Joanne Merriam » People I Know http://www.joannemerriam.com Wed, 25 Jan 2012 20:58:30 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0 bragging on my Dad http://www.joannemerriam.com/2011/07/18/3833/ http://www.joannemerriam.com/2011/07/18/3833/#comments Tue, 19 Jul 2011 01:12:01 +0000 joannemerriam http://www.joannemerriam.com/?p=3833 The July-August 2011 issue of Home Shop Machinist has my Dad Peter Merriam’s article “Digital Camera to Microscope Adapter” in it.

]]> http://www.joannemerriam.com/2011/07/18/3833/feed/ 0 Some of them, often the best of them, will go undercover—wear suits and carry briefcases, returning to their writing desk only after the sun has gone down and the city has gone to sleep. http://www.joannemerriam.com/2011/05/07/some-of-them-often-the-best-of-them-will-go-undercover%e2%80%94wear-suits-and-carry-briefcases-returning-to-their-writing-desk-only-after-the-sun-has-gone-down-and-the-city-has-gone-to-sleep/ http://www.joannemerriam.com/2011/05/07/some-of-them-often-the-best-of-them-will-go-undercover%e2%80%94wear-suits-and-carry-briefcases-returning-to-their-writing-desk-only-after-the-sun-has-gone-down-and-the-city-has-gone-to-sleep/#comments Sat, 07 May 2011 19:13:16 +0000 joannemerriam http://www.joannemerriam.com/?p=3770 Last Sunday I went to see Reverend Father Ernesto Cardenal Martínez read at Vanderbilt. I don’t speak Spanish, so I had to rely on the translations, which is always a bit dodgy with poetry. If you watch the video linked above, you’ll see he read a number of poems including “Gazing at the Stars with Martie” (not sure I have the name of his friend right), “White Holes,” “On the Banks of the Ohio in Kentucky,” “The Cell Phone” and “The Origin of the Species,” after which his latest book is named. The video is worth listening to – don’t know if it’s worth watching, so you could probably just minimize it and multitask. Best line (from memory): “The canonization of John Paul II goes against Darwin’s theory. It is not an evolution but a retrogression.”

In other news, this week was administrative professional’s day, which is what they’re calling secretary’s day now that we’ve collectively decided that “secretary” is demeaning (news in 2020: “administrative professional” now considered demeaning). In honour of my extreme awesomeness, my boss-doctors at the hospital got me a gift card to an online bookstore which shall remain nameless in a pointless attempt not to increase their market share. I got almost everything on my wishlist, and the bulk of it arrived today, including After the Ark by Luke Johnson, who is one of my P&W Speakeasy peeps as well as being a tremendous poet. Plus I got Turko’s Book of Forms, which I’ve been coveting for awhile, and a bunch of Robin McKinley (fantasy) and Jennifer Crusie (romance) books, and Joey Comeau’s One Bloody Thing After Another, which I finished yesterday and which is really fantastic and disturbing, as you might guess from the lesbian young adult romance vs chained-up monster mother plot synopsis.

]]> http://www.joannemerriam.com/2011/05/07/some-of-them-often-the-best-of-them-will-go-undercover%e2%80%94wear-suits-and-carry-briefcases-returning-to-their-writing-desk-only-after-the-sun-has-gone-down-and-the-city-has-gone-to-sleep/feed/ 0 My youngest kid hits Jane’s kid on the head using a bright green dragon puppet. The dragon is on my kid’s hand, so the line between hitting her kid with a toy and hitting her kid with his fist is thin. http://www.joannemerriam.com/2011/02/17/good-things-i-read-recently/ http://www.joannemerriam.com/2011/02/17/good-things-i-read-recently/#comments Thu, 17 Feb 2011 11:39:35 +0000 joannemerriam http://www.joannemerriam.com/?p=3592 Read “Truths about Suicidal Women” by Jenniey Tallman.

]]> http://www.joannemerriam.com/2011/02/17/good-things-i-read-recently/feed/ 0 The couch caught a number of Estelle Markowitz’s tears, just as earlier in the day it had absorbed Jack Green’s, and the day before, Roger Barber’s. Over two decades so many tears had landed on the couch, the cushion was shot through with salt. In the summer, patients experienced a mysterious burning sensation on the backs of their exposed legs, but they never bothered to mention it. At $180 an hour, it didn’t seem worth mentioning. http://www.joannemerriam.com/2011/02/15/the-couch-caught-a-number-of-estelle-markowitz%e2%80%99s-tears-just-as-earlier-in-the-day-it-had-absorbed-jack-green%e2%80%99s-and-the-day-before-roger-barber%e2%80%99s-over-two-decades-so-many-te/ http://www.joannemerriam.com/2011/02/15/the-couch-caught-a-number-of-estelle-markowitz%e2%80%99s-tears-just-as-earlier-in-the-day-it-had-absorbed-jack-green%e2%80%99s-and-the-day-before-roger-barber%e2%80%99s-over-two-decades-so-many-te/#comments Wed, 16 Feb 2011 03:10:34 +0000 joannemerriam http://www.joannemerriam.com/?p=3594 Read “Couch” by Rachel Maizes.

]]> http://www.joannemerriam.com/2011/02/15/the-couch-caught-a-number-of-estelle-markowitz%e2%80%99s-tears-just-as-earlier-in-the-day-it-had-absorbed-jack-green%e2%80%99s-and-the-day-before-roger-barber%e2%80%99s-over-two-decades-so-many-te/feed/ 0 There is something wonderfully sweet about a woman touching your hand across a table and telling you about love. http://www.joannemerriam.com/2011/01/16/there-is-something-wonderfully-sweet-about-a-woman-touching-your-hand-across-a-table-and-telling-you-about-love/ http://www.joannemerriam.com/2011/01/16/there-is-something-wonderfully-sweet-about-a-woman-touching-your-hand-across-a-table-and-telling-you-about-love/#comments Mon, 17 Jan 2011 00:55:55 +0000 joannemerriam http://www.joannemerriam.com/?p=3488 Read “The Boy and the Palm Reader” by Nick Kocz and Jenniey Tallman.

]]> http://www.joannemerriam.com/2011/01/16/there-is-something-wonderfully-sweet-about-a-woman-touching-your-hand-across-a-table-and-telling-you-about-love/feed/ 0 I wonder if the uncle thought no one could see him (no one seemed to notice), I wonder if he thought I would just let him do it (I didn’t say anything), I wonder if he thought I would take him up on some offer (the adult in me now yells angry insults, as if the one adult in the green-white-brown shadows of that room to stand up and protest, ‘What kind of asshole is this guy!?’). http://www.joannemerriam.com/2010/12/31/i-wonder-if-the-uncle-thought-no-one-could-see-him-no-one-seemed-to-notice-i-wonder-if-he-thought-i-would-just-let-him-do-it-i-didn%e2%80%99t-say-anything-i-wonder-if-he-thought-i-would-take-him/ http://www.joannemerriam.com/2010/12/31/i-wonder-if-the-uncle-thought-no-one-could-see-him-no-one-seemed-to-notice-i-wonder-if-he-thought-i-would-just-let-him-do-it-i-didn%e2%80%99t-say-anything-i-wonder-if-he-thought-i-would-take-him/#comments Fri, 31 Dec 2010 11:07:18 +0000 joannemerriam http://www.joannemerriam.com/?p=3414 Read “Still Life with Nixon on the Beach” by Elissa Field.

]]> http://www.joannemerriam.com/2010/12/31/i-wonder-if-the-uncle-thought-no-one-could-see-him-no-one-seemed-to-notice-i-wonder-if-he-thought-i-would-just-let-him-do-it-i-didn%e2%80%99t-say-anything-i-wonder-if-he-thought-i-would-take-him/feed/ 0 His old pick-up had been their home for three and a half years of wandering until Bookie had gone inside. The truck was won in a fight, like everything else of value they’d had in those days. http://www.joannemerriam.com/2010/12/30/his-old-pick-up-had-been-their-home-for-three-and-a-half-years-of-wandering-until-bookie-had-gone-inside-the-truck-was-won-in-a-fight-like-everything-else-of-value-theyd-had-in-those-days/ http://www.joannemerriam.com/2010/12/30/his-old-pick-up-had-been-their-home-for-three-and-a-half-years-of-wandering-until-bookie-had-gone-inside-the-truck-was-won-in-a-fight-like-everything-else-of-value-theyd-had-in-those-days/#comments Thu, 30 Dec 2010 11:05:21 +0000 joannemerriam http://www.joannemerriam.com/?p=3412 Read “Native” by Jim Walke.

]]> http://www.joannemerriam.com/2010/12/30/his-old-pick-up-had-been-their-home-for-three-and-a-half-years-of-wandering-until-bookie-had-gone-inside-the-truck-was-won-in-a-fight-like-everything-else-of-value-theyd-had-in-those-days/feed/ 0 Millionaires, we presume, and we agree that we hate them. http://www.joannemerriam.com/2010/12/01/millionaires-we-presume-and-we-agree-that-we-hate-them/ http://www.joannemerriam.com/2010/12/01/millionaires-we-presume-and-we-agree-that-we-hate-them/#comments Thu, 02 Dec 2010 03:57:40 +0000 joannemerriam http://www.joannemerriam.com/?p=3310 Read “Wedding Night” by Rebecca Makkai.

]]> http://www.joannemerriam.com/2010/12/01/millionaires-we-presume-and-we-agree-that-we-hate-them/feed/ 0 the cognitive dissidence: I still don’t know/the right words to speak to what lands/on the unsuspecting grass, to bare witness,/to make that mute point http://www.joannemerriam.com/2010/11/12/the-cognitive-dissidence-i-still-don%e2%80%99t-knowthe-right-words-to-speak-to-what-landson-the-unsuspecting-grass-to-bare-witnessto-make-that-mute-point/ http://www.joannemerriam.com/2010/11/12/the-cognitive-dissidence-i-still-don%e2%80%99t-knowthe-right-words-to-speak-to-what-landson-the-unsuspecting-grass-to-bare-witnessto-make-that-mute-point/#comments Fri, 12 Nov 2010 12:57:48 +0000 joannemerriam http://www.joannemerriam.com/?p=3170 Read “Eggcorns” by Heather Kamins.

]]> http://www.joannemerriam.com/2010/11/12/the-cognitive-dissidence-i-still-don%e2%80%99t-knowthe-right-words-to-speak-to-what-landson-the-unsuspecting-grass-to-bare-witnessto-make-that-mute-point/feed/ 1 He could feel the head of the ax pressing against the top of his hand, the weight of the rifle in his other hand, and with a slight horror he realized that by holding both he would be able to use neither. http://www.joannemerriam.com/2010/11/10/he-could-feel-the-head-of-the-ax-pressing-against-the-top-of-his-hand-the-weight-of-the-rifle-in-his-other-hand-and-with-a-slight-horror-he-realized-that-by-holding-both-he-would-be-able-to-use-neit/ http://www.joannemerriam.com/2010/11/10/he-could-feel-the-head-of-the-ax-pressing-against-the-top-of-his-hand-the-weight-of-the-rifle-in-his-other-hand-and-with-a-slight-horror-he-realized-that-by-holding-both-he-would-be-able-to-use-neit/#comments Wed, 10 Nov 2010 12:25:02 +0000 joannemerriam http://www.joannemerriam.com/?p=3163 Read “The Clearing” by Alexi Zentner.

]]> http://www.joannemerriam.com/2010/11/10/he-could-feel-the-head-of-the-ax-pressing-against-the-top-of-his-hand-the-weight-of-the-rifle-in-his-other-hand-and-with-a-slight-horror-he-realized-that-by-holding-both-he-would-be-able-to-use-neit/feed/ 0