Man has turned his back on silence. - Jean Arp

Terzo is two months old yesterday, as of 3:57 p.m.
(Unfortunately this photo was taken AFTER we'd removed his black AC/DC tank top, due to extreme spit-up.)

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Happy (Actual) Birthday to Sarah Louise! (She’s been celebrating for a week now, but today is the day!)

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Camille Peri has a thoughtful article on Salon today, about her teenaged son’s bid to be a gangsta. I am completely engrossed. Go read it.

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Carson Kressley, of “Queer Eye” renown, has a children’s book coming out, just in time for Christmas shopping - You’re Different and That’s Super! I thought this was a joke at first – it is NOT. I mean, in the grand scheme of things, yes, but the book exists and is really, seriously, titled that.

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Joke, I have found a perfect Christmas gift for you: Apocalypse Chow: How to Eat Well When the Power Goes Out.

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I spotted the review for this book in yesterday’s paper, and thought it was for Jonathan Harr’s new book, also about a painter. This guy’s name is Jonathan Santlofer, and the book is called The Killing Art, its main character a former police detective turned art historian. His first book is called The Death Artist and it looks like fun. I could use a nice fluffy mystery right now.

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I don’t know quite what I expected from the New York Times’ 100 Notable Books of the Year list, but I think I expected more than this. Maybe some thoughtful reviews or comments, not just a rehash of the bestseller lists.

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Movie esoterica:
- “The Last Temptation of Christ” was directed by Martin Scorcese. I hate when I am wrong.
- I think Paul Rudd is a cutie.
- Brittany Murphy does NOT look like she did in “Clueless” anymore, more’s the pity.
- And Donald Faison is Turk in “Scrubs,” which is why he looked so darn familiar!
- I’ve never seen "Two for the Road", but since it stars my favorite actress Audrey Hepburn and a surprisingly cute young Albert Finney, the situation must be remedied.

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I saw this movie, “Noise,” at the library yesterday and considered borrowing it for Dan. The premise is that a young woman is being driven batty by her very loud neighbor. Of course, I am relatively certain that it ends with at least one bloody, psychopathic homicide, so perhaps it's better just not to plant the seed...

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Pittsburgh can boast of a Rhodes Scholar this year. Justin Chalker, from the University of Pittsburgh, was one of 32 selected scholars, from a pool of 903 applicants. He is the fourth ever from Pitt. Pretty cool.

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Yes, the child takes after me, in good ways as well as bad. Scattered around him are the secondhand books friends of ours gave Primo last night – Magic Treehouse books, Danny and the Dinosaur, Boxcar Children; books Terry’s now-teenaged sons had long ago outgrown. Primo could not believe his good fortune. At nine this morning, he still had not dressed or eaten breakfast; he sat on his bedroom floor, surrounded by his new treasures, and read Midnight on the Moon.

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I got to take a nice long walk yesterday with Terzo; here I inflict you with mercifully-unPhotoshopped snapshots of various trees, leaves, and dead plants, ‘cause, um, they interested ME. You will yet live to regret my ever having purchased a digital camera.