Homer

Homer startles easily. His therapist thinks it may have to do with being the youngest of ten brothers. If someone were to tap Homer on the shoulder to ask him where the cheese shop is, Homer's heart might stop. He lives near a railroad track, and though he has the train schedule memorized, the choo-choo noise makes him scream and tear up. He has written letters to the President of the United States requesting that trains have a universally quieter toot, but the president must be quite busy because he has yet to receive a response. In the meantime he has started watching Hitchcock films in an effort to train himself to startle less. He usually is too frightened to make it past the opening credits, but is proud of his progress thus far.

It has been a great week for instant watches on Netflix! I watched Mary and Max, a claymation about an Australian girl who becomes pen-pals with a man in America who has Aspergers. There is a special place in my heart for claymation. You know so much love and time goes into those and I love that even the tiniest detail has been sculpted by human fingers. Besides the clay, the story is beautiful and sweetly funny---my favorite kind of beautiful. If you have time to watch it, have a hankie ready for the end.

Then, I put on the documentary, A Man Named Pearl, on a whim and ended up really loving it as well. Pearl lives in a teeny town in South Carolina and he taught himself the art of topiary sculpture and turned his yard into this magical garden straight out of Edward Scissorhands. His garden is so magical, and he's just this down-to-earth, regular guy. My favorite part was about how he sculpted a topiary for his local Waffle House, so they let him eat for free whenever he likes. Every morning he gets the "Pearl Special": a single scrambled egg, a spoonful of grits and one piece of buttered toast. Come on Pearl! Eat some waffles, they're free! He is incredible. My mouth hurt after watching it because my jaw dropped so many times.