Words & Language: April 2006 Archives

The Graduate, originally uploaded by timbu.

There are two things in life that always make me feel better.

• Taking a long walk.
• Reading a book.

This weekend I got to do both when I turned the water on at Uncle R's cabin.

The paperback books at the cabin are mostly books left behind on airplanes, collected by R. during his tenure with Northwest. Given the collection method you can imagine that there is a huge selection of trashy novels from the 70's and early 80's. For instance we have multiple copies of "Airport" & "Coffee, Tea or Me".

This weekend I finished "The Graduate", by Charles Webb and made a start on "The Invisible Man" by Ralph Ellison.

I liked "The Graduate". The movie version is such a cultural icon, it was hard to not imagine the main characters as being played by anyone other than Dustin Hoffman & Anne Bancroft.

Loved this parody entitled, "The Lonely Planet Guide To My Apartment" from a recent New Yorker. I need to write one for people brave enough to come to my house or office.

Since my birthday is coming up, the appropos quote is this one.

Elise saw her first corpse at a funeral today. When she saw the deceased in repose she asked, "Is that just a sample, so we know what she looked like." Yes, dear it kind of is.