sovereign state

Why Numero Uno?

Years back the great Russell Baker in The New York Times said, What’s wrong with being Number 17? Why do we have to be Numero Uno?

Well, we’re Number One At Guns, isn’t that good enough? More mass shootings. We have barely taken in Buffalo and here comes another down the interstate. Tulsa? Can’t bear to write about them at the moment. Number One.

Some thoughts.

If you can’t be number one, why be at all?

Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, even the accursed Jokervitch? Tennis, anyone? Why play?

If you can’t be Elon Musk (does he smell musky?, and did you see that his mother is featured in the Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue, you cannot make this stuff up) why bother being a run-of-mill Mark Cuban billionaire when your Dallas Mavericks, even with the sublime Luka, are never going to beat the Golden State Warriors. So pack it up, Markie.

I was regaling my dinner hosts with the fact that my a great friend was the proud student of Doris Lessing at Sarah Lawrence College.

Small problem. Nobel Prize winning novelist, only the 11th woman to win the award, never taught there or anywhere. So friend could not have been her prize student.

Friend says that this is what happens, people get old and make things up.

But I actually believed what I was saying. Fancy that.

Friend also says that she was never anyone’s favorite student.

I remind her that in her Russian class she spent her time staring out the window and that her teacher was stunned that she had learned so much Russian. Swear.

Back to number one.

My youngest daughter, now 21, was, until 15, an exquisite tap dancer. She lived for tap and talked about starting her own company. Everyone, I mean everyone, said, The next Michelle Dorrance.

Then she suddenly lost interest. And I mean suddenly. No longer able to shoot for number one? Have not a clue.

Now doing extensive research on public housing, which started big-time in Chicago, her old man’s hometown. She asked me, Daddy, when you were growing up, did you know about The Projects? Not at all. We were uptown in Slava Ukraine. Glory to it forever.

My middle daughter, 27, is taking over the New York banking world. The Times called her mother the “most powerful woman on Wall Street.” Number One? Pretty good shot.

When I suggest to her that she go to law school, which I do with suffocating frequency, she looks at me as if I have two heads.

That’s it! I’ll be number one at having Two Heads!

O, well.

My guess is that that award has already been claimed, many times over.

More guns, anyone?

 

Lonnie Carter is a playwright, Obie winner and his signature play is “The Sovereign State of Boogedy Boogedy.”

sovereign state
The views expressed here are not necessarily those of The Lakeville Journal and The Journal does not support or oppose candidates for public office.

Latest News

Club baseball at Fuessenich Park

Club baseball at Fuessenich Park

Travel league baseball came to Torrington Thursday, June 26, when the Berkshire Bears Select Team played the Connecticut Moose 18U squad. The Moose won 6-4 in a back-and-forth game. Two players on the Bears play varsity ball at Housatonic Valley Regional High School: shortstop Anthony Foley and first baseman Wes Allyn. Foley went 1-for-3 at bat with an RBI in the game at Fuessenich Park.

 

  Anthony Foley, rising senior at Housatonic Valley Regional High School, went 1-for-3 at bat for the Bears June 26.Photo by Riley Klein 

 

Siglio Press: Uncommon books at the intersection of art and literature

Siglio Press: Uncommon books at the intersection of art and literature

Uncommon books at the intersection of art and literature.

Richard Kraft

Siglio Press is a small, independent publishing house based in Egremont, Massachusetts, known for producing “uncommon books at the intersection of art and literature.” Founded and run by editor and publisher Lisa Pearson, Siglio has, since 2008, designed books that challenge conventions of both form and content.

A visit to Pearson’s airy studio suggests uncommon work, to be sure. Each of four very large tables were covered with what looked to be thousands of miniature squares of inkjet-printed, kaleidoscopically colored pieces of paper. Another table was covered with dozens of book/illustration-size, abstracted images of deer, made up of colored dots. For the enchanted and the mystified, Pearson kindly explained that these pieces were to be collaged together as artworks by the artist Richard Kraft (a frequent contributor to the Siglio Press and Pearson’s husband). The works would be accompanied by writings by two poets, Elizabeth Zuba and Monica Torre, in an as-yet-to-be-named book, inspired by a found copy of a worn French children’s book from the 1930s called “Robin de Bois” (Robin Hood).

Keep ReadingShow less
literature

Cycling season: A roundup of our region’s rentals and where to ride them

Cycling season: A roundup of our region’s rentals and where to ride them

Cyclists head south on the rail trail from Copake Falls.

Alec Linden

After a shaky start, summer has well and truly descended upon the Litchfield, Berkshire and Taconic hills, and there is no better way to get out and enjoy long-awaited good weather than on two wheels. Below, find a brief guide for those who feel the pull of the rail trail, but have yet to purchase their own ten-speed. Temporary rides are available in the tri-corner region, and their purveyors are eager to get residents of all ages, abilities and inclinations out into the open road (or bike path).

For those lucky enough to already possess their own bike, perhaps the routes described will inspire a new way to spend a Sunday afternoon. For more, visit lakevillejournal.com/tag/bike-route to check out two ride-guides from local cyclists that will appeal to enthusiasts of many levels looking for a varied trip through the region’s stunning summer scenery.

Keep ReadingShow less
bikes