A Fete Worse than Death

[ewein2412]

Last week while Tim was in CA I had to drag the kids thru the "Summer Fayre" at Sara's school. It was very earnest but SO disorganized. They'd been planning to have it on the playground, but it was pouring, of course, so they were forced to cram themselves into the corridors and classrooms and 2 small gym halls. They had a bouncy castle in one hall and a magician and refreshments (along with 3 different raffles, a plant stall, paint-your-own flowerpots, bake sale items--yes, you can sell baked goods if parents are coming along to supervise their nut-allergic kids in buying). One of the disappointments was that the visiting fire engine had to leave to put out a fire ten minutes after it got there. Mark and I got to watch the firemen putting on their suits and then speeding across the playground with siren wailing--and ten kids running after them, JUST LIKE in all the classic pictures of fire engines. Sara came out of the school building about thirty seconds later and said, "Where's the fire engine?" and we told her, "It had to leave to put out a fire."
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In other news:

Mark (5 years old): Why is your eye so small but it can see big huge things? My eyes are very small but I can see the whole of you, and you're big.

Tim (45 years old, pompously): "The eye is the window of the soul."

He wasn't trying to be helpful when he said it, but I took that ball and ran with it. "Look, the window of our house isn't very big, but you can see all of Perth and Kinoull Hill out there! Your eye is like a window!"
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I just adore Fullmetal Alchemist. It is so gorgeous and sweet and melodramatic and irreverent. Sara likes it too.

Incidentally, is there some special significance to the enormous array of manga characters who are blind (or nearly blind) in their right eye? I have got a character in an unpublished novel who is blind in his right eye (Dark Secrets of E Wein)

Comments

[coffeeandink.livejournal.com]

Plus one in Fruits Basket. Oh, and one in Wish, who turns out to have plucked out his eye to give to his lover as an earring, which seems to be what either demons or CLAMP characters do in lieu of an engagement ring.

Who's blind in his left eye? I think it's right all around.

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

It does seem to be what the X characters I referenced did in lieu of an engagement ring.

You know, I'm not sure if anyone's blind on the left side. I might have been confused by flipped manga.

[ewein2412]

I thought of that, but the three that started me off were definitely right-eyers, or else it's a verbal translation problem and not a visual one--it's mentioned in the text.

Did you see amphibiouswords's comment below? I think that's a really cool observation.

[ewein2412]

and incidentally, you are the eye-con queen

ahahahahahaha [is led laughing hysterically away to be flogged]

[ellen-kushner.livejournal.com]

is led laughing hysterically away to be flogged

Indeed - and richly deserved!

You may have weaseled out of you punishment on "fete worse than..." (below) by claiming All the Other Kids are Doing it - but this one's yours; it's got your fingerprints all over it.

30 lashes with a wet noodle.

[ewein2412]

sorry, boss.