Good Gnus
2004-05-15, 7:23 a.m.

Went to the bookstore to blow through my gift card last night. I wandered through B&N for an hour, but never found any fiction that appealed. Oh, I managed to spend $86.00, all right. But the end result that Spouse got plenty of reading material, while I got a DVD set and a new beading book. Yes, the spoiled man got a train book, a poker book, and a humor book out of me--as well as a couple of war books he bought for himself. I just could not find anything I wanted to buy. I had a list of books I wanted, but none of the three were stocked. This happens a lot; I guess my taste is outside the mainstream a good deal of the time. But P.D. James?! And not one off the backlist, either...I was looking for "The Murder Room", which is her latest. When they didn't have that, I gave up and cashed out. As far as finding a humorous book, for myself, everything out right now is being marketed as a "beach read", and seems very shallow and dubiously written. As much as I love the physical experience of book shopping, much of its charm has been chipped away by these fruitless expeditions. In the end, if I really want a book I have to suck up the extortionate shipping charges and buy online. At least the online store can sell me what I want to buy.

I did manage to get the second series of "Wodehouse Playhouse", about which I am quite pleased. This is the John Alderton/Pauline Collins series from the seventies, where they perform the Mulliner stories (with an occasional visit from The Oldest Member)so delightfully. I got the first season at Christmas, and have been looking for the second ever since. My favorite bit of the first was Pauline Collins reciting Good Gnus.

Well enough of this...(what is the keyboard equivalent of scribble?). The work must get done, so I'm off to reclaim my sad little house from the creeping crud that so rapidly overtakes it.

The safest spot to put your shot Is through the spinal column