In honor of Halloween, Amazon is selling the Complete Addams Family TV series
In honor of the Addams Family being one of the best shows ever, I bought it instantly.
Unrequired Reading: Oct. 31, 2008
Fatty elbow and the end of dog-days
I had a sad experience on Monday night. Rufus has a hygroma or fatty tumor on the “elbow” of his left foreleg. Never having finished (or, in fact, started) veterinary school, I decided to take him down to the vet to get it checked out. Also, I wanted to get him weighed, because I think he’s put on a bit of weight, but I can’t really tell. (To cut to the chase: the vet thinks the “elbow bump” is nothing serious, Roo is 81.4 lbs., up 3 from May, and the assistant found a tick behind his ear.)
So we drove down for our 7:45 appointment. Rufus got to meet a couple of dogs in the lobby, and also got to sniff at the cardboard Pet Taxi box that was holding a foul-tempered 13-lb. cat. When the cat hissed and jumped inside the box, Roo almost had a heart attack. The rest of us laughed.
The offices were pretty warm so, since we had to wait for a while, I took Rufus out to parking lot to walk around. He was happy that they had a fake fire hydrant in their doggie-area. Back in the lobby, he was pretty well-behaved, although I think he wants to get a day job in reception, since he kept trying to get behind the desk.
[You may find the rest of this post pretty sad or depressing, so feel free to punt on it. If you want to read on, just click “more”.] Continue reading “Fatty elbow and the end of dog-days”
Because that’s the way God wants it?
I have an editorial advisory board at my day job. I hit the members up for article topics, send them “Ask the Board” questions and otherwise kibbitz about the direction of the magazine. It’s a non-paying gig, but it carries some sort of esteem, I guess.
Since we’re coming to the end of the year, I just e-mailed all 30 members and asked them to update their job titles and companies and confirm that they want to stay on the board. And that’s when I noticed something odd: There’s only one woman on my advisory board.
I’m no fan of political-correctness or quotas, but I have to admit that I’m a little embarrassed by this fact.
Rhode Island is Famous for You
Happy birthday to Paul Di Filippo, great pal & litterateur extraordinaire! (from your pal, a litterer ordinaire!)
I gotta get around to ordering Cosmocopia, his new book with Jim Woodring, sometime! Like now! (and we really have to make a visit up to Providence soon, if the official VM greyhound can handle 3+ hours in the car. . .)
You make my heart stipple
This WSJ article on Mitch “Wild Thing” Williams’ post-baseball career is entertaining, especially when he calls out Paul Newman. My favorite part, of course, is the Drew Friedmanized headshot of Williams:
The more I look at it, the more Wild Thing seems to have been put through the Todd McFarlaneizer (or is that the Erik Larsenizer. . .?)
NBA PREVIEW! AAIEE!
It’s that time of year, dear readers! The 2008-09 NBA season is starting tonight, so that means it’s time to check out the official Virtual Memories NBA Season Preview!
Sure, you might want to go straight to the team-by-team previews, but I think you really want to check out contributor Tom Spurgeon’s great intro essay, Where Amazing Flattened, first!
Lost in the Supermarket 3
We have a lot of deer hunters out here, so maybe they need to camouflage their Jiffy Pop when they’re out in the woods:
See the whole Lost in the Supermarket series
What It Is: 10/27/08
What I’m reading: A whole ton of magazines that have piled up, including the recent issues of Monocle, New York, Foreign Affairs, the Atlantic, Harvard Business Review, and Fantastic Man. Not Montaigne, which is why there’s no Monday Morning Montaigne this week. Sorry. I know you were looking forward to it.
What I’m listening to: The Four Tops’ Definitive Colection
What I’m watching: NOT THIS! AAIEE! (We did watch Casino Royale, which sucked)
What I’m drinking: Stella Artois . . . and my first G&T since Sept. 26! It was eh!
What Rufus is up to: Convincing more of my coworkers to adopt retired racing greyhounds! Another trek up to Wawayanda state park! Developing some sort of fatty tumor on the “elbow” of his left foreleg! (probably not serious, but I’ll take him down to the vet this week to check)
Where I’m going: Maybe to the Cowboys/Giants game next Sunday!
What I’m happy about: One of my mom’s pals, whom I haven’t seen since I was around 13, recognized me and called me over while I was out walking Rufus. We had a nice chat. Okay, actually, I’m not happy about this so much as I am weirded out. I mean, one of mom’s friends didn’t know who I was last month when I actually told her my name (despite the fact that I wrote her daughter’s college application essay), until I said, “Miriam’s son,” so the fact that I was identified this one — whom I haven’t seen since around 1984 when I was part of the Dungeons & Dragons gang that played in her basement — is frankly bizarre.
What I’m sad about: Fantastic Man doesn’t put its articles online. Otherwise, I’d link to some neat interviews with Fergus Henderson and Tyler Brule, as well as a funny piece on Karl Lagerfeld’s mysterious Chanel menswear line.
What I’m pondering: I find most “acclaimed” contemporary novels start out strong but get mighty dull. Is that a sign that these writers blow their creative load early on, or that my attention span is for crap?
