AKA Abraham Bacoln


I mean, it costs money to do that, right?
March 23, 2007, 9:29 am
Filed under: tidbit

ONE: When I’m carrying both my backpack full of books and my camera bag the camera bag has the place of prominence on my back by virtue of its cross-body strap design, whereas the backpack is just hanging off of one shoulder. It’s like they are, through their design or utility, expressing what my brain feels. I may be going to study in the library but I’d rather be taking pictures.

TWO: Last night while driving to the library with my windows down I passed a lawn that smelled of fresh-cut grass. I guess that means that Spring is upon us. Also, I can tell that Spring is upon us because the dogwoods are blooming. It is rather disconcerting because the dogwoods near my apartment do not smell very good this year – in fact, they smell quite a bit like some automotive product that I can not identify. Brake fluid? Transmission fluid? Something like which a pretty tree should not smell, that’s for sure.

THREE: I was touched by Todd Alcott’s discussion with his five-year-old son Sam, though maybe ‘touched’ isn’t the right word, maybe it should say something about laughter and amazement.

FOUR: My brain is shot, I think. I keep seeing people in my mind’s eye, familiar faces, and I have no idea where they’re from. New Orleans? Portland? Cookeville? Philly Nashville Boston Seattle I DON’T KNOW. They just keep appearing. I see someone in real life and think, “Oh, that girl reminds me of … that … one face … and I can’t remember who it is or how I know her … even though I can see her clear as day.” Or replace girl with guy, whatever, I’ve got quite a few of them up there. DAMN YOU NAMELESS PEOPLE! GET OUT OF MY HEAD!

AND FIVE: This morning as I left for work a new-model Volkswagen Beetle painted just like the General Lee drove by. I just looked at it and thought, “… okay, why?”


5 Comments so far
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I don’t know about the dogwoods (I haven’t seen any of those in full bloom yet this year), but the bradford pears smell awful this year! I remember a week or so ago, I thought something very large (like maybe a small dinosaur or a large yeti) had died near our house. After discussing w/Stacie, we determined the smell to be coming from the white blossoms of the bradford pear trees across the street. There are lots of them all the way down Dixie. I’ve decided that even though the white trees of spring are rather pleasing to the eye, I am now anti-BP. Not only do they smell like sewage-stewed entrail-rot, but I recently read that after about 20 years, they start falling to pieces – literally dropping large portions of themselves onto the ground until they are completely dead.

Comment by JTJ

That was absolutely the most polite way of saying, “THOSE AREN’T DOGWOODS” that I’ve ever seen. You’re right, the stinky ones here are Bradford pears, same as there.

Comment by Kevin O'Mara

Aha! This explains why, on my walk yesterday, as I passed by the first row of my apartment complex (flanked by white-blossomed trees), I kept thinking that either someone had trash sitting out with old fish in it, or there was some type of dead animal hiding somewhere–a starkly unappealing odor. I looked all around and saw no old trash and no aminal remains. Now, I know…it was the trees.

Comment by Rebecca

They smell like CAT PEE. It used to drive blooty crazy- he had to spray all the time.

Comment by Maig

BP-haters, all of you! I like ’em. I’m sorry they stink in C’Ville this year but the one in our yard makes me smile every time I walk outside. Our tree most definitely does not smell like pee, garbage, rotting animal carcass, or any combination of those things.

The problem with them, from a tree standpoint, is all the limbs come out of one point, kind of like a crab-tree (get it? That’s a name joke for you Tennesseans). This is a weak point in the even of a storm (such as what happened to ours a few years ago) or when they get old and the limbs break up all at the same point.

Comment by Jason C




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