On Wednesday, we went to Salem, Massachusetts, for my birthday. I have been living on the east coast for over 12 years, and I haven’t made the pilgrimage to many of the famous American literature shrines yet, so this was my chance to start. I teach The Scarlet Letter every fall in my American lit [...]
Archive for May, 2008
The Definition of Irony
Posted in travel on May 30, 2008 | 9 Comments »
I’m a … Sprinter?!
Posted in cycling on May 27, 2008 | 4 Comments »
The Tuesday Night World Championships was tonight (because, you know, it’s Tuesday). Last week we raced in a freezing cold rain–I actually wore the same combination of base layer, knee warmers, and heavy gloves that I wore in the early spring races in March and April. This week we had some ominous thunderstorms [...]
Lazy Me(me)
Posted in Books on May 27, 2008 | 2 Comments »
I have three books to write about, and I will, but I have been having trouble motivating myself to write. I have some things to say about The Mosquito Coast, Heart-Shaped Box, and The Big Sleep, and some of those things might even be mildly interesting. But alas, I lack motivation. So, to fill in [...]
Go Back to Your Room and Mope, Emo Boy
Posted in Books on May 14, 2008 | 4 Comments »
I am not the cheeriest person around. I take a sort of perverse joy in the unseemly, and I find many darkly hilarious things in Naturalist writers like Frank Norris. I feel deeply uncomfortable when faced with the bright, the bouncy, the perky, and the peppy. My favorite Christmas decoration is a huge spray-painted sign [...]
At Least I Finished
Posted in cycling on May 10, 2008 | 3 Comments »
The Sterling Road Race was today, about two and a half hours away in Sterling, Massachusetts. Although I had to get up at 4 to get up in time for my race, it was not a bad trip at all. Making things even better was the great, efficient organization of the race. They have been [...]
I’m Back
Posted in cycling on May 6, 2008 | 6 Comments »
The first of the Tuesday Night World Championships was tonight, and I found myself getting nervous and uptight all day long as I thought about it. This is really a stupid thing to get nervous about, since the Worlds are training races, and don’t count for upgrade points or anything. Nevertheless, I look [...]
I Love Umberto Eco
Posted in writing on May 3, 2008 | 4 Comments »
Last night Dorothy and I went to Manhattan to see the Return of the Three Musketeers at the 92nd Street Y. this was a reunion of Salman Rushdie, Umberto Eco, and Mario Vargas Llosa, who had appeared together at another literary gathering a few years ago and took to calling themselves the Three Musketeers, at [...]
