Katie Botkin

July 12

12:40 a.m. I am sitting in a room alone with a dead man, trimming my toenails. It occurs to me as I press the metal edges together that the discoloration of my skin from the effort, as the fingers go bloodless around the edges, is much like his. Only no flush returns to him withContinue reading “July 12”

Melanin

The middle-aged woman, her skin the smooth darkness of equatorial Africa, beckons to the blonde-haired porcelain-tinted child of four. “Can you say ‘je m’appelle Esther’?” I ask the child. She smiles shyly and repeats to the woman: “shmpel Esther.” The woman laughs and bounces the child onto her lap. “Tu as peur des noirs?” sheContinue reading “Melanin”

Bateke scanning

I am scanning and scanning and scanning, page by page, a book I got by interlibrary loan, because I have not had time to sufficiently memorize it in the allotted time of a few weeks; it is a French / French Congo Bateke dictionary. This book, by the way, was published in 1911 and hasContinue reading “Bateke scanning”

The crustacean’s pinch

Friday evening was spent around the pinochle table; the cards had all been played by the time I arrived. Ron, pushed back from the table, had become the center of attention. He had a thin trickle of hose leading from a swollen stomach to a large syringe filled with brown goop, which he peevishly heldContinue reading “The crustacean’s pinch”

Overheard conversation between a man and himself

Obviously this is supposed to make some sort of point: “Honey, will you marry me?” “Honey, I will, if you first fulfill x, y and z.” “But… honey… those are variables.” “Exactly. And you must fulfill them to the degree of p, q and r.”

L’elu

Nicolas Sarkozy, a man hated in the particular circles of French culture I frequented while abroad, was elected to the presidency yesterday. I am not typically a political person, but when one is in France, one can’t really help becoming political. When politics stop your trains and blockade your schools, you start, at the veryContinue reading “L’elu”

Survey question

Is acting in friendship with person x until the day you say you’re intrested in more than friendship with person x, and then, when rejected, avoiding ever speaking to person x again: 1. Normal and necessary behavior or 2. Totally disingenuous? or, does it depend completely on if you are the rejected or the rejector?

I am kippy

One of my friends in my department described me the other day as “kippy.” When asked to define her terms, she said “kippy means you,” which I did not find very clarifying. “You’re like Gidget,” she explained, when pressed. (I’m like a blonde teenage girl who attracts boys by surfing… I’ve never surfed and IContinue reading “I am kippy”

Snach of linguistics project

I have a couple of weeks of class left, and a lot to get done in the meantime. This evening I’ve been working on my phonetics project, which, interestingly enough, is on a language that has not, as far as I or the “informant” from whom I am getting all my language information know, beenContinue reading “Snach of linguistics project”

but what does ‘documentary’ mean?

As I was unlocking my bike from a rack downtown today, a man approached me, a clean-shaven man with a maturing face that I vaguely recognized. A youth sporting a camera on his shoulder advanced on his right and a girl (script writer?) brought up the rear. “Excuse me,” said the man (I know whereContinue reading “but what does ‘documentary’ mean?”