When you squeeze an orange, orange juice comes out - because that's what's inside. - Wayne Dwyer

I’ve been reading Ayun Halliday’s The Big Rumpus: A Mother’s Tales from the Trenches. I read it before when Primo was small, but decided to reread because that’s about where my brain is right now. (This morning, I put the OJ carton in the glass cupboard and the full glasses in the fridge rather than on the table.) She writes a zine called The East Village Inky – I wish there were some back issues available on her website, but there aren’t. However, she has a few essays on the site, including this one on Powell’s. And this review for her book No Touch Monkey: And Other Travel Lessons Learned Too Late from Stephen Colbert of “The Daily Show:” "I laughed hard on nearly every page of this shockingly intimate travel memoir and deeply funny book." I had to do an ILL to get my hands on this and her other, newish, book, Job Hopper: The Checkered Career of a Down-Market Dilettante.

***************

I was pleased to discover other original author essays on the Powell’s website; especially Audrey Niffenegger who I think is a wonderful writer. Gina, there’s a Chris Crutcher and a Meg Wolitzer for you.

*************

A Death in the Family, by James Agee; I don’t know anything about it but came across the title in Ayun Halliday’s essay and now want to read it. Because my list of books to read and pile waiting to be read are not long or large enough. I got a couple Rachel Cusks at the library on Saturday, but can’t get into them. They read like weird, modern, badly-written, and stilted Jane Austen. How’s that for a bizarre description? But it’s the best I can do. Gina gave me her copy of Diary of a Provincial Lady which I will read after Big Rumpus. I also got Forrest Gump; rumor has it the book is better than the movie. Not that I’ve seen the movie (I know. I haven’t seen “Pulp Fiction” or “The Matrix” either. So sue me.) A book called The Leopard Hat, Kate Atkinson’s Human Croquet (her book Behind the Scenes at the Museum is a favorite), and Eve Adams’ Garden of Eden complete the list of checked-out books. Now if I can just stay awake long enough to read any of them.

**********************

Snippets:

Starbucks peppermint mocha – go get one. They are wonderful. That’s what I’ll be wasting my three bucks on on my work days for the next few weeks.

November 30 – last day of street cleaning. So I can stop jockeying my car from one side of the street to the other in this ridiculous charade that the city actually has funds to waste on street cleaning -- which doesn’t really clean the streets. What we need is those old-fashioned chain gangs with those sticks with pointy ends, to walk around and clean up.

OK, any parent has considered - however briefly - the old whiskey remedy for a wailng baby (even if only some of us admit it); but I don’t know of any modern parent who’s actually ever done it. Until now. Sick. This gave me the same sinking feeling in my stomach that the laundry bag scene in Richartd Russo’s Empire Falls gave me – pure helplessness and despair in the face of parents’ stupidity and cruelty.

I think I am getting this baby doll for Segundo for Christmas. Thanks for the advice, Carolyn! It’s a far sight prettier than Mimi!!

This Princess Dora doll is so wrong, in my mind it completely defeats the purpose of the smart, independent, strong Dora persona. But then, what do I know? I played with Barbies.