Francesca Forrest's Blog, page 87

"The Oulough"--at Cast of Wonders

This is a story about complicated families, hope, and an improbable creature. It's narrated by the wonderful Julia Rios! I'm so happy it's finally out, and I can share it with people.

"The Oulough"

I will have to draw you all an oulough...

Entropy and history

On Christmas, wakanomori took me to see a decrepit old bridge over a rail trail, and I had the fun of walking across it on the sturdy steel beam (and clutching the steel sides). He posted photos, but his account is locked, so with his permission, I'm sharing some here (i.e., these are all his photos).

From underneath:


Walking across (see the hole behind me?):


But the bridge wasn't the only thing that was falling down. We also saw disconnected utility poles, with their beautiful insulator caps st...

The gift

IDK, the clothespin was just lying there....

PS: Funny thing another student said

Two girls were eating McDonald's. "Are you a vegan?" one asked me.

"Me? No, I eat everything," I said.

"Really?!" the girl said, completely incredulous. "You look like a vegan."

LOL. They've got me pegged pretty accurately. I just happen not to conform in the aspect of diet.

a good feeling

The kids I volunteer with were supposed to turn in a final paper today, but they were in MANY different stages of that process, including one kid who hadn't started at all. I was working mainly with others, but shortly before the end of class, I came over to him:

"Do you have a topic?"

"Yeah: basketball."

"So, do you want to just write a little something about basketball? Just so you have something to turn in? [Teacher] said she'll take anything you have."

"Miss, there are only six minutes left o...

"Where is my friend?"

Most think the woman rules the fox, but one wise person perceived in her half-closed eyes and parted lips the face of a sleepwalker, a beast of burden, not a master. This person drove the fox from the woman's shoulders with cinnamon and lye, but freed and wakened the woman walked in circles in the snow, confused, asking, "Where is my friend? I'm cold without my friend," and even led indoors and given food, she soon went out again, but the snow was no longer falling, and by the time the next s...

the woman with the arctic fox

There's a woman who wears an arctic fox around her neck, a live one. She goes out walking in snowstorms, and if you pass her, it's the fox that greets you, not the woman. Sometimes it says innocuous things

Some weather we're having
Stay warm
Careful; there's black ice

Other times it tells unsettling jokes with punchlines you can't understand (Did you hear about the man who lost his mind? He was a bellwether, and thirty feasted. Thirty! Hahahaha)

And other times it just makes stray remarks that ma...

sparrows and loquats

It's cold today; the heater is chugging along, making my living space warm, and I feel so grateful. Outside, in the nearby city, the sparrows by the bus station are fluffed up like little feathered pokéballs. They're very tame; people feed them crumbs and things, either by accident or on purpose.

Around here people say "on accident," to go with "on purpose." How about the other way? By accident or by purpose.

Safe from the cold are these loquat trees I grew from seeds that 88greenthumb sent me...

Temba, his arms open

wakanomori announced last night that we had to watch a particular episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation called "Darmok." It had come up in a discussion of Japanese poetry translation--relevant, because part of what makes translation of Japanese poetry difficult is its reliance on shared cultural references and metaphors to convey meaning, and the episode is about the Enterprise's encounter with the Children of Tama, an alien people that the Federation has never been able to communicate su...

I'd join one too

The work I've started to do with the kids in the nearby city led me to this video on gangs from the National Gang Center. Although it's got some drawbacks (the overall analysis strikes me as... obvious? But what do I know; it may be that these are points that bear stressing), one VERY strong thing it's got going for it is the comments from actual former gang members: powerful and heartbreaking, not to mention enraging on the young people's behalf.


Raul, for instance, describes being in fifth g...