Skipping a day

John Mosedale, friend, about 5 years ago


Dear family and friends,

I didn't write yesterday because the previous day I had encroached on yesterday's territory, starting it after 2 p.m., and the problem with skipping is that I cannot quite remember what I had thought about or done the day before yesterday that might be worth my while (and yours) to write about.

Work for the website hamletworks.org with Satyric, the grad student at Reno, is going well, except he is now teaching a class and of course has to give his major attention to his students. He seems very committed. We can talk on the phone, which we did the other evening, and both see the website. I can in this way show him what to do. The whole process is simple in a way, but with many steps to consider, and much thinking to do while working. When he can devote more time to hamletworks.org, much will get done. One section of the site needs a lot of work and may have to be re-done, at least in part—and this will be his work for the summer and perhaps beyond.

Talking to Satyaki, showing him the ropes at long distance, is something like teaching, but not quite. It's more like helping a colleague understand a lab process. But when my dear Dawn called with questions and thoughts about her 3-week summer classes, I really got into it, remembering what I used to do when I taught classes that lasted only three weeks. When we hung up, what I felt most like doing was to look at my old lesson plans and see what I might do with them. But I quickly realized I had other things I had to do! Like prepare an agenda for the summit meeting of the hamletworks.org editors and Pete from MIT.

I finished the obit piece on John Mosedale (see photo above), but I am going to let it sit for a few more days. His wife, Betty, has mailed me a packet, and perhaps material will be there I can use. I heard from the editors of the Shakespeare Newsletter that they would be delighted to get the obit. So I will have two items in the next issue.

Since I couldn't get into the City to interview Arin Arbus, the director, I proposed to the editors that I write a separate review not only about her work with Measure for Measure but also the other plays she has directed. This will be for a future issue.

Also, Laury's decision to go for a book rather than a section of a journal has given those of us included a clear direction. I have started looking at what I ahd done for the Shakespeare conference and see I have much to do before it is good enough to be a chapter in a book. Isn't it wonderful to be busy and active!

It's funny how things work out. Right now, work is being done by the building maintenance crew where we have our pied-à-terre, so we are not really missing days in the City. It would be impossible to use our apartment with plastic drapes over the open outside wall. Lucky, right? They could have done this job WHEN I was able to be there, and then I would have missed out.

Also, just as I become able to get into the City again, I will have an appointment with Mount Sinai. I am happy that they didn't call me to come sooner to take the preliminary tests for the drug trial. I don't have to go until June 10th, and by then I really should be in good shape. They don't even have to know I had a break in the pubis ramus—though I probably will tell them.

My ability to walk now, my orthopedist agrees, shows that the bone has healed. Merwin and I went to see him yesterday, and he was confused. Merwin and I had both gone to him about problems, me for my hip, which he diagnosed as a back problem, for which he told me to go to a physical therapist. This was about 2 weeks before the fall and broken bone. It was on the way into the therapist's office for my 3rd visit that the sidewalk in front of her office tripped me up, sending me crashing to the ground, breaking my bone, as the CT scan in the ER showed.

After the first phone call from him after the ER communicated the CT scan to him (it's all done elctronically). and he verified the ER doctor's diagnosis, I never heard from him again. It was my hematologist who arranged for the Visiting Nurse physical therapist and for the blood draw.

So when he came into the examining room yesterday, holding notes about the hip/back problem but utterly confused about the fall and the break, I said something like "You let me fall between the cracks—just as I fell because of the cracks!" I said this with a smile, teasingly. Anyway he called up the CT scan (isn't modern technology wonderful!), and we looked at it together. He showed me, as he rotated the image, the very clean break, fortunately with no torque: the pieces had stayed in place, putting me in a good position for healing. He suggested an x-ray now to verify the healing, but I demurred: hadn't I had enough x-rays? Isn't the fact that I can walk with a cane and even without it at times proof that it has healed? He agreed, and at the end gave me a prescription for physical therapy to strengthen my legs, which are very weak, and said, "I am sorry I let you fall through the cracks," using my very words in an apology. Apologies are a rare thing for a doctor, I think. he is a sweet young man.

The hour of waiting in the office gave me an opportunity to work on the agenda for our team's summit meeting; preparation is important because we have many things to settle.

On the way home, Merwin stopped at the Honda place to pick up his car, and I went on to North Shore Farms to pick up a few things. We seem to need to shop constantly. I suppose it's because we are rarely eating out now. I had intended to go to the cleaners and to CVS, but I opted for the supermarket instead. I used the bags I keep in the car, and kept each one very light. It helps to have a handicapped permit for parking. Mrwin was rather shocked that I did all that by myself. When I got home, we had a nice supper of halibut and red leaf lettuce salad.

I ended the evening with a martini glassful of the rabbi's cosmopolitans. Still good! a little more tangy than sweet, which I like, and Merwin and I watched a rather weird movie about a boy robot who wants love.

Don't we all!

Love,
Bernice

Many interruptions

Dear family and friends,

I am just getting to the blog just before 2 p.m., very late for me. Betty sent me this morning important information I need to write something for the Shakespeare Newsletter about her husband, John, with whom I shared an intense interest in Hamlet. Turning to John was the first thing on my mind this morning.

Our son Harvey phoned, on his way to have lunch with two former students, to see one of them graduate from Yale, and to hear Bill Clinton give an address. We'll get the scoop from him later, if not on the NYT online.

Merwin and I have returned from a trip to the Super Market: there always seems to be more to buy! Before that we went to the beach, where he had his usual vigorous walk and I trailed behind with my cane. I walked yesterday a bit too much, and that knocked me out. I went all around our neighborhood, enjoying the flowers, a few dogs (I always LOVE seeing dogs), the houses and the very few people who happen to be out. Among the latter were our very across-the-street nice neighbors, Lorraine and her two daughters, Amanda and Kaeli, gorgeous little girls. Lorraine and her husband Scott bought the house from Brendan who married our friend Sophie and moved elsewhere.

Yesterday, Sophie popped over with her great Spinach Pie. She also brought a hummingbird feeder, in response to the hummingbird photo I had put on my blog, I think, and we can hope to hold a few hummingbirds on our hands some day!

Toby and Elliott came over in the afternoon. Funny thing. I had agreed that I would phone them after nap time to tell them when to come. But in my faulty memory, I remembered only that they were coming at 4 o'clock, so as to arrive after our nap time. At 4:30 we finally phoned and got the truth, and they popped over. [Soon there will be no such popping, except in NYC because having retired from their Long Island faculty positions, they will soon sell their Roslyn apartment.]

Just a few days after my broken pelvis, Elliott celebrated his retirement at a local restaurant. I had missed the event, so yesterday Toby read their son Eric's introduction and roasting (very gentle) and Elliott set up his computer to give a Power Point presentation of his talk to me (and Merwin, who had already seen and heard it of course). It was great, full of the enthusiasm of a dedicated teacher. I asked him how was he doing this, giving up teaching, and he said that his college gave him an offer he could not refuse. I don't know much math, I'm afraid, not any more, though I used to be quite good at it. The difference between me and Merwin was that I was willing to memorize and considerd that "learning" the material. He had to understand and hated memorization.

We went to a local restaurant, Ernesto's, about 1/4 mile from our house, and had a lovey meal: Toby and I both had eggplant parmesan, and each took away enough for lunch today. Toby had also made Bittman asparagus pesto and brought a full container of it for me. She and I agree that it is not as good as basil pesto. I froze her pesto and will use it when the hamletworks.team arrives, but I will add basil as well.

The evening ended fairly early, with reading what had already arrived of the Sunday paper.

And so to bed, now for a nap.

Love to all,
Bernice

All chicks in the nest

Annetine (Harvey's host in Norway), Rachael (his older twin daughter) and Fiona (scientist from Glasgow, Scotland. Norway was festive), full of celebrations for Constitution Day. It must have been cold there!

Dear family and friends,

Harvey phoned on his ride home from the airport to Connecticut and filled us in on his doings in Oslo, where he was very busy with a collaboration he is involved in. A paper is in process, and Merwin and I expect to be proof-readers, commentators. We are very proud of his important work.

Arthur called too, and though we said we would return the call in the evening, since we were busy when he called, somehow we never got to it. We'll call today. His month could be exciting—or not.

Lincoln won a prize in a costume contest, and Dave was helpful in his usual ways. We didn't talk to Rachael, but Merwin tracked her travel and learned when she landed. So all the chicks are now accounted for. We hope to talk to all the grandchildren too, this weekend. Ha! both of us actually have an aversion to phone calls, so though the talking itself is wonderful it is hard to get ourselves to make the calls.

The graduate student from Reno who is helping hamletworks.org phoned me yesterday evening. I am sure he will a hardworking asset to the project. For the moment, though, as a graduate student in an American university he is teaching a course for the first time in his experience, and of course the preparation and the classroom work, plus papers, will keep him very busy. So he plans to work for hamletworks.org only a couple of hours a day until the course is over. Whatever he does will be very helpful.

I am feeling pretty perky in spite of or because of the prednisone taper. The red spots on my arms are fading. I have to rest now and then, but I am not laid low for hours as I had been a few months ago. So I can look forward to taking long walks, riding my stationary bike, and even getting back to the JCC before too long, probably after I check in with the orthopedist on Monday. The pain is there, but I try to ignore it.

Eric sent a long review of an edition of Middleton that he wrote for the Shakespeare Quarterly with a colleague and friend, in the shape of a dialogue. Brilliant. Controversial. What annoys me about the editor of the edition, Gary Taylor, is that he claims for Middleton what is usually ascribed to Shakespeare—including Macbeth and Measure for Measure. True, there are probably some stanzas in each that could be Middleton's: Shakespeare often collaborated with others. But the plays as a whole, as most scholars think, are Shakespeare's. Taylor likes Middleton's politics better than Shakespeare's—the reason, he has stated, that he wanted to edit Middleton and claim for him what most ascribe to Shakespeare. Hey, if Middleton cannot stand on his own, without stealing from Shakespeare, Taylor undercuts his own argument for the value of all the plays that Middleton did write. Taylor's stance vis-a-vis Shakespeare seems to me similar to that of the groups that want the plays to be by someone other than Shakespeare: Bacon, the Earl of Oxford, whoever.

Ah, interesting arguments nonetheless: sharpens one's thinking.

Time for the long morning walk,
Until tomorrow,
Love,
Bernice

New Glasses

Dear Family and friends,

It's already afternoon: we have had a busy morning, and it all goes to show how much better I feel today than I did yesterday when I spent a good part of the day reading, resting. I got up too late to walk to the dentist's office, so I drove and had my teeth cleaned (they are in good shape, and Yvonne always says that she can tell the state of my (or anyone's health) by cleaning their teeth. After that I had the third and last of the current set of teeth patched up. I grind my teeth at night, but am unaware of it, and it breaks my teeth. No cavities, just pieces missing. I also went to the cleaners to drop off two culottes and to pick up one: After discovering that the backs of my culottes had black stripes that I could not get out in the wash no matter what tricks I used, we searched all over to find the cause:the pillow I use in the car? No. My lovely recliner? No. It turned out to be my stationary bike, so it now has a towel over the seat. The seat cover must be disintegrating after all these years.

When I got home from the first set of errands, Merwin (who had had a very successful shop at Waldbaum's) met me and we went to the Toyota service place on 25A. I drove my car to leave it there. He followed me. The weird thing is (1) I was due for service in mid-March, but of course never got to go because of the broken pelvis. You'd think that a service person would have phoned or written to see what was up. And (2) their record said that Toyota had done the fix on my car someplace (it turned out) in New Jersey in February. Of course this was an error. So I get the fix today: the gas pedal gets shortened, the mat changed, and a couple of other things.

After that, we went to pick up my new computer-reading glasses. I have been making do with drugstore magnifying glasses. But the prednisone has done a job on my cataracts, and my vision is much worse than it was before.

Yesterday was pretty busy also: Our wonderful Rabbi Lee had made a date with us to bring lunch for the three of us, and did he ever! He made a vegetarian cold soup, served with fantastic bread. Then from Diane's a quiche, which he heated in our oven, and it was about the best I have ever had. We ate that with a salad he had made, beautiful square slices of red and yellow peppers, glistened with olive oil and sprinkled with chives from his garden. He also made a superb salad dressing. We ended with a berry tart from Diane's.

We had lovely conversations, and among other things Lee urged me to phone someone from our congregation who is a hematologist, retired from Mount Sinai hospital, where I am going for the workup in hopes of making it into the trial. Why not call? Why call?

What did me in was the great pomegranate cosmopolitans the rabbi made. I had had these at our cooperative dinner (about 9 p.m.) and enjoyed them thoroughly, without ill effect. After the dinner, I had asked everyone for recipes. His contribution had been this cocktail for the pre-dinner conversation and wine for the dinner itself. He brought the recipe with him yesterday:

This is supposed to make 6 drinks. Wow, that's strong:
Combine in a pitcher 2 C vodka, 1 C Cointreau liqueur, 1 C cranberry juice, 1/2 C pure pomegranate juice.

Fill a cocktail shaker half full with ice. Pour the cocktail mixture in, and shake for a full 30 seconds. Pour into martini glasses. Garnish with a slice of lime, if you have it on hand.

Yesterday, he poured three small servings, but one was for Merwin, who does not drink. So I drank mine, then his. Fortunately, this excess did not hit me until Lee was just leaving, this time taking the books he had selected at his last visit, plus one more. I went right to bed and stayed there, resting and reading. I finished John Mosedale's book, The Church of Shakespeare, and I hope to write a review of it for ShNL. I just sent ShNL the photos to go with the review of the TFANA Measure for Measure. For supper we had a repeat of lunch, something Merwin is usually loathe to do. Today I will have most of the remainder for my lunch: I can eat the same food time after time, especially when it is this delicious.

Yesterday I also had email conversations with the student at Reno by way of India who will work with me on hamletworks.org. My brilliant son Dave set me up with Skype, which is the means the student and I will use to communicate—that and email. The camera will allow me to show him what I mean. Merwin and I are hoping we can call Jesús too using Skype. We use iChat for our Mac friends.

Now off to lunch!
Love,
Bernice

A beautiful day

Dear Friends and family,

This photo comes from my dear nephew Paul. A woman who lives under the hummingbird fly-by area put a small dish with sugar water (shown here in her palm) and the birds came! Dawn gave us a Hummingbird feeder, but I can't find it, and I don't think we are exactly in a hummingbird fly zone. Wish we were. Dave, who knows all bird songs (he sells recordings of "There's food here calls" that entice birds to come) tells me he hears orioles in our trees, but we are not offering them what they like to eat, so they do not come into view.

I started the day today with a long walk up and down hills in the neighborhood. When I walk by the lovely development of condos, tucked in a woods, I begin to think of how good it would have been to buy a few when they were first offered for sale: they were very inexpensive, about $60,000 I believe, which even at that time was a very good figure. Our two unmarried sons could have been living in two of these. So I have to take myself in hand and say "Don't should on yourself."

Yesterday was a good day in several ways. I drove the car to a destination, the nail shop in Glen head, less than a half mile away. This is only the second time I have driven, and this time I had to park and walk a short distance to my destination. I gain confidence as I see I can do it. It was a pleasure to get all 20 nails done.

Antoinette asked me how I made the Lima Bean casserole I served a few evenings ago when Gert and Sylvia were here. Its leftovers returned for supper last night. So simple: I used a mix of baby and Fordhook beans. I sauteed red pepper strips and onions till very soft. Added the beans and a little water and baked along with the other dishes I was making that night. Doesn't take long. For the leftovers I poured the beans into a very lightly oiled frying pan, added egg-beaters and chunks of nice cheddar cheese, covered the pan and simmered till the cheese was melted, then added a little crushed tomatoes from a can that was almost empty and heated it through. Creative use of what's around! Delicious. Maybe I'll have the leftovers of that for my breakfast. Antoinette has been traveling, and when we get together I hope to hear more about it and her interesting family.

Merwin and I had errands to do: For one thing, we went to Rising Tide in Glen Cove. This is an organic store that we have supported since its inception—we lent them money because they offered a very good deal and we were so pleased to have the first organic, vegetarian grocery. We gave the money up front, spent it down, and got an extra amount tacked (10% if I recall correctly) onto the principle. Yesterday we got some delicious spinach pie there, Sophie! This was the best store bought we have had. It had tofu (undetectable) and artichokes as well as a delicious spinach filling in a good crust. I heated it briefly in the micro.

Last night we dropped off the machine that Miriam and Eli had loaned Merwin. It converts 33 records into CDs and Merwin then transfered the contents onto his iPod. Wow what a lot of old friends on these recordings, including Caedmon records of poets reading their own work—Yeats, T.s. Eliot, and also Façade read by Edith Sitwell. Merwin gave M and E CDs of some folk songs he thought they would like. They have a great condo, with lots of room, decorated beautifully with the art they have collected over the years and the great objects Eli makes in his workshop (like a floor to ceiling giraffe). An impromptu visit with friends we have known for so long is a real treat.

One interesting event was a request from the Folger librarian Georgianna for me to answer some questions for some students (high school I infer from the questions she listed). I was reluctant at first because the questions seemed too picayune, things they should ferret out for themselves, but she urged me to try to help them. I was so busy all day on Tues. when her second request arrived that I didn't get to respond until late that night, saying I would be glad to help them. And late last night when we returned from M &E's home, there was a communication with better questions from the leader of the team who are studying Romeo and Juliet. I spent about an hour—not answering their questions exactly, but posing questions of my own that I hope will get them where they want to be. I also sent them a paper I had published about the play that did not include any of the films they needed to discuss. It gives them a model, I hope. Part of their assignment, it seems, was to seek expert (ah hum!) advice. I do miss teaching, but not so much that I would want to go back to it on a steady basis.

It's a bright and sunny day, and the plants are popping: dahlia shoots are springing up all over the Mother's Day Garden, a little patch near the road. Merwin has also planted more lavender there. Phe pansies are flourishing.

Looking forward to the preparation for our hamletworks.org summit meeting in two weeks!

Love to all,
Bernice

Busy Monday

This is a photo of our ME group (Marriage Encounter) in 2001. Starting at the left on the edge of the pool: Eli, Bob, me, Eddie and then continuing around the circle starting at the right in the water: Eddie, Al, Joan, Sandy, Merwin, Iza, Emma, Marcia—all of us looking young and fit. One couple is missing, Harriet and Gus, which makes me think this photo was taken in Florida, where we met once a year for a weekend together. Now we rarely hear from any of these old acquaintances with whom we shared so much of our lives. Click to enlarge phot; use backspace to return to blog.


Dear family and friends,

I decided to walk for 45 minutes instead of biking: walking puts more weight on my pelvis, and according to the P.T., weight bearing exercise helps to produce bone. The ground was a little wet, but it was fun walking around this pretty neighborhood. There are iris now in all shades. I have spoken before about the changes—the end of one set of flowers and the beginning of others. Also, where the azaleas are fading, new fresh leaves are forming, so there is always something to please the eye, to take the place of the previous beloved object of joy.

Yesterday was a busy day, almost all of it social. We had a lovely lunch at the Jolly Fisherman with Enid and David. David and I are both using canes. Merwin, always a light eater, could not finish his main dish or dessert, so offered each to me. In spite of the fact that I am trying to lose the prednisone pounds as I taper slowly, I accepted his offer and ate all of mine + half of his meal. Plus, I did not keep my hands out of that great bread basket, though I had intended to.

We rushed home to get a nap before leaving again for the "free" Tuesday movie. At Harris's suggestion, we saw "City Island," which we liked very much. It is one of these movies that purports to be realistic but actually is full of holes that one puts aside during the viewing but that leap out when one thinks it over. The acting saves all.

We have made many trips to City Island (in the Bronx) with Bobbie and Norman, Rosie and Irwin, because it has seemed a good middle ground for the 6 of us. But we have only entered on the main road and never saw the delightful community shown in the film (if it was filmed there). This summer for our birthday lunch (we three women all have birthdays in July) we will meet on Long Island. I would love to have everyone here. We'll see.

In between, I heard from Georgie, the head librarian at the Folger, who wanted me to answer some questions posed by high school students. The Folger has a wonderful program for children of all ages. I have often seen the kids, dressed up in glorious costumes, lined up to put on their selected scenes on the tiny Globe-like stage at the Folger, and some of the acting is pretty good. Because of our busy day, I didn't get to write to the students till late and no one has responded yet. Maybe they found someone else to ask? They wanted to know what a Shakespearean might think about a couple of Romeo and Juliet films.

In the evening we were engaged by election results. I hope the pundits are wrong about much of their interpretation. I cannot be sad about the end of Arlen Specter's career (for the time-being anyway). I supported him. though he was a Republican, until the confirmation of Clarence Thomas as Supreme Court Justice. Specter also voted for many things that appalled me. He is a middle-of-the-road to right-leaning Republican, hardly a Democrat.

Busy day coming up today: lots of errands to do. Sorry about the intrusive element that decided to make a home in my blog. If you see "Answer me" and know how I can get rid of it, I would be happy to know.

More tomorrow,
Bernice

Read more >> Options >>

Excellent Monday

The Rasmussen Family
Eric is one of four editors working on the New Variorum Hamlet and hamletworks.org. Merwin and I have visited the Rasmussens in Reno, Nevada, Orinda, California, and
London, England. This is their 2009 photo, with Tristan, Vicky, Arden and Eric.

Dear family and friends,

Very good news today: I have a PhD student from Reno who is going to work on pages in Hamletworks.org that need repair. It will be a challenge working at long distance, but I hope it works out. So with Becky working for me here, and this young man working for me from there, I should be able to accomplish a lot this summer (and I hope into the fall).

We heard from Harvey and got a whole bunch of photos from Oslo. I will see if I can grab a few to post here tomorrow. All is well; Harvey is working with his collaborators, but there is also time for fun, and certainly Rachael has lots of opportunities for R&R.

I didn't leave the house yesterday. That's a shame because I am supposed to at least walk around the block a few times, and it was a nice day too. I did at least ride the stationery bike for 45 minutes. Mostly, though, I was caught up in the work. For fun I am posting a dog's version of "To be or not to be" on the website. I tried but failed to get it to post, and turned it over to our redoubtable web master. An email exchange with the author of the soliloquy led to a necessary change in The Enfolded text at the top of the pages for 3067: Thus {didst} thou. I would not have noticed this if Larry had not called my attention to an emendation he remembered, a change to "diest," which only makes sense as deriving from the F1 version. Forgive the technicalities! But I think it is quite wonderful how so many things feeds into the work.

Merwin read my Measure for Measure review, and found about 10 typos. My eye just skipped over them. Laury spoke to Harry and then phoned me: he is definitely interested in her book, for which I will write one essay, already drafted in part. But that will be after we finish our edition.

The name of the flowering shrub in front of the windows popped into my mind suddenly for no reason at all after many days of looking at it and not being able to come up with the name: Mountain Laurel, a lovely plant indeed. There is no doubt that my memory is becoming a problem, especially at the word level. So I am more than eager to complete my scholarly work as much as possible, as soon as possible, before it goes altogether and I drift into present-ism.

We got a letter from Barry and Jessica who were in the Galapagos, one of many stops on their world-wide tour since their marriage. They will be on Long Island next week, and I hope to see them. Barry (an actor, dramaturg, and director, mainly at Ashland, OR) and I talk Hamlet. The lucky thing is that the lovely Jessica's father, Jack, lives a couple of miles from us: otherwise, who knows when we would meet! Barry and I became friends after he discovered my Three-Text Hamlet, and he fell in love with it. We have been talking Hamlet ever since.

Off to the bike now! Love to all,
Bernice