Middlesex-Journal+Entry+6

-Pg 167 -Pg 169 -Pg 173 -Pg 174 -Pg 181 -Pg 183 -Pg 186 -Pg 196 -Pg 199
 * Clarinet Serenade, News of the World, & Ex Ovo Omnia**
 * Definitions: wikipedia**
 * Knodel- Large round poached or boiled potato or bread dumplings.
 * Parque Guell- A garden complex with architectural elements situated on the hill of El Carmel in the Gracia district of Bacelona.
 * Artie Shaw- An American jazz clarinetist, composer, and bandleader.
 * "Begin the Beguine" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ps05TaQuYvc
 * Edgar Bergen- American actor and radio performer- best known as a ventriloquist.
 * Marlene Dietrich- German-born American actress and singer.
 * Hirothito- The 124th Emperor of Japan according to traditional order- He was head of state under the limitation of the constitution of the empire of Japan's imperial expansion, militarization, and involvement in WWII. After the war, he was not prosecuted for war crimes as others were. During the postwar period, he became the symbol of the new state.
 * Ansel Adams- An American photographer and environmentalist, best known for his black and white photographs of the American West, especially Yosemite National Park.
 * Bernd and Hilla Becher- German artists working a collaborative duo. They are best known for their extensive series of photographic images, or typologies, of industrial buildings and structures.
 * I.G. Farben Plant- German chemical industry conglomerate. During the planning of the invasion of Czechoslobakia and Poland, closely cooperated with Nazi officials and directed which chemical plants should be secured and delivered to IG Farben.
 * Shrapnel (Shells?)- anti-personal artillery munitions which carried a large number of individual bullets close to the target and then ejected them to allow them to continue along the shell's trajectory and strike the target individually.
 * Bosun's Chair- a device used to suspend a person from a rope to perform work aloft.
 * Arcana- a secret, mystery


 * What makes you, you? What creates your identity? Your race? Gender? Nationality? Job? Friends? Your actions? Words? Favorite music? Other people? Have you ever changed reinvented yourself in real ways or does it result in trivial, Madonna-esque transformations? When do you think it is easiest to try to “reinvent yourself”? Who is hardest to convince?**

I think everything about your life makes you, you. Your physical appearance, your opinions, ideas, thoughts, your experiences in life, the people you associate with. All of this is included in what makes you, you. I believe that one can change or reinvent themselves but in a specific way. People can obviously change their physical appearance with unnatural ways, but I believe people can also change themselves to a certain extinct. Having different experiences may change one's perspective in life. Something that really impacts a person can change what they stand for or their goals in life. New ideas are constantly challenging people, sometimes changing them. Even though one's perspective may change or physical appearance i think there are always things that stay constant about you. Your tendencies and actions generally stay the same, even through significant changes. When going through a change, the hardest to convince are those to whom you are closest and know you the best. When you know someone for so long and know how he or she is, it is hard to see that person change or not be 'himself or herself' (as you know him or her). Even though I believe it is possible for people to truly change when they are impacted, I think there are also trivial transformations. Sometimes people try to be someone they are not, and this is not a change that truly describes you. It is something that is temporary. Something that describes you is something that is extremely meaningful and important to you. Even though these things can change through out life when new ideas are presented, they are not just trivial changes.

Pg 203- Restaurant - "El Greco reproductions: bull's horns hung fromt he neck of an Aphrodite statuette. Above the coffeemaker an assortment of figurines marched along the shelf: Paul Bunyon and Babe the Blue Ox, Mickey Mouse, Zeus, and Felix the Cat" (203). Pg 209- Desdemona and Lefty living in attic, "In my opinion, she enjoyed the attic because the vertigo of living up there reminded her of Mount Olympus. The dormer window provided a good view (not of sultans' tombs but of the Edison factory), and when she left the window open, the wind blew through as it used to in Bithynios. Up in the attic, **Desdemona and Lefty came back to where they started**" (209).
 * Greek vs. American**
 * New Smyrna Beach--> retirement in FL.

-"The Statue of Liberty's gender changed nothing. It was the same here as everywhere: men and their wars" (171). Desdemona.
 * Quotes / Random:**

-Desdemona- guilt of what has done eating away at her, sees budding interest between T and M so starts trying to set up relationships. paragraph on page 172 "After experiencing everything she had done to atone for her crime, after she had turned her marriage into an arctic wasteland..." -Pg 173- "Now with Desdeomna riding herd behind, he came down to see Gaia Basilakis. She was sitting between her parents on the overstuffed sea-foam-green sofa, a large girl herself, wearing a white crinoline dress with ruffled hem and puffed sleeve. Her short white socks had ruffles, too. They reminded Milton of the lace cover over the bathroom trashcan" (173). Even though it should be from Milton's P.O.V.-- presented in a very feminine way, details and reminding him of the lace cover- something girl would notice. - Pg 195 "In my family, the funeral meats have always furnished the wedding tables. My grandmother agreed to marry my grandfather because she never thought she'd live to see the wedding. And my grandmother blessed my parents' marriage, after vigorously plotting against it, only because she didn't think Milton would survive to the end of the week" Hamlet reference "funeral meats have always furnished the wedding tables"
 * pg 194 "God has brought the judgement down on us that we deserve"


 * Humor-**
 * Mitlton- "I can not tell a lie...This cookie is lousy"
 * Lina- "Look at the two of us...sweet and sour."


 * Milton and Tessie- conception of Cal**
 * **Silk**- "Against the black background they swim, a long white silken thread spinning itself out" (210).
 * Journey of the thread- began "when the biology Gods...monkeyed with a gene on a baby's fifth chromosome"
 * gene- descended mt and left village, ect. Page 210-211