tuesday
october 7
Public Art and Private Gardens: An Introduction Though fall is upon us and the last thing you may be thinking of is your garden, now is the time to start planning for spring. To help get you going, the Museum of Printing History offers a lecture tonight on "The Philosophy and Art of Gardens." Dr. Kathleen Haney, of the University of Houston, will show slides and ask you to consider the metaphoric meaning of the earth and the work that goes into tilling it. 7 p.m. The Museum of Printing History, 1324 W. Clay, 522-4652. $10.
wednesday
october 8
Not-Cormac Writing Contest Many think that Cormac McCarthy (author of Blood Meridian, All the Pretty Horses and The Crossing) owns one of the most original and significant voices in fiction today. It's difficult not to believe in such large sentiments about the El Paso writer when you read sentences such as this one: "He pulled his breeches off the footboard of the bed and got his shirt and his blanketlined duckingcoat and got his boots from under the bed and went out to the kitchen and dressed in the dark by the faint warmth of the stove and held the boots to the windowlight to pair them left and right and pulled them on and rose and went to the kitchen door and stepped out and closed the door behind him." In light of McCarthy's literary status, it's only fitting that the El Paso Library holds a contest for the most outrageous parody of their city's most famous writer. A brief passage from last year's first-place winner: "The alert ching of the gas station bell sounded upon his crossing the black hose that lies across the lot like an acquiescent serpent. Then the slow crunch of the attending man's boots sluffered along the pavement, scattering the infernal infestation of eternal insects coalescing in the buzz of yellow lamplight which had spread itself across the whole scene like the flooding gaze of the great being below Himself." Sit down today and see if you can top that: First-place prize is $300. Each entry must be no longer than 500 words, but there's no limit to how many entries you can compose. Type your entry and double-space it. Write your name, address and phone number on the back of the first page, and make sure it's postmarked by October 24. Send it to: Not-Cormac Writing Contest, c/o Nathan, 511 Randolph St., El Paso, Texas, 79902. Enclose a $3 entry fee payable to the El Paso Public Library.
