Hope There’s Not a Long Line for the Giant Corpse Flower

From 8/14/05….
Imagine my surprise when I found out that the titan arum was blooming at Smith College, just a few miles up the road. And of course I was surprised because, well, I had never heard of Titan Arum before the story hit the newspaper that morning. And though botany certainly isn’t my forte, I couldn’t help but be intrigued by one of the largest blooms in the crazy world of flowers, especially one said to possess the smell of rotting corpses. If having the chance to experience the stench of rotting corpses without actually encountering any rotting corpses doesn’t scream roadtrip to you, I don’t know what would.

So, after I watched Dee’s grueling football practice, we headed for Smith College all agog with anticipation, for lack of a better cliche. In my mind I kind of pictured it being like viewing the Pope lying in state, having to shuffle past without actually stopping and keeping a hushed reverence while in the presence of the rare Sumatran Corpse flower. And I guess it is pretty rare. This was to be the first time one ever bloomed in Massachusetts. You can thank me later for that mildly interesting factoid.

As we were arriving around dark–as you can see from the atmospheric photo above–the greenhouse had an eerie feel to it. And a decent sized crowd. I mean, I don’t know what kind of crowd the Titan Arum usually draws but I’m thinking for eight thirty on a Wednesday night that it was a pretty good-sized crowd. Well, anyway, we went inside and wound our way to the flower, all along the way smelling for that putrid stench that makes this flower so fascinating, but mostly we smelled all the other pretty flowers around us. When we got to the corpse flower we found ourselves staring out at the people who were looking at it from outside. And of course the look on everyone’s face was “So, THAT’S what a Sumatran Corpse Flower looks like. Think we can make it home in time for Rock Star INXS?” We also discovered that, being inside, we were looking at the back of the flower–at least in terms of getting a good look at it. And we picked up a little odor. Not the sort of odor that makes one heave into the nearest Anacamptis pyramidalis but one that makes you think that someone who was just in the room was wearing clothes they just found in last year’s gym bag.

So we found our way back outside so that we could get a look at the flower and maybe get a little webcam time in. (if you check out the webcam now, you’ll find the plant notably missing from the view…sorry I didn’t blog sooner).

Out there we found the crowd a bit larger, at least at first, and there was a Smith College botanist guy throwing in random observations. Two things suddenly became apparent as we stood there. One, this plant has groupies. Titan Arum deadheads as it were: “This is my second viewing. I saw the one in Madison.” I was waiting for him to pull out bootleg photos of the show and start passing around a joint but instead he ambled off. Another groupie had been to the Yale show and talked that up a bit. The second thing we discovered was that the botanist guy didn’t know a lot about the plant beyond what we had all read in the newspaper article. Or at least if he did he was playing it off as if he didn’t know much. When the Yale groupie asked him how hot the plant got–apparently the plant generates a lot of heat when it’s about to bloom–at first he started talking about the heat and humidity in the building. Then, when he understood what the question was, all he had to offer was “I don’t know. I didn’t touch it.” I mean, isn’t the sort of thing that botanists study like crazy when they have a chance? I would’ve thought that they’d be analyzing and testing and all that other science-type stuff, but they were mostly selling T-shirts and hanging out and pointing out randumb factoids.

At any rate, you can’t beat a Wednesday night trip to the giant corpse flower, even though it wasn’t nearly as giant or corpsy as it could have been. One thing was clear though: after viewing the giant corpse flower, we needed some sushi from Moshi Moshi. And that’s where we ended our night. Sam and I made plans to golf and we ate some wonderful food and our night was complete.

Dr. Bunsen Honeydew?

In the past, I’ve been compared to some pretty interesting people and/or characters; however, I do believe that this one takes the cake:

Thanks, ummm, I think, Ms. Casey.

Francis! The Unfortunate Vampire

I am SO looking forward to reading this comic as it unfolds.

Folk is the New Punk

Here’s a great story about Thurston Moore from the Village Voice.

(Thanks to Soundcheck for the link).

In Case

In case you don’t think Italians are hard core, read this.

That’s right, baby, a pasta strike. I wonder if Spaghetti-Os count?

A Quick One

Just a quick post to remind myself that I’m supposed to be writing here daily.

From a student assignment. They had “illiterate” as a vocabulary word and were writing sentences for their vocab words:

“Sometimes I wish I were illiterate so I wouldn’t have to read books.”

Long Haul

Yeah. I know I promised to start writing here daily once work started up. Well, it’s taken me a while but here I go.

Well, I just got done with a morning class of seniors (For new readers, that’s high school seniors, not senior citizens). And we’re reading Catcher in the Rye. And I don’t know if it’s the early morningness of the class or the students themselves, but I don’t think I’ve encountered a group quite so apathetic about reading this book. I mean, even when I’ve had classes that had no particular regard for literature, at least the kids would react to the “goddamns” and other unexpected language for a high school novel.

But not these guys. No reaction to the story. No reaction to Holden’s crude vocabulary. Nothing.

I really hope that changes. And I really really hope that my other two classes don’t have the same non-reaction. Reading Catcher in the Rye three times a year doesn’t bother me. I still enjoy the book. But reading it to an apathetic crowd that refuses to even find anything interesting about it. That’s a long haul.

A long, long haul.

Soon

Yes, I know I owe you all an apology. And I know that by “all” I probably mean “both.”

But, anyway, beginning tomorrow, more frequent posting. Nearly Guaranteed.

I think I’ll start tomorrow with a write up of the Waterboys show I went to in Boston. For free. Yes, free…