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Sometimes truth is stranger than fiction. I'm baffled. Which is why I have to tell this story. But first, before I can go on I must make an embarrassing confession. I have been harboring a dead fish for a week.

Why keep a dead fish?

Well. . . because the fish belongs to my daughter and it's my fault that the fish died. We went away for the weekend and I forgot to make arrangements for his feedings. Bad mommy!

Beta fish are very active and aggressive, so when the fish went nose up, tail down and didn't move for a couple of days, (despite my tapping on the glass and shaking the bowl to get him going) I had to finally admit that he was dead. But my daughter is VERY sensitive. She gets upset very easy and I had a hard time bringing myself to tell her, but I wanted her to be able to have a "ceremony" to say good-bye to her pet. So I couldn't get rid of him without her knowing. That would upset her even more. She needed to say good-bye.

Day after day I walked by the fish bowl only to find the fish, unmoving, in the same position as the day before. I'd tell myself "today I have to tell my daughter." The days went by until days turn into a week. At this point I'm amazed that the fish hasn't begun to decompose yet.

Last night I resolved, "I must tell my daughter . . . tomorrow."

Much to my surprise, when I walked by the fish bowl before bed last night, I saw the fish was swimming! Fans flittering, tail swishing, moving all around the bowl like he used to. May I take the time to remind you that I have not fed the fish over the course of this week. I thought he was dead! Why would I?

Today, he is still swimming and ate the food I gave him.

hmmmmm. . . . I'm perplexed.

So I guess, (to use the words from my favorite book/move, The Princess Bride,) he was not all dead. He was just MOSTLY dead. And now he's mostly alive. So I shall change his name to that of the Princess Bride Hero . . . Wessley.

Recently I came across a description that I fell in love with. Here's a bit of the passage by Henry David Thoreau:

"And now, at half-past ten o'clock, I hear the cockerels crow in Hubbard's barns, and morning is already anticipated. It is the feathered, wakeful thought in us that anticipates the following day."

It's the "feathered, wakeful thought" that I love so much. Is there a more perfect way to describe those hazy thoughts as a day of expectation draws near? This is the best I've come across.

One thing that I know, is that as long as I have my senses (the 5 senses, that is, not my cognitive capabilities) I will never be bored. I find myself thinking about weird stuff all the time. One time I spent an hour on a balcony overlooking the ocean just so I could REALLY REALLY figure out the sound it makes. (by the way, I have resolved that it goes "Sahrushhhhhh, Sarushhhhh" Just in case you're wondering.)

Today I was at the gym, and as I walked into the locker room, the pungent smell of stainless steel cleaner from the freshly shined bathroom stalls nearly knocked me over. (pardon my adverbs) And what did I do? I spent the first 10 minutes of my workout trying to figure out what stainless steel cleaner smells like. I wondered how I would describe the smell if I were to write about it.

What I came up with is a mixture of sweet, metalic antiseptic.

But rest assured, I am in good company! I'm finding there's lots of "weird" thinkers out there, and if you're one of them, you're my kind of folks! :0)

Andrea J. Buchanan & Miriam Peskowitz illustrated by Alexis Seabrush Collins / HarperCollins 2007 The girls had to wait a while but it's finally here. With a clear debt paid up front to the creators of The Dangerous Book for Boys, here we have a collection of things to know and do for girls to help them be as equally rounded in their informal educations as the boys. I've already seen some

Mitch Kachun is Associate Professor of History at Western Michigan University. He recently edited, along with William L. Andrews, The Curse of Caste; or The Slave Bride. The Curse of Caste is the first novel ever published by a black American woman. Kachun, who also authored, Festivals of Freedom: Memory and Meaning in African American Emancipation Celebrations, 1808-1915, will speak at a Juneteenth celebration in Williamsport, Pennsylvania, on June 23, 2007.

I first learned about Juneteenth while I was in graduate school in the early 1990s. I had expressed to a fellow student my interest in researching the history of African American emancipation celebrations in the 19th century, and she said, “Oh, you mean like Juneteenth?” And I said, “Huh?”
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