Sunday 2/7

I'm reading Lethal Legacy: an Alexandra Cooper novel, by Linda Fairstein. It's a police procedural. I've read a few in this series before and they were okay, but I'm really enjoying this one as the murder victim is a rare books conservator, affiliated with the NY Public Library. So there's lots of discussion about rare books, rare maps, conservation, breakers, thieves (usually dealers; they don't use x-acto knives anymore -- dental floss is the latest thing), etc. Lots of fun.

I miss working with books. Maybe I should go back to Tucson and get a job at Bookman's.

Found a "Jeopardy" rerun. Final Jeopardy category is "Big Books." Answer: When they began in 1879 the creators of this thought they'd finish in 5 years. Five years later, they reached "ant."

Ha! I know this -- it's the OED!

I've been in despair, despair, I say, at the level of ignorance displayed on Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader? One guy (with two master's) answered the question "From whom did the US buy Alaska?" with "France." I mean -- France!?

Of course, I regularly despair at the grammar and syntax so common these days. Yesterday, I heard a guy say "she had went . . ." Shudder. Even more common is the construction "if I would have . . ." What's happened to the word "had"? If you use "if" you don't need "would" -- they're both conditional.

Watched the Wanda Sykes Show last night. Penn Jillette was one of the guests. The sight of the two of them together just cracked me up. She's tiny, he's huge. She's precise, he lumbers. She speaks sharply, he booms. I really like him -- would like to get cable just to watch the Penn & Teller show "Bullshit."

Been thinking a lot about whether to become an indexer. In some ways, it's a really good fit for me -- work with books and the like, apply logic, do anywhere. On the other hand, it's not an easy business to get started in and slow to make any money. Also, it's very solitary and I've come to realize that I'm only a loner when I'm among people; otherwise, I need a certain amount of socializing. That's one of the reasons typesetting lost its interest for me -- the work is carried on alone and I got tired of being alone all the time.

I think being a cataloguer would be of more interest, especially if it were for a company or a library (private or otherwise). Of course, I don't have the proper degrees so that sort of job probably won't happen. Maybe I'll see about a part-time work at a public library somewhere. Hmmm.

Have pretty much decided not to take the beet harvest job. Yes, the money is good but I just don't think I have the stamina to work 12-hr shifts every day. I foresee one knee or the other swelling up overnight so I can't bend it or stand on it -- and when that happens, it takes days for it to go back down, and that's only with rest, which I wouldn't be getting.

I will be calling the carnival this week for their decision. I'm not sanguine about the outcome; if they wanted me, they'd have called me, right? But I'll keep letting them know I'm interested. And I've applied for a part-time job in a gallery in Cloudcroft, 20 miles up the mountain from here, at 9000 ft. It would be for July-Sept., would fit with the job here at Bowlin, and in Sept. I could quit Bowlin too and go to the Livorno H.S. reunion to be held in Scottsdale AZ in early Oct., which I would really like to do.