Nutgraf

It just won’t stop frakking snowing, so I’m still trying to burn through these New Yorkers. Just when I thought that I was nearing the end, the mailman managed to access our house despite the Deathsnow and deliver another one.

• Read Part I of the Deathsnow Challenge

Meanwhile, Spouse had to walk me around today, in advance of this latest storm, so we went to our neighborhood Safeway. A couple of snapshots, to give you an idea of the carnage. I think Spouse was having flashbacks to his youth in Moscow. He kept muttering “if you are for the first time in Moscow, welcome.” and something about 12 kilos of potatoes. Poor Spouse.

February 1, 2010

Bed bugs, Lady Gaga, and the ongoing tragedy in Haiti open up this week’s issue. I kind of lucked out this time, since my copy is missing a bunch of pages from the middle – the result being that the article about Dresden merging awkwardly with one  about the Department of Investigation, also known as “the city’s secret police.” I think.

Meghan O’Rourke’s piece about grief hit kind of close to home, what with my rockstar Grandma dying just a couple of weeks ago. Which reminds me to point out that Cancer is Still an Asshole, and that I’ve had some great success with the Amazon affiliation since launch. There will be a donation to the ACS, as promised, just as soon as Amazon submits their tally. Not bad! Remember, all you have to do is go through this link or any on the Cancer is an Asshole Web site, buy whatever you’re going to buy on Amazon anyway, and they’ll kick me 4% or so of your purchase price, every cent of which I will send to the ACS.

The analysis of the Leno/O’Brien squabble is best summed up as “an abject failure of leadership” and left to die. Never cared for any of those programs myself, so it’s hard for me to take this story or the analysis thereof at all seriously.

Meanwhile, this is taking me so long that I just got another issue. And damn! As the special 85th Anniversay Issue, it’s a fat one.

February 8, 2010

Naturally, this issue opens with a couple of remembrances of J.D. Salinger. More power to ‘em. Moving on to the tragedy in Haiti, the story about Nadia provides a vivid picture of the harsh realities on the ground – both now and before the earthquake.

I don’t know why, but the Shouts & Murmurs pieces have been pretty weak for the last few issues. I could also be humor impaired after sitting in the house all this time. Now, I’m working my way through a really great article about a guy they’re comparing to Keyser Söze, but keep getting interrupted by things like dinner, extremely welcome phone calls, and Spouse wanting to read that article even more than me.

But since it’s Still Frakking Snowing, I’ll have some time tomorrow to finish up.

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