Some Favorites

Tidbits from some favorite blogs today.

Early Modern Notes. Here's a sad poem by Lady Mary Wortley Montagu in which she sounds like many women ready to give up on internet dating:

Oh! was there a man ... Not meanly would boast, nor would lewdly design; Not over severe, yet not stupidly vain, No pedant, yet learned; no rake-helly gay, Or laughing, because he has nothing to say; To all my whole sex obliging and free, Yet never be fond of any but me...

presentsimple is written by a woman from New Zealand who teaches English as a Second Language in Japan. She should write a book. I love her posts. In an uncharacteristically brief one about her (Japanese) husband preparing to go to a wake:

We practiced greeting somebody in a restrained way before he left. He was afraid he'd see his old friend and be overcome with joy and break out into cheerful, rude greetings without thinking.

As he was getting ready I asked him how much money he needed to take. You always take money to wakes and funerals in Japan.

He told me. I checked the envelope containing cash he'd just got paid for a job, and said,

"Well, how about that for good timing! There are some nice new bills in here."

"NO!" he said. "No new bills!"

"Eh?" I said.

I thought that in Japan you always had to give new bills. I'd been all ready to start ironing if we didn't have any.

"Not for a wake," he said. "For funerals and weddings, yes, but you shouldn't give new bills at a wake. It makes it look like you were ready for it."

I Used To Believe is not exactly a blog but it is updated regularly.

In the apartments where we lived when I was little the drain was kind of slow I guess and the bottom of the tub would fill up with a couple of inches of dirty soapy water. I would stand as far away from the deeper end of the tub as possible because I thought evil fairies riding fish would come up through the drain and bite me and poke me with little sticks and things

I used to believe that my parents relied on me to make the traffic lights green. I would do this by absorbing the green from trees and grass with my eyes and beam it into the traffic lights. If i was given enough time I had a 100% success rate.

Miguel at Rarely pure and never simple has drawn me in. I tried to find something to quote from his post on starting a rose garden when he was a boy, but really I'd have had to quote the whole thing, so just go over there and read it.

Lynn at Reflections in d minor is a generous linker who shares a lot of interesting blogs and shares a lot of my interests. She wrote a letter to Congress about the Illegal Operations her computer has been committing.

Go Fug Yourself is a guilty pleasure, like reading about aliens impregnating congresswomen while standing in line at the supermarket. They post pictures of Beautiful People dressed like asses. Go feast your eyes on Goldie Hawn:

Nothing says I Got Hammered At El Compadre Before My Book Signing And Thought It Would Be A Great Idea To Wear The Tablecloth In Case It Got Kinda Chilly At Book Soup like a radioactive stripey poncho.

There are of course many blogs which link to exotic cult sites but growabrain is different - and better.