- Those vexing speleothems aka cave dripstone deposits. Like cousins both played by Patty Duke, stalactites and stalagmites are just a flip away from a pageboy. In third grade we learned "stalactites hold tight, but stalagmites might fall." This seemed idiotic and backwards then, and hasn't improved. Stalagmites are the speleothems that resemble sturdy grounded traffic cones. They might reach the cave ceiling, but don't hold your breath.
- Concave and convex It is beyond vexing to downright infuriating, but life beyond fifty offers far more examples of poofing convexing than slimming concave-ins. This is not the moment for considering sinkholes.
- Roman numerals shouldn't be that tricky. L means 50. Life begins at 50. D means 500. By 500 you are deceased.
- I've given up hope of ever really understanding the concept of offsides in soccer.
Concave and convex are on my mind because of this box I got for a worm bin. The concave bottom of the box allows air to flow underneath it without being set up on blocks. The convex lid opens like a pirate's treasure chest. Not sure yet how the worms will like the clear sides.
Alas, some things hold tight in memory. For forty-three years the tune for "Jingle Bells" has been linked to a page in the John W. Schaum Piano Course, Book A--The Red Book in which the lyrics were changed to sing about breakfast cereal. There's never been room in my brain for offsides, because somewhere out there a piano teacher is singing, "Crunchy flakes, crunchy flakes..." I'm as stuck with that now as I was sitting on the hard bench at the Hobart M. Cable piano.
© 2008 Nancy L. Ruder
No comments:
Post a Comment