Thankee, thankee - all over now - except the celebrating - and the ageing........
What are we supposed to be remembering those pilots for today, Sumac? I do know about them, as it happens.
must be pushing that 50 marker, slow down
jjorge and gautam, I'm wit youse guys. The single malt, the roaring fire (or outdoor grill?) and a book of poems. Perfection!
But then Deb's idea of a strung-out series of birthday bashes is good, too. We all need a bit of socializing, don't we?
John, OAK....Sounds terribly like my life, too. The fantasy is great, the reality ever more daunting.
Those women got a raw deal, no doubt about it. There have been some dark suggestions that a few were "murdered" by men who sabotaged their planes. Any man who feels threatened by a woman's success is a sad case indeed.
I knew a women, last I met her she was in her mid 80"s, who taught advanced fighter pilot training in Britain during WWII. Because she was in a combat zone her fighter was always armed when she took a new pilot up for a mock dog fight. In effect she was a fighter pilot.
Sorry to be late to the party, Deb. Hope your birthday was happy.
Having just recovered from the drunken orgy that was my birthday I have just got enough energy to post this:-
Happy Birthday yesterday to us both :-
A bithday present by Sylvia Plath
What is this, behind this veil, is it ugly, is it beautiful?
It is shimmering, has it breasts, has it edges?
I am sure it is unique, I am sure it is what I want.
When I am quiet at my cooking I feel it looking, I feel it thinking
'Is this the one I am too appear for,
Is this the elect one, the one with black eye-pits and a scar?
Measuring the flour, cutting off the surplus,
Adhering to rules, to rules, to rules.
Is this the one for the annunciation?
My god, what a laugh!'
But it shimmers, it does not stop, and I think it wants me.
I would not mind if it were bones, or a pearl button.
I do not want much of a present, anyway, this year.
After all I am alive only by accident.
I would have killed myself gladly that time any possible way.
Now there are these veils, shimmering like curtains,
The diaphanous satins of a January window
White as babies' bedding and glittering with dead breath. O ivory!
It must be a tusk there, a ghost column.
Can you not see I do not mind what it is.
Can you not give it to me?
Do not be ashamed--I do not mind if it is small.
Do not be mean, I am ready for enormity.
Let us sit down to it, one on either side, admiring the gleam,
The glaze, the mirrory variety of it.
Let us eat our last supper at it, like a hospital plate.
I know why you will not give it to me,
You are terrified
The world will go up in a shriek, and your head with it,
Bossed, brazen, an antique shield,
A marvel to your great-grandchildren.
Do not be afraid, it is not so.
I will only take it and go aside quietly.
You will not even hear me opening it, no paper crackle,
No falling ribbons, no scream at the end.
I do not think you credit me with this discretion.
If you only knew how the veils were killing my days.
To you they are only transparencies, clear air.
But my god, the clouds are like cotton.
Armies of them. They are carbon monoxide.
Sweetly, sweetly I breathe in,
Filling my veins with invisibles, with the million
Probable motes that tick the years off my life.
You are silver-suited for the occasion. O adding machine-----
Is it impossible for you to let something go and have it go whole?
Must you stamp each piece purple,
Must you kill what you can?
There is one thing I want today, and only you can give it to me.
It stands at my window, big as the sky.
It breathes from my sheets, the cold dead center
Where split lives congeal and stiffen to history.
Let it not come by the mail, finger by finger.
Let it not come by word of mouth, I should be sixty
By the time the whole of it was delivered, and to numb to use it.
Only let down the veil, the veil, the veil.
If it were death
I would admire the deep gravity of it, its timeless eyes.
I would know you were serious.
There would be a nobility then, there would be a birthday.
And the knife not carve, but enter
Pure and clean as the cry of a baby,
And the universe slide from my side
I'm not telling how old I was yesterday but its 8 years to when I become a sexagerian, now as for Dlowan !!!!!!!
Bunny rabbits never tell :wink:
Happy Birthday Hiama!!!!!!!!! Many happy returns!!!!!!!!!!!!!
My drunken orgy stuff don't happen until tomorrow.
So cheery, the sound of Plath in the evening.....
Bunny rabbits don't do lots of things....
Yeh but you'll do them tomorrow right- have a hoot you beaut !!!!!
cavfancier wrote: Gautam, one day I must learn how to pronounce that phrase properly. Are you sure you are not Irish?
Which phrase mate ? I am a good teacher !!
well now, u wouldn't expect 'ME' 2 show up on time!
but, now b serious, this is an auspicious moment;
I hereby (in spite of having no authority whatsoever) pronounce you
official 'CANAJUN WABBIT'!
(smooch)
Jab hai saath main whiskey,
Tab jaroorat padeki kiski ??
That one G! Love it!
oh right - I am not so good at phonetics, but I will definately try - the problem is finding a "rhyming" word in English with a hindi word
Like jab - rhymes with tub
I am working on it - soon you will able to recite it the way I do !
Looking forward to it....I am already trying to learn a bit of Japanese from my brother and his wife....
I be a Canajun Boony, eh? WOW!!!!!!
Jab hai saath main whiskey,
Tab jaroorat padeki kiski ??
When I have whiskey with me,
Why would I need anyone else ?
Jab - Rhymes with tub with the "J" sound as in "J"apan
Hai - as in "he"sitate
Saath - Rhymes with "bath"
main - not the english "main" but more like "may" with a nasal intonation at the end
Whiskey - no need to explain that
Tab - rhymes with "tub" but the "T" is pronounced as in "the" but without the "h" sound
jaroorat = Ja + roo + rat - "Z" as in "Z"oo + "roo" + rat as in "rut" but the "T" is pronounced as in "the" but without the "h" sound
padegi (I made a typo it is a "g" instead of a "k") - "p" as in "p"apa + "de" as in day (though it is not the correct pronunciation, but I doubt an equivalent exists in English) + "gee" but the "g" is promouced as in "g"od
kiski = "kiss" + "key"
Okay, it is confusing - but I did make an effort
Lemme know if you need more help and I will rack my brains further !!!
Does that mean I am not vermin any more?
No no no its pronounced Woman - you aint kiddin anyone wit this wabbit woutine I seen your Kni***** when you was kneeling down that time member ?
huh !
Gautam, I shall muddle through....thanks.