Needlework by Julie Showalter: Chapter 8 Now Available
Needlework
A Novel
by
Julie Showalter
Julie Showalter
Julie Showalter was my much-beloved, fiercely smart, extraordinarily sexy wife, who died in 1999 from cancer diagnosed the week of our wedding nearly 20 years earlier. She was also a prize-winning writer.
This blog includes many other posts about her and the unlikely but true story of our romance (See Julie FAQ) as well as several of her short stories and other pieces. Most of Julie’s fully edited and buffed literary efforts are already available under the heading, Julie’s Writings, in “Categories.”
Unpublished Julie is a group of pieces I’ve found on her computer or in her office that range from workshop exercises to story fragments to projects set aside to finish at a later day to work that appears, at least to me, to be fully as polished and effective as her published stories.
Needlework, The Novel
Julie completed a novel, Needlework, by 1997 but was revising portions of it for some time afterward. I have searched her files and have compiled the latest versions I have discovered.
I plan to publish that compilation of her novel on the Heck of a Guy Blog, a chapter at a time in serial fashion. Links to all currently published portions of Needlework can always be found at this link: Information About Needlework With Links To Published Portions. PDF versions of the posted sections of Needlework can also be found at that page.
Chapter 8 of Needlework Now Available
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Chapter 8 of Needlework can be found at
Download
To download a PDF version of this section of Needlework by Julie Showalter, right-click on the link below and then choose “Save Link As … ” or “Save Target As …” from the context menu:
Previously Posted From Needlework
~Needlework by Julie Showalter: Opening and Prologue~
~Needlework by Julie Showalter: Chapter 1~
~Needlework by Julie Showalter: Chapter 2~
~Needlework by Julie Showalter: Chapter 3~
~Needlework by Julie Showalter: Chapter 4~
~Needlework by Julie Showalter: Chapter 5~
~Needlework by Julie Showalter: Chapter 6~
~Needlework by Julie Showalter: Chapter 7~
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Leonard-Laden Lagniappes
Just A Few Leonard Links For A Saturday Night
Rock and Roll Is Here To Stay
The Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame, Maybe Not So Much - Nonetheless …
As one would imagine, there are a batch of timely online articles about Leonard Cohen being nominated to the Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame. These fall neatly into three categories of approximately equal size which are distinguished only by their end punctuation. Those three categories with a representative example of each, follow:
- Leonard Cohen Nominated To The Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame.
Leonard Cohen nominated for Rock and Roll Hall of Fame - Leonard Cohen Nominated To The Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame!
Next stop for Cohen: Rock and Roll Hall of Fame - Leonard Cohen Nominated To The Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame?
My Thoughts On The Rock Hall Nominees
From Cleveland To Greece
In the September 29, 2007 Travel section of Halifax Daily News, Jon Tattrie provides a Cohen’s eye view of Hydra in Spirit of Cohen remains on idyllic Greek island .
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McHenry County Eye Candy
Today’s post sets forth another candidate for the new McHenry County Seal,1 the provenance of which follows:
While employing a photocopy of the Illinois State Seal as the McHenry County Seal may have fallen a tad short of Jackson Pollock-level creativity,2 the seal of these United States certainly seems an appropriate source of inspiration for designing a new McHenry County seal.
The back of The Great Seal, displayed in the graphic below and, most ubiquitously, on dollar bills, features the Eye of Providence (AKA The All-Seeing Eye) positioned, of course, atop a pyramid.3 Readers familiar with the Heck of a Guy Blog will not be surprised to discover that I was fascinated by the notion of a mystic eye, and its official association with the currency of the realm could hardly be interpreted as anything other than a rather blatant sign from the cosmos that some version of this image belongs on the McHenry County Seal. The “some version” provision is necessary because a floating eyeball, despite its undeniable allure, could, one supposes, be considered by some to be -well, creepy.
Applying the previously discussed criteria for the new seal, that it be “unique to McHenry County” and “readily identifiable,” to the iconic eye, I soon realized that my quixotic foray into concerns about county seal identity theft was less a mistake than a flaring of artistic genius sublimated into a post about a conspiracy theory.
Based on my chief source of technological science, movies that are offered by Netflix, my thoughts raced from “All-Seeing Eye,” “unique to McHenry County” and “readily identifiable” to “means of identifying a unique entity” to biometrics to this boldly unique seal that is, in the realm of county seals, pretty darn readily identifiable.
The County Seal and Identification Card
The McHenry County I.D. Seal
Displaying a retinal scan,4 the modern technology most associated with identity verification, this seal bespeaks a county’s commitment to knowing who we are - because otherwise, how do we know who doesn’t belong here? Surrounding the identifying and identifiable retinal scan is a burnished brass border, into which is etched the county’s name and the emblem’s title and which resonates with the traditional values of McHenry County that persist, unyielding and inflexible.5
Footnotes
- The McHenry County Seal Redesign Project is explicated in two previous posts: Sealed With A Dis and The Great Seal Of McHenry County Not Great Enough ~back~
On the other hand, it seems fair to say that Pollock’s work may not represent the perfect imagery for a county seal. (See example on right) ~back~- The most reliable studies now show that 66-81% of all confirmed sightings of floating eyeballs take place directly above recognizable pyramids ~back~
- I am undecided as to whose retina will be used for the actual seal. Candidates now under consideration include elected county officials, the various festival and homecoming queens reigning in the county, a composite of a representative sampling of the county population, and, of course, the most attractive blogger in the county. ~back~
- Uncertain if the brass border conveys an adequate quantity of symbolic linkage to the past, I am considering the addition of a Latin phrase to signify the permanence of some principles, something along the lines of Vos es non ex hic , es vos? (”You’re not from here, are you?”) ~back~
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First We Take Manhattan But Cleveland Is Nice Too - Leonard Cohen Nominated To Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame
Leonard Cohen and 7 Others, Including Madonna, Nominated For 2008 Induction
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame In Cleveland
Rolling Stone reports, in 2008 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Nominees Announced,
Within the group of nominees, Leonard Cohen, Madonna, Afrika Bambaataa, the Beastie Boys, Donna Summer and the Ventures are on the ballot for the first time while Chic, the Dave Clark Five and John Mellencamp are back in contention after failing to win enough votes for induction into the Hall of Fame.
From left to right, Top row: Leonard Cohen, John Mellencamp, Donna Summer; Middle row: Chic, Beastie Boys, Afrika Bambaataa; Bottom row: Ventures, Dave Clark Five, Madonna
Five members from this group of nominees will be inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2008.
Madonna, by virtue (smirk) of her 200 million albums sold, her fifty Top 40 singles, concert tours drawing millions of fans and hundreds of millions of dollars, a film career that includes flicks ranging from “Desperately Seeking Susan” to “Evita,” a series of children’s books, another volume titled “SEX,” and, as they say, much, much more, is surely the best known of the nominees.
And, DrHGuy has long nurtured all manner of positive feelings for The Material Girl and her bullet-point lingerie, harbors enthusiastic admiration for the Ventures, the Dave Clark Fivem and John Mellencamp , and in fact, has enjoyed work by Afrika Bambaataa, the Beastie Boys, Donna Summer and, yes, even Chic.
Nonetheless, the hopes, prayers, Karmic vibrations, and psychic investments of the Heck of a Guy Blog are committed to Leonard Cohen, the class act in this group of nominees.
The Hall of Fame Game
The first group of inductees, inducted on January 23, 1986, included Chuck Berry, James Brown, Ray Charles, Sam Cooke, Fats Domino, the Everly Brothers, Buddy Holly, Jerry Lee Lewis, Little Richard, and Elvis Presley.
Currently, groups or individuals are qualified for induction 25 years after the release of their first record. Nominees should have “demonstrable influence and significance within the history of rock and roll.” Four categories are recognized: Performers, Non-Performers, Early Influences, and since 2000, Sidemen.
The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Foundation, based in New York City, oversees the induction process. Ballots are sent to an international pool of voters, including record company executives and previous inductees.
On The Flip Side
The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame has its detractors. Their case is outlined in this excerpt from Wikipedia:1
Criticism
The main criticism is that the nomination process is controlled by a few individuals, such as founder Jann Wenner, former foundation director Suzan Evans, and writer Dave Marsh, reflecting their tastes rather than the views of the rock world as a whole. A former member of the nominations board once said:
At one point Suzan Evans lamented the choices being made because there weren’t enough big names that would sell tickets to the dinner. That was quickly remedied by dropping one of the doo-wop groups being considered in favor of a ‘name’ artist … I saw how certain pioneering artists of the 50s and early 60s were shunned because there needed to be more name power on the list, resulting in 70s superstars getting in before the people who made it possible for them. Some of those pioneers still aren’t in today — but Queen is.
Petitions with tens of thousands of signatures were also being ignored and some groups that were signed with certain labels or companies or were affiliated with various committee members have even been put up for nomination with no discussion at all.
Another criticism is that too many artists are inducted, allowing for several lesser acts to make it in. In fifteen years, 97 different artists have been inducted. A minimum of 50% of the vote is needed to be inducted, although the final percentages are not announced and a certain number of inductees (5 in 2007) is set before the ballots are shipped.
There are very few progressive rock bands in the hall, with Pink Floyd being the only true progressive rock group inducted. This has been noted by the columnist John Sinkevics, who notes the genre has more fan backing than any other.
The Sex Pistols, inducted in 2006, refused to attend the ceremony, calling the museum a “piss stain.”
2007 voting scandal allegationsOn March 14, two days after the 2007 induction ceremony, Roger Friedman of Fox News published an article claiming that The Dave Clark Five should have been the fifth inductee, as they had more votes than inductee Grandmaster Flash and The Furious Five. The article went on to say “[Jann Wenner] used a technicality about the day votes were due in. In reality, The Dave Clark Five got six more votes than Grandmaster Flash. But he felt we couldn’t go another year without a rap act.”
The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame would later deny fixing the vote, although they didn’t deny that late votes were received, saying, “No. There is a format and rules and procedure. There is a specific time when the votes have to be in, and then they are counted. The bands with the top five votes got in.”
Credit Due Department: Rock and Roll Hall of Fame photograph taken by Jason Pratt
Footnotes
- Formatting has stripped the citations that were within this excerpt from Wikipedia. Those references are, of course, available at the Wikipedia article itself. ~back~
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Things My Physical Therapist Never Told Me #1
Although She Might Have If I Had Given Her More Than Ten Minutes
Because today was chockablock with medical, dental, and, most predominantly, physical therapy encounters, I arrived home at an impressively late hour with precious little time to devote to constructing the usual Heck of a Guy sophisticatedly scintillating yet nonetheless instructive and insightful post.
Consequently, today is a conveniently appropriate date for the first of my new how-to manage assistive rehab devices series, Things My Physical Therapist Never Told Me.
I’m deferring the introduction and multiple disclaimers for another day, choosing to move directly to the first tip, pausing only to declaim,
If you live long enough, you or a loved one will be paired with a walker, wheel chair, crutches, etc. for a transient or long-term period.
Then, you will wish you had paid attention to these posts.
Things My Physical Therapist Never Told Me
#1. Wheels on wheelchairs and rolling walkers are constructed from a combination of exotic resins and advanced polymer composites blended and cured according to a precise protocol to produce an unsurpassed tool for seeking out and collecting filth, preferentially and selectively adhering to the most disgusting substances available in the environment, mixing it into an irreducible concoction which it then spreads throughout ones home.1
Folks who manually propel their own wheelchairs outside soon discover this fact because they tend to notice their hands turning black. Many of the fancy-schmancy wheelchairs offer wheel self-cleaning options.
Someone who uses a walker with wheels or uses a wheelchair primarily indoors (or is lucky enough to have others who insist on impersonating a wheelchair motor) may not realize that the reason his or her floor - and especially the carpeted area - has been declared a toxic dump is not because a cattle drive was misdirected through the living room but because those wheels are crushing dirt and detritus into the floors.
The simplest solution is effective although a bit of a nuisance. For those of us whose rehab is a transient phenomenon, keeping a box of cleaning wipes near the usual entry to the house to use on tires before proceeding further and another container of wipes in the car or with the assistive device itself for use at other times may eliminate the problem.
A somewhat more expensive but also more time-efficient solution and one also less subject to error is the purchase of two devices, one dedicated exclusively for use inside the home and the other, never brought inside the house, used whenever the patient leaves home.
Snow tires for wheelchairs (no kidding)
Footnotes
- While I have had experience with only wheelchairs and walkers, I would not be surprised to learn that the pads on the bottoms of crutches and canes are made from similar materials and have similar problems. ~back~
Possibly Related Posts:
New York Times Online Is Free At Last
Maybe Information Does Want To Be Free - To Run Ads
New York Times Opens Access To Web Site
The New York Times no longer charges for those portions of its web site and archives that were formerly by subscription only.1
This move marks the demise of the two year old TimesSelect project, which levied a charge of $49.95 a year or $7.95 a month for online access to the work of its columnists and to the newspaper’s archives.2
This change is significant not only for the reduction in frustration for folks like me who have spent the past 24 months inadvertently clicking on a provocative headline3 only to be confronted with the TimesSelect stop sign but also because of the reasons for this decision and their implications for media in general.
The Economics of Newspapers
The TimesSelect project was not, according to the Times, an abysmal fiscal flop. It “met expectations” (whatever that means) and, more to the point, drew 227,000 paying subscribers, thus generating about $10 million a year in revenue.
The problem for the hybrid subscription model implemented by the Times was that it ran into the Googlenomics model - i.e., massive numbers of readers were directed to the New York Times site from Google, other search engines, and links on other sites, overwhelming the number who arrived at www.nytimes.com directly.4 Denying those search-engine directed users access meant The Times was missing an opportunity for more page views and, in turn, increased advertising revenue.
Is The Wall Street Journal Next?
With the online New York Times now fully accessible without a subscription, the only large American newspapers that still charges for access to most of its Web site is The Wall Street Journal. The Journal’s almost one million paying online readers chip in about $65 million annually for the privilege.
Nonetheless, according to the Times, “Dow Jones and the company that is about to take it over, the News Corporation, are discussing whether to continue that practice, according to people briefed on those talks. Rupert Murdoch, the News Corporation chairman, has talked of the possibility of making access to The Journal free online.”
The official story of the change to free access at the New York Times web site is, of course, reported in the “Media & Advertising” pages of the Times itself and can be found at Times to Stop Charging for Parts of Its Web Site.5
Footnotes
- While the announcement that the New York Times stopped charging for access to parts of its Web site was made just over a week ago (years ago in Internet time), my recent email indicates that at least a few folks haven’t heard the word. This is such good - and important news that its mention here seemed mandated. ~back~
- The Times now makes its archives from 1987 to the present available without charge, as well as those from 1851 to 1922, which are in the public domain. There are charges for some material from the period 1923 to 1986, and some will be free. ~back~
- One wonders if those teasers will be as tempting without the the allure of limited access ~back~
- This phenomenon is not limited to The New York Times and other journalistic giants. Heck of a Guy viewers from search engines and links on other sites outnumber those who arrive here directly by 20 to 1. ~back~
- The numbers and hard data for this posting were drawn from this New York Times article. ~back~
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Canada Stakes Claim To Allan Truax
The Birthplace Of Allan Truax Reconsidered
Those readers who have followed my eccentric efforts to discover and organize information about the life and times of Allan Lincoln Truax1 may recall my agonized speculations about his place of birth.
When I posted The Life and Times Of Allan Lincoln Truax on 9 May 2007, his birthplace seemed certain and there was little reason to doubt the accuracy of the map I created, correlating the years of Allan’s life with his geographical location, which identifies his birthplace as Mayville, Michigan.
By 21 June 2007, however, when Allan Truax: The Early Years - Part I was published, I had discovered a significant but not overwhelming conflict in the records documenting his birth, as noted in this excerpt from that post:
- John: Head of Household; Married, Male, White, Age 50, Birthplace: Ontario; Farmer5
- Louise: Wife; Married, Female, White, Age 45; Birthplace: Ontario; Keeps House
- Franklin: Son; Single, Male, White, Age 18; Birthplace: Ontario; At Home
- Allen: Son, Single, Male, White, Age 8; Birthplace: Ontario;6 At Home
- Alice: Daughter, Single, Female, White, Age 8 Months; Birthplace: Michigan
This is the only document, to my knowledge, that lists Allan’s (Allen’s) birthplace as Ontario.
After an episode of characteristically obsessive dithering, I finally concluded
From the preponderance of data in the records discussed above, the Truax family probably resided in Ontario until at least 1862 (when Franklin Truax was born) and moved to Mayville, Michigan no later than 1865 (when James Chalmers Truax was born), with the parents continuing to live in Mayville until John Galbraith Truax’s death in 1904.
Of course, that does not explain why the Truax family living in Mayville wasn’t counted in any governmental listings (e.g., the 1870 Michigan Census) other than the 1880 Federal Census and the Michigan Death Record of James Truax. While I’m uncomfortable attributing this to simple bureaucratic errors, compounded by the scarcity of available population records noted by Ms. Morgan, I am unable to develop viable alternative hypotheses. All other explanations would either render all of the genealogical information erroneous or require the Truax family to have moved to parts unknown after the birth of James in Mayville in 1865, only to return to that same town after the 1870 census but prior to Allan’s birth in 1871 .
Help Arrives From Canada
And, that was my working hypothesis until 18 September 20078 when my routine morning exploration of my inbox turned up a message from Jennifer Smith, the newsletter editor and head genealogist for the Association of Philippe du Trieux Descendants - a.k.a, the Truax family. Her email included this excerpt:
HURON CO.
W. Wawanosh Twp., p.34
Truax, John, M, 42, Ont., Wes. Meth., Irish, Farmer, M
“ , Lousia, F, 36, Ont., Wes. Meth., Irish, M
“ , John, M, 17, Ont., Wes. Meth., Irish, Farmer
“ , William, M, 14, Ont., Wes. Meth., Irish
“ , Fransis, M, 9, Ont., Wes. Meth., Irish
“ , James, M, 6, Ont., Wes. Meth., Irish
I’m guessing Louisa would have been pregnant with Allan at the time as he was born in October of that year. Whether he was actually born in Michigan, or perhaps his parents just registered his birth there, I do not know
Shortly thereafter, Jennifer sent another email, which included this passage:
Truax, Allen Lincoln W. Wawahosh 10/24/71 020671 71
So there you are. He really was born in Ontario.
If Allan Truax Was Born In Ontario …
Well, for one thing, we need another map:
Placing Allan’s family in Ontario the year of his birth would not only resolve the conflict in the records but would explain why I’ve been unable to find even a single mention of Allan, his parents, or any of his siblings in any of the local Michigan records pertinent to the time of his birth and his earliest years (including newspaper stories which seemed to have as their primary goal mentioning anyone within 5 miles of the story and lists of early settlers, businesses, military service, land owners and renters, etc).
It makes The Great Michigan Fires no less interesting but certainly less pertinent to Allan Truax’s birth.
Revising Allan’s history to reflect his birth in Ontario, the earliest event that locates the family in Michigan would seem to be the birth of his sister, Alice Louise Truax, who was, according to the 1880 US census (the one that correctly records Allan’s birthplace as Ontario), born in Michigan in 1879. Consequently, the most precise timeline I can construct at this point is that sometime between Allan’s birth in 1871 and Alice’s birth in 1879, the family moved from Ontario to Michigan.
It also raises some questions:
Why do the Michigan Death Records list the birthplace of Allan’s brother, James Chalmers Truax, born March 19, 1865, as Tuscola County,9 Michigan?
More intriguingly, why was Allan’s birthplace ever listed as Mayville, Michigan?
And why wasn’t this error corrected, if not officially, then at least informally? Allan continued to list his birthplace as Mayville throughout his life. His parents were alive until Allan was in his early 30’s and would have, one would assume, sometime told him of his actual place of birth. Was this secret kept from him or was he complicit with the fabrication that he was born in Mayville Michigan rather than Ontario? I wondered when I wrote the post dealing with his birth if there might then have been an advantage re citizenship that would lead a family to claim a child was born in the US when he was actually born in Canada. I have also read of vaguely referenced “political unrest” in Ontario that caused many families to migrate to the US during that period and have wondered if there might be any reason Allan’s parents might have found it safer to claim to have been in the US in 1871.
Pretty interesting, eh? Perhaps, but then again, maybe it’s …
Allan Truax At Heck Of A Guy
An explanation of who Allan Truax is and why he is a feature of the Heck Of A Guy Blog can be found at Who’s Allan Truax?
Identification: Allan Truax, Allen Truax, and A.L. Truax
“Allan Truax” and “Allen Truax” appear with approximately equal frequency in the written material I’ve reviewed, with “A.L. Truax” occurring somewhat less often. The name Mr. Truax inscribed in his books was “Allan” so I use it preferentially
Other Heck Of A Guy Posts About Allan Truax
- The first Allan Truax Post was Allan Truax, A.E. Housman, The Ex, and Me
- The most recent Allan Truax Post before this entry was October 8, 1871: The Great Michigan Fires - October 24, 1871: The Birth of Allan Truax
- All Allan Truax posts can be found by clicking on the Allan Truax category
Footnotes
- Those readers now asking themselves Who the heck is Allan Truax? may wish to read Who’s Allan Truax? before proceeding with this post ~back~
- LDS Search: 1880 Federal Census Family History Library Film 1254607, NA Film Number T9-0607, Page Number 152D ~back~
- The town of Mayville is not specifically named in that census but was located in Fremont Township, which is specifically named as site of the Truax household ~back~
- The two oldest brothers, John and Wesley would have been about 27 and 24 (depending on the exact date of the census), respectively and were likely living on their own; James Chalmers Truax, another son already mentioned in this discussion, is not included in this household listing, having died prior to 1880 ~back~
- The last item for each household member, except the infant, Alice, for whom that entry is blank, is the category “Occupation” ~back~
- Emphasis mine ~back~
- The multiplicity of records may be misleading because it is impossible to untangle which of these records, if any, drew their data from another. Indeed, it is possible that all the genealogical records I found had a common source so that any mistakes made in that original document would have been preserved in the secondary records. ~back~
- 18 September 2007 is coincidentally the day of my phone interview with Richard Truax, the grandson perhaps closest to Allan; that interview was, in fact, to be the topic of this post until the birthplace issue came to the fore. ~back~
- Tuscola is the county in which Mayville is located ~back~