They’re back! Eeek Mice #4
I was watching Judge (Madam, you’re an idiot) Judy on TV when out of the corner of my eye a brown furry-looking thing the size of my shoe scurried under the sofa I was lying on.
Eeek!
Eek #3. Mice? Men? Is it really over?
Yesterday, Claudio, my super, finally stuffed up the hole around the radiator pipe in the living room with “wool steel”, as he calls it, then sent not one but two carpenters cover up the huge hole in the cabinet wall under the sink.
I’m hoping this means it’s really over with Arthur and Jack–the mice I named after old boyfriends so I wouldn’t feel bad if they got caught in sticky traps or had their necks snapped by the other kind. I’ve had 12 traps in my 1-bedroom for four months, now, but these being smart, sneaky Cambridge mice (men?) I needn’t have worried–they like their freedom and know how to keep their options open.
My landlord refused to poison them (because, he said, they’ll die in the walls and stink up the whole building) so for months, they often watched me at work in the kitchen or scampered in to the living room when John Stewart came on TV.
As the Cambridge health inspector pointed out, merely filling the holes means that Mickey and Minnie can continue to propegate—along with Arthur, Jack and their current insignificant others–and that, at some point, the whole building will be overrun.
But for now, I’m done with worrying about smelly detergent, mint, cats and black shapes scurrying across the floor. To my neighbors: thank you for your support through all of this. And good luck!
New Cambridge Observer is a publication of the Harris Communications Group of Cambridge, MA. We also publish HarriscomBlog and Ithaca Diaries Blog.
Flowers in February–Photos by Anita M. Harris
![orbouquetcux2a_sized](http://newcambridgeobserver.files.wordpress.com/2010/02/orbouquetcux2a_sized8.jpg?w=209)
I hope you enjoy the photos, which are available for purchase from Anita Harris Photography (see below) or at Old Town Hall Exchange, 25 Lincoln Rd., Lincoln, MA.
Cambridge, MA 02138
617-576-0906
info at harriscom dot com
www.anharris.myphotoalbum.com
www.harriscom.com
New Cambridge Observer is a publication of the Harris Communications Group of Cambridge, MA. We also publish Harriscomblog and Ithaca Diaries blog.
Eek, mice, please advise, cont.
I live on the fifth floor of a brick building near Harvard Square–and have mice. The building management has given me traps–but these being Cambridge mice, they appear to be outsmarting us.
Painters Kadish and Morgan: Intrigue at the Clark
Metal, materials and process bond the largely abstract landscapes of Timothy Kadish (New Paintings) and Jessie Morgan (Night Tides) in this month’s intriguing show at the Clark Gallery, 145 Lincoln Rd, in Lincoln, MA.
Both sets of works provoke the viewer to ask–“What is this made of? And how did the artist do that?”
Morgan’s elegant abstract, monochromatic work appears, at first, to be photographic or film-based but the explanatory materials attest that it is acryllic painted on aluminum or plexiglass–with wide brushstrokes seeming to form landscapes-sky, ice, water, snow, trees exhibiting a shiny, reflecting (and reflective?) quality. A few of the works use vibrant blues and greens.
Kadish’s colorful paintings– primitivistic, childlike and seemingly whimsical, are full of suprises–geometric shapes, animal figures, thick goopy coils of oil paint, metallic oraments painted, glued, stapled, pressed or otherwise attached to the canvas…which isn’t necessarily canvas.
Neophotosynth – 2009, for example, is an 80 x 60 oil including all of the above, as well as gouache, silver and gold leaf on silver-colored lead on copper that completely covers a frame .
The longer I stood in front of each painting, the more I found in it and the more I enjoyed it.
Both artists involved me in a process of discovery that allowed me to absorb, one step or stroke at a time, how their concepts and motions brought their work into being.
The exhibit is worth seeing. It will be up through January 30.
—Anita M. Harris
New Cambridge Observer is a publication of the Harris Communications Group of Cambridge, MA. We also publish HarrisComBlog and Ithaca Diaries Blog.
Essaydi's Les Femmes du Maroc a must-see.
Lalla Essaydi’s Les Femmes du Maroc is a must-see. Today is its last day at the DeCordova Museum, in Lincoln, MA, but it will be soon travelling to the Jane Voorhees Zimmerli Art Museum in Rutgers, New Jersey.
In her large-format photos of women in chadors, and, sometimes veils, Moroccan- born Lalla Essaydi presents a beautiful and provocative challenge to perceptions about Muslim women going back centuries.
The limited palette photographs in henna, black, and gray on white, depict individual or groups of women in chadors and, sometimes, veils, in poses or situations modeled after paintings by great European masters, reproductions of which accompany most of the photos.
But instead of emulating the rich color and sexual innuendo of the paintings, Essaydi changes gestures, replaces men with women, and covers much of the surface area with arabic writing–illegible even to those who know the language.
As described on the DeCordova Web site, These women inhabit a place that is literally and entirely circumscribed by text, written directly on their bodies, apparel, and their surroundings by the artist herself.
In commentary provided through cell-phone dial in (difficult to hear because Lincoln has limited cell service) Essadi explains that she wants to make clear that the work of male artists of centuries past has done a disservice to Muslim women by objectifying them as sexual objects, often in harems.
She points out that writing was a form reserved for men, and that one of the original painting is so extraordinarily beautiful that one can easily overlook the subject matter: a naked woman being sold as a slave.
She brings up the difference between private and public space–that painters would never have been allowed into women’s homes, which were considered private space–but thought nothing of bringing women into their studios and showing paintings of them in public spaces–which were ordinarily reserved for men.
Essadyi also provides a complex interpretation of “the veil”. On the one hand, its use is sometimes considered a way of subjugating women, of keeping them out of public life, of denying them equality, full citizenship. On the other hand, she says, she herself sometimes appreciates the veil and finds it freeing–because it protects her and her privacy from a potentially dangerous outside world.
Organized by Senior Curator Nick Capasso, Les Femmes du Maroc will travel to the Jane Voorhees Zimmerli Art Museum, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, January 30, 2010 – June 6, 2010.
——-Anita M. Harris
New Cambridge Observer is a publication of the Harris Communications Group of Cambridge, MA. We also publish Harriscomblog and Ithaca Diaries blog.
Eeek! May I borrow your cat? Mice. Please advise.
Should I just give the mice names and adopt them as pets?
Dear G….The mice are freaking me out. I think there are three more…ot at least 2. In the last 24 hours, a big one and a small one have come from under the stove and the refrigerator…and the sink….and the other day one came out from behind the sofa in the living room. I’m guessing they’re living around the pipes.
Thanks, Gus.
Dec. 18
Gus, someone left four sticky traps outside my door. I’m collecting advice on my blog… so far, it ranges from wearing a cat costume to sprinkling dried coyote urine around….Eeeew. Anita
Oh my! If you want to stay at our house for a couple of days, or work in my office until they get rid of the mice, you’re more than welcome. I’d be freaked out too. I hate having uninvited critters sharing my space.
Re: Eeeeek!
Edna, thanks–I appreciate it. The guy who owns the building said he can’t do anything because if he poisons them they will go into the walls and smell bad…I’m asking friends if I can borrow their cats….It’s kind of funny when I think about it…But not when they scoot around, here. Evidently, it’s a common problem. The super says HE has them, and so does the woman who works in our office…but they’re not bothered by them (or by killing them). A friend told me that her husband had to keep mouse traps under his desk at the New York Times… Another friend’s said he sees them at MGH…Eeeeek! I’ll let you know if I need a place to stay…. tho I think that the landlord or the building owner, should pay for a hotel.
Anita
Dec. 19 From Lisa: GaaROOOsome!! I didn’t see a single one at your b-day party! When I was at Simmons, the two things that worked were: 1. peanut butter to attract them; 2. steel wool pads to block their entry. The problem w/ having a cat is that you’ll then have dead mice all over the house. Don’t know which is worse. Well, yes, I guess I do.
Saturday Dec 19 At Haymarket, I told the cheese vendor that the mice won’t touch his low fat feata. He told me to forget the cheese. “Use pate,” he said. (Well, this IS Cambridge).
Sunday Dec. 20:
Last night, I was watching TV when a little dark brown one ventured from behind the sofa (again). I jumped; he jumped back. I got up and opened a box of sticky traps. Put them in big Trader Joe’s paper bags, which I laid out near the sofa and stove. This morning: nothing. Eeeeeek!
—-amh
Thursday, Dec. 24. Still nothing. I’m hoping that its being Christmas eve, not a creature will be stirring…not even…
Monday, Dec. 28
Last night, returned from weekend away. Nothing in gooey or “hotel” traps, despite non-fat cheese. Bought “bounce” per Judy’s suggestion– put sheets of this fabric softener under sofa, stove, fridge; smelled so bad I had to put it in a ziplock bag to store. Saw mouse scurry out of closet toward corner wall, so put one in there, too. This morning, nothing in traps; my eyes watering, sore throat due to Bounce smell–so forget that. Today I am calling the health department.
January 7, 2010
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