Got a late start into the outside world yesterday because I wanted to vacuum and dust. I’d been wanting to get at the tasks for a while and then The Loved One looked at me sidelong the night before and so I knew the hour was nigh.
In any case, I thought about the term “housework.” For whatever reason, housework has come to be defined as those things you do around your place to keep it clean and orderly. In other words, to maintain it as a pleasant home.
Yet, “homework” is defined as studying and paper-writing and other nonsense your school teachers wanted you to do away from the actual school itself — preferably at your house.
An aside: Early on I decided I would never do “homework,” reasoning that I’d given my teachers a good six or so hours a day in the classroom and that ought to have been good enough for them. I figured my away-from-class time would be better spent drawing pictures, studying astronomy and baseball statistics, and reading the newspaper, the encyclopedia, and books. My grades, of course, suffered greatly for it, but I never cared. Ma and Daddy-o cared tons, though, and regularly tried to come up with ways to get me to do “homework.” I always came up with ways around it.
Anyway, I propose swapping names for the respective tasks. Sweeping and mopping and cleaning out the oven and refrigerator, etc. should be called “homework” while laboring over algebra problems and writing term papers should be known as “housework.”
Housework?
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Who’s with me?
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Tough Job
I ran into retired big shot Hollywood director David Anspaugh at Saturday’s closing night performance of “Home” at the Bloomington Playwrights Project. He’s slated to direct the BPP’s next production, “Row After Row,” opening January 27. The dark comedy follows the exploits of a female Civil War re-enactor.
Speaking of that bizarre gang of nostalgia obsessives, I highly recommend Tony Horwitz’ book on them, Confederates in the Attic. It’s fun and informative, the highest praise I can give to a tome.
Young Anspaugh Behind The Camera
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Anyway, Anspaugh was busy congratulating star Francesca Sobrer (my guest on last week’s Big Talk, and the rest of the “Home” cast. When he finished, I sidled up to him for the latest dope. Turns out he’s feeling the pressure, following such a tough act. “Home” co-directors Chad Rabinowitz and David Sheehan pulled off their decade-hopping tale without a hitch. “I told Chad I was mad at him,” Anspaugh said. “He set the bar too high for me.”
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The New Boss
Best of luck to my pal Emily Jackson as she takes the reins of the WFHB board of directors. EJ was elected board president at this month’s end-of-the-year confab. She’s a dynamite drummer and a small businesswoman and has been spinning platters for the community radio station for more than a decade.
Emily Jackson
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The current leadership team at Firehouse Broadcasting signals a new era on 4th Street, one that harkens back to the glory days of Chad Carrothers. That’s a good thing. ‘FHB has been a refreshing alternative to the auto-tune pap spewed out by the few commercial broadcasters within reach of our local receivers. It’s also been a fab talent feeder for the likes of WFIU, WFYI and other NPR affiliates as far afield as the Rocky Mountains.
I’m happy to have been associated with the station since I arrived in this town back in the fall of 2009.
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Whys & Wherefores
Yet another observation about — what else? — the ascension of L’il Duce.
Everybody’s scratching their heads over why so many Hispanics voted for our nation’s incoming greed-monkey-in-chief, considering his demonizations of Mexicans. What people forget is Latinos (the more appropriate appellation for Central & South Americans and Caribbeans) are not at all a monolithic club. In fact, Puerto Ricans and Mexicans, for instance, very often ought not to be invited to the same fiesta. It’s a good bet Duce‘s Mexican insults put him in good stead with scads of non-Mex Latinos.
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Spanish Harlem
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