So all day I’ve got the theme music from Gilligan’s Island running through my head. It’s almost as bad as the music from I Dream of Jeanie. Thanks a lot, etc. whatever. So are you singing it? the theme music from I Dream of Jeanie? Gotcha!

Uncharted? or Unchartered? It’s a debate between Bill and me. I maintain that it’s “uncharted,” and he says “unchartered.” Of course, I want to wield my English degree and superior vocabulary and deeper knowledge of Latin roots in his face to gain the victory, but he is generally unimpressed (and maybe he should be) by […]

We had a brief visit with Bill’s brother Tom on Thursday night. He lives in Fairfax, VA., and we had a few appointments in D.C. So we finally got to see his new place. We arrived late from a concert; he arrived late from a Nationals game. But he graciously gave us a tour of […]

I have just finished reading my very first ever Jane Austen novel. Shocking, isn’t it? I, an English major, escaped my undergraduate studies without ever once reading anything by Jane Austen. No one even Mentioned her during my course of study at Duke, and I am sure that my modernist tendencies might have pushed her […]

Does this happen to you? You are driving along in your mini-van innocently enough, making turns, using your turn signal, stopping at red and sometimes yellow lights, and generally being a good citizen, when suddenly someone punches you in the arm and cries: “Punch buggy red (or blue, or yellow, or some other color)!” This […]

I went back to work today.  No, not housework (ha!).  Not curriculum writing (that’s coming along).  Not reading Thomas Mann. I had a writing afternoon. I entered into this event not as a dog returns to its vomit, nor with my tail between my legs.  No.  I went to it like a Labrador retriever to water, full of eagerness and […]

It’s here. The book. The Book. That which I will be reading, and re-reading, and reading about, and studying, and marking with pencil and ink, and, eventually, if all goes well, writing my Master’s thesis about. Yes, it arrived today from Amazon, all 1,492 pages, hardbound and new, in a brand new translation by John […]

Who are you, O Reader? Oh no. Never fear. That is a rhetorical question. This is not a Declare Yourself moment. This is not a Stand Up and Be Counted kind of time. That would Not Be Nice, and most of you (is there a Most of You?) would disregard it, anyway. Still, the fact […]

They start at eight, announcing their presence with a ladder’s rattle. Soon the electric saw starts up, and its scream promises fresh wood to replace the rot. Wood rots and paint peels; these are facts of life. But here in damp North Carolina, in a house surrounded by trees, mildew’s fingers have a tenacious grip: […]

So, one of the blogs I read has asked the bloggers she reads for updates. Ha. I think that’s Very Funny, given that her last post sat there for Almost A Month. (Do you know who you are?) I have a lot I could write about. For example, there’s this: Emma Grace, out of bed […]