A Lovely Tumble

Day 205 of the "What (as in books, print magazines, and/or coincidii) are you reading, and why?" project, and this, as you can guess is a coincidii hodgepodge hump-of-the-week post.

Or, as I refer to this particular morning glory photo, a lovely tumble.

Mary, a great reader of books, actually ran out of books on her birthday and 1) requested The Cookbook Collector at the library and is on the waiting list and 2) is catching up on her magazines.

Speaking of magazines, 1) my guilty pleasure* subscription to Vanity Fair ran out, and I am not renewing it, 2) literary magazines keep me busy, and 3) I just re-read "Riding the Happy Train," by Judith S. McCue, a review in The Common Review (print magazine with online presence) of Generosity: An Enhancement, a novel by Richard Powers, because of the word "hyperthymia," defined by a character in the book as a condition of being "excessively happy."

OK, 1) I am excessively happy, and 2) this is an actual condition, a feeling of serene wellbeing, possible if your thyroid is whacked out, as mine is occasionally, that is, whenever I am reading my Merck Manual, 8th edition, 3rd printing, March 1951.  Don't ask me why.

OK, I'll tell you why.  Thyroid vulnerability runs in my family, and is rampant in the Great Lakes region of the Midwest, where I grew up.  Put the two together and you get goiter, especially if sometime in the past a houseguest left a canister of uniodized salt in the house, and you and your family just used it as regular table salt, until stress on the body (childbirth) caused a little fever, then, and thyroid enlargement, later, together with a brief interlude of hypochondria induced by reading an outdated Merck Manual.

Fear not!  1) We now have plenty of iodized sea salt; iodine is the prevention and cure for most of this kind of thyroid problem 2) I am already over my hypochondria 3) and, while I did look like a cross between Nikita Kruschev and Buddy Hackett as a baby, I was not, as my mother had at first feared, a cretin, which is a serious thyroid problem, and 4) I am still excessively happy, but I consider this a spiritual state.  Plus there is some really, really old iodine in the medicine cabinet.  If I have to, I'll drink it.

Wait!  I have a topic?!  Oh, yes, books.

Speaking of guilty pleasures*, I was eating/reading What Feeds Us, by Diane Lockward, at the rate of one chocolate/poem a day, and then I gorged on it and finished it today, while my computer was doing a full scan for whacked out thyroid problems.   It is a lovely book, full of beautiful food, funny and human moments, and a lost boy that keeps breaking my heart.  Plus fiery breasts.  There are bees on the covers, on peaches and sunflowers, and scary bees stinging people intermittently.

Coincidii of the bees: 1) one is crawling down the throat of yesterday's morning glory 2) bees form a vestment in Sarah J. Sloat's poem "Vestment," announced in her blog yesterday as being taped for Whale Sound, which you can find at the right on my blogroll.

Coincidii of the blueberries: 1) when I resumed reading What Feeds Us today, it was with the poem "Blueberry"--Be a glutton and stuff in a handful, your tongue,/ lips, chin dyed blue, as if feasting on indigo--2) soon after reading about blueberries in Mythology and Milk.

Wait!  Is that a mulberry rearing its annoying branch up through the morning glories?  Yes.  I hope they strangle it.

Random Post-Pi-Day Fiction & Non-Fiction

Day 34 of the "What are you reading, and why?" project.

Well, yesterday was Pi Day, and I hope you all had some pie.

I didn't, but I would have been happy for some hot blueberry pie and a scoop of vanilla ice cream! Which reminds me, I have heard twice recently about the gag reflex in response to blueberries! Who else suffers from this? What a shame! Blueberries are so good, and so good for you!!

Speaking of π, Fred is reading The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown, another of the Robert Langdon thrillers involving decoding of symbols, mysteries, and secrets to lead on to new wisdom.

And speaking of math, Diana was reading Algebra when I first asked this question! I don't know which book, exactly, and I've got to admire anyone reading algebra for any reason when not in school! (Sigh....I am math-challenged, but I can count M&Ms.)

She was also reading Nutrition and You by Joan Salge Blake, which has a yummy-looking sandwich on the cover (I would like a side of blueberries with that!), and Grab a Broom Lord, There's Dust Everywhere by Karon Phillips Goodman, which is widely available online for less than a penny, plus shipping.

Carolyn is reading The Progressive Patriot: A Search for Belonging, by Billy Bragg, a politically active musician. It's a response to a very troubling event in his home town, violence erupting in the "immigrant community" there, and an inquiry into his own British identity and roots.

I have friends who are politically active artists, musicians, actors, writers, etc., and other friends who pooh-pooh politically active artists when they speak up at public events (like the Academy Awards). What a dilemma. If you are very good at something but you also want to do good in the world, or use your own visibility to make a good cause more visible, you are always going to have people telling you to shut up and just act, or shut up and just sing, play the guitar, paint, etc.

Of course, we do have the special problem of actors turned politicians here in the United States... I like Glenda Jackson, who seems to have done a good job both at acting and being a politician in Britain, but I don't know much about the latter.

Did I mention earlier that Bob Jude was reading Lords of Finance--the Bankers Who Broke the World by Liaquat Ahamed? If so, I didn't say much about it, and won't now. (See above. I will shut up and write poetry.) Anyway, anything any of us can read to better understand economics and economic collapse may indeed be a good idea. I will mention that when I watched The Way We Live Now, mini-series based on the book by Anthony Trollope, I thought, "Hey, that is the way we live...now," alas, caught up in money-making schemes that have little to do with a good product or service, and a lot to do with making money for nothing.

And now that I've offended people who make money, study economics, know algebra, hate blueberries or Dan Brown, and are or aren't politically active artists, I will depart for the bookstore...!