Journal of No. 118

reference 

A Poe-em of Passion

IT was many and many a year ago,    
On an island near the sea,  
That a maiden lived whom you mightn’t know    
By the name of Cannibalee;  
And this maiden she lived with no other thought        
Than a passionate fondness for me.  

I was a child, and she was a child—    
Tho’ her tastes were adult Feejee—  
But she loved with a love that was more than love,    
My yearning Cannibalee,        
With a love that could take me roast or fried    
Or raw, as the case might be.    

And that is the reason that long ago,    
In that island near the sea,  
I had to turn the tables and eat        
My ardent Cannibalee—  
Not really because I was fond of her,    
But to check her fondness for me.    

But the stars never rise but I think of the size    
Of my hot-potted Cannibalee,        
And the moon never stares but it brings me nightmares    
Of my spare-rib Cannibalee;  
And all the night-tide she is restless inside,  
Is my still indigestible dinner-belle bride,  
In her pallid tomb, which is Me,        
In her solemn sepulcher, Me.

---

Lummis is quite a figure, particularly in Los Angeles history. LA Times editor, Head of the library, founder of the Southwest Museum, and builder of the Lummis House.

Third costume of the day!

Had a great time at our Halloween Housewarming party. Dr. Pookie slaved all day long, and I slaved half a day long, but we got the house into shape and made some tasty treats for guests. As you can see from the photo, the first trick-or-treater got carved up for the stew. We had some pretty big fleets of kids come through -- in fact, we committed the unpardonable sin... we ran out of candy. But fortunately only a few groups had to go away empty bucketed. A couple of the neighbors showed up, as well as the nice folks who bought our old house. And a good selection of the usual gang of idiots.

A few more photos here, and one video of the dry ice fountain, thanks to castle_kevorah

"If I could get serious for a moment, I'm so outraged at our society's constant insistence on sexualizing woolly mammoths."

"It is known that cultural representations, in the form of stereotypes, can influence functional health. We predicted that the influence of cultural representations, in the form of salient holidays, would extend to birth timing. On Valentine’s Day, which conveys positive symbolism, there was a 3.6% increase in spontaneous births and a 12.1% increase in cesarean births. Whereas, on Halloween, which conveys negative symbolism, there was a 5.3% decrease in spontaneous births and a 16.9% decrease in cesarean births. These effects reached significance at p < .0001, after adjusting for year and day of the week. The sample was based on birth-certificate information for all births in the United States within one week on either side of each holiday across 11 years. The Valentine’s-Day window included 1,676,217 births and the Halloween window included 1,809,304 births. Our findings raise the possibility that pregnant women may be able to control the timing of spontaneous births, in contrast to the traditional assumption, and that scheduled births are also influenced by the cultural representations of the two holidays."

Influence of Valentine’s Day and Halloween on Birth Timing
Becca R. Levy, Pil H. Chung, Martin D. Slade

Click me for a few more photos:


We had a handful of trick-or-treaters... maybe 5 small groups. The best result was the tiny wingéd fairy who was, I think, already hopped up on sugar. She commanded conversation with a voice that somehow managed to be a high-pitched bellowing. [To all generally in her party]: "Look at the punkin patch [i.e. jack-o-lantern]!" [To me and dark_of_night]: "Your punkin patch is soooo byuuuutiful!" It was enough to make me temporarily reconsider my long-held belief that our species should, for the benefit of our planet, forego procreation.

And there was plenty of chaotic partying as well. I hope people enjoyed the tasting of commercial and homemade aromatherapy products. Although I feel justly proud of our homebrew, it was great to get some external validation.

Thanks to everyone who came, and apologies to those to whom the size of our home precluded an invitation.