Archive for July, 2009

Dahl on travel and civilization

Tuesday, July 21st, 2009

In this excerpt from Roald Dahl's Boy, his mother asks if he wants to go to Oxford or Cambridge. "No, thank you," I said. "I want to go straight from school to work for a company that will send me to wonderful faraway places like Africa or China." You must remember that ...

Dahl on the life of businessmen and writers

Monday, July 20th, 2009

In the following excerpt from Roald Dahl's Boy, he's left public school at 18 to take a job with Shell Oil company. He is taking their internal training courses and is learning the business. ...[E]very morning, six days a week, Saturdays included, I would dress neatly in a sombre grey suit, ...

Roald Dahl’s “Boy”

Saturday, July 18th, 2009

A very nice habit we picked up from Liz's parents was her dad reading to her mom. We've adapted that to me reading to Liz before she turns out the light for bed (I'm an owl, we stay up later). After much experimentation, we've decided that memoirs are the best ...

“Dreams with Sharp Teeth”

Friday, July 17th, 2009

Thanks to the glory of Netflix, Liz and I saw this documentary that I can assure you never visited  the Carolina Theatre. It's a bio-doc on the writer Harlan Ellison, 72 years old at the time of the movie's release in 2007, and covers an impressive sweep of his life, ...

Link harvest

Sunday, July 12th, 2009

James Fallows on the China Xinjiang / Uighur controversy: "The point about separate fact-universes is one of the sobering marvels of the modern info-age. It's true within the United States, as discussed long ago here; and it's true between countries, as China, Turkey, and the rest of the world all ...