shopping

Given my choice of buying a pair of jeans or going to the dentist, I'd always choose the dentist. Any novel where a woman's shoe-buying hobby is considered character development is not worth reading further. One summer, by a series of unlikely circumstances, I ended up selling women's clothes in a nice department store and it was Kafka vs. Nietzsche. I watched a lot of "Xena the Warrior Princess" that summer, let me tell you.

So I hardly ever shop other than pillaging grocers. If sizes actually were standardized, I'd probably buy everything online. The next best thing is Goodwill stores. I still try to go only a couple of times a year, but the odd treasure outweighs the existential anguish.

I'm going to a wedding soon and this prompted a trip yesterday. I distracted myself from the clothes by scoping the household stuff. I resisted the very nice white gravy boat for $3. I'm the last cook in America who denies the microwave, so I could have justified the $1 doubleboiler for melting chocolate. But do I need to melt more chocolate? No.

But my husband found the duck picture and bought it for me. A label on the back, undated, explains that it's an imitation of a 19th cent. style, printed and then watercolored. I was nonplussed at first--what duck looks like that?? It's like a mallard in the worst pit of Van Gogh's yellow period.

But I searched the Internet for the duck, whose genus and species is part of the print. Lo and behold, that's a real duck in Australia! The Australian Shelduck. And the picture is quite a good likeness. The Internet being what it is, I readily found videos, zoo info. on its life cycle, its original classification in 1828, and a company that will sell me a live pair for $650.

Sorry the photo isn't better. To get a good picture, I'd need to remove it from the frame, which is going to be a significant operation and I don't yet have the frame that will be its new home. It's the first piece of art I've bought since moving here in '06.

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Vietnamese ritual incense burner, brass. In front of a traditional painted triptych. Shrine of the Vietnamese Martyrs in the Cathedral of the Epiphany, Sioux City, IA.

German Farm Madonna

Painted wood, late 20th century. Cathedral of the Epiphany, Sioux City, IA. It was commissioned in Italy, but she really looks like the local German farmers who settled this region. The infant is holding a pomegranate, a symbol of the early Church. Difficult lighting.

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Doorknob of the Confessional, forged iron, 19th cent., Cathedral of the Epiphany, Sioux City, IA.

The confessional is an octagonal chapel in the foyer of the church. I couldn't photograph it, but around the corner from the door is a large candle on a tall floor stand, lit when the sacrament of mercy is offered. With the gentle angles of the octagon it's impossible to put your hand on the doorknob without looking at the bright candle.

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Mexican plaque of Our Lady of Tepeyac (Guadalupe). Molded natural plaster, painted. Mexico City, 1980. Both Mary and the angel have blush and eyeshadow, not on the original.

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Above: Mexican painted terracotta on a kitchen cabinet door. 2007.
Below: Mexican bas relief of Archangel Raphael, patron saint of travelers, young people seeking a spouse, and folks seeking their calling in life. Painted papier mache over carved styrofoam. 1983. Brought from Guanajuato, Mexico. The fish and staff are standard iconography, but note the inverted wings. Hung over a crib.