, and I was reluctant to saddle the woman with thousands of dollars of expensive pictures. The tests would all be negative anyway.

"A quick examination confirmed my suspicions. When I poked her foot with a pin, she yelped but didn't move her legs. [...]These findings, coupled with a blase attitude toward her paralysis (a mental state known in neurology as "la belle indifference"), made me suspect a rather distasteful diagnosis: hysteria.

"[...]Today hysteria is known by the more palatable but still inaccurate moniker 'conversion disorder.' It manifests acutely in the form of blindness, paralysis, even coma, with no apparent organic disease. Sigmund Freud believed that the hysterical mind converts some psychic trauma into a physical malady that will both garner sympathy and allow the sufferer to hide from her problems behind a shield of illness. Decades before Freud, the great French neurologist Jean-Martin Charcot suggested that hysteria was indeed an organic brain illness, not the product of a disturbed or demon-possessed mind, but Freud's explanation gained wider acceptance.

"Although many hysterics complain of mental distress (like Rachel's boyfriend woes), recent neurophysiological evidence from PET scans and functional MRIs suggests that the malady may be akin to a seizure initiated by the frontal lobes, and so is a condition of the brain as well as the mind. Some people may have a vulnerability to this kind of response to stress. Thus Charcot was probably right (he usually was), and Freud was probably wrong (no surprise there either).

"[...] I told [Rachel] that most likely nothing serious was going on and that she probably had a 'vitamin deficiency.' This is one aspect of hysterical paralysis that still smacks of a psychiatric origin: Patients must be convinced that they are being treated as if they have an organic disease. Simply telling them they are imagining things doesn't work very well.

"There is an old adage: Neurology is what you do while you are waiting for the films to be developed. [...]

"Twenty minutes after the [vitamin] infusion ended, Rachel's legs roared to life, and she walked out the door. I went home, tired but happy in the knowledge that I hadn't allowed a single freakish spasm of a young woman's brain to land her in the poorhouse or in the psychiatric ward."

Pay-off (def.)

(from Webster's New Universal Unabridged Dictionary):

n., 1. originally, the act or time of payment. [Colloq.]
2. settlement or reckoning. [Colloq.]
3. something that is unexpected or almost incredible, especially when coming as a climax or culmination. [Colloq.]

We had a spiritual practice in Houston whereby one of us would open the dictionary randomly and point to the "power word of the day." The first time one of us did it, the power word was "fig." I've done this only a couple times on my own. Today's power word is "pay-off." Further words to help me interpret the significance of that word are "rodent," "sliding scale," "pudding," and "metemptosis," wh. means "the suppression of the bissextile day once in 134 years, to prevent the new moon from being indicated in the calendar a day too early: compare proemptosis (in chronology the addition of a day every 300 years and another every 2400 years to the lunar calendar, to prevent the date of the new moon being set a day too soon)."

Espied: neighbors in the dictionary: "promiscuousness" and "promise."

Lesson 38

The verb "tener" (to have) (present tense)

I have a book.
You are hungry./You have hunger.
You have a big bed.
He has a wife.
She has a child.
We have a problem.
You have a house (plural, as in Spain)
You have a house (plural)
They have tickets for a trip to Spain.
I have a father.
You have a mother.
My house has three doors.
It has seven windows also.
We have time.
You have a pen.
They have some tickets for the ferry boat.
They have some gifts for their husbands.

(from onlingo by Henry N. Raymond)

Wisdom of Dr. Abraham Low

"Whether you are right or wrong is immaterial. Temper is a matter of breeding, not of right and wrong."

"With us in Recovery it is an axiom that while a nervous ailment is not necessarily caused by distorted beliefs, nevertheless, if it persists beyond a reasonable time, its continuance, stubbornness and 'resistance' are produced by continuing, stubborn and 'resisting' beliefs."

"Humans have never been known to endorse themselves as they should."

"With reference to his symptoms a nervous patient must be genuine in feeling and sincere in thought."

"I can't tell you not to feel provoked. I may tell you that I have a great capacity for feeling provoked about every few minutes, but I hope I have an equally great capacity, and perhaps a trifling greater capacity, to hold down the feeling of being provoked."

"Patients who suffer from a depression think that whatever they do is wrong. They think whatever they have done in the past is wrong, and they recount past misdemeanors and so-called delinquencies, which have perhaps some basis in fact but are monstrously exaggerated. And you understand that such patients categorically deny that there is anything right in their thinking."

"A sense of humor is the sovereign means for curing nervous conditions."

"My purpose in life is to make myself and those people that are close to me -- let me say the members of my family, my friends, my neighbors, and so forth, my co-workers -- make them feel good and to make myself feel good."

"Nervous patients tend to be extremists with regard to their symptoms when they are still sick and with regard to the practice of rules after they have improved."

Selections from Dr. Low's Works
© 1997 By Phyllis Low Berning and Marilyn Low Schmitt
The Wisdom of Dr. Low is compiled by Cliff Brown and edited by Marilyn Low Schmitt.

Karma (def.)

[Sans. a deed, act.] 1. in Buddhism and Hinduism, the totality of a person's actions in one of the successive states of his existence, thought of as determining his fate in the next.
2. loosely, fate; destiny.

Jealous (def.)

(jel'), a. [ME, jelous, gelous; OFr. jalous, from LL zelosus, full of zeal, from L. zelus; Gr. zelos, zeal, emulation.]

1. suspicious; apprehensive of rivalry; as, her husband was jealous of the other man.
2. resulting from such a feeling; as, a jealous rage.
3. demanding exclusive loyalty; as, the Lord is a jealous God.
4. resentfully envious.
5. careful in protecting; watchful; solicitous; as, jealous of one's reputation.
6. doubtful [Obs.]
Syn. -- envious, covetous, invidious, suspicious.

-- from Webster's New Universal Unabridged Dictionary, deluxe 2nd ed.

Epideictic or Panegyric (def.)

Main Entry: pan·e·gy·ric
Function: noun
Pronunciation: "pa-n&-'jir-ik, -'jī-rik
Etymology: Latin panegyricus, from Greek panegyrikos, from panegyrikos of or for a festival assembly, from panegyris festival assembly, from pan- + agyris assembly; akin to Greek ageirein to gather
: a eulogistic oration or writing ; also : formal or elaborate praise
synonym see ENCOMIUM
- pan·e·gy·ri·cal/-'jir-i-k&l, -'jī-ri-/ adjective
- pan·e·gy·ri·cal·ly/-k(&-)le/ adverb

from Richard A. Lanham, A Handlist of Rhetorical Terms, 2nd ed., 1991.

... And isn't "praising" a category different in kind from "legal" and "judicial," which have to do with particular arenas and social purposes? To correspond to them, it ought to be "domestic," or "private" ... . The self-pleasing aspects of rhetorical performance have tended to cluster in this category ...

Bigot (def.)

big'ot, n. [O. Fr.; prob. from Sp. hombre de bigote, lit., man with a mustache (bigote, mustache, ult. from L. biga, span of horses), hence man of spirit, firm character, obstinate person.]
1. a person who holds blindly and intolerantly to a particular creed, opinion, etc.
2. a narrow-minded intolerant person.

big'ot-ry, n. [Fr. bigoterie, from bigot, a bigot, hypocrite.]
1. obstinate or blind attachment to a particular creed; unreasonable zeal in favor of a party, sect, or opinion; excessive prejudice; intolerance.

Disability and the United Nations

Excerpted from "The human rights dimension of disability":

Four core values of human rights law are of particular importance in the context of disability:

the dignity of each individual, who is deemed to be of inestimable value because of his/her inherent self-worth, and not because s/he is economically or otherwise “useful”;

the concept of autonomy or self-determination, which is based on the presumption of a capacity for self-directed action and behaviour, and requires that the person be placed at the centre of all decisions affecting him/her;

the inherent equality of all regardless of difference;

and the ethic of solidarity, which requires society to sustain the freedom of the person with appropriate social supports.

Polemics (def.)

po-lem'ic, po-lem'ic-al, a. [Gr. polemikos, from polemos, war.]
po-lem'ic, n. 2. an argument or controversial discussion.
po-lem'ics, n. pl. [construed as sing.] 1. the art or practice of disputation or controversy.
2. a dispute.
3. that branch of theological science dealing with the history of ecclesiastical controversy.

po-lem'i-cist, n. a skilled debater or writer of polemic discussions.

po'le-mist, n. an argumentative person.

from Webster's New Universal Unabridged Dictionary, deluxe 2nd edition.

Chagrin (def.)

cha-grin', n. [Fr. chagrin, grief, sorrow, vexation, from chagrin, a kind of roughened leather used for rasping wood.] mortification, disappointment, humiliation, embarrassment, etc. caused by failure or discomfiture.

Syn.--vexation, mortification. --Vexation springs from a sense of loss, disappointment, etc., mortification from wounded pride; chagrin may spring from either, and is not usually as keen or lasting.

-- from Webster's New Universal Unabridged Dictionary, deluxe 2nd edition

Celebrate March 8th