rock-whelk, etc.
The essential bit of news around here is that Song of Roland is not done after all. The agent who I hoped would bite sent me one of those "I admire many things, nevertheless I shall pass" emails, and Peyton had the temerity to make all kinds of suggestions after reading the manuscript. Even worse, she had the temerity to be right. There is probably a month or so of retooling ahead.
The cat is lonely again, and has resumed his habit of pacing the floor and making piteous noises. For the past week he had a whole bevy of playmates come to Arizona for the new year: Stewart and Jake who were allergic to him, Julia and Joe who enjoyed his company but balked at his occupying their laps during dinner, Peyton who happily acceded to his sharing her meals, and Lauren and Jen who wanted to take him home. (Pairing of names does not indicate a companionate relationship.) See L and J for descriptions of Marlowe's 12/31/02 party; I remember only the imp dance and the Jim Beam in the pool. The eight of us collectively posessed over one million dollars' worth of education. One of eight was currently employed.
Lauren located me a used 1942 edition of the Dewey Decimal Classification at Bookman's. (The classification itself is filed at 025.4.) It is nearly impossible to find a page whose list-poetry, seasoned with the odd Scottish spelling, does not entrance:
638.17 Wax
.172 Apparatus: solar extractors
.173 Rendering
Wax presses. For refining see 665.2
.176 Adulterants
.177 Substitutes
2 Of vegetable origin
3 " animal "
.179 Uses
.19 Bees in other than productiv relations
Fertilization of flowers
.199 Bees as nuisances
Attacking horses. Runaways. In towns
This may be bathroom reading for the next year.
