the coriolis effect

People are charging upwards of 50 dollars for a good-quality used edition of Gordon Korman's I Want to Go Home. What's up with THAT. Its only the favorite book of my childhood, but yeesh- $128 dollars? and to think...I nearly bought it a couple of years ago...

In 1942, Andre Breton called Salvador Dali a "neo-falangist night table".

"The mouse that sings like a canary at the Chicago Industrial Home for Children in Woodstock was in captivity again yesterday after a chase through the kitchen of the home. Oscar Allred, manager of the home, who calls the musical rodent "Mickey", captured it on Thursday but it escaped on Friday when he was trying to transfer it from a fruit jar to a wire cage....The mouse usually sings several minutes without stopping. It starts with a soft whirring trill, the chirps coming so close together that they provide a continuous tone, according to Mr. Genach. This grows louder to an intensive crescendo and then jumps two notes higher for another crescendo. Staccato chirps, Mr. Genach said, intersperse the song at times....
People who hear the mouse usually say, "Well, what do you know about that?" and shake their heads. Among those who went to hear it yesterday was an 86 year old man, who declared he had never seen anything like it before."
- Chicago Daily Tribune, December 14, 1936

I have become caught up in the choir rumor mill, and it is a weird, impressive, and utterly disconfiting thing. for the first time I'm realizing, or have been reminded, how little separation there is between public and private here as a function of the social space being our living space. nothing embarassing, or extremely scandalous;) just, different. Very Tricky, given my life.

but really, whats more important is the Post article today that has Kerry slipping. because people are concerned about the war on terrorism and Iraq. because OBVIOUSLY, Bush winning the election because people think he's more capable in these areas will lead to him further handling them brilliantly so they are no longer problems.

or instead, since having them around would be proven not just convenient, but extremely lucrative (like it hasn't been already?) I wouldn't put it past someone (if they haven't already) to plan on keeping them around, to worry our darling populace into voting. let's repeal the 22nd Amendment! Roll out the Third Term!

Perusing my bookshelf tonight was like sliding through nearly forgotten states of mind: confused but unbothered (like when I go snorkling, I think, floating around in a murky purpleness but within reach of air), Banville and Ford Madox Ford, voyeuristic (Roth, Irving, Updike, Baxter's The Feast of Love), and just plain relaxed (Fitzgerald, Bradbury).

I'm in wonderful Washington with 21 years of myself. If 400 pages of reading weren't waiting for next week, I'd dust off the Nancy Drews.

After a week in California, I think its nearly decided- I just may have to go to grad school, simply to go to school at Stanford.
but what the heck is a utilikilt, and why did I see two men wearing them?

I have no faith in my authorial voice now.
but thank you Ross:)

so in cali we ran into John Kerry under the Golden Gate Bridge in the process of fulfilling one of my smaller childhood dreams. Maybe if I went to the moon I wonder who I would meet.