January 27 2010

Thursday, January 28, 2010

January 27 2010

This Day in History:
The Outer Space Treaty was Signed.
You may not store nuclear weapons in space. You may not claim any celestial body for a government. Most of the countries have signed this treaty, and most of those have ratified it. Many of the same rules apply for space as they do for International Waters. You can study Space Law. It sounds like fun.


Poem of the Day: Prayer

--Jean Toomer, from Cane

My body is opaque to the soul.
Driven of the spirit, long have I sought to temper it unto the spirit's longing.
But my mind, too, is opaque to the soul.
A closed lid is my soul's flesh-eye.
O Spirits of whom my soul is but a little finger,
Direct it to the lid of its flesh-eye.
I am weak with much giving.
I am weak with the desire to give more.
(How strong a thing is the little finger!)
So weak that I have confused the body with the soul,
And the body with its little finger.
(How frail is the little finger.)
My voice could not carry to you did you dwell in stars,
Oh Spirits of whom my soul is but a little finger...

Word of the Day: Rend/Rent
He said Rend. I said Rent. He went here and I went to the Webster's on the shelf. He looked up Rend and I looked up Rent. We learned the same thing.

rend v. rent or rend·ed, rend·ing, rends

v.tr.

1. To tear or split apart or into pieces violently.

2. To tear (one's garments or hair) in anguish or rage.

3. To tear away forcibly; wrest.

4. To pull, split, or divide as if by tearing: "Chip was rent between the impulse to laugh wildly and a bitterness that threatened hot tears" (Louis Auchincloss).

5. To pierce or disturb with sound: a scream rent the silence.

6. To cause pain or distress to: tales that rend the heart.

v.intr.

To become torn or split; come apart.

[Middle English renden, from Old English rendan.]

Granny Square of the Day:
I didn't make one. I made a granny circle for my VHS tape bag. Maybe I should have scanned that in. No matter. The full thing will be done...eventually. You know, I have to build the other circle for the other end of the bag, build a handle, build a liner with a clasp, sew it in, line the change purse I've already done--with a clasp--and then...and then I'm done. I'll be lucky if it's done by Christmas.