f/k/a archives . . . real opinions & real haiku

What sort of materials and links do your friends and colleagues forward to you? Sometimes, when I see what kith and kin decide to send me in their email messages, I worry about my image and reputation. Although most correspondents have learned not to send me cute-pet photos, or to point me to so-called-haiku contests, I often get referred to articles that make me wince — with thoughts like: “this reminded her of me?!” or “am I supposed to need this advice?”

For example, my dear friend and much-honored Washington lawyer-poet Roberta Beary often passes on links about unhappy and depressed lawyers. And three days ago, she sent me a link to the Washington Post article “Nap Time” (April 29, 2008).

tired of feeding
on the horse
the horsefly naps

afternoon nap
our bare bottoms
kiss

…….. by David G. Lanoue – Dewdrop World (2005)

In a nation where naps are traditionally associated with small children and old folks, I had to wonder what makes me the target of a “Nap Time” piece? Why would the topic of naps make a talented, attractive, charismatic woman think of me? Slowly, of course, my paranoia (and fantasies) died down, and I recalled just how often I mention naps and napping at this weblog, and post haiku and senryu on the topic. See, for instance:

• Our posting “nap room ethics for lawyers” (Aug. 22, 2007) where we discussed David Lat’s posting at Above the Law about corporate napping, as described in the NYT article “That Yawn After Lunch Is Perfectly Normal” (New York Times, Aug. 19, 2007). While Lat asked “Biglaw Perk Watch: Nap Rooms?”, we opined:

With the snowballing Graying of the Bar, and the ethical duty of law firms to protect clients by putting into place procedures that will help compensate for the age-related physical and mental problems of older lawyers [see my article “No Senior Discount at the Ethics Bar” (The Complete Lawyer, Vol. 3 #4, July-August 2007)], it appears to be an ethical violation not to furnish nap rooms for attorneys at any firm with Boomers and other Geezers on the roster. Throw in Americans with Disabilities Act arguments, and age discrimination/EEOC issues, and we have the makings of a great cross-generational campaign to make sure lawyers can nap in comfort and without stigma in law firms across the nation. So, get to it Lat et al, your elders are here with moral support and all the mentoring you need (right after our afternoon nap, of course).

• And the piece “naps and curses: horizontal punditry” (June 6, 2007), where the f/k/a Gang momentarily came out of a sleepy punditry hiatus to note that Bob Ambrogi of LegalBlogWatch had put the spotlight on “A New Zealand law firm that encourages its professionals to take naps if they are sleepy” — you see, the firm Meredith Connell had just won the country’s top work-life balance award, “offering workers flexible work hours to take account of personal commitments.”

within the red wine
a nap in my chair

Discovery channel –
an older male vanquished
heads for the hills

… by Tom Clausen – Upstate Dim Sum (2003/II)

Suddenly, and especially after reading the WaPo article, I was beaming. Roberta didn’t think I was over the hill and needed more naps or another rocking chair. She was reaffirming my being ahead of the curve (due, frankly, to the lessons learned living with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome) on the importance of napping to an enlightened and efficient life and career.

That’s it: In his article, “Nap Time: Though the Practice Is Fading in Some Places, Experts Find Benefits In Midday Slumber. And a Few Firms Are Even Open to Shut-Eye,” Dennis Drabelle merely updates and expands upon themes we’ve been raising and endorsing for years here at f/k/a. Now, I feel a whole lot better (or, I will, as soon as I finish this long posting and head to my futon for a tardy mid-morning nap).

afternoon nap
i fall asleep
in a dream

………… by Ed Markowski

Drabelle has, indeed, done a good job of highlighting the new wisdom about napping. After noting that his own former nap resistance “put me in sync with the American way of sleep: Do it all at once and strictly at night,” he explains:

“Traditionally, we’ve begrudged ourselves naps. They may be forced on toddlers, recommended for pregnant women and tolerated among senior citizens with nothing better to do, but they’ve been frowned upon for worker bees in their prime. Recently, however, sleep scientists have discovered advantages to napping, which they view not just as solace but also as something akin to brain food. No longer written off as a cop-out for the weak and the bored, the nap is coming into its own as an element of a healthy life.”

Other interesting points in the article include:

• “When you take a look at American history, we might seem to be a nap-friendly people. After all, some of our most productive figures napped shamelessly during the day, among them Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Edison.”
• “Napping was more valued on the other side of the Atlantic, where the habit’s foremost champion was probably Winston Churchill. In ‘The Gathering Storm‘ . . . the British statesman wrote, “Nature had not intended mankind to work from 8 in the morning until midnight without the refreshment of blessed oblivion which, even if it only lasts 20 minutes, is sufficient to renew all the vital forces.” [Editor’s note: Hmmm. Although Churchill never coined that maxim about hearts and brains and age, he apparently had some very good advice for the over-30 crowd.]

• And, “Elsewhere, the nap is winning friends and invigorating people. Some new studies make dramatic claims for it. Taken in the workplace, naps can increase productivity and reduce ‘general crabbiness,’ according to a just-concluded 25-year survey of the practice in industrial countries.” Nonetheless, Drabelle reports that, despite its honorable napping tradition, “In 2005, the Spanish government canceled the siesta for its employees, although it offered them flex time for easing into the new regimen.”

chilly day in May –
the old cat naps
in a sunny window

rainy christmas
while we nap
the lawn goes from white to green

no nap
no stroll
the writer grinding teeth

………………. by dagosan

Drabelle concludes with a warning that “Severely troubled sleepers should consult a physician about fixing their slumber, perhaps with naps of suitable length folded in.” And, he suggests ways to ensure that naps won’t run “the risk of encroaching on nighttime sleep.” He concludes with wise advice:

“In a country where fewer than half of us say we regularly get a good night’s sleep, naps are increasingly important restoratives, and we owe it to ourselves to take them right.”

a noon nap
on a good day…
first rainbow

his quick nap
is just pretend…
hermit crab

…………………. by Kobayashi Issa , translated by David G. Lanoue

Looking Backwards: As much as I now appreciate Roberta sending me the WaPo nap article, I have to confess that the most enjoyable part of this episode was my discovery of who wrote the piece. Roberta did not know that Dennis Drabelle was one of my favorite colleagues at the Federal Trade Commission three decades ago, and we have sadly been out of touch for far too long. “Denny” and I worked in the Special Projects office of the FTC’s Bureau of Competition, for our friend Bert Foer, who is now president of the American Antitrust Institute. At Special Projects, we had fun and became friends working on the new-fangled notion of “competition advocacy.” The cropped snapshot at the beginning of this paragraph was taken circa 1978 and depicts Drabelle and Foer at an office party at Bert’s house.

And, for another blast from the past, I noticed this guy, who also worked in Special Projects at the time, lurking behind Dennis in the same shot:

…. same party & photo: Mickey Kaus, Slate blogger [now]

So, I’m glad Roberta suggested I read “Nap Time,” and I’m going to use it as an excuse to email Dennis Drabelle a link to this posting. Meanwhile, the f/k/a Gang wish you pleasant mid-day dreams and happy nap times, today and everyday.

over my midday nap
the scent of lotuses
meanders

while napping
swish-swish stroked
by the willow

in no time
filled with sleep wrinkles…
my summer kimono

the stepchild’s chore–
during baby’s midday nap
picking fleas

…………………. by Kobayashi Issa, translated by David G. Lanoue

Better Blawg Browsing: We want to join Ted at Overlawyered.com, Ed at BlawgReview and many other top law-related webloggers in spreading the word about the new Alltop.com Law Page — and in thanking Alltop’s Guy Kawasaki for including f/k/a in its aggregation of the best law-oriented websites. As its About page explains, Alltop helps you “explore your passions by collecting stories from ‘all the top’ sites on the web.” A myriad of topics (from the environment to celebrity gossip, to politics, and now law) are presented by Alltop in “single-page aggregations.” They say:

You can think of an Alltop site as a “dashboard,” “table of contents,” or even a “digital magazine rack” of the Internet. To be clear, Alltop sites are starting points — they are not destinations per se. The bottom line is that we are trying to enhance your online reading by both displaying stories from the sites that you’re already visiting and helping you discover sites that you didn’t know existed. In this way, our goal is the “cessation of Internet stagnation.”

Alltop lists the last five headlines from each featured site, allowing you to see the beginning of each piece by scrolling over its hyperlink. This looks like a good tool for quickly finding blawg postings worth checking out.

As is our tradition, f/k/a is declared a Tax-Whiner-Free Zone today.

tax day —
a battery-powered breeze
stirs the desk chimes

…………………… by Billie Wilson from The Heron’s Nest

If you’re feeling a need for a prayer or two, perhaps the Giacalone Siblings will serve as inspiration:

tax deadline
we count dependents
and contributions

poem: David Giacalone
photo: MAMA G. (1956)

The original haiga was posted at MagnaPoets Japanese Form (April 15, 2007), where the Comments somehow devolved into a discussion of braciole.

Michael Langenstein, Play Ball, 1982 (postcard collage), reproduced in ”Diamonds Are Forever: Artists and Writers on Baseball’‘ (Smithsonian Institution, 1987, at 33); and see vice-versa (Vol. 1, no. 3, Spring 2006), where it is accompanied by Joseph Stanton’s poem Play Ball, which begins:

And God handed Adam
a sphere 2.9″ in diameter,

Last Friday’s Writer’s Almanac, with Garrison Keillor (scroll to April 4, 2008; Listen [RealAudio]), reminded me that I’ve been wanting to spotlight a big, beautiful baseball book, which I discovered used at our Whitney Book Corner back in February — ”Diamonds Are Forever: Artists and Writers on Baseball‘‘ (Peter H. Gordon, Editor, Smithsonian Institution, 1987). Keillor read the poem: “Assignment #1: Write a poem about Baseball and God” by Philip E. Burnham, Jr. from Housekeeping: Poems Out of the Ordinary, Ibbetson Street Press (2005), which opens:

And on the ninth day, God
In His infinite playfulness
Grass green grass, sky blue sky, . . .

Burnham’s poem quite naturally recalled to my foggy mind the Michael Langenstein image that I’ve placed at the top of this posting, which is included in Diamonds are Forever. Unfortunately, my Forever Flu has kept me from stringing together sentences here at f/k/a for an entire week now, and continues to make it rather difficult to bring my thoughts together in a coherent whole. Those hands by Michelangelo have me concerned more about spreading germs than passing on traditions, while my hacking cough has me thinking of mortality, eternity and limbic limbo, rather than normal promises of spring.

So, I’m gonna tell you a little bit more at the book, show a couple additional images linking religion and baseball, and share some spirited baseball haiku (for more check our links here, and our baseball haiku page). Then, it will be time for me (who has yet to watch his first at bat this year) to get horizontal and maybe pray this coughing stops before the All-Star Game.

tied in the ninth
pitcher and batter
cross themselves

8th birthday –
she wants a diamond
and new cleats

……… by dagosan

If you missed this baseball and art lover’s treasure when it was first published in 1987, or reprinted in 2003, you can still find it at the Amazon.com Marketplace for under $4 new and under a buck used, and Search Inside, too. It’s coffee-table sized (12 inches by 9, 168 pages). As the publisher has stated,

“[It] collects the work of America’s finest writers and artists as they celebrate the passion and excitement of our national pastime. Published in cooperation with the Smithsonian Institution, Diamonds Are Forever collects paintings, drawings, photographs, and literary excerpts, illuminating every aspect of the game-the plays, the parks, the players, the fans. Work from John Updike, Andy Warhol, Stephen King, Edna Ferber, Neil Simon, Jacob Lawrence, Roger Angell, and dozens more make this volume an artistic tribute to the quintessentially American game.”

The book was put together along with a major traveling museum exhibition, in a display The display that included “116 works of art – paintings, sculptures, photographs and lithographs – as well as quotations from 55 writers.” The New York Times covered its appearance at the New York State Museum in Albany (September 1987), and at New York Public Library (Feb. 1990).

after confession baseball
father shows us
how to throw a spitter

…………………… by Ed Markowski – Simply Haiku (Sports senryu, Vol. 6 no. 1, Spring 2008)

If prayers work better than dollars, maybe this guy — an untitled acrylic by Steve Gianakos, reproduced in ‘Diamonds Are Forever, at 150 — could help the big-spending, winless Detroit Tigers. Lucky for us, lifelong Tiger fan Ed Markowski keeps producing winners even when the Tigers are in a slump.

“red hots!”
for an instant i’m ten
and
father’s still alive

rising into thunderclouds
the umpire’s
right arm

night game in durango
all the stars
above the diamond

…….. by ed markowski – “rising” & “night game” – Baseball Haiku (2007)

Janet Braun-Reinitz (co-author of “The Mural Book“), “Report from the Fire Zone, Scroll XV,” 1986 Acrylic on Paper, reproduced in ”Diamonds Are Forever: Artists and Writers on Baseball’‘ (Smithsonian Institution, 1987, at 152)

October revival
all hands lift
to the foul ball

…………………. by jim kacian – Piedmont Literary Review (Circa 1992) & Baseball Haiku (2007)

the pitching coach
strides slowly to the mound –
dust devils

Louisville Slugger
the boy’s fingertips caress
the trademark

………….. by lee gurga – Baseball Haiku (2007)

thunder . . .
little leaguers chatter
silenced

………………by randy brooks – Baseball Haiku (2007)

p.s. Speaking of sports immortality, congratulations to Schenectady native, Pat Riley, who was voted into the National Basketball Association Hall of Fame yesterday.. (see Schenectady Daily Gazette, April 8, 2008; also, editorial) Of course, the way things work around here, Riley would have retired by now as a county judge or been ensconced as mayor in City Hall, had he decided to move back to his hometown when his basketball playing days were done. He clearly chose the better path.

ground rule double
a graveside angel
makes the stop

………… by dagosan

Honest: we were gonna really wow you with our April Fool’s wit and insight today (and maybe throw in some cherry blossom haiku and links to stories about the new Nationals Stadium in D.C.). But, I somehow picked up a dreadful flu bug over the weekend (at Duanesburg Day, I believe), and it apparently has not yet hit its peak. So, there’s nothing much for this achy old fool to do but put up a token posting, head back to my futon, and avoid excess exertion.

all fools day
my daughter gets in first
with a pinch and punch

April Fool’s Day –
a skylark’s song
way over my head

april snow
a pat of butter
melts in the pan

…… by matt morden
“April Fool’s Day” – The Heron’s Nest (June 2001);
“april snow” – Mayfly #27′ “all fool’s day” – morden haiku

April 1st
the haiku muse
calls in sick

………. by dagosan

p.s. Although we traditionally have warned our readers to avoid the tidal wave of badly-written April Fool’s humor and concept pieces in cyberspace this time of year, we want to point to an exception — George Wallace’s special April Fool’s Blawg Review. After hosting Blawg Review #153 yesterday at his insurance blog, Declarations & Exclusions, George is focusing at A Fool in the Forest today on blawgs that go beyond legal issues and stories (and has graciously mentioned a number of recent posts from f/k/a), on legal oddities, and on some Naughty Bits. We suggest you take the time you saved by not having to peruse one of our prolix pieces today, and head over to visit George in his artsy little forest.

growing old–
even the cherry blossoms
a bit annoying

….. by Kobayashi Issa, translated by David G. Lanoue (60 more with blossoms)

winter sickness
my daughter tucks me in
for the first time

…….. by matt morden – – The Heron’s Nest, Valentine Award (July 2003)

The family that comes together, ums together.

the octagenarian
fills in my blank ………….
again

………………. by dagosan

There’s something about visiting my older relatives over a holiday that gets me fretting about my aging Boomer brain and body, dementia, tip of the tongue syndrome, and similar concepts. (see, e.g., “pity the baby-boomer raconteur,” Nov. 23, 2007). As I confessed when I wrote about Michael Erard’s Um the Book last September, quite a few members of my family use that little pause-filler a lot.

the um in her voice
before offering me
the senior discount

….. by Carolyn Hall – A New Resonance 2; Frogpond XXIII:2

I got a lot of umming started in my Aunt Bella’s kitchen on Easter Sunday, in the Rochester suburb of Greece, NY. Someone was preparing the Easter ham and looking for a baster — as often happens with my female family members, it had to be just the “right” size — and I started to say how surprised I had been recently when a particular utensil (that I always assumed was made of some rubber product) shattered into pieces after falling off my counter at home. I paused and ummed and finally said in frustration:

“What do you call that thing you use to flip stuff in a frying pan?“

At the time I asked the question, at least two of my aunts were in the room. Now, I don’t want to sound too much like one of those self-aggrandizing small-firm lawyer ads, but we had over 200 years of flipper-use-experience in that kitchen among the three of us. Nonetheless, we could not conjure up the name of the item in question. Finally, Bella asked her 11-year-old grandson (who is normally monosyllabic with adults) what you call the food-flipper thing, and (yes, to my amazement) he immediately replied correctly, “a spatula.” Damn. It wasn’t even on the tip of my tongue.

april snow
a pat of butter
melts in the pan

tango music ~
a frying pan swings
on a hook

… by matt morden
“april snow” – Mayfly #27
“tango music” – Morden Haiku

Figuring I might as well get something useful out of the incident, I Googled a bit to find information on the “tip of the tongue” phenomenon, and on the word spatula, and then looked around our archives for more-or-less related haiku and senryu. If that sort of pastiche posting interests you, stick around and keep reading.

Spatula: Here’s an informative summary of the word spatula (and its regional usage, synonyms and etymology) from Wikipedia:

…. spatula

A spatula, also known as a fish slice in British English, is a kitchen utensil with a long handle and a broad flat edge, used for lifting fish and fried foods. Though the word spatula is used in British English, it refers solely to a mixing and spreading implement. In parts of Canada and the United States, spatulas are sometimes called flippers or turners. They are used both in the preparation of food, as a flipping implement, and in the serving of food. Often the plate scraper is referred to as a spatula.

The word spatula, known in English since 1525, is a diminutive form of the Latin term spatha, which means a broad sword (as in spatharius) or a flat piece of wood and is also the origin of the words spade (digging tool) and spathe.

river restaurant
halfway through the fried frog legs
the croaking begins

………… by W.F. Owen – World Haiku Ass’n bio; Haiku Headlines (June 2000)

… Speaking of spatulas and memory, do you remember Weird Al Yankovic’s Spatula City? It’s the spatula outlet store in the movie UHF. As its fictional owner Sy Greenblum says, “I liked their spatulas so much, I bought the company.”

unofficial start
of spring –
parkas huddled ’round the grill

[click for Dave Coverly’s TOT cartoon]

the pretty one?
not even
on the tip of my tongue

……………………… by dagosan

Tip of the Tongue: We Baby Boomers will really be in bad shape if we ever forget the source of this famous tongue logo. Wikipedia has a good summary of the Tip of the Tongue phenonemon, including its history in literature (such as Anton Chekhov’s short story “A Horsey Name“), and studies regarding various age groups. Here are a few excerpts from the Wikipedia TOT entry:

tip of the tongue

The tip of the tongue (TOT) phenomenon is an instance of knowing something that cannot immediately be recalled. TOT is a near-universal experience with memory recollection involving difficulty retrieving a well-known word or familiar name. When experiencing TOT, people feel that the blocked word is on the verge of being recovered. Despite failure in finding the word, people have the feeling that the blocked word is figuratively “on the tip of the tongue.” Inaccessibility and the sense of imminence are two key features of an operational definition of TOTs (A.S. Brown, 1991).

History of Tip of the Tongue

The experience of TOT appeared in non-academic literature as early as 1885. . . .

In 1966, Harvard psychologists Roger Brown and David McNeill reported the first empirical investigation of the tip-of-the-tongue state. . . . They also found that TOT is a fairly universal phenomenon, TOTs occur about once a week and increase as you age, and they’re often caused by proper names. . . .

TOT across the lifespan

TOT research in children has mainly focused on when they begin to experience TOTs and what the experience is like for them (Brown, 1991). . . . TOTs occur more often in third graders (ages 6-7) than they do in kindergarteners and first graders.

More research has been done with TOTs in older adults. In terms of subjective estimates, research has found that older adults report experiencing TOTs about as often as younger adults (Brown, 1991). However, . . . young adults were found to experience significantly fewer TOTs than older adults. Other TOT literature has found that older adults remember less information about the target word and bring up fewer related words during the TOT experience and are less active in resolving the TOT experience (Brown, 1991).

even for the tongue-tied
crow of the east…
spring’s first dawn

……………………

stuttering about
the olden days…
a cuckoo

………………………

today’s last voice
is raised . . .
summer cicada

…… Kobayashi Issa, translated by David G. Lanoue

You can find more about the Tip of the Tongue Experience at the About Memory website. I was happy to see that

• “In general, this increase in TOTs with age is seen in poorer recall of names (proper names and names of things). Abstract words do not become harder to recall with age.”

But, I am not as optimistic as they are about avoiding this annoying part of the aging process — and am certainly not adding “keeping an active weblog” to their list:

• Keeping your experience of language diverse (e.g., playing scrabble, doing crosswords) may help reduce TOTs.

applauding
the mime
in our mittens

early Alzheimer’s
she says she’ll have . . .
the usual

……………………………… by John Stevenson – Quiet Enough (2004)

mute button –
the unexpected sound
of raindrops

…………………. Laryalee Fraser – tinywords

hard rain
the sizzle of summer peppers
in the skillet

…………. by Alice Frampton – The Heron’s Nest Vol. VIII

mid-argument
the senior partner
has a senior minute

a third helping
of Thanksgiving politics
I bite my tongue

………………………….. by dagosan

he’s utterly given up
silent
insect

words
are a waste of time…
poppies

your name escapes me
old friend…
blossoming mountain

……… by Kobayashi Issa, translated by David G. Lanoue

– The f/k/a Gang is going to spend Easter Sunday in Rochester, NY, with our haiga collaborators Mama and Arthur G., and other beloved relatives. (Find some Easter memories and haiku here.) Of course, when we think of Rochester and family, we also think of Tom and Sarah Painting [see painting & painting: mount hope haiku], who — like the Calabash, NC , branch of our family — are also surely contemplating Opening Day and the new baseball season. I’ve got to hit the road, so I’ll just leave you with a few haiku and best wishes for Easter, Spring and all the new seasons.

all day rain
on the playing field
a stray dog

the toddler
runs to third base
first

bases loaded
a full moon clears
the right field fence

…………………………. by Tom Painting
“the toddler”, “bases loaded” & “all day rain” – from the chapbook piano practice; and Baseball Haiku (2007)

summer evening
a hot dog smell
on the breeze

……………………………. by sarah painting

Can’t wait for opening day? Check out the f/k/a baseball haiku page, and our posts featuring the book Baseball Haiku (Cor van den Heuvel and Nanae Tamura, eds., W.W. Norton Press, April 2007) — such as here, there, here; and told you all about the book back in January, here.

Speaking of baseball, family and the coming of spring, here’s a treat from Ed Markowski:

snowflakes tumble & curve
the baseball season
begins today

April rain
my grandson practices
his infield chatter

April snow
the home team falls
7 games back

…………………………….. by Ed Markowski

. . . . . Jackadoggi & Giacalone . . . . . . . . .

Yep, that’s Jack the Bulldog, the sports mascot of my college alma mater Georgetown University. And, his human doppelganger is the editor of this weblog, in my one and only “baseball cap,” which just happens to depict Jack alongside the Georgetown Hoyas logo. Donning that cap (and looking only mildly skeptical) is about as much March Madness as I am willing (or likely) to ever show — even if the Hoyas make it to the Elite Eight, the Final Four or the Last Dance/Championship Game. As I confessed this time last year: “Frankly, I’m not much of a sports fan (except for good basketball and baseball haiku).” So, you better go to Wikipedia, if you want an explanation of brackets or berths, seeds or rounds, and any other aspects of the NCAA collegiate basketball championship, which has been dubbed — and which inspires so much — March Madness.

one on one…
she dares me to show her
my vertical leap

…….. by ed markowski

march madness
he tells me his fantasy
teams

march madness
he fits me in
pre-game

. . by roberta beary

As the Washington Post reports today, the “Hoyas Are Ready, and Open for Business: Experienced Georgetown, No. 2 Seed in the Midwest, Will Get Started Against No. 15 UMBC” (March 17, 2008). Should the Hoyas make it to the regional final or beyond, I’ll surely watch the last few minutes of their games, and report about their victories here at f/k/a. However, barring a hot date with a serious college basketball fan (I knew a couple of women lawyers who were big Hoya fans, and a few Tarheel fanatics, when I was an FTC staffer in DC), you won’t catch me on a sofa or bar stool with my eyes glued for hours to a large screen filled with baskeball jerseys. Nor will I be filling out a Brackets Sheet. If you desire more info about Georgetown basketball, I suggest clicking HoyaSaxa.com.

Although we don’t suffer from March Madness here at f/k/a, our bench-warmer dogosan is not immune from related Senryu Silliness:

cheering for
his blind date’s team –
arch cadness

march sadness:
nana wants
her soap operas back

my nephew lets me
beat him to H-O-R-S-E –
march gladness

again she hides
his brackets sheet —
spouse badness

two hours alone
with his teenage son –
march dadness

branch managers
play bookie –
march madness ends

………………………. dogosan ..

Want some real march madness senryu? Here’s more from the all-star team of Markowski and Beary:

march madness
his team slam dunks
our date

march madness
he enters my bedroom
to check the score

. ……………………….. by Roberta Beary

calligraphy class
the point guard
pens a nike swoosh

city moon
my basketball flattened
by a shard of glass

game winning shot
the big man
palms my head

long rebound
crossing mid-court
she crosses my mind

……………………….. by ed markowski

– afterthought: don’t miss Ed’s new poems in this comment –

It may be March 17th, but a wee nap sounds a lot better this morning than a wee nip or a wee new posting to the f/k/a Gang. It’s a good thing we were much more into the St. Patrick’s Day spirit in past years. See:

• “wearin’ o’ the white” (2007), no snakes but lots o’ snow.
• “reprise: feeling a little Irish?” (2006)
• “feeling a little Irish?” (2005), where we pointed to Thomas Fleming’s NYT op-ed piece “Don’t Parade, Just Go Vote,” and o’pined that minorities surely should vote, but shouldn’t expect to keep all the political spoils to themselves if they win.

St. Paddy’s parade –
at the curb
green and yellow snow

…. by dagosan [March 12, 2005]

Over in Dublin, Lex Ferenda (“daithí mac sithigh’s blog on cyberlaw and more”) is hosting Blawg Review #151, which has lots of timely pointers to the best o’ the blawgers — including a reminder that Anne Reed, our favorite redheaded blawger, has been in Japan talking about juries, and offers insights and reflections at her Deliberations weblog. Meanwhile, although he continues to insist on anonymity (and to mask his nationality), the mysterious Editor of Blawg Review is claiming Irish blood, and has been celebrating the St. Patrick’s Festival for several days (with a very nice YouTube parade clip).

drawing the
designated driver straw –
st. patrick’s day

…….. by dagosan [March 17, 2006]

In case you are planning to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day in customary American style, please keep in mind this timely message from the anti-liberal brain of Jenn of the Jungle (via Texas Hold-’em Blogger):

……………………………………………………….

Enough for now from us (except to wish the Luck o’ the Irish to David Paterson, who becomes governor of New York State today, as a blessed consequence of the Spitzer sex scandal; see NYT editorial; and a Schenectady Gazette article; watch the inauguration at 1 PM EDST, by clicking here).

St. Patrick’s Day
a traffic cop directs
gridlock

…….. by Pamela Miller Ness from “The Can Collector’s Red Socks” (2003), a haiku sequence

st. patrick’s day
the foreman hands out
pink slips

st. patrick’s day
an old pot filled with
losing lotto slips

…………… by ed markowski

p.s. Hungry for more Irish lore from f/k/a? Check out Paul Quirk’s photo of the Classic St. Patrick’s Day Feast. Learn the meaning of “erin go bra!” by scrolling down our post about a famous paralegal. And, don’t forget our Big Dance post from March 16, 2006, featuring the adorable Irish Setter Puppy from Metroland (”The [NY] Capital Region’s Alternative Weekly Newspaper”):

. . . . . . Irish Setter Stew . . . . . .

– “made from tender young Irish Setter puppies!
– Perfect for St. Patrick’s Day!

– see the Irish Setter Stew ad enlarged here –