People Talking
"'There is a bareness about an age that has neither letter-writers nor biographers.' Virginia Woolf was writing about Dorothy Osbourne and the seventeenth century when 'the bare landscape becomes full of stir and quiver and we can fill in the spaces between the great books with the voices of people talking.'"
- Betty Radice, in her introduction to her translation of "The Letters of the Younger Pliny"
She means writing letters. Or e-mail.

Trendy
I got an e-mail today from a friend I hadn't heard from in several years. He wrote and said he had registered for library science courses for the fall, and what did I think of that?
Well, I encouraged him. I used to think Iwould get a master's in library science and then I started working here and it killed whatever interest I ever had.
But it seems to be a trend. There is another friend of mine who is a high school English teacher. He recently decided he wanted out of the classroom, but he didn't want to go into school administration. The solution to his dilemma? Library science classes.
I'm surrounded . . . .

The Democracy of the Web has its Down-Side
I found this review of "Dark Side of the Moon" at Amazon.com:
"still overrated after all these years March 29, 2003
This is one of the dumbest records I have ever listened to. It's overrated with a capital O. They wasted a lot of time and effort remastering this CD, and the sound is just as cruddy as it was back when it was first released. You are seriously better off getting the latest discs by Shakira or Kylie instead. Ten years from now, everybody will be talking about Kylie, while this record will be forgotten."
Now, "Dark Side of the Moon" is not my favourite among Pink Floyd albums, but this guy is embaressing. His logic leaves a lot to be desired, as well. Why would a record that's been a classic for twenty-five years be forgotten in another ten?
If this isn't enough to make you think the reviewer a fool, he called the White Stripes "overrated fake-punk" and "racist."

The Joys of Car Ownership
In January I bought a car. It is the first time I have had a car in three years. I got a 1987 Chevrolet Sprint. In a couple years, this car was re-named the Geo. The woman who I brought it from said she loved that car, and that she would never have sold it, but her mother had been forbidden to drive by her doctor, and the daughter had to take over her mother's car. The woman lived in New York City until last summer, and she drove the car down here, and drove it on a daily basis since, so I thought it would be a good car. The woman called it Babycar.
I paid $500 for it. I have spent $450 on repairs since.
First, the exhaust pipe fell apart. That cost $150, but I think I got ripped off. The guy who fixed the exhaust pipe said a CV joint needed to be replaced. I asked people at work to recommend a mechanic, and I found a better garage. I got the new garage to replace the CV joint. That cost about $200. Then, a few weeks after that, the accelerator cable broke off the pedal. That cost $109.
I'm almost scared to drive anywhere. And in fact, I still ride the bus to work, because parking here costs $240 a year.
In addition, the engine only has three cylinders. The car's top speed is about 65 mph, and that's pushing it. I don't like driving on the interstate because everyone else drives at 80 mph or faster. When I made the drive to visit my parents, which usually takes three hours, I went on a series of two-lane back roads and it took over four hours to get there.
But hey, I have a car.