Witches, it was believed, went unbelted.

[kleenexwoman]

Lookin' up Russian folklore and fairy tales, particularly death folklore. I love Baba Yaga stories, but I realized I haven't read that many, and I conflate Baba Yaga with the fairytale function of witches in general, which naturally has been highly informed by Grimm's fairytales. Russian folklore is amazing. I wish I still had Gail around so I could ask her stuff.

This is proving to be very useful.

Comments

[kleenexwoman.livejournal.com]

I never got to go on a class trip to anywhere except for Canada. Which was nice, but no Sistine Chapel.

[josephwaldman.livejournal.com]

Hee hee hee. I almost got kicked out of the Sistine Chapel. They told us "no flash photography", so naturally I ignored them and started popping away, and this huge security goon came up to me and started shoving me toward the door, growling something menacing in Italian. I panicked, but then did something brilliant: I played both stupid and American. "What? No flash? I didn't know. Honestly I didn't. Sorry. Hey, nice tie." And for some reason he let me go.

[josephwaldman.livejournal.com]

I probably wouldn't have gone except that it was ungodly cheap. My Latin teacher had been doing these trips every four years since she'd started teaching there in 1968, and had an excellent fundraising program in place. Since this was her final trip before she retired, she got the school to chip in more than usual, so it was even cheaper, probably only about $900 for the tour (which included hotels) and then whatever it cost for airfare and spending money (which I fucked up on when we took a boat from Italy to Greece -- I changed all my money from lire to whatever the Greek currency was [this was pre-euro], not knowing that the ship was Italian, so I couldn't get anything to eat). Next time we meet up I'll show you the photos. Me looking like a long-haired teenage goon in all the great churches and classical sites of Italy.

[josephwaldman.livejournal.com]

Anyway, the Sistine Chapel is overrated. Whenever I look at it the only thing I can think of is the pool scene from Rocky Horror.