When I start to prepare for bed – a lengthy process, as I have certain medical conditions that must be catered to – my oldest dog, Harry, comes into the bedroom and lies on the blue-and-gold rug, eyes closed, quietly aware in that way dogs are as I move in and out of the bathroom. […]
Recent Posts
WEIGHT-LOSS SURGERY AND TRANSFORMATION, FINAL PART
Earlier parts begin here. PART SIX: MY BODY’S COUP D’ETAT. THE NEW RULES. Earlier I compared dieting, for the morbidly obese, to walking across the United States, but with the addition of a sadistic joker God — rather like Robert Heinlein’s book JOB: A Comedy of Manners, in which two innocent people are the target […]
WEIGHT-LOSS SURGERY AND TRANSFORMATION, CONTINUED
Part One here. PART TWO: THE FUCKING SCIENCE On May 2, 2016, the New York Times made a bit of a furor when it published an article called “After ‘The Biggest Loser,’ Their Bodies Fought to Regain the Weight.” The majority of contestants were gaining weight back – not surprising to most readers. What did […]
WEIGHT-LOSS SURGERY AND TRANSFORMATION: An Essay In Several Parts
In December 2014 I had weight-loss surgery. People have been curious — why do it? What does it entail? Couldn’t you just diet and exercise? Indeed, a certain number of my questioners have little idea what “weight-loss surgery” means (why should they) and assume I somehow had 130 pounds of fat surgically removed. (One asked […]
Brideshead — Revisited, Recalled, Rediscovered
Sometimes I type “jackal-haunted nights” or “Queenie was a blonde” into Google just to see what’ll come up. […]
Lord Peter Wimsey and the Golden Age
“I may say his views on women and the stage were such as I should have expected of a man who would smoke with your lordship’s port.” – Mervyn Bunter This essay will be as heavy with spoilers as a scone is with raisins, jam, and clotted cream. Many consider the 1920s and 1930s as […]
visit to a small country
I have returned from a visit to the country of pain, a place where all of us stop from time to time, and some of us live. It is a small country, to hold so many of us; small enough to crawl over, to learn each stone and shard of glass in the road with […]
the artifice of eternity (Sherlock spoilers)
Well, Sherlock’s second season has with maddening desultoriness finally wended its way across the ocean. Could it have taken longer? I’ve been pacing like Penelope waiting for Odysseus to get off his ass and show up to set things right. And what did we get for our patient waiting? Before all else, “A Scandal in […]
the end
Just back from the House series wrap party at one of my favorite places in Los Angeles, the art deco Cicada Club and Restaurant. Built by a wealthy haberdasher (!) in 1928, the building’s a gem of deco splendor, and once a week you can enjoy dinner and dancing to a vintage jazz band. Tonight, […]
thoughts when I read: the Taliban, zombies, and James Tiptree
I’ve been reading The Dressmaker of Khair Khana by Gayle Lemmon, a nonfiction book about a young Afghan woman who starts a dressmaking business under the Taliban. The story begins as the Taliban are rumored to be approaching Kabul; we meet Kamila as she’s getting her diploma — which is about to become a worthless […]