Abducted By Aliens
Perhaps not aliens, but it feels that way. I've been buried under a
project for work that has had me going 12-14 hours a day, every day, for two
weeks. Now I know what CDY felt like as an intern. I'm going to
knock off at noon and make a huge lasagna from a recipe in one of the Silver
Palate cookbooks. Mountains of
grated
fresh buffalo mozzarella and aged parmesan mixed with whole-milk ricotta, ground
round, fresh steamed spinach, and homemade tomato sauce (plum tomatoes, red
wine, onions, garlic, oregano, fresh parsley, and a hint of nutmeg). I
bought a to-die-for bottle of Barolo (RP rating of 95) at auction online.
Also a T-shirt that says "I'm kind of a big deal" from
NoiseBot.com.
Then, I'm driving to Cath's and making the rest of dinner for the mother of my
sons, one of whom will be there to make a huge dent in the lasagna monster.
I'm going to roll over to our new shopping center and get a Giant Lasagna Pan,
Scott Turf Builder, and some decent shorts. I can do that because all of
my favorite places are there: Bed Bath and Beyond, Lowe's, and Ross Dress
For Less. It's like they interviewed me before finalizing the leases.
As you can imagine, I haven't had time to read much, except 15 exhausted minutes
just before sleep every night. The cover of APR features Jean Senac
that accompanies an article and translations. David Lehman has an
interesting article on Archie Ammons, whose poetry I've never been able to get
into, but Lehman's comments make me reconsider. A wonderful interview with
the ageless Stanley Kunitz, as wise and gentle as we all have come to expect.
Alan Williamson bemoans the New Age of Cynicism (principally among younger
poets). I would tell you about the poetry (and there is some good stuff in
the issue) but it would necessarily lead me to criticizing a half-dozen poets by
name — something I would prefer to let Ron and my
other betters do. Much of the poetry in this issue is just appalling.
I can only think of cliché's (diary entries, lineated prose, maudlin maundering,
...) to describe the banal work in much of this issue.
The Atlantic's cover article is Life After Roe with a picture of a jaunty
Chief Justice Roberts and academic-slouchy Sam Alito coming down the steps of
the Supreme Court. The article itself discusses the likelihood of Roe v.
Wade's erosion in coming years, concluding that Choice will lose to Life in many
red states. Stoking the Beast punctures the myth that you can
"starve the beast" of Big Government by cutting taxes (just look what the last 4
years has brought). Hunkering Down is one author's term for what
the U.S. military will have to for many years in Iraq as sectarian violence goes
on and on and on. A former founder of a large management consulting firm
waxes treasonously by suggesting that most of management theory is bunk and all
those business books at Borders contain nonsense. The book review section
has a fascinating discussion of the morality of Allied area bombing of Germany:
over half a million civilians were killed in raids on non-military targets (and
almost 50,000 airmen died in the process).
Just got a new Poetry and Harper's. More on that tomorrow.
Really, I promise.
~~~
OK, I lied. It turned out that I mangled my SQL Server along the way, and
now I have to rebuild everything.