Penny has been inclined to make nests and hide lately–what they call broody behavior. Then today, this was in the pen.

It is small because it is the first one. I think it is cute.

As I mentioned, my dad and Kyle moved the door of the bathroom from inside the room to the hallway. By doing this, they made the bathroom into one big room.

Last weekend, Kyle did the next step of the process and removed the wall that was dividing the room.

Before:

Kyle removing the wall:

After:

I looks so much better. Already the room feels huge and full of light and space. I am really digging this bathroom remodel so far because every change is so dramatic.

What a silly little bird.

“The Bobolink is a member of the Blackbird family. It frequents grassy meadows of the northern states and adjacent Canada. Also referred to as “skunk blackbird,” the male has striking black-and-white plumage, making identification easy. Females are a buffy yellow-brown.”

I don’t think we have these in California.

The Way to know the Bobolink
by Emily Dickinson

The Way to know the Bobolink
From every other Bird
Precisely as the Joy of him –
Obliged to be inferred.

Of impudent Habiliment
Attired to defy,
Impertinence subordinate
At times to Majesty.

Of Sentiments seditious
Amenable to Law –
As Heresies of Transport
Or Puck’s Apostacy.

Extrinsic to Attention
Too intimate with Joy –
He compliments existence
Until allured away

By Seasons or his Children –
Adult and urgent grown –
Or unforeseen aggrandizement
Or, happily, Renown –

By Contrast certifying
The Bird of Birds is gone –
How nullified the Meadow –
Her Sorcerer withdrawn!

Dickinson loved bobolinks. She wrote several poems about them.

Taken with Marcia’s iPhone.

I never do this.

Isn’t that a pretty color?

“Wendell Berry says the greatest act of independence and rebellion is to maintain a garden,” actor Mark Ruffalo said in an article in the New York Times. “You’re taking yourself out of a kind of capitalist culture and you’re making a point of self-sustenance.”

This is exactly how I feel about gardening. I have never seen anyone else put it into words before.

So major points for for that, Mark Ruffalo.

However, I am going to have to deduct a point for marrying someone named Sunshine.

I put a lotus flower in a piece of fiction I’m writing. In the scene, I started to describe the center of the lotus flower, but then I realized I didn’t have a clear idea what it looked like, so I checked it out. This is it:

(Image from here.)

I don’t know why, but the center of the lotus flower gives me the serious willies. ICK! What is that? What does it feel like? Why are those bumps there?

(Image from here.)

I know that some people will think that is beautiful, but…

Maybe I should go with another flower.

This is Evelyn Nesbit. She was beautiful, wasn’t she? Last night, while researching something else, I was reminded of her. Back between 1900-1906, she was a media sensation, the first It girl, the first time (that I know of) that America got obsessed with the face of a woman and pushed it to cult-like status. Perhaps we had done that before; perhaps we have always done that. But Evelyn Nesbit was kind of a precursor to Marilyn Monroe, a person who, because she embodied a certain look of a time and a certain specific sexual identity that met with the ideal of the time, was elevated to the emotional and cultural weight of a symbol.

In the above picture, Nesbit is 16 years old. I am not sure how old she is here, but this is one of my favorite pictures of her:

She would be considered beautiful today, but back in 1900 or so, she was the ideal. She had a perfectly oval face, a long straight nose, symmetrical features, and piles of wavy hair. You might think we like the same things today, but actually common protocols suggests that we like features more exaggerated –think Angelina Jolie’s giant lips–and feminine from all angles. From the profile, Nesbit had a rather masculine face:

And could look like Rumor Willis:

In 1902, Nesbit was a well-known model for photographers and artists alike. She was famously depicted in one of Charles Gibsons’ drawings, making her one of the most famous Gibson Girls, and cementing her status as a sex symbol for her day. Here is the drawing that made her name:

She was caught between two men, her lover Stanford White and her husband/abuser (?) Harry Kendall Thaw. She did not seem particularly passionate about either man, although they were passionate about her.

I wanted to tell you more about this, but the Internet is unreliable about details, and I am only now becoming acquainted with Evelyn Nesbit. Therefore, I will have to read a book and get back to you. But what happened in the end was, Thaw shot Stanford White dead over Nesbit. There was a long, elaborate media circus around the incident, during which Nesbit testified in Thaw’s defense (I think), but he went to jail anyway.

I like this part, from Wikipedia:

In his book The Murder of Stanford White, Gerald Langford quoted Thaw as saying “You ruined my life,” or “You ruined my wife,” and the New York Times account the following day stated “Another witness said the word was “wife” instead of “life”" in response to the arresting officer’s report otherwise.

After that, Nesbit became a morphine addict and an alcoholic and tried to kill herself several times. But she didn’t, and lived to age 82. Here she is as an old woman with Joan Collins on the right:

No one has called me a homemaker or anything. I just realized that with all the talk about sewing, and chickens, and cooking, and whatnot I put on the Internet, someone might get that impression about me. I am actually much more interested in art and books and history and philosophy and things like that than I am about home-related stuff. I guess I get more feedback on the home posts than the art/intellectual posts, so I keep going in that direction. But that is not an accurate depiction of myself, so I resolve to write more about weird artists or strange things I research on here, even if the result is the sound of crickets chirping in the comment box.

Check it out. The publishers have redesigned the cover of Kyle’s Official Ubuntu Server Book, second edition, which is coming out July 30! I think it looks spiffy.