Today I'm thankful for: the gift of the Everyman subscription

Today (and every day) I'm thankful for the Everyman Theater subscription Heidi and Steve got for us.

They didn't just give us the subscription; more importantly, they volunteered to watch Alice and Katherine during our theater dates, so we wouldn't have to make our own child care arrangements.

And as if that were not enough, they have even, on several occasions, also volunteered to watch Alice and Katherine's friend Ramona, so that Ramona's parents can go to the theater with us, and the four of us can have dinner afterwards.

I treasure these times, and Alice and Katherine treasure these times with their Nagymama and Poppy, and I am thankful.

Sunday, September 18: A Raisin in the Sun

Sunday, September 18 I went to the grocery store and made a late lunch out of Ma-Po Tofu with Tomatoes, from The Food Matters Cookbook:

We were not impressed, so I was quite surprised when my leftovers the next day had vastly improved over the initial lunch.  I guess the rice soaked up the liquid?

We went up to Bohemian Coffee House to finish reading our climate paper.  We tried to go to Club Charles for dinner, but apparently it doesn't open until six, so we went to Soup's On Baltimore instead and then saw Everyman Theatre's production of A Raisin in the Sun.

I'd read A Raisin in the Sun for seventh-grade English.  Mostly I remember Bennie being the only sympathetic character, and I didn't remember Asagai or George at all.

This time, I found Mama much more sympathetic (my very favorite line from the play is one I have no recollection of from reading it 14 years ago: "Well, good night, George"), and I even found Walter Lee a little sympathetic, which can only be testament to a fine cast and director.

Word of the day: rebarbative

The word of the day is rebarbative:
< French rébarbatif repellent, disagreeable (14th cent. in Middle French) < Middle French rebarber to oppose, stand up to (13th cent. in Old French; < re-re- prefix + barbebarb n.¹, hence probably literally ‘to stand beard to beard against’) + -atif-ative suffix.

Repellent; unattractive; objectionable.  (OED)


"Nonetheless, She, haunted by their lost love, has seen all his stage performances; He has watched every one of her 'Law & Order' episodes.  In a sense, 'Stage Kiss' is a ghost play in which both the play-within-the-play and the rebarbative lovers keep the past present.  Is life imitating art?  Or is art imitating life?  Ruhl, in her gleeful counterpoint, gets to have it both ways."

 - John Lahr, "Mouth to Mouth: Sarah Ruhl on attraction and artifice", 30 May 2011 The New Yorker

Words of the day: apophatic and cataphatic

The words of the day are apophatic:

< Greek ἀποϕατικός negative (see G. W. H. Lampe Patristic Greek Lexicon s.v.).

Theol.

 

Applied to knowledge of God obtained by way of negation. (OED)

and cataphatic:

< Greek καταϕατικ-ός affirmative (καταϕῆναι to assent).

Theol.

 

Defining God positively or by positive statements. (OED)

"Maeve is a recent theology Ph.D., and her thesis adviser turns out to be Paul (the edgy K. Todd Freeman), the astringent black longtime partner of Gus's older son, Pier Luigi (Stephen Spinella), a.k.a. 'Pill'.  When Maeve is first heard from, she's talking shop to Gus's sister, Clio (the subtle Brenda Wehle), a former nun and Maoist, who has been watching over Gus since his first attempt to slit his wrists, the previous year.  'Maeve Ludens, Doctor of Theology, unemployed, not exactly a bull market out there for us apophatic theologians, with a, with, you know, pronounced kataphatic inclinations', Maeve says, adding, 'But I'm kataphatic by nature, I'm just a cockeyed kataphatist!  So sue me!'  Nobody, not even Clio, knows what the hell Maeve is talking about; her speech, however, plays as a hilarious piece of pretension."

 - John Lahr, "High Marx: Tony Kushner's socialist spectacular", 16 May 2011 The New Yorker


Don't get me wrong: I'm 100% onboard with going with the Greek spelling, but you might want to be careful whom you're accusing of pretension, Mr. Lahr.  It's like spelling it "Akhilleus" instead of "Achilles".

Word of the day: bursitis

The word of the day is bursitis:

Pathol.

Inflammation of a bursa.  (OED)

which brings us to bursa:

medieval Latin bursa bag, purse, < Greek βύρσα hide, wine-skin.

  1. Physiol. (more fully bursa mucosa): ‘A synovial sac of discoidal form interposed between muscles, tendons, or skin, and bony prominences, for the purpose of lessening friction’. (OED)

"Death, at first, seems no match for her formidable will and aggression.  Flora barks at her broker over the telephone; she hassles Blackie; and she downs cognac and pills to combat her 'bursitis'."

 - Hilton Als, "Ladies of the Night: Tennessee Williams and Anton Chekhov on troubled women", February 14 & 21, 2011, The New Yorker

Word of the day: amanuensis

The word of the day is amanuensis:
Latin (in Suetonius) adj. used subst., < a manu a secretary, short for servus a manu + -ensis belonging to.

One who copies or writes from the dictation of another. (OED)


"As the curtains billow in the wind and waves crash on the rocks below, time is marked by the tides, and this carnal-minded, avaricious grande dame composes her memoirs.  Her not so inventive Boswell is her companion and amanuensis, Frances Black (Maggie Lacey), whom Flora calls Blackie."

 - Hilton Als, "Ladies of the Night: Tennessee Williams and Anton Chekhov on troubled women", February 14 & 21, 2011, The New Yorker