What I've been reading.

Winter's Tale, by Mark Helprin. This is a book I would like to spend a year with. Tremendously imaginative - sort of a steampunk New York. The writing was a little too florid at times, but overall the exaggerations seemed like the best way to capture New York.

Michael Moritz, Heroic Saver of Babies

I am too proud of him not to note that my brother-in-law, Dr. Michael Moritz, saved this baby's life. He alone among the doctors who had treated this baby -- for two months at another hospital! -- realized that the baby was being poisoned. He called child protective services and ordered a 24-hour watch by the baby's bedside, which is how the mother was caught.

--Jeanne

But Who's Your Daddy?

Everyone Out.

Git aht.

Walking Pittsburgh.

Top speed: 43 m.p.h.

The Pittsburgh Illegal Soapbox Society. You may see them around town, early one Sunday morning. (Found via Disgruntled Off Road Cyclists.)

For love of a choo-choo.

The boys and the subway.

What I've been reading.

Richard Ford, Independence Day. An ordinary few days before the Fourth, in 1988 (though the novel was published in 1996), of a man named Frank Bascombe - former sportswriter, now a real estate agent in Haddam, New Jersey, divorced from his wife Ann who lives in Connecticut, remarried, with their two children. Frank wants to spend a couple of days of quality time with his troubled son. Ford is incredibly observant, and every page is filled with detail - again, quotidian, I guess, but endlessly fascinating. One of best novels I've read in the last few years. Recommended for fans of Frog and Toad.

Benjy Entertains Anne.

Our Two Babies