Off the Hook

Thanks to all of you who keep sending good wishes our way while my dad's in the hospital. Keep 'em coming, as he's having some surgery today. I've been on the phone a lot lately, though usually it's a cell phone, and now I carry a charger around with me, too, and I'm getting good use out of a "Phoney Pocket" made by Betty Toland. I do also have a rotary phone like this one, black not red, but it's not off the hook. This just represents the bit of disconnect I feel between my head and my ability to recall the day of the week.

Here in the blog, though, it's Slattern Day, and I have an untidy poem up at WGLT's Poetry Radio. Yes, it's called "Off the Hook," and it's about this kind of hook. As usual, in my origami brain, a source of disconnect has led to a kind of re-connect, and the poem is sort of word play wrapped in a fighting song. Brilliant WGLT producer Bruce Bergethon helped me see that by attaching music by Charnett Moffett: "Haitian Fight Song" from The Bridge: Solo Bass Works. I love this mad, mad world and its constant connections, though, lately, my origami brain feels a little squashed, like a wad of the newspaper funnies, in color, crunched when somebody sat on it.

In my anchoring search for Random Coinciday images, I was pleased to discover, via red phone, the blog of children's writer, poet, and book lover Martha Calderaro. And also Ninja star coat hooks, by Thinkgeek; my son would like these.

In addition, these paint brush coat hooks would hang well on the wall of our home (the home of an artist/carpenter), and we have the stiff brushes to prove it. (One, oddly, is in the freezer.)

These are created by Dominic Wilcox at Variations on Normal, a pretty irresistible name for this Normal (IL) woman. I hope it's OK to show you his work and link to his site. You can also find him here!