Thanks, Carolyn Jean and Jon, for commenting on the painting of the horse, below. It’s Whistlejacket by George Stubbs, and a framed copy of it hangs in our dining room:

The painting has resonance for both me the Way More Literary Spouse because John Hawkes, Spouse’s favorite author, wrote a book called Whistlejacket that partially delves into Stubbs’ controversial method of painting horses. Note to visitors: Hawkes is super-intense, darkly-twisted, and not for the casual reader. Be prepared to be disturbed in a way you can’t quite describe if you read him.

And I am at the Riskies asking what makes people voyeurs? Go and watch.

This week, due to illness (mine earlier in the week; my son’s later this week) and sundry stresses, I didn’t work out or write as much as I have in past weeks.

And tomorrow would be a dandy day to do the former, and I’m wondering: Once I’ve fallen off the horse, how can I get back on again? I mean, I feel like I don’t even know how to get astride! Grumble. Once I’ve stopped a ‘good’ habit, it’s darn hard for me to pick it up again. Bad habits are a snap (q-tips; interrupting; shoving things randomly into drawers; drinking; etc.).

What’s more, I got some excellent feedback on my contemporary, and I gotta work on polishing that. Editing is way harder than writing fresh stuff, because the fresh stuff can stink. The editing is supposed to remove said odor.

Not only am I meandering, I’m boring, too.

Another thing to work on.

You know what I hate? I mean, besides men’s colored dress shirts with white collars, Diana Ross, blush, cream soda, and people who leave their workout towels on machines when they’re not using them?

I hate people who say things like, “I don’t know much about art/music/literature, but I know what I like.”

But what was my point. Oh, yeah, there’s this cool exhibition at the Frick here in New York City showcasing George Stubbs, who revolutionized how artists painted animals; he took anatomy classes and did dissections to see just how the parts all worked so he could paint them more accurately. Although I don’t have it myself, I like that kind of attention to detail (says the woman whose father is doing her Great North Road research–thanks, Dad!) His most famous painting is Whistlejacket, which amazingly dense, twisted novelist John Hawkes (he is quite possibly the most f*cked-up author I’ve read. The Dense Twisted Spouse’s favorite too, btw) used as the title for one of his books. Whistlejacket takes place both in the present and the past, and Hawkes has Stubbs as a character.

Anyway, I like his art. Even though I don’t know much about art and stuff. There is, of course, no guarantee I will actually make it to the exhibition, but I am putting it in the queue.