Month: March 2008

Book talk: “Intuition”
March 13, 2008 Uncategorized

Book talk: “Intuition”

* Today is Sunshine‘s birthday! Go wish her a happy day!* IntuitionAllegra GoodmanDial Press Trade Paperbacks, 2007 (ISBN 0385336101 / 9780385336109)Fiction, 400 pages First sentence: All day the snow had been falling. Book Description: Sandy Glass, a charismatic publicity-seeking oncologist, and Marion Mendelssohn, a pure, exacting scientist, are codirectors of a lab at the Philpott Institute dedicated to cancer research and desperately in need of a grant. Both mentors and supervisors of their young postdoctoral […]

March 12, 2008 'riting, randomness

Technological tradeoffs, or why a book goes with me everywhere

I think it’s true that we often don’t properly appreciate things until we’re forced to do without them – but sometimes the enforced break is worth it. Most of us are old enough to remember when we couldn’t get in touch with people, or be reached by them, 24/7. Some people didn’t have answering machines or voicemail, and if you called them while they were already on the phone with someone else, you’d get a […]

March 11, 2008 Uncategorized

Ten on Tuesday with BONUS: Spring, not Winter!

According to the calendar, spring’s just a few weeks away! However, I’ve lived in places where that was totally meaningless, since snow and cold were still hanging around in late April. It’s pretty meaningless where I live now too, since Southern California is essentially seasonless. However, this week’s Ten on Tuesday topic is “10 Things You’re Looking Forward to in the Spring,” so let’s see what I can come up with: My birthday! I might […]

March 10, 2008 'riting, randomness

Weekend Assignment #206 – “Happy Birthday!”

The Weekend Assignment is posted each Friday at Outpost Mâvarin; a roundup of responses goes up the following Thursday, so if you’d like to join in, you’ve still got some time! And while you’re at it, go over and wish Karen a happy birthday! Let’s get right to it: Weekend Assignment #206: My birthday is coming up on Monday. In the grand tradition of the Beatles and my mom*, I magnanimously declare this to be […]

March 9, 2008 Uncategorized

Scraptacular 3-9

New in Google Reader this week In My Mother’s Room, via Elana Centor on BlogHer Girl Sailor, via Girl With PenI’ve missed Literary Feline this week – hope she’ll get caught up on her (book) reading and be back soon! I can’t let this pass without comment, since Television Without Pity was one of the first online communities I ever joined, and it’s still one of my favorite sites. Its founders took it to the […]

March 7, 2008 'riting, randomness

It’s the same old song, and it’s getting older

One thing that can make a person particularly aware of the passage of time: songs from your own past – which you didn’t think was all that distant, maybe 20-some-odd years ago – are getting played on the “oldies” radio station. We’ve noticed tunes from our college years cropping up on K-Earth 101 (KRTH, LA’s “greatest hits on earth” station), and it looks like it’s official: 1980’s songs are the “new oldies.” “New oldies” sounds […]

March 7, 2008 Uncategorized

Friday Fill-ins 3-7-08

This week’s prompts went up early, so my answers are on time for once! Friday Fill-Ins #62 1. Ahhhh, it’s so nice to get home from work after a long day, and take my shoes off!.2. One of my favorite things on my desk or bureau is the jewelry box my stepson gave me a couple of Christmases ago.3. Japanese Cherry Blossom time in Washington DC is something I’ve never seen (yet) – but since […]

March 6, 2008 Uncategorized

Reprise: The “Page 123” meme

I’ve done this book meme once already, but it’s still quite popular on the blogs, and it can be done more than once, so I’m playing it again, Sam. You probably know the rules already, but just for the record: 1. Pick up the nearest book.2. Open to page 1233. Find the fifth sentence.4. Post the next three sentences.5. Tag five people and post a comment here once you post it to your blog so […]

Book talk: “One Good Turn”
March 6, 2008 Uncategorized

Book talk: “One Good Turn”

One Good Turn Kate Atkinson Back Bay Books, 2007 (ISBN 0316012823) Fiction, 448 pages First sentence: He was lost. Book description: On a beautiful summer day, crowds lined up outside a theater witness a sudden act of extreme road rage: a tap on a fender triggers a nearly homicidal attack. Jackson Brodie, ex-cop, ex-private detective, new millionaire, is among the bystanders. The event thrusts Jackson into the orbit of the wife of an unscrupulous real […]

March 5, 2008 Uncategorized

Basically, it’s a question of style – a clothes call

When I was much younger, I was much more of an artist than a writer; and when I say “artist,” I mean “someone who liked to draw and wasn’t too bad at it.” I particularly liked illustrating and sketching clothes, and while I didn’t imagine myself becoming a fashion designer, fashion illustration was an appealing career prospect for a few years. That didn’t last, but it did help plant the seeds of an interest in […]

March 4, 2008 Uncategorized

Ten on Tuesday 3-4: 10 Favorite Drinks

One fun thing about participating in weekly memes is that you may find yourself writing about topics that might bever have otherwise crossed your mind. I don’t think I’d be thinking or talking about my favorite drinks if it weren’t this week’s Ten on Tuesday prompt. I “don’t drink” much, at least in the sense that most people mean when they talk about “drinks,” so this will probably be a very boring list. As usual, […]

March 4, 2008 Uncategorized

The Marvelous Month of March!

If you get these posts in your feed-reader or e-mail (and don’t come here to comment), then you probably haven’t seen the two buttons at the top of the sidebar about this month’s Big Events: The 3 R’s turns one year old on March 16, and its blogger (yeah, that would be me) turns 44 on March 29. The “Blogoversary Countdown” button has been on the sidebar for several weeks, but the “Birthday Party” one […]