Real & Imagined 'Loretta's'

If you've ever wondered, the following is an incomplete list of the Loretta's in the world. It could have gone on for forever.

Asteroids ...

1939 Loretta (1974 UC) is a main-belt asteroid discovered October 17, 1974 by C. Kowal, Palomar Observatory

Songs ...

Get Back, Loretta, Paul McCartney

Cities ...

Loretta, unincorporated community in Draper, Wisconsin

Bands ...

Get Back Loretta, funk-rock ensemble from San Diego

Fictional Loretta's...

Loretta, one of those Left Behind, by Tim LaHaye & Jerry B. Jenkins

Loretta, on Sesame Street, played by Camille Bonora

Loretta Black, Curb Your Enthusiasm

Loretta Castorini, Cher's character in Moonstruck

Loretta deLarava, antagonist in Expiration Date, by Tim Powers

Loretta Frost, wife of Byron Frost and foster mother to Marvel Comics' Madame Masque

Loretta Geargrinder, love interest of Fender in animated film Robots

Loretta Jones, fictional character from the British soap opera Hollyoaks.

Loretta 'Lana' Maguire, gang member in Foxfire: Confessions Of A Girl Gang, Joyce Carol Oates

Loretta Lockhorn, character in the syndicated cartoon The Lockhorns

Loretta Quagmire, character in the season-four episode of The Cleveland–Loretta Quagmire, Family Guy

Loretta Spiegel, owner of Loretta's Beauty Parlor in Cabot Cove, Murder She Wrote

Loretta The Cat in Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile

Loretta Tortelli, played by Jean Kasem, Cheers

Loretta West, money-grubbing character in New Zealand TV series, Outrageous Fortune, played by Antonia Prebble

Real Loretta's ...

Hildegarde Loretta Sell, vaudeville singer; Revlon named 'Hildegarde' lipstick after her

Loretta Clawson, Mayor, Boone, North Carolina

Loretta de Braose, Countess of Leicester, (c. 1185-c. 1266)

Loretta DeVine, American film & stage actress (recurring role in Grey's Anatomy); winner of Outstanding Supporting Actress, NAACP Image Award

Loretta Huber, World Series of Poker champion, 1988

Loretta Hui-Shan Yang, performing artist in the Taiwan cinema

Loretta Kelsey, as of 2009, one remaining fluent speaker of Eastern Pomo language

Loretta Long, played Susan Robinson, Sesame Street
Loretta 'Lora' R Fisher, yours truly

Loretta Lux, German fine art photographer

Loretta Lynn, award-winning American Country-Western singer|songwriter

Loretta Nall, founder of the United States Marijuana Party

Loretta Napoleoni, Italian economist, author, journalist, political analyst

Loretta Perfectus Walsh, first American active-duty Navy woman

Loretta Purdy Spencer, former mayor of Huntsville, Alabama

Loretta Sanchez, current representative of the 47th District, California (Dem.)

Loretta Schrijver, NYC talk show host

Loretta Schwartz-Nobel, journalist, writer, advocate for disadvantaged families

Loretta Scott Crew, rumored to have invented 'S'mores' in 1927

Loretta Swit, Major 'Hot Lips' Houlihan, M.A.S.H.

Loretta Tofani, Pulitzer Prize-winning American journalist

Loretta Ucelli, Assistant to the President & Director of White House Communications, Clinton Administration

Loretta Young, Academy Award winning film & tv actress from the 1930s -90s.

Then there is this rather odd Loretta ...

Mark David Loretta, former Major League Baseball infielder

And, just so you know ...

Yes, I am among them.

Weekend In The Woods

It's a new day.

Funny how that keeps happening.

I did enjoy my brief time in the forest, although if I'm being truthful, there were too many humans for my taste. A group camp-out seems to invariably lead to much too much processing about how to get the next (whatever) taken care of, and not enough time by the river.

I'm more of a get-in-there-'n-get-'er-done kinda girl, and damned good at building fires. So, that's where I put most of my energy. That and preparing food, which most didn't eat because they were vegetarians (Vegetable Aryans?) of one stripe or another. What a bunch of fuss-budgets. Female cquaintances of my dear friend Phyllis, I am reminded why I prefer mixed company. All-women outings provide a bit too much feminine energy for my tastes. We need the guys to keep us in balance and give us something to laugh about.

It was good, though, to be surrounded by tall trees, a flowing river, and stars|stars|stars. And to see Oregon's countryside and a few of the ruddy-necked inhabitants that tend to congregate in small Oregon towns, for perspective.

We slept in 3-sided huts with huge hearths at the entrance. Relatively comfortable. Delightful to fall asleep with a fire sizzling and popping and radiating deep orange heat. I'd say the campfires were the highlight of the trip. Definitely.

I was glad to get home and to find a few more orange and red tomatoes on my 2-dozen tomato plants. They are inching along in their race with October. Enough to have my fill every day, but not enough to freeze for winter ... so far.

Ever-hopeful est moi.

Now, about that camping gear ... .

image:

Cliff-Edged Tree, Columbia River Gorge
©2010 Lora R Fisher

September Signals ...

Hardwired into our developing brains as first-graders is that the month of September brings with it fundamental changes.

Not only does school begin in September, but the rays of the sun enter our eyes at an increasingly oblique angle with each day that passes.

There is a mellowness in the air and a flavor like melancholy, over-ripe plums. Though, at six, one day seems very similar to the next and we certainly had no word for the flavor in the air, that once tasted like sweet grapes coated in honey.

As adults, we long for our tomatoes to ripen, and as is true in my case, carry our cameras with us wherever we go because we know that there is nothing like this light. It moves us in a primal way, signalling harvest and preparation for the season to follow.

I contemplate change daily now. I put off finishing updating my C.V. in preparation for finding another position somewhere in the midst of this lousy economy, in favor of almost everything else. Especially, to step outside and absorb this gorgeous light into my cells.

It seems fitting that I am poised for change. It is September, after all.

Photo:

Forest Light, Silver Falls State Park, Oregon
© Lora R Fisher