| I hate west chester. I'm stuck here until Sunday. Anyone up for lunch?
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| Why does "apocalypse" mean "revelation"?
If
you split up the word "apocalypse" you get "apo" and "calypse" or
"calypso". Apo means "without" and calypso means "I will conceal" and
is the name of the sea nymph who captured Odysseus for seven years. So
upon his release and departure, he was known to be "apo calypso," or to
be to be without concealment. Thus the word "apocalypse" ultimately
means a release of something, or a "revelation." |
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| Reportage 2
April 10, 2006
Ground Zero is a somber place. Backdropped against the still standing (but in dire need of repair) office buildings surrounding it, Ground Zero is filled with mounds of rocks, mounds of dirt, bulldozers, steam shovels. Signs reading “Please do not solicit or donate money here in order to keep this a special place” are posted along its perimeter. As such, there is no soliciting or donating, no jingling of change in paper cups, no guilt-inducing stares. It is kept a very special place.
There are steps leading down from street-level to a meshed viewing platform. A giant LED display hung over a row of out-of-bounds escalators reads “Welcome to the World Trade Center,” and colorful plaques against the wall detail the construction plans for the memorial building. It is quiet on the viewing platform; there is an air of solemnity that must be maintained.
Erected at the east end of Ground Zero is a cross made out of the original building’s steel crossbeams, and it is viewable from the sidewalk. Workers found this cross lying in the rubble during the cleanup effort in the months following 9/11, so they put it up. Visitors are even quieter here, standing in front of the fence twenty yards away from the cross because it is meaningful. Some remain still for minutes at a stretch, lips pursed, eyes distant; others peruse the wall of 9/11 victims; the rest comment with tears in their eyes about the bouquets of flowers that are stuck into the fencing.
It is in front of this cross that many of them want to take pictures. Right now, a family of five from Pennsylvania would really appreciate it if they could have their picture taken with the cross in the background. They huddle up close as the father explains how to push down the shutter button halfway, then all the way in order to take the picture. They are ready.
“Smile!” Their lips part to flash their pearly teeth.
“Wait! Time out,” the mother interrupts. “We can’t smile. This isn’t a happy picture.”
“Should we frown?” asks the son, who is 16.
“No no no, just don’t have any facial expression at all,” says the father.
“Can I lip smile?” asks the older daughter, who is in junior high. “I don’t look good in pictures unless I smile.”
“You just don’t look good at all,” says the younger daughter.
“Shut up.”
“No you shut up.”
“No, shut up all of you,” interjects the father. “Don’t you know the meaning of this place? Just take the picture now, please.”
And so their picture is taken: half-smiling, half-expressionless, mostly angry, with the steel cross and Ground Zero in the background.
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| I just got a Mac. This sort of feels like turning gay.
Happy birthday 
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