The big news is that I’m a grandfather!
Here she is dressed up to head home from the maternity ward! Isn’t she cute?
I love her. It’s such a tender feeling to hold the baby. Pure light and love.
Women are like those Russian dolls, with always another one inside. It’s great to see life renewing itself.
*******
We’re in Manhattan once again.
Brain-eating Mr. Softee trucks abound.
A taxi-motor caught fire. It’s great when you see the taxis and bike messengers fighting; they’re like natural enemies, like giant squid vs. sperm whales.
As usual there’s amazing dancers at the 34th St. subway station.
But mainly I’m thinking about my granddaughter!
July 8th, 2005 at 7:14 pm
“Women are like those Russian dolls, with always another one inside.” Dr. Rucker is making a sly joke about the medieval Homunculus theory, and how it leads to infinite regress. See, however, “Darwin’s Radio” by Greg Bear, on how a female could in theory be born pregnant. Alternate worlds with alternate human biologies lead to alternate Histories of Mathematics. My son is 16, so if I were to dsicover myself a grandfather, I’d have to worry about statutory rape. Rudy: heartfelt congratulations. You are now in a chain of being of order n+1.
July 8th, 2005 at 9:25 pm
Congratulations Granpaw!
Beautiful Baby. On My days off from being an International Rockstar, I moonlight at a New York City Bicycle Messenger. My latest CD is called The Bicycle Diaries because that’s how I financed it.
richardbacchus.com
July 10th, 2005 at 2:32 pm
Another take on this is that, when my famous book editor father died in late May, and I unexpectedly became the eldest male in my family (as oldest son of oldest son of oldest son), it was as if a bomb had blown off the roof and attic of my home, leaving me exposed to to an indifferent heaven and hostile elements. Having a son born, in the same extended metaphor, is like finding, in a dream, a trapdoor in your bedroom floor that you never noticed before, and finding a ladder to an underground treasure room of unimaginably glorious beings and artworks.