Searching for Emily Dickinson’s azaleas while enjoying ours

Emily Dickinson did have azalea (杜鵑花) in her garden, but she never wrote poem about it, nor did she ever mention azalea in her garden in her surviving letters.  However, not all of her poems survived.  The book, Letters of Emily Dickinson (see photo), contains only a fraction of her letters as it was customary that one burnt one’s letters upon one’s passing in her days.

Upon receiving a spray of azalea sent to her from a friend, she did write a thank you note, “Your azaleas are still vivid, though the frailer flowers are flitted away.”  Her brother, Austin, was well known for his love for azaleas in Amherst.

A mixed garden is the trend

There was a lengthy article (“Who put lettuce in my daffodils?”) in the Wall Street Journal today, reporting the trend of having a mixed flowers and veggies garden.  In advocating the mixed garden the past few years, I am either not alone or ahead of time.

Martha Dickinson (Emily's niece) remembered her aunt's garden “rich confusion was its aim. . . you want to come upon mignonette in unexpected places, and to find sprays of heliotrope in close consultation with roses . . . No stiffness, no ceremony.”

Our last year garden was a scene of chaotic confusion, diverse and rich. The elite flowers competed for attention in the central square, Italian squash entangled with roses, zinnias flirted with tomatoes and the fuchsia in the hanging basket tried to lure (拋媚眼) the red hot peppers down below. 

Braced for the threatened snow storm that never came

In the early evening of April 22 a good friend of us alerted us the snow storm that was on the way to hit East Coast (mainly New York to New England) predicting more than 10 inches of snow.  We turned on the TV watching weather channel as well as weather news on local TV stations.  It clearly said Pittsburgh was expecting 3 to 5 inches of snow.

We went into panic mode, hurried harvesting (or salvaging) the Chinese leaf mustard (小芥菜), Chinese cabbage and cilantro.  We hanged the plastic bags above the snow peas.  We never found out whether it would help or not as snow never came.  Our azaleas will be in full blossom in a few days and iris is beginning to exude its delicate charm.  Whew! They’re all spared.

With no snow to report the entire winter, seeing the potential the weathermen or the weather ladies must have gotten too excited.  But, they’re correct in many areas.  Having one foot of snow, the Seven Spring Resort (2 hours to our east) re-opened for skiing yesterday and today. 

 

All or nothing: With batting average .000 Pirates’ Pedro Alvarez was on WSJ sports page

Pittsburgh Pirates’ Pedro Alvarez (see photo) has been on the batting slump even on the preseason.  He was one of the two players in the entire Major League Baseball that earn the ‘distinction’ of having .000 batting average on balls in play as of April 18 and yet Alvarez got 2 home runs and the other 3.  In other words, these two players got no hit but home runs; thus “all or nothing”.  Alvarez has since got a “hit”.

The formula to calculate “batting average on balls in play” is complicated (see photo); it is (hit - home run) on the numerator, so if all your hits are home runs, your batting average is 0 or .000 (“zero”).  This same formula is also applied to the pitcher.

The WSJ said these two players have whiffed a combined 22 times in 50 plate appearance (“at bat”).  In baseball “whiff” means “strike out”. 

 

Lackluster in our garden and Shakespeare’s language

lustrous (the word was also coined by the Bard)

These photos show the lackluster tulips and hyacinths, comparing with the brilliance and glitter (i.e. luster) in their glory.  It is estimated that Shakespeare might have invented 1,700 words and “lackluster” is one of them.  If he ran out of words, he made one.

In his As You Like It, we hear Jacques says,

And then he drew a dial from his poke

And, looking on it with lackluster eye,

lackluster

The Bard used “lackluster” here to describe looking at the watch (that was pulled out from the bag) solemnly or seriously.

Lackluster is nowadays commonly used to indicate dull, uninspired; lacking liveliness or enthusiasm, such as "looking into space with lackluster eyes"; "a lackluster pipeline news for a pharmaceutical company may  lead to languid share price" (Apple's net income number is anything but lackluster!); "the lackluster performance disappointed the fans".

lustrous

lackluster

Why Shakespeare was there when John Booth shot Lincoln today (April 14) in 1865?

Lincoln was assassinated by John Wilkes Booth at Ford’s Theater today (April 14) in 1865.  In a booklet (“How Shakespeare changed everything”) the author wrote, “He[Shakespeare] was there when John Wilkes Booth shot Lincoln.”  This post is about why the author (Stephen Marche) said that.

Most historians wrote that Booth shouted “Sic simper tyrannis” (Thus be it ever to tyrants) after he jumped from the Lincoln box to the stage.  “Sic simper tyrannis” (this is also the State motto of Virginia) is supposed what Brutus uttered upon assassinating Caesar.  I didn’t see this in Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar, in which we read Cinna said “Liberty, Freedom; Tyranny is dead”.

Not long before Lincoln’s assassination, the three Booth brothers were in Shakespeare’s play of “Julius Caesar” with Edwin playing Brutus, John Marc Antony and Janius Caesar (see photo). 

There is no doubt that John Booth (a Southern sympathizer) was thinking as if he were Brutus killing Caesar to se the Romans free.  Soliloquy is always the best of the Shakespeare’s plays, Brutus’s speech (after the assassination) to explain his cause is no exception,

“Romans, countrymen, and lovers! hear me for my cause . . . Not that I loved Caesar less, but that I loved Rome more.  Had you rather Caesar were living and die all slaves, than Caesar were dead, to live all free man? . . .”  

Flowers also have soul, too

I posted photos of our tulips going through the frost on April 12 as they did bravely on April 7 (see photos).  As I said the life mechanism for animal and plants are basically the same; the major difference is the nervous system or the lack of it.  But according to Emily Dickinson, flowers do have soul, some even have personality.  One may blush (臉紅) if one reads her garden scene of flowers and bees, such as the line of “Their moment consummated –”); I call it her luscious poem of the garden scene.

A luscious garden, isn’t that what we call 春色滿園關不住?

Tulips: surviving frost again and again

The first 3 photos were taken in the early morning of April 12 showing the delicate tulips under the frost assault for the third time in their short life.  Once the sun came out they came back alive in the early afternoon, just like nothing ever happened.  I wonder what happened at the molecular level; I am afraid that each frost may take its toll.

Life is basically the same regardless animals or plants.  As a doctor I see a type of kidney failure (so-called pre-renal failure) that is precipitated by dehydration/hypovolemia.  If the degree and duration of dehydration is not too bad or too long, and with appropriate intervention, one does not go on to develop acute renal failure/acute kidney injury.

Our tulips recovered without a scathe, thanks to the overnight frost that was quickly followed by the benignant sun.  If the spell of freezing frost continues, say, for a few days, then they may succumb like we may develop acute kidney failure upon prolonged dehydration. 

 

Pirates McCutchen rose to the occasion

Suddenly it is time to Take Me Out To The Ball Game.  The lowly Pirates won the first 3-game series against Philadelphia Phillies, who is the NE East champion the last 5 years.  Phillies won the open game, but Pirates came from behind and rallied to beat Phillies yesterday and today.  Both were walk off wins.  As Andrew McCutchen said he was given the chance and rose to the occasion, hitting a walk off single; it was a 2 out, 3-2 pitch.  Yesterday the star was Alex Presley, who also hit a walk off single at the 10^th inning and the closer Joel Hanrahan threw a perfect 10^th.

McCutchen just signed a 6-year $51.5 million contract about one month ago; Pirates also threw in half a million bonus to sign the contract.  Money well spent! Who said money cannot buy happiness? The picturesque PNC Park was a very happy place for the sold-out fans this weekend.