...a lot of Twain recently, and also re-reading Albert Einstein's The World As I See It. With nods to Jimmy Carter, Nelson Mandela, and the Dalai Lama, reading those two really make me wish that the current era in history would produce a few more eloquent and cosmopolitan humanitarians of undeniable stature. We need some people who have the ( Read more... )

Here in Virginia, it seems that every vote really does matter. Let's hope the recount sees the end of George Allen and keep our fingers crossed for Tester. That said, I don't think I've enjoyed an election this much in my life.

As if there weren't already enough reasons to vote...

VA-Sen: Voter Suppression in Virginia

Yes, the people making these calls, putting out these fliers, and hosing these ballots really do think we're stupid. Go prove them wrong. And if you get the chance, send them to jail too.

A few reviews, fiction first:

The Town That Forgot How to Breathe by Kenneth J. Harvey - Ugh. I picked this up purely because of the interesting cover art, and put it down for good about thirty pages later. There's the seed of a good story here, and the descriptive passages occasionally shine, but the prose is often barely first-draft quality. ( Read more... )

It's all been a blur, with just way too many things happening all at once. The good news is that Melinda's mom, who was near death two months ago due to an extremely complicated stack of medical conditions, is on her way to a full recovery. Mel took leave of her job to do 24/7 home care, the rest of her family has been helping out, the doctors at ( Read more... )

Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman by Haruki Murakami is out, go get it, it's good. Twenty-four short stories, some reprints but plenty new. My only gripe is the title, which feels like a marketing brain fart. A lazy tag-along on Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, maybe? I suspect that the American publisher came up with it rather than the author, as ( Read more... )

Katherine Harris's latest blurt is making the rounds. She says that separation of church and state is a lie, and that God picks our elected officials (among other ravings). I thought that she picks our elected officials. And I very much doubt that she is God. What will she believe when she loses her current campaign, I wonder ( Read more... )

I saw my first real-life coyote a couple of days ago. I was sitting on a little balcony attached to an apartment in a condo complex. The balcony looks out on a small artificial lake (complete with built-in overflow drain, just like a bathtub), a highway, and a miniature golf course. The coyote trotted out of the tiny patch of woods at the end of ( Read more... )

I'm enjoying the hell out of Halldor Laxness's Independent People (which surprises me a bit, since Icelandic sheep farming is not really an interest of mine.) Best line so far:

Two sons were drowned in a distant ocean, and one son and a daughter had disappeared to a land even more remote, America, which is farther than death.
Yeah, I feel like ( Read more... )

Everywhere I go these days, I see the word 'apophenia'. Could it mean something, I wonder ( Read more... )