December 2007

The Archives

• Dogs

  Hippo Noo Yeer

  12.31.07 | Permalink | Comment?

  This story was brought to my attention by valued reader and commenter Indanth.  It is an uplifting note on which to end the year.  And more reason why one shouldn’t hate Gaiman just because he’s an insufferably talented bastige. Here’s wishing a happy and healthy and serene New Year to all.

• Writing

  Free Original Content!

  12.28.07 | Permalink | 1 Comment

  Yes, here is a very short story I wrote, derived from a impression of Robert Browning’s “A Death in the Desert”.  Since that is a very long poem, obviously my impressions were of a specific point — ‘Was John at all, and did he say he saw?’ is the relevant line, and that’s the mystery […]

• Books

  Buggrit

  12.27.07 | Permalink | Comment?

  I subscribe to the Discworld Monthly email newsletter, because I am exactly that kind of geek.  I confess that I have stopped buying each of Terry Pratchett’s books as they are published in paperback here, but only because of a sense that I needed a break from them and could return once a bountiful backlog […]

• General

  Politics by other means

  12.27.07 | Permalink | Comment?

  In my youth in the corrupt capitals of European libertine diplomacy, I attended for some years the International School of Geneva.  Here I will not dwell on my attempts to subvert the plots of Transnational Organized Crime, but rather to remember a day we were called to assembly.  On the Grande Boissière campus that I attended […]

• Portland, Walks with the dogs

  Holidaze

  12.26.07 | Permalink | Comment?

  After a traditional Christmas breakfast I took the dogs on the traditional Christmas Day walk.  I wondered that it felt so cold and abruptly we were in the middle of thick, heavy snow.  This felt like the kind of snow fall you get high up in the Alps, where sitting in the chairlift leaves you […]

• Books, General, Walks with the dogs

  Can you smell what the Rock is cooking?

  12.21.07 | Permalink | Comment?

  Various: I have a heavy bag and a speed bag set up in the basement.  It’s useful exercise to punch things that won’t hit back.  Yesterday evening I was rat-a-tatting on the speed bag when the internal bladder popped.  Reactions: ‘bladder’ is a funny word; I flinched and ducked like I was having a flashback […]

• Portland

  Two Tales of Two Deaths

  12.20.07 | Permalink | Comment?

  This is a sad tale, but it is also an example of first-class journalism and writing.  I read the original story of the two deaths in the Oregonian, thought it was odd but never saw any follow-up.  Thankfully Nancy Rommelmann has the instincts and chops to find out far more than the original reporting uncovered.  Nancy is […]

• Portland

  A Sorry Sight

  12.14.07 | Permalink | Comment?

  This article about the Western Culinary Institute reminds me of my experiences with its graduates back in my restaurant days.  I don’t recall any of them lasting long; one thing you apparently don’t learn in cooking school is the speed necessary in a busy kitchen.  The article says that the WCI is misleading potential students […]

• Writing

  Fat Cat Wins

  12.10.07 | Permalink | Comment?

  Congratulations to Chris Onstad on Achewood being named Time’s Graphic Novel of the Year.  Onstad has a talent for writing that makes me go cross-eyed with envy, but only briefly until I need to relax and uncross my eyes so I can enjoy the strip.

• Writing

  You’ve Got Mail

  12.06.07 | Permalink | Comment?

  Virtue may be its own reward, but the true benefit a writer receives arrives with the affirming correspondence of a reader.  Without this, a writer is merely whispering into the void.

G.E. Dempsey