Getting back into the swing

My brain feels a lot less sluggish today. I’m not quite running on NY time, but at least I’m no longer on HRE time. (Which, needless to say, is not HRE in German or Czech or Hungarian, so when you see it written up in museums as Romanisch Umlaut Dipthongia for the first time or two you have no idea what they’re talking about, which does nothing for one’s sense of history.)

On the home front, Tik pronounced teek, referred to by some as simply Tik the Insane, is his old self. Or new self, given that he is now almost exactly four months old. I can’t remember any other kitten we’ve ever had being such a manic stinker. Maybe, like Pip, I’m just getting old. I’ve noticed that Pip now sits around a lot looking out the window and yelling at kids to get off the lawn, which means he definitely has turned the feline geriatric corner. It was nice to return home, however, and count cats, and find that the number when we came back was identical to the number when we left. Both of these curious creatures seemed to be in fine fettle, which means of course that Sister Emily did a good job, although the fact that she immediately left for parts unknown after the last installment in her caretaking and that it has been reported that she never wants to see another cat again for as long as she lives may reflect a little bit on her private opinion of the experience. CLG will be coming by to drop off the key and give a live update on all the juicy details.

I still haven’t read my snail mail yet. I did sort it into piles, and noticed a few gems, but then I put the junk into the recycle box and the important stuff in a special place so I’d get at it right away, and I haven’t seen it since. As soon as I remember where that special place is--I hope sometime over the next few days--I’ll get right on it.

I did peep over at WTF to see what was happening. I am crushed that I missed their no-doubt excruciating coverage of Nationals; I do wish they’d offer a place for people to contribute to them for not giving full gavel-to-gavel coverage. I see that when all was said and done Draco Malfoy won Carl Kassel’s voice on his home answering machine; having watched him debate at TOCs, I’m not surprised. He had a nice sort of classic approach, at least in the round I saw, with a complex but solid analysis that addressed the resolution without any Nietzsche, and I gather that is the way he normally is, so more power to him. (Speaking of Zen Ethics, I have taken up BGAE where I left off. I couldn’t resist. There’s only a few more pages, then on to the G of M. I’m vacillating over doing the lecture; we’ll see after consuming Morals.)

I have now read all my email. I will report shortly on news therefrom.

I know you’re wondering about the Doctorow. The March, that is, which I brought with me for trip reading. I sort of enjoyed it, on an intellectual more than a gut level. I like what ELD was up to, and I liked much of how he achieved it. On the other hand, I was seldom rapt in the experience of reading it, despite the fact that I worked through it pretty explosively (analogous to its subject of Sherman’s march). You won’t waste time reading it, but you needn’t drop everything to check it out. I finished it about halfway through the trip. I went on then to The City of Falling Angels by John Berendt, which I picked up at one of Prague’s many English-language bookstores. (I kept looking throughout the HRE for Moorcock’s Mother London, the spawn recommendation, but I couldn’t find it in any of three countries visited.) Angels has its moments, but as every reviewer has said, Berendt just doesn’t come up with a Venice story to match Savannah’s in Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil. That latter book, if you haven’t read it, is a drop everything title. Highly recommended.