Tempest in a Teapot

Last week I caught a bit of a NPR interview with Tom Standage as he’s out promoting his new book, An Edible History of Humanity. I really enjoyed the wideranging and fascinating discussion he & the host had. Mr. Standage seems like one of those people you’d totally want as a dinner guest, because he could certainly liven up the conversation! In addition to being an editor at The Economist magazine, he churns out fascinating books.

I’m on the waiting list at the library for An Edible History, but did manage to check out The Victorian Internet. He mentioned it in his interview and it caught my attention. It’s a history of the telegraph and how it changed the world. I hadn’t thought of it before, but it’s true – the world shift that happened in a very short time span, 50 years or so 1840s-1890s, was HUGE. It went from taking weeks for news to spread to daily reporting. The telegraph was the start for Reuters and other news agencies that still exist today. Mr. Standage claims that time-traveling Victorians would feel right at home with our internet. It’s merely the latest outgrowth of the change that started with the telegraph.

Hope to start on another one of his books, The Turk, as Madeline cooperates.

It’s Barney time!

I’m sorry this has turned into an all-baby-all-the-time blog, but it really has been all consuming for me lately. sigh. That seems to be all I can focus on, seeing as how I’m due in a month!! I’ve been mostly reading books on childbirth/labor/newborns, which while interesting to ME, probably aren’t interesting to anyone else.

The nursery is coming along – J did a fantastic job finishing the border. It makes the room so cheerful! It was his first wallpapering job (ever, I think) and he did SUCH a great job. See?

The nesting bug has set in big time for me: last night I put together a little bookcase to go in one corner and I’m getting a little frantic to hang pictures, the curtain, etc. We also bought our car seat/stroller combo so I’m thrilled about that as well. We just have to install it in the car. Our new car has the LATCH system, so I think it won’t be too hard…and the hospital will be glad to check it for us.

I’m seeing my OB every week now – I’m not due for a month, but her nurse seemed to think I could have Baby M any time in the next 3 weeks. I almost hyperventilated right there in the doctor’s office: ACK – I can’t believe I’m going to have a kid. Is it too late to change my mind?! Unfortunately, the doctor can’t do anything about most of my assorted aches & pains. Part of it is being ‘older’ while being pregnant and part of it is just being pregnant!

In non-baby related stuff, I did watch the Olympics – which I enjoyed immensely. I tried not to think about Chinese politics or wasteful spending and just enjoy the athletes. My favorite to watch was probably the synchronized diving (amazing!!) and of course the swimming races. Go, Michael! (Isn’t he just the cutest kid?? I enjoyed how much HE enjoyed winning.) I watched quite a bit on the Canadian channel because I could watch it much earlier than NBC, and got a very different viewpoint on some of the sports. You’d think it wouldn’t be that different, but it really was … funny we can be so close geographically, but be so very different otherwise!

Interesting column today from Maureen Dowd in the NYT comparing Obama to my favorite literary hero, Fitzwilliam Darcy. Can’t really see McCain as Wickham, but she does get her point across.

Another good NYT article: does a president need to be tech savvy?

I’m a huge fan of NPR and public radio, and enjoy listening to it often. However, I noticed that most days I rarely manage to have it on at the right time to catch the quick Writer’s Almanac with Garrison Keillor. Something about his soothing voice reading a poem every day is just so calming. Anyhow, I now subscribe to the daily email from the show and enjoy it very much. I can actually hear Keillor’s voice in my head when I read the poem. (Yes, I’m a dork.) No real point to this, I just wanted to share a little bit of my day that brings me joy.

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On the lighter side of literary life, I just finished Odd Hours by Dean Koontz. Let me begin by saying I am not a fan of most of Koontz’s writing, as I dislike being scared and a lot of his books tend to be scary. However, while working at the library at GK, the second book in this Odd Thomas series came out (Forever Odd) and a girlfriend raved about this crazy character, Odd. She assured me these books were different and not at all like most of Koontz’s writing. At her suggestion, I picked up the first one – Odd Thomas – and was hooked instantly. The four books in this series can be a little dark, and Odd struggles with the huge issues of darkness and light, good and evil. I think that might be what I like about them so much. Koontz has taken a very simple person, a fry cook from a small town in California, and builds epic battles of good and evil around him. They are quirky books, with quirky characters and really enjoyable.

(let me also add that I am a big fan of the library here in King County – I can get on the waiting list for popular books like this one online and the library just emails me when it becomes available. easy and efficient. keeps my reading affordable!)

more graph humor and song chart memes

This cracked me up. If you don’t get it, you’re either (a) too old or (b) too young to remember the band Flock of Seagulls. Man, they had great hair.

Something I’d like to see: Starting this weekend, The Seattle Art Museum will have a show entitled Roman Art from the Louvre. It runs thru May 11 and costs $20 to get in, but I think it will be worth the high price. Something to look forward to!

Turns out, the Nuernburg Zoo has a new Eisbarbaby! Her name is Flocke, and this video is about the cutest 1 min 45 seconds you will EVER see.

If that video doesn’t make you smile, well, there just may be no hope for you!

Time Magazine says today, 21 January, is the most depressing day of the year. ick. That must mean the year will only get better from here, right?!

So, here’s a prescription for you – go laugh at some lolcats and loldogs.

The Daily Coyote. (via dooce) A single woman and her cat in Wyoming are raising a baby coyote. While I’m not sure how I feel about wild animals being domesticated, I wouldn’t have been able to turn him away either. Additionally, it’s just a beautiful site and there are some gorgeous photographs.

Knut, die Eisbarbaby. The wildly popular Knut (a polar bear born one year ago at the Berlin Zoo) has his own blog. Most of the time they translate the German into English, but if not, the photos and videos are adorable in any language.