James Beard Award Finalist: Personal Essay

It starts: "The four pizzles lay sprawled out on the kitchen counter."

Marking up books

Do you mark up books? Write notes in the margins?

Sometimes I read books where I have strong reactions every few pages, and I think about blogging about them, but I always end up just continuing to read rather than stopping to type up my thoughts. (For "Lean In," I did pause at the end of every chapter to write up my thoughts, and it was annoying to keep stopping and going back.) It never occurs to me to react in the margins. But lately I've read a number of articles and books that refer to people writing their thoughts in the margins, or even just reactions like "Whoa."

Pens

I'm almost out of my second 12-pack of Pilot G-2s, and am considering switching my loyalty. I'd like a pen with smoother ink flow and one that lasts longer. I go through one or two G-2s a month. In conducting my research, I came across two pen review sites, Pen Quest and A Penchant for Paper. Don't you love the Internet?

Pleasant events

The Pleasant Events Schedule.

Arunachalam Muruganantham

Fascinating story of a man's quest to bring affordable feminine hygiene products to India.

An excerpt:

"There are also myths and fears surrounding the use of sanitary pads - that women who use them will go blind, for example, or will never get married." 

Quice?

A friend and I were discussing whether there is a word for "four times" in the fashion of "once," "twice," "trice," etc.  The conversation led us to this link (bottom line: no, there is not).  I liked this comment:

"There is a charming book by Alastair Reid, called Ounce, Dice, Trice in which (among many other kinds of wordplay) he creates novel numbering systems. From memory, one is 'ounce, dice, trice, quartz, quince, sago, serpent, oculist, novelist, dentist.'"

"How many times did she wallop him with a damp trout?  Oculist!"

Happy Chinese New Year!

Contrary to popular belief, however, it is not the Year of the Horse.