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Saturday, April 11, 2020

He Was Teaching Dog to Drive

Ever since finishing my last book, I’ve been thinking of how to begin the next one. Beginning is everything and needs to contain, like the seed of a tree, the work as a whole. And so, what I see is the figure of a man descending (from the sidewalk?) five or six steps to a basement apartment, and he’s halfway there. I know it’s a love story. And maybe there’s a woman in the basement apartment. It’s probably November.” 
–from Moods, Section [1]

As she entered [the snooker room], Karolina felt the hair along her spine and the back of her neck stand on end.  A room filled with strange vibrations, a place where one could go mad and commit a crime, where one could lose one’s head and one’s good judgement, and be at the mercy of the collusions of one’s neighbour as well as one’s own unfathomable drives.  A place that might unexpectedly activate the links in a chain of old memories.  A congenial place, cosy.”
 


“What a rich mess my chromosomes turned out to be, what a heady mix of toxic blood was running through my veins!” 



JOHN TAN. Covid-19: Which news sources should you trust?



Crises bring out a natural hunger for good information. How does one choose news sources? Continue reading 


Thank god for the internet. “I was 12 the first time I logged onto whatever was called the internet then. There were no websites to speak of, not really. No ecommerce, no banner ads, no data tracking, no spyware. iPhones hadn’t been invented yet; we called apps ‘programs’; and I had an EGA monitor on my PC (a whole 16 colors of range). But the first time I telnetted into a chatroom about raves, made new friends in Australia, or downloaded files to load into a music tracker, I felt the same elation that I feel now. This force, propelled by people, connected by copper and light, letting us make new connections. Connections we need now more than ever.”

The case for Don DeLillo. By every metric of literary greatness, he is in the highest percentile. Give him the Nobel Prize. This year  Don DeLillo  


Christie’s has been cooperating with investigators from the Manhattan district attorney’s office into how overseas affiliates handled state and local sales tax collection.
CREDITALEXANDRA SCHULER/DPA, VIA GETTY IMAGES

Christie’s to Pay Up to $16.7 Million Fine Over Tax Violations

The penalty is part of a settlement to avoid prosecution by the Manhattan district attorney’s office, which said the auction house did not properly collect New York sales taxes



STILL THERE: The spread of coronavirus has forced the closure of Men’s Sheds around the globe, but you can get to them online.






GIVE HIM CREDIT — FRED NEVER LET SCOOBY DRIVE THE MYSTERY MACHINE: Cops Find Pit Bull at Wheel After Car Chase — and Owner Allegedly Said He Was Teaching Dog to Drive.



"To condone a public injustice is simply to take your place in the line of eventual victims."
 
"Do things while you can and while they matter to you, because neither is a permanent state of affairs."




On Jimmy Kimmel the other night, F-bomb maestro Samuel L. Jackson read a new short story/poem by Adam Mansbach (author of Go the Fuck to Sleep) called Stay the Fuck at Home to promote safe behavior during the pandemic. You can skip to about 6:00 to hear the story:
The book isn’t available for sale, so Jackson, Kimmel, and Mansbach are asking people to donate to Feeding America



Open Source Cookbook – “Open source recipes to be used in a quarantine during a global pandemic – This cookbook is meant to be an open source toolkit that everyone and anyone can access during a time of heightened need. There are recipes from chefs, line cooks, home cooks, mothers, fathers, nonnas, popo’s and everyday joes.” At launch, it features recipes from Toronto’s top chefs and restaurants…” The recipes (118 pages so far)  may be view in PDF or on the web – include detailed instructions and photos along with the names of the contributors – reminiscent of the early web (1995-2000). Nice. Read. Cook. Share. Contribute. Be Well. Stay Safe.