a full tummy,the late hour, the hum of samir's car and a few glasses of beaujolais conspired to allow s. to feel free to lay his head on jean's shoulder. sure, it was a balmy summer night and she was warm and soft next to him in the front seat but there was this total trust and comfortability also. it was love at first touch.
of course jean was supposed to be samir's girl. he had explained everything when he invited s. to join him for dinner at the girls' apartment. susanna was supposed to be s's date. sure she was nice, a little prim, but good looking in an aristocratic way. but susanna hadn't come on the ride after the pleasant formal dinner and lively conversation.
so here he was blending into the body and essence of this stranger who not only didn't shrug his sleepy head off her shoulder but gave all the signs of not minding at all. s. felt at home with jean.
the next day, a saturday, first thing in the morning s. called samir.
"do you mind if i ask jean out?"
samir was nonchalant and laughed,
"not at all. i have plenty of them", meaning girl friends.
and so began the courtship of s. and jean bennett.
but how this came about is worth recounting. because s. would never have met jean if it hadn't been for a little exercise that l.p. had given earlier in the week.
to try to 'like what "it" doesn't like', to put a stick in the spokes of the wheel of automatic behavior.
now s. had just got a job in accounts receivable at "tiffany's" on fifth avenue. his new boss, after introducing him to samir el ansary, privately mentioned that s. was there to fill samir's position. samir didn't know this. it was his task to teach s. all the routines of daily tabulation and posting of sales.
a little aside here… s. was astounded around christmas time much later that year to read the receipts of one super rich family.they spent over a million dollars in one day. the mother bought some necklaces and ruby brooches and the oldest son, shopping for his friends no doubt, paid for ten watches, all the same, for ten thousand dollar apiece. s. wondered what it must be like to have to consider one's friends so fairly. but mostly he was impressed by this magnificent generosity.
s. didn't like samir. he didn't like his red hair, his protruding teeth, somewhat buck, his manner or his accent. so he invited him to lunch. when he had found out more about him his aversion to samir dissolved and a real friendship developed.
samir explained once that 'samir' means smiling one, and he did have a very natural and winning smile. both his parents were professors in lebanon, but they were egyptians.
one night, working overtime, samir invited s. to a dinner party.
an indian friend of his had canceled and since the dinner was at the apartment of two roomates, samir needed to balance the gender inequity; hence the invitation. bear in mind that s. was fully aware that this was a direct consequence of his going against his natural inclinations on the basis of like/dislike.
he met jean and susanna that night. susanna pesciera was a peruvian aristocrat working as a secretary for a senior editor at doubleday. jean bennett was an associate editor under the same boss; she had graduated summa cum laude in english from hiram in ohio where she was from.
both girls, in their twenties were delightful conversationalists. the atmosphere was convivial. the candlelight dinner was an epicurean delight, spaghetti carbonera, with a tasty soup to start, french cut string beans with almond slivers and some french bread drenched in garlic, herbs and olive oil.
after dinner samir suggested they take a ride up riverside drive. susanna declined. samir had one of those wide buicks and the three fit comfortably in the front seat.
************************************************************
jean lived on second ave. near 21st st. and s's high school was a few blocks away on 18th st. s. took advantage of this proximity and quickly got into the habit of going over after school. jean and susanna always seemed happy to see him. they fed him and jean even helped by typing some of his papers. she was so fast she could transcribe his handwriting in twenty minutes. whereas, if he did it, it would be hours.
s. was sharing an apartment on the upper east side with richard hafke, who had a masters degree in nuclear physics. (richard never did get a job in nuclear physics). it was an easy shot on the first ave. bus to 62nd st. but as often as not he just stayed the night on the couch. for six months it was an avid courtship there on the couch and it took that long to get past the virginal defences. twenty years later, after being married for fourteen years jean admitted to a mutual friend that she didn't like s. at first.
but s. was persistent and even if she needed convincing, he was sure she was the girl for him.
Good read. 🙂
It's my pleasure, Sir. :heart:
thanks kyren. always glad you came. :happy:
in the first photo, you and jean share the same nose and lips. Originally posted by KYren:
jill, you're right.thank you for commenting. it's getting a little lonely on my blog. i guess that happens after five years… readership declines. that's o.k. i really am doing this for myself anyway. 😎
Originally posted by I_ArtMan:
would love to sit down over a meal and coffee with you one day. maybe have a painting lesson… I'd be blessed.
jill, i wouldn't mind that a bit. :happy:
Maybe we should arrange a meeting somewhere, someday :happy:
Originally posted by I_ArtMan:
I know that feeling, knew that feeling, dear bro. Right now my blog is kinda in suspense, so to say but I still come here and read posts I'm subscribed to and yours is one of them. Yes, it's true, readership declines in more or less the same way that entropy increases. Maybe that's the 'natural order' (but who says so?) of all things? Let me tell you something, Scott bro. At the height of my writing powers in Operaland I always had the feeling that readership declines, but here's the thing see – I never thought and still never think, that your output and creativity and prose and poetry and art has ever declined; you always held my attention (still do. q.e.d) and though I have been absent for a while that has nothing to do with the quality of your thoughts or your creative expression or all that you bring to your wonderful pages. Y'know… maybe we all have to 'reinvent' ourselves, every few years? Maybe that's part of our own individual struggle to counter the relentless hand of Time, that 'straight arrow' that flies in one direction and without any sentiment for any of us, for it flies ever onward regardless of what we feel. I am not, strangely enough, getting younger (can't think why that is so) but as long as I can read your pages I see "Time's Arrow" slow down, pause, extend, allowing all the wonder and goodness and true grit and beauty that radiates from within you to flow, without surcease, onto your pages, giving much delight to me and to people like me.
Paint on! Write on! Dream on! Create the beauty in the stream of conscious flow that comes from out of you, beloved American brother and what ever happens to me I will sing with you, fly among your world of wonder and be at peace and find joy here… in a world that yearns for peace and longs for the spread of joy. Keep that indomitable spirit strong and know that you are admired by me and many others, dear brother.
Loku – ever your friend and adopted bro' and fellow-poet. :happy:
Originally posted by nopanic:
i would do a world tour if i had the money. i would just so love to meet some of you wonderful people i have met here in operaland. opera is the quiet cafe' off the square where people can talk without the hullablaloo of crass advertisements and blood bones and guts of the avid practitioners of the politics of changing the world to please their greed; of the panjandrums and busybodies who tinker with the gears and shafts of what was born good.we could have some marvelous conversations. :happy:
brother lokutus,i know. i could feel your dismay at a certain point and i thought about that a lot. are we just talking to ourselves. you and i, i am sure, thrive on the interchange, not the broadcast.thank you for your wise words and deep feeling. from the start you have always lifted me up when i was faltering. be cool. that line…Originally posted by lokutus_prime:
and as we age and wax wiser we can learn to eat life and be satisfied. the only transformation we have power over is our own being. right? :happy:
brother Scott,it may have been that my ego overwhelmed my humility and that i should not have paid any heed to ego, but at some stage, and in a deep sense, what we feel (and do) in our creative expression, manifest in our art, is deeply important to each of us, it seems to me. brother, you say wisely and true. we "thrive on the interchange, not the broadcast". had i the wisdom back then to have been content (in truth i was always content with our treasured amity) and to know all of this, above and beyond the clasp of ego itself, i would have been wiser still. in concert, there was (will still be again, i must hope) always much to inspire me.Originally posted by I_ArtMan:
…from the start, when i read your pages, saw your artwork, sublime pictures, for the first time all those years ago, i also saw what was and still is… someone who reached out, reaches out, through a passion and love of art (surviving again and again each adversity that came to test and challenge through hard times – that much I learned about you in those years of good harvests and failing harvests) and through a simplicity of approach to all things, never pushing against any storm, but never letting it triumph over you, bending with it and surviving, being renewed again and again. this is your prevailing strength of mind and spirit, my dear brother.Originally posted by I_ArtMan:
yes, indeed, it is as you say. amen, dear brother, amen to all of this.
the firebird is caged beneath my breastplate it's a hydrogen bomb and inflates my ribs love activates me it goads me… encouraged to do wonderful things i am grateful for this life.
from the other side of the mirrori watch reflections in a golden eyeand see again the firebird,luminous, scintillating, dazzling.shredding shadowland, glowinggleaming, painting my darknesswith its brilliance.oh that i could be releasedstep out and be the firebird….
You guys have a way with words. That´s so great :happy:
speaking for myself only… i can't help it. words are like thought bombs… or a sudden whiff of frangipani on a balmy night. :happy:
Originally posted by I_ArtMan:
I'll drink to that …. you said it for me too, dear bro' :happy:
i figured as much. cool. 😎
Originally posted by I_ArtMan:
now do you mean frangipani w/ rhubarb? or http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&cd=1&ved=0CBwQFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.frangipane.org%2F&ei=mp1TTfauK4z6sAP3oM2tCQ&usg=AFQjCNHJMFPrIDBZMjlisX2Z8zEmZko9kw&sig2=n0ULgaw0VRsCRt8McFRyaw
i'll go for frangipani w/ rhubarb :happy:
i'm so amazed by your pictures in the Japanese style, I can introduce one line from the well-known Japanese verse:We are lonely leaves in the blue blue sky…Zdorovo!!!
jill,i googled frangipani rhubarb and found a plethora of photos on flikr.but the flower is what i was thinking of. maybe it was in michener's hawaii that i read the legend, a terrible legend about stepping on a frangipani blossom and all kinds of bad things ensue.also, i went to maui once, and was seduced by this flower; both the scent at night and as a visual luxury.
loku,never heard of it, but rhubarb is a little slimey for my taste. it's like okra.katya,i appreciate the compliment and the lovely snippet of japanese poetry.Originally posted by lavender988:
spaceba, moj droog. :up:
gorgeous flower! I will hope to experience the fragrance someday.
Originally posted by I_ArtMan:
You could be right, maybe I'm just hungry with the image itself, but yes.. rhubarb is an acquired taste, but is best used, so I have heard, for cleaning aluminium (aloominum, in american speak) cooking pots and pans.:D
jill,you'll have to go to hawaii for that i guess… maybe tahiti also. :coffee:
your blog inspires me to not only reminisce, but to think a bit more about where my past was. so many years are not remembered.so its not just for you. ::):
thanks for dropping in. yes. you're right but it's sequential. first it's for me, then it's for others. i do think about it as a kind of stab at posterity. this is publishing even though it seems ephemeral. i know that people are out there archiving everything. i know that because someone sent me a link once to my original hungryeyegraphics home page in 2000. even though it has changed a lot over the years the first publishing is saved somewhere online. (i saved the link for a while but crashing and restoring to factory settings has lost a lot of stuff like that.) if i really want to see it again i have to read every blog post i've published until i come across it in comments. not worth it.by the way, i enjoyed the business blog about the church renovation. keep taking before and after pictures. :happy: :coffee:
Originally posted by I_ArtMan:
would like that.
good morning from the shores of albion, dear bro. i guess you are still asleep in ca as i write this. but in my time zone (england) it's now 10.31am sunday morning and as i sit in my study i gaze out at the rain falling softly. it's cold by ca standards, 14c (57f) but compared to what we all went through over here back in november it's a warm nearly spring please-arrive-soon morning. hey, i'm off topic dear bro but i'm guessing you don't mind. i have been looking at the news this morning and egypt tops the lead. but i'm not about to hussle my views on egypt on your page dear brother, because that too would be very off topic and i guess i should go vent on my own pages 🙂 i'll link my post back to this little good morning post, so that you can see what i have to say on egypt, if you want to drop by.for now, i'll end as i started and say again ….good morning from the shores of albion, dear bro. :)lokujohn:up:http://my.opera.com/lokutus_prime/blog/egypt-egypt
now that i have read your essay on egypt and thought a little more, with a little more creative imagination, i fear the worst. i remember in t.e. lawrence's "seven pillars of wisdom" the confusion in the first offical conference of the arab leaders who were aceptable to invite to the caucus; how they shouted and walked out in a huff.we just can't compare that scenario with the intelligent and robust american power elite in 1776 hammering out the declaration of independence.unless, they had the sense to just carbon copy our documents and the constitution, have a congress with a senate and house of representatives, balance of power between the courts, the executive and the legislative. that would be super. :up: :happy:
and a hearty good pre-spring morning to you loku. nice of you to fly over here to sunny ca with tidings. it's getting to be a small world after all.egypt… hmmm wouldn't it be interesting if they would drag out iknaten for a make believe king of heaven. egypt… the birthplace of the one god theory. maybe that wasn't such a good idea after all. maybe we should have a god for the morning and for spring and fall and wolves and birds trees and rocks.what would the world be like with no god at all… now i am dreaming. it's early and i haven't had my second cup of :coffee: yet.naaa… egyptians will do the obvious. they will have a nominal democracy with a puppet for the moneyed egyptians and it will all settle down into a slightly more socialistic society. they will lull the people, the poor, the starved, the hopeless will be given jobs; sinecures sweeping alleys and storefront gutters. happy at last to have free dental care.
… I´m a bit nerveus about the christian minority in Kairo. I hope they´ll be allright! They´ve had their share of difficulties
I've been to one of those arab parties that were male only. I did have a good time, the music and the ouzo were great, but overall it seemed like a very strange world. And it was — it was a culture very much different than my own. And probably the first time I had experienced any broad cultural differences like that. Great reading, enjoyed it. Very nice looking redhead (Jean), worth hanging in there for.
http://my.opera.com/lokutus_prime/blog/egypt-egypt#comments
Happy Valentine's Day, Scott. :love: You enjoyed this mosaic so now it is yours, too! :)Great story!! :up:
thanks. very generous of you. mosaics have always fascinated me. :heart:
I cannot stand that feature on my cell phone, however 😀
what feature? what brand of cell phone do you use jill?i'm so happy with my google phone. nexus… it's an android and it does everything but fly. :happy:
thanks kim, yes i remember very well, and you helped me get that copy inscribed to lady pentland. "japanese love poems". what a wonderful moment that was. :happy:thanks for stopping by and especially for commenting. :heart:
The picture at the top is the one that you drew for the book that I was able to get for you, that come to find out, we were both bidding on at the same time for you….lmao (remember that?)Good to see you reminiscing (spelling?) about the past. Sometimes it is good to do that. It was also good to read the poetry that you write as well.
Originally posted by I_ArtMan:
do you call it Chitty then? or just Bang Bang? :Dthe feature I don't care for editing pics is mosaic.I cannot remember right now the brand, Joe has it at the moment.
oh, you should just dowload 'irfanview' it's free and it loads immediately. it's lightweight but it does everything. :coffee:
thanks, Scott :coffee:
yvw, let me know if you like it. :happy:
will do!
Originally posted by I_ArtMan:
i remember using that great little program years ago when I was a windows user. it's not written for apple mac osx so i can't get it any more. but you brought back some memories of how useful and fast tiny irfanview was and, i guess. still is. :up:JLP :happy:
Dear Scott,Sorry for not coming very often to your website, my life has changed and I'm trying to make it as interesting as it was in the past, but it is not that easy 😦 I like to see your pics, your eyes and face have always been familiar to me, just like we met before somewhere… Take good care,A bientôt !Liu
thank you liu for stopping to say hi and look around. i appreciate that you commented. i hope you get your life back to the level you want it to be. you're right, it isn't easy. things change and we are always challenged. :happy: but we go on in a more determined way now that we know what we want, don't we? 😎
Hmmmm… too many comments for reading now. Okay. 'Copy & paste' in my pendrive and later, commenting on topic 😀