2003-08-19 - 2:40 p.m.

If I Don’t Update

Ever since I started looking at my stats, I’ve notice that, on the days I don’t update, I have six readers. If you don’t count my daughters and me, that leaves three – a dismal-looking record. So, even though I have nothing of importance to say, here I am again, slightly the worse for wear. If I had my “druthers,” I’d just go to sleep for a few hours, but that would solve nothing.

I did go over to the office yesterday and retrieve my purse and all the stuff. I checked with my young assistant, and sure enough, Word had saved the document I had left on the screen (because that was the day the power went off). Since I had been entering telephone messages, we would have been left without some phone numbers. It was a strange weekend without all my stuff, but I survived.

The Tail of the Tip-off by Rita Mae Brown and Sneaky Pie Brown. The latest in the mystery series featuring not only Mary Minor Haristeen (known as Harry), but also her pets: Mrs. Murphy, Pewter, and Tucker Tee. I always get the feeling that Rita Mae writes these as “easy stuff” to help finance her historical novels and her specialty material (Loose Lips, Bingo, or Venus Envy. (Like Evan Hunter and Ed McBain.) The previous book was sloppy – the kind of writing you don’t get from someone who is proud of her writing ability – and I wondered whether she was farming them out to apprentices or something. (If I have to read sentences more than once to figure out what they mean, then I am annoyed at being interrupted in my reading.) This one, however, is much better written. The plot was sharper as well, though there was a loose thread that she never picked up. If you like light mysteries, if you like stories of small towns and cats and dogs, if you prefer novels without controversy, I think you will like these. You could even read them out of order – in case you see a good buy at a used bookshop.

Biography Magazine is wonderful this month, as usual, but has some material that might draw a wider audience. Following an article about J.K. Rowlings, the travelogue section visits Harry Potter type sections of England and Scotland, especially those old castles and churches that provided the locations for the films. Then the recipe section (which I usually ignore) had a dinner that might be served at Hogwarts, including lamb stew and raspberry trifle. (No pumpkin juice, though.) The whole thing appealed to my sense of whimsy.

While everybody is laughing at the idea of an actor like Arnold Schwartzenegger becoming governor of California, let me remind you that the concept is not new. No, I don’t mean Ronald Reagan. I was watching “Little Women” the other night, not with Winona Ryder, not with June Allyson, but the really old one with Katharine Hepburn. The actor playing Mr. Brook was one John Davis Lodge, brother of Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr., who was governor of Connecticut from 1951 to 1955. No, I didn’t vote for him; I voted for the first time in 1961.

Current Reading: Leap of Faith by Queen Noor
Good Diary Today:
From the Old Folks' Radio: "Wonderful World" by Tony Bennett and kd lang (yeah, the same one was recorded by Louis Armstrong)

previous - next

Pretty Clever, Huh? - 2008-12-08
Deja Vu... - 2008-12-07
Morally Wrong - 2008-11-25
The Difference - 2008-11-18
Writer's Block? - 2008-11-17