By Elizabeth Strout. By far.

what could be more elegant?

(via blog.penpen.ifjar.com)

Did you know that the word MACABRE comes from Maccabee? go to LANGUAGE LOG and you will find this and many other interesting facts about Hannukah, Jamaica and bob-sledding. CLICK HERE

I, like everybody else, have a crush on David Gergen. I, like everybody else, have a crush on Fareed Zakaria, even if he doesn’t sport an eloquent swirl of comb-over. There is something so soothing these days about intelligence that is not afraid to speak its name, softly, modestly, openly. Even on TV.
Now, I also have a new crush, and so should you, on Justin E.H. Smith. He is not, alas, on TV. He is a professor of philosophy and a philosopher who also happens to write for 3quarksdaily, which is how I came across him. He is also a master of parody, by which I mean his work, in its own rareified way, reminds me of Veronica Geng at her best, the highest humorist compliment that can be paid. This sentence alone, from a post called “Divers Quaeries,” originally posted in 3quarksdaily, won my heart forever:
Hi-ho, to all those expert in the arcana of Finno-Ugric inflection: Won’t you kindly let us know how the vocative case is faring in Samoyed?
click here! and enjoy…

I have been teaching a creative writing class at Barnard, and the students are surprisingly good. I’ve read a lot of really good stuff. But I must admit that one of my favorite bits of prose is this sign that hangs in every bathroom in Barnard Hall. If this sign was in every restaurant instead of those dreary threatening ones about the health department and what it is always nagging us about, I think there would be a lot more delicious hand washing and a many fewer colds.

scotch tape…
thank you, 3quarksdaily
as always

I hope the Mormon Church doesn’t find out, but I am a Typophile. I suspected, but didn’t know for sure until I came upon this web site. click here
They have contests! Here is one of may favorite entries in the 3D contest:

It’s by David Williams. I don’t know who he is, except that he is a fine Typophile and I salute him.

I’m still ecstatic!

(photo by David Katz/Obama for America)

Our wonderful friend Anne, who is a curator, took us to the old Huntington Hartford Museum which is now the Museum of Art and Design.Do not miss the three floors of re-purposed art. And best of all was the impossibly delicate and tender work of Yuken Teruya. The trees are cut out of paper bags. It was astonishing and very moving. Thanks, Anne! And for the rest of you, feast your eyes:



AND this one is cut out of a toilet paper roll:

Andrew Sullivan, to whose blog I retreat at least thirty times daily, has a link to a wonderful photographer, Meg Wachter. She dumped gooey food on the heads of her friends and filmed their reactions. It’s CATHARTIC. It’s GORGEOUS.
click here dumped

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