Dispatches since 2005
The journal
Announcements, new editions, travel, diving, cooking and the working life of a novelist — 230 entries, all of them here in full.
December 31, 2008 · 293 words
Feast of the Which?
On Sunday I dragged myself up from my sick bed to host a holiday party. (Kathy actually did most of the work.) Since it was the holiday season an’ all, I checked an ecclesiastical calendar to find out which of the Twelve Days of Christmas we were celebrating. Turns out it was the Feast of […]
Read entry →December 24, 2008 · 329 words
Taqwacores
Two words: punk Muslims.Five years ago, young Muslims across the United States began reading and passing along a blurry, photocopied novel called “The Taqwacores,” about imaginary punk rock Muslims in Buffalo . . . The novel is “The Catcher in the Rye” for young Muslims, said Carl W. Ernst, a professor of Islamic studi
Read entry →December 24, 2008 · 408 words
Reboot! Reboot!
(“Reboot! Reboot!” sounds like something a cartoon frog would say, doesn’t it?)“Reboot!” is also what Thomas Friedman is recommending for the USA. (He had a lousy flight from Hong Kong, apparently. )Landing at Kennedy Airport from Hong Kong was, as I’ve argued before, like going from the Jetsons to the Flintstones. The
Read entry →December 23, 2008 · 362 words
Proofs
Last month I wrote at some length about copy-edits, their uses, and their pernicious effects on the fragile psyches and self-esteem of writers. “After the copy-edit it comes always the page proofs.” (Which I actually finished a couple weeks ago, but let’s pretend it was just yesterday, okay?) Page proofs are yet anothe
Read entry →December 23, 2008 · 480 words
Music of the Season
On a bitterly cold night last Saturday we motored up to Santa Fe to catch a baroque Christmas concert at the Loretto Chapel. The Loretto Chapel was at one point the only Gothic structure west of the Mississippi, and was built at the behest of Archbishop Lamy, the aristocratic, autocratic priest who drove wretchedly poo
Read entry →December 20, 2008 · 99 words
This Is Not a Game
So here are the US and UK covers for This Is Not a Game. The virtue of both is that you can see them from across the room. The original US cover— which you can still see at Amazon— started out very much like the UK one, except with chartreuse instead of silver being the […]
Read entry →December 20, 2008 · 107 words
Monofilament
We’re not putting up a tree this year. Because we have a kitten. I was explaining this to our friend Patricia, and she said, “You could just secure it with monofilament line.” And I said, “That’s a real mean way to treat a kitty.” And then we looked at each other for a moment of […]
Read entry →December 19, 2008 · 124 words
Just Another Long Day at the Blood Pharm
Blood is in short supply. We don’t donate as often as we used to, and a lot of people with tattoos and piercings can’t donate on account of hepatitis. And a lot of blood received by people in need— particularly wounded soldiers— is blood that’s been sitting on a shelf for a while.So our friends […]
Read entry →December 18, 2008 · 1,338 words
Reviews Too Late: Le Chevalier d’Eon
Le Chevalier d’Eon is a fantasy/horror/occult anime series ostensibly based on the life of a real character. Charles-Geneviève-Louis-Auguste-André-Timothée d’Éon de Beaumont was a member of le Secret du Roi, a back-door diplomatic initiative carried out by Louis XV, who could not trust his own ministers to carry out hi
Read entry →December 17, 2008 · 173 words
Cure For A Snowy Day
It was snowing when I got up yesterday, and kept on snowing till nightfall, so I thought it was a good day to make a hearty, warming soup. What I made was Sopa Mexicana, or Mexican chicken soup. Into my homemade chicken stock I threw onions, zucchini, bell peppers, celery, and lots of Mexican herbs […]
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