Poem for Thursday

[highlyeccentric]

Recently, to offset pandemic shape change and Gender Whatever, I ordered new mens' shirts. Just from C&A - no point investing in TM Lewin while my shape is in flux. They are nice, if baggier in the shoulder and sleeve than ideal (which is why I buy TM Lewin's women's line).

It is also now warm enough to wear the purple fedora I bought myself, rather than a beanie.

I did not realise, until I left the house and went to take a selfie, that I was accidentally cosplaying "guy who thinks his traditional diplomatics based historical work is why he's not getting postdocs, because jobs always go to women with traditional projects or men with flashy theories.

The likeness is extremely spot on. I do not know if there is a gender word for "I had no problem with looking like a guy but I'm extremely disconcerted to look like THAT guy", but one would be useful.

Apropos of today's poem, I also zoned out of a lot of German class today.

Improving my German
Lydia Davis

All my life I have been trying to improve my German.
At last my German is better
—but now I am old and ill and don’t have long to live.
Soon I will be dead,
with better German