Heaneyland!

Woman of letters

Maelstrom pointed me to a news story about a woman who is spending a year living alphabetically, two weeks at a time.

In nearly every aspect of her life, Goody's thoughts and actions will somehow be related to a letter of the alphabet.

For example, for the next two weeks, "I will only listen to music by composers whose names start with A, or that is in A major, or if the performer's name starts with A," Goody says. "Which really allows for so many options. It will be a lot harder with the X's."

Yeah...I like Xenakis, but only in limited doses. I could handle two weeks of listening to XTC, though.

She will get together with friends whose names begin with A. She will eat foods that start with A.

At Rimsky-Korsakoffee House, the coffee and dessert nightspot Goody opened in 1980 on Southeast 12th Avenue in Portland, her staff will answer the telephone with letter-appropriate greetings. (For the next two weeks, it will be "Allo?" After that it will be "Buenos dias.") And desserts, for this fortnight, will be Apricot Almond Tart, Angel Food Cake with Ambrosia Sauce, and Apple Crisp.

The food is going to be much, much harder to deal with during the X weeks than the music selections. Maelstrom points out, "Eating nothing but xanthan gum may be a tad unhealthy." Is X-Men Cereal still available? Maybe if she cuts out X-shaped sandwiches with an X-Acto knife, with an X-Large drink on the side, it's okay. If it's too much for her to bear, there's always Xanax.

Posted by Francis at 02:37 AM