Madeline
I like Madeline.
Madeline loves dogs, Canada and the control she exercises over information.
Madeline pauses to laugh out with delight at what seems to be the most delightful sight of three Portuguese water dogs wrestling each other till the leads get twisted around each other. It's what dog lovers must do, I reckon, giggle with approval at dogs the same way baby owners cluck and coo over the waddling of a diapered child across the carpet. It must be just one of those things impenetrable to boffins.
Madelines PhD is in Canadian studies and she loved loved writing it. It took her three months to write a complex outline, and one month to write her dissertation in one draft. It went without any trauma whatsoever, and when it was done, Madeline had answered the question of how she had become so Canadian. Madeline was exploring the formation of Canadian identity through her own experience of Canadian children's literature. It was accepted without revisions, as was, by U of T, and considered "brilliant" publically. Just the same, she was told by admin here that she would never get a full time job because it was not in English.
As a result, Madeline is proud guardian of all things Canadian and she informs me proudly how well Canadian diamonds are received on the market, and how they are branded with a maple leaf to differentiate them from blood diamonds. She watches CBC every evening, has the paper read before she gets to pick me up at 8 :15 in the morning, and cannot be surprised by information she does not know about. She throws out words I have no relation to and I nod as if I had: Walkerton. Something happened there, but what was it? I am clueless. Sadly.
Because Madeline was a reference librarian as well as broker, she knows lots of everything: the history of stirrups and the inconsistencies in "Gladiator," how pavement stones have been used throughout history in riots; the rise and fall of stocks and bonds and the perils of RRSP overcontribution. Madeline is not an encyclopedia but she is an almanac and all news to her is old news. If one tells Madeline something new, it becomes immediately absorbed into her mind so that she is certain she knew it already.
Madeline does have a phenomenal memory for distant names long gone and so her mind will retain its sharpness for a long time. She feasts on data like minor grammatical quibbles that befuddle less attentive minds. "One thing Terry and I would do that few couples do," she chuckles, "is discuss fine points of grammar." I do know how fine the points of grammar can get as distracting as cookie crumbs in bed and I admire Terry and Madelines persistence in justifying the plural copula in What relative clause constructions. "Resume," she points out the sign in the window of the strike HQ. Resume in that spelling has an accent over "e" and she insists that it should have one over the other "e" as well. She who controls the spelling controls the sentence.
Madeline also delivers control in sentences sculpted by a fabulous experience of storytelling. In the past, librarians would, as part of their training, specialize in telling fables of yore on Saturdays, Celtic tales, Greek tales, Nordic tales,tales to woo young minds with. She too had to spend time polishing the stories and she grew up listening to them.
Madeline delivers a good story, though Pam who accompanies us often enough, has even more enviable theatrical training. Madeline knows how to protract a narrative towards a point, no matter how minor the point. This is an amazing skill I do not possess. Madeline controls the story by walking you just so through, easily, steadily through its each junction, down to the focused detail, the contact numbers in the rolodex on her desk.
I think: how Canadian. How steady and unruffled her delivery and diction, how directed and unfazed. This is not Vegas presentation, but well cut and well dried, information as tightly snipped as newsbriefs she cuts from the newspapers with her paper-slasher, the precision tool of librarians.
But Madeline does get excited about dogs and I hope that she gets her dog from the pound because she would really love it. A dog like that will make her laugh and who knows how else her life will become unpredictable in ways that she can live with.
Madeline loves dogs, Canada and the control she exercises over information.
Madeline pauses to laugh out with delight at what seems to be the most delightful sight of three Portuguese water dogs wrestling each other till the leads get twisted around each other. It's what dog lovers must do, I reckon, giggle with approval at dogs the same way baby owners cluck and coo over the waddling of a diapered child across the carpet. It must be just one of those things impenetrable to boffins.
Madelines PhD is in Canadian studies and she loved loved writing it. It took her three months to write a complex outline, and one month to write her dissertation in one draft. It went without any trauma whatsoever, and when it was done, Madeline had answered the question of how she had become so Canadian. Madeline was exploring the formation of Canadian identity through her own experience of Canadian children's literature. It was accepted without revisions, as was, by U of T, and considered "brilliant" publically. Just the same, she was told by admin here that she would never get a full time job because it was not in English.
As a result, Madeline is proud guardian of all things Canadian and she informs me proudly how well Canadian diamonds are received on the market, and how they are branded with a maple leaf to differentiate them from blood diamonds. She watches CBC every evening, has the paper read before she gets to pick me up at 8 :15 in the morning, and cannot be surprised by information she does not know about. She throws out words I have no relation to and I nod as if I had: Walkerton. Something happened there, but what was it? I am clueless. Sadly.
Because Madeline was a reference librarian as well as broker, she knows lots of everything: the history of stirrups and the inconsistencies in "Gladiator," how pavement stones have been used throughout history in riots; the rise and fall of stocks and bonds and the perils of RRSP overcontribution. Madeline is not an encyclopedia but she is an almanac and all news to her is old news. If one tells Madeline something new, it becomes immediately absorbed into her mind so that she is certain she knew it already.
Madeline does have a phenomenal memory for distant names long gone and so her mind will retain its sharpness for a long time. She feasts on data like minor grammatical quibbles that befuddle less attentive minds. "One thing Terry and I would do that few couples do," she chuckles, "is discuss fine points of grammar." I do know how fine the points of grammar can get as distracting as cookie crumbs in bed and I admire Terry and Madelines persistence in justifying the plural copula in What relative clause constructions. "Resume," she points out the sign in the window of the strike HQ. Resume in that spelling has an accent over "e" and she insists that it should have one over the other "e" as well. She who controls the spelling controls the sentence.
Madeline also delivers control in sentences sculpted by a fabulous experience of storytelling. In the past, librarians would, as part of their training, specialize in telling fables of yore on Saturdays, Celtic tales, Greek tales, Nordic tales,tales to woo young minds with. She too had to spend time polishing the stories and she grew up listening to them.
Madeline delivers a good story, though Pam who accompanies us often enough, has even more enviable theatrical training. Madeline knows how to protract a narrative towards a point, no matter how minor the point. This is an amazing skill I do not possess. Madeline controls the story by walking you just so through, easily, steadily through its each junction, down to the focused detail, the contact numbers in the rolodex on her desk.
I think: how Canadian. How steady and unruffled her delivery and diction, how directed and unfazed. This is not Vegas presentation, but well cut and well dried, information as tightly snipped as newsbriefs she cuts from the newspapers with her paper-slasher, the precision tool of librarians.
But Madeline does get excited about dogs and I hope that she gets her dog from the pound because she would really love it. A dog like that will make her laugh and who knows how else her life will become unpredictable in ways that she can live with.
posted by EvaB at 7:13 PM
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