Now that we’ve officially become a country that endorses torture — the New York Times calls it “Severe Interrogations” in their headline, but if “simulated drowning” and prolonged exposure to “frigid temperatures” isn’t torture, I don’t know what is — it’s time to recall better days.
Remember the BOOK?
The BOOK is a revolutionary breakthrough in [...]
I had intended to officially launch this blog yesterday, on the 201st anniversary of Captain William Clark’s “We commenced wrighting” journal entry. But, in the spirit of what’s a sort of procrastination diary, I didn’t make the deadline. I was too busy reading Household Gods, watching the end of “Journeyman,” and not writing my California [...]
Richard Henry Dana shipped from Boston to California in 1834. Back then, California was still part of Mexico; it was the era of the Californios and fandangos, of the hide and tallow trade, of sailing ships from all over the world and of the songs that came with them.
Dana’s account of his travels, TWO [...]
Father Junipero Serra, the founder of the California Missions, walked for months throughout baja and alta California on a swollen, infected leg. “But even though I die on the road,” he said, “I will not turn back.”
Of course, he didn’t say it in English, so I wanted to find the original Spanish. Californiahistory.net has [...]
I’m almost finished reading Amy Bloom’s quietly superb AWAY. Lionel Shriver, in his review of the novel, notes that it may be just another story of a quest, but that Bloom’s “execution is exquisite, and exquisite execution is rare — not only in books but (alas) in almost any undertaking.”
It took my awhile to get [...]
If you truly mean to dedicate yourself to a life of procrastination, you must develop fetishes. These will consume lots of time while making you feel like you’re doing something constructive.
One of my fetishes is, of course, pie. I just started re-reading Pascale Le Draoulec’s transcendant American Pie: Slices of Life (and Pie) from America’s [...]
In lieu of my statement of purpose, I want to mention a fascinating article from this morning’s LA Times. I love reading the newspaper; I’m just old-fashioned that way. Reading it cover-to-cover first thing in the morning is one of my favorite procrastination strategies, one of my favorite ways to not write. In reading the [...]
