Leonard Cohen writes lines that belong on the intellectual’s equivalent of a refrigerator magnet, or a poster with a cute kitten on it (though I suppose in LC’s case, they would be brooding, inconsolable kittens). The funny part to me is that so many intellectuals think that only dim people own refrigerator magnets.
To which I answer:
I am disappointed in this photo, though; you can hardly see anything. The small square magnet reflecting the camera flash is actually an excellent reproduction of Klimt's The Kiss, and the boring-looking triangle near the freezer handle is a beautiful chunk of amethyst crystals wth a magnet on the back.
My favourites among these exhibits include the one that says 'BEWARE OF THE DOG: The Cat is Not Trustworthy Either', and the chimp saying 'I would like to use one of my lifelines.' In the yellowing Judy Horacek cartoon, the woman at the counter is saying 'I'd like a new lease on life, please' and the young man is replying 'I'm sorry, Madam, you're not allowed to break the old one.'
The cutting along the top edge of the fridge and over to the right, held in place by a flower magnet, says 'Kerryn queen of world drivers' and only the people who have driven with me know how funny this is. The other cutting, further over to the left, is one I have had on my last three fridges and saved through four moves, which is how much I love it: it says 'Sometimes the devil comes and helps women.'
There are three cute kittens and one terrifying cat, the one in the mise-en-abîme cat-and-fridge photo.
13 comments:
I wonder what it says about me that I have a box full of magnets that don't fit on the fridge anymore. I realised yesterday that I still have a magnet of contact people for Kogarah local council area, and I haven't lived there since 1998.
I try to declutter and then can't throw away. So fridge magnets regularly go out of sight into a box which then is stashed until I find it years later and get all nostalgic and put them back up.
I'm still looking for a copy of my friend's magnet that reads
THIS HOUSE IS PROTECTED BY A FINE LAYER OF DUST
Not to mention the picture on the fridge of the cat asleep on the fridge (double clicking on your picture embiggened it up nicely, btw)
My fridge has 400 pictures drawn by my son which are precious and MUST NOT BE THROWN AWAY and Bettie Page in her skimpies.
"sometimes the Devil comes and helps women"
Cryptic, but undeniable.
Yeah, yeah, I'm the delivery man...
</texperkins>
Man O Man I love fridge magnets! Cuttings have always been my fave.
I lived for a while with guy called Killer, and the entire fridge was papered with cuttings from sensational "killer" headlines.
Killer "had a history"
Killer's day out at shops
Killer blames parents
etc...
Now my fridge is freestanding - not even in a corner - so I got 3 sides to play with. One is graced with a few sets of the obligatory coloured alphabets, and we have an ongoing Most Offensive Sentence contest. The other has a bunch of stainless steel magnet-backed spice containers with see-through lids; space-saving, attractive and cheap from Ikea. Strongly recommended.
By the way, WTF was j_p_z on about?
Actually there are eight cats in this picture. I missed a few little ones. And two of my all-time faves are on my father's fridge: the one that says 'I know you think you understand what you thought I said' (or words to that effect), and the one that says 'If you want the best seat in this house, you'll have to move the cat.'
Also, you can't even begin to see the side of my fridge, which is covered in words and letters from the Magnetic Poetry set that Stephanie from Humanities Researcher gave me more birthdays ago than I choose to reveal.
MIndy and &D -- Ah yes, the Feng Shuiing of the Fridge Ritual. A lost cause from the outset. &D, the magnet in the middle of the top row in that photo says 'MY HOUSE WAS CLEAN LAST WEEK -- Sorry You Missed It' which is in the same spirit as the layer of dust.
FDB, was it really wise to live with a guy called Killer, do you think? Or was it ironic, like 'Stretch' for a short guy and 'Happy' for a miserable one?
Zoe, can't think why I didn't suggest the double-click/embiggening thing -- tx for reminder.
DD: /texperkins ??
Damn.
Something of an personal anthem of mine, PC.
http://www.texperkins.net/song.php?aid=1&sid=119
Still bemused as to why LC is always derided as the Master of Maudlin. Ironic, darkly darkly at times, even bitter perhaps but all gloriously observed.
Perhaps there's a market then for LC fridge magnets...
Your vision was right,
My vision was wrong,
I'm sorry for smudging the air with my song...
I just have the one clipping from the local paper - it's a heading and it says "POODLE DOES TRICK"
And then there are people who get really carried away.
http://shamelesswords.blogspot.com/2007/07/it-began-with-her-obsession-for-fridge.html
Well, that didn't work so well. My apologies for that. You'll need to cut and paste both parts.
http://shamelesswords.blogspot.com/2007/07/
it-began-with-her-obsession-for-fridge.html
You have a photograph of your fridge on your fridge? Oh, Kerryn... this is the neatest, cleanest parody of disorder I've seen in a very long time.
Even the "beware of the dog" magnet -- hung in a crazily off-plumb line -- is stuck at exactly the right angle so that the sign on the stick on the magnet is perfectly parallel with the photograph above it (and the slightly off shelves in the pic).
Are you a virgo? (LOL)
I consulted my fridge (also a right-hand opener, god bless reversible fridge doors) and it is considerably less interesting IRL than it is in my head. So, well, I can talk...
Note to self: must tell the story of the "Carabosse at the wedding" self-portrait stuck on my Frigidaire one day.
Love Horacek, and love the fake Savoy cracker...
No, I have a photo of my cat on my fridge on my fridge. So to speak. (NB cat is "not allowed" on fridge -- hah.)
Confession: I cleaned it up. I wanted to get all the magnets (hitherto stuck to both sides as well as the front of the fridge) into the photo and had to tidy and straighten and throw out ancient documents in order to achieve that.
I too love the food magnets -- there's also a fake chocolate biscuit and a bit of a banana and an orange segment there.
Interesting about the slightly off shelves, which are perfectly straight IRL* -- somehow the whole perspective issue seems more intense with a digital camera.
*Even though I own a spirit level, I am not a Virgo. Close though: Taurus (another earth sign).
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