Saturday, September 27, 2003
As A Hatter
I live with an insane person. Allow me to recount a conversation to you, on the subject of the best way to hang a small picture.
Me: Well, why don't you tape a piece of string to the back of it, and hang it from a nail that way?
Mark: Ah-hah! And where, Mark, you ask, would one find a piece of string?
Me: *quizzical look*
Mark: *finger in the air triumphantly* In the string turtle!
Yes, the string turtle. A small, hand-sized, wrought iron turtle, whose shell makes a little cage in which one puts a ball of string. Through the hole in the top of the shell-cage, one end of the string protrudes, and dangles down the side. This is the string turtle. It lives on the back of our stove. I do not know why.
*As an additional note, yes, I do know where the phrase "Mad as a hatter" comes from. It is because the hat pins milliners used to use were coated in mercury, and thus, "hatters" who had the habit of holding extra pins in their mouths gradually poisoned themselves and went insane. Don't we all feel educated now?
I live with an insane person. Allow me to recount a conversation to you, on the subject of the best way to hang a small picture.
Me: Well, why don't you tape a piece of string to the back of it, and hang it from a nail that way?
Mark: Ah-hah! And where, Mark, you ask, would one find a piece of string?
Me: *quizzical look*
Mark: *finger in the air triumphantly* In the string turtle!
Yes, the string turtle. A small, hand-sized, wrought iron turtle, whose shell makes a little cage in which one puts a ball of string. Through the hole in the top of the shell-cage, one end of the string protrudes, and dangles down the side. This is the string turtle. It lives on the back of our stove. I do not know why.
*As an additional note, yes, I do know where the phrase "Mad as a hatter" comes from. It is because the hat pins milliners used to use were coated in mercury, and thus, "hatters" who had the habit of holding extra pins in their mouths gradually poisoned themselves and went insane. Don't we all feel educated now?
