Above is my drawing in this week’s The New Yorker! After 40+ years, it’s still a thrill. I did a similar one years ago that wasn’t bought by the magazine, sadly. If you live with someone, have you noticed how sometimest things start just appearing in the living room, and you don’t notice for a while?
Bravo!!!! And I love it! As a confounder of plants I bow before your one. Which is a handsome fellow. Over the years many of our have bit the dust at my hands. Or the paws of the demon cats of that decade.
I really like the “idea” of being surrounded by beautiful thriving plants. I’m sure they bring a lot of pleasure to people who are better at that than me. I have a few and I must admit, it does make me feel good when they look healthy… but I have no idea how I make that happen when it does happen. Hahaha
Ms. Donnelly, I liked the solo plant. Seeing it and reading your comment, I thought of "Keep the Aspidistra Flying" by George Orwell. The aspidistra plant, which is something like the national house plant of Britain, may not look exactly like the one you've drawn, and that's OK. In the book, Orwell's story about resisting capitalist greed is woven into a love story. Early in the book, as I recall, the protagonist is living alone and he abuses the poor plant, putting out cigarettes in the pot and dumping beer on it; he'd just as well see it die. Through a series of events, he becomes "sweet" on a woman, though there are setbacks in the relationship. In the end, as romance flourishes, he chooses to decorate the new flat that he and his girl friend will occupy with an aspidistra.
Suitably enchanted by your drawing and the memory it invoked, I shall now go through my shelves and see if I have a copy of the book so that I can reread it. Thanks!
Please call me Liza! Your comment here is so fascinating and what a story! And a name: aspidistra. I had to go look it up to visualize it. Did the original plant actually die, or did it survive and flourish in their relationship? I guess I will have to read the story!
Liza, thanks for the reply. Very kind. I think that the plant lived on...but it's been something like 50 years since I read the book, so I wouldn't recommend trusting my recollection of it! You'd be better off going to the original source. I shall have to secure a new copy, as I no longer have one. I'm off to search the site of a book seller that's not one of the giant corporate greed machines (which I have to suspect Orwell would be railing against if he were alive today).
I have just warned my Christmas cactus that they have two more weeks to get their act together. We shall see. Yes, good move by Biden. I'm glad he said something. As for me, third and final trip for the dreaded root canal. When the dentist said, this is the easy part and you won't need Novocain, I asked him if he was going to hurt me. He said no, and by golly, he didn't. Some people mean what they say; there is hope for the world. xox As for watering my husband, he doesn't need any help with that. LOL.
I am glad you are in your final stages. My brother -in-law is a dermatologist with a great sense of humor, and he said that when his patients ask him, will it hurt? and he reassures them, his oath as a doctor is "to do no harm."
Can't brag about any skills with indoor plants. Where we lived before was technically wetland, and things loved to grow outside there. Several years I planted wildflower seeds, watered them for a week or two, and they grew heartily and voluminously, and came back on their own every year. Haven't had equal luck where we live now. I think if I rototilled some earth, it might be fine. But living in a small city (let alone a big one) you just don't know what kinds of poisons lurk in the mud.
I have a lovely bouquet in my office, though. It's from some event several years ago, and has been dead a long time. But the leaves and flowers are intact, and still have color, though muted. I love this bouquet. It reminds me of good times, and it reminds me that there can be beauty even in death, a reality that does not exactly slap us in the face all the time. Being married to the author (Linda H. Davis) of the only biography of Charles Addams also helps. All of her biographical subjects continue to live with us.
Chuck, this is so poignant, what you say. And knowing who your wife is! I can certainly imagine that her subjects live with you, in all the good and bad. It's true that our dead loved ones do....
Thanks so much! When she was working on Stephen Crane, who was a talented, accomplished, and very handsome rascal, she asked me if I was jealous of him and all the time she spent with him. I immediately said something like, "no way, he's DEAD and I'm here with you in person. Our daughter Allie, though, who had suffered the Mommy-Crane distraction most of her life, really did resent him. I think maybe she still does, a little bit. Though she is otherwise perfect.
They look like happy plants. And Biden's warning is very good news.
Congrats! That cartoon cracks me up. Also your house plant reminds me of the Simpsons character Sideshow Bob. 😉
It does!
Congratulations on your drawing in The New Yorker! Very exciting no matter how many times it happens. :-)
Watering one’s husband must always be first priority. Cheers on the acceptance!
Bravo!!!! And I love it! As a confounder of plants I bow before your one. Which is a handsome fellow. Over the years many of our have bit the dust at my hands. Or the paws of the demon cats of that decade.
Yes. Let’s hope for peace
I really like the “idea” of being surrounded by beautiful thriving plants. I’m sure they bring a lot of pleasure to people who are better at that than me. I have a few and I must admit, it does make me feel good when they look healthy… but I have no idea how I make that happen when it does happen. Hahaha
Ms. Donnelly, I liked the solo plant. Seeing it and reading your comment, I thought of "Keep the Aspidistra Flying" by George Orwell. The aspidistra plant, which is something like the national house plant of Britain, may not look exactly like the one you've drawn, and that's OK. In the book, Orwell's story about resisting capitalist greed is woven into a love story. Early in the book, as I recall, the protagonist is living alone and he abuses the poor plant, putting out cigarettes in the pot and dumping beer on it; he'd just as well see it die. Through a series of events, he becomes "sweet" on a woman, though there are setbacks in the relationship. In the end, as romance flourishes, he chooses to decorate the new flat that he and his girl friend will occupy with an aspidistra.
Suitably enchanted by your drawing and the memory it invoked, I shall now go through my shelves and see if I have a copy of the book so that I can reread it. Thanks!
Please call me Liza! Your comment here is so fascinating and what a story! And a name: aspidistra. I had to go look it up to visualize it. Did the original plant actually die, or did it survive and flourish in their relationship? I guess I will have to read the story!
Liza, thanks for the reply. Very kind. I think that the plant lived on...but it's been something like 50 years since I read the book, so I wouldn't recommend trusting my recollection of it! You'd be better off going to the original source. I shall have to secure a new copy, as I no longer have one. I'm off to search the site of a book seller that's not one of the giant corporate greed machines (which I have to suspect Orwell would be railing against if he were alive today).
Ha! He probably would have!
I have just warned my Christmas cactus that they have two more weeks to get their act together. We shall see. Yes, good move by Biden. I'm glad he said something. As for me, third and final trip for the dreaded root canal. When the dentist said, this is the easy part and you won't need Novocain, I asked him if he was going to hurt me. He said no, and by golly, he didn't. Some people mean what they say; there is hope for the world. xox As for watering my husband, he doesn't need any help with that. LOL.
I am glad you are in your final stages. My brother -in-law is a dermatologist with a great sense of humor, and he said that when his patients ask him, will it hurt? and he reassures them, his oath as a doctor is "to do no harm."
Congrats Liza! I’m happy for you - and us!
Indoor plants take a certain touch my wife tells me. Which she has and my mother did not!
Can't brag about any skills with indoor plants. Where we lived before was technically wetland, and things loved to grow outside there. Several years I planted wildflower seeds, watered them for a week or two, and they grew heartily and voluminously, and came back on their own every year. Haven't had equal luck where we live now. I think if I rototilled some earth, it might be fine. But living in a small city (let alone a big one) you just don't know what kinds of poisons lurk in the mud.
I have a lovely bouquet in my office, though. It's from some event several years ago, and has been dead a long time. But the leaves and flowers are intact, and still have color, though muted. I love this bouquet. It reminds me of good times, and it reminds me that there can be beauty even in death, a reality that does not exactly slap us in the face all the time. Being married to the author (Linda H. Davis) of the only biography of Charles Addams also helps. All of her biographical subjects continue to live with us.
Chuck, this is so poignant, what you say. And knowing who your wife is! I can certainly imagine that her subjects live with you, in all the good and bad. It's true that our dead loved ones do....
Thanks so much! When she was working on Stephen Crane, who was a talented, accomplished, and very handsome rascal, she asked me if I was jealous of him and all the time she spent with him. I immediately said something like, "no way, he's DEAD and I'm here with you in person. Our daughter Allie, though, who had suffered the Mommy-Crane distraction most of her life, really did resent him. I think maybe she still does, a little bit. Though she is otherwise perfect.