3/23/2018

Bathroom ants refuse to Brexit

Ants are eusocial insects of the family Formicidae, tiny socialist insects belonging to the European Union and colonizing my bathroom just as they do early every spring. You can set your calendar by their arrival, and pretty much nothing will hasten their departure, not TSA-Pre, and not those nice young men in their clean white coats.



We admitted we were powerless over hormigas and our lives had become unmanageable. Every March my big powerful rent-paying, lease-signing sanity is brought to its knees by these tiny black ants in the bathroom.  They show up first as a reminder of flashbacks warnings from Seventies high school health teachers. "We aren't really here. Nanny nanny boo boo!" Little spots before my eyes.

Getting home after six, the ants have become proud, brave, and bold. They are marching around in the white porcelain parade grounds of tub and sink. Their homemade banners proclaim they are not figments or flashbacks, and are not covered by vision insurance.

I press my fists to my closed eyelids. Inside the optical theater the ants appear vibrating orange against blue, then energized lilac against white. Rothko meets Orkin. The ants are colluding. I can't delete them.  They have Twitter and facebook accounts, and I am their hostage.

Apartment management sent The Pest Guy. He told me it would get a lot worse before it gets better. The ants circled his bait like frat pledges at a kegger. Indeed, it began to look like ant Woodstock as more and more arrived to partake of the electric Kool-aid, and wander around in circles before (according to the pest guy) taking the bait back to share at their hormiga commune.

The library has two new rock concert DVDs--"The Doors Live at the Bowl '68," and the "Monterey Pop Festival." It wouldn't be much trouble to show videos for the tiny ants in the bathroom, and the project might keep me from smashing them with my guitar or lighting them on fire. I could just turn out the lights and shut the door. Maybe tomorrow morning it will just have been a one of those health class flashbacks.


When the music's over
Turn out the lights
Turn out the lights
Turn out the lights, yeah



And thanks so much to Farmer Derek for his satellite image of cows saying, "hi."


© 2013-2017 Nancy L. Ruder

3/17/2018

Nancy Drew meets Mr. Fishburne

Who is this guy???

Fishburne, Larry
Fishburne, Larry, 1961-
Fishburne, Larry, III
Fishburne, Larry, III, 1961-
Fishburne, Lawrence
Fishburne, Lawrence, 1961-
Fishburne, Lawrence, III
Fishburne, Lawrence, III, 1961-
Fishburne, Laurence
Fishburne, Laurence, 1961-
Fishburne, Laurence, III
Fishburne, Laurence, III, 1961- is our Library of Congress heading winner. 


Unknotting chains is a strangely satisfying, time-consuming, challenging part of my job. Cleaning accumulations from my home closets, drawers, and cupboards does not spark joy. But cleaning them out of the library catalog does. I'm even willing to cooperate with the authorities--the Library of Congress authorities to get rid of bad actors. Not evaluating Mr. Fishburne as an star on stage or screen, just as a troublemaker in the library catalog!

To celebrate this unknotting, I might even watch "Last Flag Flying," the DVD that brought this snarl to my attention.

LC control no.:no 92020105
LCCN Permalink:https://lccn.loc.gov/no92020105
HEADING:Fishburne, Laurence, III, 1961-
00002555cz a2200349n 450
001757455
00520160917075349.0
008920817n| azannaabn |a aaa c
010__ |a no 92020105
035__ |a (OCoLC)oca03224318
040__ |a CLU |b eng |e rda |c CLU |d OCl |d DLC |d OCoLC |d FMU |d PaPiCLS |d ScU |d DHU-MS |d HU |d CSt
046__ |f 1961-07-30 |2 edtf
053_0 |a PS3556.I7915
1001_ |a Fishburne, Laurence, |c III, |d 1961-
370__ |a Augusta (Ga.) |c United States |2 naf
372__ |a Acting |a Writing |a Motion pictures--Production and direction |2 lcsh
373__ |a High School of Performing Arts (New York, N.Y.) |a UNICEF |2 naf
374__ |a Actors |a Dramatists |a Motion picture producers and directors |2 lcsh
375__ |a Males |2 lcdgt
377__ |a eng
4001_ |w nne |a Fishburne, Laurence, |d 1961-
4001_ |a Fishburne, Larry, |d 1961-
4001_ |a Fishburne, Lawrence, |d 1961-
670__ |a Hallmark hall of fame. Decoration Day [VR] 1990: |b credits (Larry Fishburne)
670__ |a Higher learning, c1995: |b container (Laurence Fishburne)
670__ |a Internet Movie Database, Feb. 6, 2003 |b (b. 30 July 1961 in Augusta, Ga.; sometimes credited as: Laurence Fishburne III, Lawrence Fishburne III; changed his name from Larry to Laurence in his films in 1991)
670__ |a Wikipedia, Apr. 27, 2011 |b (Laurence Fishburne; b. Laurence John Fishburne III, July 30, 1961, Augusta, Ga.; actor, playwright, director, and producer)
670__ |a Laurence Fishburne WWW site, Apr. 27, 2011 |b (Laurence Fishburne; b. July 30, 1961, Augusta, Ga.)
670__ |a African American National Biography, accessed December 23, 2014, via Oxford African American Studies Center database: |b (Fishburne, Laurence; stage / screen actor; born 1961 in Augusta, Georgia, United States; attended the High School of the Performing Arts in Manhattan; became most visible in the late 1990s, playing the character Morpheus in The Matrix (1999); won the role of Tyrone Clean Miller in Francis Ford Coppola’s Apocalypse Now (1979); won the 1992 Tony Award for Best Actor for his performance in Two Trains Running; nominated for an Oscar for What’s Love Got to Do with It in 1993; won an Emmy Award for his play in the short-lived television series Tribeca Stories; NAACP awarded him the Image Award (1998) for his starring role in Miss Evers’ Boys (1997); was selected as an ambassador for the United Nations International Children’s Fund (UNICEF) (1996))
670__ |a Cornbread, Earl and me, 2016: |b title frame (Laurence Fishburne III
953__ |a xx00 |b lj02
985__ |c OCLC |e LSPC




© 2013-2017 Nancy L. Ruder