Six Degrees of Separation

My friend Steve had a birthday party at Henry's the other day. His friend Nate and I began watching some program on Animal Planet about the mysteries of the animals of the Chinese calendar. Awful. During a commercial Nate told me about a friend of his that did missionary work in Guatemala a couple of years ago. This friend worked with another missionary who knew a village's witch doctor. This is the story that was told to Nate's friend, to Nate, and passed to me. An elaborate game of telephone spanning continents: hence the title.

People would come to the witch doctor with various complaints and maladies. The witch doctor after evaluating their issue would sometimes give the villager a jar with a snake in it. When the person arrived home, he was to let the snake out of the bottle and tell it the problem. The snake would then leave and fix or at least make the situation more tolerable. When the snake returned, its appearance will have become slightly more anthropomorphic and it would then give the person a task to complete. If the person failed to complete this task the snake would kill him. However, if the person completed that task, upon returning home the snake's head would have taken human form in resemblance of the villager who was in his charge. The snake would soon perish and the villager's situation would have been remedied.

Sometimes, the villager would be too scared of this awesome responsibility and immediately give the snake back to the witch doctor. On a shelf in the witch doctor's house, apparently, there are shelves of returned snakes with human heads that haven't been used. A South American Picture of Dorian Grey.

The missionary, of course, couldn't resist the lure of Christian symbolism here and began talking about the the dangers of worshipping false idols. I, however, can't seem to get past the image of lines of human-faced snakes in glass bottles somewhere in the middle of Guatemala. The story is obviously nonsense but I think it's incredible that I am indirectly linked to - and with some work could meet - a lying South American witch doctor.

Hearing: Castaways and Cutouts by The Decemberists
Surfing: The New Issue of Dwell

Color Wheel

I just finished putting all my books in order. They used to be in stacks against the wall based on whether or not I had read them. They are now in order of color. I convinced my friend, Aaron, to try this method also. We are now covertly working on doing the same to the library in my apartment's basement. So far so good; we have huge stacks of reds, yellows, whites, and greens scattered all over. I guess the only thing covert about it is that no one has seen us do it. The project itself is quite ubiquitous. Photos of both my sorting and the library project are forthcoming.

Reading: All the Shah's Men by Kinzer
Hearing: 69 Love Songs by Magnetic Fields
Surfing: Superhero Journal
Wanting: Salomon GCS Pro

First Blog

I hate the word "Blog", but now I own one.
Is this thing on?