Knitwit

Rashly, I've taken up knitting again. I don't know how long this will last. My main goal is to finish the Harry Potteresque scarf I started 4 1/2 years ago. There are plans a cookin' to do more, but that's if I don't completely lose patience and throw out the skein of yarn first. Each section of different yarn I tie to the old with a slipknot results in a slightly longer row, which is having the affect of a gradual widening as I move forward. I guess I'm keeping this one for myself. Nobody else will want to wear my oddly geometric, slightly askew, first knitting attempt (and I don't blame them)!

Revisionist History, or More Myths I Learned in School

Do you remember being taught the glories of FDR’s New Deal policies in school? It seems that the New Deal may have actually prolonged the Great Depression instead of alleviating its ills. New Deal or Raw Deal? by Burton Folsom, Jr. explains how Roosevelt’s policies stifled business (especially small businesses), made earning a living especially hard for low income earners, and kept America behind Europe in economic recovery. Folsom even contends that it wasn’t World War II that pulled the U.S. out of the Depression; rather, businesses were more inclined to invest when the political climate was friendlier at the end of FDR’s term and during Truman’s presidency, which made capital flow again.

One interesting fact: At one point, Roosevelt taxed all personal income over $25,000 at a 100% rate, reasoning that nobody would ever make that much money. Amazing!

Twi-lit?

Sometimes you just want to read throwaway pulp. Not literature destined to stand the test of time, but the novel’s equivalent to junk mail: easy to read, quick to digest, and occasionally interesting enough for a momentary diversion. So, I picked up the Twilight saga. Last year, I read Twilight, and found myself alternatively bored and frustrated. Bella is whiney and dull. I grew tired of her paragraph-long musings on Edward’s extraordinary beauty. I just wanted to wring Edward’s neck for most of the book (but he’s already dead anyway; he’s a vampire after all). “Leave already,” I thought after his innumerable threats to desert Bella for her own good. But, he always came back. I couldn’t pick up another book in the series for over a year. Yet, the saga is omnipresent and my interest still strangely piqued.

So, I read the rest of the series, and what did I find? The writing quality, plot, story, and characters didn’t improve. In fact, they got worse! Bella is more annoying than ever and unfortunately (spoiler alert) she’s undead by the end of the series, so theoretically, readers will have to put up with her forever and dread her presence in future novels! I breezed through books two and three, but four was medieval torture. I stopped and started so many times that I wasn’t certain I would finish. The birth scene was excruciatingly long, the child is weird (and not in an endearing way), and the author’s shifting POVs are distracting, not enhancing.

However, after reading the whole series, you know what my first thought was? You guessed it: Why didn’t I think of that?? If I had thought of the idea and had the perseverance to write it all and get it through the often grueling acceptance and publishing process, I would now be kicking back on a beach chair in the tropics drinking a Bloody Mary (I don’t know if I even like Bloody Marys, but what else do you drink to celebrate a successful vampire series?) and planning how to spend my countless millions. Unfortunately, I only have a couple of unfinished novels and the dream of countless millions (pun intended).

Twilight may not be good literature, but it’s a good living. Good for the author and too bad for me!

I'm a Farmer

On Farmville. After over a year of resisting Facebook, I caved in and joined. I had also decided not to play any of the Facebook games some friends had been obsessed over. But, despite my resolve, I joined Farmville, and I really like to farm. I don't get why it's so satisfying to plant and harvest fake crops, tend to virtual animals, and buy computer-generated buildings with fake coins. But it is.

Unfortunately, most of my formerly addicted Farmville friends no longer or hardly play. I joined too late. So, whoever is reading this, join Farmville and be my neighbor! Then I can expand my farm :).

The Devil Is in the Details

I'm about halfway through The Devil's Rooming House by M. William Phelps, a true crime book about Amy Archer-Gilligan, a female serial killer in the early 20th Century who murdered inmates for money at her boarding house/nursing home in Windor, Connecticut by poisoning their lemonade with arsenic. Apparently, these actual crimes were used as inspiration for the 1940s Cary Grant movie Arsenic and Old Lace, although there aren't strong parallels between the plot of the movie and the true events (other than poison used as a method of murder).

If you like true crime, you might find this an interesting read, although Phelps isn't as skilled a writer as Erik Larson (of Devil in the White City fame). Like Larson in Devil, Phelps weaves two stories together: the murders of Archer-Gilligan and the deadly heat wave of 1911 in the New England states. However, the "silent killer" trope isn't as consistently sustained or as artfully executed as the white/black--construction/destruction themes Larson uses.

Middle East Peace in a Bottle

It won't solve any religious or policy disputes, but shatta, a hot red pepper sauce used in Palestinian cuisine and having Egyptian origins, might be able to bring people together at the dinner table. I think a lot of hot sauce enthusiasts would agree that this mouth-searing condiment is fantastic. I use the Canary brand of shatta that I found at a local Middle Eastern market. It's great with hummus, pita bread, and Persian cucumbers (but any cucumbers will do).

When I had congestion problems a couple of weeks ago, I prescribed myself some shatta, and the issues cleared up. It sure tastes better than over-the-counter cold meds. Caution: It really is hot; take with a liberal amount of fluids. It's well worth the mouth and stomach burn.

Answer: To Hell in a Handbasket

Question: Where is our country headed now that the Democrats' health care legislation has passed?