Wildly Interesting Books

  • Adam's Task by Vicki Hearne
  • Anything by Colin Cotterill
  • Auguries of Innocence by Patti Smith
  • Big Box Swindle by Stacy Mitchell
  • Darwin: A Life in Poems by Ruth Padel
  • Gehry Draws
  • Human Smoke by Nicholson Baker
  • Out of Our Heads by Ava Noe
  • Stylepedia: A Guide to Graphic Design, Mannerisms, Quirks and Conceits
  • The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larrson
  • The God of Small Things by Arundahti Roy
  • The Long Fall by Walter Mosely
  • The Martin Beck Series by Maj Sjowall and Per Waloo
  • The Story of Edgar Sawtelle by David Wroblewski
  • The Wrecking Crew by Thomas Frank
  • Vermeeer in Bosnia by Lawrence Weschler

Saturday, February 13, 2010

Last But Not Least Post-Christmas Neighborhood Tragedy


This one broke my heart. Santa beheaded and exsanguinated!! The blood-draining apparently extended even to his traditional red hat. And the bloodless head nailed to a house in East Cambridge! I ask you: what kind of monsters are out there? Sure, there are many holiday-haters, humbugs and hard core non-celebraters of the admittedly commercialized and crass holiday of Christmas. But to behead the jolly man so beloved by children everywhere seems a bit much. If you look closely (and I don''t recommend it) you will notice a tinge of red here and there, especially around the lips, the tip of the famous nose alongside of which he lay his finger.(that doesn't sound so good, put that way) as well as two dots on his merry cheeks. (also doesn't sound so good) Perhaps the savaged Santa, upon leaving the Windsor Tap, was in the middle of a high-spirited "Ho Ho Ho" when the axe fell, leaving his lips puckered and pursed, thereby saving a pale pink memento of his well-know rosy smile.


It's hard to know if we should expect Santa next December or not. There's the depressingly deflated version of the present-packing paragon, on Hampshire Street, languishing under a drain pipe. And then there's the fascinatingly fixated version of the right jolly old elf in his sleigh ready to take off over and over again. But the bloodless head! I seriously doubt a return of the toy-toting sleigh-man. I can't go on capturing these gruesome sights on film. I'm beginning to suffer from unending nightmares which is why I'm posting this at an ungodly hour. Better to get it out of my system than to fall into a dream-tortured sleep that decidedly does not feature visions of sugar plum fairies dancing in my head. Farewell to this topic.
Sadly, there are other hard-to-beleive-neighborhood-sights for me to report on in the future. As soon as I'm able to walk around town with my camera I will be back with the stories the major media dare not cover.