I won’t say there’s an upside to the hellish hot heat that recently made its presence felt here in Toronto, but there is some recompense: summer is also picnic and potluck season. ‘Tis the season for bocci ball, barbeques, and eating too much; for laying about on blankets, again eating too much, and shooting the…
Month: May 2012
The hellish hot heat
It is 7 am as I begin this post. I’ve been awake since before 5 am (MRI on my messed up knee–one of the much sought after middle of the night appointments. I only waited 2 months for it! Have you ever had an MRI? It’s rather like being in a mysterious torture device in…
Coma nap
I think I’ve finally done it–I’ve figured out the so-called power nap. You know, the one that lasts 20 minutes and leaves you feeling ever so refreshed. The one that doesn’t even require an alarm clock, it’s so right and so natural. Lately, I’ve been relying more on the power nap and less on the…
How to write a book review of the greatest novel in the history of English literature
I finished reading George Eliot’s Middlemarch weeks ago. I put it off for years; I suspected it would be the best book I’d ever read and I wanted to have that experience to look forward to. I like rationing what I know will be superb, brilliant, superlative* books. I also feared what would happen to…
More on the Trollope/Dickens affair, or, why I’m more dubious than ever about biography
In the interests of following up on my entirely non-rhetorical question about what Trollope meant to Dickens, I’ve been doing a little reading. I’ve consulted Victoria Glendinning’s 1992 biography Anthony Trollope and ended up with a little bit of new information and a whole lot of new frustration. I’ll explain the latter shortly. But here’s…
A few updates
Hi there. This morning, I threw out my lower back (something that I’ve been susceptible to, on and off, since my early 20s–it’s always something completely innocuous that does it, such as sitting in a chair or (like this morning) untying my shoelaces). I’m comfortable enough, for the moment, sitting very upright in this computer…
The cocoa powder has met its match
Last week, I posted about Operation Empty the Cupboards, mentioning some pantry items I was long on in sheer volume and short on good ideas about. Andrew gave me an excellent idea for dealing with both the nori and the quinoa, while I successfully used up some peas in a green split pea sunflower pie…
Jam and Idleness 