Odessa’s Oddities & Curiosities | Week of 2/18

Dear friends,

I’m currently pretty pleased with the ratio of poetry in my life (which can be found by categorizing the types of books that jumble around in my backpack). I had a book of poetry by Zukofsky (more on him soon!) and now a book of poetry by Muriel Rukekeyser, and Dante’s Inferno. I delight in going between the painstaking translation from Italian to English in iambic pentameter (trans. Rev H.F. Cary) and the break-all-rules objectivist poetry.

It has become more and more apparent that it’s midterm season, and I am simply dumbfounded at the thought of fitting paper-writing into my schedule. I’ve already been caught unawares by my pset being due this Tuesday rather than Thursday. But I am excited about this paper on the intersection of drugs and femininity in The Odyssey.

Speaking of the Odyssey, Intuitive Machines of Houston successfully launched a spacecraft to the moon, named Odysseus.

But I must express some love for Fitzgerald’s Aeneid. It took a little while to grow on me, but I was obsessed with the ferocity of the language. But, hot take, I did not like Aeneas. Unlike Rama and Odysseus, Aeneas is the epitome of toxic masculinity. But I did love Queen Dido. And her epic takedown of Aeneas:

“I hope and pray that on some grinding reef / Midway at sea you’ll drink your punishment / And call and call on Dido’s name” (4.429) For some context, death at sea is like the worst possible fate for these ancient peoples.

But on a more positive note, some love-related curiosities in the spirit of Valentine’s Day:

I was tickled by this story of taking dating classifieds to the next level and offering rewards ie “dating bounties.” Also, the etymology of the word “crush” in a romantic context.

The New York Times falsely predicted that New Haven would get a foot and a half of snow, but the half foot was still more than anything I’ve witnessed so far in New Haven. How delightful! I woke up Wednesday morning, slid on my warmest clothes, and bounced outside to make a snow angel! So many snow creatures abounded across campus. There is so much magic in snow days and their capacity to draw out everyone’s inner child.

We had a joint Slifka-Chabad Shabbat this weekend. In my estimates, over 300 people came to Slifka for Shabbat dinner — pretty incredible! Also happy belated birthday to Chef Dave!

My Yale Community Kitchen x Slifka worlds have been colliding as Isa and Irene volunteer in the kitchen frequently on my shift. We had a Jewish takeover of aux this past Saturday at the kitchen, where we gleefully played “Avinu Malkeinu” by Barbara Streisand to the confusion of the other volunteers.

I also organized a Jewish Art Tour at the Yale University Art Gallery. My only notes in the request were to show us some Jewish art and artifacts. Despite the high drop-off from sign-ups to show-ups, we had a good crowd. But our guide Sabina did not give a shit about Jewish art. She was quite possibly the most apathetic guide possible. But her apathy in juxtaposition to the enthusiasm of our group, the whole event was extraordinarily funny to me. The curator even messed up and one of the three art pieces wasn’t by a Jewish artist (sorry, Max Ernst is a gentile! even if he married Peggy Guggenheim). But here are some curiosities about the two pieces of Jewish art.

First, we saw 40 synagogue ceiling tiles from Duros-Europos, which was both a Hellenistic, Parthian, and Roman border city. Yale and France excavated the site in the 30s. Most of the best-preserved ceiling tiles are kept in the Damascus Museum in Syria (obviously, not currently accessible). And there are some strange creatures on these tiles like seahorses (not the aquatic creature but literally half-horse, half-fish) and maybe a centaur? It’s interesting to see the Hellenic mythology in a Jewish space. It’s so cool that these ancient tiles are only a block away from where I sleep!!

Then, we saw Sol LeWitt’s Wall Drawing #786A. Lewitt’s exploring form, randomness, digitality…perhaps in oblique reference to Jewish numerology/gematria? Our guide was perplexed by Max’s question: “So what’s really Jewish about this piece?”

In Modern Jewish Poets, we covered Louis Zukofsky. In reference to my little spiel last week, I want to focus in on an excerpt from A: “I’ll tell you. / About my poetics— / music / speech / An integral / Lower limit speech / Upper limit music.” What is there, really, in the integral from speech to music? We talked about how it’s in the letters, the words are always tugging at you, pulling you back — this is the power of the letters, not the meaning of the words. It’s about the container…it’s a love for the sounds themselves. Maybe, that’s what I need to focus on with the prayers, with melech haolam…the sounds, the resonance, the tugs of the words. But I don’t know — I’m not entirely sold. Why should I compromise on the underlying meaning?

On theme, Natalie Ginsberg introduced me to Kohenet: the Jewish Priestess Institute. They focus on earth-based, feminist Judaism. I’m hoping to bring their siddur to the Jewish Women’s Conference that I’m helping organize this Spring.

I was one of the presenters for my class The Social Body this week. I made the mistake of choosing the most dense paper of the week, and all my leading questions to the class were met with the blankest of stares. My adaptive stress response quickly turned into a threat stress response, and boy! I was sweating under the pressure!

Speaking of temperature homeostasis, all day Wednesday, I was cold. So cold. I was thinking, gosh, Yale needs to turn up the heat in these classrooms. But admittedly, I was wearing a tanktop, so maybe I am the problem here (know I barely held off from making a Taylor Swift reference here).

Listen here for an interesting history of fast food, and how White Castle changed America’s perception of ground beef.

At the gym, yesterday, these guys brought in a giant speaker and began blasting rap. There was also a lot of yelling, notably “DON’T BE A BITCH.” Meanwhile, I was listening to a podcast from The Journal on exploitation in funeral homes. Joyful juxtaposition, indeed.

I’ll leave you with the prerogative to google “bears leaving hibernation”…I promise you won’t be disappointed. If you want to be disappointed, however, look up “hairless bears.”

Finally, may Alexei Navalny’s memory be a blessing and a reminder.

With love & curiosity,

Odessa