Maj Sjowall and Per Wahloo

Why do I love Swedish police procedurals?
I’ve already written here about my addiction to Henning Mankell’s novels.  I’ve recently gone back a few decades to the series that I believe inspired him, Maj Sjowall and Per Wahloo’s Martin Beck novels (they were a married couple) from the late 1960s and 70s, which have been reissued [...]

Amy Poehler as Kaitlin

I’ve only seen the first episode of Parks and Recreation so far.  This is the (sort of) spin-off of The Office, a mockumentary starring Amy Poehler as Leslie Knopes, a very enthusiastic parks-and-recreation officer in the fictional Indiana town of Pawnee.  Indiana’s national reputation took a boost when we went blue last November, but this [...]

Hunting for Toads

Jack invited us out to his house to look for toads.  The toads are going crazy out there.  We brought a little terrarium and immediately stumbled upon two on the way to the house.  I announced, “I’ll get him, I’m good at catching frogs;” got between him and the big puddle; slowly, slowly brought my [...]

My Dinosaur Jr. problem

Went to see Dinosaur Jr. last night.  They’re touring with the full original lineup, including Lou Barlow, whose bitter split with J. Mascis constituted one of indie rock’s best-known melodramas back in the 90s.  (It’s compellingly chronicled in Michael Azerrad’s Our Band Could Be Your Life.) Now almost 20 years on (!), after various kinds [...]

Seed Sharing Gone Bad

From our local paper today (not sure what accounts for the several-week delay on this news being reported; perhaps there was an attempted hush-up):
A spring party intended to be an opportunity for friends to exchange seeds landed one woman in the hospital after she ate some of the seeds.
Monroe County Sheriff’s deputies were called at [...]

Letdown of Ozma of Oz

We recently got through Ozma of Oz, L. Frank Baum’s 1907 followup to The Wizard of Oz.  Actually there was another book in between, The Marvelous Land of Oz, which does not feature Dorothy, but I decided we’d just pick up Dorothy’s continuing adventures.
It was a bit of a let-down.  The art is fantastic: ravishing, [...]

Mountain Goats in Bloomington

Went to see the Mountain Goats.  If you don’t know them, the Mountain Goats is John Darnielle, a literate Pitzer College grad, former emergency room nurse, who used to record very primitive songs on boom boxes but since 2002 or so has been producing more polished, “produced” (even orchestral) music.  He tends towards the ambitious [...]

Cup of coffee as baby lamb

Dialogue this morning around 8 a.m.  I’ve been up for 40 minutes, Sarah for ten.
Sarah, casting her eyes around the room with mild alarm: “whatever you do, don’t throw out my cup of coffee.”
Me: “I’d sooner tear away the baby lamb from the claws of the fierce tiger.”
Sarah: looks at me blankly.  “What?  Why wouldn’t [...]

Pin the Tail on the Cat

The girls and Sarah volunteered to make the Pin the Tail on the Cat for Keith’s 5th birthday party.  Or Pin the Tail on the Pot Luck as they referred to it.  I thought it was pretty great.
Btw, I finally bought myself a snapshot camera, so prepare for a new visual emphasis on Moonraking.  Sarah [...]