The winter storm that’s in the process of sinking the Eastern seaboard only grazed us, with a couple days of rain and one night of snow. By sunset tonight the snow had mostly melted, and the last of the clouds were scurrying over the mountains on their way to a rendezvous with Maryland or wherever.
Still, the day was cold, and I made a point to stay indoors and consume warming liquids.
This is what the Australians call a “potato cod,” though in fact it’s a grouper. It’s one of a large pack that likes to hang around divers.
That’s in one area of the Barrier Reef where divers were once allowed to feed the fish. That was decades ago, and the fish fed by the divers are long dead, but their great-grandchildren still cluster around hoping for a handout.
Interesting how the memory lingers through the generations in a species otherwise not celebrated for its mental prowess.
Lots of meetings with friends this holiday week, almost all associated with food. Above you see homemade soft pretzels served with chile con queso and a fine dry red, the cooking bossed by Darcy and assisted by her large family, who very kindly adopted Kathy and me for long afternoon.
Christmas Eve featured an afternoon Vivaldi concert in Santa Fe, preceded by a lunch with some friends. Dinner featured tamales and posole, both holiday foods here in New Mexico.
Xmas was celebrated traditionally, with friends at a Chinese buffet. Nice BBQ ribs.
Whether your holidays include tamales and BBQ ribs or not– and I feel a little sorry for you if they don’t— we wish you the best of the holiday season.
I haven’t posted here since the middle of October. Instead I’ve been, well, knocking down a series of piñatas that have come floating up one after another. Slow-moving targets, but each requiring a fair amount of energy to knock down In the last few weeks, I have: Finished drafting HEAVEN IN FLAMES. (Will probably require […]
So today I filed the paperwork— actually an online form— claiming my share of the Anthropic settlement. Anthropic is an company which has trained its AI, called Claude, on vast numbers of books, song lyrics, and other stolen copyrighted matter, and which has now offered its victims $1.5 billion in compensation— the largest copyright case […]
I visited my physical therapist this afternoon. We were born in the same town (Duluth), and went to the same junior high school (Ordean). He was a year behind me and we didn’t know each other. My family left town, and he went on to become a ski jumping champion and twice a member of […]
My novella “Elegy for Angels and Dogs” is reviewed on Black Gate by Steven H. Silver. Also reviewed is my story’s precursor, Roger Zelazny’s “the Graveyard Heart.” “Elegy” was the longest story ever published in Asimov’s, and may still be.
