Dispatches since 2005
The journal
Announcements, new editions, travel, diving, cooking and the working life of a novelist — 101 entries, all of them here in full.
May 12, 2006 · 2,334 words
Log of the Eclipse (4)
Monday, March 27, 2006 Hell As I mentioned in another post, we were planning on joining a tour sponsored by Sky and Telescope Magazine, which would include not just the eclipse but nine or ten days of sightseeing. The tour was organized by TravelQuest, which specializes in astronomical destinations. I’d never taken a t
Read entry →May 9, 2006 · 2,098 words
Log of the Eclipse (3)
March 26, 2006 The Day of Marvelous Things Since we’re dealing with history in this post, a note on the founding of Byzantium. Byzantium was founded by Prince Byzas of Megara, who was himself a son of Poseidon, and by his mother Keroessa a grandson of Zeus and Io. In founding the colony, Byzas consulted […]
Read entry →May 8, 2006 · 119 words
Postcards of the Damned
I am struck with admiration for the Post-Rapture Post. After you’re raptured up to heaven, you will of course want to communicate with the damned souls stuck on Earth, perhaps urging them to last-minute repentance, perhaps just to send a little “nyah-nyah-nyah” to the friend or neighbor who scoffed at your faith. The P
Read entry →May 6, 2006 · 3,330 words
Log of the Eclipse (2)
March 25 The Day of Excess Thanks to jet lag and the sleeping pill I’d taken before bed, I got about ten hours’ sleep, and woke as fresh and ready to meet the day as ever I am. Which is not saying much, actually. I walked out onto our terrace for another look at the […]
Read entry →May 1, 2006 · 2,178 words
Log of the Eclipse (1)
A log of our recent journey, compiled from hasty notes scrawled at the time: “For the most banal event to become an adventure, you must . . . begin to recount it.” –Sartre, Nausea On our journey to Turkey, we were at the mercy of American Airlines. We were using frequent-flyer miles (American lets you […]
Read entry →April 28, 2006 · 349 words
CarpetMania
Our beautiful carpet has arrived. It’s wool-on-wool, meaning there’s a wool pile on a wool “frame” (warp and weft). It’s a “Sumak,” meaning the pile covers the entire carpet. The pile is hand-knotted into the carpet using the double Turkish knot, with something like 250,000 knots per square meter. The carpet took the w
Read entry →April 24, 2006 · 355 words
Daniel’s On A Roll
I’d like to give a shout-out to my friend and colleague Daniel Abraham, who has been blessed with a brand-new daughter and a published first novel in the same month. How cool is that? And how much cooler would it be if he won the Nebula Award for which he’s been nominated? We in the […]
Read entry →April 19, 2006 · 123 words
Eclipse Pics
I’ve published my photos of the solar eclipse to my web site, here. I would like to provide photo neep for those interested in such things, but the fact is that these pictures were pretty much sheer luck. I was using a homemade solar filter constructed of cardboard, duct tape, and Baader AstroSolar Safety Film, [&helli
Read entry →April 16, 2006 · 170 words
Jet Lag
I’m back from Turkey. The solar eclipse was amaaaaazing, and probably the most staggering cosmic event I ever hope to see. (Anything more staggering would probably involve large asteroids hitting the Earth.) But I’ve seen a lot more than a solar eclipse. I’ve seen the Dervishes whirl. I’ve flown in a balloon over the l
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