O

*Obama Although we don't agree with every step, we're happy with the direction. George Packer: "Working out apparent contradictions, reconciling irreconcilables, finding balances, living with paradox – these are the intellectual bread and butter of Obama's politics." No easy solutions. Open minds, open options; changing minds, changing options. If you haven't, try his Nobel acceptance speech. You may prefer the shouters of the talk shows, or yearn for the Norman Rockwell times that may – or may not – have existed, but as John Updike said, "There's more to being human than having your own way." That life may be more complex than we'd like shouldn't excuse us from dealing with the complexities. As Max Beerbohm said of his era of explanation, "They explain because they can't understand." Which is perhaps why, after so much elucidation and shouting, we're still in the dark.

P

Perfection "A lot of disappointed people have been left standing on the street corner waiting for the bus marked Perfection." –Donald Kennedy Public bathrooms Men are slobs as a sub-species, says Bill, and perhaps illiterate, incompetent, and arrogant to boot. Either they can't read or can't comply with the unwritten "We aim to please; you aim too, please" pleas in public bathrooms, or they are too arrogant to be bothered. Vicky reports that while this isn't a problem for women (another reason to cheer their plumbing) the general litter and muck includes both sexes and indicates a general disdain for anyone else. We avoid some fast food chains because their bathrooms are routinely unpleasant. We realize it's not the fault of the establishments, but when the few breaks you have from the car seat involves a bathroom ….

Q

*Questions most asked: Four are regulars each year: What's an artists' book? Any interest in my book? Why haven't I heard from you? When will I get paid? From those artists who have managed to struggle through our first two Abecedariums, the last question is now prefaced with "I know I shouldn't be asking this but…." Questions we try to answer about artists' books when we talk with people who know little about them (that's most of the people we meet): What are they? Why should I care? Where do I find them? How do I learn about them? Daniel Quinn on inspiration: "Don't wait."

R

Real friends This will come as no surprise, but we do like quotations, aphorisms. We hope they provide an entry into a much larger discussion rather than the sound bite meant to provide sole and final comment. This year has been especially rich in acquiring new examples. Ralph Waldo Emerson: "True friends stab each other in the front." Benjamin Disraeli: "The greatest good you can do for another is not just share your riches but to reveal to him his own [or to her her own]." Rudeness In spite of the reality that we are inevitably the center of our own worlds, it doesn't take much to realize we also live in a world of other people. One of the common tenets of the major religions is some version of the golden rule. This can translate cheaply into manners, but even manners translate of a very real level to morality. Here are some of the very little (read, possibly petty) things that constitute rudeness in our travel world: people who don't return luggage carts to the lobby (petty, no?); people in hotels who play the TV loud and long into the night; people who trash restrooms used by more than themselves [see Public Restrooms]; people who take NASCAR as the epitome of driver's education; people who stand just ahead of you in long lines and wait until it's their turn to decide what they have to decide.

S

*Serendipity Still the one (blessed) constant in our lives. This year it took the form of a combination of the following two aphorisms. Anne Lamott: "If you want to make God laugh, tell her your plans." Aldous Huxley: "Experience is not what happens to you; it's what you do with what happens to you." Simon's Hot Dogs (Lewiston, Maine) With limited time we opted for this small, unpretentious eatery because it looked easy and quick. The trappings were Mayberry North, the characters out of Thurber with a side of Stephen King. Our server (a term entirely out of place) was from the old broad school of waitressing. With the clock running, we ordered and ate quickly. When Bill went to pay, the headman (maybe Simon?) squinted and pursed his lips until he looked like Kathy Bates in Misery, and said, "Nothing until you sign." What the hell? Before Bill could wet his tongue he had a ledger-like book in his (shaking?) hands. Vicky's drawl (Bill is sure that's what it was) made us exotic enough to record our mark in their Guest Book: their first guests from Alabama were an occasion. Spin Too often it's all in how you spin it. When we started traveling the country with artists' books, one librarian (Stanley Strauss of Cerritos Public Library, now happily retired and making his own artists' books) called us Circuit Riders for Artists' Books. This year a wonderful printer and book artist, Jessica Spring, put a more realistic spin on it: Pimps for Artists' Books. One of us likes the earthier allusion. SPUG The Society for Prevention of Useless Giving (formed in 1912). There are many sides to this question, but with two granddaughters it seems important to set some standards.

T

Henry David Thoreau "Beware of all activities that require new clothes." Corollary: You can enjoy an artists' book in anything, in nothing. Traffic Isn't it interesting that traffic is always other people? Mark Twain "Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Dream. Discover."

U

John Updike Each year more and more old friends and idols die, but it's hard not to mention a writer Bill often reads just for his style. His prolific output and facility with words caused some critics to slight him – sort of like declaring for atheism because the world is too full. Rabbit, Run hit early-Bill early and The Centaur helped him as a teacher far more than any education class. Umpleby's A whole-grain sandwich and salad stop in Hanover, New Hampshire, every time we visit Dartmouth. We go as much to say the name as for the not-bad food, which is, you know, like healthy, and one part of us wants to make up, you know, for the scores of McDonalds' diet cokes we drink each day. (Our granddaughters get a kick out of the liquid in, liquid out cycle. We get something more than a kick.)

V

*Van: Our traveling gallery –  a 2006 Dodge Grand Caravan, which began service at the end of August 2006 – survived the year, but it was fraying almost as fast as we are, so we traded it and its 135,000 miles in on the last day of the year. Peter Verheyen deserves more than our thanks and admiration (not least of which as the force behind the Book Arts Listserv). We've long been astounded at his ability to juggle so many things so well, provide such service, make so many people (relatively) happy, and keep such a keen and well balanced eye on so many horizons. He's on our radar especially this year first because we finally got to meet him in person at Hybrid [see] and because the Guild of Bookworkers awarded him the Laura Young Award. *Victoria: Our older granddaughter (about to turn 11) – blossoming, blossoming, blossoming. We wouldn't want time to stand still, but we (sort of) do. Claire van Vliet A model to us all, Claire is still going strong. We pass on her advice again and again and again and again to book artists: "If I have to explain it, I've failed."

W

David Foster Wallace (from This Is Water: Some Thoughts, Delivered on a Significant Occasion, about Living a Compassionate Life, a commencement address delivered in 2005. The irony that he later committed suicide is poignant.): "The religious dogmatists' problem is exactly the same as the … atheist's –  arrogance, blind certainty, a close-mindedness that's like an imprisonment so complete that the prisoner doesn't even know he's locked up." And later, "I submit that this is what the real, no-shit value of your liberal arts education is supposed to be about: How to keep from going through your comfortable, prosperous, respectable adult life dead, unconscious, a slave to your head and to your natural default setting of being uniquely, completely, imperially alone, day in and day out." Word fun Some of the winners from the Washington Post in which readers were asked to take any word from the dictionary, altering it by adding, subtracting, or changing one letter, and supply a new definition: ignoranus: a person who's both stupid and an asshole; foreploy: any misrepresentation about yourself for the purpose of getting laid; giraffiti: vandalism spray-painter very, very high; osteopornosis: a degenerate disease; glibido: all talk and no action.

X

X-rated We'll leave it to you to decide why. Subtitle: Arrogance and comeuppance are usually joined at the hip. (Disclaimer: all these events actually occurred in 2009, even if not in the sequence presented or at the same time. In other words, it's true even if it didn't happen.) Cell phone users during movies deserve, according to Bill, a low circle in the bowels of hell. Most of the time his cell phone is lost and forgotten, but not on this day, a day that he knows will live in infamy. In the midst of a quiet scene, the sort during which popcorn chewers can provide major interference, a freaking phone close by punctures the fictive dream. Mean glance left, meaner glance right, muttered curses, what jerk …. Like an icicle to his heart he realizes the stupid cheery ringing is coming from his pocket. He rips (literally) his coat pocket and frantic fumbles for the phone – his-his-his phone – which unmuffled now is even more deafening. And he discovers he has no clue how to turn it off. Vision blurred, frenzy palpable, beginning to whimper, he hears a particularly nasty hiss and turns to see Vicky with … can she be grinning, laughing? She grabs the phone, with one finger effects silence, and whispers, "Watch it. That could be a mating call." Some time later Bill creeps out of the theater, shaking, still mumbling apologies to an uncaring crowd, his head unbloody but bowed.

Y
Yahrzeit Jewish remembrance of the anniversary of someone's death. What a civilized custom. Light a candle for Gloria Helfgott. And soon for Judith Hoffberg, and for Carl, and for Joe [see Deaths]. Yes A small book, a gift years ago from a friend, had the title In Spite of Everything Yes. And that remains as a mantra. The tone differs with the days, but the substance is fairly constant.

Z

Zilch: Instead of admitting that for this year our notebooks and brains indicate nothing notable beginning with the twenty-sixth letter, we offer this Catalonia saying: "With patience and saliva the elephant screws the ant." One of us thinks there may be mystic wisdom in this, the other is sure there is zilch.

I've learned that no matter what happens, or how bad it seems today, life does go on, and it will be better tomorrow. I've learned that you can tell a lot about a person by the way he/she handles these three things: a rainy day, lost luggage, and tangled Christmas tree lights. I've learned that regardless of your relationship with your parents, you'll miss them when they're gone from your life. I've learned that making a "living" is not the same thing as making a "life." I've learned that life sometimes gives you a second chance. I've learned that you shouldn't go through life with a catcher's mitt on both hands; you need to be able to throw something back. I've learned that whenever I decide something with an open heart, I usually make the right decision. I've learned that even when I have pains, I don't have to be one. I've learned that every day you should reach out and touch someone. People love a warm hug, or just a friendly pat on the back. I've learned that I still have a lot to learn. I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.   ~ Maya Angelou

Thanks for 2009
May your life have purpose and poetry in 2010

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