Michael Beeson's Research

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tiny subtract plate

Tiny subtract plate

Even as the sun was setting, I could see Karinger’s house had been repainted a kind of pastel green. The small town I grew up in had become a relatively large suburban city — empty stretches of desert had mostly been replaced by fast-food restaurants and shopping centers. But it was the paint on Karinger’s house that seemed to me like the greatest change. Every other detail — the motion-sensor light fixture on the garage and the royal blue Mustang in the driveway — had remained the same. The perfect sameness of the house had been ruined by an ugly coat of pastel paint. Pulling up closer, I noticed another change: the Mustang’s license plate frame had been replaced with a pink camouflage one labeled USMC GIRL. Karinger’s mother had kept to the deal — this was Roxanne’s car now. Lana smiled and then she laughed. However I have only heard of and seen one performance ofA Doll’s House in which, at a certain moment, the audience literally gasped— and it was not at this version but at a straightforward performance. The gasp came when, in the second act, a real live baby was brought onto the stage. I don’t think even a live bear would have elicited as much of a reaction; I once saw a magic show in a theater and at the end of the show a live elephant showed up on stage, and I can report that the reaction to the elephant was considerably less than the reaction to the baby. Why was the baby on stage such a force? Because it might cry? Maybe it was the simple thrill of cameo: a baby seems indisputably from everyday life, and everyday life, though depicted on stage, also feels conspicuously absent from it. The actors other than the baby, if the baby can be termed an actor simply by context, seemed suddenly neon in their falseness, which in turn made them seem real, as if visible backstage, brushing their teeth, watchingMad Menon a laptop. In the original Ibsen script, there is no baby, there are just young children. When he approached the inner city, he turned right to make a detour and kill time, went through Josefstadt, and finally stopped in a side street off Burggasse, in the shadow of some dilapidated old houses. The mountains of the Eastfjords rise slantwise in an orange hue. A heavenly smoke-machine pumps fog systematically but submissively along their base, allowing sunlight access to a green field surrounded by reddish-yellow pastures. Mottled cows and perky calves chew their cuds, superintelligent according to the latest research. They’re an unsurpassed comfort to the eyes of the traveler. It isn’t possible to feel more inclined toward any animal than a cow. In my mind I’m more spiritually related to the cow than any other animal I know of, even physically. I have the forbearance of a cow, its moist eyes, slightly protruding, and a tongue that reaches up to my nose, though I rarely direct it there. I’m as clumsy in spirit as a cow is on the outside, and I feel as if I’m as stupid as a cow, which is what cows must feel as well. “Because,” Montemayor replied, “even in Paris…”—and he turned to Winifred and shouted in English again—“Because even in Paris she wanted to get together with him, and because she, when we were coming here, had arranged that he’d follow. I knew all about it, I wasn’t born yesterday! And they wanted to meet here!” ‘No, you saidyou’d take care of the Minister.’ ‘Don’t be absurd.’ The quality of his silence made me turn to him. ‘Why, do you?’ “Uh...” When he turned, the frightened men, one cradling Analie, had retreated to the fire. Only Tanaqua stayed, staring with a stricken expression. They had both seen the mark of the Blooddancer.“He is hungry for flesh,” the Mohawk said. “The more he eats, the more he wants.” “There is no one else who can do it.” Those who lived long enough hundreds of years ago witnessed the transformation of the fertile plain into wasteland following eruptions and glacial floods. Those who live long enough, at all times, see their friends fall, their faithful friends, their children. None of my relatives have died apart from Mom, and J?i, though I can hardly count him. The sad thing was that I never got to miss my mom wholeheartedly because I was more or less relieved when she stopped getting in the way of all of our lives: Dad’s, Sibbi’s, even her grandchild’s. She could have been a better sort, this one parent from whomI’m certain to have come. She who only allows me to miss her halfheartedly. ‘Correction: I’ve destroyed the Viking’s lawn.’ He hesitated. “He’s mentioned you. Something about having to work off a debt.” When he entered, he saw the cigarette packet he had been looking for, lying on the table..