Very gradually I’ve found my way in to some fiction, even to novels, again, after a long time doing without. It’s hard to account in clear terms for getting away from this kind of reading in the first place, and likewise hard to account for coming back to it. It’s not a matter of having time for it, exactly. This kind of reading — even (or so it often felt) when it was reading that had to be done for class — has always meant neglecting other business I should, on one ground or another, be about. But it is partly a matter of practical opportunity in a different way, since I’m terribly cautious these days about buying books on one hand, and on the other rarely now feel, and even more rarely follow, any inclination to poke around in a library. What’s had to happen is some alignment of two conditions, my minimal-effort access to free or very cheap stuff and my attraction to stories conceived & written more than a few generations ago. With the internet, of course, minimal-effort access to free or very cheap stuff covers a very wide range of stuff. And a lot of it, especially stuff more likely to be under copyright, is junk or appeals to quite specific sensibilities. Then there’s the great store of stuff that is no longer subject to copyright — if you want it. The missing connection has been in that I haven’t really wanted the older, uncopyrighted stuff for a while. Until recently. Thinking a bit, as I read, about why that is, what’s changed or is changing.
Advance
I turned 40 last weekend. This weekend, in a juxtaposition not to be interpreted too feelingly, my grandmother — last remaining grandparent — is dying, age 92.
What next
Dear Editors,
I like your magazine, generally, and I’m currently a subscriber. I thoroughly dislike this cover on the newly mailed issue, though.
— UPDATED 12/16/09 —
What in the world
Dear Editors,
I was a little taken aback to pick up a copy of your magazine in my parents’ home, today, and find what I thought terribly superficial and even sloppy reporting in Alisa Harris’s article about American Anglicans and the Vatican’s recent provision for Anglican churches’ transference.
Mob action
My friends at Brennan + Company are standing for recognition as keepers of one of Maryland’s Outstanding Blogs — that’s a ‘Mobbie’ from The Baltimore Sun. If you don’t think the whole thing is too damn silly and your conscience doesn’t threaten to bug you because you voted without knowing anything about the rest of the field of candidates and because, heck, you don’t even live in the United States, let alone Maryland, do go vote for them. Take my word for it, the Brennan folks are due acknowledgement; they’re talented and hardworking and friendly. And you can walk in the door from Main St. in Catonsville six days a week and find that out for yourself.
Factum, -i
My regard for this remarkable filipina compels me, against every other inward inclination, to offer here for general audience ten more or less disconnected facts about myself. If I weren’t a number of times lately the beneficiary of her excellent conversation, if I didn’t take such pure pleasure in her wit, if I hadn’t learned a great deal from her in the time I’ve known her or didn’t expect to learn still a lot more (about … well, try a topic, she’s encyclopedic … indeed, one might almost say, she’s all over the map … which after all is a very Catholic way of being), this post certainly wouldn’t appear. But that a woman’s friendship, allowed a very little time, can lead a man to do things contrary to his own judgment is hardly news.
Business communications
Wells Fargo:
Please cancel my credit card account, Visa # ****, immediately.
I can hardly believe your company billed me for not using this account. I’ve been penalized for paying off one of my credit cards and not closing the account before I had reason to use it again. Brilliant.
I have no doubt that the inactivity fee is listed in a schedule of fees that I have read at some time. I accept responsibility, and I’ve paid the bill. You have my money and you have your fine print. What you won’t have from now on is this customer.
Sincerely,
Paul Bowman
Thoughts [2]