{"id":1937,"date":"2008-03-05T07:21:11","date_gmt":"2008-03-05T12:21:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/those-are-pearls-that-were-his-eyes\/"},"modified":"2008-03-05T07:21:12","modified_gmt":"2008-03-05T12:21:12","slug":"those-are-pearls-that-were-his-eyes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/those-are-pearls-that-were-his-eyes","title":{"rendered":"Those are pearls that were his eyes"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A few weeks ago, I <a href=\"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/absent-friends-and-comedians-2\/\" target=\"_blank\">rambled on ad nauseam<\/a> about discovering my big ol&#8217; box of correspondence. I mentioned one letter that filled me with sadness because the writer died a few years later, lost at sea:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Sometimes we lose the memory, and sometimes the memory loses us. The letter that saddened me the most was a handmade card from another girl at college, mailed a few months after I graduated. It&#8217;s filled with reminiscences, travel plans, charity work, the day-to-day &#8212; &#8220;Other than my little crusade to save the world, I&#8217;m still working at the same cafe\/bookstore that I did last summer. . .&#8221; \u00e2\u20ac\u201d all written in a jaunty, lively hand and decorated with a painting (I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll post the picture later).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>I try to live up to my promises, so here&#8217;s the front of the card:<\/p>\n<p><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/images\/dcard.jpg?resize=475%2C354\" height=\"354\" width=\"475\" \/><\/p>\n<p>But I&#8217;m not here to depress the heck out of you, so I also offer up the following images of the single most mangled piece of mail ever to arrive at its destination (address smudged out in Photoshop). It was a mailer for a college alumni event. I think:<\/p>\n<p><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/images\/manglemailback.jpg?w=240\"  \/>   <img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/images\/manglemailfront.jpg?w=240\"  \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A few weeks ago, I rambled on ad nauseam about discovering my big ol&#8217; box of correspondence. I mentioned one letter that filled me with sadness because the writer died a few years later, lost at sea: Sometimes we lose the memory, and sometimes the memory loses us. The letter that saddened me the most &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/those-are-pearls-that-were-his-eyes\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Those are pearls that were his eyes&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1937","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4C7K-vf","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1887,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/absent-friends-and-comedians-2","url_meta":{"origin":1937,"position":0},"title":"Absent Friends and Comedians","author":"Gil","date":"February 6, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"We've all been there: one minute you're looking through the recently assembled Ikea shelves of your library for a paperback copy of Gershom Scholem's Kabbalah, and the next -- BAM! -- you stumble across the box containing all your personal correspondence from 1988 until whenever people stopped sending letters. Surely\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 1 comment","block_context":{"text":"With 1 comment","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/absent-friends-and-comedians-2#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"http:\/\/www.assoc-amazon.com\/e\/ir?t=virtualmemories-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0452010071","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":11305,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/episode-262-jerry-moriarty","url_meta":{"origin":1937,"position":1},"title":"Episode 262 &#8211; Jerry Moriarty","author":"Gil","date":"March 25, 2018","format":"audio","excerpt":"Virtual Memories Show 262: Jerry Moriarty \"I wouldn't be anybody if it weren't for my Art Card.\" Paintoonist (painter + cartoonist) Jerry Moriarty joins the show to talk about playing the Art Card all his life. We get into the genesis of his Jack Survives comics and his recent book,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Art&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Art","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/art"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/IMG_9275.jpg?fit=1200%2C1200&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/IMG_9275.jpg?fit=1200%2C1200&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/IMG_9275.jpg?fit=1200%2C1200&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/IMG_9275.jpg?fit=1200%2C1200&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/IMG_9275.jpg?fit=1200%2C1200&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1438,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/monday-morning-montaigne-a-consideration-upon-cicero","url_meta":{"origin":1937,"position":2},"title":"Monday Morning Montaigne: A Consideration Upon Cicero","author":"Gil","date":"April 9, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"This one follows Of Solitude, which covers the best way to approach retirement. Of Solitude ends with a lengthy paraphrase of Epicurus and Seneca, meant to contrast with not-so-good advice from Pliny the Younger and Cicero. It looks like the latter felt that retirement is the time to start burnishing\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Monday Morning Montaigne&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Monday Morning Montaigne","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/monday-morning-montaigne"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1102,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/written-in-flesh","url_meta":{"origin":1937,"position":3},"title":"Written in flesh","author":"Gil","date":"September 6, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"You may or may not know that I have a 9\/11 tattoo on my right arm. I got it the Sunday after the attacks. It's not particularly exciting, as tattoos go. In fact, my artist was a little bummed that I wanted a dull, blocky font, rather than the flourishing\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Urban issues&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Urban issues","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/urban-issues"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":953,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/simeon","url_meta":{"origin":1937,"position":4},"title":"Simeon","author":"Gil","date":"May 14, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"I was cleaning my basement last weekend when I found the program from Simeon's memorial service. It was in a pile of ephemera: friends' wedding invitations, tickets to Nets games from 2001-2002, photos of my driveway after the 1996 blizzard, a Volkswagen postcard, the brochures for a Lorenzo Mattotti exhibition\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 6 comments","block_context":{"text":"With 6 comments","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/simeon#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":10109,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/a-memory-of-yesterday-morning","url_meta":{"origin":1937,"position":5},"title":"A memory of yesterday morning","author":"Gil","date":"December 28, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"I changed the way I do my weekly Virtual Memories e-mail for the podcast. It's more like a blog-post, or a rumination or a reverie of something. This one's about David Hockney. You can read it here and subscribe here.","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1937","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1937"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1937\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1937"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1937"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1937"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}