I wrote a while ago about Catherine’s first ballet lesson. I’m pleased to report she is still enjoying her Saturday mornings immensely, learning to skip, curtsey, play possum, and maybe do some dancing as well. But she’s not the only one who enjoys these weekly outings. Hallam and I have begun our own little routine, too. The three of us …
Paradise, Missouri
See that map? That’s Paradise, Missouri. Yep, there’s actually a place called Paradise, Missouri. It’s in Clay County, in between Kansas City and St Joseph. I should explain: my new novel is set in a town called Paradise. And Paradise is (or at least was) also the title of the book. I’ve been chuckling to myself for the past five …
New Words
The Washington Post has published the winning submissions to its yearly neologism contest, in which readers are asked to supply alternative meanings for common words. The winners are: 1. Coffee (n.), the person upon whom one coughs. 2. Flabbergasted (adj.), appalled over how much weight you have gained. 3. Abdicate (v.), to give up all hope of ever having a flat …
Patriotic?
Just my opinion, obviously, but I thought the right-wing jubilation that met Chicago’s failure to bring the Olympics to America in 2016 was pretty disgusting. The rabid, frothing pundits of Fox News and AM talk radio hate President Obama so much that the failure of anything he’s associated with – like, you know, the whole country – is now something worthy …
Drink Less Wine, Save the Planet
One unanticipated advantage to the new, booze-free regime: a significant decrease in the amount of recycling we’re producing. This was last week: Whereas this week:
Save the Date – Reading at Orr Street Studios
I’m pleased to announce that I’ll be giving a reading from the new book at Orr Street Studios on Tuesday, November 10, as part of the new “Hearing Voices” season. I did this a couple of years ago and it was a great experience – engaged audience, warm atmosphere, and cool space. Mark your calendars – it would be great …
How to Sell a Million Books. In a Day.
So Dan Brown’s latest sold over a million copies on its first day of release. Good luck to him. I read The da Vinci Code some years ago and enjoyed it immensely, apart from the fatuous caricature of an English academic, which suggests that Brown has never actually met an Englishman. He seems to think that we speak as if …
Reading Pynchon. Or not.
I idly remarked in this post that I didn’t seem to be reading much fiction these days. Part of the reason for this is that reading other people’s fiction can mess with my head a little while I’m writing… but I’m not writing much (except for this blog) at the moment. But my struggles with Thomas Pynchon’s latest, Inherent Vice, …
Blogging and Jogging
Here is a wholly unauthorized copy of a cartoon that recently appeared in the New Yorker: It struck me as being weirdly apposite. This blogging lark is a marathon, you know. It never ends. Always one more pithy observation (or something) to be made. Anyway, apart from last night’s little rant, it’s been a few days since I’ve posted anything …
Sweet Chilli Sauce and Economic Theory
Still reading Matt Crawford’s book, and still thinking. One of the unexpected pleasures of this summer has been our garden. For the first time we tried to grow some stuff, and, rather to my surprise, it worked. We have more chillis than we can ever use. We harvest our little plant every couple of days and still they just keep …