Memoir Archives – THE PAGE TURNS

March 14, 2025March 20, 2025

A Disjointed Post

Rendered by Google AI, this Frankenstein robot drawing is the only creative AI used here

Surgery is the topic of today’s post, namely because I had shoulder arthroplasty last Tuesday. The technique was reverse shoulder replacement and, as you ask, what is that? be assured that I will get there. We have to cover a little anatomy, anthropology, Popular Mechanics, history (of course), and technology along the way.

Fish Gotta Swim, Horses Gotta Run, Humans Gotta Throw Spears

Let’s talk about joints, specifically shoulders, ball-and-socket joints, and the term synovial. I had originally thought that fish had no ball-and-socket joints, and I was going to claim that it was the reptiles, crocodiles crawling out of the water, who began to develop those movable arm and leg joints rather than fins. But it turns out that, even at the beginning, fish had some types of ball-and-socket joints in their jaws, in their vertebrae, and even in their fins.

Synovial=(Greek) put together+egg=the shape of certain joints

The word synovial is important here because it means that within rigid bones, there is a hollow part and a bumpy part that fit together. Even with fish, there were hollow/bumps that fit together in fins and jaws which allowed for more flexibility and rapid movement. When reptiles developed the ability to walk on land and swim in the water, those fins turned into longer bones with multiple places for movable joints.

January 13, 2025January 17, 2025

Old Beginnings

Woman Reclining at Desk Next to Typewriter @1900, image from © CORBIS

It’s January. It’s time to take stock of ourselves. Make resolutions. Change habits. Sweep out the old. Set some goals.

This is a New Year, but also a repeat of another year. Our universe moves forward, but circles around at the same time. We follow cycles that are as old the understanding of time itself. There are patterns that repeat, which we can see and use to fuel our hope.

There is always possibility.

Ancient planisphere, i.e. map of the cycle of the heavens, with cuneiform, from africame.

Ancient Cycles

The celebration of a new year likely began as soon as people realized that there was such a thing as a year. One of the first big things people noticed must have been the sun and its movements, noticed that this giant flame that provided light did so in a slightly different way every day. There are 37,000 year old cave paintings that show the sun and the moon, using the cave walls a kind of “paleo-almanac.”

Last night, the moon set in the west, pouring light through my bathroom window when I got up. It does that every so often, doesn’t it?

The earliest civilizations in Mesopotamia–the Sumerians, the Babylonians, the Egyptians–all had ways of counting time and all celebrated the new year. The Egyptians celebrated the flooding of the Nile, which happened in the middle of our calendar year, so their New Year was near the summer solstice. They called it Wepet Renpet, the “Opening of the Year.” As part of the coming year, they held feasts, exchanged gifts, and honored their gods.

December 2, 2024December 4, 2024

Mom’s China

“I can’t find the rest of these crystal glasses,” KK says, lying on the kitchen floor, one arm buried deep in a cabinet. There are rattling noises, and she keeps shining her phone’s flashlight deep into the Underworld of our kitchenware. “This is all the Rosenthal stuff.”

Two pieces of the remaining Rosenthal set. All photos by kajmeister, exc. Wedgwood medallion.

My mom received a set of Rosenthal china as a wedding present. When she died in 1997, I ended up with it. Most of it I stored, but I kept a platter out among our other fancy buffet dishes. A few holidays ago, when it was pulled out for use, the platter cracked neatly in half, which has made me loathe to use any other pieces.

As we were making Thanksgiving turkey and trimmings this year, pulling out the special bowl to mix stuffing and another bowl to sport cranberries, I realized that there’s a big gap between what I would use for a dinner party and what my mom would use. Not that strange these days, of course, my kids would say, “dinner party, WTF?” But the idea of hauling out a single set of matching delicate dishes for a meal seems bizarre, even on a special holiday with people you care about.

There is a history for things like Rosenthal china, a company history and a personal history. These things intersect and create waves of overlapping interference, like in a pond. This may explain why we have such a patchwork quilt of dishes when we serve dinner, all of which are precious.