Eye-boogers post

Pah! There's no reason why I should be in such a bad mood this morning. I slept almost straight through from nine to four, but then I only got about one more hour of disturbed, fitful sleep and it's like it negated all that came before it. I dreamt I was on my last day of vacation in Sydney, watching people blown around by gale-force winds. Then I dreamt I was on my last day of vacation in California, and when I got to the place I was staying, my dog came out to greet me dressed in a hat and smoking a cigarette. I was like, "You guys!"

The branches are bare on the tree just outside my window, but some of its neighbours are still leafy and golden. My thoughts are turning more embarrassingly Romantic by the day. The last couple nights, I've gone to sleep imagining that I live in a Middle European castle with ravens on the eaves and bogeys in the dungeons. I wonder if I'd still have thoughts like this if I lived in a mild Mediterranean climate.

And the nominees are...

In the contest for Worse Neologism of the 21st Century, I'd like to get the nominations rolling early with a candidate that, though it may not ultimately stand the test of time, is certainly the one to beat:

Gestaltebana

I can't remember how monshu said its inventor defined it. It almost doesn't matter, does it? But it only makes matters worse to know that the context was pastoral studies. In case you're having trouble recognising the second element, it's ikebana. Ye Gods, it looks even more hideous in print than I thought it would!

Titel des Tages

Das jüdische Leben Jesu, Toldot Jeschu.

I'd love to read the whole thing, since I find the idea of a medieval Life of Jesus told from the Jewish viewpoint fascinating. In the first chapter alone, the Immaculate Conception is explained away as a midnight encountre between a menustrating Miryam and her unscrupulous, drunken neighbour Joseph ben Panthera (a characterisation further from the Christian image of Joseph the Patron of Fatherhood is difficult to imagine), whom she mistakes for her affianced, the Rabbi Yohannan. It makes one want to page ahead to the scenes with Mary Magdalene. Va-va-voom!