House of Zathras

Zathras was a character on the sci-fi series Babylon 5. He was an alien creature and always referred to himself in the third person.

What I especially liked about him was his pithy, self-effacing remarks. Some of my favorites are:

“Zathras is used to being beast of burden to other peoples’ needs. Very sad life. Probably have very sad death, but at least there is symmetry.”

“So Zathras talks to dirt. Sometimes talks to walls or talks to ceilings, but dirt is closer. Dirt used to everyone walking on it. Just like Zathras, but we have come to like it. It is our role. It is our destiny in the Universe. So you see, sometimes dirt has insects in it. Zathras like insects. Not so good for conversation, but much protein for diet.”

“Zathras understand. No Zathras not understand, but Zathras do. Zathras good at doings, not understandings.”

And then this one, which led to my blog title:

“Very damaged. Zathras can never have anything nice.”

We have four kids, and we discovered one day that the dishwasher (which was relatively new) had a warped door and shelves. The reason??? When putting up or reaching for dishes on the shelf above, the kids were STANDING on the various dishwasher parts. That’s when I muttered in exasperation, ‘I can never have anything nice. This is the house of Zathras!’

So, thus was born the House of Zathras. And even if no one comes to my little corner of the blogosphere, there’s a Zathras quote to fit that occasion, too:

“No one ever listens to poor Zathras, no, he’s quite mad they say. It is good that Zathras does not mind, has even grown to like it.”