Calendar

Jan 20: Bach recital at Royal Festival Hall

Feb 22: Mozart's "The Magic Flute" at Royal Opera House

Mar 3:   Strauss' "Salome" at Royal Opera House

Apr 2:    "Dirty Dancing" at Aldwych Theatre

Apr 14:  Bizet's "Carmen" at Royal Opera House

"Gurus, who, I trust you know, are Indian teachers, expect you to contemplate the acorn ten years at a stretch, and if, in that time, you are no wiser about the nut, you are not very bright, and that may be the only certainty with which you will come away, which is a post-graduate melancholy—for no man can find a greater truth than his kidney will allow."
-Djuna Barnes, Nightwood

Granny Squares

When I skyped the Thanksgiving family gathering from London in November, my dad bravely passed his laptop around so that various members of the family could have the disconcerting experience of speaking on a headset to a laptop in a room jam-packed with boisterous relatives. When I talked to Chrissy, she informed me that she had started knitting granny squares to make a blanket for me. Having brought the project with her to Thanksgiving, she was besieged by offers of help, including many from people who had no idea how to knit.

After Thanksgiving, more stories trickled my way. Everyone was helping. Any time someone went into town, cries went up to buy another pair of knitting needles. Those who at first refused to learn to knit (Petie, Matt) resigned themselves to fate by the end of the weekend. The experts (Chrissy, Monica, Marty, Grandma Noble, Kathy (Ray) Torrey, others?) taught the beginners. Kate taught Joanna one morning, only to find Joanna teaching someone else later in the day. Kathy (Ray) Torrey knitted squares even though she's allergic to the knitting needles. When the hardcore folks remaining for that last Saturday night were later asked what they had done, they reported that they had all spent the evening knitting. To the incredulous "wasn't there even any music?" the reply was generally, "no, not that I remember." That last night, Chrissy had laid out the finished squares, placing yarn and knitting needles in the remaining empty blocks so that people could finish squares at home and mail them to Chrissy.

While in New York just before Christmas, Kate got a call from Chrissy on her way up from Baltimore. We agreed to stop by their house to visit the following day, before we went to Connecticut. Later, we found out that we had to be in Connecticut much earlier than we had realized, so we decided to visit the Robin Torreys in Brooklyn that night instead. When we got there, Kate demanded "Do you have It?!?" of Chrissy, who cried back, "I was supposed to have twelve more hours!" (People didn't know whether I knew about the blanket, and didn't want to risk spoiling the surprise.) So that night I saw only the box in which it then sat, but didn't see the squares, which were all finished, but not yet put together.

For the rest of my time at home, everyone I saw who found out that I had seen Chrissy in New York asked eagerly, "Did she give you Something?" I spent the rest of my time at home in Connecticut, the Catskills and Ithaca. Unfortunately, I didn't get to see the Robin Torreys again, and Chrissy had to go back down to Baltimore. The night before I left to return to London, I went back to New York, to Barbara's house. Dad and Kathi met me there but first, unbeknownst to me, stopped at the Robin Torreys' to pick up the blanket.


So here we are at Barbara's house with the beautiful blanket stretched out (those are Linda's feet at the bottom). Some more photos are here.

Thank you all so much! I love it. If you have more photos or stories, I'd love to have them.

The blanket arrived with a warning from Chrissy that it still needed to be "tucked." I had no idea what this meant, so Grandma made Barbara pull out Briana's knitting needles (I believe Briana was one of the many taught at Thanksgiving) so she could teach me to tuck. Grandma then spent half an hour lovingly tucking for me.

BCS

Though I'm still not playing any Go these days, I am working again on Basic Corner Shapes via Cho Chikun's life and death dictionary. This one (white to play) is one of my favourites:



Here's a poem by Sylvia Plath to knock the answer off the page and out of sight. (So read the problem before the poem.)

Mushrooms

"Overnight, very
Whitely, discreetly,
Very quietly

Our toes, our noses
Take hold on the loam,
Acquire the air.

Nobody sees us,
Stops us, betrays us;
The small grains make room.

Soft fists insist on
Heaving the needles,
The leafy bedding,

Even the paving.
Our hammers, our rams,
Earless and eyeless,

Perfectly voiceless,
Widen the crannies,
Shoulder through holes. We

Diet on water,
On crumbs of shadow,
Bland-mannered, asking

Little or nothing.
So many of us!
So many of us!

We are shelves, we are
Tables, we are meek,
We are edible,

Nudgers and shovers
In spite of ourselves.
Our kind multiplies:

We shall by morning
Inherit the earth.
Our foot's in the door."

This is only one variation. White 1 is the proper first move, but then there are a number of things Black might try (none of which work). I particularly like this sequence though — an elegant little kill.