from a cab we had a 5:00AM alarm to catch: oh, lol, it pretty much was. Cesar Chavez and Valencia

from a cab we had a 5:00AM alarm to catch: oh, lol, it pretty much was. Cesar Chavez and Valencia

riding my bike over sideshow rubber elsewhere in the city from time to time: eh heheh hehe
laying in bed at 3 last night listening to a side show that sounded like it was in our alley: 😦
lovely bit of dark tower lore
super neat paper
16th book of 2024: “You Like it Darker”, by Stephen King ( https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/201242757-you-like-it-darker)
There are a few authors I simply pre-order without question—Jason Pargin, Kelly Link, Emily Wilson in the past year alone, but always King. I was going to save this for vacation in a few weeks but ended up with more time on my hands so it came off the pile.
I particularly liked "The Answer Man”

15th book of 2024: "White Cat Black Dog”, by Kelly Link.
I particularly enjoyed the last one, “Skinder’s Veil”
I’ve never actually read any actual Brothers Grimm, nor have I read (or even heard of) Lang’s “The Blue Fairy Book” which I just learned about in a review of these Link stories, so I think they have to both go on the pile.

junior’s TK teacher gave him a old craft mobile in a book from 1983 (when I was his age)




Homer still holds up because he repeats this same narrative echo in the form of advice over and over:
“Hey, lesser God, go and give that mortal these instructions.”
“Sure thing. Hey, you! Zeus says, ‘instructions’ (verbatim).
“Gee thanks. Hey, wife or friend or whatever, Zeus says ‘instructions’ (verbatim), what do you think?”
“Damn, you better follow ‘instructions’ (verbatim).”
Reader: You fool!
“I’m no fool!” [disregards instructions, dies]*
14th book of 2024: “The Iliad", by Homer, translated by Emily Wilson.
I really enjoyed Wilson’s “Odyssey” and “Oedipus Tyrannos” translations and had hoped to get to this last fall when I put it on the to-read pile. Alas.
I’ve never read any The Iliad before, and it does kinda go on a bit (really? that’s your thoughts on the Iliad? sure why not, is “it was good” better?).
Wilson manages to sneak in some slapstick amid all the brutality.
(previously: https://mastodon.social/@gravely/103030875431089669)

RIP Alice Munro
I’m a few stories into “Family Furnishings, Selected Stories 1995-2014”, the companion to “A Wilderness Station”, which I read a year ago, and expect to finish it before summer is out.