15 November 2015
Island Life: 15 November 2015
15/11/15 08:01
One of the things I like about acting is how much I learn. All sorts of tidbits come around that otherwise I would not have found out. A good example came up this week. We’re now well into rehearsals for The Sound of Murder. We’ve got the blocking, where to stand, when to walk, when to enter and such, done. Now we’re working on learning the lines and nailing the accent. It is a very British play, as is the Director, so accents are going to be important. In the first act my character Peter, an engineer and designer of bridges, enters and gives Anne a hug. Simple, right? Well no. It turns out there are a bunch of rules dealing with the choreography of hugs that I didn’t know existed. You see when I give Marsha or anyone a hug who’s about my height I use what I think of as a neutral stance. One arm over and one under. It just seemed natural. Apparently that, according to what I’ve been told, is a “buddy hug”. It is just one step above a guy “chest bump” which, as you might expect, would be most definitely not appropriate with someone of the opposite gender. Most importantly, it’s not appropriate for a loving couple, which is what Peter and Anne are. As Heather, who plays Anne, is a bit shorter than me I then tried a hug with her arms under mine. That didn’t work either. First it felt really awkward. Then I was told that was a “parental hug” and was only used with small children. If you hug an adult this way it’s considered condescending. So then I tried with her arms around the back of my neck and mine below. This was apparently the correct form and everyone was happy. I did have to fold my spine into origami to make up for the height difference but overall it worked. I find it amazing however, that there are apparently all these rules for hugs that I didn’t know about. Nor did Marsha. I mean we can’t have been doing too bad, we’ve been married almost 30 years now. It is nice to learn the proper form for such things though.
Earlier this week I was submitting a claim to the insurance company. Yes, most of our medical is covered but drugs are a special case. Most times they apply the discount right at the pharmacy, but on certain things we have to submit a paper form for reimbursement. Fortunately Great-West Life has a very good web site and I could fill out the form online and print it right there. So I filled out the form and copied the receipt, and made out an envelope, and all the rest. The next morning I took a final look over what I was going to drop in the mail.
Envelope; Check
Stamp on the envelope: Check
Form filled out: Check
Form signed and dated: Check
Copy of the receipt: Check
Copy of a recipe for Pork Green Chili Tacos: Wait what?
Somehow while putting all the paperwork together a recipe from the St. Cloud Times got into the bundle. Fortunately I caught it but I do wonder what they would have thought if it had showed up with my claim. I mean if it’s a good recipe maybe I’d have gotten a little better coverage. Who knows?
And finally we were listening to the University of Minnesota men’s basketball game on Friday. They were playing the University of Missouri-Kansas City. The University of Missouri-Kansas City KANGAROOS. Really. The Kangaroos. I suppose it’s better than some of the ethnic mascots floating around college campuses. But seriously, the Kangaroos? Are there a lot of kangaroos running around the midwest that I didn’t know about? This would be a big shock for us palaeontologists, not to mention the game hunting community. Imagine some guy coming home with a big dead kangaroo strapped to the roof of his car. Now that would be a sight. But somehow I just don’t remember anyone planning to go hunting, going out to get his kangaroo license and tags. On the other hand I do seem to remember a song from a musical that went “Ooooooklahoma where the kangaroos come bouncing off the plane”. I may not be remembering that right though.
I then had the idea that maybe the school was founded by an Australian Ex-Pat. No that wasn’t the case either. Perhaps the mascot used to be something not acceptable in this day and age, and the NCAA made them change it. Yeah that must have been it. The Kangaroos was the students' second choice after the Fighting Narcoleptics. Somehow that didn’t seem likely either. Finally even I got tired of all the silly theories. I looked it up and what I found was almost as strange as anything I had come up with. Apparently the school chose the the Kangaroos themselves in the 1930’s and it has been their mascot since then. The school needed a mascot for what was at the time their only intercollegiate team, the Debate Team. Kangaroos was what was chosen, I’m guessing without any discussion.
Which I find more than a little ironic.
Doug & Marsha
PIX: First, that’s snow illuminated by sunset about a hundred miles away in the mountains. We’ve been getting a lot of rain and at high altitudes snow. It’s a very welcome sight. Second, so you see, Marsha asked me to put the fancy pillows on the guest bed and “arrange them so they look nice”. How’d I do?
Earlier this week I was submitting a claim to the insurance company. Yes, most of our medical is covered but drugs are a special case. Most times they apply the discount right at the pharmacy, but on certain things we have to submit a paper form for reimbursement. Fortunately Great-West Life has a very good web site and I could fill out the form online and print it right there. So I filled out the form and copied the receipt, and made out an envelope, and all the rest. The next morning I took a final look over what I was going to drop in the mail.
Envelope; Check
Stamp on the envelope: Check
Form filled out: Check
Form signed and dated: Check
Copy of the receipt: Check
Copy of a recipe for Pork Green Chili Tacos: Wait what?
Somehow while putting all the paperwork together a recipe from the St. Cloud Times got into the bundle. Fortunately I caught it but I do wonder what they would have thought if it had showed up with my claim. I mean if it’s a good recipe maybe I’d have gotten a little better coverage. Who knows?
And finally we were listening to the University of Minnesota men’s basketball game on Friday. They were playing the University of Missouri-Kansas City. The University of Missouri-Kansas City KANGAROOS. Really. The Kangaroos. I suppose it’s better than some of the ethnic mascots floating around college campuses. But seriously, the Kangaroos? Are there a lot of kangaroos running around the midwest that I didn’t know about? This would be a big shock for us palaeontologists, not to mention the game hunting community. Imagine some guy coming home with a big dead kangaroo strapped to the roof of his car. Now that would be a sight. But somehow I just don’t remember anyone planning to go hunting, going out to get his kangaroo license and tags. On the other hand I do seem to remember a song from a musical that went “Ooooooklahoma where the kangaroos come bouncing off the plane”. I may not be remembering that right though.
I then had the idea that maybe the school was founded by an Australian Ex-Pat. No that wasn’t the case either. Perhaps the mascot used to be something not acceptable in this day and age, and the NCAA made them change it. Yeah that must have been it. The Kangaroos was the students' second choice after the Fighting Narcoleptics. Somehow that didn’t seem likely either. Finally even I got tired of all the silly theories. I looked it up and what I found was almost as strange as anything I had come up with. Apparently the school chose the the Kangaroos themselves in the 1930’s and it has been their mascot since then. The school needed a mascot for what was at the time their only intercollegiate team, the Debate Team. Kangaroos was what was chosen, I’m guessing without any discussion.
Which I find more than a little ironic.
Doug & Marsha
PIX: First, that’s snow illuminated by sunset about a hundred miles away in the mountains. We’ve been getting a lot of rain and at high altitudes snow. It’s a very welcome sight. Second, so you see, Marsha asked me to put the fancy pillows on the guest bed and “arrange them so they look nice”. How’d I do?