So the writing thing has been going well and I’m hopelessly behind on email (sorry if you’re waiting for one, it just means I had to think about something you wrote). We’ve got a guest in town this week from grad school (she’s now a librarian at Cornell) and will do some fun tooling around town. In the meantime, here are some further thoughts on two topics – –
It’s funny how talk of changing habits has led to draconian measures — in addition to the program Miriam pointed me to, several friends have told me their chastity-belt-type strategies to slow down the rush. For me, it’s more about habit changing than “the compulsive email check” — though Carrie and I do joke about that behavior. I’m doing so-so so far but it’s something to work on over the summer. It does raise the question, though, of whether email has some special kind of “pull.” Anyway, future posts will have something to say on the matter of my own work patterns since people are game for talking about it. But not tonight.
Tattoos
Today Carrie and I are driving around running some errands and while stopped at the light on Mont Royal (never drive on this street if you can help it), a rather svelte woman with an exposed midriff stood at the corner. Above her butt, she has the obligatory lower-back tattoo of a pair of wings. Which brings me to this deep question:
Why do people always get tattoos of flying things right above their butts?
We pondered this momentous question for some time but could reach no definite conclusions.
Well, now it’s simply a matter of copying established designs, but most of the original “art tats” were based on the triangular shape of the sacrum, and the visual extension thereof. The obvious bilateral symmetry lends itself, in the horizontal extension, to “wings”.
Beyond that, maybe it’s a cruel inside joke by tattoo artists. Maybe people ask for tweety bird, or an anchor, and the conspiracy keeps people from revealing that there is in actuality a pair of wings above their ass…
I am even more dumbfounded by the tattoo that a former Pgh resident had in the same spot – a banner held aloft by two birds, declaring “Sick of Goodbyes”