I’m back from a weekend at the family homestead in Baltimore, and as my mother and I were out for a walk along Falls Road and around about, we found ourselves face to face with the Flying Spaghetti Monster, in all his noodly glory. I don’t know what impresses me more: the seamless integration of […]
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Amanda
Hmm. Apparently, lots of walking — especially if you’re a fast walker — adds years to your life. Case in point, New Yorkers’ unusually high life expectancy: Scientists who study urban health argue that it’s not just that we walk more—it’s the way we walk that has a surprising spillover effect on life spans. Researchers […]
Like several of my fellow Baltimoreans, I’m a bit sad that the enduring mystery of the person who leaves roses and cognac on Edgar Allen Poe’s grave every year has apparently been partially solved. It was one of those random cool things about my home town, like the Bromo-Seltzer Tower and Homicide: Life on the […]
Nothing says "fall’s on its way" (not to mention "twitchy nervous wreck," "constant state of paranoia," and "no more sound sleep for you") like the return of the dreaded house mice to one’s apartment. They’re back, just as the nights start to get bearably cool again. My landlady’s having the pest-control guy investigate where they […]
Herewith, the answers to the Seven Last Lines meme: Edith Wharton, “Roman Fever” (guessed by Dorothea) John Milton, Paradise Lost (guessed by brd) Arthur C. Clarke, “The Nine Billion Names of God” (guessed by Mike) Sir Philip Sidney, Astrophil and Stella 45 (“Stella oft sees the very face of woe”) (the only unguessed one) James […]
At the end of an article on theory in knowledge organization that I read for my cataloging class, I found (and circled) this paragraph: …Another area rife [sic] for theoretical development is the extensive work of cocitation and coword analysis. This work describes relationships among scholars, essentially mapping intellectual relationships within knowledge domains as represented […]
It’s still way too hot. I’m avoiding homework. Hence, the conditions are perfect for starting up a meme. I’d been thinking about literary last lines, and started pulling books off the shelves and scribbling down my favorite final lines, and the result looked too much like an amusing quizzy thing not to share. So here […]
I don’t suppose anyone knows where the Met’s movie-theater live broadcasts are going to be screened next season? I’d like it if they were coming to a theater near me, but so far, the screening locations seem to be a closely guarded secret. Or maybe they’re still signing movie theaters up. The lineup looks interesting, […]
Charles Simic was just named Poet Laureate. (For the first time in years, they picked someone whose poems I enjoy reading.) So now seems as good a time as any to point to a couple of his poems: Watermelons Green BuddhasOn the fruit stand.We eat the smileAnd spit out the teeth. Autumn Sky In my […]
There exists a Library of Congress subject heading for "roller disco." Unsurprisingly, when I searched WorldCat for it, eight of the ten results were first published between 1979 and 1981. You can also catalog works on roller disco using a combination of the subject headings "Roller skating" and "Disco dancing." There’s an entire MARC fixed […]