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USM Forum -- Message Board -> AAUP-USM MESSAGE BOARD -> Thoughts from Chez de Guerre
Post Info TOPIC: Thoughts from Chez de Guerre
Hermione Angleterre

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Thoughts from Chez de Guerre
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Dear board friends,

We are having a quiet evening at the de Guerre home, although no one is sleeping in spite of the late hour (or the early hour in this case.) Mlle de Guerre and I had some coffee with friends this evening and too late discovered that instead of the normal evening "decaf", we were drinking what one friend calls "high-test" -- I have no idea what that means, nor how the coffees were confused. Those who drink tea avoid many of these difficulties, as I remind Mlle. on occasion. Therefore I at least am quite awake, and Mlle was until just a few moments ago. I encourage friends to hold their visits or telephone calls tomorrow until the afternoon.

As is our wont on evenings such as this, conversation turned to this board and our many USM friends. Mlle is always interested in issues of fashion so it was to be expected that we would discuss the many baffling and pointless remarks made of late pertaining to ladies hairstyles and lifestyles. (I abhor the term "lifestyle" but one is nearly forced to use it nowadays.) As I am sure you know, Mlle. de Guerre is no fan of Dr. "Angie" Dvorak, to put it mildly. However, even Mlle de Guerre was moved to a modicum of sympathy for the drubbing Dr. D has received about her red hair. I should mention to friends who do not know Mlle by sight that her own hair is somewhat blonder than one would expect for a lady her age. We will not say more. Although I do not color my own hair, were I to do so, a quiet slightly reddish tone might be interesting . . . what am I thinking. That sort of thing is much too vain, and much too much trouble.

Mlle. says that she fears Dr. Dvorak has fallen into the trap many ladies of a certain age do, the belief that change for the sake of change is a good thing. "It is so much like what she attempted to do at USM, n'est ce pas?" she asked me. "Just rearrange, whether it is the good idea or no."

"Well," I replied, "do you think she should have colored her hair red or not?" "Oh, not, not," replied Mlle. "It is the most color too bright, the coiffure too short! And above all she must never, never, never wear yellow!!" I believe Mlle was referring to something she saw on the news tonight, but I caught only a glimpse of the offending garment. "But also, dear Miss Angleterre," Mlle added after a thoughtful sip of champagne, "these foolish enfants write so much of what they do not know! They make most trivial the real evils, they make us take our eyes away from that which is tres important! We must ignore them all. Madame Dvorak has not asked me for advice on her dress or her life, and I shall not give it! Never!"

(Those who know Mlle. de Guerre know that not giving advice is probably a physical impossibility for her, but I believe her intentions are good.)

The talk moved on to other topics, such as plans for Mlle's summer vacation, possibly to the Rocky Mountains -- she is contemplating taking the train. More on that another time. Finally Mlle decided to retire for the evening. Perhaps enough champagne will ensure that she sleeps at last. I could not help but smile, however, for as she swept from the parlor I heard her say, "Blue, she should only wear blue! But she does not ask me, and I do not say!"

Good evening (or good morning as it is now) to you all.

Hermione Angleterre, Social Secretary to Monique de Guerre


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observer

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I take it Mlle. replaced her shattered champagne glasses?

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H.A.

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I keep a supply on hand.

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Neede Pause

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I think it is always clever and amusing to make fun of someone's physical appearance and dress,especially when that person isn't well liked. Sometimes it's good to stop and reflect. It's not a big leap to go from ridiculing someone's red hair to ridiculing their curly,kinky hair. Someone's inappropriate yellow dress can easily become someone's funny headscarf.

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LVN

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I believe Miss Angleterre and Mlle de Guerre are in fact poking a bit of fun at the entire silly conversation about Dr. Dvorak's appearance and personal life. If you will recall, Hermione has told us in the past that Mlle. herself is prone to feathers and from the post, appears to color her own hair. (Besides, I agree that blue is a better color for redheads than yellow.)


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Angie

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I prefer to be recognized as Dr. Dvorak; however, for the moment I shall choose to use my first name as I address your conerns regarding my hair color and my fashion.  The solution to the problem you have with either of these is quite simple, do not look.


My,My, it is so interesting that I still have friends out there



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Little old lady

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Neede Pause wrote:
I think it is always clever and amusing to make fun of someone's physical appearance and dress,especially when that person isn't well liked. Sometimes it's good to stop and reflect. It's not a big leap to go from ridiculing someone's red hair to ridiculing their curly,kinky hair. Someone's inappropriate yellow dress can easily become someone's funny headscarf.


Dearie, you've confused "inappropriate" with "unbecoming" -- not the same.

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Little old lady

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Angie wrote:
The solution to the problem you have with either of these is quite simple, do not look.
My,My, it is so interesting that I still have friends out there


Dearie, it's hard to not look when you're everywhere we turn, on the news and in the paper. You put yourself in the public eye, you get a lot of comment.
As for friends, well, don't be too sure about that. Some people think the hair etc is a distraction from the things we ought to be looking at. As Monique said "they make us take our eyes away from that which is very important."

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Emily Post's Risk Manager

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Angie wrote:

I prefer to be recognized as Dr. Dvorak; however, for the moment I shall choose to use my first name as I address your conerns regarding my hair color and my fashion.  The solution to the problem you have with either of these is quite simple, do not look. My,My, it is so interesting that I still have friends out there

Dear Angie:


Welcome to the AAUP message board and thank you for the clarification.  Heretofore we'd assumed the proper manner of address was Dr. Dr. Dvorak, Esq.  As you perhaps are aware,  those who contribute to this message board are all about decorum and civil discourse.  Be assured that in the future we shall honor your request and address you as Dr. Dvorak.


Very truly yours,
Emily Post's Risk Manager


P.S. Pay no mind to the catty comments concerning your new image.  There's always some element of jealousy to be expected when a new hottie shows up on one's home turf.  Love that hair.  You go girl!



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Really Confused

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Angie wrote:

I prefer to be recognized as Dr. Dvorak....
Now wait just a dang minute.  I thought you were now presenting yourself as Angie Godwin.  So which is it--Dr. Dvorak or Dr. Godwin?  Please clarify, lest one of us commit yet another faux pas.

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Gastropod

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I am a bit confused myself RC; however, confusing credentials can equal confusing identities.  None the less, I think Emily's employee has his/her verbage wrong, what they really meant to say was "gaudy" not "hottie."  I cannot imagine anyone thinking that she is a "hottie" unless they are seriously hard up, stupid or blind.

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Hef

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Gastropod wrote:

I am a bit confused myself RC; however, confusing credentials can equal confusing identities.  None the less, I think Emily's employee has his/her verbage wrong, what they really meant to say was "gaudy" not "hottie."  I cannot imagine anyone thinking that she is a "hottie" unless they are seriously hard up, stupid or blind.
I agree.  When I think of a hottie,  I think of Emma or LVN.  Certainly not Angie D.  Not even in her latest incarnation.  Not now,  not ever.

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Moon Pie

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You people never cease to amaze me! No wonder USM is in the trouble it is! Instead of spending time doing useful things like writing books, essays and other scholarly "stuff" the USM folks spend their time acting like 3rd graders!


Stop worrying about everyone else and start acting like PROFESSIONALS- It is very scary you are teaching the future of this country! Instead of blaming everyone else for USM's problems start blaming yourselves!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


 


 



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Little old lady

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Dearie, calm down. Take a deep breath. Now explain to us why you posted your remark on this particular thread, and then tell us what the heck you're talking about.

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The real and original Moon Pie

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Moon Pie wrote:

  You people never cease to amaze me! No wonder USM is in the trouble it is! Instead of spending time doing useful things like writing books, essays and other scholarly "stuff" the USM folks spend their time acting like 3rd graders! Stop worrying about everyone else and start acting like PROFESSIONALS- It is very scary you are teaching the future of this country! Instead of blaming everyone else for USM's problems start blaming yourselves.   
Moon Pie, you've assumed my posting nom. Please get yourself another posting name or give up your trolling mannerisms.  If what you posted made sense, I'd gladly relinquish my nom. But never to a troll.

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R.C. Cola

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The real and original Moon Pie wrote:


 Moon Pie, you've assumed my posting nom. Please get yourself another posting name or give up your trolling mannerisms.  If what you posted made sense, I'd gladly relinquish my nom. But never to a troll.



The troll can have my name if he can't one not already taken.

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LVN

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Moon Pie wrote:
 
You people never cease to amaze me! No wonder USM is in the trouble it is! Instead of spending time doing useful things like writing books, essays and other scholarly "stuff" the USM folks spend their time acting like 3rd graders!
Stop worrying about everyone else and start acting like PROFESSIONALS- It is very scary you are teaching the future of this country! Instead of blaming everyone else for USM's problems start blaming yourselves!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 
 


Oh, groan. Here we go again with one of those "it's all the faculty's fault" threads.
FYI, fake M.P., the faculty (and I am not one) ARE spending their time doing the things you mention. This board is a diversion and a relief valve for some of them. Also, many of the posters are either not faculty at USM, or are no longer at USM, so your "you people" remark really doesn't apply.
As for the rest of it, "worrying about everyone else" is actually the faculty's job, if you mean "worrying about people who affect what goes on at USM."

PS to Hef: I thank you, my Avon lady thanks you, and the Clairol corporation thanks you!

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Hef

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LVN wrote:

 PS to Hef: I thank you, my Avon lady thanks you, and the Clairol corporation thanks you!
You're very welcome LVN.  In providing examples of bona fide message board hotties,  I inadvertently overlooked "Truth,"  who was once honored as AAUP Message Board Intellectual Babe of the Month,  or something like that.  She too belongs in the pantheon.  Please pardon the omission.

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U make the call

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Vogue

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I don't know what she looked like before, or how old she is, but she doesn't look that awful.  If she's about 52-60, she looks very nice for her age.  If she's older than 60, she looks really good for her age.  Of course, I'm a firm believer that it is what is inside that makes a person beautiful.  Only those who know her can speak if she is ugly or gorgeous. 


From their delightful posts and creative personalities, it appears that the inhabitants of Chez de Guerre must be two of the most lovely creatures on earth and I'm betting that Invictus is the major hunk on this board.


 



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Secret Admirer

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Vogue wrote:

.....and I'm betting that Invictus is the major hunk on this board.  
Exactly.  Think Adonis,  or Michelangelo's David,  with the intellect of an Einstein and the romantic soul of William Blake.  That's our Invictus.

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Vogue

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Secret Admirer wrote:

Think Adonis,  or Michelangelo's David,  with the intellect of an Einstein and the romantic soul of William Blake.  That's our Invictus.
I knew it.  Ahh.  I can dream . . .

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Invictus

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Secret Admirer wrote:
...the romantic soul of William Blake.


Although I may be one of the few graduates of CoST who knows much about Blake (and then only because "this dungeon & this iron mill" is part of the back cover notes from Dylan's "Planet Waves"), I'm really fonder of the beats.

So, did Ginsberg have USM in mind when he wrote "I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness?" And did Ferlinghetti have Warren Paving in mind when he penned "A Coney Island of the Mind" (that bit about the concrete continent & the billboards)? And of course, did Kerouac have the USM faculty in mind when he wrote "On the Road?"

BTW, Mrs. Invictus refers to me as a hunk. More specifically, she calls me a hunk of




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Invictus

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Or maybe that was the liner notes from John Prine's first album. One of them-thar gravelly voiced singers, y'know?

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Vogue

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Invictus wrote:




Although I may be one of the few graduates of CoST who knows much about Blake (and then only because "this dungeon & this iron mill" is part of the back cover notes from Dylan's "Planet Waves"), I'm really fonder of the beats. So, did Ginsberg have USM in mind when he wrote "I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness?" And did Ferlinghetti have Warren Paving in mind when he penned "A Coney Island of the Mind" (that bit about the concrete continent & the billboards)? And of course, did Kerouac have the USM faculty in mind when he wrote "On the Road?"


 


Oh Invictus, I love it when you talk that way.



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John Prine's Risk Manager

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Invictus wrote:

Or maybe that was the liner notes from John Prine's first album. One of them-thar gravelly voiced singers, y'know?

Dr. Invictus:


The gravelly voiced singer-songwriter Kris Kristopherson wrote the liner notes for John Prine's first album.  While I don't specifically recall all of the piece  it may well be that Oxford grad Kristopherson,  an expert on English romantic poets and erstwhile lit professor at West Point,  quoted William Blake.  Now that I think on it,  I'm pretty sure that he did.


John Prine's Risk Manager



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Secret Admirer

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Invictus wrote:

BTW, Mrs. Invictus refers to me as a hunk.
I knew it.  And did I mention that Invictus has the sensitivity of a Phil Donahue, the the irreverent humor of a Richard Pryor,  and the sensuality of a young Paul Newman,  not to mention a mane like Fabio...sigh.

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Invictus (after Googling)

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LINER NOTES for "John Prine"

John Prine caught us by surprise in the late-night morning let-down after our last show in Chicago. Steve Goodman (who’d shared the bill with us that week) asked us to go to Old Town to listen to a friend he said we had to hear, and since Steve had knocked us out all week with his own songs, we obliged.

It was too damned late, and we had an early wake-up ahead of us, and by the time we got there Old town was nothing but empty streets and dark windows. And the club was closing. But the owner let us come in, pulled some chairs off a couple of tables, and John unpacked his guitar and got back up to sing.

There are few things as depressing to look at as a bunch of chairs upside down on the table of an empty old tavern, and there was that awkward moment, us sitting there like, "Okay, kid, show us what you got," and him standing up there alone, looking down at his guitar like, "What the hell are we doing here, buddy?" Then he started singing, and by the end of the first line we knew we were hearing something else. It must’ve been like stumbling onto Dylan when he first busted onto the Village scene (in fact Al Aronowitz said the same thing a few weeks later after hearing John do a guest set at the Bitter End). One of those rare, great times when it all seems worth it,, like when the Vision would rise upon Blake’s "weary eyes, Even in this Dungeon, & this Iron Mill."

He sang about a dozen songs, and had to do a dozen more before it was over. Unlike anything I’d heard before.

Sam Stone, Donald & Lydia. The one about the Old Folks. Twenty-four years old and writes like he’s about two-hundred and twenty. I don’t know where he comes from, but I’ve got a good idea where he’s going. We went away believers, reminded how goddamned good it feels to be turned on by a real Creative Imagination.

~Kris Kristofferson

P.S. Thanks to the people at Atlantic for making good things happen fast to someone who deserves it.



But there's no dungeon or iron mill in this, although it resembles beat poetry perhaps more than anything Kristofferson ever wrote:

LINER NOTES for "Planet Waves"

Back to the Starting
Point! The kickoff, Hebrew
letters on the wall, Victor Hugo's
house in Paris, NYC in early
autumn, leaves flying in the park, the
clock strikes Eight, Bong - I dropped a
double brandy & tried to recall the events ...
beer halls & pin balls, polka bands, barbwire
& thrashing clowns, objects, headwinds, &
snowstorms, family outings with strangers -
Furious gals with garters & smeared lips
on bar stools that stank from sweating
pussy - doing the Hula - perfect,
priests in overhauls, glassy eyed,
Insomnia! Space guys off duty with
big dicks & duck tails, all wired up &
voting for Eisenhower, waving flags &
jumping off of fire engines, getting
killed on motorcycles whatever -
We sensed each other beneath
the mask, pitched a tent in the
street & joined the traveling circus,
love at first sight! History
became a lie! the sideshow took
over - what a sight ... the tresh -
hold of the Modern Bomb,
temples of the Pawnee, the
cowboy saint, the Arapshop,
snapshots of - Apache poets
searching thru the ruins for a
glimpse of Buddah - I let out
for parts unknown, found Jacob's
ladder up against an adobe wall &


bought a serpent from a passing angel -
Yeah the ole days are gone
forever and the new ones aint far behind, the
laughter is fading away, echoes of a star
of energy Vampires in the gone world going
Wild! Drinking the blood of innocent people,
Innocent lambs! The wretched of the Earth,
my brothers of the flood, cities of the flesh -
Milwaukee, Ann Arbor, Chicago, Bismarck, South
Dakota, Duluth! Duluth - where Baudelaire lived
& Goya cashed in his chips, where Joshua brought
the house down! From there it was straight up - a little
jolt of Mexico and some good LUCK, a
little power over the Grave, some
more brandy & the teeth of
a lion & a compass

~ Bob Dylan



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John Prine's Risk Manager

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Invictus (after Googling) wrote:

.... But there's no dungeon or iron mill in this, although it resembles beat poetry perhaps more than anything Kristofferson ever wrote: LINER NOTES for "Planet Waves" ...

Dr. Invictus:


See my earlier post re Prine and KK's liner notes.  I don't quite understand where you're going here.  When you say "it resembles beat poetry perhaps more than anything Kristofferson ever wrote,"  are you referring to Dylan's  "Planet Wave" liner notes?  Are you suggesting that Kristofferson attempted to emulate the beat poets and in so doing, was unsuccessful, or relatively unsuccessful as compared to Dylan?  I'm unaware that Kristofferson ever modeled his writings after any of the beats.  I've read and heard him say that his primary inspirations were  English romantic poets and various 20th century folk and country artists.  Please explain.  As a long time fan of Dylan, and Kristofferson,  and Prine,  I'm interested in hearing your thoughts, if you have the time.  Thanks.



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Emma

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Hef wrote:

Gastropod wrote: I am a bit confused myself RC; however, confusing credentials can equal confusing identities.  None the less, I think Emily's employee has his/her verbage wrong, what they really meant to say was "gaudy" not "hottie."  I cannot imagine anyone thinking that she is a "hottie" unless they are seriously hard up, stupid or blind. I agree.  When I think of a hottie,  I think of Emma or LVN.  Certainly not Angie D.  Not even in her latest incarnation.  Not now,  not ever.

Oh my dear Hef,


How kind of you to think of moi!  To be placed in the same sentence with LVN and described as a "hottie" has thrilled me to no end.


Hermoine and Monique, so glad that all is well at Chez de Guerre.


Jameela, so glad that you have stepped foot once again in England.


Alas, I have found some of the newest "news" posted to be seriously disturbing. Thames continues in the Gatsbyesque mode of one who continues to Vogue, vogue . . . vogue. Superficial at best. 



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