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various
I like getting comments or even kudos over at the AO3 on things I wrote ages ago (which, I grant, is all of it, at the moment - but I mean even relatively speaking), particularly when I get a lot of kudos from the same person in a way that sure suggests to me someone read something of mine and liked it enough to read more just because I wrote it. :-)
A couple of weeks ago the Gentleman Caller and I were watching the Redskins stink up the joint and I suggested they could do worse than follow Jewish superstition (it's not even really a custom, I don't think, just an idea that sticks around) and change their name. He had not heard of this, which surprised me, because I know I've heard it in multiple places. The idea is, if you're very ill, in addition to everything the doctors and rabbis do for you, another tactic is to change your name so the Angel of Death will not be able to find you. (I believe a popular name to change to is Chaim, meaning 'life' - but I've never known what you're meant to do if you're desperately ill and your name is already Chaim.) Anyway, we suggested the Redskins might change their name to the Victors or some such thing (GC suggested the Bullets, actually, at first), and then they might turn their season around. Then they won! ... that day. But since then, you know, not so much. Should have listened to us.
The name-changing concept has been on my mind lately what with my dad's poor health as well, of course. I don't think he will change his name. But it's something to hold in reserve.
I'm making him a pair of socks; I made him a pair of socks out of Dream in Color's "Good Luck Jade" when he had his surgery three years ago, and he loves them to bits - only this fall when he got them out they were a bit moth-bitten, so over Thanksgiving I mended them as best I could and promised to make him some new ones. I am now making good progress on the second sock in a pair out of DiC's "Grow", another lovely green (I have a magnet on my refrigerator which claims to quote from Talmud: "Every blade of grass has its angel that bends over it and whispers, 'Grow, grow'"), which will be better than the first ones in every way, and which will be stored with moth-repellent and possibly in plastic bags. :-) And I'll tell you what: this is a 72-stitch sock with an 18-row cuff, a 36-row heel flap, and 36 repeats of the pattern between the cuff and the toe. That's nine 18's, I believe, and (as many of you know) 18 is the numerical value of chai, 'life', an auspicious number in Judaism (as-many-of-you-know donations to causes are customarily made in multiples of 18, for example, as are cash gifts at bar mitzvahs e.g.). I was halfway done with the pair of socks when he was halfway done with his radiation. Not just superstitions, you see, but superduperstitions. That's right.
A couple of weeks ago the Gentleman Caller and I were watching the Redskins stink up the joint and I suggested they could do worse than follow Jewish superstition (it's not even really a custom, I don't think, just an idea that sticks around) and change their name. He had not heard of this, which surprised me, because I know I've heard it in multiple places. The idea is, if you're very ill, in addition to everything the doctors and rabbis do for you, another tactic is to change your name so the Angel of Death will not be able to find you. (I believe a popular name to change to is Chaim, meaning 'life' - but I've never known what you're meant to do if you're desperately ill and your name is already Chaim.) Anyway, we suggested the Redskins might change their name to the Victors or some such thing (GC suggested the Bullets, actually, at first), and then they might turn their season around. Then they won! ... that day. But since then, you know, not so much. Should have listened to us.
The name-changing concept has been on my mind lately what with my dad's poor health as well, of course. I don't think he will change his name. But it's something to hold in reserve.
I'm making him a pair of socks; I made him a pair of socks out of Dream in Color's "Good Luck Jade" when he had his surgery three years ago, and he loves them to bits - only this fall when he got them out they were a bit moth-bitten, so over Thanksgiving I mended them as best I could and promised to make him some new ones. I am now making good progress on the second sock in a pair out of DiC's "Grow", another lovely green (I have a magnet on my refrigerator which claims to quote from Talmud: "Every blade of grass has its angel that bends over it and whispers, 'Grow, grow'"), which will be better than the first ones in every way, and which will be stored with moth-repellent and possibly in plastic bags. :-) And I'll tell you what: this is a 72-stitch sock with an 18-row cuff, a 36-row heel flap, and 36 repeats of the pattern between the cuff and the toe. That's nine 18's, I believe, and (as many of you know) 18 is the numerical value of chai, 'life', an auspicious number in Judaism (as-many-of-you-know donations to causes are customarily made in multiples of 18, for example, as are cash gifts at bar mitzvahs e.g.). I was halfway done with the pair of socks when he was halfway done with his radiation. Not just superstitions, you see, but superduperstitions. That's right.