It's the bomb! — Dizzies Double-takes™ — Burt Offerings — "Sputterings"

Congratulations to Jenny D, my life coach, on the publication of The Explosionist!

(Here is her book blog in progress, but of course you are already RSSing Light Reading and Triaspirational.)

I had the privilege of reading it earlier this year—what an appealing protagonist Sophie is, and what delightful Davidsonisms can be found here—e.g., cupcakes are frosting-delivery systems! One particularly brilliant bit has to do with...well, maybe I shouldn't say? But I will just say it has to do with something the character (and the reader) forgets, I found it very effective...

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Dizzies Double-takes™

1. Yesterday I grabbed the paper off the doorstep—and did a double-take at the photo—or I should say the image—that greeted me. I thought: Wait....The Feelies, Crazy Rhythms??? (The Times sometimes arrives with the Arts section folded around the rest of the paper.) Can't be. Is. But why. WHY?

But wait a second—they look...somewhat older, no? YES:


Here's the original:


(Taken from here.)

Eh? What's this? You want me to quote from The Memoirs of Parkus Grammaticus, Vol. XIX? OK!:

As a teenager—15, 16?—I bought the Feelies The Good Earth at the Village Green bookstore, which had a slim but interesting selection of albums; I had never heard a song off it—bought it on the strength of a review in Rolling Stone! Crazy Rhythms was also in the bin, and the albums were fairly inexpensive, so I bought them both. A wise investment! My favorite songs are "Slipping Into Something" (parens around part of that?) and "Raised Eyebrows," respectively...albums that bear repeat playings and ponderings. (Part of me wishes—well, that's too strong a word—that only those two albums came out...the Feelies mystique is somewhat dispelled by the subsequent albums...?)

Unexpected bonus: White vinyl!

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2. After my reading at B&N last week, I discovered that the reading-nook display featured not only copies of Personal Days (and issues of The Believer), but many copies of...Lue and Ed Park's Smoked-Foods Cookbook!



...which one audience member apparently was holding throughout the reading, no doubt in extreme bewilderment!

IMAGINARY VOICE IN AUDIENCE MEMBER'S HEAD: When's he going to read the part about rotisserie chickens?!

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Steve Burt: Who else could write on A.R. Ammons—and Philip K. Dick?

You're So Vain...or Senile? Dept.: For the past couple of days I've been vaguely admiring the headline for the Ammons piece—"Naive Melody"—and just now I realized: I thought of that one!

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I NEED TO STOP BLOGGING FOR A FEW DAYS — BUT I'LL BE BACK.

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HOW DO YOU PRONOUNCE "QUINOA"?