TheBanyanTree: [Fwd: SAY what???!!!]

Tue Nov 1 15:39:31 PDT 2016

I myself rarely hear from anyone on the list. I post when I want to hear
myself talk because I find myself so fascinating. It certainly wasn't you,
because you were always fascinating to read.

*Love,*

*Monique*

On Tue, Nov 1, 2016 at 2:43 PM, Tobie Helene Shapiro <tobie at shpilchas.net>
wrote:

> Yes indeed, I lost the house in the fire.  That was 25 years ago!  Three
> years of moving from rental to rental with four kids and a stiff lipped
> husband (the divorce came later).  Three years of suing the insurance
> company.
>
>         But a lot has happened since then, my dear.
>
>         I think I posted a looooooong series of what, for lack of a better
> title, I called: "Life Stories".  I sent them in every single day, and that
> was in 2007.  That’s the last you may have heard from me on the Banyan
> Tree.  The entries just went ON and On and On.  So, when people got
> sufficiently bored shitless with my recollections of whatever the hell I
> remembered at the time about my life, and I stopped hearing even a word
> from anyone on the list, I just quietly walked across the hall, went into
> my bedroom, closed the door and haven’t come out or written a word since.
>
>         So be careful what you don’t say to me.  In other words:  always
> pay attention to what you don’t do, and you may make a metaphor of that.
>
>         It was the mention of Youngblood that brought me out of my life
> here as a voyeur.
>
>         Thank you Paul for posting my message.  And thank you for not
> being an anti-semite, and thank you for hiding the fact if you are.  We’re
> very sensitive about that, you know.  I mean, how was I to know that I was
> married to one, and thank God he walked out on us!          sort of
>
>         Carry on.
>
> Love,
>
> Tobie
>
>
> > On Nov 1, 2016, at 2:20 PM, Jena Norton <eudora45 at sbcglobal.net> wrote:
> >
> > I wondered what happened to Tobie. Used to see posts from her on other
> lists. Glad she's on the exception list! I'm trying to remember if it was
> her, but I think she lost her home in the fire in the Oakland hills in the
> early 90s.  Jena Norton
> >
> >
> >      From: paul <paul at remsset.com>
> > To: The Banyan Tree <thebanyantree at remsset.com>
> > Sent: Tuesday, November 1, 2016 2:05 PM
> > Subject: TheBanyanTree: [Fwd: SAY what???!!!]
> >
> > I'm laughing here. I think I have a mail list rule set so that mail
> > from non-members is vaporized. "tobie at lmi.net" is not a list member
> > but is now added to the exception filter.
> >
> > As for anti-semitic, I had a Jewish grandfather and yeah, granmama was
> > a good Catholic and kept a kosher kitchen. :)
> >
> > Here it is!  Incoming from Tobie!!!
> >
> > paul
> >
> >
> > -------- Original Message --------
> > Subject: SAY what???!!!
> > Date: Tue, 1 Nov 2016 13:24:27 -0700
> > From: Tobie Helene Shapiro <tobie at shpilchas.net>
> > To: thebanyantree-owner at lists.remsset.com
> >
> >
> >
> > Hey! Why was my message rejected?
> >
> >
> > I know I haven’t posted for years, but I still read all the stories.
> > You mean I’ve been discontinued?!
> >
> > It’s because you’re anti-semitic, isn’t it!!! That’s it! You don’t
> > like me because I’m a Jew. RATS!
> >
> > C’mon, be a dear. Post my message. I was wondering why it didn’t show
> > up in the inbox. It’s about YB. Way back to Spoon days, too.
> >
> >
> > Are you there?
> >
> > Am I here?
> >
> >
> > Here’s my message as I wrote it:
> >
> >
> > *From: *Tobie Helene Shapiro <tobie at lmi.net <mailto:tobie at lmi.net>>
> > *Subject: **Re: TheBanyanTree: STARGAZR*
> > *Date: *October 31, 2016 at 8:57:14 AM PDT
> > *To: *"A comfortable place to meet other people and exchange your own
> > *original* writings." <thebanyantree at lists.remsset.com
> > <mailto:thebanyantree at lists.remsset.com>>
> >
> >
> > Oh yes! Youngblood!
> >
> >
> > Remember the call for donations to make a gift for Youngblood? Not
> > money, no. The gift involved everyone sending in souvenir spoons
> > from all over? I fashioned them onto a large poster-board and made a
> > giant artwork for her which I carried on an airplane to Houston and
> > presented to her in person.
> >
> > I was sitting in the airport looking conspicuous waiting for her to
> > pick me up. It was overcast with smog. I can’t even recall the time
> > of year. When she walked up to me, we both had a moment of cautious
> > recognition, you know, like a blind date smoking over the population
> > for the correct stranger? (the correct stranger. I’ll have to write
> > that down). At the time, Youngblood was not happy about things and
> > confessed feeling like a burden to everyone around her. AH BUT
> > NO!!!!!!! She was a blasting flame of energy to everyone around her,
> > even in her depleted state of mind.
> >
> > Seeing the woman after reading her prodigious brilliant spirit in
> > words for so long was a deep slow thrill that I can’t explain. What I
> > can explain is that their apartment was so thick with cigarette smoke
> > that I had to sit outside the sliding window-doors that opened to the
> > yard. I felt like such a petty Berkeleyite and I suppose I still am.
> > But they both understood and we conversed through the doors.
> >
> > I wish I could find her last email to me. I know it’s here someplace
> > on this mac, hiding among other less important stuff. At the point
> > that she wrote it she told me that she was barely capable of writing
> > anymore because her mind was so woven crazy from the brain tumor. But
> > it was one of the most eloquent woven crazy writing I’d ever gotten
> > from her. One phrase referred to the chronic grass smoking and was
> > worded like this:
> >
> > ……….. purling roll joints …………
> >
> > I’ll have to look for it harder and report back. It does the heart
> > good to hear that her ashes were distributed so widely and so
> > lovingly. What a quirky prophet she was.
> >
> > Tobie
> > ever in Berkeley
> > rarely elsewhere
> > lacking the ticket
> > the time
> > too much tethered
> > but grinning
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > Keep your eye out and note everything you say and everything you do,
> > and ABSOLUTELY everything you put in writing, because you never know
> > when someone will come after you. And no matter what you know you
> > did, said or meant, they may prove you wrong in a court of law. And
> > that's the only truth that matters. THS 2014
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > Tobie Shapiro
> > mailto:tobie at shpilchas.net
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > --
> > _____________________________________
> >     http://remsset.com
> >
> >
> >     I wish there was a knob on the TV to turn up the intelligence.
> >     There's a knob called "brightness", but it doesn't work.
> >
> >
> >
> >
>
>
> "Perfection is an illusion."
> Meyshe Benyomen Shapiro-Nygren
>
>
>
> Tobie Shapiro
> mailto:tobie at shpilchas.net
>
>
>
>
>
>