Under Cover

This Week: Coverture

Up top, I’d like to say that I, Andrea Squiccimara of Vocabulary School, condemn the Supreme Court decision yesterday regarding trans youth. The Supreme Court, as ever, can eat shit. Not one of them are doctors and gender affirming care is recommended by doctors. I want to see trans kids get old and you should too. This is not a debate and Vocabulary School is not a democracy. Protect trans kids by calling your governor, your state legislators, and your members of congress regardless of party affiliation. Make your voice heard: protect trans futures.

Happy Juneteenth! A woman I met in graduate school was integral in getting Joe Biden to make today a federal holiday and she said that in 2007 when we met that she expected it to be her daughter’s fight, not hers. If you are not black and want to celebrate Juneteenth, take time to honor and embrace Black culture and support Black-owned companies and organizations. Remember that freedom delayed is freedom denied.

All of our freedom and liberation are tied to each other. None of us are free unless we all are free.

---

Due to a seven-hour power outage, this week’s newsletter is coming to you from the rectangle of study space at the library. No one has implemented my proposed changes from my All Fours fever dream. The posted policy states that the rooms aren’t soundproof and privacy is not guaranteed—I get that, I really do. However, a curtain could easily go between the two rooms. I can feel the person next to me and that is not a good feeling. If I can’t have any expectation of privacy, can I eliminate the creeping sensation of someone in my peripheral vision so I can concentrate? At this very library, I read every available Fear Street book, so I think a tension rod and some kitchen curtains could go a long way to not trigger my fight or flight every time the person in the adjacent study room moves. In the spirit of compromise, the library can still survey me while I eat cashews out of my pocketbook*, like a well-read squirrel, from the other two windows.

Oh, to have the responsibilities of a literate squirrel.

It has been a little nice to work away from my desk, to see a different wall, and to hear what can only be described as a vacuum cleaner with an agenda of its own. Outside of the library, where are other places suburban freelancers can go? I fear the perfect days to work outside have passed and won’t return until the next change of season. Maybe I’ll change the direction of my desk and stare at a different wall.

*As someone who relies on a fairly strict feeding schedule during the week, cashews are not lunch.

This Week’s Vocabulary List

Frozen River by Ariel Lawhon

Coverture (noun): A cover or covering; shelter; concealment. Also: the legal status of a married woman as under the protection or authority of her husband or father

• Accused rapist Judge North orders Ephraim Ballard to re-conduct a land survey in order to place him hundreds of miles away from Martha because, as the law of coverture states, she cannot testify in court without her husband or present. Without Martha’s testimony, Rebecca Foster’s rape case will likely fall apart.

• Even though Martha is a medical professional, wholly separate from her husband, her voice can be silenced without his protection which she does not want or need, especially in the case of Rebecca Foster’s rape.

• Martha is intelligent and strong-willed and her marriage to Ephraim is more of a partnership than readers can expect for a marriage in the late 18th century.

• We’re all adults here, give us a spicy scene with Martha and Ephraim. They have 9 children, we know what they’re up to—grow up! They also fix the problem that every book couple is a 26-28 year old woman and a 32-34 year old man. Even if the plot takes place in the late 1790s, I do not have a great deal of interest in imagining being 28 again.

• The author does a great job of using appositive phrases to define unfamiliar words in a sentence. Appositive phrases are noun phrases that renames or clarifies the noun that precedes it. The sentence structure does the work of defining and it lends well to Martha’s characterization as an expert in her field as well as a detail-oriented diarist.

• This book rules so hard but I don’t want to be too specific about it since my book club makes up nearly 80% of my newsletter’s readership. I love them all too much to spoil.

• Frozen River is wildly popular even though it was released in late 2023. Even today, I saw a woman at the library complain about her waiting for the book and I did not dunk on her to say that I had a digital copy in my possession. However, maybe I should have because she seemed far removed from the concept of “waiting your turn” with library materials.

  

  Since I’m not shopping at Amazon, I shop a lot on Poshmark where I can find secondhand books and Hawaiian shirts for my Benjamin Franklin Pierce Summer.

Practical Applications

On Tuesday night we finished Pee-Wee as Himself, the new documentary about Paul Reubens, better known as Pee-Wee Herman. I actually don’t have much of a connection to the Pee-Wee Herman enterprise, I’m too young to have watched the show or the movies. I only just found out that Pee-Wee wasn’t a child, but a hyperactive adult—I had no idea! Even without a connection, I, like everyone else, knows Pee-Wee Herman. Reuben’s unexpected death in 2023 revealed a whole world of things I didn’t know about his body of work. The documentary shone a light onto his creative process which was so magical from its origins at The Groundlings. I smiled so hard the whole time watching the playhouse set come to life in a warehouse—it was a kid’s fantasia of color, texture, dream, reality and puppets! It was like all of the words were the secret words in my brain. I read a 2004 profile of Reubens where he discusses how seriously he took the work and responsibility of having a children’s television program where he wished to impart to kids that “it’s ok to be wild and have a good time.” I think that’s a wonderful way to talk about children being who they are and wanting them to be happy. Who wouldn’t want that??

The silliness, the colors, the glitter, the puppets, what a dream.

I saved the piece the documentarian, Matt Wolf, wrote for Vulture until I finished the two episodes after hearing about the consternation between filmmaker and subject. The coverture provided by the character of Pee-Wee Herman made Reubens a difficult documentary subject. He shielded himself so well and crafted a system of control so finely tuned that he nearly derailed the project several times over the years. It’s clear that both Wolf and Reubens struggled with each other over the documentary’s completion. Reubens wanted more editorial control than Wolf was willing to give and that made their interactions after time fraught with tension. I think both were right and both were wrong but it ends up not mattering as much as the eventual final product. The interviews Wolf was unable to secure don’t undermine the documentary at all. I think it was as close to perfect as he could get and that’s really an achievement.

I pray at the altar of celebrity snapshot queen, Debi Mazar. She literally knows everyone and has a picture with them that she has at the ready. Her contributions to the documentary were also beautiful, she’s a treasure.

Love,

Andrea

Prayers up for our wavy and curly haired sestras in the heat dome coming for all our asses. Under authoritarianism and humidity, can’t a girl catch a break?

Thanks for stopping by Vocabulary School!