In Search of the Anglo-Saxons II

My Best Beloved and I are in Bury-St.-Edmonds, where, indeed, St. Edmonds is buried in the great cathedral. We are tired, and a bit footsore, and looking forward to a good curry, a bath and a good night’s sleep before heading up to York tomorrow. My last day in Zurich was sublime since it began…

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Graveyards, James Joyce, Heaventalk

I have always loved graveyards. Old ones, with lichen on the tilting stones, overgrown edges and tall twisted trees are my favorite. In Massachusetts the earliest gravestones are carved with hourglasses, death’s heads, coffins, imps, dragons, and intricately caved vines and fruit. In Paris the cemeteries are called Cities of the Dead, and are, in…

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A mediocre tourist

Step one on the Anglo-Saxon Tour – Zurich. Okay, that technically isn’t ON the tour, but since my Beloved has business here, we’re stopping off for a few days. We landed about 9:00 a.m. yesterday and, because our room wasn’t ready yet, we took a walk through the nearby lakeside arboretum. The mature beech trees…

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Off to find the Anglo-Saxons

I’m going on a trip. This means that later today I will stand in the middle of my bedroom, and have a small, but intense, hissy-fit. I will be surrounded by raincoats, pants, sweaters, jackets, scarves, shoes – LOTS of shoes – jeans, dress pants, pajamas, t-shirts, sweatshirts, socks, and underpants. I will have open…

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Writing & Reading about The Big Questions

I’ve been reading a lot of obituaries and tributes to David Foster Wallace since I wrote last, and I’m struck by how deeply touched people are by his work, and in some cases how puzzled they are by their deep reaction to his death. What is it about this man that moved us so? For…

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Infinite Tragedy

David Foster Wallace — photo by Marion Ettinger I learned this morning that author David Foster Wallace hanged himself on Saturday. He was 46, and his wife found him. I didn’t know David personally, and I can’t say I thought everything he wrote was successful, but even his failures were magnificent, brave and worthy. I…

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A request from your friendly author

Hello all, Well, we’ve been getting along very nicely here, I think. Some of you have been kind enough to comment directly on the blog, which is most appreciated, others have sent wonderful emails to me, which is also much appreciated. Now, I have a favor to ask those of you who are on Facebook.…

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The Thunderstorm and the Lion

“We can never have enough of nature. We must be refreshed by the sight of inexhaustible vigor, vast and titanic features, the sea-coast with its wrecks, the wilderness with its living and its decaying trees, the thunder-cloud, and the rain. . .” Henry David Thoreau (1817 – 1862) US “essayist, poet, naturalist” A line of…

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The Year of the Dark Wood

Today is my birthday, and don’t birthdays have a way of making one reflect and take stock? They do me. But I never quite know where that reflection will take me, so let’s see, shall we? My Best Beloved, Ron, gave me a beautiful card this morning with a painting by Emily Carr on in.…

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