Man, the art-personals ad drabble is hard (for me), but I really like it as an exercise. As follows:

Know the value of a good nap? Me: pastel on canvas, still attractive at the age of 100-something, looking to share light and loveliness. You: seeking the still, simple peace of a fluffy pillow and a dozing beauty. Age and gender unimportant. Must know that the naked human body is more than a springboard for salacious sentiment. Must also appreciate the wonder of a curved and luminous human body as art in and of itself. Love of 300 thread-count bedding is optional. Contact Cincinnati Art Museum, any day except Monday. Will reply to all serious inquiries.

(Link somewhat not safe for work: Siesta, by Frank Duveneck.)

(siesta image not precisely work-friendly, FTR)

Oh, dear god. ita, thanks. That didn't even register with me, since it's "art."

Small bit of news, before details are firmed up and such.

Looks like Lea and I, in late January, will be doing a handful of readings in Orange County, Los Angeles and San Francisco.

Yay! This time, remind me to find out about getting tickets before hand, okay.

VICTOR!

Do you guys have cat allerhies, or can I feed you?

(thread hijack) And I think I've decided on Brookline Booksmith for an event, and my publicist tells me they want to know when it's set up, so that they can ping some NYC stores about me coming in and signing their stock for them.

Should I poke the Somerville list with a sharp stick, er, formal request>

(returning thread to driveway with full tank)

Yay! This time, remind me to find out about getting tickets before hand, okay.

Hopefully, we won't bereading anywhere you'll NEED tickets, or where the venue will be overrun with movie star groupies.

Do you guys have cat allerhies, or can I feed you?

Lea's got mild allergies, but we can work around. We still need to firm up stuff there, so we don't what's what yet. Will be in touch.

Oh, and yeah, poke the Somervillains. Things are a little crazy all around right now.

I'm so predictable...millions of works of art and I picked the broken woman one. Looking for someone who can get past the physical...although I am a striking Greek lady who’s been living in France for some time. My hobbies include nature and inspiring others(although let’s not even talk about that spelunking phase...what was I thinking?) I’m looking for a man secure enough to know I love him, even if I can’t put my arms around him at night. Love, Venus.

erika, I predicted that none of this week's drabble crop was likely to do more than tickle me in passing: not my thing at all, since I can't get emotionally invested in either of the two topic choices.

But that one cracked me up nicely. Nothing to do with art appreciation in any sense or form; just memories of the Louvre on rainy days, before they put in that fugly-ass pyramid in the courtyard and made it impossible for people to not pay money to check their umbrellas.

The standard thing on wet days was to find a convenient statue behind which you could stash it (you do not wander the Louvre with a dripping brolly in your hand). You'd find them in the oddest places, behind Winged Victory at Samothrace (Helene Whatsis riffed on that, in her Heloise in Paris), which was the most common place to hide it, because that was the first humongous piece of marble you came to. But only an idiot left it behind VdM, because there was technically no "behind". She's freestanding and can (or could, last time I looked) be circled by people.

Someday I'll have to go, one broken chick to another, huh? I'm a little bit fascinated by personal ads, above and beyond my own desire to couple up. Some of them are so great, and some of them scream out "I'm a freak, perv, cradle-robber."..or whatever.