Page created 29 Jul 2003 by pedro
URL: http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/columnists/chi-0307290174jul29,1,7907906.column
I have a somewhat embarrassing admission to make today and hope that you do as well. If so, we can play a round of Lacuna, a parlor game I invented a while back and just now named. "Lacuna" is a smarty-pants word meaning "gap" or "empty space," and all you have to do to play is admit to what you believe to be the most glaring gap in your cultural background: The renowned literary work or author you haven't read, for example. Or the great movie you haven't gotten around to seeing. The musician or composer whose works you've never heard. Maybe the museum you've yet to visit. The object is to be the only player with this particular gap, and, if possible, to set the other players reeling in heartfelt disbelief. The few times I've played Lacuna--it's actually more of a conversation starter than an I-win-you-lose-ha-ha game--I've noticed that some players can't resist the urge to show off by citing, as their most glaring gap, James Joyce's "Ulysses" or some other intellectually and literally hefty novel. They seem to feel that their desire to read such a book reflects well on them, as does the fact that they are so widely cultured that they have to go deep into the thickets of art before finding unfamiliar territory. Others go the opposite direction, listing something common and trashy--"I've never read a Jackie Collins novel"--in what amounts to a boast, not an admission. All proper Lacuna entries must be tinged with genuine regret.
I've never read Lake Wobegon Days.
but i spent a month and a half in london and never truly visited st. paul's cathedral. we took a picture from afar.
Top Gun.
I've never been to Europe.
Have been for 3 months, and have yet to see the sphinx. I should get on the ball.
I've never been to the top of the Sear's Tower, and probably never will, but I should since I have lived in Chicago for 10 years.
...to a pro football game. I really kick myself that I never went to Soldier Field before the UFO crashed in it.
Pedro you aren't missing anythign much, the stadium was cramped and had a lot of old nasty parts to it, I imagine it will be better to go to now, but then again who knows, it is however very fun to actually be at one of the games.
then i'm sure it won't be once they're done, since it's going to hold thousands less than it used to.I've never cared much at all.
i saw this article on Tuesday in the Trib. cool entree idea pedro.
i have never:
been to a pro football game either.
read anything by: Joyce, Twain, (i know there are many more but i can't think of them)
seen: A Beautiful Mind, any of the Alien movies, (there are more, but i can't think of them)
and i have never actually heard the 'Who Let the Dogs Out' recording. i have heard annoying people sing it, but i have never actually heard the recording. i would very much like to keep it this way.
I haven't seen quite a number of movies, including the aforemention Top Gun and Alien(s), but two in particular that seem to shock people when it comes up are Reservoir Dogs and The Lost Boys.
There are tons of movies I haven't seen. When I announce the name of a movie I haven't seen, Phil used to routinely have a stroke. However, he's come to expect me to not have seen movies, and I recently boggled that alh hadn't seen or even heard of Never Cry Wolf, which I just assumed that everyone had seen and loved that movie as much as me and my family. My sister bought me NCW for my birthday, so alh and I watched it last weekend... man... what a great movie.
I've never seen that one either, Pedro, and it looks like a good one.I have never, despite being a close drive to it, been to New York to see a show on Broadway. (Or been to New York period.) Anyone as involved with theater as I am, really should have done this by now, having lived on the East Coast for four years.
I've never seen the Pacific ocean. I regret this with my whole self - yet I am afraid of flying, and though I do fly from time to time, I can't do it. I HAVE finally been west of Minnesota, as Jay and I had a mommy daddy escape week to Vegas, a year ago this month actually.
And despite living in DC, I've never made 'the monument tour'. I've seen a few of them, just in everyday walking around, but I've never gone specifically to look at any of them. Or to the White House. You'd think I'd have done these things by now, wouldn't you?
I've also never been overseas. Except for Atlantis in the Bahamas, but that hardly counts. My passport is nearly barren.
I majorly regret never taking off in an old car to fufill Renee and my's ambition to drive to New Mexico, sit on top of the car and listen to U2 while drinking a bottle of red wine, at sunset, somewhere in the desert.
i've never seen any of the starwars movies.
I've been in Maine for 3 years. I have never eaten a lobster... I tried a little bit once as a small child, but I've never actually sat down to a lobster meal. Some around here consider that some sort of crime.
but I just wanted to pipe in with I love Never Cry Wolf, it's a great movie! And I haven't seen it in years, I saw it in Blockbuster the other day and almost rented it, but then didn't for some reason, I think I shall have to amend that.
I can't but help thinking of The Stranger's intro in the The Big Lebowski and then I'm chuckling and have lost my train of thought.
First they built a big nasty parking garage across the street. And then they built a big long row of apartments and condos. THey block the parking garage from view but they aren't so hot themselves.