have you ever seen a lassie go this way and that [or: how to succeed in getting your name in the paper without really trying]

This is the honest truth: the above was the first song I learned in the English language. My mother taught it to me when we were still in Poland. I’m not quite sure why. Maybe she thought I was the type who needed to get excess energy out of her system by kicking her leg to the lyrics. You’re supposed to kick this way and that. So she said.

I was reminded of it when I read an article in the Wash Post today. There I am – gliding in on the coattails of another blogger, me, Nina, referenced by name in the Wash Post. Waddaya know… (C’mon. scroll down to the last page. Okay, so I am not easy to find. What did you expect??? We’re talkin’ Wash Post!)

The article itself picks up on the recent flurry of activity surrounding Ann’s post of many many months ago – a post where she cited an email discussion she and I had about blogging from the left (that would be me; at the time Ocean actually acknowledge the existence of politics) and from the right (or, from a centrist position, perceived as right-facing).

Now that Ocean is squeaky clean, preferring to write about places and foods and idle conversations, the amount of disgruntled emails in my Inbox has gone down. (Though it hasn’t entirely disappeared. I just had a million-word exchange last week with a person in Poland who was terribly bothered by a generalization I posted about Polish people).

It’s so easy to offend. Sometimes I understand why it might lead to a tightness in someone’s chest, sometimes I do not.

Sometimes I myself am offended when I read blogs. Sometimes I am just damn mad. What the hell, how dare they? Excuse me?

Okay. Those are troublesome times. But you know, the blogs that I read are all over the place. And so I am used to stances and positions and worldviews different from my own. In fact, it is safe to say that no one out there that I know shares everything --- age, worldview, writing style, eastern European angst – that I think are my small burdens. So hey, I can deal with most anything well presented and well argued.

Even if it swings this way….


barbados sheep
Vilas Zoo, Feb.13

And that…


barbados sheep
Vilas Zoo, Feb.13