Monday: Bama BBQ
Roll Tide! We’re making whoopie pies and eating barbecue!
Monthly Archives: January 2012
Canine correspondence
Your friend who you left us at her house, she took us for walks today. First she took Stella for a walk, and Stella smelled all the smells and she said they smelled very smelly and she liked to smell the smells and so she smelled all of them. And she walked very fast.
And then your friend, she took me for a walk and she didn’t think I would go as fast as Stella went but guess what I went even faster than Stella went and your friend she was surprised ha ha ha. My short legs are short but they are very fast.
I smelled a lot of smells too and they smelled very very very good. And I heard a lawnmower and it went brrrm brrrm brrrrm and I liked it and then I saw a lawnmower and it went brrrrm brrrrm brrrm and I liked it and then I wanted to smell a lawnmower but your friend said No Jack No You May Not Smell That Lawnmower. So I said OK and then I said Ha Ha Ha and zooooom and I tried to pull her down the hill with my short fast legs. Ha ha ha. It didn’t work though she was stronger than I thought. She has short legs too they aren’t fast though like mine.
We are having a good day and did you smell any good smells today? Stella saw two squirrels and I saw one squirrel and I miss you are you coming back soon? I hope so.
I love you and I am your friend,
Jack The Dog
A book review that’s mostly about something else altogether
Years ago, when I was young and carefree, I did a lot of driving. Because I lived 20 minutes away from my high school and then 40ish minutes away from college but also because gas was something like a penny for 17 gallons.
(That’s not entirely true, but it was something like 95 cents a gallon. And sometimes we drove down to Georgia just to fill up, because it was even cheaper there. Oh, but those were the days.)
Anyway, I was young and carefree and spent a lot of my time in my car, and I had one of those great big Case Logic cases full of CDs that travelled along with me. And in that CD case was Paul Simon’s “Graceland,” and it was in my CD player for weeks and months at a time. I loved that album. And even though I hadn’t actually listened to it in years I was sad a few years ago when I realized that the CD had disappeared. But then! I found a copy a few months ago at a drugstore. I would’ve bought it even if it hadn’t been 75 percent off (because it wasn’t just a drugstore, it was a going-out-of-business drugstore!), because it’s such a good album. It’s reclaimed its rightful place as Grand Duke Of The CD Player In My Car ever since.
So clearly the first thing that happens when I read a book in which the protagonist’s name is Fat Charlie is that I spend days with Paul Simon’s “Crazy Love, Vol. II” in my head. And then once I finish the book, I spend a bit of time trying to find out whether it’s a direct reference or not. I don’t find anything conclusive, but based on the lyrics
Fat Charlie, the archangel, sloped into the room.
He said “I have no opinion about this
and I have no opinion about that.Sad as a lonely little wrinkled balloon
He said “Well I don’t claim to be happy about this, boys,
and I don’t seem to be happy about that.”
I have to concur that there Paul Simon did have some influence, at least, on Neil Gaiman when he wrote “Anansi Boys.” It’s the story of the aforementioned Fat Charlie, the sad-sack estranged son of Anansi. The Spider god-guy from African folklore. Except that Fat Charlie doesn’t know that when we first meet him. He also doesn’t know that he sort of has a brother he doesn’t know anything about. And also there’s a budding serial killer and some bird attacks.
It’s kind of a weird book.
It’s also sometimes tense and frequently funny. It’s the first Gaiman book I’ve read,* but I’m pretty sure it won’t be the last.
(I read “Good Omens” by Gaiman and Terry Pratchett in 2006.)