After two dry months we finally got a few inches of rain in central Texas two-thirds of the way through August. At various times of the year here what follows shortly after a good rain is rain lilies. So it was that on August 24th I communed with several dozen members of Zephyranthes chlorosolen (formerly designated Cooperia drummondii). In this view the sun was in front of me, so light transluced parts of the flower and cast shadows on other parts. I managed to get far enough below the flower to have it line up with dark clouds. I like the aesthetics of the resulting lofty look.
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If you've never watched the famous "Who's on first?" routine by mid-20th-century comedians Bud Abbott and Lou Costello, you can catch their classic back-and-forth embedded in an August 25th article by Stella Morabito entitled "Pronoun Police Are Playing An Unfunny Game Of 'Hu's On First?'" In addition to Morabito's astute observations about grammar and culture, she suggests a good way to respond when institutions insist that you declare your pronouns: tell them your pronouns are I / me / my / mine / myself. A few of you may recall that back on March 29th I declared my pronouns: her as subject, hoozit's as possessive, and I as object. That led to the transformation of a conventional utterance into a pronominally genderful one:
After Steve got out of his car, he walked up to Fred, who heard him say in his usual cheerful fashion that he was glad to be there. Fred thanked him for his greeting.
After Steve got out of hoozit's car, her walked up to Fred, who heard I say in hoozit's usual cheerful fashion that her was glad to be there. Fred thanked I for hoozit's greeting.
I did a good job of channeling Abbott and Costello that day.
© 2022 Steven Schwartzman
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