Microfiction

Whatever Happened to Aaron?

Ivan had been thinking a lot about Aaron Leggatt lately. He hadn't seen or heard from Aaron in over a decade, and he wasn't sure why he was thinking about him now -- except that he'd been thinking of himself as even more of a misfit than usual lately.

He'd known Aaron only slightly in college; they were both philosophy majors and had taken several classes together. Ivan had always thought they had much in common -- both rather standoffish, and they even looked a bit alike, with dark hair and glasses -- but they had never become more than acquaintances, despite some overtures on Ivan's part. Still, Ivan felt an affinity for him. He was one those mirror people, an altar ego.

What had happened to Aaron? They had seemed to be on parallel tracks in college. Was Aaron successful today? Married? Happy? Everything that Ivan wasn't, at the moment?

One Saturday afternoon, with nothing better to do, Ivan decided to Google him. It was fortunate the Aaron had a fairly unusual name. Not many Web pages came up. Those that did were obscure: a membership listing for a bicycle club in Sephora, Illinois; a geneaology page about someone with the same name who lived in the 19th century; and several pages in a foreign language Ivan couldn't identify. There was also a page for a bookstore in Sephora, Illinois, owned by someone named…Aaron Leggatt.

It seemed to be an odd bookstore -- one that specialized in "hard to find, out-of-print science fiction," according to the page, which consisted of a single paragraph and a picture of a dusty, rundown storefront. There was an e-mail address and a phone number at the top of the page.

So.... Aaron had moved to Illinois, over a thousand miles away. He'd gone into business for himself -- not a prosperous business, by the look of it, but it was more than Ivan had been able to accomplish. He wondered if Aaron would remember him. He wondered if it might still be possible to connect with him, maybe start an e-mail correspondence with someone he thought of as a double, a doppelganger.

Feeling mischievous, he dialed the number, thinking he would probably hang up if Aaron answered. But instead there was a recorded female voice: "Leggatt Bookshop is closed until further notice, due to the death of Mr. Leggatt. Thank you for your patronage."

Dead. The mirror shattered.

Ivan sighed. Later that evening, he joined an Internet chat room devoted to out-of-print science-fiction books. He had to choose user ID for himself, and after several seconds of indecision, he decided on one: Aaron L.

Word of the Day: roun

roun (n or v)

A whisper, or to whisper.

"Another rouned to his fellow low."
--Chaucer

An obsolete word, replaced by "whisper." Why do words fall out of favor? In this case, maybe because "whisper," with its S sound, actually sounds more like a whisper.

I remember a game we used to play as kids: tell a friend you have a secret and then just make a pssst pssst sound in his or her ear, making the friend giggle and driving the other kids crazy. ("What is it? What is it?")

Quote of the Day: dreams of childhood

"What is the matter with a Fairy-tale world where everything had harmony? Nothing, but it has rarely been achieved in the history of mankind. So the next time a cow jumps over the moon or your dessert spoon runs away with the dish, leaving your ice-cream in a sticky puddle on your table, laugh and remember the hopes, great feelings, sincerity and uninhibited attention to your dreams of childhood. And try to carry it with [you]."
--Anonymous

This quotation, intended as filler type, comes from a prop newspaper clipping in the film Fire Walk With Me. It was never intended to be read by the film's viewers (it has nothing to do with the movie's plot), but it is legible in freeze frames. I think it deserves an audience. You can see the original here:

A Closer Look

Glossary of Archaisms from Shakespeare

Verily, a fardel of meed....

How about a list of "Old Words That Occur Frequently in Shakespeare".

My favorite:

"And we have done but greenly in huggermugger to inter him" (Claudius to Gertrude, Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, Act IV, Scene V).

Silent film: Phantom of the Opera

The Silent Opera

I saw the 1925 silent film Phantom of the Opera at the Loew's Jersey Theater last night. Or did I? According to Wikipedia's article about the film, multiple versions were created by Universal Studios, including a later dubbed sound version and an alternate with color sequences. There were alternate cuts with different scenes distributed too. Anyway, what I saw was silent (with terrific musical accompaniment from the Loew's massive theater organ) and entirely in black and white.

Scary? Not by today's standards, though the scene in which the Phantom is unmasked reportedly caused some viewers to faint in 1925, due to Lon Chaney's still impressive make-up. It was entertaining, though, and an interesting history lesson.

The audience was huge, which surprised me. But then, there aren't many places where film buffs can see silent movies with live musical accompaniment these days.

Word of the Day: Clinquant

clinquant (adj)

Glittering, but usually in a false or cheap way, like tinsel

"No, there are too many of these fine sparks you talk of who perhaps may be very clinquant, slight, and bright and make a very pretty show at first, but the tinsel-gentlemen do so tarnish in the wearing, there's no enduring them."
--Thomas Shadwell, The Virtuoso

I once had a cat that liked to eat the tinsel (of the "icicle" type) off the Christmas tree. Maybe he had an iron deficiency. Anyway, he always threw it up later, in a sort of shiny hairball, which was both pretty from a distance and disgusting close up -- like many things, I guess.

The Complete Idiot's Guide to the Way I Feel

Walking on a college campus today, momentarily felt as if in a time warp.... Set up the stereo last weekend -- the one that's been in the basement, in a various boxes, since we moved. Was amazed (but shouldn't have been) at how much better it sounds than the boombox.... Listening to the audiobook of Neverwhere (Neil Gaiman) while on the subway (PATH), felt a certain irony. The book is about an underground society (figuratively and literally) beneath the steets of London.... Watched The Fall last weekend. Interesting film about the power of storytelling with an amazing performance by a five-year-old girl....

Quote of the Day: Yoko Ono

"Consider if it is such a catastrophe
to live without your head or if it
shouldn’t be easier for you to go
around since your body would be much
lighter."
--Yoko Ono

John Lennon's Birthday

Ah! böwakawa poussé, poussé



I believe, yes I believe, that today is John Lennon's birthday. Number 9, number 9, number 9....

Starry Night: the SIMBAD Astronomical Database

The images in this SIMBAD Astronomical Database remind me of the sparkling night sky in rural upstate New York (where I grew up).

Word of the Day: sprezzatura

sprezzatura (n)

rehearsed spontaneity, studied nonchalance

"To get an idea of this sprezzatura at work...one need only recall
some of the supreme moments of comic films."
--Gerald Mast, The Comic Mind: Comedy and the Movies

"What, the curtains?"

Palinology

Gosh darn it! You guys should really check this out!!

The Sarah Palin Debate Flow Chart