One shy reader reminded me that I am not paying close enough attention and there were a lot of pranks this year: snl, an airline (Qantas I think) and even a fake art blog. What are some of the best pranks you have pulled or seen?
Yes -- laughter breaks down barricades and is so full of healing power! I have also been thinking about the Kintsugi master and how laughter can act as the gold binding our/the world's brokenness and in Rameen words "be an agent for change in our beautiful becoming."
This brought a smile and memories of summers on the river in Iceland, where practical jokes were constant and often elaborate. Oli, Dad's Icelandic business partner, had a wonderful sense of humor and, as guides, we were usually charged with implementing whatever deviltry was afoot. Liquor in Iceland was heavily taxed in the 1970's and thus quite expensive. Guests often figured out ways to smuggle in more than could be bought at the duty free shop in Keflavik. When one member of their group confessed to having emptied a large bottle of Listerine and filled it with scotch, Oli had a local farmer show up to "arrest" him and confiscate the whiskey bottle. They carried it quite a ways, too, discussing the need for lawyers and possible jail time, before Oli's kindhearted wife put a stop to it.
What fun! They definitely need to lift the liquor tax if they want to keep serving fermented shark! The Listerine bottle reminds me of my old friend Bev and how her dad would help us carry out boarding school pranks!
And oh does Oli remind me of my cousin Pete! My junior year I had a few friends including the late Bullet Shih (talk about a great prankster!) excited to join me on a fishing boat in Alaska. Pete found out about my interest in fishing and called me up pretending to be a crusty old Alaskan captain and had me floundering around like a fish out of water answering questions to make sure I respected the sea and everything in it. Clearly he was having fun testing my reflexes and having me prove to him I could wake at the crack of dawn, haul in nets heavier than a whale, and sleep in an area that smelled worse than a aged hockey equipment! I remember him saying: “You mess with Nature, and she'll mess with you right back” and then silence until he finally said welcome aboard -- this is your cousin Pete calling!
I will never live this down nor will I ever stop smiling every time I think of Pete and the mischief he pulled and the mischief his dad and my dad pulled back in Beirut!
When I was in college a friend and I decided to go to Alaska for the summer and get jobs on a fishing boat. We showed up in Kodiak where we failed to impress anyone with our seafaring skills and lived out of a tent, eating a sort of goulash made of canned tuna, canned green beans, and Kraft macaroni and cheese all cooked in one pot for pennies per meal. Eventually the pennies ran out and we had to find work...which we found when a fishing boat got held up by weather and showed up at the Pacific Pearl cannery with a hold full of rotted fish. It was so bad that the dock crew quit rather than emptying it and we were told that if we emptied it their jobs would be ours. That was probably the worst thing I ever had to do...
What a vivid summer scent you paint! As I wrote the Pepe piece a few weeks ago someone reminded me that smell is indeed the most potent trigger of memory, and now you've etched this olfactory masterpiece in our minds! I am beginning to feel better about working as a hostess on the Vineyard instead of hauling rotting fish carcass-- thank you!
It is amazing how our nostrils wire our brains and how we pass down these memories. I will never forget how dad described the stench of surströmming our Swedish family would serve as a delicacy. Every time we'd glorify our Swedish roots, he'd warn us about the time he sat down to a formal family dinner with his mom and aunts, only to be hit with a surströmming tsunami of stink that still made his eyes water when recounting the tale! The story goes as the youngest, his dad promptly dragged him away thinking he had spiked himself. The haunted look in my dad's eyes as he shared this story is a reminder of how fragrant family traditions can be passed down through generations and never forgot!
I actually love the smell of fish when it's evocative of lobster boats and the coast of Maine, but that was well beyond horrible...as was the whaling station down the road from us in Iceland. I never encountered surstromming or even the famous rotten shark while there, although I managed to politely gag down both whale and horse when the occasion demanded it. On a much happier olfactory plane...the scents of cut grass and motor oil in my grandfather's shed, an outdoor fire, and freshly turned dirt on a spring day all come to mind, along with the smell of leaves and apples on an autumn day in Vermont.
Yes! What fun colorful memories come to mind when we use our nose! I need my sister to jump in here -- she has the super sensory system!Some favorites are the salty, briny scent of the ocean -- it is both refreshing and calming -- reminding us of long walks on the beach and the soothing sound of waves. Or mud and the earth after a
fresh rain -- the earthy, rejuvenating scent that signals renewal and new beginnings available in a big inhale all around us now🌱💚🌱
One shy reader reminded me that I am not paying close enough attention and there were a lot of pranks this year: snl, an airline (Qantas I think) and even a fake art blog. What are some of the best pranks you have pulled or seen?
As you know, Celina, I love you for a zillion things. Thank you for reminding me once again that laughter is the shortest distance between two people!
Yes -- laughter breaks down barricades and is so full of healing power! I have also been thinking about the Kintsugi master and how laughter can act as the gold binding our/the world's brokenness and in Rameen words "be an agent for change in our beautiful becoming."
This brought a smile and memories of summers on the river in Iceland, where practical jokes were constant and often elaborate. Oli, Dad's Icelandic business partner, had a wonderful sense of humor and, as guides, we were usually charged with implementing whatever deviltry was afoot. Liquor in Iceland was heavily taxed in the 1970's and thus quite expensive. Guests often figured out ways to smuggle in more than could be bought at the duty free shop in Keflavik. When one member of their group confessed to having emptied a large bottle of Listerine and filled it with scotch, Oli had a local farmer show up to "arrest" him and confiscate the whiskey bottle. They carried it quite a ways, too, discussing the need for lawyers and possible jail time, before Oli's kindhearted wife put a stop to it.
What fun! They definitely need to lift the liquor tax if they want to keep serving fermented shark! The Listerine bottle reminds me of my old friend Bev and how her dad would help us carry out boarding school pranks!
And oh does Oli remind me of my cousin Pete! My junior year I had a few friends including the late Bullet Shih (talk about a great prankster!) excited to join me on a fishing boat in Alaska. Pete found out about my interest in fishing and called me up pretending to be a crusty old Alaskan captain and had me floundering around like a fish out of water answering questions to make sure I respected the sea and everything in it. Clearly he was having fun testing my reflexes and having me prove to him I could wake at the crack of dawn, haul in nets heavier than a whale, and sleep in an area that smelled worse than a aged hockey equipment! I remember him saying: “You mess with Nature, and she'll mess with you right back” and then silence until he finally said welcome aboard -- this is your cousin Pete calling!
I will never live this down nor will I ever stop smiling every time I think of Pete and the mischief he pulled and the mischief his dad and my dad pulled back in Beirut!
When I was in college a friend and I decided to go to Alaska for the summer and get jobs on a fishing boat. We showed up in Kodiak where we failed to impress anyone with our seafaring skills and lived out of a tent, eating a sort of goulash made of canned tuna, canned green beans, and Kraft macaroni and cheese all cooked in one pot for pennies per meal. Eventually the pennies ran out and we had to find work...which we found when a fishing boat got held up by weather and showed up at the Pacific Pearl cannery with a hold full of rotted fish. It was so bad that the dock crew quit rather than emptying it and we were told that if we emptied it their jobs would be ours. That was probably the worst thing I ever had to do...
What a vivid summer scent you paint! As I wrote the Pepe piece a few weeks ago someone reminded me that smell is indeed the most potent trigger of memory, and now you've etched this olfactory masterpiece in our minds! I am beginning to feel better about working as a hostess on the Vineyard instead of hauling rotting fish carcass-- thank you!
It is amazing how our nostrils wire our brains and how we pass down these memories. I will never forget how dad described the stench of surströmming our Swedish family would serve as a delicacy. Every time we'd glorify our Swedish roots, he'd warn us about the time he sat down to a formal family dinner with his mom and aunts, only to be hit with a surströmming tsunami of stink that still made his eyes water when recounting the tale! The story goes as the youngest, his dad promptly dragged him away thinking he had spiked himself. The haunted look in my dad's eyes as he shared this story is a reminder of how fragrant family traditions can be passed down through generations and never forgot!
I actually love the smell of fish when it's evocative of lobster boats and the coast of Maine, but that was well beyond horrible...as was the whaling station down the road from us in Iceland. I never encountered surstromming or even the famous rotten shark while there, although I managed to politely gag down both whale and horse when the occasion demanded it. On a much happier olfactory plane...the scents of cut grass and motor oil in my grandfather's shed, an outdoor fire, and freshly turned dirt on a spring day all come to mind, along with the smell of leaves and apples on an autumn day in Vermont.
Yes! What fun colorful memories come to mind when we use our nose! I need my sister to jump in here -- she has the super sensory system!Some favorites are the salty, briny scent of the ocean -- it is both refreshing and calming -- reminding us of long walks on the beach and the soothing sound of waves. Or mud and the earth after a
fresh rain -- the earthy, rejuvenating scent that signals renewal and new beginnings available in a big inhale all around us now🌱💚🌱