The Next Dark Age
We're in it Now
Weekend Assignment #361: Give It Up!
Weekend Assignment #361: Give It Up!
Bonk: The Curious Coupling of Science and Sex, by Mary Roach
Mary Roach wrote Stiff
This is an excellent example of a book that I never would have read if it hadn’t been picked for my book club. Which is fine, because that’s why I participate in a book club. I don’t read much science; my non-fiction habits are very much in the History section. So Roach’s style – very chatty and maintaining a sense of humor -worked for me. Although admittedly, she had a bit too much fun being punny.
There was some pre-20th Century medicine. So. Ew. Good thing I wasn’t listening to the audio book. I don’t know how you’d even do the audio, as there were so, so many footnotes. Many of them were worthy of a look, so I wouldn’t want to cut them out.
I learned more than I wanted to know about Viagra, and re-attaching a severed penis. I learned that many paraplegic and quadriplegic people can have orgasms, which was used in a study to determine exactly what is the source of the orgasm. (I understood the conclusion to be that the orgasm is primarily an involuntary muscle response. If your bladder still works and your digestive system still works, your chances of being able to have an orgasm are decent, even after a severe spinal injury.)
Obviously, this title isn’t for everyone. But I am glad I read it.
760 Blankets
I went to my first Project Linus event this morning. Table after table of ladies (one or two guys and a couple of kids) creating, assembling and perfecting blankets for kids who are sick or otherwise in need. Four hours later, I believe the number of completed blankets was 760 (which is so many that I think I must have heard wrong), included those that were completed at home and brought in for the event.
The crowd was very encouraging for a newbie like me. I picked up a couple of ideas and tips and rather more confidence in my goofy stitches. I finished one project today (that is now in the washer) and got a good start on another. But now I really have to finish Bonk 
About the Red Cross
After 9/11, when we all wanted to do something and Clooney and Bono were featured in a telethon, we all donated lots of money to the American Red Cross. Some months later, there was a big scandal because the Red Cross had used some of those funds for purposes other than the direct aid of the victims and families of the attacks.
The way I remember it, the Red Cross thought they had enough resources to adequately support those families and were funding for the next thing.
There is always a “next thing”.
I didn’t mind at all. I trusted the Red Cross to use my money to take care of the people who need it the most. If they thought the funds were needed elsewhere, then they were needed elsewhere. And if I didn’t trust them with my money, I would give my money to a different organization.
I like the Red Cross because they know what will be needed, they know how to prepare, they know how to communicate and they move. Here is their press release from earlier today. It talks about the Japanese Red Cross, the West Coast groups, the global communication network and the best ways to track down your people so that we know who is safe and who is still in danger.
BTT: Multi-tasking
The Question Was:
Do you multi-task when you read? Do other things like stirring things on the stove, brushing your teeth, watching television, knitting, walking, et cetera?
Or is it just me, and you sit and do nothing but focus on what you’re reading?
(Or, if you do both, why, when, and which do you prefer?)
Which is funny, because I have been talking about making the jump to audio books in order to have the luxury of multi-tasking.
First, it was about making more blankets for Project Linus. But I found that I could also put away the laundry, feed the cat – heck, I’ve even done my nails again.
That isn’t going to last.
Because I’ve been “reading” and doing other things at the same time, I don’t feel quite so much like a selfish slacker. And I am getting through more books. Here is something funny:
Seven-plus shelves of TBR books. So I go to the library to find books that I already have in the audio version. So I am moving those books off of my TBR shelves, spending time at the library that I would otherwise spend in bookstores, and I am not spending more money on books.
Win, win, win.
Things I Overheard While Talking to Myself, by Alan Alda
Hawkeye Pierce’s second book takes its title from the many, many public speaking engagements he has taken on. A lot of them were college commencements. He intersperses the texts from his “talks” with stories of their origins and other things.
Alda is popular, I think, because he comes off as an optimistic, happy, all-around good guy. But he is also extremely passionate, curious and committed. To advances in science, for example. He talks much more about his work on Scientific American: Frontiers than on M*A*S*H.
The chapter about Richard Feynman is a good example, and perhaps the best in the book. Alda read some of Feynman’s work
Note on print vs. audio: Alda reads the book himself, which rocks. But the text is italicized to highlight his actual speeches, to differentiate them from his other thoughts. It was sometimes distracting trying to make that determination while listening.
While this wasn’t as interesting to me as his first book, I found it to be a worthy piece.
The Paczki
In my office, there is a monthly calorie-fest in celebration of the birthdays. As today is also Mardi Gras, someone went to the bakery for King Cakes and Paczkis.
Do you know how popular Paczkis are in Chicago? Made the Huffington Post. And no kidding, I saw them at Target last weekend.
My friend, Jodi, is a Chicagoan living in Milwaukee. She posted on Facebook this morning:
“Dude… it’s Paczki Day and I haz no Paczki. Second year in a row : /”
She now has a flood of comments, commiserating or taunting her.
My friend Karen asked if anyone knows where to get a low sodium Paczki. No kidding. One of her commenters noted that the line outside Deerfield’s Bakery was around the block this morning. I would say Deerfield’s is about the best bakery in my area. And check out this Paczki Day Menu.
They don’t appear to ship to Milwaukee.
So tomorrow begins Lent, which my brother would like to remind the world is not meant to be our own personal diet plans. He said that the fifth year that I gave up French fries.
Fine, then. I am giving up nothing.
The Help, by Kathryn Stockett
Book 14
As is my new habit, I checked out an audio copy from the library of a book that has been sitting on my shelves for months. While listening to this book, the tension was building and the readers were too slow (Southern accents, you know) and I would drop what I was doing, pick up the book and read ahead. This happened several times and I didn’t even listen to the end of the last disc. I read it.
1962 – 1964 Jackson, Mississippi. Miss Skeeter, a young recent graduate is back home, bored and restless. Her high school friends are married, with young children and upwardly mobile husbands. Bridge club, ladies’ league, blahblahblah.
Aibeleen is a maid for one of those friends. Minny is a maid with the local social outcast. The three of them team up to write a book telling the “stories” of twelve maids. How Skeeter came up with the idea, how she convinced Aibileen to help her and how and why Minny rallied the other ladies in the community around them. And the fallout.
It was like Mean Girls meets Upstairs, Downstairs set in the middle of the Civil Rights Movement. It was about the extremely unique and complicated relationships between the black ladies in the South and the white families whose homes and children they cared for. But even beyond the racial commentary and the social class commentary, it said something pretty serious about the way women treat each other.
This is the best book I have read since..since..The Killer Angels.
Beginning to Look Like Mordor
I only took a few more pictures when I visited Kilauea last month. Lots of steam, lots of ash. And now, we have actual lava. And I read somewhere that the ground literally opened up – maybe that is the crack the shows here – and 150 mini-earthquakes registered in the park area.
Toy Show
Weekend Assignment #360: Toy Show
Extra Credit: Is there a particular toy from your childhood that you especially remember as a favorite?
. That was Grover.
books were particular favorites. A couple were recently re-issued in “read aloud” editions that I have been picking up for Alex. Lovely hardcover books with a few more illustrations. He has been digging them.
were popular in my house when we were older
, by Anna Elizabeth Bennet. Long out of print, we still have the old paperback version, but I haven’t seen a decent hardcover copy for less than $75. Not worth it. 
The Next Dark Age 