Spring 2012 v.24 #1

Hello from Your Editor

Spring came early to the Midwest — it is definitely odd seeing daffodils blooming the first week in April!  The lake that I live on ordinarily is just now starting to see the ice break up — this year the ice was off in record time and people have already been out boating.

I hope many of you will be able to attend MLA in Seattle this year.  CDS is sponsoring one session and is the co-sponsor for two more.  Our very own Mark Funk is giving the Janet Doe lecture — which is certain to be entertaining, as well as informative.  There is still time to submit paper/poster proposals for the 2013 MLA in Boston.  Other issue highlights are election and award results, member publications, up-coming conferences, a piece by Liz Lorbeer and much, much, much more.

In the Fall issue I had promised to continue the story of my cats.  However, one of our readers expressed interest in hearing about my “rescued” goldfish, especially since I had mentioned that there was a video of the adventure.  Some back-story:  my husband Nolen grew up in the area and rode the school bus with a gaggle of girls (five) all from the same family.  Time passes, girls grow up and move away, Al and Lori retire (he from the post office, she from teaching high-school English), and then Al developed dementia.  The girls decide to move their parents to an assisted living home near one of the girls and in July of 2010, descended on the family home to pack up the parents and prep the house for sale.  Nolen heard about it, and being retired, volunteered his time to help with the inevitable garage sale — while having  “do you remember” sessions with the “girls” (now all married ladies).

After everything had quieted down and the house was empty, Nolen and I took a stroll around the house, Nolen thinking he had seen a small fish pond by the front steps.  As we came around to the front, there on the steps was a cardboard sign propped up with a stone, with the words written with a Sharpie “Please feed the fish”, next to a canister of fish food.  We figured that the sign was for the realtor, but the rest of that summer, we took upon ourselves to take care of the two small goldfish (housing sales were slow).

As summer turned into fall, Nolen began to worry about the fish and so was hatched “Operation Fish Rescue” — we figured at this point no one was going to notice that we had absconded with the fish. We have had goldfish before, so knew what was involved.  We prepared a tank and on a beautiful day in September, with a young college friend in tow, put Operation Fish Rescue into action –

We named the fish Al and Lori and they seem to be very happy in their new surroundings! (And they are, ahem, a lot bigger now as well).

See you in Seattle

Katherine Chew, Developments editor