At long last, it is fall, the very best of seasons, even in balmy Texas. The trees don’t really do the fall thing, the weather is disappointing, and pumpkin spice does get old. But one can still choose to indulge in a pleasant melancholy if one chooses to. And for me, fall means one thing: listening to Tom Waits. Gobs of it. I listened to “The Black Rider” for two weeks straight, and when I started singing “‘T’ain’t no sin / to take off your skin / and dance around in your bones” under my breath at my day job, I had to call it quits. I did some research on the album, incidentally, and it’s as I suspected; all about an orchestra from Hell.
Waits is a rat man, meaning, he is a dozen rats inhabiting a trench coat, but in a way that’s kind of sweet. He has this to say about thimbles: “All the good in the world you can put inside a thimble”. I do not agree. Despite the world being on fire, I think there is somewhat more goodness than that–at least a shot glass’s or coffee mug’s worth. (As an aside, four of our Thimble staff recently had babies. I texted that it’s amazing what a thimbleful will do, which one of us (me) found funny.)
I propose the opposite of what Waits said as being true. It goes against strict logic, but then again, strict logic doesn’t apply to anything that a man who’s part train on this mother’s side has said. What I propose is, everything contained inside of a thimble is good
After reading this issue, I think you’ll agree. We had our highest number of submissions yet, so you know this is the crème de la crème.
Come on in. Dance around in your bones.
Best,
Nadia Arioli
