Take Back Your Mink!

Take back the drapes.
Take back the rod.
I fixed the blinds
With a paper clip, aren't you awed?

The vertical blinds had only been broken for a fifteen months. I tried to fix them back in aught-five with only brief success. After a few months I settled into a state of acceptance that the blinds would swivel but not open. It was annoying, but not life-threatening.

For unknown reasons the annoyance resurfaced today at Level Orange. I blame it on Bush, and on the fluff downfall from the mimosa nuisance trees. I found a curtain rod that would adjust to 96" (it's a big sliding glass door), and some white twill drape panels that didn't make me gag at Target. I don't really like drapes or blinds, but there are privacy and energy-efficiency issues to be considered. People who live in small condos shouldn't throw stones.


This is not my condo. It is Philip Johnson's famous Glass House.

When I got ready to take down the old vertical blinds to put up the new curtain rod, I could hear my dad telling me to try once more to fix them. I could hear my mom reading The Little Engine That Could. "I think I can, I think I can, I think I can," I huffed and I puffed (but that might be a different story). The paper clip did the trick! Hooray. I can take back the drapes...

Not long ago I saw "Guys and Dolls" performed by ten-year-olds. It was quite a feat, and I applaud them. When "Take Back Your Mink" popped into my head today, it was in those preteen Texan voices doing New York accents. Can't quite imagine Adelaide or Sister Sarah, Sky or Nathan Detroit spending much time fixing vertical blinds. Of course, I'm not your normal Hot Box Girl, either!

He bought me the fur mink five winters ago
And the gown the following fall
Then the necklace, the bag, the gloves, and the hat,
That was late '48 I recall
Then last night in his apartment
He tried to remove them all
And I said as I ran down the hall:

Take back your mink
Take back your pearls
What made you think
That I was one of those girls?
Take back the gown
The gloves and the hat
I may be down
But I'm not flat as all that.