WhimsyLand

A rare Persian rug sold at Christie's for $4.45 million, which comes to about $730 per square inch.  When my family was leaving Iran, mom and dad sold all of their furniture and bought rugs.  They are still in my parent's home, and quite beautiful.  I've never thought about how valuable they might be, but they cost thousands of dollars in 1960, so probably quite so. 

I didn't know that Reb had red hair.  Did Reb always have red hair?  It's quite attractive red hair, and she has the perfect right to have it.  I'm just wondering if I've been unobservant.  For example, for the first three years I knew Sweet Junie, I couldn't remember her eye color.  That kinda thing.

An Ohio high school passed out graduation diplomas which had the word education misspelled.

Gabe Gudding reports on Facebook that Harper's wants to run "part of an essay-poem" in their Readings section.  I'm assuming that it's an excerpt from Rhode Island Notebook, but I don't really know. 

Dumb flies live longer.

I've been adding friends to my list on Facebook.  It helps that FB recommends individuals, most of whom I don't think I know, and then I find we have 54 friends in common.  I have not been very active on FB, nor anywhere as clever as my friends.   They tend to report their doings in strange and wonderful ways:  "Daniel Nester thinks he can dance. So?" and "Amy Newman forgives the caramel deer who ate the red geraniums." and "Tony Tost was wondering if he was infantilizing Simon with a cutsie pajama outfit, then remembered that Simon is an infant." 

Rebecca has had me thinking all day about the poetic possibilities of "high filberts".

"In some regions, the supply coming to the market from home builders is now smaller than the supply coming from foreclosures." - Deutsche Bank senior economist Torsten Slok.

Trish finally got to go to Disneyworld.

Tiling Diary:  This morning, I applied the sealer to the kitchen tile and grout.  The sealer, manufactured by DuPont, cost $90 for a quart or so.  You could buy a nice Bordeaux for that.  Meanwhile, I'm still (slowly) laying slate in the entryway (or if you wish foyer, which I would pronounce foy-yay, but that's me).  The slate is quite lovely in strange and unpredictable ways.  I cut the odd pieces with a wet saw which spews up slate-dusted water and makes me absolutely filthy and feel very manly.  I have been combining my tessellation and culinary skills to good effect.  I find that a kitchen ladle is much more effective in doling out thin set, for example.  For those odd places where using a serrated trowel is tricky, I just apply the cement directly to the back of the tile with a rubber spatula.  When a tile is mis-set, I use a pancake flipper to lift it.  I have found no use for the turkey baster, but it's still early days.

Cath and Ky and Luke and Julie and Joanna and Clifton and Rosario joined Derek for a 21st birthday party at The Med.  We ate all kinds of tapas and Der had a martini.  They didn't tell us if it was shaken or stirred.  Luke is my nephew and was visiting his friends Clifton and Rosario in Boulder by excellent chance, so were able to join us in the consumption of bocarones and almendras tostadas and pinchos morunos and almejas con salsa verde y jamon and aceitunas mixtas.   We were all sorry that Sweet Junie couldn't make it, as she loves the baba ghanouj and hummus bil tahini.

Special Offer!  The management of Many Mountains Moving has decided that we don't really need thousands of back issues.  So, you can obtain a dozen back issues for the cost of postage.  Just send me $5 in postage and I'll send you the volumes via Media Mail.  If you'd like a whole box (which is between 32 and 45 volumes) of any issue, send me $14 in postage and I'll make sure it gets to you.  If you'd like to know who has been published in these volumes, there is a selected list of contributors at SPD.  The poets and writers who are featured in these volumes include Kim Addonizio, Hayden Carruth, Stephen Dobyns, Tony Hoagland, Mark Irwin, Dorianne Laux, Charles Simic among the many hundreds of authors.  Email me at jbahr at set-software-services.com for details.