Tuesday Musette

The 'FEMA' bridge...

This morning, I had a chat with Patrick Fox (INCOG's bicycle and pedestrian planner, and no relation to BikerFox). He said that the locally infamous 'FEMA' bridge has been OK'd by that agency, and now the ball is in the hands of ODOT.

Haiku and Bikeku

Fritz of Cyclelicious fame, said he'd link to any bicycle related haiku. And since I'm usually starved for attention, I penned a haiku for him. Who could resist?

Over the weekend, I ran into an odd synchronicity. I picked up a copy of Bob Woodward's "State of Denial: Bush at War, Part III" and found this:

(Army intelligence officer, Colonel Steve) Rotkoff decided to keep a daily war journal, and over the next six months he filled six volumes. Pressed for time on many occasions, he summarized his thoughts and emotions with three line haiku.

One of his early observations:

Rumsfeld is a dick
Won't flow the forces we need
We will be too light.

Another of his efforts:

This is not a drill...
Mask + chem suit on quickly
Try not to panic.

I never considered summing up my day in seventeen syllables, but it would present an interesting challenge. Don't worry, I probably won't inflict the results on CycleDog readers! It's better than Vogon poetry, of course, but the problem is that my efforts aren't much better.

Still, seventeen syllables may be enough to trigger my memory. It's odd to experience that effect from things I wrote long ago. Memories that were long forgotten returned after reading some old lines. Could a haiku be a key for preserving memory, a kind of shorthand for a longer written experience?

Oh, before I forget - "State of Denial" reads like a Tom Clancy novel. I normally avoid non-fiction like this because it's so dry. I intended to skim through the book but it's so readable that I've been going through it very carefully.