The two things in the subject line are related, I promise.

I've been an annoying contrarian for a really long time. I went to college in Los Angeles and was so tired of hearing about the entertainment industry (purely by osmosis) that I rarely watched tv or movies and never went to a taping or stood outside the theater (which was across the street ( Read more... )

Several years ago I wrote that the world could stop manufacturing Christmas-themed stuff and it would be years before we noticed. We're almost at that point with Halloween stuff, and I didn't even set foot in a Spirit Halloween.

Sex Wars: A Novel of Gilded-Age New York, Marge Piercy

To be honest, this was a little disappointing. My favorite Piercy ( Read more... )

We had a month's worth of rain in one week in September and nothing since. There's no rain in the 10-day forecast, either. Leaves are dropping because it's so dry. Here are some photos to pass the time.

I think that I had seen this building in Richmond (Virginia) before, but I couldn't find a photo in my archives.

( Read more... )

It was back in June when I decided to buy a bicycle for the task of picking up our vegetable share every other Tuesday. It only took me four months to actually enact the plan. I guess that I didn't get the current bike until late July, but still. I am slow. I am also still slow on the bike, wearing out the brakes on the downslopes so that I don't ( Read more... )

Trust, Hernan Diaz

I have a theory that some writers mess with structure to draw attention away from the flaws. The first part of this book is a book about a Wall Street tycoon and his wife in 1920s New York City; their fairy-tale life is cut short when she succumbs to mental illness and is institutionalized in Switzerland. The second part of the ( Read more... )

I had a work retreat from the 16th to the 18th, at which I caught a cold that lasted about a week. I did recover in time for our annual trip to the Richmond (VA) Folk Festival, which was held early this year to avoid conflicting with Jewish holidays. We took it easy (Brent is still not feeling 100%) and only saw three performances: Lonnie Holley ( ( Read more... )

I don't have many words these days. Too tired, too stuck in a rut, too many words already on the internet--take your pick. Instead here are some random photos from the past few weeks.

The woman formerly known as Twfkat has a taiko ensemble that played at the College Park Aviation Museum. It was my first visit to the museum and reminded me that I've ( Read more... )

This is pretty sad, but I've mostly read just one book this month, and I didn't finish it. I should have loved I Am a Cat, by Natsume Sōseki, which was advertised as very funny and told from the perspective of a stray cat who is taken in by an English teacher during the Meiji period in Tokyo. Unfortunately, I don't know enough about the Meiji ( Read more... )

Since Tuesday, we've had picture-perfect summer weather: high temperature just below 80, lots of sun, slight breeze. All of DC has had to take a break from bitching about August swamp weather; it's a miracle.

I finally saw a Cybertruck on my commute Monday morning. The back half of it was wrapped in ads, although I wasn't close enough to see for ( Read more... )

From Springheel_Jack

1 What was the first piece of furniture you bought?
Probably a bed, or at least a mattress

2 What proportion of your meals do you cook?
Most of them. Brent and I split dinner duty and get takeout about once a week.

3 Foaming hand soap or normal hand soap?
Normal. I got some bulk castile soap that we don't like, which is unfortunate ( Read more... )