the lab opens

[hankhank at ccwf.cc.utexas.edu]

My modem connection is not working at the moment. Consequently, I was not
as delighted as Diana was by this climatic catastrophe, which closed also
UT. It's true: no, internet, connection, since, Fri, day... (It was quite
exotic to motor on icy streets without studded tires, though; automatic 
transmission also seems unfit for snowy curves, at least for these Texan
"drivers". (Needless to say, I have a stick shift.)) Opened my electronic
mail today and was immediately warned about having exceeded my quota, so 
I read all new messages and then deleted them all quickly together with 
the old. - So just off the top of my head some swift first impressions 
on last days's mailings: yes, Don, we eat lutefisk im Finland. Luckily not 
as eagerly as Norwegians, though; however, I was forced to swallow bits
of it during the Xmas dinner when child, and Pavlovesquely learned to hate
the white sauce that comes with it, too. And yet, the carnivore continues, 
I like ham much better than turkey. - "Tried to warn you about Gino and
Daddy G, but I don't seem to get to you through the U.S. Mail" -- this
message *was* heard at the Randalls on North Lamar not so long ago, John,
so, maybe it's not California that tumbles into the sea but Austin that
tumbles into the lake which really is a river. Yet hearing their stuff
played as muzak probably gives DF&WB some quirky satisfaction, don't you 
think? - Sad songs: I can well imagine "Gloomy Monday" to be a Hungarian
song. Hungarians have traditionally been the most suicidal people, tailed
by their language relatives, Finns and Estonians, and now it seems that
Estonians have taken the lead, and that Swedes from outside the
Fenno-Ugric family may well beat us all soon. (I'll leave alone the
Finnish folk song treasury where one can find myriad of songs one sadder
than the next -- or Valse Triste, etc. The lyric counterpart to Kalevala
(mentioned by Xferen), is Kanteletar, which contains hundreds of extremely
sad and beautiful delta and backwood blueses, mostly created by medieval
Finnish women.) But another Billie Holiday song, "Strange Fruit" is sad,
too, isn't it. Robert Wyatt's "Rock Bottom" -- quite paralyzing, what do
you think. Or Tom Waits' "Christmas Card from a Hooker in Minneapolis".
Of deathly books I'd like to bring out "Under the Vulcano". - Did someone
mention _Nightwood_? I have one suggestion re Miss B and Lady V: Robin
*V*ote as some kinda proto-hybrid of our phlegmatic drifter Benny P
and V as the Gothic, mysterious female subject/object of the narration?
Heikki