Stuff and Nonsense

Val and I have been chastised before for caring about celebrity marriages, but just like Rebecca Traister on Salon, I am so very, very sad for Mel Brooks. I can’t imagine his sense of sadness and loss; he must be truly bereft, and I’m so sorry for him. I felt the same way when June Carter Cash died, and I was correct in assuming that Johnny wouldn’t last long without her. I hope that won’t be the case with Brooks, but I admit that I’ll think it’s romantic if it does.

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What am I reading? Bill Bryson’s The Mother Tongue. I think there should be a National Treasure award, and I think Bryson should get one. I have repeatedly laughed out loud while reading a book about language. Bryson’s books should be required reading for people in teacher certification programs.


What am I going to read next? A guy from school gave me a collection of X-Men comics that begins with the very first edition (these are crappy reprints on crappy paper—nothing valuable), so I’m excited to dig into the real history of the X-Men and compare it to what I’ve put together from the movies and that cartoon that aired when I was in college.

Other than that, I’m not sure what I’ll pick up next. I started Peace Like a River, and I liked it, but I didn’t feel like reading it. I’m about sixty pages in, and I have time to pick it up again, but I’m just not in the mood for something filled with angst. In fact, I think I’ve been a little too filled with general angst lately to want to read anything that isn’t funny and lighthearted. Give me some suggestions, please. I’d like the literary equivalent of party foods: I’d like a nice sharp cheese spread, or a pepperoni roll. Or how about a super light lemon cookie that seems to dissolve on the tongue? Maybe something salty? You get the picture.

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My son is officially in third grade—his Moving Up Day ceremony was Tuesday, and his class sang a song, answered a few questions the head of the lower school directed at them to make sure they were “ready”, and then trouped down from the stage into the newly-emptied seats in the third-grade section of the auditorium.

I might be a scrooge, but I think this is a little too much fanfare. Sure I’m proud of the growing and learning Teddy has done this year, but if completing second grade is worthy of hoopla . . . Oh, I should shut up. It’s cute.