{"id":3187,"date":"2021-05-27T21:22:38","date_gmt":"2021-05-28T01:22:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lunarivervoices.com\/staging\/?p=3187"},"modified":"2021-05-27T21:22:42","modified_gmt":"2021-05-28T01:22:42","slug":"may-27-2021","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lunarivervoices.com\/staging\/life-in-2021\/may-27-2021\/","title":{"rendered":"May 27, 2021"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

I spent an entertaining couple of hours at the Planet Word Museum<\/a> in D.C. I read about it in the newspaper and got online to buy timed-entry tickets a few weeks ago. Today was the only day through August that was available, although when I arrived, a sign said they also accept walk-ins. The women at the visitor desk said that so far they haven\u2019t turned any walk-ins away, which is good, because I definitely want to go back. It\u2019s billed as \u201cThe Museum where language comes to life,\u201d and they have the most amazing interactive displays. In one exhibit you could pick any book off the \u201clibrary\u201d shelf and place it in a holder on the table. Each book\u2019s pages were set to open in the middle, and when opened, the author\u2019s voice came up, describing the book and reading a passage from it. Actors took the place of dead authors. Images were also projected onto the open book.<\/p>\n

In another exhibit, you could dip a \u201cpaint brush\u201d into a \u201cbucket\u201d associated with a specific word (autumnal, crepuscular, nostalgic, and other adjectives) and then \u201cpaint\u201d it on the picture projected onto the wall. Where you touched the brush with your \u201cword\u201d the picture would change to reflect that word. So \u201cautumnal\u201d changed the summer scene into fall; \u201cnostalgic\u201d turned the tall modern buildings in the street scene to shorter, older buildings in sepia tones, and the airplane in the sky turned into a zeppelin. Bloody brilliant! You could go into a small room and listen to poets (or actors) reading their works. You could record yourself speaking famous speeches along with the original speakers. I learned about other languages and cultures, computer programs that can analyze thousands of books in one hour, how to formulate a joke. I \u201cmet\u201d people from all over the world who were filmed talking about their language and teaching me a few words. I didn\u2019t do the karaoke (even I don\u2019t want to hear my sing), but I enjoyed listening to others. I got my picture taken in a photo booth that automatically popped up a word, to be printed in the photo. My word: Audacious!<\/p>\n

Although there were places to sit, if it weren\u2019t for my feet hurting (and the strain on my ankle) standing on hard floors\u2014shoulda brought the knee scooter\u2014I could have stayed longer than two hours. Afterward I grabbed some lunch at a caf\u00e9 across the street, sitting at table on the sidewalk and noting the absence of what would normally be a lot of people and traffic on a weekday in the city.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Came home to do several little chores before leaving for Rochester tomorrow to see Mom. Had to resort to the crutches to get around the house since my ankle was screaming by six o\u2019clock. This evening I got on a Zoom call for a discussion sponsored by the Rumi Forum; the topic was modest dress and what the Bible and Qur\u2019an say about it. It was an interesting topic, and I have to say I\u2019m changing my mind about what I had previously deemed an oppressive patriarchal custom regarding women\u2019s coverings. The topic turned to why, in Western culture, modest dress is sometimes looked down upon. I think Americans see modest dress as oppressive, but the discussion leader couched modest dress in terms of both men and women having more control over who has access to their sexuality. She wears the hijab of her own free will and says she doesn\u2019t judge others who choose to display more of their body, so why should others judge her as being manipulated by the patriarchy? She also made the point that what passes for fashion\u2014and particularly the skimpy kind\u2014is itself a form of manipulation; manipulation by the ad industry. Who gets to decide what is sexy, beautiful, or acceptable? Americans could use a shift in their cultural attitudes.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I spent an entertaining couple of hours at the Planet Word Museum in D.C. I read about it in the newspaper and got online to buy timed-entry tickets a few weeks ago. Today was the only day through August that …<\/span> Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3175,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_price":"","_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_header":"","_tribe_default_ticket_provider":"","_tribe_ticket_capacity":"0","_ticket_start_date":"","_ticket_end_date":"","_tribe_ticket_show_description":"","_tribe_ticket_show_not_going":false,"_tribe_ticket_use_global_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_global_stock_level":"","_global_stock_mode":"","_global_stock_cap":"","_tribe_rsvp_for_event":"","_tribe_ticket_going_count":"","_tribe_ticket_not_going_count":"","_tribe_tickets_list":"[]","_tribe_ticket_has_attendee_info_fields":false,"_EventAllDay":false,"_EventTimezone":"","_EventStartDate":"","_EventEndDate":"","_EventStartDateUTC":"","_EventEndDateUTC":"","_EventShowMap":false,"_EventShowMapLink":false,"_EventURL":"","_EventCost":"","_EventCostDescription":"","_EventCurrencySymbol":"","_EventCurrencyCode":"","_EventCurrencyPosition":"","_EventDateTimeSeparator":"","_EventTimeRangeSeparator":"","_EventOrganizerID":[],"_EventVenueID":[],"_OrganizerEmail":"","_OrganizerPhone":"","_OrganizerWebsite":"","_VenueAddress":"","_VenueCity":"","_VenueCountry":"","_VenueProvince":"","_VenueState":"","_VenueZip":"","_VenuePhone":"","_VenueURL":"","_VenueStateProvince":"","_VenueLat":"","_VenueLng":"","_VenueShowMap":false,"_VenueShowMapLink":false,"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":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[79],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3187","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-life-in-2021"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/lunarivervoices.com\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/5-27a-scaled.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lunarivervoices.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3187","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lunarivervoices.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lunarivervoices.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lunarivervoices.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lunarivervoices.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3187"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lunarivervoices.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3187\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3188,"href":"https:\/\/lunarivervoices.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3187\/revisions\/3188"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lunarivervoices.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3175"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lunarivervoices.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3187"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lunarivervoices.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3187"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lunarivervoices.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3187"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}