That’s “A Bar at the Folies-Bergère” by Édouard Manet. I spent a bit of time thinking about it recently because of a cut-and-paste error. It started when the guys over at SFFAudio pointed out that the podcasts of UCSD lectures are available for a limited time. Their intention was to direct us to quickly grab the MP3s (before the were… Read more →
Category: Storytime
Aside
No blogging tonight. I got distracted. In fact, I think probably not even enough sleep.
My Daughter The Furnace Technician
As I type this, my daughter is hanging out with the service technician who is here to make our furnace work. She’s fascinated with his work, and told me she’s learning how to fix the furnace so we don’t have to call the guy next time. Fortunately we have retained power, so the pellet stove is keeping the house warm,… Read more →
…and that’s a wrap.
2008. In many ways a very positive year. In many ways a year I’m glad to see the back of. (I might be even more positive if this weren’t day three of Vacation Days That Are Ruined By The Annoying Head/Throat Cold, and were a blizzard not currently threatening my ability to leave the house tomorrow and my chances of… Read more →
The final meme of 2008
Saw this at Margo Lanagan’s blog, and felt like doing it. Things you’ve already done: bold. Things you want to do: italicise. Things you haven’t done and don’t want to—leave plain. Started your own blog – you are reading it, running strong for more than a couple of years Slept under the stars – in a Roman ruin outside Ouchy… Read more →
Merry Christmas
I hope you all have a good holiday, get to spend some time with your loved ones, to look back on the good parts of the year that’s ending, and find yourself filled with pleasant hopes for the one about to unfold. (I’ll go back to cynical and grumpy in a day or two, don’t worry.) Read more →
Winter Storms
Just got power back after the first outage of this storm. Winter power outages make me unreasonably angry. I think this partly because I lived the first 20-some years of my life somewhere that winter brought a lot more snow and ice than we get here, and it wasn’t just taken for granted that any storm would result in power… Read more →
Aside
I’m not sure who I feel more pity for: my poor wife, who suddenly has to spend (at least) three unanticipated extra hours in Pearson with our four-year old daughter, or my poor daughter, who has to spend three extra hours in an airport with my wife. And people ask my why I hate air travel…
Language By Example
I like to think I have a pretty large vocabulary, and more than that I kind of pride myself on understanding why words mean what they do–what the history behind them is. Even so, there are lots of times I find myself using a word or phrase in a way that I’ve heard it used before, often many times before,… Read more →
Aside
I’m watching My Favourite Year. How is it that I have never seen this before? I’ve even seen the one where O’Toole turns into electric death Jesus.
Bachelor Lifestyle
My family is away this weekend, visiting more of our extended family. I couldn’t go with them, for a combination of reasons. One of the consequences of this is that I am getting to do some things I haven’t done in more than 4 years. Yesterday, I woke up at 8AM, rolled over and went back to sleep until 10AM,… Read more →
Christmas Spirit (sincere)
I should note that while I maintain a little bit of hipster irony about the whole Christmas thing (for instance, this made me laugh right out loud) there are some other people in my household who are completely into it. And, since I am completely unable to say no to them, I have found myself singing carols and taking part… Read more →
Aside
I’m glad I wasn’t trying to drive home last week. Especially since my normal routing takes me through the Cobequid Pass at night. On the up side, I missed the normal post-snow power outage (which the girl apparently weathered with no trouble), which means I also skipped the several hours of impotent rage and ranting about privatization that usually accompanies that.
I’m just saying
This time last week, I had no idea that tonight I would see the new James Bond movie with a Russian rocket scientist. Or that I would go with a bunch of Australians to “The Outback” for dinner. This is possibly the most hilarious thing I’ve done in a while. Their reaction to the notion of “Alice Springs Chicken” was… Read more →
Uncommon Madness and the Altoids Of Soap
Have I talked about Dr. Bronner’s here before? My searches say not, but I remember expounding upon it recently–although it might have been at my poker game. If you don’t know Dr. Bronner’s, I’m not even sure where to start trying to explain it. The short version is this: my shower contains a bottle of liquid peppermint soapIt’s easy to… Read more →
