Major Pettigrew Finds Favor in Japan

Kyoko and Tsuneko had lots of positive things to say about Helen Simonson's Major Pettigrew's Last Stand. As usual, I suffered hours of misgivings after assigning the book, fretting that the droll humor would baffle rather than amuse my Japanese friends. As usual, I was wrong. Tsuneko said this is her favorite of all the English-language books she has read.

Our April assignment is Girl in a Blue Dress by Gaynor Arnold, "a novel inspired by the life and marriage of Charles Dickens." This is one I haven't read in advance. The reviews are mixed but it was long-listed for the Booker Prize and I figure the subject matter will be fertile ground for a lively discussion. Did you know that Dickens relegated his wife of twenty years, the mother of his children, to a basement while he cavorted with a much younger woman near the end of his life? News to me.  The nuns never shared the juicy stuff.

Kyoko wore one of her hand-knitted creations, a top-down sweater, to inspire me to continue with my new hobby. Last time she wore a burgundy vest but I forgot to take a picture.

I cherish the time I spend with my Japanese book club ladies. The feeling seems to be mutual as they have proposed meeting for lunch in Kamakura midway between now and our next book club session. They also bought tickets to see me make a fool of myself in Steel Magnolias. This makes them either true friends or gluttons for punishment.

Knot the Best of Days But Knot the Worst Either

The Ancient Mariner left Japan this morning aboard the USS Blue Ridge while you were tuning in the Super Bowl. This is our first long deployment since Matt left for college, meaning the first time in "our" Navy career I've been left to my own devices. Uh, oh.

Don't worry, though. Three puzzle magazine subscriptions and an adventure computer game or two will keep me out of the bars four nights a week. The other three nights I'll be at rehearsals for the Yokosuka International Players' production of Steel Magnolias. Incredibly, I landed a part other than Ouizer (Shirley MacLaine). I'm Clairee, the role Olympia Dukakis played in the movie. My "Foxy Red" wigs - think Lucille Ball - arrived last week. Line memorization is the next order of business. The director seems less than amused by my ad libs although a couple were corkers. (I used the word 'corkers' for the benefit of my Japanese readers who like to see new words.)

Another thing I'll be doing is smocking, thanks to Hisayo-san who graciously showed us how to make purses like the ones we saw at the Yokosuka Quilt Exhibit last fall.

She took us to Kamakura to buy fabric last month. Artistic, Weather, Beanpole (she’s new), Kaji-san, and Otsuka-san are using moiré fabric but I opted for denim because, assuming I ever complete this project, the purse will wind up under the Christmas tree of someone who prefers denim to moiré. That narrows down the prospective recipient list to my sister, most of my sisters-in-law, my daughter, my sons’ girlfriends, my stepdaughters, my nieces, and my college roommate. They all know better than to hold their breath.

She assigned us homework: drawing a grid on the reverse side of our fabric. This required coming to grips with the length of a centimeter. Don’t tell Sr.Josephus, but Math Wizard here found herself three columns short on her first pass.

Last Friday we went to Shinagawa-san's house and learned how to connect the diagonal lines. There's a great deal of thread knotting and cutting involved. I'd probably be working my way down the first column still if Artistic hadn't taught me how to tie a knot the Japanese way. It's so easy that I think I might finish this project. Or at least the smocking part.