“Après TJ le déluge” Our second instagram and our first cute dog submission

Posted by [email protected] | Dec 7, 2015 | Human Interest | 0 |

7:56 a.m. 12/7/15 on the street curb outside 29 Fair Oaks Lane in Brighton

On his deathbed, Louis XV was supposed to have uttered, “Après mois le deluge.” (Roughly meaning: “I don’t care what happens after I’m gone; I don’t care even if the whole world is destroyed.”)

Sophie Miles as Madame Pompadour in an episode of Doctor Who. Based on their expressions, a deluge is a coming.

The Death of Marat by David

Later rephrased by his mistress Madame de Pompadour as “Après nous le deluge.”

As the French Revolution was approaching, both foresaw the rise of the san-cullotes masses could only end in the Reign of Terror. And they were right.

When Talker joined Instagram, we knew all too well how King and mistress felt . Then, we wrote: “Steadfastly refusing to join the teeming global masses on Instagram. Don’t even know what is Instagram. Except it must be something bad.”

I can now see the blood dripping on the keyboard.

In that post, we had declared–from the barricades–the picture (below) of TJ, “the cutest dog in the whole wide world,” would be our sole inclusion on our new Instagram account.

Oh, but Après TJ le déluge!

In that post, we also off handedly asked for submissions of other cute dogs. And received one from reader Nora Bradury! (below) Tease: Nora and I will very soon be featuring Max aka Cute Dog # 2 in a photo-op that can only be described as provocative.

This morning the Reign of Error only worsened when we encountered something else “cute.” The pumpkins featured above. I can even now see the blood dripping on the keyboard.

TJ [Photo: Audrey Boyce]

Cute Dog # 2 aka Max [Photo: Nora Bradbury]

About The Author

[email protected]

Welcome to Talker of the Town! My name is David Kramer. I have a Ph.D in English and teach at Keuka College. I am a former and still active Fellow at the Nazareth College Center for Public History and a Storyteller in Residence at the SmallMatters Institute. Over the years, I have taught at Monroe Community College, the Rochester Institute of Technology and St. John Fisher College. I have published numerous Guest Essays, Letters, Book Reviews and Opinion pieces in The New York Times, Rochester Democrat and Chronicle, the Buffalo News, the Rochester Patriot, the Providence Journal, the Providence Business News, the Brown Alumni Magazine, the New London Day, the Boston Herald, the Messenger Post Newspapers, the Wedge, the Empty Closet, the CITY, Lake Affect Magazine and Brighton Connections. My poetry appears in The Criterion: An International Journal in English and Rundenalia and my academic writing in War, Literature and the Arts and Twentieth Century Literary Criticism. Starting in February 2013, I wrote for three Democratic and Chronicle blogs, "Make City Schools Better," "Unite Rochester," and the "Editorial Board." When my tenure at the D & C ended, I wanted to continue conversations first begun there. And start new ones. So we created this new space, Talker of the Town, where all are invited to join. I don’t like to say these posts are “mine.” Very few of them are the sole product of my sometimes overheated imagination. Instead, I call them partnerships and collaborations. Or as they say in education, “peer group work.” Talker of the Town might better be Talkers of the Town. The blog won’t thrive without your leads, text, pictures, ideas, facebook shares, tweets, comments and criticisms.