May 18, 2013

He thought a little and then said:-

“I have found the Zoological Gardens of service to many of my patients. I should prescribe for Mr Pontifex a course of the larger mammals. Don’t let him think he is taking them medicinally…”

-The Way of All Flesh, Samuel Butler

This quote is the epigraph of The Candle in the Wind, the closing book of T.H. White’sOnce and Future King. It drove me crazy for half a day because I’d read those words before but couldn’t place it, and the Internet saved me.

I’d read The Way of All Flesh some time last year, after trying to read it two years ago and giving up half way. I didn’t dislike it, but wasn’t sure what I was getting out of it. However, stumbling across this epigraph really colored the White novel in a bright way, and in hindsight, really deepened the Butler book.

Similarly I’m currently reading Salman Rushdie's Midnight’s Children, which I had also started reading and abandoned maybe four years ago after I read The Enchantress of Florence and fell in love with Rushdie, but then quickly realized you can only take him a bit at a time. HOWEVER that was a good choice because now, as I’ve since read Tristram Shandy, I’m enjoying this book sooooooo much more.

I love reference.

May 13, 2013 • 1 note

Amazon buys Goodreads: We’re all just data now

Amazon makes another brilliant business move – and again looks determined to monopolize book publishing

So this is old news, but.

What am I to do? I’ve used Goodreads since 2008, although I’m not sure why, I don’t use it for recommendations. I just like keeping track of my reading. 

April 17, 2013
CASTOR AND POLLUX BLOW ME TO BERMUDA

The Once and Future King, T.H. White

Why wasn’t this read to me as a child? Why didn’t I know that this included The Sword in the Stone until this week?

(To be fair, I was given a few knightly books as a youngster but somehow shied away from them, the covers were too impressive. Even this book, I really really expected it to be very, very dry. Why do I never learn not to judge a book by its cover?)

Why isn’t the movie streaming on Netflix and now I will have to hunt down our old VHS at my parents’ house? The book is so much better, and so utterly delightful, but ah it is still fun to intertwine it with my memories of watching the movie as a young Wart myself. Interestingly the movie doesn’t color how I picture the characters quite as much as I thought (except for Ector, who in my mind is a combo of the Disney character and Brian Blessed’s character in Black Adder) and Merlyn, of course is a combo of the Disney portrayal and Ian McKellen, I dare say), which is actually a plus, although it is distracting comparing every now and then how I image them to how they are done a la Disney.

April 16, 2013

George Tooker’s The Letter Box

Georgetown University Gallery Director and Professor Evan Reed discusses George Tooker’s The Letter Box in Out of the Ordinary.

trompe-l'oeil, ceci n'est pas la vie

April 15, 2013

Happy National Library Week

It’s really a public/school library celebration. Neither AALL or SLA has anything about the celebration on their homepages (although admittedly, on ALA’s homepage it’s only part of a link/image slideshow).

However that doesn’t stop me from getting really excited about it in my private law library. Srsly, ermahgerd BERKS! and databases and information and the interwebz.

I’ve established a tradition of sending emails with literary tidbits that some people, at least, think are delightful, and aside from vendor-visits (free food!), having some internal events as well. This year we’re having a haiku raffle.

BERKS!!!

April 1, 2013

J. R. Poisson v. Etienne d'Avril

“The facts are insignificant.”

May I suggest calling your friendly legal database rep and having them help you find the citation for this historical Arkansan opinion, or maybe Kilkenny Catt v. State.

March 27, 2013

The Great First Sale Doctrine: "Copyright Ruling Rings With Echo of Betamax"

I’m a strong believer in the rights of the first sale doctrine, and its sheer physicality. I heart used books and used clothes.

It’s interesting how this is also the go-ahead for the Costco/Omega watches too. (Admittedly I’m not 100% sure how I feel about that, although I understand it legally that they are the same concepts.)

March 26, 2013
So I spent the wkend watching a lot of Hell’s Kitchen on hulu. I watched a bit of Gordon Ramsay’s “the f word” as well. Then checked out his Cooking for Friends book from the library (digitally!). I guess I’m on a chef kick. This is the “broccoli,...

So I spent the wkend watching a lot of Hell’s Kitchen on hulu. I watched a bit of Gordon Ramsay’s “the f word” as well. Then checked out his Cooking for Friends book from the library (digitally!). I guess I’m on a chef kick.

This is the “broccoli, Stilton, and pear soup” from that book, and that is actually all the ingredients, aside from the broth. (I used Gorgonzola  and spent the prep/cook time muttering to myself “I do like a bit of Gorgonzolaaa.”) It was much classier before I burned the pears. This was rather rich due to the cheese, with the pears a lovely, lovely balance, and the problem with that is it’s so delicious but so rich you feel like you can’t eat more, but you want to keep eating. Maybe next time I’ll use a milder, non-blue cheese, like a chevre.

March 21, 2013
I do love my pies.

I do love my pies.

March 19, 2013

to boldly Gogo where no Didi has gone before

Since I don’t follow Broadway, I just now came across that Sir Patrick and Sir Ian are coming stateside in the fall to do Waiting for Godot.

I took a course in college and read Beckett rather intensely for a month then, and still quote bits of Godot, namely blurting out “quaquaquaqua” at random times.

Do you know how excited I am?????????? I really really really hope we get tickets.

That’s where we’ll go, I used to say, that’s where we’ll go for our honeymoon.

It’s all very fitting, since we would actually like to go to Dublin for our belated honeymoon, but apparently it shall come to us via a bit of Beckett. And that this bit of Beckett just happens to come in the form of Picard and Gandalf, well, I’ll try not to be too upset about that.