What a Flagger Does for a Living, and Dies for
I wrote this one years ago (which is why the style is immature even for me), but I still bring it out every spring when the roads open up and the construction season begins. Spring and summer mean a lot of traffic and frustrated people. I thought I’d share it now. (Mom’s retired now, but still)
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My mother is a Traffic Control Person, also known as a flagger. You know, one of those people in the orange or yellow vest who stop you at construction sites.
Many people hate to see a flagger with a stop or slow sign in their hand step in front of their vehicle. After all, you don’t want to be 2 minutes late to get wherever you are going. Its such a pain in the butt to have to wait a few minutes, or to slow down when travelling through a construction zone. Many people tell my Mother that her job could be replaced by a bucket of sand, just stick the sign in that; who needs some person telling them how to drive?
The purpose of my Mother’s job is very clear to her, even if you may not understand it. Her job… Continue reading
The Tenth Rune Spell
Let’s fuck with someone, shall we? Time to hone your defence against the dark arts skills.
In a 13th century Icelandic text called the Poetic Edda, we find a long poem called Hávamál, and in that poem the god Odin recites a list of Rune-spells he has learned while hanging upon the World Tree (axis mundi). This part of the Hávamál has come to be called the Song of Spells. There are many translations of this verse; here are four of them.
For the tenth I know,
if I see troll-wives
sporting in air,
I can so operate
that they will forsake
their own forms,
and their own minds.
~ Benjamin Thorpe
A tenth I know: when at night the witches
ride and sport in the air,
such spells I weave that they wander home
out of skins and wits bewildered.
~ Olive Bray
If I see the hedge-riders magically flying high,
I can make it so they go astray
Of their own skins, and of their own souls.
~ Nigel Pennick
A tenth I know, what time I see
House-riders* flying on high;
So can I work, that wildly they go,
Showing… Continue reading
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