Month: April 2015

Inquiring Minds

I recently received some questions in my inbox; it’s high time I answer them.

Do you have a question you’d like me to answer? Let me know in the comments!

Inquiring minds want to know:

1. If you could invite one author and one their fictional characters to tea, who would you invite and what would you serve them?

Note: I started this post before said author’s death; I hope the following joke isn’t in bad taste. Personally, I think he’d find it amusing.

I would ask Sir Terry Pratchett to tea, although now I’d guess I’d need the Necrotelecomnicon to do so.

Now, you want me to pick just one of his fictional characters?

OK, then, I would invite the Librarian, because he understands both the value and true nature of the written word.

As for what I would serve, you said I was asking them to tea, so I’d serve tea and bread and cheese and some type of meat. And bananas, if the Librarian wanted them.

Discworld Librarian

2. What book do you wish the author would write the prequel for?

I don’t know; I generally dislike sequels written after the fact.

If forced to choose right now, I would go back in time and convince F. Scott Fitzgerald to write a sequel to Gatsby.

Gatsby Book Cover

3. Which two characters (not from the same book) do you think would make a good couple?

The Narrator from Elizabeth Kostova’s The Historian

&

V from V for Vendetta by Alan Moore

4. If you ran into your favourite author on the subway and could only say one sentence to them, who is it and what would it be?

Dante Alighieri, to whom I would say “You gave me hope when there was none.”

IMG_2530

5. What book made you a reader and why?

I honestly do not know.

I’ve always enjoyed reading and cannot remember a time when I could not read.

6. Your bookshelf just caught fire! What is the one book you would save?

I would probably die trying to make up my mind.

7. Which dystopian world would you want to live in and why?

Who wants to live in a dystopia? Are they masochists?

Oh, you’re forcing me to choose, like we’re in Orwell’s 1984 or something.

In that case, The Community of Lois Lowry’s The Giver seems the most bearable.

The Giver book cover

8. What is your most epic read and why?

Dante’s Divine Comedy or Beowulf, because honestly, how much more epic can you get?!

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Intersection of Life and History

Every once in a while history and real life collide.

This year marks the 103rd anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic.

RMS_Titanic_3Given the number of film and articles written and dispersed over that time, I don’t think I need to retell the story.

What does this have to do with me? My great-grandfather was supposed to be on Titanic as a ship’s printer; that’s right, my great-grandfather was employed by White Star Line. I never knew my great-grandfather, so I’ll never know exactly why he quit instead of jumping at the chance to serve on what was already the most famous ship of its day. But quit he did; he obtained new employment on the banana boats. I know this because of the matchsafe he left behind:

IMG_2355
I do know great-granddad lost friends and colleagues and acquaintances that cold April night; it is only by Divine Providence he did not perish as well.

And while I couldn’t find his immigration records (I forget his first name), here’s the immigration record for my grandpa:

grandpa's passenger record

Oh, and today marks the two-year anniversary of this blog. Happy Anniversary to Me!

anniversary with wordpress

Photography 101: The Gallery

It happens to the best of us: we begin a post, save it as a draft, and then completely forget to publish it. The best laid plans of mice and men, and all that . . . Two weeks ago I’d planned to publish a gallery of my favorite photographs from Photography 101. I’d chosen my pictures, placed them in some semblance of order, and thought everything was taken care of. Imagine my surprise when I checked my drafts to see what was close to being finished so I could publish something today (tomorrow, at the latest) only to see my already-done photo gallery still unpublished and seemingly screaming “Pick Me! Pick Me!”

So, without further ado, here’s a few of my favorite photographs from Photography 101:

Photo101

Teaser Tuesday: The Disappearing Spoon

The gnomes are hard at work crafting brilliant articles and staging stunning photographs.

However, once again the wheel of time has turned to

Teaser TuesdayJust in case you don’t know, Teaser Tuesday is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by A Daily Rhythm. Anyone can play along! All you have to do is grab the book you’re currently reading, open to a random page and share two sentences from that page. But make sure you don’t share any spoilers!*

*I wish I could take credit for this introduction, but I shamelessly stole it from Heather over at bitsnbooks. To help me make amends, you should go check out her blog.

This week I’m reading The Disappearing Spoon: And Other True Tales of Madness, Love, and the History of the World from the Periodic Table of the Elements by Sam Kean. The book is an anecdotal walk through the table of elements, and I knew Mr. Kean was an author who really gets me – as they say – when I read these wonderful lines on page twelve:

Probably the biggest frustration for many 
students was that the people who got the
periodic table, who could really unpack 
how it worked, could pull so many facts
from it with such dweeby nonchalance. 

It was the same irritation color-blind 
people must feel when the fully sighted
find sevens and nines lurking inside
those parti-colored dot diagrams - - 
crucial but hidden information that 
never quite resolves itself into 
coherence.

Huzzah! Recognition of a plight afflicting eight per cent of men – myself included. Hopefully, the book will live up to my now-high expectations.

The Disappearing Spoon

In Retrospect

I gave  Fragile Things by Neil Gaiman five stars. I liken this selection of short stories to a packet of chips – or crisps, if you prefer – in that I sat down to read only one or two only to look up two hours later having devoured the whole thing. Honestly, it is that good. It’s difficult to pick out a favorite line or story, but this one from “How to Talk to Girls at Parties” best sums up my feelings:

You cannot hear a poem without it changing you.

 

Weekend Wandering (4.10/4.11)

I took these pictures while wandering around this weekend.

The local historic site where my wife works had open grounds in connection with a home and garden show, making for some opportunities I hadn’t had before.

Weathervane
Stone Rooster
A Purple Flower
The Garden Path
Down the Lane
Down the Lane (B&W)
Baltimore Bricks
Baltimore Bricks (B&W)
Human Urn
Don’t Blink!
Brick and Iron
Reflection in Glasses
Low Brick Wall
Bricks and Hedge
Tulips
Flowery Angel Wings
Facade
Blacksmith’s Lantern

By the way, if you know what the (purple?) flower is in #3, please let me know!

Lazy Friday Afternoon

IMG_2599I went fishing today.

When I was younger I hated fishing: the monotony of nothing for hours on end punctuated only by the droning of dragonflies and the gently swaying cattails as black bass taunt me from the shallow water a few feet from shore.

This afternoon fishing was just what I needed: the monotony of nothing for hours on end punctuated only by the droning of dragonflies and the gently swaying pampas grass as I cast my line out from the kayak over bluish-grey waters of a North Carolina estuary.

I found that sweet spot where the wind and waves moved me back and forth along a fifty-foot stretch of water – no paddling necessary, except to correct course every now and then.

IMG_2555A heron bobbed twenty feet ahead of me. I wonder now if he knew something I didn’t; otherwise, he’d be diving down into the murky depths for a tasty morsel.

The tide was low, much lower than normal, exposing four feet of muddy riverbank and constantly threatening to beach my craft. I wish I had a camera I could take out on the water.

Eventually I hear a call from upriver – time to head in.

As we stow the gear and put up the canoe and kayak, Father in Law sees a large mouth bass laying up against the bank. “I’m going to catch him,” he says and promptly

casts his line into a tree,

rolls it out onto a stump and

from there down into the water

where the bass strikes immediately.

IMG_2558Some people have all the luck.*

I still had a good afternoon.

For the record, the bass was back in the water and swallowing real insects in a matter of moments.

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