Poems, Prayers and Promises

Elizabeth wandered over to my personal blog, and I couldn't figure a quicker way than this to respond to her question. Hey, E! 'Sup? I wrote a review (of sorts) of The Meat and Spirit Plan for Rivet Magazine's blog. I had high expectations for it because I've loved every novel I've read from that press, but it disappointed me. I was so ready to like it and got lost in the dreamy nihilistic worldview. I'll give her first a try some time.

And, to y'all, I've been working on what I was trying to get to in the nostalgia discussion. I fell in haste to the shorthand of media (just the most malleable metaphor for me), but it is a lot more, bringing in discussion of dogmatic religion and big T Truth, even perhaps getting a bit New Agey with habits of mind. But, anyway, I'm working on it between beeing driven insane by my kid and promoting stuff like this.

Hope y'all are doing well. Oh, good suggestion for holiday downtime cozy read - The Botany of Desire by Michael Pollan. Gardener and journalist walks through a natural history/ethnobotany of four plants - apples, tulips, marijuana and potatoes. Excellent. I'm left forever with the image of hydro pot growing operations as a field of sexually-frustrated and ever-enlarging green clitorises.

And how could that not be a good holiday read?

[The title is as to what holiday show I'll soon be seeing in Seattle, and you should, too.]

Andrew's Early December 513 Haiku

I'm a week early, but I found this while looking for something else, and it was too good of a find to keep to myself:

Alphabutterflies
Wings wafting over paper
what wind do I blow

and the ever-wonderful limerick:

A graduate student named Morgan
Wrote a paper like a chimeric gorgon
and when mom and dad read
they said, "The boy's lost his head!"
but the Prof said, "No. He's protecting his organ."

you may now return to your life, already in progress. :)

Who spelled Foucault wrong?

The Road to Whatever: Middle-Class Culture and the Crisis of Adolescence

Have any of you read this book? I saw it in the UW bookstore recently, but didn't want to shell out the $26 to own it. It seems intriguing and after a couple of years with a teenager in my home I'm really curious to see if this guy's argument is compelling...anyone? anyone? If it is a worthy read, it seems like it would be a worthy read for teachers too...is there hope that you can reach the disengaged kid in the corner with the hood of his/her hoody up?