Ropography 9.25.24
Inputs
The Diary of Samuel Pepys: I recently checked the highlights folder of my RSS reader and found that almost everything in it came from TDoSP, which this site is posting in chronological order according to the dates of the entries. Here are some zingers from our pal SP:
So to bed, my mind very full of business and trouble.
Then home and there put some papers in order, and not knowing what to do, the house being so dirty, I went to bed.
Having the beginning of this week made a vow to myself to drink no wine this week (finding it to unfit me to look after business), and this day breaking of it against my will, I am much troubled for it, but I hope God will forgive me.
The landlady being a pretty woman, but I durst not take notice of her, her husband being there.
So we went to church with the corps, and there had service read at the grave, and back again with Pegg Kite who will be, I doubt, a troublesome carrion to us executors; but if she will not be ruled, I shall fling up my executorship.
The Bright Sword by Lev Grossman: I’ve been on a mild history-of-post-Roman-Britain kick ever since I read Sarum by Edward Rutherford (whose similarly structured historical novel about New York is NOT good, stay in your lane ER). If you are interested in how communities cope with civilizational collapse and massive technological and cultural backsliding, certainly wouldn’t be something prescient in your daily life no sirree bobberino, here is TBS! If you prefer that fantastical elements don’t get too bogged down in magical logistics, here is TBS! Finally, if you have a partner who went to Yale and you noticed in LG’s The Magicians that it was very, very, VERY obvious that he did too, it seems like he’s worked that out!
We Solve Murders by Richard Osman: A murder mystery that’s not Thursday Murder Club. It is fine. It is not quite as good as TMC.
Outputs
This was almost an all-Inputs because I am currently solo parenting and running on fumes. I will make one observation: doing drop-off on foot to the school my older child attends takes 30 minutes and is usually the best part of my day (she says once again, taunting the capricious gods of New England weather), while drop-off at the school my younger child attends by car takes the same amount of time and is an end-to-end slog. I will extrapolate absolutely nothing from this observation about the benefits of introducing more activity and time outdoors into my daily life, no sirree bobberino.1
To quote Sam Seaborne, “May just be something my mother used.”