I know I should be carving this in a tree instead of putting it here, but please don’t forget (you know who you are!) that this coming Saturday, May 7, 2005, 10:00pm EDT (08 May 2005 02:00:00 UTC)is The Time Traveler Convention.
Just finished Andrea Barrett’s Servants of the Map—a great collection of stories following the lives of scientists, explorers, thinkers and tinkers and all those who love them or are loved by them. As always, Barrett writes as eloquently about two hundred years ago as she does about twenty years ago. The common thread is that her characters share an innate curiosity about life and living things, about how this world we inhabit was formed–both in a scientific and emotional sense.
Sharing characters with Ship Fever and Voyage of the Narwhal, Barrett weaves together these stories, which present us with a beautiful quilt of exploration and discovery.
Norman Mailer has reportedly sold his archive to the University of Texas for the tidy sum of $2.5m “despite his fears for the political future of the state”:
“I have always had the most intense feelings about Texas, both pro and con,” he said. “In a funny way what I am saying about America that I love it and hate it when it goes bad on me, I can say about Texas. The country has been living over a huge cultural divide – half the people in America want more freedom, more liberty, more moral flexibility and half the people in the country thinks its gotten much too wild and loose and has to be closed.”
The Raw Story has posted an exclusive interview with Rep. Jim Moran (D-VA). Here is just part of what it says:
Raw Story: Do you really think the president is sheltered from those he’s pitching his plan to?
Moran: The only actual news that he reads is the sports section. All the national news, all the opinions that he gets have been filtered, and it goes to his daily briefing that has already been pre-screened to give him what he wants to read. He doesn’t read any books, and he doesn’t talk with people that don’t already agree with him. He’s surrounded himself with ideological sycophants. And the biggest ass-kisser of all is Dick Cheney.
My mother, who grew up on an apple orchard, taught me the importance of trees. When I was a child, I believed that they spoke to me (especially those with the singing leaves–the birches, the poplars). I mention this because today is Arbor Day (in my state) and so I will celebrate trees.
poem for 4.29.05:
The Forest
by Susan Stewart
In Bryce Canyon in Utah. The spot where I am standing and looking up is called “Wall Street” because of these pines that grow there so tall.
Ah, the big hearts of the record companies! California Libraries Flooded With Lame CDs:
Sloan was particularly puzzled by the 16 copies of albums by Samantha Mumba and Mark Wills that he’s scheduled to receive. “I do all the CD buying for the library and I’ve never heard of [these people],” he said. “We already have three copies of the Ricky Martin album. Do we really need to have 19 now?”
the flowers that bloom on pachysandra smell like lilac or hyacinth.
with a boulder for a backdrop.
by the mailbox.
look at them all.
myfanwy collins 