Monday, December 22, 2014

Evanston: first world to third; thinner water


        Our washing machine died and a new one won’t be delivered for a week.  
        Somewhere, probably in FOLLOWING THE EQUATOR, Mark Twain observed that the national pastime of India is breaking rocks with wet clothes.
        As recently as the 1980s I saw women on South Pacific Islands washing clothes in streams and whacking them against rocks.  I am not sure why.  Nature’s fabric softener?
        We considered going to a laundromat, but Carol remembered that we have jacuzzi jets in the bathtub.  So she placed essential clothes in the tub, filled with water, added soap, turned on jacuzzi, and had instant agitator action.
        I wandered by somewhat later and, glancing in the bathroom, saw her happily stirring the mass with a broom handle.  Having recently reread MacBeth, I paused to listen for incantations, and was pleased there were none.
        Fortunately the dryer still works.  Hanging clothes to dry outside on bare tree limbs in Evanston in December is not appealing.

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        Tim brought Dylan Winter’s YouTube channel, keepturningleft to my attention, for which I thank him.  Dylan is sailing, slowly, around the British Isles and going up every river,  or almost, along the way in a boat about the size of GANNET.  This is very different sailing, but water is water, whether deep or thin, and the  joy of being on it is all that really matters.
        Tim suggested I start with the video of “Brothers in Arms” which is apposite and beautiful, and one of Ricardo Martin Day.  I also watched the much longer video of his trip up the River Ouse to York, a view of a watery world I do not know.
        Dylan Winter is a clever man and a fine video maker.  There is a lot of content here.  I’ll be viewing more.