Dispatches since 2005
The journal
Announcements, new editions, travel, diving, cooking and the working life of a novelist — 187 entries, all of them here in full.
November 26, 2007 · 128 words
Uh-oh
According to an article in tomorrow’s New Scientist, we may have doomed the universe simply by observing dark energy“At the quantum level, whenever we observe or measure something, we reset its clock and stop it decaying – something known as the quantum Zeno effect. Our measurement of the light from supernovae in
Read entry →November 23, 2007 · 72 words
The Turkey Has Landed . . . Houston, Are You Drooling?
Skin crispy all over . . . Note that the drumstick is beginning to fall off even before I have laid so much as a fork to the epidermis. Kathy deserves credit for the meal, really. All I did was make the Highly Dangerous Stuffing the night before. (Sausage, bacon, butter, hard-boiled eggs, onion, garlic, […]
Read entry →November 22, 2007 · 82 words
Thank You, David Chase
From David Ceska’s Thanksgiving piece:With The Sopranos finale as precedent, whenever I or any of my writer colleagues are stuck for an ending, we’re now empowered to just stop the thing in mid-sentence somewhere near the end and just walk away. If someone calls us on it, we can point to David Chase’s “artistic” exampl
Read entry →November 22, 2007 · 46 words
Dark Side of My Ass
So while we’ve been getting the house ready for our holiday company, I’ve been listening to XM Radio, and they’ve just proclaimed Dark Side of the Moon the greatest rock ‘n’ roll album of all time.Sergeant Pepper was number two.How fucked is that?
Read entry →November 22, 2007 · 581 words
Gumbo Rocks!
For those celebrating Thanksgiving on Thursday, have a lovely one. For those not celebrating the holiday, have a nice Thursday, wherever you are. If you are celebrating Thanksgiving, you’re going to get sick of turkey pretty soon and need an alternative. And if you’re not celebrating Thanksgiving, you’ll need something
Read entry →November 21, 2007 · 270 words
Ojo Caliente
I’ve been watching a forest fire all day. The Ojo Peak fire has been roaring away on the southern end of the Manzano chain, producing huge clouds of white smoke. The fire is on the peak of the mountain and it’s very difficult for firefighters to get to.But more astonishing is the fact we’re having […]
Read entry →November 19, 2007 · 460 words
. . . And Speaking of Cab Calloway
Listening to Cab Calloway’s daughter a few nights ago— look here for details— brought to mind the night, some time back, when we went to Pat and Scott’s place and took in the classic all-black 1943 film Stormy Weather. The film was a sort of who’s who of black talent for the period. Fats Waller […]
Read entry →November 19, 2007 · 140 words
Land of Hope and . . . What’s the Other Thing?
Last night, listening to NPR’s news quiz, “Wait Wait Don’t Tell me,” I learned that Britain’s new PM, Gordon Brown, has suggested that the country needs a new slogan to set it on its feet and send it hurtling into the 21st Century.The old slogan is “Land of Hope and Glory,” which is, as Peter […]
Read entry →November 19, 2007 · 319 words
Dynasty
This weekend we sojourned once again to Socorro, the Athens of the Southwest, to check out Chris Calloway. This isn’t the football player, or the wrestler, but the niece of pioneering band leader Blanche Calloway, the daughter of Cab Calloway, and the god-daughter of Lena Horne. “Chris,” by the way, is short for “Chris
Read entry →November 16, 2007 · 99 words
Surfer Dude Susses Reality
Two brain-warping stories from the World o’ Science. (Try to hear a theremin playing for the rest of this post.)First, folks at the British Interplanetary Society are spending the weekend talking seriously about warp drive, based on the theories of Miguel Alcubierre.Second, in a story with a headline that ought to have
Read entry →November 15, 2007 · 451 words
Off the Grid
I used to hang out with a shockingly talented group of people. (Not that I don’t now, of course.)But over the years people move or fade away or just lose touch. In the old days that would pretty much be that, but nowadays there’s Google to help you keep up with the old gang.Every so […]
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