The Burrow

Paper Culture is giving away a $50 gift voucher to one lucky denizen.   CLICK HERE  to read the post and enter the contest. Entries must be submitted by Wednesday afternoon.

It is possible that the UofA,  my home town team, may not win another game this season.  The Cardinals,  who wear our local NFL laundry , continue to find ways to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.   The Diamondbacks made the post-season but never made it past the first round. It's hard to be a fan in Arizona these days. ***** It used to be comfortable to be a Yankee fan.  Not so much this year, as they join the D'backs on the bench, watching others aim for the World Series.  Sports Illustrated wrote an article on the Philadelphia fans' adoration of their Phillies and they, too, are out before they really got started. It's hard to be a hometown fan in other places, too. ***** The Wall Street Journal opined that less is more  when it comes to the NBA, and I couldn't agree more.  Have you noticed that the pre-season hasn't begun?  I just asked TBG if he thought it ought to have begun by now and his quizzical furrowed brow tells the...

Paper Culture, our favorite vendor from BlogHer'11 , is loving us right back by letting me offer a $50 gift voucher for   holiday cards  to a denizen of The Burrow. How to win?  I'm thinking as I'm typing.  I'm new to this competition vibe.  So, while I cogitate, let's look at all the ways these cards can simplify your lives.  Why?  Have you all forgotten the reason for these Friday Shopping Secrets posts?  It's to encourage and enable you to complete all your shopping chores before December 1st rolls around.  If you have been thinking that you'll get back to them eventually you are missing the point. Feeling nagged, are we?  Paper Culture understands the kind of person who would nag about gift giving I have no one on my list (or in my life, for that matter) for whom this would be appropriate, but, perhaps, you do.  I think it's nice of Paper Culture to cater to all tastes. Having a Halloween party?  E-vites are fin...

Once again, BlogHer is paying me to review a novel.  Though I received the book for free, my opinions are my own and untainted by any untoward interference from anyone..... just in case you were wondering.  TBG got a kick out of seeing the spine of Margaret Dilloway's debut novel.  " Really?  You're reading a how to book at this late date?"   Not exactly, but kinda sorta. Margaret Dilloway drops us into middle America circa 1950.  Like Shoko, Charlie's Japanese war bride, we are up that creek without a paddle, except for our guidebook, How to Be an American Housewife . But, like Shoko, I am strong and resilient and I know what I must do, so I soldier on and plow through the most melancholy first half of a novel that I have ever read. Sigh. The most interesting character was Shoko's father, and I didn't get enough of him to satiate my curiosity.  How did he manage to get over Japan's defeat?  How was he able to support his daughter's choic...

I had a very very busy day today.  Professor Lippmann was every bit as wonderful as the Humanities Seminars' introductory video had led me to believe that he would be.  I was delighted to find out that he loved Scullard's first paragraph as much as I did.  My classmates are a different crowd than I'm used to seeing; perhaps the history groupies take another set of courses than do we lovers of all things ancient and Greek.  It was three wonderful hours , and then the morning was gone. I met with Michelle from TTT   over lunch at Rincon Market (possibly the best salad bar in Tucson) where we laughed over the fact that she was late but I didn't care because there was a Bridal Calendar next to a faux wedding cake and I was deeply engrossed in Cool Color Schemes . I hardly noticed the passage of time.  We planned and plotted and agreed on so many things that I wonder if we were separated at birth. She had to run and I had an empty hour before Pilates...

Above all, could she produce sufficient men of insight and goodwill who would persuade both the governing class and people to face squarely the pressing problems of the day and to seek solutions for the common good even when this might involve some sacrifice of individual gain by leaders and common man alike? If statesmen failed to grapple with urgent political, economic and social problems, and if sections of the community selfishly set their own interests before the well-being of the whole ......, then stresses and tensions might overstrain the stability of the body politic and ( her ) days ..... would be numbered. I suppose if a book has had 5 editions, has been in print continuously since 1959 in both the UK and the USofA, and has been reprinted just about every year since 1986 (sometimes twice in the same year) one might assume before getting any further than the copyright page that the information contained therein will be trustworthy. I'm learning about ...

Beautiful Annie invited me and I invited Amster and Elizabeth.  The patio and the lobby of The Loft were filled with groups just like ours.  It was Saturday morning and we were there to watch Miss Representation , a Made-In-Northern-California examination of the objectification of women in the media. It was my treat, so Elizabeth could satisfy her craving for Dr. Pepper.... well, it was Mr. Pibb but she said she was just as happy and I chose to believe her.  We settled down in the 2nd to last row and talked about boys and books and Emily Dickinson while Amster waited for Annie to arrive after dropping off boys at soccer. It was a normal Saturday morning.  It was almost as if I'd never been shot.  There aren't a lot of those moments; I treasure them. The movie wasn't didactic or pedantic or screeching.  It was neither too long nor too short.  It was a Goldilocks Film - "just right".  Dianne Feinstein, Condoleeza Rice, Olympia Snowe... their ...