This week on my iPod: Unkle Bob and Travis

Hello Ken. How are you? This week I've got two new albums that I'm pretty excited about. The first is Unkle Bob's Sugar and Spite; I've been listening to it most of the week and can't seem to get it out of my iTunes playlist. The other is the much anticipated new one from Travis which I've just purchased. I can't remember the last time I put an album release date in my calendar. I've just started listening to it and think Unkle Bob's got some competition for iPod attention. Hurrah! New Travis!! Huzzah!

Great Moments in Canadian Espionage: Nano technology and the "unorthodox quarter"

You may remember that a few months ago U.S. Army contractors travelling in Canada filed "confidential espionage accounts" about some shifty looking Canadian coins. According to the Globe and Mail, "One contractor believed someone had placed two of the quarters in an outer coat pocket after the contractor had emptied the pocket hours earlier. 'Coat pockets were empty that morning and I was keeping all of my coins in a plastic bag in my inner coat pocket,' the contractor wrote." More troubling than the stealth coat seeking coins were the coins that were surreptitiously left in the cup holder of a rental car: "It did not appear to be electronic (analog) in nature or have a power source," wrote one U.S. contractor, who discovered the coin in the cup holder of a rental car. "Under high power microscope, it appeared to be complex consisting of several layers of clear, but different material, with a wire like mesh suspended on top." The worried contractors "described the coins as "anomalous" and "filled with something man-made that looked like nano-technology," according to once-classified U.S. government reports and e-mails obtained by the AP." As it turns out, they were just those innocent little poppy quarters. Still, as H. Keith Melton, a leading intelligence historian notes: "I thought the whole thing was preposterous, to think you could tag an individual with a coin and think they wouldn't give it away or spend it."

It's all very amusing and I expect a great many Canadians are chortling about this. Still, it does make me think about that very fine mockumentary "The Canadian Conspiracy" which was based on this premise:

Narrator: [voiceover] *Green* card.
[beat]
Narrator: Lorne *Greene*
[beat]
Narrator: Coincidence?

Lorne Greene: There's no connection whatsoever between Lorne Green and Green Card.
Anne Murray: Well, there *has* to be a connection between Lorne Green and the Green Card. Because all the people I know who have Green Cards know Lorne Greene.

Imagine the fuss if it had been a Lorne Green quarter. It would be Canadian Bacon all over again.

Photo Exhibit: How We Are

This is a neat capsule of the Tate's "How We Are: Photographing Britain" exhibit. View a slideshow of "six famous Britons'" favourite images.

A great idea from Yann Martel

Well, it's Stephen Harper's birthday. What do you get a PM who's got everything? According to CBC, Yann Martel has decided to give Stephen Harper a book "every two weeks to try to alert him to the need for attention to the arts in Canada." This week, he's given Harper Animal Farm. Martel claims he'll "mail or deliver a book to Harper every two weeks as long as he's prime minister." What books could one send to Harper?
Hmmm...
He is busy...

Things you'd rather not overhear at lunch

"Are you still going to go see the infectious disease specialist?" Overheard at the table next to me, 12:15.

Stephen Colbert on Books and National Library Week

“Sure, they’re great to put a hot pot on and nothing beats them for kindling, but a whole building of them seems a little excessive.” See it here.

Good News that Goes Up to 11: Spinal Tap to reform for Live Earth

Spinal Tap to reform for Live Earth! With a new film and their reunion performance at the eco-concert, the rock band led by Nigel Tufnel and David St Hubbins hopes to turn the fight against global warming up to 11 "They're not that environmentally conscious, but they've heard of global warming," said Reiner. "Nigel thought it was just because he was wearing too much clothing - that if he just took his jacket off it would be cooler."

"Martinis," Opera and Baseball

Our friends Nick and Johanna refer to Windsor as a "gated community" of Detroit. Indeed, it does seem to be a pretty accurate description given the way we travel over or under the Detroit River, flitting between countries. Windsor really is the best of both worlds; in a matter of minutes we can go from a place where there are usually two or three degrees of separation and never six to a major US city where we've yet to run into anyone we know in any of the places we go. It's a bit surreal sometimes to live in a small Canadian city that abuts a major American city and to constantly have two currencies in our wallets. That said, I have to admit, I do like the bi-national, bi-cultural life we have and couldn't imagine not having it. On Friday, we had Martinis* at a riverside establishment on our side of the river and watched dusk settle into the spectacular Detroit skyline. On Saturday we were able to go see a massive production of Turandot at the Detroit Opera House. As the review in the Metro Times comments, "Turandot," which opened the company’s spring season Saturday, is precisely the kind of humongous and gloriously sung pageant that reminds you just how lucky we are that such a miracle of civilization as the Detroit Opera House managed to grow in our city." Indeed. Equally astonishing to me was that yesterday, twenty minutes after leaving our house, we were pulling into parking spot outside Comerica Park. I'm still waffling about whether or not to do a regular baseball blog. Who knows. If I were doing a regular baseball blog, I'd certainly write about how the seats we have this season are making baseball an entirely different game for me. In the past, we'd sat way up and behind home plate. From this perch, the game was spread out below us and we could watch it unfold like an elegant chess match. I grew to love the aesthetics of the skyline and the expanse of green-grass. As my flickr site illustrates, I took hundreds of photos of this view and I think our vantage point imprinted my baseball aesthetics. Now, we're 13 rows away from the field and it's a totally different game. Last year's vista has been replaced by a nearly ground level view of the game. I also have to admit that I'm struggling to take photos I like; on Tuesday night as I looked at my pretty unsuccessful photos, it occured to me that I have no idea how to "see" this vantage point. I'm struggling to find the beauty of crowds and people and flashing advertisements. But down here, I realize that I'm seeing the game more like the players see it and I'm starting to see that this too has its own kind of beauty. If Inge throws to first base, it's coming right at us. I can finally "see" pitches. I see the ball hanging in the air and I lose it in the clouds. And, truth be told, staring at the bottom side of a foul ball heading my way is giving me a whole new level of respect for what goes on out there. Learning about baseball is, I think, about learning how to see it; the combination of baseball and photography has much to teach me. As always, you can see these un-pretty photos on my flickr site.

*My pretty little cocktail was generously described as such. Purists would claim that Chambord and pineapple juice clearly excludes it from the martini phylum.

EEEEEEEE!!!!

EEEEE!!!! The trailer for Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix! EEE!!!! I've not downloaded the desktop widget that "counts down the remaining days, hours, minutes and seconds to the film version of “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix,” to be relased on July 13, 2007"-- or maybe I should say, I've not downloaded it yet.

PS: My brother IM-ed me the trailer I've linked to above and wrote "Wow, I caught that before you did!" Yes, it's true.

Friends in the News

While Monday's events left me speechless and seeking solace in the hand-holding otters, my brilliant friend Cari has been far more articulate. Listen to her moving and cogent response to the events on the West Virginia Public Broadcasting site.
"Listening to news coverage of the Virginia Tech massacre, Dr. Cari Carpenter, an assistant professor of English at West Virginia University, is struck by the choice of words being used by the media, the police, and college administrators." Listen to it here.

I think we could all use 2 minutes of this right now

The news has been particularly difficult this week. Somehow two minutes of watching otters hold hands is exactly what I needed.

Orange Prize short list announced

Here it is:
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie Half of a Yellow Sun
Rachel Cusk Arlington Park
*Kiran Desai The Inheritance of Loss
Xiaolu Guo A Concise Chinese-English Dictionary for Lovers
*Jane Harris The Observations
*Anne Tyler Digging to America
I've read two, got 3 on request from the library, and have just over 2 months to read them. Looks like the odds are with Kiran Desai and, so far, I'm ok with that. I do regret that M J Hyland's Carry Me Down didn't make it-- it's fantastic.

April 15, 1947: 60 years later

About twelve years ago, I began trying to teach myself the history of the Civil Rights movement. This is something I never learned in school or in university or never really heard about until I moved to the US. I remember compiling a list of key dates and I am certain I had "April 15, 1947-- Jackie Robinson breaks the colour barrier in baseball." I thought that by knowing this fact, I knew the importance of Jackie Robinson. I didn't realize how little I knew about him or "the colour barrier in baseball" until a couple of summers ago when we visted the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame. There, I happened upon an anonymous letter addressed to Robinson; it was the most hate-filled thing I had ever seen. It was only then that I began to understand how much hatred was covered up by the phrase "the colour barrier" and saw that the colour barrier did not end, as my neatly typed timeline suggests, when he joined the Dodgers. I've since read about the abuses he faced from teammates, other players and 'fans.' An ESPN article quotes Sports Illustrated's Bill Nack: "Robinson was the target of racial epithets and flying cleats, of hate letters and death threats, of pitchers throwing at his head and legs, and catchers spitting on his shoes." I've also learned that when in the military in 1944, Jackie Robinson faced court-martial charges for insubordination when he refused to obey an order to move to the back of a segregated military bus in Texas. This predates Rosa Park's protest by 11 years. I've also learned about how seemingly small actions can make big statements. As described in a New York Times story Pee Wee Reese recalls "one day -- it was probably in Cincinnati....in 1947 or 1948 -- the attack was so nasty that Reese walked over to Robinson and put his hand on the black man's shoulder. 'Pee Wee kind of sensed the sort of hopeless, dead feeling in me and came over and stood beside me for a while,' Robinson recalled, as quoted in the forthcoming biography 'Jackie Robinson,' by Arnold Rampersad (Alfred A. Knopf). 'He didn't say a word but he looked over at the chaps who were yelling at me through him and just stared. He was standing by me, I could tell you that.' The hecklers ceased their attack. 'I will never forget it,' Robinson said."

I've been watching and reading the various bits of coverage on Jackie Robinson Day and it seems that much of baseball has not forgotten events like that either. I'm realizing that Mr. Robinson did so much more break the colour line in baseball; by transforming a sport, he began transforming a nation. By remembering him today, we are not only reminded of what he did and what he stood for, we are also remided of what we must do in our own lives and in our own communities. As he himself said, "A life is not important except in the impact it has on other lives." Watching all the 42s take the field today, there is no question about the importance of Mr. Robinson's life. Read about Mr. Robinson here, here, here, here and here.

Weekend in Windsor

The sunlight has finally returned to Windsor; it's still sort of chilly but I'm so grateful to see the sun. The return of the sun today coincided with my ongoing attempts to master the nuances of my cameras. The resultant 'Lily a la Vermeer' series is on Flickr. (And no, I didn't dress her up) On a related note, I've been intrigued by the new Panasonic Leica collaboration. Hmm... mighty tempting. I'm pretty smitten with some of the vintage Leicas. This has been a pretty busy weekend but one definite highlight was seeing the 'Willie Bester: Apartheid Laboratory' exhibit at the Art Gallery of Windsor. It's all pretty amazing, moving work and definitely worth checking out. It's on until June 17.

Site of the Year??: MC Nuts does a Wordsworthian Rap

Pinch me. I must be dreaming. Wordsworth and a rappin' squirrel. "I Wandered Lonely As A Cloud has undergone the “rap” treatment in the bicentenary year of its publication to help the next generation of Lake District visitors connect with his work. The new “hip-hop” version of the famous poem and an accompanying pop video can be listened to and watched for free at Cumbria Tourism’s website at www.golakes.co.uk/wordsworthrap It features MC Nuts in the leading role – better known as Sam - the Lake District Red squirrel mascot for Ullswater Steamers." I'm utterly speechless.

RICE on a nice day: Or, how I found this site of the week

Some of you may notice that this is the third blog entry of the day. Some of you might even wonder, "hey... isn't she supposed to be writing today?" Yes, both of these are true. For the record, I am well on my way to meeting my 3 April deadlines and have got a lot done. Usually when I write I write a page, wander, write a page, do something, write a page, do something else. Some of you might have been lucky enough not to have heard me snivel about my allegedly ruptured tendon which has placed me on the DL for a while. A walk to the end of the block yesterday seemed to undo my five days of RICE (A couple of weekends ago Julie and I couldn't remember what the C was for and decided it was Rest, Ice Cream and Elevation; turns out the C is for Compression-- it works pretty well too). And so today I have all but tethered myself to my dining room table. I write a page, check my rss feeds, write a page, recheck my rss feeds, write a page, look at all the external links in my rss feeds, write a page, check my mail, hoping someone will send me something engaging. Thankfully, Alec sent me this neat link to a NPR story about the physics of the Buffyverse which is very interesting. Through that, I found this really great site called Cocktail Party Physics. I'm really excited to see this; I've spent some time in the science sections of bookstores lately trying to find something that will feed my nascent interest in science yet appeal to the English person within. This seems to be the perfect fit. And it has cocktail recipes too ("The perfect nightcap after a long day struggling with QED equations") I'm due to write another page now so will curtail this entry. If you're inspired, send me stuff to read. I have lots of ice cream...

IMPAC Shortlist

The IMPAC shortlist is out.
Arthur and George by Julian Barnes
A Long Long Way by Sebastian Barry
Slow Man by J.M. Coetzee
Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer
The Short Day Dying by Peter Hobbs
No Country for Old Men by Cormac McCarthy
Out Stealing Horses by Per Petterson
Shalimar the Clown by Salman Rushdie
I've read the Barnes and the Barry; both are very good but the Barry is superb. I'm still working my way through the Orange Prize nominees. The Observations by Jane Harris is very readable; I'm in the middle of Lisa Moore's Alligator and have a hard time putting it down.

Hardly Cheddarvision but....

John Lancaster's "Who Owns What in the Digital Age" in the Guardian is a great overview of copyright and books and the whole Google Books project. It's worth a peruse.

"The idea of copyright began as an argument over books; and it is over books, both as intellectual property and as physical entities, that change and contention now looms. The revolutionary impact of the internet on the music and film business is plain to see. Now it's the turn of the printed word. The question is simple, and far-reaching: what's going to happen to books and to the people who write them? And if it was books that first caused the whole idea of intellectual property to be raised, might it not be through books that we can see some promising ways through the murk, towards a future that is not dominated by corporate interests?"

Cheddarvision: The Cheese Stands Alone

Have you ever watched Cheddar age? I hadn't either until I discovered Cheddarvison this morning. If the suspense is killing you, you can watch a YouTube time lapse video. Or you can engage in the "is it real??" debates.
After watching this for three minutes, I think we could start a new phrase: "It's like watching cheddar age." Then again, you could decide for yourself what's more interesting watching cheddar age or watching paint dry?. Or watching hens do whatever hens do during the day. The Guardian has a neat-o article about the dull yet fascinating things you could look at on the web.
PS: Mita just stopped by to suggest that there really should be a webcam with hens AND cheese. Takers anyone?

Opening Day and Site of the Week

Yesterday was Opening Day and it felt so great to be back in the ballpark: sunny and 65 o F. It was one of the best days off I've ever had. It was also the first of our 27 games. I'm still pondering whether I'll do a public baseball blog again; last year proved that I _can_ write about 20+ games but I'm not sure that means I should. In case you're wondering Cuppy Coffee was victorious and Curtis did very well. More photos on flickr. This week's site of the week is Baseball and Jackie Robinson in honour of Opening Day. It's from the Library of Congress and features lots of nifty photos and archival artifacts.

A new side of Ansel Adams: This weekend at the DIA

As members of the DIA, Dale and I go to all their major shows. When we saw they were doing an Ansel Adams show, I think we were both pretty underwhelmed at the thought of going to this exhibit. But, we went yesterday and I was really thrilled to have had my notions of Adams' work challenged and revised. Dale and I had seen a massive retrospective of Adams work at the Art Institute of Chicago a few years ago. That exhibit was massive in terms of scale and scope. Photographs were blown up to the size of Jackson Pollock canvases and the room was massive. After about 15 minutes, I had to flee; it was jam packed and I couldn't see what all the fuss was about. In part, I think my reaction to Adams work was in a rut because I had a hard time seeing many of these photos anew: I had seen so many Adams posters in people's apartments, in calendars and in those campus poster sales that it became hard to "see" them in any fresh ways. Additionally, the focus of the exhibit was his mountain views and I come from the aesthetic school that says, "mountains are very nice, thank you very much, but they do tend to get in the way of the view." Apparently, this runs in the family. I went yesterday with all of these thoughts in my mind and hoping that these ideas could be dislodged. I left feeling excited to see an exhibit that allowed me to see his work anew.
The scale of the DIA exhibit was much smaller. Absent were those massive sweeping enlargements. Instead, works were no more than 2 feet across and many were much smaller. The small scale was inviting; you had to go up to them and look at the works up close. There were the usual mountain shots but they had the largest crowds so I spent my time looking at some of his much smaller works. The works in his Group f/64 series were phenomenal and technically brilliant; the textures, details and precision were stunning. Later, he had done a series of very small things: textures of rocks, water, trees and other natural surfaces which, to me, were more sublime than those massive rocky vistas. His later works are also pretty interesting and, in the days of digital chicanery, works like Adams' "Aspens, Northern New Mexico, 1958" are pretty sublime.
Every time I go to the DIA, there's something there that really gives my preexisting ideas about an artist or art a really good shake. Last time I was there it was the Durer woodcuts; I had no idea they'd be so amazing. They're going to be closing from May until November to finish up some massive renovations (begun in 2001); it will be tough not to have it open for these months but I can't wait to see the new building.

Eeeeeeeeeee!

July 21, 2007!

TOADZILLA!

This just in from the CBC: "A toad the size of a small dog was captured in Australia."
"It's huge, to put it mildly," said Frogwatch co-ordinator Graeme Sawyer. "The biggest toads are usually females, but this one was a rampant male … I would hate to meet his big sister." I don't know what's cooler: a toad that's 40 cm long or the fact that they're calling it Toadzilla. I think it's the name.

Site of the Week: 12 Ways to Pimp Your Office

It occurred to me recently, as I pondered my office furniture one grey morning, that my one of my desks and one of my chairs are almost cool. Looking at them in a glass-half-full kind of way, I began to imagine that they're so old they've moved from outdated to old to ugly and then looped back around to "kind of retro-y hip." Of course, I should specify that this is institutional furniture that I'm talking about so we need to give "hip" a pretty wide margin. Perhaps I am being too generous. I will say that my computer desk has no hope of ever being considered remotely attractive. At least the iMac distracts one's eye from the icky yellow paint and fake wood grain. Amidst my ponderings of furnishings, I stumbled upon this site: 12 Ways to Pimp Your Office. I'm in love with the Milk desk with a built in aquarium.! And the bibliochaise is pretty nifty too with its five linear metres of book shelf space. Can you imagine a library filled with biblio-chaises? Hmmm....

PS: Hello Ken. How are you? This morning I listened to Gomez's "How We Operate" on my iPod. Perfect for a rainy Monday. Talk to you later. H

Poor Jane Austen

Poor Miss Austen. What a tough week she has had. Just the other day I reported about how free copies of Austen's and Dickens's novels were being politely declined by school libraries. And now this: "Jane too plain for publishers." According to a story in the Guardian, "Wordsworth editions has decided the only fully authenticated image of Austen is "off-putting" and have Photoshopped her into something more appealing." Sigh. This seems like a "Dove Campaign for Real Beauty" commercial that needs to be made. If you haven't seen these commericals, you really should. Here's one and here's another. It's tempting to send her an e-card. Every novelist deserves to feel good about herself.

"Schools refuse gifts of 'boring' classics"

Poor Charles Dickens: apparently you can't even give his books away these days. According to the Millennium Library Trust, "Around 50 schools have refused to stock literary works by the likes of Jane Austen, William Shakespeare and Charles Dickens after admitting that youngsters also find them boring." Mr David Campbell, who raised £9million to pay for the books, noted "It never occurred to me that anyone would turn this offer down." Undoubtedly this story will be controversial and there will be much tut tutting about the Classics. But, at the end of the day, I think hurrah for Mr. Campbell for saying "I believe strongly that if just one pupil in each school each year for the next 50 years has his or her life changed by new worlds being opened from reading outside the syllabus, this project will have been worthwhile."

Orange Prize long list announced

If you're looking for great things to read, the Orange Prize list is always a great place to start. I've only read two of these (The Inheritance of Loss and Carry Me Down) and they are both fabulous. I know I'll be trying to work my way through this list in the next few months. Short list will be announced April 17 and the winner on June 6. Last year's list is also worth working through.

Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (Fourth Estate)
Poppy Shakespeare by Clare Allan (Bloomsbury)
Arlington Park by Rachel Cusk (Faber)
*The Inheritance of Loss by Kiran Desai (Hamish Hamilton)
Peripheral Vision by Patricia Ferguson (Solidus)
Over by Margaret Forster (Chatto & Windus)
The Dissident by Nell Freudenberger (Picador)
When to Walk by Rebecca Gowers (Canongate)
A Concise Chinese-English Dictionary for Lovers by Xiaolu Guo (Chatto & Windus)
*The Observations by Jane Harris (Faber)
*Carry Me Down by MJ Hyland (Canongate)
The Girls by Lori Lansens (Virago)
*Alligator by Lisa Moore (Virago)
What Was Lost by Catherine O'Flynn (Tindal Street Press)
The Tenderness of Wolves by Stef Penney (Quercus)
Careless by Deborah Robertson (Sceptre)
Afterwards by Rachel Seiffert (Heinemann)
Ten Days in the Hills by Jane Smiley (Faber)
Digging to America by Anne Tyler (Chatto & Windus)
The Housekeeper by Melanie Wallace (Harvill Secker)

Site of the Week AND Happy Birthday Curtis!

Happy Birthday to Curtis Granderson! This week's Site of the Week isn't Curtis's Blog but I suppose it could have been. Instead it's The Squirrel Place chock-full-o' fascinating squirrel information and curious little drawings of squirrels.

A Lovely Day: A Bridget Jones Inspired List

Degrees centigrade of today's weather high: 22
End rhymes in lyrics heard while listening to my iPod that made me think "did they just rhyme 'taxi' with 'attacked me'?": 1
Totally empty bus seats around me when smelly weird man got on bus: 14
Times said this week: "We're going to have to wash some forks": 8
Weeks waited for box to arrive from amazon.com: 8
Times opened the fridge between hours and 5 and 7 PM and wondered "do we have anything other than cheese and frozen peas?": 19
Lovely walks with nice library colleagues: 1
Times said this week: "Since when do we only own four forks?": 3
Times listened to first minute of the Kaiser Chiefs' "I Predict a Riot" on my iPod before confirming the nifty 'taxi/ attacked me' end rhyme: 3
Seats open right beside me when smelly weird man got on bus: 1
Times said: "Do you have 13 forks in your office at work?": 1
Photographs taken of my red fresias in the most amazing light: 12
Odds that a smelly weird man would sit right next to me when there are a dozen open seats to choose from: pretty slim one would think, wouldn't one?
Library patrons given erroneous information by me: 1 (that I know of)
Times in the past week that I have thought while rolling up my Tims rim; "now this is the winning rim!": 8
Guilt for giving library patron erroneous information: sigh. You really don't want to know.
Minutes taken to realize patron was given erroneous information and to correct it: 7
Centimeters my tulip bulbs have grown in the past 24 hours: 2

Songs that I think everyone should listen to right now, no questions asked: 1 Patty Griffin's "Heavenly Day"
Emails I have sent purportedly written by "Dr. Benjamin Rush": 1
Smelly weird men sitting right next to me for the duration of my bus ride home: 1
People I know who would think getting an email from Dr. Benjamin Rush is very funny: 2
People I know (not including me) who would think getting an email from Dr. Benjamin Rush is very funny: 1
Friends who sent me photographs of themselves that were photoshopped to make them look like Nacho Libre: 1
Friends who were probably very nervous that the above link was a link to the above described photograph: 1
Friends who are probably wondering "who would have had a photograph of them photoshopped to make them look like Nacho Libre???": 2
Times in the past week that I have rolled my Tim's rim and won an opportunity to play again: 9
Times wondered "Am I a smelly weird man magnet?": 19
Email replies Dr. Benjamin Rush was delighted to receive: 1
Friends worried about: 2
Times wondered "what can I make with cheese and frozen peas?": 3
Times thought "today is just too beautiful to be true!": 118
Boxes from amazon waiting for me when I arrived home: 1
Nerdy purchases in amazon box: 4
Times thought to self: "Are the cats stealing our forks?": 1
IM conversations had with cool former library school pals: 1
Things I discovered you can make with cheese and frozen peas: 1 (cracked pepper pasta with lemon cream sauce topped with frozen peas and grated cheese).
Times thought to self: "Elves. I bet we have fork stealing elves": 2
Nerdiest purchase in amazon box: Baedeker's London and Its Environs 1900
Times thought to self: "What would our cats be doing with all those forks?": 1
Favourite literary line about a Baedeker: "And no, you are not, not, NOT to look at your Baedeker. Give it to me; I shan't let you carry it. We will simply drift." Miss Lavish to Lucy Honeychurch in EM Forster's A Room with a View.
People I almost sent this link to with the subject line "Isn't he adorable!?": 8
Years spent secretly wishing to own a Baedeker from the early 20th century: almost 20
Times I broke down and sent this link to people with a note saying "Isn't he adorable?": 3, no, make that 5. Well. Gee. Now all of you know too.
Lunches had with my swell pal Nina: 1
Times I have stared at the dishwasher wondering where the leak is coming from: 13
Times I imagine Dale thought to himself: "I bet she has 13 forks in her office": no comment
Times asked to help someone find "a blue book, I don't know what it's called": None!
Granola bars carefully placed on the counter so I wouldn't forget them because I knew I'd be eating lunch late and would be hungry at 11:30: 1
Pals named Nina I will miss having lunch with: 1
Times thought to self: "He must have forks in his office": no comment
Number of granola bars forgotten on the counter and sorely missed at 11:30: 1
Times thought to self: "What would elves want with our forks?": almost once
Times felt like as if I were negotiating this multiple choice question on an exam: "You've discovered that the small, seemingly spontaneous pools of water that appear in your basement are from your aging dishwasher leaking into the heat register beside it. You also realize that your dishwasher is full and you need to run it. Do you decide: A) I'm sure it's safe to run the leaky dishwasher. I'll just put some paper towels on the floor beside the leak and it will all be fine B) It's probably safest to take every dish out and wash and dry them by hand and call someone to come repair it C) By cracky, I just know those fork stealing elves will fix it overnight! D) Maybe I'll just write on my blog for a few hours and fire nervous glances in its general direction every few minutes and it will all be ok if I ignore it long enough: 7
Times I have answered D in the past three hours: 6
Times I have answered C; in the past three hours; 1
Times I imagine Dale thinking to himself: "I wonder if she'll ever figure out that I have 13 forks in my office. Maybe she'll think it's elves!": no comment
Times I have wondered if Dale imagines me thinking: "I wonder if he'll ever figure out that I have 13 forks in my office. Maybe he'll think it's the cats!": 3
Friends who could guess which of my friends would have had a photograph of them photoshopped to make them look like Nacho Libre: Well... how many of you can guess?

Another Frabjous Day; Or how I spent my lunch hour

For 27 games, this will be our view. Callooh! Callay!

O frabjous day: Curtis has a blog!

After a long day of writing, I staggered to the TV hoping for some intellectual numbness. One tiny buzz of the remote later I was transfixed: there were the Tigers playing the Yankees in a pre-season game under a sunny Florida sky. I won't admit to how excited I was so see my little Tiger friends again nor will I admit to having exclaimed "Callooh! Callay!" Let's just say I was pretty happy to be transported to summer if only for an hour. Now, as the murk of night sinks in and more cold and snow creep into town, baseball and sun seem light years away. But then, thanks to Dave, there's this link to Curtis's blog and I can almost imagine feeling sunshine again. I chortle in my joy.

My kind of town

This morning-- our last morning in Chicago-- I woke up with the sun pouring into our hotel room on the 26th floor. Our 3 day break had gone by too quickly and I realized that I finally understood Willa Cather's short story "Paul's Case." How does one go back to one's regular life after a few days of art and skyscrapers and amazing food (like pumpkin, sage and cream pizza!) and tasty wine and interesting theater? But thankfully, my affinity with Cather's Paul ended there. And here I am in my own house again and happy to see my cats, water my plants and return to all that daily stuff that is still pretty nice. Nevertheless, last night after we returned from a really interesting performance, we were sipping some wine, nibbling remarkable Spanish cheese and gazing out over the nighttime skyline. 'Does it get any better than this?' I wondered. And then, as if to tempt fate, I turned on the tv to check the weather and discovered the Westminster Kennel Club was being broadcast. I guess the answer is yes. More photos on Flickr.

Subject line: "Something for your chilly office"

Ah, bless my brother for sending this link along. It's a Hello Kitty lap warming blanket that plugs into a USB drive. Wow. 2 weeks ago I would have purchased one _for sure_. I also discovered, via this email, that there's a site called Hello Kitty Hell. Check out the Hello Kitty yogurt maker, the Hello Kitty airplane, the Hello Kitty Crop Circles and the Hello Kitty Visa Cheque card. Ohh... and there's a Hello Kitty Scooter too. And Hello Kitty poptarts. Wow... I'm speechless. Perhaps it's curling in the background as I write this but, where are the Hello Kitty curling brooms and bright pink curling rocks? "Hurry Hard Hello Kitty! Hurry!"

Site of the Week: "You May Well Consider the Vocation of Librarian"

This gem is from the 1946 "Your Life Work" series. In this one, you are asked: "Are books your friends?... Do you like people? And, do people like you? Do you like all kinds of people? You do? That's wonderful. Because when you have these two important qualifications-- love for books and love for people, you may well consider the vocation of a librarian." Disturbingly, it appears that the minute you become a librarian, you become an octogenarian. And you avoid making eye contact with the public. And you seem kind of embittered. And you don't talk into phones: you just hang up on people who call with questions. But, remember, our work is vital and essential and we will make "a salary comparable to similar professions." On a side note, I think I own the same blouse as one of the featured librarians; make what you will of that.

I did this twice: who knows...

Take the Quiz here!

Take the Quiz here!

"A ninja hand claw! Why thank you!"

This in from Cindy: Bad Gift Ideas for Valentine's Day. Nothing quite says "I love you!" like 32 ounces of Wolf Urine or a Rat Zapper. There's something here for everyone on your list.

Enough about snow squalls, let's think about cupcakes

This just in from Dale: the Cupcake Courrier: "a new product designed to transport and/or store cupcakes and muffins in a stylish carrier."

February: searching for the smallest clues that spring is near

There's Todd Jones on my Tigers calendar peeking out from behind my books like Wiarton Willie. Does he see his shadow? Is spring near?

After a couple of glorious sunny days, we're back into grey and I find myself obsessively looking for signs of spring. I acquired 3 crocus plants on Friday and am fascinated by how quickly they're growing and blooming. To me, the crocus is a much more reliable harbinger of spring and I hold little hope I'll see any in my garden soon. Thus, I am transfering my desire for spring onto these forced bulbs. You too can monitor their progress on my flickr site.

Windsor/ Detroit on DNTO

Sook-Yin Lee and Definitely Not the Opera did an excellent profile on Windsor and Detroit and the fascinating cultural world of a border-land. You can listen to it here. Whether you live here or not, it's really worth listening to it. Particularly intersting is the segment on the Heidelberg Project, a "project recognized around the world as a demonstration of the power of creativity to transform all those whose lives it touches. The Heidelberg Project offers a forum for ideas, a seed of hope, and a bright vision for the future." While you're listening to this Podcast, you can subscribe to DNTO's great podcasts.

I'm still not complaining...

But let me just say 4 things: it's cold; I'm cold; I'm tired of being cold; I tired because I am cold. But I'm not complaining because I remember a note I left to myself on this very blog on August first. Because it's been cold, I've done a lot of reading and writing. I'm still working through Ross King's very good "The Judgment of Paris," finished another novel (that wasn't very good) and am working through the pile of New Yorkers that we've acquired. I also got back on my page a week novel writing pact. I've also caught up on reading my rss feeds where I ran into two very interesting articles. This one on Penguin's launching of a wiki novel and also this one on the reading habits of people on trains. And, since I'm describing this on IM already to someone right now, I will also mention we bought more cheese in Detroit over the weekend. Of particular interest was a pear and caramel stilton; mighty tasty. In case you were interested in our other grocery purchases, we didn't buy black licorice Scotty Dogs at Trader Joe's because while I was thrilled at the cute Scotty dogs, I wasn't wowed by their being made in black licorice. Dale, who really likes black licorice, wasn't as charmed by the cute Scotty dogs. I did succumb to Trader Joe's Ginger Shortbread Squares which are very very tasty; the dancing Scotsman on the box however seems not to be doing any Scottish dance I've ever seen. It is possible that he is doing "Scottish Dance Dance Revolution"(you can thank Dale that phrase). Thus ends this installment of Heidi's cold stream of consciousness. (Later: see the cheese at my flickr site... it's very pretty. I feel like Wallace and Gromit)