Frugal Chariots

I have been playing with Netvibes. And I realized that there was a podcast of Inside Europe. So now I can listen to (and remember to listen to) the whole thing any time instead of the ten minutes/week I’m currently getting from NPR on my way to work on tuesdays. I’ve been looking around, and have spent the last couple of days listening to a bunch of NPR, BBC, PRI, PBS… and I’m trying to listen to RFI, although I’m only catching every third word or so.The perspectives on big world … Continue Reading

I watched Pulp Fiction last week for the first time in years. I think I laughed a whole lot harder than I did as a teenager.The library had a big general sale this weekend (the kind where all the books are either piled randomly or still in boxes with no discernable organization… ) and I brought home this handful:

Your Linguistic Profile:
55% General American English30% Yankee10% Dixie5% Upper Midwestern0% MidwesternWhat Kind of American English Do You Speak?

Yay! Jessa over at Bookslut linked to an interview with Elsie Aidinoff about The Garden. Fabulous book… glad to see it getting good attention.

The Thin Place is wonderful. Read this excerpt from the first chapter if you don’t believe me.I didn’t know that Gate of the Sun was already a movie. I’m having trouble with the novel. I know next to nothing about Palistinian history… I don’t even have a feel for the geography. And I know I should be looking things up as I go along, but the novel is too compelling and beautiful to pause every five minutes to google something. I should take notes… things to look … Continue Reading

Of course there will be controversy. And there SHOULD be controversy. Differing accounts, opinions. Shouting, possibly. Lying. Personal desires, memories, feelings mucking up the works. It doesn’t really matter to me that Frey lied (especially since I never had any intention of reading the book anyway…), but the fact that he was endorsed and worshipped so completely does make me a little queasy. If he hadn’t been built up so much his exposure would be (appropriately) a much smaller story.When did people start believing that Objective Unvarnished Truth … Continue Reading

All that reading never found me a job, nor scored me any friends (though both came in time). I’m not sure if it really ever made me any more intelligent. Yet it did ease the loneliness. It did broaden my perspective on people and the world. I found it easier to live with my problems and in my own skin. I discovered that from a literary perspective there really is no such thing as not fitting in.This little essay struck a chord with me… “reading” and “formal education” are almost entirely seperate concepts in my head and, … Continue Reading

I was sittin’ in the bathtub just countin’ my toesWhen the radiator broke, water all frozeI was stuck in the ice without my clothesNaked as the eyes of a clownI was cryin’ ice cubes, hopin’ I’d croakWhen the sun came through the window, the ice all brokeI stood up and laughed, I thought it was a jokeThat’s the way that the world goes ’roundThat’s the way that the world goes ’roundYou’re up one day, the next you’re downIt’s a half-an-inch of water and you think you’re gonna drownThat’s … Continue Reading

Aw… another incredible book finished at midnight. I stumbled around brushing my teeth, turning out lights, trying not to wake up Andrew, and fell asleep thinking about Esther Summerson and Dorothea Brooke and why I like them so. Esther, particularly, should not be believable. She’s a Dickens heroine, and therefore much much too good to be true. Not only is she too good, she’s too good a housekeeper. Triumphing in organization and cleanliness and compliments to her family and nursing when required… this should grate a little. And yet it didn’t bother me. … Continue Reading

We went to the Aquarium and I got to see PENGUINS! I just can’t get over how goofy they are. So much fun to watch.And, in all, a very nice day in Boston. I read some of my book on the way down too… less than 200 pages left in Bleak house. It’d be great to finish it before the Masterpiece Theater production starts showing on PBS.