The Snapshot

Things I Love

my local library

freshly picked summer corn

knitting

the Nero Wolfe mysteries

frogs and toads

kit houses

West Virginia glassware

Etruscan art

old Virginia roads

Myrna Loy and William Powell

farm-made goat cheese

going barefoot

volvelles and moving charts

hot chocolate

old time radio

maps

my critter cam

summer thunderstorms

small town independent hardware stores

birch trees

the cat dynamics of this neighborhood

octopodoi

pomegranates

road trips

oranges

freshly sharpened pencils

cookie cutters

unpasteurized cider

heist movies

& books I don't want to throw at the wall


Music I Can't Stop Listening To

  • Etta James
  • Solomon Burke
  • Kacey Musgraves
  • Ashley Monroe
  • Aretha's The Delta Meets Detroit
  • Brandy Clark
  • Nina Simone
  • Lyle Lovett
  • Kirsty MacColl

Books I Really Liked

  • The Riddle of the Labyrinth (Margalit Fox)
  • My Life in France (Julia Child, with Alex Prud'homme)
  • Iron Curtain: The Crushing of Eastern Europe 1944-56 (Anne Appelbaum)
  • No Idle Hands: A Social History of American Knitting (Anne MacDonald)

On social media

I have, like many of my contemporaries, mixed feelings about social media, and yet I use the most common varieties regularly. I do sometimes fear I'm going to suddenly start ordering these neighborhood kids off my lawn. Until that happens, here's a quick guide to me and social media.

There's up-to-date local nattering and non sequiturs on twitter. I very occassionally solicit book recommendations and post pictures from my critter cam and roadtrips to facebook (I prefer to have a context for folks on facebook - family, classmates, former coworkers, friends, witty internet pals, as opposed to total strangers.) I do have a g+ account, but come on! I never check it because I don't work at Google and I have no need for hangouts.


Personal Heroes and Role Models

  • Lady Catherine DeBurgh
  • Arnold Horshack
  • Zsa-Zsa Gabor
  • Livia
  • Bill MacNeil
  • Ted Baxter
  • GOB

Jane Austen Novels Ranked by Preference

  1. Persuasion
  2. Pride and Prejudice
  3. Emma
  4. Sense and Sensibility
  5. Mansfield Park
  6. Northanger Abbey

 


Best Pie Flavors

  1. Apple Pie
  2. Lemon Meringue Pie
  3. Key Lime Pie
  4. Pear & Cranberry Almond Pie
  5. Strawberry Rhubarb Pie

Five Facts About Me

  • I was once stranded on a desert island.
  • I need my own Archie Goodwin. Or Sol Panzer. Either'd be good.
  • My favorite place in Australia is the rock reefs in front of the town center of Colloroy Beach.
  • I once painted my primary bathroom bright bright orange.
  • My first email address was a bitnet address.

What are You Going to Do With Your Life?

Working. A lot. For Now. It will calm down any monhth now. Other than that, I'm planning road trips, making time for books, involved in high-level feline negotiations, resisting buying myself any number of art tools that I do not have time for (like kilns or an antique letterpress or forge or ...), and working on several unnamed projects. I think that's good enough for now.


Oft-visited Destinations

This list dates back at least 8 years and many of the links have ossified or gone away or otherwise disappointed me; I am tempted to make some sweeping statements about the nature of the modern web, but my tea is just about ready.