A more interesting word without “U”

Obscure: the state of being unknown, inconspicuous, or unimportant.

                I forgot the library’s closed on Mondays and it was there on my shelf so I picked up my memoir. For some obscure reason, (imagine ME obscure? Right, I know) I decided to reread my book “Under the Banana Moon.” Well actually it can be noted I’ve never read it all the way through because it was so much a part of my sleeping/waking life that I didn’t need to read it, I mean I lived it. I wrote it. And rewrote it. And, sadly, I lived through the “cutting” process of my agent’s assistant. I say “cutting” because he rarely if ever changed things like sentence structure, what he did was to cut out whole sentences, phrases, paragraphs and yes PAGES of text. I consented of course as I wanted to get this thing to the presses at long last and to be fair I protested at some of the cuts and won him over; keeping some of the stuff targeted for the chop floor.

Speaking of obscurity, did he cut these passages because they didn’t lend well to my story? No, rather I think he had a 228 page book in mind and that’s what we got in the end.

I’ll spare you the omitted parts, save for a few things I want to mention that I hadn’t fully realized were missing or changed. For one, I could’ve sworn there was a “For” page, it was like a thank you to people who motivated, cared, loved me. I see it’s not in the book. I didn’t realize it was omitted. Here are some names that should’ve been there in no particular order: my parents, my four cousins, Starr, Clay, Barb, my kids…

It’s page 13 that made me gasp. Let me set it up for you: I am in the midst, on this page, of describing my childhood bedroom, and remember, I lived in a hoarder’s house full of clutter. The sentence should read like this:

“When I dared to dig into the piles, I usually started at the bottom and hoped against thing-slides and object-lanches.”

So do you see what I was going for there? Instead of landslides, I have written “thing-slides.” Instead of avalanches, I choose my concocted word-play of choice: “thing-lanches.” This is truly how I talk in real life. To my surprise, I see, in my book, that the aforementioned sentence-slicer has chosen to change my word “object-lanches” to this:

“object-launches!”

No, no,

that is not word-play on avalanches at all. Still I wish to thank Alison, William and especially Kim who believed in me. Any writer is subject to word murder when it comes to editing. I understand and accept that. And I shall change the subject. Sort of. Because now I’m thinking of obscurity and how perhaps, this word change seemed obscure to someone else, but was of utmost importance to me. It’s my fault; I didn’t notice, because surely he would’ve allowed me to keep MY word. Adding the ‘u’ to it, made the book longer, but I’m ranting.

Here’s an obscure thing, worthy of attention. At least it grabbed mine:

Constructed in the shadow of Mt Fuji, this theme park opened in 1997. Despite financial help from the Japanese government, it lasted only 10 years before being abandoned.

For more “Abandoned Places” images, please click on the link at the bottom of this blog, after you LIKE this blog. It’s a haunting, decidedly UNforgettable site.

I’m not through with my OBSCURITY perseveration yet, so here’s an interesting bit of trivia about Pixar movies that you may not know about… Have you noticed thatA113 is plantedin nearly every Pixar movie (and Disney, The Simpsons, American Dad)? It really is. Look at these stills:

Why? The explanation is this (I quote):

 “A113 refers to a classroom number at the California Institute of Arts. It was the classroom for first year graphic design and character animation, where many of the animators at Pixar and Disney, and several other studios, discovered and mastered their craft. The use of A113 in their films is a friendly nod to one another that they once shared a classroom without which they would never be doing what they’re doing now.” (endquote)

Think on these:

Last week I heard the word lugubrious twice in the same day!

Ever eat B&M Beans (they come in a can). I’ve never eaten baked beans, (from a can or otherwise) but have you ever noticed the irony in the brand name? B&M bears a strong (not so coincidental?) resemblance to B.M. which of course follows consumption of said beans…

The Saturday before last, I met a man with one brown eye and one blue eye. I didn’t notice at first because I’m not apt to look into eyes, but my daughter pointed it out and sure enough it was true. I wanted to ask, “When you fill out forms, like say, for your license, and it asks for eye color, which color do you put on the form?” But I did not ask him anything. Heterochromia, chimerism, and eye injury (genetics, trauma) can all cause this, and I was curious about his ocular condition but did not question him. People who are true chimeras, actually can have two different blood types at given times. But genetics is a different perseveration of mine altogether…

Demi Moore supposedly has this condition, it’s barely noticeable:

Mila Kunis has it too (isn’t it interesting how Ashton Kutcher became involved with not one but two people with this condition? :

 

David Bowie (he had an eye injury) :

 

Anyway, here’s a couple more obscure things for you:

These are tiny exoskeleton stars. The first picture shows what seems to be typical beach sand (this is a beach in Japan) but it’s anything but typical as you see in picture two, a close-up:

 

Sculptures out of crayons and pencil points? Why, yes…how delightful is that?

check out crayon sculpture by diem chau at http://www.thisiscolossal.com

pencils by dalton ghetti

 

The inclusion of the “u” in my book matters not in the scheme of things. But it’s omission, as I had intended, (object-lanches instead of object-launches) would have been much more obscure, and thusly more interesting.

that’s all for now