Hafen Slawkenbergius

FYI…the Shandyrama commenced after you left yesterday.  Granted it was a Jon-only Shandyrama.  I did consider you there in spirit though by reading each chapter aloud in alternating voices.  “My” voice –which was just like my voice (but deeper and with a British accent) and “Your” voice–which was a high-pitched, womanly voice with a hint of a southern accent (Reminiscent, I believe, of your stirring portrayal of Mary Tyrone in the our seventh grade Jon and Justin only production of the Long Day’s Journey Into Night).  It was quite the raucous Shandyrama to say the least.

And thank you for the poem…why I’ve always said if the poetic talent of Emily Dickinson could be mated with the delightful nerdishness of Bunsen Honeydew…you might just have something comparable to my twin, Justin.

One question…did you use “cuds” as a verb?  It’s this kind of loosie-goosie word play that gets you smacked down in our Scrabble matches (“Yi”–Wha?!?)

Well I made some progress…moving right along into book, the fourth (personal goal–finish Book IV by the end of the week).  I’m right in the midst of the Hafen Slawkenbergius section and let me tell you…it’s no more interesting than any other portion of the book.  But maybe your previous post was right…maybe it’s so uninteresting because it’s amazingly true to life (or maybe it’s just that after reading it I feel lacking in the nose department).

But I felt a list of the ways that Tristram Shandy differed from our weekend visit would be appropriate…just to play Devil’s Advocate

1. Slop, Trim, Toby, and Papa Shandy never watched The Fantastic Four 2:  Rise of the Silver Surfer.
2. Tristram Shandy never walked around with curry all over his face.
3. We never once talked about our conception.

Just some things to ponder.

Oh yes I also did a little research into the the song “Lillabullero” that Toby Shandy is always humming…thinking I might be missing some vital information.  Here’s some more info on the topic if you’re interested (it didn’t really add anything to the story for me).

That’s all I have and my lunch break is ending…so I’m going to finish my soup ASAP and stop typing…

Now.

Jon

 (I mean now.)

A Shantastic Visit

So, we kind of dropped the ball on the whole “Shandyrama” thing. I don’t think either of us cracked our copies of the book the entire weekend. But it was a great visit.

As I was driving home though I was thinking a bit about the weekend and I did realize that there were some truly Shantastic elements about the weekend. During my drive, to pass the hours on the road I started making a list of how the weekend was like Sterne’s masterpiece, and then I got distracted by a cow (more on that later). Before that though I did come up with this list of:

How a Visit With my Twin is Like Tristram Shandy:
1. Lots of rambling talk.
2. From a purely plot perspective not a lot happens.
3. Full of jokes that nobody else really thinks are funny.

And then I was distracted by the aforementioned cow, or more accurately the memory of a cow I’d seen on my drive up, and I was struck with a bit of extemporaneous poetry. For the last 4 hours or so of the drive I worked on some mental revisions, and here’s what I came up with:

Upon a Meeting with a Cow in a Pasture

I come across a cow,
standing solitarily in the distance.
The ruminating ruminant
cogitates and cuds in the silence.

As I stand watching
our eyes meet.
We share a mutual thought:
“Now that’s the life.”

We exchange a nod.
I return to my car.
The cow regurgitates and chews contentedly.
I drive away.

Justin