Another fox pox – that’s Yankee for faux pas. A man in Grantham told me his great aunt was an active member of the Women’s Christian Temperance Union. Being sore with bursitis didn’t stop her from attending the evening meeting. She grabbed a cane from the umbrella (and cane) stand by the door and off she went!
It wasn’t until she returned home from the meeting that she realized the cane she’d grabbed was an advertising piece painted with the words, “Lean on Me: Calvert Whiskey.”
Truth be told, I made a fox pox at the 25th Annual N.H. Business Committee for the Arts Awards Dinner last week at the fancy Radisson Hotel in downtown Manchester. (It has its own parking garage!) Mike Morin a deejay from WZID was the emcee – he was smooth. Gov. John Lynch made the opening remarks and told a story about Carol Channing, who’s such an optimist that at age 87 she took out a 30-year mortgage on her new house. The Apple Hill String Quartet played beautiful chamber music. The Peacock Players – young ‘uns – performed a lively song from Peter Pan with much loud drum-beating. I told eight minutes worth of stories. The Average Joes sang the evening to a close with barbershop music.
But it was during the trivia contest that the Moose of Humor fox-poxed. (I can’t take me anywhere!) Van McLeod, commissioner of cultural resources, asked questions of the crowd about arts in New Hampshire. Like which award our own James Patrick Kelly won. (The Hugo.) The first to answer correctly got a gift basket and a chance to win two nights at Wentworth by the Sea. A question came up about Marie Harris, former state poet laureate. Something about ... besides writing a poem for the inauguration of Gov. Craig Benson, for what other official event did she write a poem?
Long silence.
Having interviewed Marie for NHPTV just the week before, I thought I knew the answer. So I poked my hand in the air. Van came over with the mic. “The urinal,” I said.
“The urinal?” he said.
“Yes, the dedication of the urinal.”
“Uh,” he said, “no.”
Oh-my-gosh. A room full of New Hampshire’s finest artists, arts supporters and business persons and I say: “Urinal.”
Nobody wants to hear about a urinal at a fancy dinner.
The correct answer was: She wrote a poem for the dedication of the New Hampshire state quarter.
In my defense, she also wrote a poem for the dedication of a urinal. Read all about it here.
Michael Zinman, slightly eccentric and very rich, donated money to renovate a men’s bathroom at the Van Pelt Library at the Penn State University. He sent all the poet laureates in the U.S. a letter requesting poems on the topic of urinals to honor the occasion. With each letter was a check for $100 for the poet to keep in any case. Marie Harris wrote a poem and it was included in a booklet distributed at the opening of the new bathroom.
I liked your story about Marie Harris and am sorry that I missed both your UNH interview (scheduled opposite Jazzmouth!!!a real fox pox)and the first airing on Channel 11 (my soggy brain). I LOVED the urinal piece. It put me to mind of the Politics of Pee that were emerging in Santa Cruz when I was there in 2004. A guy from Comedy Central with a mic was interviewing patrons of a local coffee shop about their feelings about no place to pee anymore in the city. He had no idea when he asked my quirky friend Suzi that she would go on for 45 minutes! He went and got his camera. In that time a whole new political platform was formed, letter write-ins planned and pee-ins scheduled (women in long peasant skirts would bow in unison in the park as they flared their skirts to relieve themselves). No Toto, we were not in New Hampshire any more. I flew home the next day, spared the need to commit to this growing politicalization of urination.
Suzi was visited for more material and I never did find out if the segment made it to Comedy Central. What I do know, being a person who has been known to rabblerouse on the street corners in our fair NH hamlet, is that there is a limit to how much I can willingly embarrass my children.
Posted by: Patricia Savage | May 17, 2009 at 09:59 AM
Pat:
What adventures we have. As for embarrassing our children: It's one of my greatest joys in life. And I've got just the one. What doesn't make you literally crawl in a hole and take on the fetal position, makes you stronger. At least with five kids you can spread you Pat-ness around.
Becky
Posted by: rebecca Rule | May 17, 2009 at 10:44 AM