Sigo Paolini > Recent Status Updates

Claude may be a century old but he explained the diff between macadam and asphalt -- cold weather, which is why perhaps I call it macadam and always get corrected. Asphalt it is, then

Location of the driveway.......Miller made me laugh about Peter Stuyvesant dictating the road on Broadway in Manhattan to go around his beloved pear tree, for when arborists come to my humble abode they asked Was I was willing to cut down a black maple? I said, sure why not? They told me how most property damage from storms happens because the homeowner wanted to "spare the tree." Before leaving, they asked again.

First off the book noted here is a republishing of the 1912 book that was concerned with driveways for horse and buggy. To be honest, laying out a driveway, the various concerns on slope, crowning and bends are no different for today's cars — what is different are the materials used though I think some contractors do still utilize the shortcuts Miller abhors.

It is very complete and filled in with many details that I wondered about. That said, I am not sure the Concise version of this book is best for those new to the area -- I took a Russian History course in uni so I knew something because there is little repetition and explanations are brief.

The 747 pages noted here is double the size of the book. She is far simpler than the Gangolf books that want everything blanched, while Marrone notes that only cruciferous veggies need that because of their chemical properties. I followed Marrone's method for the most part, dehydrating and then vacuum wrapping my harvest. It is a long, tedious affair . A good dehydrator like Nesco will help.

He has very good recipes, but OTOH he relies on his dehydrator which is no longer made. Popeil is informative and covers all the various ways of dehydrating, including for those in the southern states sun drying fruits.

She's overly complicated.

I was wrong. I was not reading the Mating Game, but this...Jeeves isn't around much; he's on holiday. Instead, this replacement isn't around much either. BTW, "in the offing", describes something that is likely to happen or arrive soon. It's ok. It flags at points, and while the repartee has a lot of Brit slang the beat is slow.

Probably the strongest part of the book is the quotes from many grammar books published previously. Mrs. Leonard does have some inshgtful comments about different parts of grammar, King Henry VIII's impact on English grammar was surprising, and how Wm Shakespeare responded ot it typically sardonic, but overall she spends 100 pages doing nothing before she gets to the heart of the book.

This book on my e-reader is 40 pages long and I'm still at pg 30 -- its that boring. I guess today with the heat index at 99 I'll sit in the shade and finish it.

I listened to an interview with Thurman & read some review. Nothing though prepared me for how banal this bio is. I am losing hope.

Turgenev was part of the Young Turks of his time, men too young for the Decembrist Revolution of 1828 but there in spirit. Friends Alexander Herzen, Mikhail Bakunin, Vissarion Belinsky & Nicholas Ogarev --all sons of noblemen -- now we only know of Turgenev because of this and a Sportsman's Sketches. This book is a discussion of men who did not share their politics and their sons who did.

Decided to read this concurrently to Out of Africa which the Thurman helped screenwrite. Thurman learnt Danish so she could go to Denmark and Regslund to visit her Blixen's remaining family. She went to Africa and stayed at Peter Mathieson's African ranch -- alone. She put in a lot of hours and travel. Its impressive.

I still haven't a clue why we care about these people.

Has TW actually done anything in this field or is he just a reader? I am getting the feeling he never the campus. Piled high.

I read Pamela by Richardson years ago, but did re-read some of the letters to remember it better. Shamela, Fielding's sendup of the classic, is a sarcastic rebuke. Luckily there are some notes, but I found not enough for me, to understand it, so right now I am reading the literary notes before plunging in as it seems my initial reading of Shamela (and that just a few pages) was incorrect. Talley-ho

Covering the same time and place, Hemingway's Moveable Feast is far better, but written 30 years later. Wilder's story was penned in 1926 when he was 29 and written about when he was 25. More of a diary then a novella. No plot. Heavy on characterization and sketches. It is now part of a collection of Wilder's first two books -- this and Woman of Andros.

Interesting that she sees commitment to one's writing not as a duty, oh no that makes it an onerous job. Instead it is a belief in one's essential life force.

True Balzac. Very evocative with a dollop of sneer on top.

90 pages in and all I get is antecdotes. This does nothing for me. Maybe it will improve.

Pastoral Tale by AC Doyle. No Sherlock but its a crime mystery, nonetheless. It is a tale of a mad psychopathic killer that haunts a small Tyrolean town. Narrator was very Holmesy.

The Fall of the House of Usher. Narrator is excellent. Haven't heard this story in years, and the Vinny Price movie is far different, so if that's all you've seen, I'd recommend this one. Included is one of Poe's poems.

Alot of cruft after Lovecraft...and then there is the Yellow Wallpaper which I hadn't read in a while. Made me want to learn more about that short, but all there is Julie Dock's feminist history of its publication. Pity.

Lucky cards for your destiny spreads
Major Cards: The Chariot, the Wheel of Fortune, the Star,
the Moon, the Sun, the World.
Minor Cards: The Aces of Pentacles, Cups, and Wands;
the Threes of Cups and Wands; the Six of Wands; the
Eight of Pentacles and Wands; the Tens of Pentacles and
Wands.
Then there is a spread I guess she created, and when is the best time of day or weather to use it.

Some of the comments about astrology are incorrect. Other than that fine.