Kenne calls in the Turkish military to deal with the Socktopus

Posted on January 19, 2012 by lizcameron

Here are TWO socktopi (plural of socktopus) – one from the Provincetown dresser and one from the Boston dresser…we have an infestation! (Image thanks to knitty.com)

What are the Socktopus and the Turkish military doing in my dresser?  I don’t know the answer to that – but there they both were – in my dresser – this very morning.  My close friends and family know that my socks NEVER (ok, rarely) match – and they also know I don’t care a whit about matching socks.  My close friends and family ALSO know that M. DOES care about matching socks, and not having other people touch or use his socks.  This is a BIG bone of contention in our marriage, so much so, as a matter of fact, that my best friend has given my husband new socks for Christmas for the past 2 years.  So, few mornings go by when we don’t have some sort of sock debate or sock argument.

After M. left today, I went and looked in the sock drawers in his dresser – and in mine.  Apparently Kenne, the Queen of Manners, had called in the Turkish military to deal with the “socktopus” that is living in there.  She wants MY sock drawer to look more like M’s – as in – neatly folded socks, color-coordinated, etc.  M.’s stint in the Turkish military has left him permanently oriented towards folding not only his socks – but also his underwear – and all the other usually-folded items.  I find it odd that such a Bohemian sort as M. would get ruffled by socks – but – well, wonders never cease.  If M. knew that the socktopus was living in my drawer, he might be excited, as he is a malacologist after all (Malacology = study of mollusks)….but I am not sure I want to tell him – it might result in his “knickers getting in a knot.”

I didn’t take a photo of MY socktopus, but I do have a video of someone else’s – check it out – well worth the minute plus to see this video.  It leaves Kenne unnerved and Karagoz celebrating in chaos!

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The Karagoz puppets shake their fists at SOPA and PIPA

Posted on January 18, 2012 by lizcameron

Blackout

All day, the puppets have been marching around the house, fists raised in air in what I thought was an homage to Tommie Smith and John Carlos during the Mexico Olympics but soon found out was not…this time.  Those puppets, they hae been carrying on in Ottoman Turkish – I know they are upset as they are speaking in Ottoman Turkish vs. English or the baby Turkish that I speak.  I finally clued in that they are upset about SOPA and PIPA – acts that raise significant concern amongst many on the Interwebs, as my Turkish nephew refers to it.  So, you may realize that many websites are literally blacked out today to protest proposed U.S. legislation that threatens internet freedom: the Stop Internet Piracy Act (SOPA) and the Protect IP Act (PIPA), which you can read more about here.

http://www.infoplease.com/spot/summer-olympics-mexico-city.html

It was the most popular medal ceremony of all time. The photographs of two black American sprinters standing on the medal podium with heads bowed and fists raised at the Mexico City Games in 1968 not only represent one of the most memorable moments in Olympic history but a milestone in America's civil rights movement. The two men were Tommie Smith and John Carlos. Teammates at San Jose State University, Smith and Carlos were stirred by the suggestion of a young sociologist friend Harry Edwards, who asked them and all the other black American athletes to join together and boycott the games. The protest, Edwards hoped, would bring attention to the fact that America's civil rights movement had not gone far enough to eliminate the injustices black Americans were facing. Edwards' group, the Olympic Project for Human Rights (OPHR), gained support from several world-class athletes and civil rights leaders but the all-out boycott never materialized. Still impassioned by Edwards' words, Smith and Carlos secretly planned a non-violent protest in the manner of Martin Luther King, Jr. In the 200-meter race, Smith won the gold medal and Carlos the bronze. As the American flag rose and the Star-Spangled Banner played, the two closed their eyes, bowed their heads, and began their protest. Read more: Memorable Olympic Moments: Tommie Smith and John Carlos, Summer 1968 — Infoplease.com http://www.infoplease.com/spot/summer-olympics-mexico-city.html#ixzz1jqXq9h6x

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A Tiryaki Haze on the first day of school

Posted on January 17, 2012 by lizcameron

 

Tiryaki, the opium addict puppet, thanks to Emin Senyer's website for image

It’s the first day of the spring semester.  As one of my students put it in an email last week, “you are going to need to find all of us – little pebbles in the forest – wash us off, put us in order and enliven us again.”  Sighing as I read her words, “yes,” I thought, “I will have to do that – but who is going to do that for me?” After her email, I resorted to an M.-focused weekend – he deserved that after all of these years chasing tenure. 

However, it was the spirit of Tiryaki, the little Karagoz puppet who is an opium addict, who is nodding off most of the time, who awoke me to day and reminded me of the pebbles to be collected.  “Tiryaki,” I said, who is going to find ME in the forest? Who is going to clean ME off?  Who is going to enliven ME?”  Taking a big fat toke of the joint he was working on (in between his opium binges), he threw his head back and with a knowing glance, blew smoke in M.’s direction. 

M. was otherwise engaged in the early morning rush to get out the door, but I thought about what M. always advises me to do with my students, and it is always said this way:

“In Turkey, the students have MUCH more respect for the teachers – you should not coddle to their feelings so much.  BUT you should grade them more easily than you do.  You should give more As (top grades).”

As I wound my way through snow and slush-infused traffic for almost two hours, cursing my commute the whole way, in between fantasizing about retiring early to Bozcaada or some other such Turkish place, I thought about how to apply M.’s advice to ME for a change.

Maybe now that the tenure committee has made their recommendation to the Provost to keep me for life, well, maybe now I can start to respect MY time, respect MY body by sleeping and eating enough and at the right times, MY sanity, etc.  And as for giving more As?  Well, maybe I need to reduce the numbers of things I am involved in, so that I can give MYSELF more As.  Tiryaki’s call to arms – which wasn’t REALLY a call to smoking opium – was to tune out a bit – and I suppose there is a lesson in that for this workaholic. 

I didn’t like the Tiryaki haze that overtook me today – it even lasted after caffeine intake, lunch and teaching – the adrenalin rush of teaching just never showed up.  So, Tiryaki has me right proper, hook, line and sinker, to use the fishing analogy.  So, I guess my task at the moment is to learn what I can from the haze, embrace the haze.

Take…..

Life…….

A little………….

S….L………O…………………….W……………………………………….E……………………………………………R

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