Crocs. Ugh. Or is that Uggs?
Monthly Archives: May 2008
One step closer to putting that whole Rome episode behind me…
Today the receipts all went in. Yay!
…..Further – they all came back on Friday. Booh! After some work, I think I can turn them all in again. Yay!
“first-ever underwater surveys of the Nile” What??
You mean they’d never sent divers down in a systematic fashion? What?
The temple they’ve discovered down there looks interesting, but I’m mainly amazed by another wild new frontier.
Why I’m not buying a Kindle yet
It’s grey on lighter grey. See Prof. Althouse.
I’m an inveterate flipper for everything but fiction. See Prof. Cowen.
And then there’s the problem of what I’m currently (and not at all untypically) reading:
Bernard Berenson, Rumour and Reflection (his WWII years diary) – not available.
Robert Bringhurst, The Elements of Typographic Style – not just not available – I can’t imagine how it would look with its formatting violated.
Richard Fletcher, The Barbarian Conversion: From Paganism to Christianity (though I’m reading a hard cover I lifted from my father) – not available
Eric Gill, Beauty Looks After Herself: Essays (a 1933 edition, though there is at least one reprint edition on Amazon) – not available
Guglielmo Matthiae, Le chiese di Roma dal IV al X secolo – not available
Orhan Pahmuk, Istanbul, Memories and the City – available
Steven Saylor, Roma: the Novel of Ancient Rome – available, and bed-reading, for which Kindle might be more comfortable (and if I hadn’t gotten it for Christmas I’d be a little annoyed – it’s REALLY not as good as the Roma sub rosa series).
And they dropped the price 10% today. It’s $359. I’ll wait, despite some of the very positive reviews I’ve read, like Miss McArdle’s.
Red White and Blue
Yesterday’s Memorial Day Parade from the third floor balcony.
Oddly Sweet
Here’s the New York Times obituary for Sydney Pollack. It was almost always worth watching his movies. Interesting, though – he married in 1958 and stayed married to the same woman. Oddly sweet when you see that in a Hollywood type, somehow.
Well, there won’t be any amputation
The orthopedist looked at the xrays, talked to me, and decided that we might as well call my knee-horror a gout flare up that ended up causing a lot of inflammation and general tendon pain unless something else turns up. There goes my plan for a stylin’ peg leg.
My affliction
In the midst of all the clean-up work from being away for a semester, today I get to go to the orthopedist about my knee. I was talking about this affliction with my friend Lara on Monday when I realized that I think of myself as sickly, but not fragile. She, who has broken a number of bones badly but isn’t often sick, has the opposite medical self-apprehension. Interesting.
At least it didn’t snow
The one hundred and eighty-third commencement of Hobart College and the nininety-seventh commencement of William Smith College.
Fill it to the rim . . . with caffeinated Brim?
Here is a great article in the New York Times about branding, reviving dead brands (think Volkswagen Beetle), and consumer memory. Here they’re talking about Brim Coffee:
This brings us to Earle’s ideas about the potential upside of faulty consumer memory. Maybe, for instance, you’re among those who remember Brim. But do you also remember that it was a decaf-only brand? That’s actually why you could “fill it to the rim.” River West’s research found that many who recall the Brim brand have forgotten the decaf detail.
. . .
Earle says that this imperfection of memory can be used to enhance whatever new Brim he comes up with. This is “a benefit of dormancy,” he says. The brand equity has value on its own, but it can be grafted onto something newer and, perhaps, more innovative. “Consumers remember the kind of high-level essence of the brand,” he says. “They tend to forget the product specifics.” This, he figures, creates an opening: it gives the reintroduced version “permission” to forget that decaf-only limitation as well and morph into a full line of coffee varieties. “ ‘Fill it to the rim with Brim’ stands for full-flavored coffee,” Earle says, with a chuckle. “Fill it to the rim — it’s great stuff!”
I remember the “Fill it to the Rim with Brim” campaign, but I’d forgotten the decaf angle. Interesting! It’s a fascinating article.
College Presidents
The boom boom crack boom of fireworks in the distance – part of Senior Week. The president of these Colleges likes fireworks – we have them at all sorts of events. I approve, myself!
Ripped from the headlines!
Chemist gets life for hubby’s acid vat murder. Her big mistake? Getting found out before the body dissolved. Ick.
Back . . .
. . . here, and in time for graduation!
Almost ready to return to the frozen North
After 4 months in Italy I have a pretty severe food reaction, and this trip was no different. Since getting home I have eaten variously and well, but I’ve covered most of the bases – Chinese, Indian, Southern, Mexican – and today barbecue! And tonight, Krystals!
I guess I can head back to Geneva, now.
Oddly put
The oddest paragraph I’ve read today – this from today’s Wall Street Journal:
Dawn Brown, a vice president and spokeswoman for Barneys, said the company had no comment. Mr. Jackson, Istithmar’s chief executive, said Sunday that, “We have no comment.” [Dodes, Rachel, et al. 2008 "Barneys CEO Is Expected to Quit." Wall Street Journal, May 12, 2008, sec. B.]
There’s something off about the repetition and the variety of indirect and direct quotation.

