Walk Score.

Walk Score calculates nearby amenities and scores your property from 0 to 100 for walkability. This could be pretty useful for deciding where to move. In my case, at least, Walk Score only confirms what I already knew: 95, baby!

Do not pass go.

In a hurry to comply with the recent court decision declaring that U.S. paper currency discriminates against the blind? Print your own multicolored money here! You can pay me later.

What I've been reading.

Watchmen, Alan Moore.  Maybe I've spent too much time away from comic books, but heck, I'm going to come out and say it. The ending required too much willing suspension of disbelief. I was perfectly willing to buy Captain Manhattan's time- and space-traveling abilities, but I guess I draw the line at psychic powers, especially as the result of genetic engineering. Still, excellent work. Incidentally, it is charming to me that wikipedia's page on Watchmen is, in fact, longer than the page on War and Peace.

 

Frankenstein, Mary Shelley. David Lodge's book Changing Places made famous the parlor game of "Humiliation," in which players name great works of literature they have never read. You win by admitting to never having the most widely regarded work.  For me, Frankenstein was probably, um, somewhere in the top 20 or so of my potential Humiliation admissions. But hey, Victor Frankenstein was a weak-willed jerk! Not that this was an unintended impression for the reader to have. But he seemed Hamlet-like in his willingness to let his indecision and self-absorbed agonizing lead to others' suffering (a young girl in particular -here, Justine instead of Ophelia). Anyway, in the end, probably more remarkable as a novel of ideas than as a novel of characters or action. Still, worth the time.

Diabetic athletes, cont.

I somehow missed this news a couple of weeks back, but the Denver Broncos' 25-year-old quarterback, Jay Cutler, has just been diagnosed with Type-1 diabetes.  Evidently he's wearing an insulin pump for now, but uh, Jay, I would seriously consider switching to shots for the season. Getting sacked by a 350-pound defensive lineman could, I imagine, send your infusion set/catheter somewhere deep into the recesses of your body. You don't even want to know, dude.

Free comix!

Saturday, May 3, is free comic book day! Stop by your local purveyor of fine graphic novels and/or other illustrated material and get yours!

The Diabetes Dictionary.

Part One. Part Two. If you've ever had a twilight zone high or a gusher, you'll identify with this guide to jargon.

Shifty shmook shmallenge.

The Savage Detectives, Roberto Bolaño. This is a book that I wish I had enjoyed more. On a sentence-to-sentence level, yes, the writing (or partly the translation, I guess) was extraordinary. But I suspect that if, like me, you know not even the first thing about the Mexican literary scene circa 1976-96, then much of this story will be lost on you. Once again Latin American fiction leaves me cold, dammit! Recommended if you have ever been south of the border. James Wood's rave in the NYT here; Slate review here.

50 book slog.

The Moral Basis of a Backward Society, Edward C. Banfield. Amoral familism -- catch it! I long for the good old days of social science research, when you could land in a dirt-poor Italian village, rely on your hard-working wife to translate all of your subjects' conversations, then basically write a longish diary entry padded with a chapter in which you coin a new phrase, and publish it. Ok, that is too harsh. This was pathbreaking work in its day, to give it its due.

 

Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, Susanna Clarke. Sadly, my expectations for this book were perhaps too great, because I was a tad disappointed. For one thing, too long! Look, editors, just because you have a very very good first novel on your hands (I'm looking at you, whoever edited Ms. Niffenberger), it doesn't mean you shouldn't feel free to, like, chop the thing by a third. Anyway, in this instance, I felt like the book lacked significantly for plot propulsiveness in the first half or so, though at the same time it was a wonderful introduction to an alternative, magical history of England. Blurb comparisons to Austen (!) on the jacket were way wide of the mark. Still, I am an overly critical person, and thus I have to say -- much recommended.

Mavis Beacon lives.

It's time for TypeRacer!

Frick and Frack.

Frick is dead.