I awoke to read an email from CPI (or CPO, my hight school and uni friend who edited my Tate book and is most dear to me. She was one of the five people who heard, hot of the presses, that I had resumed writing the biography of Dave Dryburgh. She said the greatest thing as she always does – she is brilliant, incisive and perceptive. I hate her sometimes because she is smarter than I (and five months younger).
She: The spirit of Uncle Dave is with you and it will be a joy to hear how the book takes shape. But immobility is no fun – any stairs look steep. Physio? Water therapy? Semi-recluse, ha. You will never become a CPI.
Me: I love what you said – that the spirit of Uncle Dave is with me – and it is.
For those not in the know CPI stands for Couch Potato Introvert.. I do have an exceptional talent for nicknames which I use to disguise the identity of people on my blog. It is such fun. One of my favourites is Flower Girl’s Wife – she lives in Southhampton and is married to Flower Girl – he has that name because he is going to be the Flower Girl at the fourth wedding.. We decided that on a boring tour of Iceland. The groom and the venue keeps changing – at the present there are no prospects whatsoever. It is a relief to Flower Girl- he can stop practicing. He has to crawl on his hands and knees so that he will be shorter than the groom. Flower Girl’s Wife and I laugh hilariously about these antics. But I have digressed. Now that is a good word for the day: Digress : deviate, go off at a tangent, diverge, turn aside, turn away, depart, drift, stray, ramble, wander, meander, maunder; get off the subject, stray from the subject, stray from the point, deviate from the topic, get sidetracked, lose the thread; rare divagate. ANTONYMS keep/stick to the point..
I have definitely got off on a tangent – going from talking about Uncle Dave to talking about my wedding. I could not very well be marrying my uncle and besides that, he is dead. Pay attention Alexis – stick to the point. But just a minute – a little more meandering, a little more straying from the subject. Let us study the phrase Hot Off The Presses. : newly printed, sensational and exciting. For example, I’ve got it hot off the press—he’s resigning, or This design is hot off the press. [c. 1900] Look it up for yourself though, the origins are interesting having to do with the technology of newspaper printing bak in the old days.
Well Uncle Dave was a newspaper reporter so we are getting back on topic. I went to the search engine of my blog and typed Uncle Dave. There are thirteen pages of entries, so the man has been on my mind a great deal. He is mentioned on March 23, 2017 – at that time the blog was only two months old and the plans for my life were totally different than what turned out to be. This is what the blog said:
“]On February 14, 2017, Cousin Carol-Ann and I emailed one another about Uncle Dave’s possible reaction to my ‘world famous’ blog. I said to Carol-Ann: “I do have to agree with Uncle Dave in that I don’t understand the concept of blogs. I followed no one and nobody’s blog, and felt they were a form of conceit. But, in a strange way I am seeing that it mimics his daily column. He spoke of something – sports – but in a way he was speaking of greater things, like fair mindedness, fair play, an ordered existence, a predictable outcome if one played by the rules and tried one’s best and put one’s heart and soul into it. I wrote the other day that the thing I admire most about our uncle is his integrity. I am not sure where he got it, although most of his brother’s had it – most but not all.”
There are one hundred and twenty eight blogs that mention Uncle Dave. Holy cow! Maybe I should just publish those and say to hell with the book. If every blog is about a thousand words (which they usually are) the book would be 128,00 words. Is that right – my math is horrible. It is all written – I could just put it together. But somehow that seems like cheating. I have got to think this over and perhaps call in the help of CPI She is great at those things. Truly brilliant as a matter of fact.
Now this is eerie. I am writing this blog but receive a text on my phone.
He: Good morning sunflower.
Me: I love being a sunflower. You are so sweet.
Me: Eerily I have just gone back to finishing the biography on my uncle. His name? David
You see the man who sent me the morning greeting does have a name. His name is David, I met him in Vegas. He does not, even remotely, resemble David Dryburgh in person. This man became my hero, rescuing me from a most uncomfortable, scary situation. I teasingly tell him that he is going to have a nickname MTBH – which stands for My True Blue Hero. Once in awhile I do need rescuing. It is rare I can be a Damsel in Distress..
Wikipedia has this to say about it. The damsel-in-distress, persecuted maiden, or princess in jeopardy is a classic theme in world literature, art, film and video games; most notably in those that have a lot of action. This trope usually involves beautiful, innocent, or helpless young female leads, placed in a dire predicament by a villain, monster or alien, and who requires a male hero to achieve her rescue. Often these young women are stereotyped as very physically weak and almost completely dependent on the male lead. After rescuing her, the hero often obtains her hand in marriage. She has become a stock character of fiction, particularly of melodrama. Though she is usually human, she can also be of any other species, including fictional or folkloric species; and even divine figures such as an angel, spirit, or deity.
It goes on and is most interesting. Read the entry in its entirety. It is fascinating. What would you do without me? Defining words for you, giving you concepts and entertaining you. And all for nothing but you do get what you pay for. Hahaha :
